Schema- Conrad, Lawrence

Great Britain
Queen Victoria dead 1901→ Edward VII.
Liberal Party won election 1906→ third great era of reform.
Suffragettes
with the Woman’s Social and Political Union in Manchester woman demanded the right to
vote.
Irish Question
- “Easter Rising” on Easter Morning 1916→ groups of rebels, led by Eamon de
Valera and the Sinn Fein nationalist party took control of the capital and
Proclaimed the “Irish Republic” → British quelled the rebellion.
- 1918 Election→ Sinn Fein nationalist party won, they didn’t participate to the Eng
Parliament but they met in the Dail in Dublin
- 1919 War of Independence→ ended in 1921 with an establishment of an Irish Free
State, only Ustler remain with Gr
- 1922-23 Civil War→ Anglo Irish Treaty not satisfied anyone→ Election of Valera
1932→ Republic of Ireland 1948

THE TRANSITION NOVELS

Between Victorian realism and modernism; Conrad, James, Lawrence. Modern because of
Psychological analysis, but still old plots and language. Some features of Transition Novels:
- Themes: Personal and individual themes (Victorian-social themes)
- New Concepts of time: influenced by William James and Henri Bergson who said
that there are two different time:
- Objective Time: moves chronologically towards
- Subjective Time: more flexible, go forward or backwards through our mind
and memories→ Truth about a Character is the sum of his whole emotional
experience.
- New Psychological Idea: multiplicity of consciousness form Freud→ idea of
ego, superego and Id as different dimension of ourselves.
- An Enlarged Word:
- Style: technique such as time-shift, flashback, different points of view

Joseph Conrad

“Heart of Darkness” 1902

Comment
Imperialism→ the “civilising mission” in Africa is depicted as an avidity for commercial profit
and the “emissaries of progress” as demoralised.
Reason for his scepticism:
- His polish upbringing:
- Travelling through the heart of Congo:
Themes and Features
 ● Degeneration→ “deviating from the right path” that means a choice→ no
Determinism (in Hardy character victims of a cruel fate). Kurz chose to be cruel.
Pessimistic view. There are two poles in Conrad:
○ Historic dimension: (imperialism)
○ Human Nature: brutal, violent, savage. Heart of darkness refers to our inner
darkness.
Society: has to suffocate our primitive impulses, isn’t completely positive cause
colonialism.
“The horror, the horror!” → the conqueror collapse in front of the naked image of
himself, cause he is the heart of darkness.
The white man reverts to his true self when freed from the civilised convention of
society→ Kruz sees horror inside himself when he was free from social structure.

● Individual Isolation→ the journey into the heart of darkness create a personal crisis:
the person is isolated ad far from society ( geographically isolation is a symbol for
psychological isolation). Conrad analyse Common values collapse, explore individual
consciousness and adventure story were made introspective.
● Society→ is necessary (suffocate natural instinct) and corrupted in his moral values
(imperialism and colonialism)

Style
Attention to detail; Oblique narration (anonymous character reports the story);
Symbols: heart of darkness (literal meaning as it’s Africa) (symbolic meaning as it represent
human darkness);
Refraction of the point of view (story narrated by Marlow apart from the beginning and the
end→ frame narrator)
Time Shifting present of the narrator and past of Marlow.
Literary Impressionism ( don’t follow the chronological or thematic line but he mixed
everything to create an emotive impression about the argument and the characters [...]

Colonialism
Cruelty and Brutality of european colonisation in Africa that had the premise of bringing
civilisation to the savages.
The light of civilisation hides the darkness of moral corruption.

Dualism Darkness- Whiteness

Darkness→ Africa (unexplored region, inhabitants) and heart of the coloniser.
Whiteness→ european and to ivory (desired by colonisers)

Lawrence
Life

Themes
- Love: “fundamental manifestation of life”, also between parents and child→
autobiographical and Freudian Influence.
- Sexual Freedom: show of the individual personalities, sexual repression made by
society.
Settings and Characters
Realistic characters and pace; deep psychological analysis (instinct nature).

“Son and Lovers”

Plot

Comment
In memory of his mother dying from cancer; he is morbidly attracted by his mother→ read
Freud→ Oedipus Complex: First phase (love to the mother, hate father), Second phase
(identified in the father), Third phase (start to love both).
Paul (Mc) can’t identify with his brutal and violent father→ stuck in phase one→ develop
pathological problems.
Consequences of the unsolved Oedipus complex:
1) Paul search for woman similar to his mother (Miriam is delicate as Mother, but too
idealistic and sensitive) (Clara is married, but too impulsive)
2) Paralyzation at an emotional level→ cannot have normal affairs with woman.

Realistic Level: proletariat at the centre of the novel (Nottinghamshire mining community),
balance between old rural and new industrial word

Literary and Cultural Background

his life/work are rebellion against moral values of 19th c britain→ here he implicitly attack
religion (full of restriction)

Style
Varying point of view (Paul, mother, miriam), traditional Style

“Lady Chatterley’s Lover”

Plot

Comment
Love divided in Spiritual and Sexual part, not completed if there isn’t one; Clifford tried to
split love in two parts→ mistake. For Lawrence human try to unify these two dimension.
Connie finds a refuge from the puderie in the wood (where Merlows lives) → Wood symbol
of life(Wragby Hall of sterilely) where lovers' true selves are revealed. Metamorphosis of
Connie that becomes a creature of the wood.

