Jonathan Swift was born in 1667 in Dublin where he studied.

His parents were English and, when

the family return in England during the Glorious Revolution, Swift became secretary to Sir William
Temple, a Whig that encourage Swift to write his satirical works. His best satires were:
 The Battle of Books, in which Swift supported Temple’s defence of the classics;
 A Tale of a Tub, about the contending religious parties of the day.
In 1694 returned to Ireland and remained in Dublin for 30 years and defending Ireland and the
Church from the attack of Whigs. After few years he write pamphlets denouncing the injustices
that Ireland suffered. In 1726 he published his masterpiece, Gulliver’s Travel and, after, appeared
A Modest Proposal in which, con irony, talks about poverty in Ireland. He died in 1745.
Jonathan Swift was a controversial English writer. He didn't share the optimism of his time and
often criticized society. Swift used irony and satire to convey his ideas.

Plot: Gulliver’s Travel is the masterpiece of Swift. It has four settings and the novel consists of four
books. The novel is published in anonymous because Swift critized the society and the politicy. In
the first book, the Gulliver’s ship is wrecked in the land of Lilliput. The inhabitants are the
Lilliputians. They tall six inches and they considered Gulliver a gentle giant. Gulliver help them in
the war against Blefusc. This war broke up for how it breaks an egg. This war recalls the war
between the Catholic France and the Protestant England. In the second book Gulliver arrived in
Brobdingnan, inhabited by giants tall 20 metres and considered Gulliver a talking doll. In the third
book, Gulliver arrived in Laputa, a flies island for the magnetism. His inhabitants are distorted
philosophers and scientist. In the fourth book, Gulliver arrived in a island inhabited by intelligent
horse. This is the most important book because Swift says it is not right to believe that man is
superior, and for this the horse are intelligent, while the man is slaves. The novel ended whit the
returned at home of Gulliver but he decides to live in a stable and not at home whit is family.
The character of Gulliver: Gulliver is a typical European. He is 58 years old and he is well-educated
and sensible. Gulliver critized the limitations of European values. When he returned at home, he
can no longer take part in European society.
Sources: Gulliver’s travel are different because the people are not children of nature. In the novel
is expressed the opposition between the rationality and the animality.
Levels of interpretation: The novel can be read by children and adults, but at the same time, the
novel is a political allegory. The goal of Swift is criticized the political, social and religious conflict of
the time.
Style: Gulliver, like Crusoe, tells his experience in the first person, in a prose style which is matter-
of-act.
George III
George III came to the throne in 1760. Ti reduce the public debt, the king introduced new duties
on corn, paper and tea, which caused the opposition in the American colonies. The English
Parliament responded to the protest by repealing some of them, but the tax on imported tea
remained.

The Declaration of Indipendence

At the Boston Tea Party in 1773 some rebels threw the British tea coming from another part of the
British Empire, India, into the harbour. The rebels maintained that the taxes were unjust, as the
colonies had no political power; they said “No taxation without representation”. The Americans
divider into Patriots, who wanted indipendence, and Loyalists, who wanted to remain part of
Britain, and the War of Indipendence began in 1775. On 4th July 1776 the Congress signed the
Declaration of Indipendence. It claimed that all men had a natural right of life and liberty. In the
Battle of Yorktown, the British army was defeated and Britain recognised the indipendence. The
United States of American adopted a federal costitution and Washington became the first
President.

William Pitt the Younger

George III had a difficult and he asked William Pitt the Younger Prime Minister. He tried to simplify
the financial system and reduce the national debt and supported Smith’s theory of laissez-faire.

The new United Kingdom

In Irelans a group of Catholics and Protestants founded the Society of United Irishmen. They
organised an uprising that was crushed by the British troops. In 1801 the Act of Union joined
Ireland and Britain to form the new United Kingdom. The Irish flag was added to create the Union
Jack.
 THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION
Economic change
At the end of 18th century, England transformed the country from an agricultural to an
industrialised nation. The origin of the economic transformation is the Black Death. First, open
fields were enclosed into smaller portions of land, the soil was drained and made more fertile.
Animals were bred selectively. Cotton was the leading sector of industrialization.

Technological innovation
During this period there was a succession of technological innovations. Newcomen invented steam
engine, Jenny increased spinning efficiency, Watt created a steam engine that was more powerful.
Cartwright’s loom linked cloth manufacture. This changed the geography of the country,
concentrating the new industrial in the North. People shifted from the rural South to the North
and born the “mushroom towns”.

