兼职英文英美文选作业,简明英国文学史课后答案

why do we say that the victorian age was one of great changes?

The

Victorian

era

is

generally

agreed

to

stretch

through

the

reign

of

Queen

Victoria

(1837-1901). It was a tremendously exciting period when many artistic styles, literary schools,

as well as, social, political and religious movements flourished. It was a time of prosperity, broad

imperial expansion, and great political reform. It was also a time, which today we associate with

and

doubt,

it

was

an

extraordinarily

complex

age,

that

has sometimes been called the Second English Renaissance. It is, however, also the beginning

of Modern Times.

The

social

classes

of

England

were

newly

reforming,

and

fomenting.

There

was

a

churning upheaval of the old hierarchical order, and the middle classes were steadily growing.

Added to that, the upper classes' composition was changing from simply hereditary aristocracy

to a combination of nobility and an emerging wealthy commercial class. The definition of what

made someone a gentleman or a lady was, therefore, changing at what some thought was an

alarming rate. By the end of the century, it was silently agreed that a gentleman was someone

who had a liberal public (private) school education (preferably at Eton, Rugby, or Harrow), no

matter what his antecedents might be. There continued to be a large and generally disgruntled

working class, wanting and slowly getting reform and change.

Conditions of the working class were still bad, though, through the century,

three reform

bills gradually gave the vote to most males over the age of twenty-one.

Contrasting to that

was the horrible reality of child labor which persisted throughout the period. When a bill was

passed stipulating that children under nine could not work in the textile industry, this in no way

applied to other industries, nor did it in any way curb rampant teenaged prostitution.

The

Victorian

Era

was

also

a

time

of

tremendous

scientific

progress

and

ideas.

Darwin

took

his

Voyage

of

the

Beagle,

and

posited

the

Theory

of

Evolution.

The

Great

Exhibition of 1851 took place in London, lauding the technical and industrial advances of the

age, and strides in medicine and the physical sciences continued throughout the century. The

radical thought associated with modern psychiatry began with men like Sigmund Feud toward

the end of the era, and radical economic theory, developed by Karl Marx and his associates,

began a second age of revolution in mid-century. The ideas of Marxism, socialism, feminism

churned and bubbled along with all else that happened.

The

and

that

we

associate

with

this

era

is,

I

believe,

a

somewhat

erroneous

association.

Though,

people

referred

to

arms

and

legs

as

limbs

and

extremities, and many other things that make us titter, it is, in my opinion, because they had a

degree

of

modesty

and

a

sense

of

propriety

that

we

hardly

understand

today.

The

latest

biographies of Queen Victoria describe her and her husband, Albert, of enjoying erotic art, and

certainly we know enough about the Queen from the segment on her issue, to know that she did

not

in anyway

shy

away

from

the marriage bed. The name

sake of

this period

was

hardly

a

prude, but having said that, it is necessary to understand that the strictures and laws for 19th

Century Society were so much more narrow and defined that they are today, that we must see

this era as very codified and strict. Naturally, to an era that takes more liberties, this would seem

harsh and unnatural.

Culturally,

the

novel

continued

to

thrive

through

this

time.

Its

importance

to

the

era

could easily be compared to the importance of the plays of Shakespeare for the Elizabethans.

Some

of

the

great

novelists

of

the

time

were:

Sir

Walter

Scott,

Emily,

Anne,

and

Charlotte

Bronte, Anthony Trollope, George Eliot, Oscar Wilde, and, of course, Charles Dickens. That is

not

to

say

that

poetry

did

not

thrive

-

it

did

with

the

works

of

the

Brownings,

Alfred,

Lord

Tennyson, the verse of Lewis Carroll and Rudyard Kipling.

An

art movement

indicative of this period was the Pre-Raphaelites, which included William

Holman Hunt, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Christina Rossetti, and John Everett Millais. Also during

this period were the Impressionists, the Realists, and the Fauves, though the Pre-Raphaelites

were distinctive for being a completely English movement.

As stated in the beginning, the Victorian Age was an extremely diverse and complex period.

It was, indeed, the precursor of the modern era. If one wishes to understand the world today in

terms of society, culture, science, and ideas, it is imperative to study this era.

what's being Victorian?

