NOTA IMPORTANTE: estos apuntes están llenos de comentarios (y probablemente faltas

de ortografía) y cosas así por que me daba pereza quitarlos, así que ignoradlos o lo que
sea (igual hasta os echáis unas risas y hay algunos que son útiles). hala majetes que los
disfrutéis y aprobéis el examen <3

literatura inglesa de 1800 a 1900

romantic poetry

first generation of poets aka primeros emos:

samuel t. coleridge (1772-1834): kubla khan (1798)
william wordsworth (1770-1850): lyrical ballads (1798) with coleridge; the prelude
(1789-1839)
[poems to discuss: tirtern abbey, daffodils]

second generation of poets aka segundos emos:

george gordon, lord byron (1788-1824): fame, “the byronic hero”: childe harold's
pilgrimage, don juan
john keats: odes (favorito del profe!!!!!!!!! probabilidad de que caiga en examen
#ojocuidao)

kubla khan (1798) – samuel t. coleridge

the idea came to coleridge in a dream. he was writing a travel book and reading about kubla khan,
a mongolian ruler and felt suddenly ill. he casually took a medicine containing opium and
tatatatáaaa sueños de drogata.
kubla khan conquered china and instaured (?) the yuan dinasty. the poem is about the construction
of the palace of kubla khan in xanadu and their natural surroundings. it also speaks about the
difficulty of rebembering your dream once you are awake; thus dreams are ephemeral, they
escape from our hands. coleridge was interrupted while writing the poem, so then he forgot the
rest of the dream (qué molesto). [oblivium] remembering a dream as a metaphor of the creation
process.
kubla khan → godlike; almighty, it is said in the poem that he drank the milk of the paradise; the
palace is beautiful but also threatening. some critics sostain that coleridge establishes a
comparation between him and kubla khan.
themes → power of nature; power of individuality (kubla khan can control everyone, same as
coleridge with words).

william wordsworth

born and raised in lake district, rich family, but their parents died when he was young. so that he
inherited a huge amount of money and spent his life nicely and pleasently. he studied at
cambridge university. he travelled through europe and liked so much france, for language, women
(machirulo) and revolutionary politic ideas. then he returned to england with the start of the war
between france and england, feeling disappointed about the results of the french revolution. this
disappointment also lead to a disrupt with france itself. coleridge moved to lake district, they
became (boy)friends and collaborated for many years. later coleridge decided to move out and
work in his own projects. her sister dorothy wordsworth and him had a very close relationship;
she helped him so much, she was always there for him.
he lost two out of his four children within a year. but, in the other hand, he was recognized as the
laureate poet, which brought him fame and fortune. when he grew older, he became so much
conservative and lost all the impulses and liberal ideas. he focused on his poems and on his travel
books about lake district.
importance of nature in his poems. “emotions recollected with tranquility” → he expressed past
feelings that are triggered by a present object, often on nature. in tintern abbey this feelings are
triggered by the visits to the abbey itself.
lyrical ballads → (written with coleridge) study of normal people, everyday events and
people, with a simple language, as a conversation.
the prelude → (written only by himself) written in 1789 but revised along his life; quite
autobiographical; nature is morally educative, he believes that if you love nature you love
humankind (????? el opio amigas); it records his growth as a man, living as everyone else, as a
normal person; moments of crisis. he is the hero of his life, the mesias, the messenger. he also
says in the poem that after living his life he prefers to retire to the countryside, in order to not
finding distractions from the city live. by retiring to his own, he can also meditate about meditate
and his own condition.
lord byron (1788 - 1824)
after publishing childe harold's pilgrimage he became a prominent writer. he is one of the best
authors in expressing the spirit of the age, of the post-revolution era. he speaks about the
th
importance of being one's own hero and individualism. 18 → masters of satire (about making
fun but also criticize). he will criticize western society, as we can see in don juan. he doesn't need
to change the literally tradition, as coleridge and wordsworth. high influence in literature, but also
in painters and musician, in all europe. he want us to believe that his works are highly
autobiographical. he was a machirulo that respected more men than women (patriarcal
individualism). he had no more friends than percy shelley because he was a nasty snob that
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believed in social classes. he believed that the authority in art are the writers in 18 century.
th th
don juan is about the 19 century, but following the satirical tradition of 18 century to make
fun of corruption and decadence. he respect the rules of decorum. he writes about the high values
of society but also make fun of them. unlike other romantic poems, don juan is not about what he
feels, is about his public life. this poem was very criticized in all europe but also was very
popular. [raising of nationalism and independentism] not contemplation of nature; it is more about
politics and society. it is conflictive, passionate, melancholic, mocking, ironic. sometimes he both
admires and mockes courty love and chivalry virtues. he is both libertarian and libertine.

the byronic hero

it is actually himself, based on his scandalous life. it is going to be a variant of the romantic hero.
this is man (siempre hombres!!!!!!!!!) superior to any other man; has an attitude of titanic self-
assertion → individualism. physically attractive, charismatic, erotic, liked by men and women;
but emotinally very sensitive and intelligent and sophisticated. mysterious characters, some of
them self-destructive. magnetism to them. rebel, they don't accept social institutions and norms;
outcast, living in isolation. usually tragic ending. they are almost perfect, but have a fatal flaw, as
in shakespeare. they are usually antiheroes. byron's contemporaries identified him with his heroes.
they turned him into a myth. their heroes are a projection of what others think about himself.
byron was a descendent of aristocratic people. raised by the scottish, calvinist mother. when he
was ten inherited the title of lord byron from his grand-uncle. he studied in cambridge university
(oh sorpresa). he was queer and have a lot of sexual relationships with men and women at an
early age. he travelled a lot for europe: spain, portugal, malta, greece... this travel is a good
material for his poems. he published in 1812 the first two cantos of childe harold's pilgrimage,
which are a literary success, and he became very famous. sexual affairs with a loooot of women.
he got married and had a daughter, but this marriage ends when it was discovered that he had a
sexual relationship with his half-sister. in 1816 he left england and never returned. he travelled to
switzerland and met percy and mary shelley. he had other daughter with mary's half-sister. he
started nationalism activity to help italians. percy died and lord byron sent mary's half-sister and
her daughter to a convent, which cannot be tollerated by mary. in genoa he abandoned writing and
travelled to greece to fight with greeks in their independency war against turkish. he died there for
bad fevers.

«childe harold's pilgrimage»

it is about harold, a pilgrim who wants to become a knight. canto i and ii, greece, spain, portugal,
malta; canto iii: rhin y toda esa zona; canto iv: italy. he ends the cantos in first person narrator bc
everyone knows the main character was actually himself. he criticized political situation of
europe.

«don juan»
the character was created by tirso de molina in el burlador de sevilla. womanizer, seducer.
influence lord byron, molière (don juan), mozart (don giovanni), laclos (las relaciones
peligrosas??), josé zorrilla (don juan tenorio), richardson (clarissa). spanish libertine, super
human, he is nasty and wicked. homme fatale. but byron's don juan is not a seducer, he is seduced
by women. improvised poem – it starts saying that the author doesn't have any plan or even
characters. longest satirical poem in england. highly autobiographical. almost always don juan's
voice dominate, but sometimes there is polyphony of voices → canto i is a carnavalesque canto
bc there many and very diverse characters. he writes human types. there is a large amount of
stories, so sometimes the reader gets lost, but don juan is the one who unites all these stories.
since byron was a nasty aristocrat, he doesn't care about lower classes; he only speaks about the
highest classes and their life style. influence of picaresque novels. in a way it can be said that don
juan is a pícaro. here humankind is not good by nature and world is not glorious. since his most
influence is alexander pope, he respects his tradition and authority as english comic/satiric.
juan is born in seville in a rich family. his mother (donna inez) is very similar to byron's. his
parents are not happy together; his father (don jose) is an adulterous, he cheats on her with
another woman. donna inez has a friend, donna julia, a young and beautiful wife married to a
rich, older man called don alfonso. juan is very handsome, so donna julia feels atracted to him,
and since he is unexperienced, they had sex (it is said that). [ver resumen en sparknotes que
acabas antes y el señor está contando exactamente lo mismo que pone ahí te lo garantizo helena
del futuro]. duel between juan and alfonso → not heroic. donna julia is sent to a convent, and juan
to a travel through europe.
humour, comic, amusent, but also criticism, as always happens in satirical poems. he criticised
other poets that start stories in media res – he tells the story exactly as he wants. (declaration
against other romantic poets.) he admits that he admires historical past, but recognised it as
primitive. he criticised convenient marriages, both in donna inez and donna julia. he also
criticised education – formal education is not enough, it is worthless if you know everything
about science and arts if you know nothing about life.

john keats
prototype of romantic poet. very short career as a poet (six years), but very prolific. he died
th
young, at 25 years old. not appreciated in his lifetime. he was re-discovered in 20 by some
critics, when them found some autocritical letters which were the key to re-evaluate and
understand his production. he writes about the act of writing, about finding and creating beauty.
he was from a good situated family; his parents died when he was very young and sent to a
private school. he was interested in reading, writing, theater, music... he was under the care of a
tutor, who make him abandoned school at 15 to become an apothecary. he did become an
apothecary, but never practise, he decided to write and learn about political and literary ideas of
his time. he joined the circle of leigh hunt, who will introduce to the trendy poetry of that years:
wordsworth, coleridge... he read the classics, bocaccio, dante, chaucer, shakespeare, spenser,
milton... his ambition was became an artist, a poet, or better, a celebrate poet. he experimented
with form, language and style. but he was harshly critised for the innovation of his poems, which
led him to great dissatisfacion with his own production. he had to return home to take care of his
brother, sick of tuberculosis, and fell in love with a woman, fanny. they started a relationship and
they were going to get marry, but john had tuberculosis, and fanny's family prohibited her to
marry him. the doctors sent him to italy, because maybe he could recovered there, but he died in
italy, in part because he was very affected for the critics.
he wrote: endymion (1817), based on a greek myth about a man falling in love with the moon,
and though he seeks an ideal love, he then realizes that it is an impossible love; hyperion (1818),
about the greek myth of the war between the titans and the olympian gods; he had difficulties to
write it and quitted eventually, because he felt the need to distanciate from milton's inspiration;
lamia, the eve of st agnes, la belle dame sans merci and other poems (1819-1820), which
includes ode to a nightingale, ode on a grecian urn, ode to autumn (favorita del profe!!!!), ode to
psyche and ode to melancholy; most of these odes are mostly about death being inevitable, but
pointing that it is possible to enjoy and create beauty before dying. poems never dies.
most of his poems grow about warring opposites of himself: love vs sorrow, life vs death,
pleasure vs pain, dreams vs reality, joy vs melancholy, mortality vs immortality, nature vs culture.
he said in one of his poems: “a thing of beauty is a joy forever” → i don't need to teach you
something or send you a message, i just want to create beauty. he meditated about the role of the
poet; he relied in imagination and creativity on his own and wanted to find the truth of himself,
but unlike other romantic poets, he didn't care about the indivituality, and criticised wordsworth
(egoistical sublime). he was a chameleon poem: he felt the need to eliminate himself to enter in
another person or creature. he had to escape from harsh reality. he succeeds in becoming one with
nature. he found beauty in negative things (negative capacity); truth and beauty can also be found
in negative feelings. keats considers himself a creature of impulse; he creates a connection
between the instinct of animals and the espountanity to write.

