Chương 4:

Jacobean Age (1603-1625) 1.

Historical background:
The age is named after James I who reigned over England from 1603 to 1625. The word
“Jacobean” is derived from “Jacobus”, the Latin Version of James. Some historians like
to call the last five years of this age as a part of another age which they call the Puritan
Age (1620- 1660). They call it so because between 1620 and 1660 Puritanism became the
driving force in the life and literature of England.
Jacobean Age (1603-1625)
The important facts which influenced the literature of this period are:
Colonial territories were expanded.
Religious conflict that subsided in the Elizabethan Age, revived in this period.
Protestants were divided into three sects: (1) Anglicans, (2) Presbyterians and (3)
Puritans.
Renaissance’s influence continued.
Scotland was brought under the rule of the King of England.
Main Literary Features of the Age
The elegance and felicity of Elizabethan verse disappear.
The Platonic idealism which had been the main spirit of the Elizabethan era almost dies
out.
Renaissance’s spirit still remains the main influence.
Drama continues to dominate the literary scene.
Classical rules of drama are maintained by Ben Jonson.
Jacobean Age (1603-1625)
Poetry takes a new and startling turn.
Decadence of art begins.
English language develops further.
Masque is innovated.
Satiric art begins.
Caroline Age (1625-1649)
This age is named after Charles 1 who reigned over England from 1625 to 1649.
“Caroline” is derived from “Carolus”, the Latin version of “Charles”. This age is also a
part of the Puritan Age (1620-1660).
Caroline Age (1625-1649)
The important facts which influenced the literature of this period are:
There was a civil war between “Cavaliers” and “Roundheads". Those who supported the
King were called “Cavaliers”. Most of them were lords and their dependents.
“Roundheads” were those who supported parliament. Most of them were puritans.
Caroline Age (1625-1649)
A group of lyric poets associated with the “Cavaliers” are called “Cavalier poets”.
Richard Lovelace, Sir John Suckling, Robert Herrick and Thomas Carew were the
members of this group. These poets are also called Sons of Ben as they were the admirers
and followers of Ben Jonson. Their poems are trivial, gay, witty and often licentious
Caroline Age (1625-1649)
In 1642 English theatre was officially closed. On 14 June 1643 Licensing Order for
printing was passed.
The Cavaliers were defeated; the King was caught and publicly beheaded on 30th
January 1649. His death marked the dissolution of monarchy for the time being.
English colonies were further expanded.
Oliver Cromwell emerged as a puritan leader and came to power in 1649.
Main Literary Features of the Age:
Drama declines significantly.
Literature reflects revival of moral and intellectual awakening.
Elizabethan enthusiasm and national spirit disappear.
Literary scenario is overshadowed by gloom and pessimism.
Critical and intellectual spirit replaces natural outpouring of heart,
Caroline Age (1625-1649)
Renaissance’s influence continues.
Three types of poetry appear: puritan poetry, metaphysical poetry and cavalier poetry.
Cavalier poets appear and disappear; their straightforward, erotic short poems with the
motto “carpe diem” disappear with them.
Sermons, pamphlets, history and philosophy are written in prose.
Commonwealth Period (1649-1660)
This period, like the previous two periods, belonged to the Puritan Age. Only in this
period there was no monarch in England. After the death of Charles 1, Oliver Cromwell,
the puritan leader, came to power. He died in 1658 when his son Richard Cromwell
became the ruler of England. He ruled England till 1660. In this period Puritanism
became gradually unpopular. The English people realized that monarchy was essential for
them.
Main Literary Features of the Age:
The influence of Renaissance and Puritanism died out by the end of this period. The
Elizabethan romantic exuberance ended in this period.
William Shakespeare
Shakespeare also spelled Shakspere, byname Bard of Avon or Swan of Avon, (baptized
April 26, 1564, Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England—died April 23, 1616,
Stratford-upon-Avon), English poet, dramatist, and actor often called the English national
poet and considered by many to be the greatest dramatist of all time
William Shakespeare
No writer’s living reputation can compare to that of Shakespeare, whose plays, written in