The worker’s life

Industrial cities lacked elementary public services. The air and the water were polluted by smoke.
The houses were overcrowded. Women and children were highly prized because they could be
paid less. Industrial labour imposed new work patterns. Long working hours, about 65-70 a week.
Diet deteriorated with an increase in the mortality rate.

THE FRANCE REVOLUTION

The France revolution and the Napoleonic Wars
In 1810 George III became incapable of reigning and the throne was regent by his son, George IV.
Meanwhile in France, the principles of social equality had led to a revolution. France declared war
on Britain and Holland. Much of their success war due to the skills of a general named Napoleon
Bonaparte. Napoleon’s victories in Europe were balanced by Britain’s supremacy at sea. Napoleon
surrendered in 1814. His 100 Days in 1815 ended in final defeat at the hands of Wellington at the
Battle of Waterloo.

Riots and reforms

The costs of the war were huge. Increases in the price of bread led to riots in the cities, while in
the factories the so-called Luddites smashed the new machines. The authorities tried to repress
discontent under many laws arrest without trial, forbidding the combination of working men into
trade unions. The most serious incident was at St Peter’s Fields, where a peaceful crowd was fired
on by the local militia. This massacre was ironically named Peterloo.

George IV and William IV

The mad George II died and was succeeded by his son George IV. In 1824 the associations of
workers were legalized. In 1829 the Home Secretary created the Metropolitan Police. When
George IV died, his brother William IV came to the throne. The Great Reform Act was passed in
1832. It extended the vote to almost all male members of the middle classes and re-distributed
seats on a more equitable basis in the countries. William IV died and his 18-years-old niece,
Victoria, came to the throne.
 A NEW SENSIBILITY
Towards subjective poetry
In the second half of the 18th century a new sensibility emerged and a new generation of poetry
established new trends but not a precise programme of rules. The poets used subjective, and
autobiographical material for the lyrical and personal experience of life. The experience presented
a generalized reflection. Many factors produced this change. The noisy activity to the town was
compared negatively with the simple serenity of the countryside. Growing interest in humble life
and the interest for the melancholy.

A new concept of nature

The nature was considered a set of divine laws and principles established by God, which man
could order thanks to the reason. This led to the need to elaborate a new aesthetic theory built on
individual consciousness. Burke gave supremacy to the sublime over the beautiful.

The sublime
The distinction between the beautiful and sublime became the main theme of this period. For
Burke the sublime is whatever is fitted in any sort to excite the ideas of pain and danger or
operates in a manner analogous to terror. He argued that terror and pain are the strongest
emotions.

EARLY ROMANTIC POETRY

Pastoral poetry
The new sensibility is expressed in the pastoral poetry. It expressed the idyllic pleasure and
happiness of rural life in the works of Cowper, The Task. Nature was to him a source of innocence
and delight

Nature poetry
the most important representative of nature poetry was Thomson, who saw the nature in its
physical. His observation included wild scenery and led to reflections on the character of the
primitive man.

Ossianic poetry
The interest in folk traditions were responsible for the success of Ossianic poetry, a cycle of poems
by a legendary warrior, Ossian. Macpherson published some of Ossian’s works in Fragments of
Ancient Poetry. The poems were very successful all over Europe.

Graveyard poetry
Another influential group was the “Graveyard School” for their melancholy tone and the choice of
cemeteries and stormy landscape for their setting. The most important poem was “Elegy Written
in a Country Churchyard”, but the mode started with Young with his poems “Nights Thoughts on
Life, Death, and Immortality”.

William Blake
The most important poet of Romantic poetry was William Blake for his interest in social problems
and his unique use of symbol.
 THE GOTHIC NOVEL
New interests in fiction
The interest for the individual consciousness increased for the interest in the mysterious, by the
escape from the ugly world and for the triumph of evil. The Gothic novel was interest for all social
classes. The adjective Gothic was first applied to architecture. Walpole established a link between
the two. The title “A Gothic Story” marks the first time that the term was used in a literary context.