«odes»
keats says that joy and sorrow are inevitable, life is a combination of both of them.
the odes starts with (1) keats unsatisfied with the world, so (2) he uses his imagination to escape
to an ideal world; but (3) in his mental escape he will be disappointed, most of the times
because he has to come back, or maybe because he doesnt find what he was looking for; but (4)
this mental fly allows him to see the situation from another point of view. so that he is not the
same at the beginning of the poem and at the end of it.
he combined different types of stimuli. for example: “tasting of flora” (in ode to a nightingale);
“in some melodious plot / of beaching green”. he uses the five senses, combining them with
feelings.
themes → pleasure of live, agony of death, beauties of living and suffering, highest beauty found
in writing before the start of decadency of death.

the novels of manners – the regency period

(1811 – 1820)
boom of female writers; before only wrote men: not only jane austen, also mary wolstonecraft,
etc. (beginning of feminism). some of these authors wrote about women's life, and were used as
tools for young ladies' education. they were influenced by sentimental novels and read by middle-
class girls. these novels were about everyday life of women, about their feelings and manners, but
respecting patriarchal system. however, they sometimes criticised this order and demanded some
equality (bueno bueno).
regency period → george iii suffered porfyria, so his son the prince of wales became the regent
and later the king george iv. aristocratic excess, napoleonian wars.

jane austen
born in stevenson (1775), daughter of a clergyman. finantial struggle (many kids, little money).
george austen dies and his widow and daughters don't have enough money; so they depend on
jane and cassandra's brothers' charity. jane also lived in bath and chauton; there she wrote most of
her novels. one of her brothers sent his novels to publish, but since women couldn't write, her
name was hidden, it was only known that the novels were written by a lady. very close
relationship between her and her sister, which will influence her novels. in 1816 her health starts
to decay and she decides to move to winchester, where she dies. no outstanding events in her life.
she wasn't professional – her family thought that writing was only a hobby, they would never
allow her to gain money for her novels. she mostly spent her life playing piano, sewing, baking...
and especially gossiping.
novels of manners → about the behaviour, language, costumes and values of a specific social
class in a specific historical time; importance of social behaviour, decorum, etiquettes, especially
in women; conflict between wishes of one person and the pressure of society.
jane austen only writes about her own experience: the provincial life of gentry class. middle class
characters, clergymen... only writes about them, but very accurately. circle untouched by
napoleonian wars, by the artistic and literary revolution of the age. importance of nature – she
captures the beauty of southern country (??). sometimes she also describes elite classes of bath
and london, but they are only secondary characters. she is very conservative, not only in literature
(she didnt like romantics), but also in politics (fuck french revolution). marriage is the best that
can happen to a lady in her life (ayy lmao). some references to the navy, especially in her novel
persuasion (jaja los marines). not high religious content, but we can see some kind of religious
message, especially bond to moral and good behaviour. most of the times there is a moral
message in jane's novels. she is against any kind of radicalism, even passion – control yourself,
balance. hidden messages with humor and irony ((????)). realist writer, but not for realism; just
because she writes believable situations, characters and dialogues.
main works (order in which she wrote them):
⁃ sense and sensibility → jane was against sensibility (feelings and that).
⁃ northanger abbey → [same as sense...]
⁃ pride and prejudice
⁃ mansfield park → about marriage; women can only marry a
man and have
⁃ emma children and that; importance of good behaviour
(grace)
⁃ persuasion
very different heroines in her novels.
⁃ sense and sensibility is against sentimental novels and against romanticism. opposition
between two sisters: elinor (sense) and marianne dashwood (sensibility), and between the
suitors of marianne: john willoughby (the prince charming; but fortunehunter???, and
since marianne is poor their love is impossible) and colonel brandon. elinor loves calmly
edward ferrars although knowing their love is impossible. sisterly affection between
them. their father dies and the heir is their half-brother, who is selfish and doesnt want to
 take care of them.
⁃ northanger abbey is a parody of gothic novels. catherine morland is very young girl and
foolish and unexperience. she thinks she is the heroine of a gothic novel; she cannot
distinguish between reality and fantasy. she is very close to eleanor tillney, who has a
brother, henry, and a father, general tillney; they live in northanger abbey, which is very
gothic to her, and she thinks that general tillney is very misterious and a murdered that
killed his wife (cmon girl chill out). henry loves catherine, but he is very disappointed
when he discovers her fantasies.
⁃ mansfield park is considered the more political novel of jane austen. fanny price is the
daughter of a family with many children; they go to life to mansfield park with their
uncles, sir and lady bertram. they have some children: thomas (the heir), edmund, henry,
maria and julia. fanny is like cindirella and nobody shows affection for them except for
edmund. sir bertram personalises authoritarism, conservadurism, etc. she doesnt want to
marry henry crawford, as she was told to do. the novel is considered to be a metaphor of
the regency: sir bertram leaves, so thomas behaves crazily; henry crawford runs away
with one of the younger daughters (to elope). only edmund and fanny have behaved
properly. they are allowed to marry and become the heirs of sir bertram.
⁃ emma is completely different; emma woodhouse is rich, selfish, independent. she doesnt
need a man, because she is already rich and the heir of her father. she has nothing to
worry about, so she likes to gossip and to matchmaking. it is a comedy of entanglements.
she has herself in a pedestal; but through the novel she changes and realises that her
perceptions of the outside world was wrong. she realises that she loves mr knightley, that
she actually needs a man (loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooool). considered
to be the most perfect form novel. messages: people [cof cof women] that think that they
are independent will realise they need someone (ay jaja cuéntame más); the perfect
husband is someone older than you (las dinámicas de poder on point) and who knows
you.
⁃ persuasion (favourite del teacher!!!!!!!!) was written the year before jane dies. she knew
she was going to die, so the novel is completely different. anne elliot is 27 and too old (!!)
to marry (she is a solterona). she is not attractive, she is sad, she suffers. she is hopeless
and pesimistic. when she was young she was persuaded by her godmather lady russell to
not marry the man she loved, because she was rich, daughter of sir elliot, a member of
aristocracy. years go by; she has not more suitors. [she is the middle sister: kinda
cindirella] his father spends all the money and her older sister didnt get marry bc she only
cares about her beauty. captain wentworth, who was anne's love, is rich now. he wants to
find a wife in the circle of anne elliot, not her bc he wants her to regret her past decision
(o algo así). opposition btwn sir elliot (superficial and vain) and captain wentworth (brave
and real man and blabla). the novel focuses in the psychology of anne elliot. evolution:
 she recovers her bloom (?) and wentworth realised he loves her (qué casualidad).

pride and prejudice

published 1813, but written in 1797 with the name of first impressions. considered by the critics
as the most important novel written by jane austen. novel of manners that portraits a specific time
th
and specific place: rural life of a middle-class english family in the 18 century. the main theme
is getting married with a proper husband (across social bounderies). other topics are:
interrelations between gender, marriage, money, social class/society... woman's process of self-
discovery. it is also a realistic novel, in the sense that situations and characters are perfectly
believable (remember jane was against melodrama of romanticism/gothicism). in it jane does a
study of human behaviour. not only relationship between members of different social class, but
also different gender.
rd
narration → 3 person narrator: omniscient narrator (moves freely within the
bounderies of the story, knows everything), intrusive narrator (makes comments and judgements
and participates, even offers their point of view). dialogues, letters/diaries (sometimes more
effective to express your feelings and to clarify issues, as darcy does); free indirect discourse →
when you are lost and don't know who is talking, the narrator or the character, the thought and the
words of the characters are reported without quotation marks. it is used by jane to present the
voice of the character mediated by the narrator (??).
⁃ importance of chapter i: presentation of plot and binary oppositions; presentation
of characters

sir william lucas

↓
charlotte <3 collins ← mr <3 mrs bennet → the gardiners
↓
jane <3 charles bingley
elizabeth <3 darcy → georgiana, lady catherine de bourgh
mary
catherine
lydia <3 wickham

process of development and growth (self-knowledge); typically a hero or a heroine doesn't

evolve, they represent a feeling or value and remain the same all the story, but austen will change
this. their characters have a evolution. also, darcy may represent pride, but other characters can
present this characteristic as well, and he can have prejudices as elizabeth has. (que todos los
personajes son una mezcla vamos y que a veces no se corresponden con lo que representan.)

places → longbourn (bennets), netherfield (bingley, darcy), pemberley (darcy), rosings (lady
catherine)

the gothic novel

gothic writers tent to choose medieval times (with gothic castles, cathedrals...) to place their
novels bc considerated that they were the perfect scenario for terror and horror stories.
main traits → gloomy castles, decain mansions, wild landscapes... supernatural phenomena,
young girls persecuted by a villain...
why suddenly? interest for gothic arquitecture; at that time europe wanted to recover their
legends; graveyard poets → thomas gray (elegy written in a country churchyard), they used
topic as the impossibility of immortality, the return of the deads..., all places in a graveyard...
wow so creepy... also romanticism was very important in a literary and political way; it is very
important the individualism and all the other topics. gothic novelists wanted readers to feel horror
and fear, and even a physical response: trembling, panic, frightening... gothic fantasy is about
creating the doubt: is this real (life)? is this just fantasy? (qué diría freddie mercury de esto?) our
world is invaded by fantastic elements. gothic novels are a reaction about the reasonable thought
of the era, so these authors explore ourselves, our unconsciousness, our dreams and fantasies, our
deepest impulses.
main writers:
⁃ horace walpole (castle of otranto)
⁃ ann radcliffe, the queen of terror (the mysteries of udolpho, the italian)
⁃ matthew lewis (the monk)
⁃ charles robert maturin (melmoth the wanderer)
they placed many of their novels in italy, france and spain. usually the stories were in castles or
cathedrals, with secret passages and dungeons, in an atmosphere of claustrophobia, and monsters
like werewolves, ghosts, vampires... were often used. the readers feel threatened and afraid
because of the unknown. they realize that the rules are not the same as usual, as our world's. it
tents to be an ancient prophecy, a curse, an omen... the characters usually feel allucinations and
nightmares. usually foreshadowing is used. supernatural events that defy comprehension:
common objects, for example dolls, come to life, characters overcome by panic, anger, sorrow,
mental breakdowns... usually in gothic novels have a woman in distress as a characters, bc
women were the main writers and they wrote for other women. they are often trapped by a villain
and suffer physical responses: they faint, cry, scream... they are virginal and innocent but usually
morally superior to their captors. sometimes they can even show sexual tension with their captors.
unrequited love is usual; but it is not explicit but implicit. happy endings: the girl marries the boy
they love and defeat the captor, as a kind of compensantion for all they had to suffer. female
empowerment.
ann radcliffe were the first female professional writer, she earned money for their novels. usually
the main character of their novels were women in trouble as seen before, and they were placed in
castles and lugares chungos, and a man were the bad character (jeje). she describes accurately
landscapes of italy and southern france although she never moved from england. she based in the
paintings of salvator rosa.
matthew lewis wrote about spain, as in the case of the monk, a novel about a capuccian (?) friary
in madrid. the life there is a life of darkness, secrecy, repression, intrigue... the protagonist is the
monk ambrosio, who torments other people bc he had suffered this torments himself (o sea que
un poco mierda sí que eres).
charles robert maturin's melmoth is about a scholar who sells his soul to the devil for a certain
extra amount of years, and once he has them, he discovers that life sucks, as in marlowe's dr
faustus. this is a common topic: i have to go beyond, more years alive, i want more, i want to
break the limits.