the late 16th and early 17th centuries for a small repertory theatre, are now performed and
read more often and in more countries than ever before. The prophecy of his great
contemporary, the poet and dramatist Ben Jonson, that Shakespeare “was not of an age,
but for all time,” has been fulfilled.
William Shakespeare
Two outward influences were powerful in developing the genius of Shakespeare, — the
little village of Stratford, center of the most beautiful and romantic district in rural
England, and the great city of London, the center of the world’s political activity. In one
he learned to know the natural man in his natural environment; in the other, the social, the
artificial man in the most unnatural of surroundings
William Shakespeare
His father, John Shakespeare, was a farmer’s son from the neighboring village of
Snitterfield, who came to Stratford about 1551, and began to prosper as a trader in com,
meat, leather, and other agricultural products. His mother, Mary Arden, was the daughter
of a prosperous farmer, descended from an old Warwickshire family of mixed Anglo-
Saxon and Norman blood.
William Shakespeare
Of Shakespeare’s education we know little, except that for a few years he probably
attended the endowed grammar school at Stratford, where he picked up the " small Latin
and less Greek ” to which his learned friend Ben Jonson refers. His real teachers,
meanwhile, were the men and women and the natural influences which surrounded him.
Stratford is a charming little village in beautiful Warwickshire, and near at hand were the
Forest of Arden, the old castles of Warwick and Kenilworth, and the old Roman camps
and military roads, to appeal powerfully to the boy’s lively imagination.
William Shakespeare
Every phase of the natural beauty of this exquisite region is reflected in ' Shakespeare’s
poetry; just as his characters reflect the nobility and the littleness, the gossip, vices,
emotions, prejudices, and traditions of the people about him.
William Shakespeare
When Shakespeare was about fourteen years old his father lost his little property and fell
into debt, and the boy probably left school to help support the family of younger children.
What occupation he followed for the next eight years is a matter of conjecture. From
evidence found in his plays, it is alleged with some show of authority that he was a
country schoolmaster and a lawyer’s clerk, the character of Holofernes, in Love's
Labour's Lost, being the warrant for one, and Shakespeare’s knowledge of law terms for
the other.
William Shakespeare
In 1582 Shakespeare was married to Anne Hathaway, the daughter of a peasant family of
Shottery, who was eight years older than her boy husband. From numerous sarcastic
references to marriage made by the characters in his plays, and from the fact that he soon
left his wife and family and went to London, it is generally alleged that the marriage was
a hasty and unhappy one ; but here again the evidence is entirely untrustworthy.
William Shakespeare
About the year 1587 Shakespeare left his family and went to London and joined himself
to Burbage’s company of players.
William Shakespeare
He died on April 23, 1616. No name was inscribed on his gravestone in the chancel of the
parish church of Stratford-upon-Avon. Instead these lines, possibly his own, appeared:
Good friend, for Jesus’ sake forbear
To dig the dust enclosed here.
Blest be the man that spares these stones,
And curst be he that moves my bones.
(Shakespeare Epitaph)
William Shakespeare
Paraphrase: "Friends, for God's sake, don't even consider removing the bones that lie
here. I offer a blessing to those who heed my warning and a curse to those that don't.
William Shakespeare
His main works: The greatest English dramatist, famous for the objective presentation of
his deep knowledge about human psychology. He is often called the bard of Avon. He
wrote 37 plays and 154 sonnets.
William Shakespeare
POETRY: His Sonnets were composed in iambic pentameter - excepting Sonnet 145
written in iambic tetrameter, using meter and writing style typical of the day.
1. Shakespeare's Sonnets
2. Venus and Adonis
3. The Rape of Lucrece
4. The Passionate Pilgrim[e]
5. The Phoenix and the Turtle
6. A Lover's Complaint
The classical unities
The classical unities, Aristotelian unities, or three unities represent a prescriptive theory
of dramatic tragedy that was introduced in Italy in the 16th century and was influential
for three centuries.
The three unities are:

✓ unity of action: a tragedy should have one principal action.

✓ unity of time: the action in a tragedy should occur over a period of no more than 24
hours.

✓ unity of place: a tragedy should exist in a single physical location.

Chương 5: THE RESTORATION PERIOD (1660-1700)
Historical background
This period is called the Restoration Period because in this period, with the restoration of
monarchy, the English literary tradition was restored. In the Commonwealth Period
Charles II, the son of Charles I, escaped to France. After the death of Richard Cromwell
the people of England brought him back and made him King of England on May 29,
1660.
Historical background
He remained in power till his death in 1685 when James II, another son of Charles I,
ascended the throne. He was a Catholic and most of the people who were Protestants
wanted to dethrone him. In 1688 there was the Glorious Revolution (Bloodless
Revolution) against him. He fled to France. William III of France, the husband of Mary,
the daughter of James II, came to power. William ruled England till his death in 1702
Historical background
The important facts which influenced the literature of this period are:

✓ A general reaction against puritanical restraints became very strong.

✓ Two political parties - the Whig and the Tory - were formed. The Whigs were against
the King and for the Protestants. The Tories supported the King and the Catholics.

✓ In 1690 there was Jacobite Rising. The Catholics of Ireland, who were led by James
II, fought against William’s soldiers and were defeated.
Historical background

✓ In 1662 the Royal Society was founded to promote scientific research. Sir Isaac
Newton was a member of it.

✓ In 1695 the press was made free. Everyone was given liberty to express his or her
views.

✓ The Bill of Rights was adopted in 1689. It curtailed the monarch’s power and
increased parliament’s power. Literary features
Literary features

✓ Imitation of the ancient Greek and Roman writers gives rise to Neo-classicism.

✓ Puritan controls loosen and a wave of foppery and vulgarity sweeps the creative
works.
✓ Great English epics are written with proper elegance and grandeur.
✓ Drama returns with the then French licentiousness and gaiety; it loses Elizabethan
seriousness and splendour.

✓ Comedy of manners and heroic tragedy become major dramatic genres.

✓ Translation of great classical texts starts appearing.

✓ Satirical verse becomes popular.

✓ Literature of two extremes co-exists: Great epics, like Paradise Lost, and the moral
wisdom, like The Pilgrim's Progress, are written. At the same time sensual comedies, like
The Country Wife, are also written.
John Milton (1608-1674)
It is generally agreed that the English poet second after Shakespeare is JONH MILTON,
born in London and educated at Christ’s College, Cambridge. After leaving the
university, he studied at home in Horton, Buckinghamshire (1632—7), and was grateful
to his father for allowing him to do this instead of preparing for a profession.
John Milton (1608-1674) He lived a pure life, believing that he had a great purpose to
complete. At college he was known as The Lady of Christ’s.
It is convenient to consider his works in three divisions. At first he wrote his shorter
poems at Horton. Next he wrote mainly prose. His three greatest poems belong to the last
group.
Milton’s studies at Horton were deep and wide. One of his notebooks contains pieces
taken from eighty writers - Greek, Latin, English, French and Italian. At the same time he
was studying music.
Milton’s prose works were mainly concerned with church affairs, divorce, and freedom.
Many of them are violent in language, and have neither literary value nor interest for
modern readers.
The arguments about religion we may neglect entirely. The divorce pamphlets were
mainly the result of his own hasty marriage (1643) to Mary Powell, a girl of seventeen.
(It was not a success.)
The English civil war between Charles I and Parliament (Cromwell) began in 1642 and
lasted until 1646; and it was followed by the second civil war, 1648-51. During these
years, Milton worked hard at his pamphlets, supported Cromwell, and became a minister
of the government. His eyesight began to fail, and by 1651 he was totally blind. He
became unpopular when Charles II was made king (1660), but it was from this time
onwards that he wrote his three greatest works.
Paradise lost
Many scholars consider Paradise Lost to be one of the greatest poems in the English
language. It tells the biblical story of the fall from grace of Adam and Eve (and, by
extension, all humanity) in language that is a supreme achievement of rhythm and sound.
The 12-book structure, the technique of beginning in medias res (in the middle of the
story), the invocation of the muse, and the use of the epic question are all classically
inspired. The subject matter, however, is distinctly Christian.
The main characters in the poem are God, Lucifer (Satan), Adam, and Eve. Much has
been written about Milton’s powerful and sympathetic characterization of Satan. The
Romantic poets William Blake and Percy Bysshe Shelley saw Satan as the real hero of
the poem and applauded his rebellion against the tyranny of Heaven
Translation
O Divine Muse, sing about man’s first disobedience and the fruit of the forbidden tree,
whose fatal taste brought death into the world and caused mankind’s woe and the loss of
Eden, until Christ restored us, and regained Heaven, that on Mount Sinai inspired the
shepherd Moses, who first taught the Jews in the beginning how the heavens and earth
came out of Chaos: or, if Mount Zion appeals more to you, and the spring near the
Temple where Christ cured a blind man.
I therefore ask for your aid to my epic poem, that doesn’t intend to go only halfway, but
instead will soar over the Helicon, the home of the classical muses, and surpass Homer
and Virgil in my attempt to do things as of yet not done in prose or rhyme. Paradise lost
The poem concerns the Biblical story of the Fall of Man the temptation of Adam and Eve
by the fallen angel Satan and their expulsion from the Garden of Eden.