Society didn’t understand the vision of sexuality for Lawrence (scandalous)

MODERNISM
Reaction against 19th cent ideas.
Sources:
- Late Victorian epistemological crisis
- Modern’s philosophers
- Historical events
In Literature
Breakdown of the traditional genres, of time and space; complex language, psychological
sphere.
James Joyce

Life
Ireland source of inspiration

“Dubliners”
15 short stories about 15 inhabitants Dublin. Sense of disillusionment and failure,
relationship betw individual and collective institution
“The Dead” : (last story) portrait of the Irish middle class stuck in a condition of irresolvable
mediocrity and stubbornness. Gabriel (Mc) is the prototype of the middle class, a dead man.
“Eveline”: impossibility to escape from suffering, passivity of irish.

Dublin
Static and provincial town, doesn’t give a chance to grow to inhabitants.

Paralysis
All the dubliners don’t have the will to transform their desire in action → Paralysis and
Spiritual stagnation. They understand of their Paralysis with Epiphany, but it only makes
them more aware of themselves.

Common Modernist elements

- Settings
- Main theme: failure to find a way out of paralysis
- Epiphany: revelation of the inner truth

“The Dead”
Three parts:
1) Attention to social relationship
2) Representation of a superficial word
3) Word of essence → Epiphany with Gabriel’s consciousness of the real essence

Theme
Theme of Paralysis: men are condemned to failure, Gabriel (Mc) fails in three dimension:
- As a Gentleman when lily refuses a tip
- As an Irish man when Miss Ivors calls him “West Briton”
- As a man with Gretta revelation
Theme of Death: during dinner the attention moves to the past (death) with: 1) mention to
monks in their coffins 2) Gabriel speech as an funeral oration 3) lyrical music speach
focused on the past.

Dublin symbolically represent all modern cities where men are losing their qualities.

Irishness: at five differents level:

- Religion: Gabriel is the only protestant (Britain) among Christians (Irish). Joyce was
obsessed with religion
 - Culture:
- Politics : with the dialogue with Ms Ivors we can understand that Gabriel supports the
cosmopolitan vision of Joyce.
- Geography
- Autobiography: Gabriel’s physical aspects, he is a teacher and a journalist

Symbols
Name:
- Gabriel:
- Angel of death and life→ after epiphany he start to live(?); he regards himself
as superior, as an angel→ sin
- Protection→ wants to protect everyone but this reveals his tendency to
protagonism
- Michael Fury:
- Lily:
- Browne:
Snow:
- Realistic Level: over the coats, winter
- Metaphorical level: cold conventions over relationships
- Symbol of rebirth: cover everything→ Gabriel’s new abilities to be part of humanity
and not the centre.
West: gabriel travels toward West, symbol of death
Light: At the beginning lily is in front of light, while gabriel isn’t, at the end he is
Three: symbol of trinity and God, Gabriel is a “reverse three” with his three rebuff: when he
tries to corrupt lily, when Miss ivory call him “West Briton and when Gretta thinks about
another man.

Conclusion
[...]

“Eveline”

1 section: thoughts range from the distance past, recent past, present, future
2 section: Frank’s call, she is not able to respond
No introduction, interior monologue→ we have an insight of the protagonist
Paralysis: sense of immobility that suggest that she will not be able to escape from her
prison→ at the harbour she is passive and empty.
She want to escape from her frightened realty→ opportunity represented by frank→ she
can’t take a decision because she doesn’t have an inner strength, emotionally paralysed.
Reason against: she has a familiar environment, her reputation.
Mother: strongest blame on the mother, that on her deathbed make to promise by Eveline to
take care of the family

“Ulysses”
Bloomsday→ 16th June 1904 (day Joyce met Nora Barnacle) is the day were is set the
story, a normal description of Leopold Bloom’ day, no traditional plot but new conception of
time by Bergson→ coincidence betw past and present and future and present.
Two Dimension:
- Realistic Dimension: description of everyday life and all the movements (like Ulysses)
that Leopold does. Stephen Dedalus (telemachus).
- Mythological dimension: Hades → the graveyard, Lestrygonians → the lunch at the pub,
Circe → the brothel, Ithaca → the house, Penelope → the bed. Joyce uses this dimension
to stress the lack of heroism, ideas, love and trust in the modern world.
Themes
- Search for a father/son: Bloom search for a son (his dead at 11), Stephen search for
a dad cause his is an alcoholic
- Rebellion: Stephen rejected classical values as family, religion (Catholic mother),
school. Bloom is frustrated because of son’s death (he his obsessed) and molly’s
unfaithfulness (love and death)
- Faithfulness of Molly

Style
Stream of Consciousness in form of interior monologue→ two results:
- Insight into the mind of a character
- Liberated the novel from the presence of a narrator
Language linked to characters and psychological aspect

Domande
-
- Theme of children in dickens?
- Lawrence can identify in?
- In conrad how is society perceived?

- Title Ulisses, why this title?

- What emerges from the comparison about the journey
- How is possible to describe joyce narration
- In the dead what are the symbol?
- Symbolism of their name in dead? (Gabriel, Micheal
- Theme of love in lady charlotte? (spiritual and physical part)
- What happens when he became very angry after the divorce request
- Lawrence, theme of sexuality, How Hardy sees sexuality and how the society that he
describes see that and how can we understand?