frankestein
mary shelley was only 18 when she wrote the first wraft (?) of the novel, that was anonymously
published in 1818 for the first time. the succeed was such that it was attributed at first to percy
shelley, but later was revelead to be mary shelley's. it is considered the earlier version of science
fiction. investigation about forbidden knowledge, consequences of violated human limits,
questioning the rules of nature. so we have a man, victor frankestein, who wants to defy god/
nature. the author mixes two worlds: scientific one and supernatural one. we can sympathize with
the creature bc he is rejected and beaten by many humans, a feeling that comes to us through
times.
the story was wrote just for fun in the summer of 1816. (blabla todo el mundo se sabe la historia
que sí) they talked about phylosophy, the origin of life, how science disrupts life and the myth of
prometheus... this inspired mary to write frankestein, and also other factors like the preasure of
her parents (mary wollstonecraft and anthony godwin (?), the encouragement of percy shelley, the
summers she spent is scotland, the experiments of the modern science, especially erasmus
darwin's (grandfather of charles) theories of galvanism (contraction of muscles estimulated by
electric discharges), which she used to explain how the creature comes to life; but this part is not
very detailed, bc the novel is about the consequences of what you have done.
feminine novel, gender issues → we find so many autobiographical details in frankestein. her
mother died giving her birth, which marked her for all her life, thinking that she killed her
mother; but also she lost three babies during the process of writing frankestein and its
publishment (?) (1815-1818). this trauma can be seen in how the monster is described, with big
head and comparatively small extremities (?), as babies. she spent all her life without any other
female character around her. mary rejected her babies at first, probably suffered a post-partum
depression, she hated and felt disgust about her bodies when she got pregnant. she felt guilty
when her babies died and probably bc she hated them. also, the babies that harriet, the wife of
percy shelley, had were perfectly healthy, which lead her to think she was a bad mother. she
suffered horrible nightmares about dead babies and probably monstruous, not well-form. all of
these fed her imagination, her anxiety, and is clearly reflected in frankestein. also, her anger: how
a man, victor frankenstein, dare to violate natural law and create life, the only (ejem) situation in
which a woman is more powerful than a man (ejeeeem). also, abortion is present: when
frankestein accepts to create a female mate for the creature (ay la heteronorma), but he repents in
the middle of the process and quits [aborts] it. we don't really know if mary wanted to abort, since
she probably didn't want the baby (she was too young and not married), but anyway it is reflected
in the novel.
th
also, the creature is a symbol of the fate of women in 19 century, treated as inferior and being
rejected when they are not as society wants them to be. she reflects the importance of family
relationships: victor is not a good father.
also, the novel can be interpreted as the story of a female writer forced to write only bc she had
famous parents, and she thinks she is creating a monster, that is to say, the creature of frankestein.
the book reflects her own anxities.
the narrative pattern is russian-doll type (y tú quién matrioskas eres jejeje es broma), this is, a
story within a story within a story: first, the story of robert walton; second, the story of victor
frankestein; and finally, the story of the creature. something like this:
{walton (victor [creature] victor) walton}
two climaxes: the creation of the monster in ingolstadt and the murderer of elizabeth.
walton is the mediator between the story itself and us. in a way, this brings some credibility to the
story of victor. gothic novel = teléfono escacharrado (lo ha dicho el teacher lo juro), that is, we
have mediators between the story itself and us, they tell their own version (e. g. the father's
letters), which means that the story is not going to be the same as that of the beginning. this is
common in gothic novels – the multiplicity of voices. we don't know if the story happened or not
(hesitation): could this monster exists? and, at the end of the novel, walton says to have seen the
creature; this creates a new hesitation: did he? is that even possible? maybe victor is out of his
mind; maybe all the story is an allucination of walton, produced by the starvation and loneliness
of being trapped in the ice.
the subtitle is interesting: the modern prometheus. in the novel, prometheus is victor, a scientist
that defy natural laws (or zeus, in the case of the titan) and create life. also there is an epigraph
from milton's paradise lost: it refers to the monster (did i request you, creator (…) to model me
(…)?). there is actually a parallelism between the characters of paradise lost and frankestein:
satan = creature. lack of responsibility of victor: he creates the creature just to abandon him, to
satisfy his own pleasure.
other themes → victor = faustian overreacher [que siempre quiere más, como el propio fausto o
dorian gray o el doctor jekyll] and dangerous knowledge; he wants to know more, to break the
limits, to go beyond. he challenges the power of god/nature. he wants the power of women people
with vagina to give birth. all this overreachers have tragic ends, they are punished for daring to
defying that undefying natural laws. debate about science and religion – how dangerous science
can be? mary shelley will punish the self-satisfaction of this scientist, for creating him only for
pleasure and later for not taking care of him. moral responsibility is way more important than
progress. there is actually other overreacher in the novel: walton. but he is not punished, because
after victor's example he decides to come back home (= he repents).
the creature is an interesting character. he is monstrous, rejected by society. he is the animation
of parts of dead bodies. he is the concept of the grotesque and of the abject (by julia kristeva): he
is grotesque bc he is antropomorfic, but quite deformed (tall, super strong, ugly, monstrous), and
the purpose of mary shelley at creating him like that is to make us feel sympathy, unlike other
grotesque creatures that are made to create disgust or laugh; the abject is our reaction of vomit
breakdown when our mind doesn't understand anymore the limits between life and death (o algo
así??). we feel both rejected and attracted by the abject. mary shelley not only describes his
monstrousity, also his self-education. first, he aprehends natural phenomena; he is like a baby, but
without the protection of a family; then, by listening to the de lacys, he learns how to speak and
read. but he wants what feels like human touch, human warmth, which is negated to him – that's
because he becomes revengeful. philosophical concepts: tabula rasa (locke) and human innocence
(el buen salvaje, rousseau). they mean that there are no preconceptions in our mind (e. g. you are
not born a criminal, you are made one). it is our experience what corrupts us. when we are born
we are innocent, it is the world what corrupts us. (innate goodness.) the creature, in a way, is a
byronic hero: traumatised by life, being an outcast, a wanderer rejected by society, solitary rebel.
the message of mary shelley is that we need love and company.
importance of nature → “the sublime” (by edmund burke), the human sensation when we are
contemplating beauty (in anything), causing pleasure. but contemplating beauty can also make
you feel horror, terror, overwhelming, especially if the thing to see are mountains.

the regional novel

th
early 19 century. they take place in a recognizable region and define the culture, the language,
the history... the topography is very important. didactic purpose – to break the prejudices agains
this areas. ireland was like shit, and scotland was considered to be full of witches (as in macbeth)
main authors:
 ⁃ maria edgeworth (1767 – 1849): ireland. castle rackrent, the absentee, ormound. novels
about ireland before and after the act of union, giving her own opinion of the act. good
family of protestant. angloirish. she takes care of the country. it is the duty of the
angloirish protestant families to help to regenerate ireland. she feels sympathy of the
majority catholic population of ireland, though she is protestant.
⁃ sir walter scott (1771 – 1832): scotland. waverley, the heart of midlothian. he is unionist,
but also he thinks that wishes of scottish must be respected. he wrote thousands, no,
hundreds, no well, many novels. his novels are about myths and history of scotland. they
were not only regional, but also historical. he combined this historical facts with
supernatural events. jacobite risings, to restore stuarts family against hannovers. divided
scotland between unionists and jacobites, between highlands and downlands; but scott
aims to stop this fight ??? que seamos todos amiguitos vamos. very friend of lord byron;
they both believed in the feudal order, so in his novels we find kings, knights, heroes...
but also middle-classes and even lower-classes. vernacular scottish language. not
psychological depth, but many relationships and interaction among the characters, the
place and the time. reformation of shakespeare's historic plays. he glorified the past of
scotland but also support its union with england. he was accused about invented some
myths and traditions, along from using actual myths and history as he wanted. anyway,
english people started to appreciate scotland due to the novels of sir walter.

the victorian age (1830/40 – 1901)

it stars with the reign of queen victoria i (1837 – 1901). britain is the largest power in the world,
both imperial and economic. victoria's main values: honest, moral responsibility, eagerness,
domestic propriety (= decency, importance of the family, monogamy). all society should follow
these virtues. quite puritan. she became a role model of every member of society, almost a mother
(lo ha dicho el profe jurao). married very young to a german prince, she had nine (!) children.
critics believe that during her reign the world developed quickly than in the two thousand years
before. age of prosperity, progress, changes, but also a seek on new values, new ideas... this is the
time of the birth of psychology (freud). but, at the same time, dark years, pessimism, crisis of
values, controversy... important thinkers like freud, darwin, henry newman, stuart mill...
industralization developped greatly in those years. the population grew hugely in only a year,
according to this evolution of the industry. a demographic movement started: people from the
country went to live in the cities in order to work in the factories. development of steam and other
energies different to wind and water, telegraph, photography, printing, anaesthetics... and also
social changes as compulsory education, among others. material wealth coming from the
colonies; development of capitalism (*insert meme de stalin here*). some thinkers (matthew
arnold, f. e.) tell us that machines are going to replace men (and women so gilipuertas), that
progress erases society. (vaya me suena a lo que dice mi abuela sobre los móviles so pesaos). in
england, the protagonist of the victorian novels are thosen unprotected by the system: women,
children, lower-classes.
also, in these years religious debates took places. [egocentrism of english people, they want to
show the rest of the world their system of government and religion] divisions of the church of
england: high church [higher levels of the church], influenced by the oxford movement, closer to
roman catholicism; broad church [lower levels], evangelicals, against the authority of the pope
and the high church, they believe in inner spiritualism (one-on-one relationship with aomine god,
la zonaaaaa) and have a negative opinion on humankind (we are evil and corrupt by nature), but
we were saved by the sacrifice of jesus (tio que pesaos). people of victorian era were super
religious, they went to church every sunday, except for working classes, that didn't went to church
bc sunday were their only free day (development of sports). utilitarianism → ni idea porque no
estaba atendiendo, pero es basically buscar lo que es más útil para la gran mayoría, that is to say,
for men; women and children were victims of utilitarianism. it disregard against christianism
(creo????). rational and scientific readings of the bible are going to be made. spread of many
subjects: biology, geology, psychology, archaeology, medicine... and especially the studies of
charles darwin, the grandson of erasmus darwin, which is an earthquake for the whole world;
before it was thought that humankind were a manifestation of god in the world, but darwin will
identified us with animals, we come from other organisms.
very strict moral laws; highly puritan. rejection of every sexual perversion, for instance
homosexuality (ay jaja). critics to the double morality of victorian times. this is the time for the
middle classes; the queen didn't appreciate high classes. three reform bills: 1832, 1867, 1884.
only 20% of people (men) could vote; this is one of the main reivindications of the population.
rotten boroughs (?).
⁃ early victorian period (1830 – 1848): queen victoria comes to throne in a time of
troubles. railway btwn liverpool and manchester. reform bills to eliminate the archaic
voting system. manufacters will promote riots to their workers. economic depression.
industrialization – bad working and sanitary conditions. chartists – heirs of the french
revolution in englad, they asked for political reforms. making bread were too expensive
bc of the great tasas de aduana (?), so chartists also asked for eliminate them.
⁃ mid victorian period (1848 – 1870): economic prosperity, growth of empire and
religious controversies. time of realism novels. development of industralization and
capitalism. political reforms, working conditions start to be regulated. optimism,
prosperity. political influence of britain internationally.
⁃ late victorial period (1870 – 1901): skepticism, decadence, serialization [books
published chapter by chapter]. marx, engels (*insert meme here*). feminism. trade
unions. middle classes read tons of victorian times. development of printing (now is very
 cheap): newspapers, women's magazines, short stories, reviews, essays... all male
children have compulsory education, so readers increase hugely. first libraries start to
appear. time for realism.