✓ John Milton wrote the poem in blank verse

✓ Paradise Lost was written on the biblical theme of the fall of man
✓ Paradise Lost has two narrative arcs, one about Satan (Lucifer) and the following
Adam and Eve
In deciding to write an epic, Milton consciously places himself in the tradition of prior
epic writers, such as the ancients Homer and Virgil, and the Medieval and Renaissance
poets Dante, Tasso, Ariosto, and Spenser. By doing this, he raises specific sets of
expectations both for himself and for readers.
Formally, Paradise Lost contains many classical and Renaissance epic conceits: it begins
in medias res; it concerns heavenly and earthly beings and the interactions between them;
it uses conventions such as epic similes, catalogues of people and places, and invocations
to a muse; and it contains themes common to epics, such as war, nationalism, empire, and
stories of origin.
Milton's range of variations on epic conventions contribute to Paradise Lost's stunning
effects. Unlike classics such as the Iliad and the Aeneid, Paradise Lost has no easily
identified hero. The most Achilles-like character in the poem is Satan, whom Milton
surrounds with "epic matter and motivations, epic genre conventions, and constant
allusions to specific passages in famous heroic poems"
BOOK I
This gives a brief introduction of the fall of Adam and Eve caused by the serpent, which
was Satan, who led the angels in rebellion against God and was cast into hell. The scene
opens with Satan lying in a confused state in the burning lake along with Beelzebub who
was next in command beside him. Satan exhorts his fallen legions on the shore where he
revives their spirits by his speech. They set to building a palace, called Pandemonium.
There the high ranking angels assemble in council.
BOOK I
Summary: Lines 1–26: The Prologue and Invocation Milton opens Paradise Lost by
formally declaring his poem’s subject: humankind’s first act of disobedience toward
God, and the consequences that followed from it. The act is Adam and Eve’s eating of the
forbidden fruit of the Tree of Knowledge, as told in Genesis, the first book of the Bible.
In the first line, Milton refers to the outcome of Adam and Eve’s sin as the “fruit” of the
forbidden tree, punning on the actual apple and the figurative fruits of their actions.
BOOK I
Milton asserts that this original sin brought death to human beings for the first time,
causing us to lose our home in paradise until Jesus comes to restore humankind to its
former position of purity. Milton’s speaker invokes the muse, a mystical source of poetic
inspiration, to sing about these subjects through him, but he makes it clear that he refers
to a different muse from the muses who traditionally inspired classical poets by
specifying that his muse inspired Moses to receive the Ten Commandments and write
Genesis.
BOOK I
Milton’s muse is the Holy Spirit, which inspired the Christian Bible, not one of the nine
classical muses who reside on Mount Helicon—the “Aonian mount” of I.15. He says that
his poem, like his muse, will fly above those of the Classical poets and accomplish things
never attempted before, because his source of inspiration is greater than theirs. Then he
invokes the Holy Spirit, asking it to fill him with knowledge of the beginning of the
world, because the Holy Spirit was the active force in creating the universe. BOOK I
Milton’s speaker announces that he wants to be inspired with this sacred knowledge
because he wants to show his fellow man that the fall of humankind into sin and death
was part of God’s greater plan, and that God’s plan is justified.
BOOK I
Analysis John Milton, in recounting the Fall of Man, invokes the classical Muse, an epic
convention used by great pagan poets such as Homer and Virgil; however, he specifically
mentions that the Muse he calls is the one that inspired Moses to speak to the Israelites,
so he means the Holy Spirit. Milton demonstrates no false modesty, as he knows this will