Being Vitorian suggests practices of prudery,false modesty and empty respectability,all of

which

came

from

the

exaggeratedVictorian

notion

of

the

high

standards

of

decency.

People

avoided

talking

about

sex.

And

many

writers

expose

the

age's

hypocrisy

in

their

novel

to

champion honesty,sincerity and humanitarian love in human relationships.

Choose to discuss one of Dickens' novels.

A Tale of Two Cities

Themes

The Ever-Present Possibility of Resurrection

With

A Tale of Two Cities,

Dickens asserts his belief in the possibility of resurrection and

transformation, both on a personal level and on a societal level. The narrative suggests that

Sydney

Carton’s

death

secures

a

new,

peaceful

life

for

Lucie

Manette,

Charles

Darnay,

and

even

Carton

himself.

By

delivering

himself

to

the

guillotine,

Carton

ascends

to

the

plane

of

heroism, becoming a Christ-like figure whose death serves to save the lives of others. His own

life

thus

gains

meaning

and

value.

Moreover,

the

final

pages

of

the

novel

suggest

that,

like

Christ, Carton will be resurrected

—

Carton is reborn in the hearts of those he has died to save.

Similarly, the text implies that the death of the old regime in France prepares the way for the

beautiful

and

renewed

Paris

that

Carton

supposedly

envisions

from

the

guillotine.

Although

Carton spends most of the novel in a life of indolence and apathy, the supreme selflessness of

his final act speaks to a human capacity for change. Although the novel dedicates much time to

describing

the

atrocities

committed

both

by

the

aristocracy

and

by

the

outraged

peasants,

it

ultimately expresses the belief that this violence will give way to a new and better society.

Dickens elaborates his theme with the character of Doctor Manette. Early on in the novel,

Lorry

holds

an

imaginary

conversation

with

him

in

which

he

says

that

Manette

has

been

―recalled

to

life.‖

As

this

statement

implies,

the

doctor’s

eighteen

-year

imprisonment

has

constituted a death of sorts. Lucie’s love enables Manette’s spiritual renewal, and her maternal

cradling of him on her breast reinforces this notion of rebirth.

The Necessity of Sacrifice

Connected

to

the

theme

of

the

possibility

of

resurrection

is

the

notion

that

sacrifice

is

necessary

to

achieve

happiness.

Dickens

examines

this

second

theme,

again,

on

both

a

national

and

personal

level.

For

example,

the

revolutionaries

prove

that

a

new,

egalitarian

French

republic

can

come

about

only

with

a

heavy

and

terrible

cost

—

personal

loves

and

loyalties must be sacrificed for the good of the nation. Also, when Darnay is arrested for the

second time, in Book the Third, Chapter 7, the guard who seizes him reminds Manette of the

primacy

of

state

interests

over

personal

loyalties.

Moreover,

Madame

Defarge

gives

her

husband a similar lesson when she chastises him for his devotion to Manette

—

an emotion that,

in her opinion, only clouds his obligation to the revolutionary cause. Most important, Carton’s

transformation

into

a

man

of

moral

worth

depends

upon

his

sacrificing

of

his

former

self.

In

choosing to die for his friends, Carton not only enables their happiness but also ensures his

spiritual rebirth.

The Tendency Toward Violence and Oppression in Revolutionaries

Throughout the novel, Dickens approaches his historical subject with some ambivalence.

While

he

supports

the

revolutionary

cause,

he

often

points

to

the

evil

of

the

revolutionaries

themselves.

Dickens

deeply

sympathizes

with

the

plight

of

the

French

peasantry

and

emphasizes

their

need

for

liberation.

The

several

chapters

that

deal

with

the

Marquis

Evré

monde successfully paint a picture of a vicious aristocracy that shamelessly exploits and

oppresses

the

nation’s

poor.

Although

Dickens

condemns

this

oppression,

however,

he

also

condemns

the

peasants’

strategies

in

overcoming

it.

For

in

fighting

cruelty

with

cruelty,

the

peasants

effect

no

true

revolution;

rather,

they

only

perpetuate

the

violence

that

they

themselves

have

suffered.

Dickens

makes

his

stance

clear

in

his

suspicious

and

cautionary

depictions

of

the

mobs.