the victorian novel: the brontë sisters

many legends about this family (dioses empezamos intensitos). they were six siblings: maria,
elizabeth, charlotte, branwell, emily, anne. their father, patrick, was irish, a land well known bc of
its legends and myth. he studied theology in the university of cambridge and became a priest (or
vicary or sth) in the village of howorth, yorkshire. their mother, maria, died of cancer when they
were very little; then her sister, elizabeth branwell, moved with them to raise the children, but she
didn't love them, and their father was very serious and severe. thus the brontë sisters wrote
motherless novels. in 1824 maria, elizabeth, charlotte and emily were sent to a school for girls,
but maria and elizabeth died there of tuberculosis, which also had a reflection in the novels of the
other sisters. then, the remaining four children were educated at home by their father; they grew
up very close together, isolated from the world. some years later, patrick brought a present:
twelve toy soldiers, which allowed the siblings to create stories and legends out of them. charlotte
and branwell, with the best soldiers, created the saga of angria (the manuscripts have survived),
and emily and anne, the saga of gondal. they were imaginary worlds, epic battles, blabla, they
were about love, revenge, honour... in angria we find male characters; but in gondal, instead of
kings and male knights, the sisters created queens, female knights... (yasss hembrismo), for
example augusta geraldine, a princess that became a queen. one of their main passtime was to
read aloud: shakespeare, milton, sir walter scott, the arabian nights... and also lord byron, whose
byronic hero was a huge influence in their novels. but, since their father was a religious man, they
also read the bible and other religious texts. also, every evening they sat together and comment
the news of the newspaper. they were conservatives, so they defended the tories and especially
the duke of wellington. charlotte, emily and anne, since they haven't money and weren't very
pretty, and haven't a dowry (?¿), went to school for girls to become school teachers or
governesses; branwell was the only one allowed to go to university to receive formal education in
arts, but didn't have enough talent to become a good painter, so he started to drink alcohol and
doing opium and sleep with women. then he became a teacher of a young boy, but had an affair
with the mother of the boy. charlotte and emily decided to quit their jobs and went to brussels to
improve their french; charlotte hated the idea of being a governess forever, so her plan was to
improve her french and, with her sister, create their own school for girls. but they had to return
after their aunt died. charlotte returned to brussels alone, as an english teacher in the school of
heger, but she came back bc she had fallen in love with monsieur heger, unrequitted love.
charlotte and anne worked away so that emily could stay at home, her only wish in life. in 1845
charlotte discovered some hidden poems written by emily. (the three sisters wrote poems.) they
decided to publish their better poems together under a male penname: the poems of currer, ellis
and acton bell. the poems were not successful: though receiven very good critics, they sold only
two copies. but they didn't give up and started to write novels: charlotte wrote the professor
(published after her death), emily wuthering heights, and anne agnes grey. the book of charlotte
was not accepted to publish, so she wrote jane eyre, which was published the same year the other
two (1847). jane eyre had immediate success and became a bestseller. nobody knew who was
currer bell. in 1848 branwell, after a life of excesses, died. emily was the one who had taken care
of him, and started to fall ill, and finally she died the same year. and, since anne shared bed with
her, she died the following year, although charlotte, who was rich, took her to the best doctors.
she published shirley that year and villette in 1853. she is admired as a writer, she knew very
important authors and even protofeminist people. she married arthur nicholls, the vicar who
helped her father in haworth. she got pregnant, but she died at 34 years old, we don't know due to
what, maybe complications of pregnancy or tuberculosis.
the novels of both brontë sisters and jane austen have several similarities, and also their lifes. for
isntance, they were about women wanting to be independent. but the brontë sisters do show
female feelings and introspection. moral conventions had to be defeated. limited knowledge of
the world (they barely abandoned haworth a few times), but they read the newspapers and were
inmerse in the literary debates of those years. thus, their novels were victorian and realistic, but
also with romantic and gothic elements. their characters usually have to fight to escape from the
harsh reality. bildungsroman (= learning novel). bad health – depression, anorexia... deep sisterly
affection.
anne was the underrated novelist of the family. she was very christian. hers were conventional
novels.
charlotte was a novelist, while emily was rather a poet. she is a great storyteller, she is able to
create suspense. she was an ambiguous woman; she had internal fights (as in religion), between
decorum and personal life (love, happiness...); anger, frustrantion, bitterness.
emily was very shy and introvert and loved her dogs (!!!!!!!!!!). heretic content in her novels. her
books and poems are about passionate love and often oppose freedom and claustrophobia.
haworth was a very cold, isolated place. alta tasa de mortalidad porque el agua iba por debajo del
cementerio (!!). moors of yorkshire.

charlotte brontë's jane eyre

autobiographical fiction. best-seller. woman's passionate quest for a better, happy life. opressive
reality of victorian times and how jane escape from it. protofeminist content. rejection of sexual
contact (?). importance of decorum and decency, but also the fight for being independent and
strong. passionate ideas. harsh critics from conservative sectors of society for defeating victorian
system. it violates gender and social codes of the times. in the preface of the second edition she
criticised those who had criticised jane eyre for anti-conventionalism.
women problems those years:
no vote
no professional options → criticised in the novel
no education
charlotte brontë's ideas about gender inequality through the text. she says that women feel exactly
as men feel. critics claim that the author shows his/her anger and bitterness in the novel.
considered feminine literature (= bullshit). jane eyre criticises governess life and women's
education (ladylike ocupation: french, sewing, piano... and manners and cooking and how to
become good wifes, that kind of things). no professional female writers, it was considered
“unwoman”. society said that these kind of novels were negative for women, they les llenaban de
pájaros la cabeza, they didn't correspond with reality.
realistic novel with fairy-tale, romantic elements. jane eyre accepts values (honour y blabla), to be
guided by decency, but rejects victorian conventions. thus she is rewarded at the end, as it
happens in fairy tales. she is the typical fairy-tale heroine, but the end is very different: she is the
one who rescues her prince, she is who has the iniciative, and as an adult she fight against this
values and conventions about dependence of women upon men. she will only marry a man who
respects her for who she is.
there are some role models in the novel. ms temple could be considered one of them, but only a
little bit, since she only shows jane what she can do with her life – to be a governess. helen burns,
though jane learns some things from her (to forgive, but she don't forget), is not really a role
model.
bertha mason!!!
rochester → en verdad es un mierdecillas
john bunyan's the pilgrim progress (1678) → great influence for charlotte brontë; jane eyre is a
novel of a travel, which end is marriage and happiness. [also the arabian nights]
setting and structure → follow the pattern of captivity and escape. five settings: gateshead,
lowood, thornfield hall, moor house, ferndean manor house. in each home she has to fight to
overcome the obstacles, and they represent her evolution as character. in each occasion, the home
becomes a prison and she has to escape to the next one and the circle begins again, until the final
destination.
first person narrator, from the perspective of jane. charlotte brontë wanted to create a bound
between jane and the reader. simple language. symbols and imagery: red room, places of the
marriage proposals (garden – rochester; cold landscape, moors – st john rivers); romantic and
gothic elements. she transforms negative emotions into good purposes. she marries rochester
because of love.
religion and moral dilemmas → remember religious education of charlotte brontë. she believed
in the supernatural elements in the bible, so this is why the supernatural elements in jane eyre are
presented with such naturality. helen burns represents a moral support for jane (?), but she doesn't
want to become a martir like her. charlotte also criticises the laxity of some members of the
church: the daughters of mr brocklehurst are niñas repollo (palabras del teacher), while the girls
of lowood are dressed in austere dresses; also it can be seen in st john rivers. charlotte criticises
religious dogmas, although she was evangelist (creo??); charlotte criticised institutional religion
bc it was used to control women and make them be docile and submissive. jane usually does what
is morally appropiate, never skips the call of duty (a diferencia de mí). she doesn't let her be
driven by passion, she domesticates her sexual impulses to rochester.
nature → overwhelming power to affect the life and feelings of jane. [gothic/romantic influence]
for example, the proposal of rochester takes places in a garden that remind us to eden (rochester
as the snake and jane as eve), and this sensual atmosphere confuses her and makes her confess her
feelings and accept rochester as her husband; also, the chestnut tree under which they kiss and
later struck by a lightening, is a symbol that means destruction of happiness for defying human
laws and moral codes. but anyway the tree doesn't die, exactly as jane and rochester's love. other
key moment is when jane discovers that rochester is already married; she describes her feelings
through nature: although being summer (= happiness, love...), suddenly there is winter-like (=
sadness, woe) time in the middle in june. the moon represents her mother, she finds consolation
and guide in it. the wind is kind of prophet, it announces key events (as the presence of bertha
mason)
gothic elements → red room (where her uncle died; the red colour announces passion, anger,
woe, danger, menstruation), nightmares (that usually happen before an important element as the
apparition of bertha or her wedding [afraid of the wedding night]), bertha as a ghost (the main
gothic element, a woman who looks like a vampire), mirrors (that creates blurred images, like
when jane looks and sees bertha mason instead of herself) and fire (not always negative, it also
can be positive when miss temple offers her hearth; but when fire means destruction, is a gothic
element).
all men in the novel try to impose their authority on her: mr brocklehurst, rochester (wants her to
be angelical), st. john, her cousin john... they all represents patriarchy and its attempt to rule
women. but female characters are very differents, there are both positive (miss temple, helen,
diana and the other cousin (?), adèle...) and negative (aunt reed...). bertha mason is ambiguous;
we are told that she is mad and violent, but should we trust rochester? (pista: no) all we know
about her is through rochester (vamos a ver mr rochester more like volví loca a mi ex pero eh soy
un cacho de pan). jane represents rationality, decency, sanity...
jean rhys's wide sargasso sea (1966) → a creole woman who, after reading jane eyre, gets very
angry bc of the portrait of bertha (normal!!!!); charlotte brontë defends that women are equal to
men but what about bertha? (aaah feminismo blanco). therefore she writes the first poscolonial
novel, a prequel to jane eyre.
other novels by charlotte brontë: shirley and villette
shirley → caroline helstone (orphan and poor) is in love with robert moore (factory owner). he
gets poor after strikes and machine-breaking of workers in his factory. he wants to marry shirley,
who is a rich heiress. but at the end he understands that he has to protect worker's rights and
marry the love of his life, caroline.
villette → the most mature novel; while charlotte would like to be like jane eyre, she is actually
like lucy snowe, an orphan poor girl. she works taking care of a woman until she dies, and then
she decides to move to brussels. psychological realism of feelings and emotions in lucy snowe.
the author reflects her own metal disorders in the novel.