Features of the Gothic novel

Gothic novels intended to arouse fear in the reader. The setting was influenced by the concept of
the sublime; it includes ancient setting, like isolated castle and convents. The most important
events take place during the night because darkness was used to create oppression and mystery.
The Gothic hero is usually isolated and the heroine is both afflicted with unreal terrors and
persecuted by a villain. The wanderer is the symbol of isolation. The plots are complicated by
embedded narrative and supernatural beings. The first novel was The Castle of Otranto.

ROMANTIC POETRY
The Romantic imagination
At the end of the 18th century, the English Romanticism saw the prevalence of poetry. Imagination
gained a primary role. Thanks to the imagination, the Romantic poets could see beyond surface
reality. The imagination allowed the poet to re-create and modify the external world of
experience. The poet was seen as a visionary prophet who mediate between man and nature.

The figure of the child

To the Augustan Age, a child was important only in so far as he would become an adult. Childhood
was considered a process leading to adulthood. To a Romantic, a child was purer than an adult and
his sensibility made him close at God.

The importance of the individual

The Augustans had seen man as a social animal. The Romantics saw him in a solitary state, and
stressed the special qualities of mind. The current was represented by Rousseau and stated that
the conventions of civilization represented intolerable restrictions. Natural behavior is good, in
contrast to behavior which is governed by reason. The savage has an instinctive knowledge of
himself.

The cult of exotic

The theories of Rousseau influenced the cult of the exotic. The Romantic poets welcome, also, the
remote and the unfamiliar in custom and social outlook.

The view of nature

The Romantic poets regarded nature as a living force and as the expression of God. Nature
became a main source of inspiration, a stimulus to thought, a source of joy and comfort.

Poetic technique
The Romantic poets searched for a new style through the choice of a language and subject
suitable to poetry. The problem was a central issue in Romantic aesthetics. More familiar words
began to replace the artificial words and images assume a vital role.
Two generations of poets
The great English Romantic poets are usually grouped into two generations. The poets of the first
generation, like Wordsworth and Coleridge, were characterized by the attempt to theorise about
poetry. The poets of the second generation, like Shelley and Keats, experienced political
disillusionment which is reflected in the clash between the ideal and the real. Individualism and
escapism were stronger in this generation and found expression in the different attitudes of the
three poets. The poets of the second generation all died very young and away from home.

Cultural insight
The term Romanticism comes from the French word romance. The adjective Romantic first
appeared in English in the second half of 17th century, meaning fabulous. During the 18th century,
Romantic was used to describe the picturesque in the landscape. In the literary, poetry was always
new and spontaneous, no longer the imitation of the classics. Romanticism in Europe developed in
different ways and times according to the cultural, social and political situations of countries.

ROMANTIC FICTION
The development of the novel
By the end of the 18th century the novel was the most popular form of fiction. It continued to
develop reflecting the new interest in the individual. This led to:
1. A deeper psychological insight;
2. A more detailed description of the relationship between the social classes;
3. The maturity of the character;
4. The development of dialogue.

The novel of manners

The changes in the social hierarchy of English society provided the background for the rise of the
novel of manners. The influence was passing to the newly middle classes. The novel of manners
dealt that the everyday situation of this classes. The most important master of this novel was
Austen, whose novels were based on the premise that there is a vital relationship between
manners. They are set in the country and deal with the codes of the everyday through the
description of visits and balls. The main themes are marriage and the complications of loves and
friendship. A third-person narrator is employed and dialogue plays a central role

The historical novel

The historical novel appeared in the 19th century. It is a literary genre that reflects the Romantic
interest in the past, particularly the Middle Ages. The founder was Walter Scott, whose novels
created a passion for the historical novel among readers and writers. Scott’s main achievement
was to get people to realise that history was not just a list of political and religious events, but the
product of human decisions. He blended highly figurative language with dialect. He introduced a
new concept of history, based on the lives of ordinary people. He was interest in Scottish history.
Scott influenced Manzoni. Both mingled historical truths and fiction. However they used different
language: Scott used Scottish dialect, Manzoni removed any regional dialect.