The

scenes

in

which

the

people

sharpen

their

weapons

at

the

grindstone and dance the grisly Carmagnole come across as deeply macabre. Dickens’s most

concise

and

relevant

view

of

revolution

comes

in

the

final

chapter,

in

which

he

notes

the

slippery slope down from the oppressed to the oppressor: ―Sow the same seed of rapacious

license and oppression over again, and it will surely yield the same fruit according to its kind.‖

Though

Dickens

sees

the

French

Revolution

as

a

great

symbol

of

transformation

and

resurrection, he emphasizes that its violent means were ultimately antithetical to its end.

Symbols

The Broken Wine Cask

With his depiction of a broken wine cask outside Defarge’s wine shop, and with his portrayal

of the passing peasants’ sc

rambles to lap up the spilling wine, Dickens creates a symbol for the

desperate quality of the people’s hunger. This hunger is both the literal hunger for food—

the

French

peasants

were

starving

in

their

poverty

—

and

the

metaphorical

hunger

for

political

freedoms. On the surface, the scene shows the peasants in their desperation to satiate the first

of these hungers. But it also evokes the violent measures that the peasants take in striving to

satisfy their more metaphorical cravings. For instance, the narrative directly associates the wine

with blood, noting that some of the peasants have acquired ―a tigerish smear about the mouth‖

and portraying a drunken figure scrawling the word ―blood‖ on the wall with a wine

-dipped finger.

Indeed, the blood of aristocrats later spills at the hands of a mob in these same streets.

Throughout the novel, Dickens sharply criticizes this mob mentality, which he condemns for

perpetrating

the

very

cruelty

and

oppression

from

which

the

revolutionaries

hope

to

free

themselves.

The

scene

surrounding

the

wine

cask

is

the

novel’s

first

tableau

of

the

mob

in

action. The mindless frenzy with which these peasants scoop up the fallen liquid prefigures the

scene

at

the

grindstone,

where

the

revolutionaries

sharpen

their

weapons

(Book

the

Third,

Chapter 2), as well as the dancing of the macabre Carmagnole (Book the Third, Chapter 5).

Madame Defarge’s Knitting

Even on a literal level, Madame Defarge’s knitting constitutes a whole network of symbols.

Into her needlework she stitches a registry, or list of names, of all those condemned to die in the

name of a new republic. But on a metaphoric level, the knitting constitutes a symbol in itself,

representing

the

stealthy,

cold-blooded

vengefulness

of

the

revolutionaries.

As

Madame

Defarge sits quietly knitting, she appears harmless and quaint. In fact, however, she sentences

her victims to death. Similarly, the French peasants may appear simple and humble figures, but

they eventually rise up to massacre their oppressors.

Dickens’s knitting imagery a

lso emphasizes an association between vengefulness and fate,

which, in Greek mythology, is traditionally linked to knitting or weaving. The Fates, three sisters

who control human life, busy themselves with the tasks of weavers or seamstresses: one sister

s

pins the web of life, another measures it, and the last cuts it. Madame Defarge’s knitting thus

becomes a symbol of her victims’ fate—

death at the hands of a wrathful peasantry.

The Marquis

The

Marquis Evré

monde

is less

a believable

character than

an

archetype

of

an

evil

and

corrupt social order. He is completely indifferent to the lives of the peasants whom he exploits,

as evidenced by his lack of sympathy for the father of the child whom his carriage tramples to

death.

As

such,

the

Marquis

stands

as

a

symbol

of

the

ruthless

aristocratic

cruelty

that

the

French Revolution seeks to overcome.

Discuss the romantic elements in

Jane Eyre and

Wuthering Heights

Jane Eyre

One of the secrets to the success of

Jane Eyre

lies in the way that it touches on

a number of important themes while telling a compelling story. Indeed, so lively and dramatic is

the story that the reader might not be fully conscious of all the thematic strands that weave

through this work. Critics have argued about what comprises the main theme of

Jane Eyre

.

There can be little doubt, however, that love and passion, two romantic elements, together form

a major thematic element of the novel.

On its most simple and obvious level,

Jane Eyre

is a love story. The love between the

orphaned and initially impoverished Jane and the wealthy but tormented Mr. Rochester is at its

heart. The obstacles to the fulfilment of this love provide the main dramatic conflict in the work.