anne brontë's agnes grey and the tenant of wildfell hell

agnes grey → about a governess that is patient, calmed, unlike jane eyre, who is rewarded
marrying the man she loves.
the tenant of... → helen huntingdon married very soon, when she was very young, but her
husband is un maltratador de mierda, an alcoholic, that verbally and physically abuses her. anne
brontë wanted to create awareness and making laws change. helen escapes with her son, but it is
soon discovered that she is not a widow and get disdain from society. but at the end she feels the
call of duty tm and come back home to take care of her husband (ugh), who dies, and she marries
again with a man that makes us believe that the story can be repeated.

emily brontë's poetry and wuthering heights

poetry → very conventional. ingredients from romanticism but also from victorian era. it's a
poetry of nature, but also dramatic climax. remember main influence (gondal sagas); charlotte
tried to “de-gondalize” the poems but didn't succeed. some of the poems inspired wuthering
heights. “remembrance” is very connected to wuthering heights. “old stoic” and “no coward is
mine” treat about death. she says that our body dies, but not our soul. escapism through
imagination (in “a little while, a little while”).

wuthering heights → only novel by emily brontë. three main topics: endless love, family
relations, revenge. enigmas about the writing and composition of the novel. charlotte brontë didn't
like the novel. remember the colaboration between sisters, the enterprise of publishin together.
how come emily to write wuthering heights??? we don't know. (tiene sentido que charlotte
escribiera sobre institutrices pero emily?? what the hell???) heathcliff and hingley are inspired by
branwell brontë. the novels are influenced by the experience in the moors of yorkshire where
emily lived. dialect of yorkshire, and also their traits of personality (coldness, etc). victorian novel
for its realism. contemporary topics as violence, murder, etc. romantic and gothic ingredients:
moonless nights, graveyards and profanation, ghosts, supernatural, storms, ruins, mystery and
suspense, violence... highly complex novel. structure coherence. late victorians made wuthering
heights a canon of literature, although being jane eyre the novel that succeded.

wuthering heights tushcross grange → mr lockwood

(nowadays)
↓ ↓
mr and mrs earnshaw mr and mrs linton
↓ ↓ ↓ ↓
frances<3 hindley catherine <3 edgar isabella <3 heathcliff
(1st generation)

↓ ↓ ↓
nd st
hareton (2 ) <3 cathy (1 ) <3 l i n t o n
(2nd generation)

russian doll story → [mr lockwood (heathcliff/catherine)]

beginning of the tragedy → when catherine is bitten by a dog and the lintons take care of her.
symbol of menstruation → she is becoming a woman. she starts to forget heathcliff in a way (rite
of passage).
key point → when catherine admits she can't marry heathcliff although loving him: “i'm
heathcliff”. he only listens the first part and leaves wuthering heights for three years.
gothic/romantic topics → love [which is passionate, deathless, without sexual connotation] vs
hate: catherine and heathcliff love and hate each other. revenge vs salvation. freedom vs
imprisonment. culture vs nature. (*) nature = romantic view with storms, dark forests, etc, present
in the climaxes
victorian topics → social classes (related to use of language: standard english is used by
educated characters and yorkshire english by non-educated ones) and social mobility; marriage
(dangerous if it is bc of bad choices); precariousness of middle class women. childhood as a
golden, innocent time; their love is conceived like that; but it is also an addiction, which only can
end as a tragedy (madness). their body dies, but not their soul, which reunite (= death as a
consolation).
(*) nature in the novel → moor of yorkshire; usually the feelings of the character are linked to
meteorological phenomena, e.g. when heathcliff knew that catherine would marry edgar there is a
huge storm. also, catherine married to edgar = “oak in a flowerpot” (said by heathcliff).
this is an agnostic novel. pre-darwinian → emily brontë is almost saying that we are animals, the
characters behave as them, driven by their instincts, not as the “chosen ones” by god.
the novel reflects emily's anxieties about marrying and becoming a mother. in it, mental suffering
= life as hell in which there is no rest; hell = home; in childhood, home = heaven.
comparison with paradise lost: heathcliff = satan (byronic hero); catherine = eve (childhood as
heaven); luxury, commodity = snake.
disfunctional families; home are not glorified anymore, it is a place of claustrophobia and
imprisonment.

the victorian novel

there was not compulsory education for women, but there was for men; this, combined with
cheaper printing, had as a result more readers and therefore more novels, mainly influenced by
realism (dostoyevsky, pérez galdós, george eliot, flaubert...). realism is interested in represent the
social world w/ believable characters and situations.
some of these victorian novels defended victorian values (eagerness, marriage...), but others, as
charles dickens', pointed out the fails of the era and the weakest members of society -women and
working classes. they wrote about what middle-classes readers were concern of.
gender roles are very important for women; class position is also a recurrent theme, for example
class mobility (like in jane eyre), but also violation of hierarchy. clash between personal
aspirations and imposition of society.
women → protagonists as characters (ana karenina, madame bovary...), but also as writers. strong
presence of the author in the novel, dennouncing injustices in gender and social class.
two main themes:
⁃ the women question → although men achieved rights due to french revolution, women
remained without right to vote, higher education, divorce, property... the essay
vindication of women's rights by mary wollstonecraft and the development of industrial
revolution are the main detonatings of the debates about women's situation. some laws
allowed women to gain some rights, but not bc of equality, bc of some kind of
compassion. thus, married women could keep some properties and a custody act was
approved. in education, they were only taught the necessary things to be a good wife and
a mother. in 1848, in london, was opened the first college only for women. in oxford and
cambridge, they could assist to the classes, but not obtain a degree. also, there were much
more women than men, so the only jobs that unmarried women could do were becoming
 a governess, prostitution... or depending on the charity of their families. they can become
nurses as well, and go to help in the crimean war (1854), thanks to florence nightingale,
feminist who established the first nursery courses. the debates were also about what
means to be a woman. they should be “the angel in the house”: god created women to
devote themselves to be the perfect daughters, sisters, wives and mothers, obedient and
docile.
⁃ the condition of england question → debates about the industrial revolution: is it
positive or negative? three main changes: machines replace workers; steam replace wind,
water and animal force; people start working in factories, which create a new
socioeconomic model criticised by some authors. phenomena associated to industrial
revolution: migration to cities, no regulation in the factories and in working conditions
(many hours, no sanitary conditions...). little by little these things start to be regulated and
trade unions appear. authors like dickens, elizabeth gaskell, thomas carlysle, etc.
dennounce this.

the victorian novel: elizabeth gaskell (1810 –

1865)
daughter of unitarians (anglicans that only believe in god): very religious family. she was the
typical angel of the house. very realistic style.
manchester novels → about england question. influence of thomas carlyle. it is found division of
classes and labours. she shows that industrialization is a success, but there are victims and some
values are being lost. ruth and north and south are her main novels, though she previously wrote
mary barton and cranford, and later the life of charlotte brontë, who was a very close friend.
⁃ ruth: women that were not angels in the house become the fallen women [myth
of two women]: mistresses, prostitutes or seduced by some guy that is not willing
to marry them (usually very naive girls). ruth is one of them; but she got pregnant
and thus rejected from society. she wrote it to create social awareness: a fallen
woman can be also a good woman.
⁃ north and south: typical manchester novel; story between margaret hale and mr
thornton. she is a girl from a good family that goes to live in the north. mr
thornton is a factory owner. there is a strike, which margaret supports, so there is
tension between both of them. (he loves her though she does not.) the author is
saying that she defends both workers and patrons. margaret is a strong woman,
not an angel in the house, and quite older (+20).
 the victorian novel: charles dickens (1812 –
1870)
opinión personal: vaya pesao.
very prolific author. he published chapter by chapter in newspapers and magazines creating a
great suspense, so the readers kept buying his works. usually in his novels the victorian society is
represented: working classes, orphans... however he deals with heterogeneous themes and
writings. the characters and situations were very beliveable and realistic; the readers identified
themselves and their lifes with what happened in the novel. he contributed to consolidate the
victorian values previously mentioned: honesty, hard work, morality... but at the same time he
dennounced the poverty and the injustice of the victorian society. his works usually represents the
urban life, instead of the country life of the brontë sisters.
he tried to raise social consciousness in order to change people's minds, bc there are many victims
of the system and there are many institutions that doesn't work as they should: the church, the
legal system... highly religious, he believed in the power of religion to make people aware of their
situation. but also in his novels we find humor and satire. his novels are usually poliphony: we
have the great voices of the protagonist (oliver [oliver twist], pip [great expectations], dorritt
[little dorritt]...), but also the rest of characters, especially the villains (often romantic villains).
his characters are flat and static, but they are unforgettable (bueno bueno); usually their
psychological description answers to their physical description: an ugly, bad-dressed character
tends to be a villain. they represents something: a social class, orphans... most of his novels are
about london, but some of them (bleak house, hard times, little dorritt) are about the abuses of
victorian society in general, the hard situation due to industrialization... [england question by
thomas carlyle]
main works:
early novels: the pickwick papers
oliver twist
a christmas carol [mr scrooge]
david copperfield [david]

social consciousness: bleak house

hard times
little dorritt

late novels: a tale of two cities

great expectations [pip]
so his novels are associated with charity, orphans, women in the hands of tiranic men, childhood,
working classes... his purpose is to promote social changes. dark comedy in his works to criticize
victorian times, especially in his early novels. his next novels show a wide panorama of victorian
society instead of concrete characters. we can compare david copperfield (early novel) and pip
(late novel), two types of very different heroes; meanwhile in the first one he is optimistic about
human condition, in the second one he is pessimistic and believes in the inner evil of human
beings. there is a common ingredient that shapes most of his novels: he is quite sentimental, he
wants to call your feelings, so in his novels (except great expectations) there are happy endings
and the poor orphan/worker/etc is rewarded.
although we can see an evolution along his career, some things are repeated: a common setting
(london, except in hard times, and prisons, usually as a metaphor of imprisonment of victorian
people???), interest in criminality, predeterminated relationship between the character and the
environment.
although he wrote about london, dickens was born in portmouth. large family; they were always
moving from one place to another. finantial difficulties. at the age of ??, he had to abandon school
and started to work in a factory of shoe-blacking (?) bc his father went to prison. since it was bc
of debts, all the family was imprisoned, except charles, who had to work. at 15 he started to work
for a lawyer. then he became a freelance journalist, writing short stories and sketches. at the age
of 24 he was comissioned by the newspaper to collect all his sketches and publish them as a book:
the pickwick papers. (y así empezó el sistema de publicar capítulo a capítulo (stallments???), y
cuando está todo publicado, editarlo en un solo volumen.) it is a picaresque novel about the
journey of mr pickwick and his friends. he got married and had ten children. (mira busca la vida
en wikipedia que es más rápido.)
david copperfield is highly autobiographic; first person narrator: david himself tells his painful
childhood. (mirar el plot!!!) it reflects the suffering of children; the gap between rich and poor;
that social mobility is possible; being poor ≠ being morally corrupted. however, great
expectations has a new hero, pip, who at first remind us to david copperfield and oliver twist, but
then we see he is not that morally perfect. the novel is highly experimental and innovative. in it,
victorian society destroy the moral qualities of pip (?). no happy ending.
bildungsroman → “formation novel”, about personal growth and discoveries about oneself. they
start with the characters as children and tell their lifes and evolution.
david copperfield vs pip (great expectations) → david is a carlylean hero (the progress of the
world depends of exceptional individuous that become hero; he represents the values of victorian
times and allows them to evolve); pip, an anti-hero (not courageous, he is corrupted)