American prose
In the prose emerged American characteristics. The short story became a distinctive form. The
novel began to assert itself as the ideal frame for the fantastic stories, legends and myths linked to
the life of the pioneers. The most important short story writes was Allan Poe.
 WILLIAM BLAKE
Life and works
William Blake was born in London in 1757. He remained poor all his life. After completing his
apprenticeship, he studied at the Royal Academy of Arts. As a painter and an engraver, he created
a new art which emphasized the power of the imagination. He supported the French Revolution.
Blake had a strong sense of religion. The most important influence in his life was the Bible,
because for him it presented a complete vision of the world. His experiences as a craftsman, a
visionary and a radical contributed to the development of his poetry. He refused neoclassical
literary style and he emphasised the importance of imagination. He created the method of
illuminated printing. The poetic collections Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience are the
most accessible of his works. He published prophetic books in which he created a complex
personal mythology. The first was The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, a prose work in which Satan
and Hell represent the liberty while Heaven is the place of lawgiving.

Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience

Songs of Innocence was produced before the outbreak of the French Revolution. The narrator is a
shepherd who receives inspiration from a child to pipe his songs celebrating the divine in all
creation. Its symbol are lambs, flowers and children playing on the village green. The poems deal
with childhood as the symbol of innocence.
Songs of Experience appeared during the period of the Terror in France. Blake created the
counterpart of the songs of shepherd. A pessimistic vision of the life emerges in these songs.

Imagination and the poet

Blake considered imagination as the means trough which man could know the world. Imagination,
or the Divine Vision, means to see more. God, the child and the poet share this power of vision,
which is also the power or creating things. The poet becomes a sort of prophet who can see more
deeply into reality.

Blake’s interest in social problems

Blake was concerned with the political and social problems of his time: he supported the abolition
of slavery and the principles of the French Revolution. Later, he focused his attention on the evil
consequences of the Industrial Revolution: the injustices caused by a materialistic attitude. In his
poems he sympathized with the victims of industrial society.

Style
Blake’s poems have a simple structure and a use of symbols: the child, the father and Christ,
representing the states of innocence. His verse is linear and rhythmical.

POEMS
The Lamb
In The Lamb, the speaker is or a children or the poet himself. In the first stanza he addresses a
lamb and asks about its origin. In the second stanza the speaker offers an answer: the lamb was
made by one who is similar to the lamb and to himself. The creator and his creation coincide
because the child, the lamb and their maker are innocent and tender.
The Tyger
This is not so with The Tyger. This poem is also structured around the origin of the creature. If
nature reflects its creator, God was both able and wanted to create such a beautiful and powerful.
The question goes unanswered, showing that is impossible to account for the presence of evil in
the world.

MARY SHELLEY
Life and works
Mary Shelley was born in 1797, the daughter of a feminist philosopher and an anarchist. Both her
parents had been heavily influenced by the ideas of the French Revolution. Ten days after Mary’s
birth, her mother died. Four years later her father married Mary Jane Clairmont and she and one
of her daughters were to be the cause of the Mary’s sufferings. Her house was visited by some
Romantic poets, among which Percy Shelley. The poet was attracted by the young Mary. In July
1814 the couple fled to France. It was there that the writing of Frankestein. In 1816 Mary began to
write Frankestein, which was published in anonymous in 1818. Mary returned in England in 1823,
and she died in 1851.
FRANKESTEIN
Plot and setting
Victor Frankenstein would created a human being by joining parts selected from corpses. The
result is a monster that becomes a murderer and in the end he destroyes his creator. The story is
not told chronogically and is introduced to us through a series of letters written by Walton, a
young explorer on a voyage of expedition to the North Pole, to his sister Margaret. The events of
the story happen all over Europe and in North Pole, where
Walton and his shipmates are stuck by the ice and where Frankenstein is found following his
creation. the creation's birthplace is next to Frankenstein's university.

Origins
In the introduction to the novel, Mary Shelley gives her own account of Frankenstein's origin. It
seems that a number of things, like her sense of loss at the death of her own mother came
together at that point in her life, creating the nightmare that so terrified her.

The influence of science

Mary Shelley dedicated Frankenstein to Godwin. She clearly sympathises with the monster but is
afraid of the consequences of his actions. In this, there is tension between fear of revolution and
interest in the revolutionary ideas. Even the influence of Percy Shelley was important. He and
Mary were interested in science, and particularly chemistry, so that by the time she wrote
Frankenstein, she was aware of the latest scientific theories and experiments. Frankenstein tries to
create a human being through the use of electricity and chemistry without respecting the rules of
nature as far as creation and life are concerned.