However, the novel explores other types of love as well. Helen Burns, for example, exemplifies

the selfless love of a friend. We also see some of the consequences of the absence of love, as

in the relationship between Jane and Mrs. Reed, in the selfish relations among the Reed

children, and in the mocking marriage of Mr. Rochester and Bertha. Jane realizes that the

absence of love between herself and St. John Rivers would make their marriage a living death,

too.

Throughout the work, Bront?

suggests that a life that is not lived passionately is not lived

fully. Jane undoubtedly is the central passionate character; her nature is shot through with

passion. Early on, she refuses to live by Mrs. Reed's rules, which would restrict all passion. Her

defiance of Mrs. Reed is her first, but by no means her last, passionate act. Her passion for Mr.

Rochester is all consuming. Significantly, however, it is not the only force that governs her life.

She leaves Mr. Rochester because her moral reason tells her that it would be wrong to live with

him as his mistress:

tells Mr. Rochester;

rigor.

Blanche Ingram feels no passion for Mr. Rochester; she is only attracted to the landowner

because of his wealth and social position. St. John Rivers is a more intelligent character than

Blanche, but like her he also lacks the necessary passion that would allow him to live fully. His

marriage proposal to Jane has no passion behind it; rather, he regards marriage as a business

arrangement, with Jane as his potential junior partner in his missionary work. His lack of

passion contrasts sharply with Rochester, who positively seethes with passion. His injury in the

fire at Thornfield may be seen as a chastisement for his past passionate indiscretions and as a

symbolic taming of his passionate excesses.

Wuthering Heights

Romanticism, the literary movement traditionally dated 1798 to 1832 in

England, affected all the arts through the nineteenth century. Wuthering Heights is frequently

regarded as a model of romantic fiction. What is more, it is said to construct a biography of

Brontё's life, personality, and beliefs. In the novel, she presents a world in which people marry

early and die young, just like they really did in her times. Both patterns, early marriage and early

death, are considered to be Romantic, as most artists of the Era died young. What Brontё

describes in the novel is what she knows personally, those are scenes somehow taken from her

own life and experience that the reader encounters while. The wild household of Wuthering

Heights is set against the mild and tame Thrushcross Grange, the constant conflict between the

nature and civilization changes the relationships between the characters, and the characters

themselves, as they go on the journey into themselves searching for deeper truths they explore

their limits, manoeuvre between natural impulses and artificial restraint. All of these Romantic

elements are somehow closed within the 'Chinese box' narration, which sets the order of the

story, but leaves a gateway of interpretation by providing it with the key to the unlimited

imagination of the author.

（

283

）

4.

poets who had some connection with the Pre-Raphaelite circle include Christina

Rossetti, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, George Meredith, William Morris, and Algernon Charles

Swinburne. Pre-Raphaelitism in poetry had major influence upon the writers of the Decadence

of the 1890s, such as Ernest Dowson, Lionel Johnson, Michael Field, and Oscar Wilde, as well

as upon Gerard Manley Hopkins and William Butler Yeats, both of whom were influenced by

John Ruskin and visual Pre-Raphaelitism.

Pre-Raphaelitism in painting had two forms or stages, first, the hard-edge symbolic

naturalism of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood that began in 1849 and, second, the moody,

erotic medievalism that took form in the later 1850s. Many critics imply that only this second, or

Aesthetic, Pre- Raphaelitism has relevance to poetry. In fact, although the combination of

realistic style with elaborate symbolism that distinguishes the early movement appears in a few

poems, particularly in those by James Collinson and the Rossettis, this second stage finally had

the largest -- at least the most easily noticeable -- influence on literature.

As Anthony Harrison points out in his study of Christina Rossetti,

the Pre-Raphaelites predictably etherealized sensation, displacing it from logical contexts

and all normally expected physical relations with objects in the external world. With the

Pre- Raphaelites the sensory and even the sensual become idealized, image becomes symbol,

and physical experience is superseded by mental states as we are thrust deeply into the

self-contained emotional worlds of their varied personae. Very seldom do we have even the

implied auditor of Browning's dramatic monologues to give us our bearings, to situate a