oliver twist (1837 – 1839)

comedy novel, but it shows the underworld, the life of the outcasts. it has a social purpose: to
draw people's attention to unprotected children (orphans) and their bad conditions. (women and
children were the main victims of the victorian society.)
oliver worked in a workhouse – it brings him hunger, physical punishment... his only alternative
is to become a beggar, but a band of pickpocketers recruits him.
newgate novels → about the life of criminals (like moll flanders) (named after the prison of
newgate); source of inspiration for charles dickens. other source is shakespeare's comedies, bc
they glorify the life in the countryside
main themes:
- poverty, social injustice → poor laws (1834) [factories for orphan children and beggars w/
terrible sanitary and laboral conditions, supposedly to encourage people to work; poor people
were considered lazy; victorian people considered it “charity” and dickens was like huh no??]
- orphanhood, child labor → utilitarianism [women and children worked as many hours as men,
but they were paid sooo less]; for dickens, all children are the same, no matter if they are rich or
poor; but he included that mess of hidden identities to make victorian people feel justified their
affection for oliver o algo así no me enteré muy bien ay lmaoo but in the end he wanted to say
that poverty ≠ wickedness; they need not only finantial security and food, but also love y haced el
favor de dejar de pegar a los niños me cago en la leche merche!!!
- criminality, gothic villains → struggle between guilt and innocence (some characters are found
innocent being guilty and viceversa); question: why one becomes a criminal? is it genetic, as
many victorians thought, or not? it is not for dickens, for him it depends on the people you are
with, and not on your social class. [reading about criminality was a form of enternainment in
victorian times. as mentioned, they enjoyed newcastle novels, that were about minor crimes, but
they couldn't stood housebreaking, it was a terrible crime.] dickens believed that children are
good, but the circumstances can drive them to the bad path. death penalty = fagin is condened to
it, oliver feels compassion for him; probably dickens is against it, bc he is a christian and he
thinks only god can condemn you
rd
elements in oliver twist → realism (3 person narrator), black comedy, mistaken identities,
many symbols, usually related to physical appearance (e. g. gestos o ropa); moral purpose, to
make people's mind change and be aware of the bad conditions of the poors, woman and orphan
children.
characters:
mrs maylie
↓
mr leeford <3 agnes fleming † – rose maylie
↓ ↓
monks oliver twist
other characters: mr bumble [deshollinador], mr sowerberry [enterrador], noah claypole [aprendiz
del anterior], fagin* [el que rula la banda de niños], jack dawkins [truhán], mr brownlow
[gentlemen que cuida a oliver], bill sikes [el tío del perro en la peli], nancy [prostituta en la banda
de fagin pobrecita]
* fagin = portraited as a villain (he is ugly), and also he is a jew (anti-semitism in victorian times)

the victorian novel: william m. thackeray (1811

– 1863)
he embraces the victorian values: importance of money and private propiety, hard work, honesty...
very pessimistic view of human nature: the vices and the abuses of the victorian times cannot be
erradicated. major problems of victorian society: hipocresy, greed, snobery, flirting, lying,
selfishness... considered a satirical moralist (especially in his novel vanity fair); he provides a
lesson, but always through satire and humor. he laughs at social conventions. unheroic world, bc
he considers there are no heroes in real world. individualistic approach – the world is ruled by
individuous people.
the protagonist of vanity fair is becky sharp; she becomes a governess in order to get money (a
diferencia de jane eyre) and a husband from the crawleys, a good family with no money that are
rd
waiting for their rich aunt mathilda to die. 3 person narrator, very omniscient. thackeray gives
us the impression that he is who is manipulating the characters and the world like they were
puppets on the stage. his characters are ruled by their instincts and vices; but at the same time, the
author tells us that our weaknesses are conditioned by our environment. his mission is to amuse
us but to teach us. vanity is seen as one of the main vices of the bourgeoise: they love themselves
too much, which doesn't allow them to love other people. (vaya peli que te has montado colega)

the victorian novel: mary ann evans – george

elliot (1819 - 1880)
mary ann evans were born in the midlands, in a good family. she was very clever and wanted to
read all the time, thirsty for knowledge. she went to a local school and later to a boarding school.
highly religious, raised by a family of evangelical. at the age of 17 her mother dies, so her father,
her brother isaac and she moved to coventry. there she was exposed to german criticism of the
bible [rationalism], and started to read philosophers of the age. she starts to lose her faith. she
becomes an intellectual, a free thinker. bc she is rejected to go to college, she reads and study all
on her own. then she thinks this is not enough, so she decided to travel through continental
europe. two years later, when she comes back, she moves to london. scandal in her family!! she
started to get male friends and lovers....... baia baia..... she becomes the assistant editor of the
westminster review, a very important publication in london. she meets, falls in love and lives
together for 20 years with george henry lewes, a drama critic. even worse scandal!! living
together with a man without being married, whaaaat??? as a consequence, she broke up with her
family and was rejected in the literary circles.
george henry lewes encourages her to write, so she wrote adam bede, and she becomes george
eliot, her penname, since women's literature was considered bullshit. she wrote an essay: silly
novels by ladies; básicamente decía que todas las novelas escritas por mujeres eran una mierda
salvo las de jane austen, elizabeth gaskell y charlotte brontë. she wanted everyone to think that
she is a man, that she writes serious fiction (ay la misoginia interiorizada on point). highly
conservative woman. she becomes the favourite novelist of queen victoria. george henry died in
1878, and in 1880 she married to john walter cross, who was 20 years younger than her.
main works - adam bede
- the mill on the floss
- silas marner
- felix holt
- middlemarch
- daniel deronda
she writes novels of ideas – serious fiction about serious things; highly sophisticated and
intellectual, many references to politics, economy, literature, history... psychological depth in her
novels (like maggie tulliver). she often uses provincial settings. she helps to consolidate victorian
novel and put it in a higher intellectual level, but also criticizes victorian times. her novels are
often placed in pre-industrial times (1820s) and rural life. (wordsworth influence) her protagonist
are usually ordinary people: a carpenter, a dairy girl, etc – emotional primitivism; she considers
the rural communities to be more limited, so they have a narrow view of the world. later, her
characters are more complex and her novels highly intellectual (like middlemarch or daniel
deronda). in her novels, her voice is very present and autoritarian. she allows herself to make
judgements about the characters. importance of religion. she believes that the behavior of
ordinary individual is what changes the world, unlike the carlylean hero. she also writes about the
woman question: strong characters like dorothea brooke (middlemarch) or maggie tulliver that
have great potential to love and to learn, but it is wasted bc of the bad choices and the impositions
on them. she wants us to love these women. she tests her characters with painful situations in
which they have to choose.
middlemarch → the subtitle is “a study of provincial life”. portrait of coventry; back to the early
1830 – 1832. two main topics: to choose the right person to love and to choose the right
profession (this just for men). mira busca el argumento en wikipedia que es más rápido y a ver si
se calla este señor. the author wanted middlemarch to achieve epic proportions; not interested in
heroic men, the characters in middlemarch represent the whole nation. web of characters in which
each one has a role (???? me lo acabo de inventar). kinda historical novel. many references and
quotes.
adam bede → adam, a carpenter; hetty, his wife, a dairy woman; arthur, who hetty falls in love
with and gets pregnant from him; dinah, who loves adam. hetty abandons her baby in the forest,
so she has to be executed. importance of hard work, inner beauty.
silas marner → it reflects the lose of faith of george eliot in god.
felix holt → as in middlemarch, the story is placed in the 1830s. political novel.

the mill in the floss (1860)

psychological realism → very realistic in depicting the psychological motives of the characters,
that's why we feel sympathy for them; maggie behaves exactly as a child, unlike jane eyre
importance of sibling relationships; sociological study: tensions btwn a woman and social
impositions
dicotomy: determinism [i.e. inundaciones del floss] vs free will [i.e. decisions of mr tulliver];
sometimes determinism prevales, sometimes it is free will, depending on the situation. usually the
first one is present when there are forces of nature: the flow of the floss taking away maggie and
stephen, for example.
autobiographical → mary ann evans and maggie share many things: high intelligence; thirsty of
knowledge; thirsty for beauty; longing for tenderness, approval, admiration; victims of the
victorian mentality; lack of education for women. when maggie grows up, they are not the same
anymore. mary ann evans was rejected by her beloved brother isaac when she became george
elliot; it remind us to maggie being rejected by tom. (buscar el personaje de maggie porque miña
naisiña que me estoy liando). both maggie and tom died; maggie didn't take the initiative of
taking care of her problems (??). is there a punishment of the author upon maggie for not being
brave enough? maybe...
setting and characters:
dorlcotte mill at st. oggs
dodson sisters [siempre rechazan a maggie]
↓
mrs clegg mrs pullet mrs deane mrs tulliver <3 mr tulliver [enemy] mr
waken
↓ ↓
↓
lucy maggie tom
philip
<3 ↑
↑
 stephen guest mr stelling
(tutor)
main themes:
- childhood vs adulthood → childhood is the paradise; when maggie grows up and especially
when she gives up with books and education, the mistake begins. she becomes a fallen woman, at
least to the people of the town/village, when she spends a night with stephen; probably there's not
sex, but anyway. maggie doesn't do anything, she is paralyzed for her problems. as a child, she
doesn't care very much for the feelings of her family; but when she grows up, she only thinks of
them and not about her own. (this is another difference with mary ann evans though; she didn't
care about her family, since she moved to be independent)
antagonism btwn blonde lucy vs dark maggie. the perfect girl should be blonde and pale-skinned.
angel in the house vs fallen woman.
- unconventional feminity → maggie is not quiet, obedient, tranquil... she is even too clever for a
girl. but anyway she wants to be loved by her family, although her mother consider her almost a
mistake.
final drowning → tragedy? not really, it is a happy ending for maggie since she is finally
reconciled with her brother
- education → different for girls and boys; the author says it should be reformed (rembember that
she didn't go to college for being a woman); bookish vs practical knowledge [maggie's vs tom's].
one of the reasons why maggie makes mistakes in life may be because she didn't received the
proper education and stopped her own self-education; ofc she could have abandoned st. oggs, but
she preferred to remain there as a fallen woman, unlike mary ann evans.
~ maggie's books → daniel defoe's history of the devil; thomas kempis' imitation
of christ; madame de staël's corinne.
- importance of sympathy → the author is the narrator of the story (authority); that way she
creates affection btwn the reader and the character, and the reader have access to privileged
information in maggie's head (for example, we know she is not a fallen woman although
everyone else think she is). maggie becomes more sympathetique as she grows: although she
feels attraction for stephen, she didn't do anything, bc he is lucy's fiancé and she didn't want her to
suffer; also she didn't go with philip bc tom didn't like him. on the other hand, tom doesn't feel
any kind of compasion.