Literary influences
The monster can be considered Rousseau's natural man, that is, a man in a primitive state; he,
however, discovers the limitations both of the state of nature and of civilisation. The influence of
the philosopher Locke can be seen in the description of the monster's self-awareness. The ghost
stories read at Villa Diodati provided an immediate stimulus, even if Frankenstein differs from the
Gothic tradition, since it is not set in a dark castle. Another important influence was the work of
the Romantic poets in general; the most meaningful element Mary Shelley derived from
Coleridge's The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (- 4.12) is the fact that both Coleridge's ballad and
Shelley's novel are tales of a crime against nature. The myth of Prometheus is also important.
Prometheus, in Greek mythology, was a giant who stole the fire from the gods in order to give it to
men. In so doing, he challenged the divine authority and freed men from gods' power.

Narrative structure
The novel is told by different narrators:
• at first, Walton informs his sister;
• then, Frankenstein informs Walton, who informs his sister;
• finally, the monster informs Frankenstein.
The whole novel has Walton's sister as the receiver, but presents three different points of view.
The form of the novel is epistolary.

Themes
The main themes of the novel are:
• the quest for forbidden knowledge;
• the overreacher, in the characters of Walton and Dr Frankenstein;
•the double: Dr Frankenstein and the monster are two aspects of the same being;
•the penetration of nature's secrets;
• the usurpation of the female role;
• social prejudices through the figure of the monster as an outcast.

The double
The three most important characters of the novel are all linked to the theme of the double.
Walton is a double of Frankenstein since he manifests the same ambition, the wish to overcome
human limits.
Frankenstein and his creature are complementary: they both suffer from a sense of alienation and
isolation. The creature stands for the scientist's negative self.
One sure sign of the double is the creature's haunting presence: even if Frankenstein initially flees
from his creature, the monster is constantly present in his life.
Frankenstein's reiection of his creature is crucial and this makes the monster an outcast, a
murderer and a rebel against society.

WILLIAM WORDSWORTH
Life and works
William Wordsworth was born in Cumberland in 1770. In 1791 he graduated from St John’s
College. His contact with revolutionary France had filled him with enthusiasm for the democratic
ideals. He fell in love with Vallon and was born Caroline. The brutal developments of the
Revolution and the declaration of war between England and France brought him to the edge of a
nervous breakdown. Hi sister Dorothy supported his poetry and recorded their life in her Journals.
The friendship with Coleridge proved crucial to the development of English Romantic poetry: they
produced a collection of poems called Lyrical Ballads. The second edition contained Wordsworth’s
famous Preface. Wordsworth is also celebrated for his “Lucy poems”, a series of five poems
written between 1798 and 1801. In 1802 he married Hutchison, and they had five children. In this
period he wrote some of his best poems. In 1805 he finished his masterpiece, The Prelude, an
autobiographical poem in 14 books. He died in 1850.
The Manifesto of English Romanticism
For Wordsworth poetry was a solitary act, originating in the ordinary. While planning the Lyrical
Ballads with Coleridge, they decided that he would deal with man, nature and everyday things,
while Coleridge should write about the supernatural and mystery. Wordsworth hated the elevated
and artificial language, in fact he used a simple language.

Recollection in tranquillity
For Wordsworth imagination was synonymous with intuition, the power to see into the life of
things. What we read in the poem results from the active, vital relationship of present to past
experience. Through the memory, the emotion is re-produced and purified in poetic.

POEMS
Composed upon westminster bridge
The poet says that he has seen the most beautiful scene on Earth while passing over Westminster
Bridge. Only those who are dull could pass by without catching the wonder of the sight. The poet
compares London to a lady who is wearing the beauty of the morning. The various landmarks
visible form the bridge stand in front of him in all their beauty. This beauty is due to the time of
day because the town is still sleeping. The poet conveys the idea of spaciousness by noting that
the ships are open to the fields. The word smokeless means that the smoke can’t obscure the
sunlight. The poet says that this vision of London makes him feel calm. Even the river is described
as a patient person that he moves according to his own sweet will.

The Daffodils
this poem is a perfect example of Wordsworth’s theory that poetry is a recollection in tranquillity.
The speaker is recollecting a past experience: he was walking as lonely as a cloud when he saw a
group of daffodils in a beautiful landscape. At the time, the poet was overjoyed with the scene but
didn’t realise the profound implication of experience. It is only the present recollection of that joy
that enables him to transform the experience into poetry. The simple daffodils are personified,
and dance more than the waves do, and are so numerous and bright as to resemble the Milky
Way.