late victorian fiction: fin de siècle

gothic revival: although the main period for gothic novel was before victorian times, now we find
some elements in this late novels to express concerns of their authors. so we have defenseless
characters abandoned on a gothic place of in the hands of some gothic villain. we have three main
novels:
- the strange case of dr jekyll and mr hyde (robert louis stevenson)
- dracula (bram stoker)
- the picture of dorian gray (oscar wilde)
while the early gothic is about the setting, this now gothic is about things inside ourselves, is the
gothic of the mind, motivated by the beginning of psychiatry, criminology, late influence of
darwinism, cosas del sexo?? (como en dracula)...
the strange case of dr jekyll and mr hyde: the main character is actually utterson, a lawyer who is
witness of the strange things that happen to his friend dr jekyll. some critics believe that the novel
reflects the split personality, a disorder just discovered by psychiatry. the term doppelgänger
[double walker] is related to the unconscious by sigmund freud and jung: the unconscious is the
irrational, instinctive, that remains outside human conscious; it is dangerous, but also highly
creative. in it remains all what we don't like from us and what society rejects: sexual perversions,
violence, tragic episodes from our past... obviously, you can't write a novel about it, so the
authors used gothic elements as the doppelgänger, which is the dark side of our personality, the
“evil double”. the double materializes the unconscious. it (he/she??) is also present in frankestein,
if we understand that victor is sick and has split personality; in jane eyre, some considered bertha
mason to be jane's doppelgänger. [[[a veces se identifica el doppelganger en las mujeres con el
periodo, como bertha, que se hace “mala” cuando la luna está roja o algo así]]]. dr jekyll and mr
hyde represents different moralities; for the first time, it is being said that both good and bad are
within ourselves. dr jekyll's mistake is that he is an overreacher, he is too ambitious. he is selfish:
he doesn't want to choose, he likes both worlds. [insert hannah montana's best of both worlds
here] towards the end of the novel, mr hyde takes control. the setting is also important: the foggy
london, lamp-lighted at night, a nightmarish city, to highlight the mystery. dr jekyll lives in west-
end, an aristocratic place; but mr hyde comits his crimes in east-end, a place for outcasts. some
critics interpret this as the two hemispheres of the human brain. the novel can also be interpreted
as there is a dark side in victorian society: at the end, it is dr jekyll the criminal, since he is taking
the potion willingly. doble rasero of victorian society: some characters (as utterson) don't reveal
his crimes bc it is important to maintain fame and position.
dracula: bram stoker was an irish writer that become famous in london's literary circles. count
dracula decides to move to london from transylvannia, and it's going to be a battle between the
defensors of christianism, lead by van helsing, and count dracula. dracula is said to be a
descendent of vlad dracula the empalor, a real count. ingredients from “old” gothic (the castle, the
night...), but also from “new” gothic: london as a gothic place. russian doll narrative; due to it, we
don't know which is the true story. opposition between the good (christian values) and the bad
(dracula); threat of emigration/immigration, identified by dracula: the victorians were afraid of
the people from the colonies invading britain; modern science and tech vs superstition. blood →
in christian tradition is sacred, but dracula uses it sinnerly.
 late victorian fiction: thomas hardy (1840 –
1928)
wessex novels → his novels usually were placed in wessex, a rural area. five great influences:
charles dickens, george eliot (realism), william wordsworth (depiction of rural life), émile zola
(naturalism) and darwin.
he considered himself to be mostly a poet. he is not successful in novel until he publishes far from
the madding crowd.
main works: - far from the madding crowd
- return to the native
- the mayor of casterbridge
- tess of the d'ubervilles
- jude the obscure
his novel tess of the d'ubervilles is an immediate success but also controversial bc of the
description of sexuality (?). then he publishes jude the obscure, which was so criticized that after
that he rejects to write more novels and starts to focus only in poetry. (anyway he is mainly
known bc of his novels.) both novels are about social classes, religion, sexuality. tess... is a key
novel bc it depicts female sexuality and violence (there is a rape). in it we see sympathy for lower
classes and especially for poor women. jude the obscure tells you that when a marriage is not a
happy one, it should to be ended; thus it depicts divorce and asks for the laws to be more
permissive on it. both novels define thomas hardy as a naturalist; free will doesn't work, your life
is determined by natural and social forces. we do not have freedom of choice, we cannot control
it. highly pessimistic, but full of philosophical ideas. protomodernist writer, naturalist.
naturalism → the characters in his novels are conditioned, mostly tragic destinies, by
determinism, heredity and influence of social circunstances. naturalism is a literary movement
born in french created mostly by émile zola. other writers attached to this movements are emilia
pardo bazán in spain and edith wharton and stephen crane in usa. there's no god to protect us, the
universe is indifferent to our destiny. in a way, it is telling that we are not responsible for our
actions, everything is written, we cannot change our destiny. it shares many things with realism,
but naturalism is more interested in hidden forces that determine our lifes. it shows the most
sordid aspects of life, the real truth of poverty, prostitution, death... trust in science and
darwinism; no happy endings, but even the idea of an ending.
thomas hardy prefered rural settings to develop these naturalist ideas. he chooses wessex in
preindustrial times bc he wanted to see the transition and the rise of capitalism. it is a change to a
new way of life. like wordsworth, he not only depicts the landscapes, also characters (????).
pessimism prevales in his novels. religion debates in some of them: agnostic novels. human
beings are victims of a determined destiny. (oh my god este tío ha dicho lo mismo dieciocho
veces la última media hora) social darwinism: only the fittest survive, the working classes and the
rural people have not choice, so they are less fit to survive.
far from the madding crowd: he celebrates the life in the countryside. he enjoys describing the
landscapes. que esta pasando no me entero de nada busca el plot en wikipedia o algo.
tess of the d'ubervilles: with it started the declain of thomas hardy as a novelist. he writes about
two types of money: upper classes, who have lands and that, and ?? no ha dicho cuál es el otro
dinero pero suponemos que es el de los pobres ?? importance of names: d'uberville is an
aristocratic name but they are no aristocratics anymore (creo??). blood and money are what
matters. domination of men upon women. highly agnostic novel: religion does not offer any
consolation. characters:
alec </3 tess <3 angel
jude the obscure: highly controversial bc it attacked social hierarchy, education (jude was not
allowed to study a degree), church (if you want to become a clergiman, you need an education;
also it establishes what is moral and immoral) and marriage (marriage is unflexible; desconexion
btwn marriage and love). placed in christminster (= oxford). [buscar plot en wikipedia]. at the
beginning it seems promising, but at the end is todo una mierda: jude is rejected from college, he
ends up in a bad marriage, he is in love with his cousin, his son kill other two of his children... un
no parar. two archetypes of women: sue, the intellectual women, agnostic and believer on the free
love; and arabella, promiscuous, the “villain” character, a survivor.
mr pillotson <3 sue ← [cousins] → jude <3 arabella
↓ ↓
two children little father time

late victorian fiction: oscar wilde (1854 – 1900)

oscar wilde was born in ireland when ireland was considered part of england; also he studied in
england. oscar wilde was bisexual (no me puedo creer que el profesor lo haya dicho estoy
flipando!!!!!!!!!!). his mother was very strong: she was a fervent feminist and independentist.
very good student, he studied in the trinity college and then in oxford college. he had a particular
interest on greek and roman literature and history. he started writing poetry in the meantime. then
he moved to london and became one of the main ambassadors of aestheticism. he then became a
literaty critic and art reviewer.
aestheticism → “art for art's sake”; art has no purpose, what matter is the creation of beauty. for
example, the idea of dying for love is beautiful (ejem....... that's toxic my dear) in his tales, but not
in the real life, and this is the kind of beauty that aestheticism seeks. there are comunion between
the arts: for example, some books are completed by images and viceversa. two influences for this
movement are charles baudelaire, walter pater and swinburn. it is an attack of victorian values.
aestheticist said that life imitates art and not the other way round.

the happy prince and the nightingale and the rose

his tales are both for children and for adults. he published two collection of tales, the first one is
the happy prince and other tales. victorians didn't like them, they thought they were too obscure
and sad. this tales, that were first written for his children, have a moral lesson and imaginary
characters, personifications, fantastic creatures...
there are a subtext adressed for adults that can be find in the symbols (i. e. the heart of stone of
the statue).
not a typical fairtytale; usually in typical ones the bad guy is punished and the good guys live
happily ever after.
the happy prince → about a estatue prince and a male swallow [homosexuality]. utilitarianism:
the estatue is demolished bc it is not good to the majority and not beautiful anymore.
confrontation between selfishness and selflessness: victorians are selfish and indifferent to
suffering of others vs the sacrifice of the prince for poor people and of the swallow. so the values
to teach are selfessness, inner beauty, sacrifice... victorians are not only cruel, but also indifferent
to others' sacrifices. platonic love btwn the swallow and the prince, pure, not sexual.
the nightingale and the rose → about a student in love with the professor's daughter.
confrontation between selfishness and selflessness: it can be seen in three types love: infatuation
(the student), conditional (the girl) and true love (the nightingale). the first one is an obsession,
based on impulses, temporary madness; the student forgets both the girl and the sacrifice of the
nightingale. conditional love is applied to a girl, which is mysogynistic; it is dependant on
materialistic purposes. lastly, the true love: love means making sacrifices (ayy lmao), being
selfessness. love does not die in the tomb.
th
decadentism → aestheticism turned into decadentism at the end of 19 century. it is associated
with the figure of oscar wilde. the victorian times were in decay; their values are no respected
anymore. decadentists relies in dark humor, skepticism; they feel bored, allienated by the system.
they call for transgression; thus are flourishment of drug addiction, different types of sexualities
and sexual perversions, interest on everything luxurious or sophisticated. embracement of oriental
world vs rejection of the western values. always the idea of life imitates art and not viceversa.
all of this is depicted in the picture of dorian gray. there's a warning about the dangers of
decadentism. (todo el mundo sabe de qué va venga vamo vamo). dorian gray is another faustus:
he wants to go beyond, to enjoy life forever being young and handsome. highly oriental.
importance of the dandy: a man sophisticated, usually rich, who enjoys pleasure, expensive
clothes and food, good manners. charismatic, great in conversation, humorous. quite femenine.
eloquent, elegant, extravagant, erudit. satirical humor to show the truth. careless as a way to
escape from victorian values.
he became a successful writer of social comedies, in which we can see the dandies. importance of
lady windermere's fan, an ideal husband, the importance of being ernest and a woman of no
name. very fashionable in london.
everybody know he was homo/bisexual. he had a lover, the son of a noble. the father discovered
this and accused him of sodomy. he was imprisoned and exiliated in paris.

victorian poetry
the main literary vehicle was novel, which had a negative impact in the development of the
victorian poetry. however, there were some authors who wanted to express new ideas through
poetry. victorian poetry grew in the shadows of romantic poetry, but with certain distance, since
the victorian poets had more control in metrics and other formal aspects; their poetry is not so
free, so espontaneous, they rely less in their imagination. they do not have this confidence in the
power of dreams and imagination. the intensity of romantic poetry is measured. victorian poetry
is not homogeneous: there are very ways to express what they want to express. most of the poets
prefer evasion, to be back to a mythical past, unlike other poets as elizabeth barret browning
whose poetry was more realistic. other prefer to represent rural life.
important features of victorian poetry → the dramatic monologue and the long narrative poems.
the dramatic monologue is when the voice of the speaker is different to the voice of the author;
it is outstanding that in romantic poetry is the poet him/herself who express their own thoughts,
while victorian poets prefer to express the moral and psychological express of a character. the
long narrative poems is an victorian experiment to tell a story in verse. victorian poems are
highly visual, they create a picture in your mind. for this, we have to have in mind the pictorial
and the picturesque. the pictorial is when you use a visual detail like a sound or a word that
creates an image that reflects a specific situation. the picturesque is the combination of visual
impressions that creates the whole picture of victorian poetry in your mind. they also experiment
to express human psychology, especially female. use of archaic language and alliterations. they
sometimes used medieval times to criticize something from victorian times. victorian poetry is a
way of evasion, but also a way to protest, although most of the poets are burgeoises. it adopts
some features from aestheticism. for women, it was their first access to poetry; they criticise the
gender roles and their oppression.

lord alfred tennyson (1809 – 1892)

he studied the psychological depths of his characters, but he is also an arthurian poet, he wrote
about king arthur and his knights. [hacer una research rapidita sobre arturo].
he was born and spent his life on a partonage (?). his father was an intellectual man who taught
alfred and his brothers classical and modern languages. he rejected all privileges of being born in
a noble family to become a clergyman, which brought him mental breakdowns. alfred became a
friend of arthur hallam in cambridge. he is the one that encourages alfred to write poetry. after
finish their studies, they took a year travelling around europe, but arthur died suddenly, which left
afred completely devastated. he had to come back home bc finantial problems.
alfred started to publish poems in 1830; his first poems were highly criticised, which led him to
decide to stop publishing for nine years. during these years, he started to experiment with forms
and themes (?). when he published again, his poems were a success and he became the poet
laureate in 1850. he even married the woman he loved. but he was not satisfied, so when he was
in the climax of his career, he decides to retire to countryside. he accepted the title of lord bc of
his achievements in poetry. he cared about the formal aspects of his poetry, unlike romantic poets.
he wrote about religion, about the countryside and he reached inspiration from the past. poetry of
religion → he tries to reconcile his christian faith and the promises of an after life with the
scientific developments like darwin theories. poetry of the countryside → he wants to link a
landscapes with the interior of a character (sometimes female characters). his affected and
sophisticated style contrast to wordsworth's, although they both wrote about the countryside.
poetry of the past → he glorified the past, bc there is a blurred line between the mythical and the
historical; we need heroes that remind us we are a great nation.
phases:
⁃ early poetry: mariana; the lady of shalott → he gets into the mind of these
characters. women are used as a metaphor for imprisonment; they are an object to
express things. in mariana we see the link between the natural landscape and the
feelings of mariana. [mirar plot] importance of the technical aspects in the
poems. the lady of shalott is a typical arthurian poem bc of the tower in which
she is locked. allegory of death, dealing with gender issues, female psychological
aspects. [mirar plot] traditional rhythm, alliteration, archaic language, pictorial
details. interpretation: dicotomy between arts and life.
⁃ consolidation: in memorian; the princess, a medley; maud, the madness
⁃ maturity: the idylls of the king → 12 narrative poems to tell the story of king
arthur; it is an allegory of victorian times. there's a time of each kingdom,
including victorian. patriotism.

prerrafaelite painting and poetry

[check presentation on cv]

prerrafaelite brotherhood → group of people who made a revolution in arts; they rejected all
arts after rafael sanzio, after the italian quattrocento. they return to bright colors, importance of
light, very complex compositions with small details. they are interested in the past, legends,
myths and romance (?), but still truth to nature: although they used imaginary elements (like a
mermaid), they painted them in a very realistic way (o algo así??)
it was created in london, september 1848. its main members were william holman hunt, dante
gabriel rossetti and john everett millais. [check presentation for more names] they were mainly
male and the brotherhood were formed by poets, painters and literary critics. they even had their
own magazine, “the germ”, edited by william michael rossetti, although it was not successful.
aesthetic principles → to express sincere ideas; to pay attention to nature; importance of the past;
to seek for perfection in the creation of paintings and sculptures.
relation with literature → horace's ut pictura poesis; importance of epic poetry (king arthur,
dante, shakespeare, romantics...); their ideal was the quattrocento; they proved that the symbolic-
literary themes were not incompatible with paintings copied from nature.

christina rossetti
angloitalian legacy. highly religious family. her brother was dante gabriel rossetti. she
collaborated with the prerraphaelite brotherhood. she preferred to escape from the term
prerraphaelite. she creates the “aesthetics of renunciation” [goodbye to love bc she was never
loved and now she's too old to be loved] poetry of evasion, delight of happiness and after life; she
escaped from the sensuality of prerraphaelite and her poetry was quite religious, she preferred
god instead of everyday pleasures.
monna innominata → “woman with no name”; sequence of 14 sonets, each of 14 lines, in which
she tells that laura and beatrice (<3 petrarch and dante) are exceptions, since they have names,
unlike the protagonists of most sonnets that are anonymous, that is, seen as an object, and that is
not love. from the perspective of an unmarried woman about being loved or unloved.

elizabeth barrett browning and robert browning

elizabeth was the eldest of 12 children, in a rich family that owned a large property in jamaica.
[buscar vidilla en wikipedia] read tons of classics. christian believes. 1830s → her first published
works, very popular. very tyranic and protective father who forbids her to marry any man. in the
1840s she becomes a really known poet. main works: sonnets from the portuguese, aurora leigh.
robert was born in the london suburbs. his mother was very religious. [buscar vida y tal]
particular passion for romantic poets. he also published for the first time in 1830s, but his poetry
was criticised bc it were too obscure. he also wrote plays, also unsuccessful. he used dramatic
monologues, influenced by his experiences as a playwriter. main works: my last duchess, fra
lippo lippi, the ring and the book.
robert becomes a fan of elizabeth and that is how love starts. they got married and escaped to
italy, due to the opposition of elizabeth's father. she even had a son. after 15 years of marriage,
she dies, and robert came back to england with his son, and he published the ring and the book.
she wrote about gender inequality, social causes like child labour and italian risorgimento. she
wrote a poem of sympathy for a woman slave who murders her son bc he was the offspring of a
rape. she will prove that a woman can also wrote poetry. the didacticism of her works was not
appreciated until 1960s, when it was recovered.
he prefers past times, unlike elizabeth who prefers contemporary times. he wrote about italy. his
poetry was considered to be obscure. recognized in the later years of his life. compared to
metaphysical poets. loved by modernists. usage of dramatic monologue. buscar my last duchess!!
multiple perspectives about one event (donde??? creo que the ring and the book): very modern
resource. men and women are fragmented poems (my last duchess and fra lippo lippi are included
here) the ring and the book: highly experimental.

sonnets of the portuguese 24 and 43

love poetry. they tell the story of elizabeth and robert. she claimed that they were translations
from portuguese sonnets. consider one of the most beautiful sonnets in english. formal aspects:
they respect the excellence of shakespeare and petrarch's poems; perspective about love from a
woman. content: ni idea, mirar en internet; they are about the power of love.

aurora leigh

large book; long narrative poem or blank verse novel; about a woman who wants to became an
artist. highly autobiographical. buscar plot en wikipedia y tal porque mi ma no me estoy
enterando de na. very good characterization of both men and women. denounce of gender
inequality. protofeminist manifesto.

william morris
poet, painter and designer and producer of decorative arts. he wrote romances about the arthurian
world. he was a rebel. he comes from an important family and went to university. he decided not
to become a clergyman after college and started to design stuff. closely related to prerraphaelites.
friend of dante gabriel rossetti. one of first leaders of english socialist movement. ressemblences
with the world created by tennyson: arthurian legends, medieval themes, etc. the ugliness of
victorian times makes him idealize the past. he wanted to cause a revolution in arts and in
politics.

the defense of guenevere

revival of arthurian past. the roots of the modern civilization are mythical through the
semihistorical figure of king arthur. this medieval world was idealized, but also cruel. it celebrates
comunion, heroism, honour... theme: unfaithfulness of guinevere, in concrete the trials against
her. lancelot se libró porque es un hombre. homoerotic intrepretation bc arthur se pone triste al
perder a su colega su mejor caballero etc etc. there are two episodes depending on the trials. in the
first trial, guinevere's restored; in the second one, lancelot kills everybody who accused guinevere
and causes a civil war. highly visual: detailed personality of guinevere, her strenght and courage
about being adultress.
other works: news from nowhere. political poem about socialism. in it he creates a socialist
utopia.

algernon swinburne
one of the most examples of aestheticism and decadentism. he considers himself as a pagan, an
atheist. liberal republican. he refused all codes of moral behaviour. he likes the idea of art ←→
violence. he did alcohol and opium. hedonism and sexuality in poetry. very soon associated with
prerraphaelites. he wants to shock everyone with his existence and his art. he combines
aestheticism and the motivation of shocking with classicism. no moralistic purpose in his poetry.
works: poems and ballads, where we find sapphics and the garden of proserpine; songs before
sunrise.
sapphics → portrait of sappho as a divinity; woman that reaches immortality without male
intervention.
the garden of proserpine → ?¿?¿? garden of life extention. (what the heck) femme fatale. the
author was interested in the aspect of goddess of termination (life, day, etc) of proserpine.
songs before sunrise → about italian risorgimento

gerald mankey hopkins

religious poetry. precursor of modernism. he writes poetry typically about nature, celebrating
god's magnificence. he was not famous. he received critical acclaim years after his death. exposed
to secular thought.
matthew arnold influenced him. he was a reformer of education in england and criticises victorian
middle classes bc there was not intellectual people (haplo schaffer eres tú????) oxford movement,
embraced by john henry newman: revival of catholic tradition. embraced authority and hierarchy
of catholicism. gerald converted into jesuites.
two periods:
early poetry: death, secular love, divine love. burnt after conversion to catholicism
(creo???)
late poetry: [wrote after 7 years, encouraged by his superiors] introduction of formal
changes [beginning of modernism]: sprun rhythm, new metric system; the feet of iambic
pentameter were destroyed and the rhythm were marked with “´”. he believes that casual speech
is not like da DUM da DUM da DUM; the rhythmical patterns have to imitate natural speech. he
created compound words and used elipsis.
his religious poetry is the manifestation of his love for god.
poems: the wreck of deutschland and the windhover.
the first one is about a ship wreck of franciscan sister who were escaping from germany to
england; it is a plan of god according to gerald. the second one is about a bird (cernícalo) looking
for a prey. meditation about religion: in every thing of nature we have god.