be an awe-inspiring work surpassing those of Homer, Virgil, Dante, et cetera, whose
format he knows and has mastered.
BOOK I
Similar in gravity to the Book of Genesis from the Bible, the opening also echoes ancient
Greek and Roman epic poetry in its form. Although his source of inspiration (the Holy
Spirit) and subject matter is greater than those stories attempted in the past, he humbly
acknowledges his debt as he reinvents the epic convention from a Protestant Christian
perspective. Milton uses Biblical mountains and streams to replace the favorite haunts of
the classical Muses.
BOOK I
He not only compares himself to past epic poets, but also places Adam, his arguably
primary character, above others. He makes a pun on the word “fruit” as both a
consequence and the cause of Adam and Eve’s descent from grace. A monotheist who
believed that all things came out of God, Milton borrowed ideas from Plato and Hesiod in
the concept of unformed matter, or Chaos. Ariosto's Orlando Furioso canto 1, stanza 2
must bear some sarcasm in line 16 from Milton.
Summary: Lines 1–26: The Prologue and Invocation Milton opens Paradise Lost by
formally declaring his poem’s subject: humankind’s first act of disobedience toward God,
and the consequences that followed from it. The act is Adam and Eve’s eating of the
forbidden fruit of the Tree of Knowledge, as told in Genesis, the first book of the Bible.
In the first line, Milton refers to the outcome of Adam and Eve’s sin as the “fruit” of the
forbidden tree, punning on the actual apple and the figurative fruits of their actions.
Milton asserts that this original sin brought death to human beings for the first time,
causing us to lose our home in paradise until Jesus comes to restore humankind to its
former position of purity.
Milton’s speaker invokes the muse, a mystical source of poetic inspiration, to sing about
these subjects through him, but he makes it clear that he refers to a different muse from
the muses who traditionally inspired classical poets by specifying that his muse inspired
Moses to receive the Ten Commandments and write Genesis.
Milton’s muse is the Holy Spirit, which inspired the Christian Bible, not one of the nine
classical muses who reside on Mount Helicon—the “Aonian mount” of I.15. He says that
his poem, like his muse, will fly above those of the Classical poets and accomplish things
never attempted before, because his source of inspiration is greater than theirs. Then he
invokes the Holy Spirit, asking it to fill him with knowledge of the beginning of the
world, because the Holy Spirit was the active force in creating the universe.
Milton’s speaker announces that he wants to be inspired with this sacred knowledge
because he wants to show his fellow man that the fall of humankind into sin and death
was part of God’s greater plan, and that God’s plan is justified.
Chapter 6: THE ROMANTIC PERIOD (1798-1832)
Historical background
The age began in 1798 with the first edition of Wordsworth’s Lyrical Ballads and ended
with the first Reformation Act in 1832, However, it is worth noting that the signs of
Romantic literature came into view around 1785 when William Blake started writing his
Songs of Innocence.
This period is also called the Revival of Romanticism because the romantic ideals of the
Elizabethan Period revived during these years. Lyrical Ballads brought about a great
change in literature, both in subject and style. Instead of urban people and grand style,
rural people and common language were preferred.
The important facts

✓ After the French Revolution it was accepted that every individual was free and equally
important.

✓ Small industries disappeared and large industries with huge capital started.

✓ Machines were widely introduced in coal and iron mines which multiplied productions.

✓ Steam-engines were used in ships and trains. The train was first introduced in 1830.
The important facts

✓ Industrialization created lots of slums, child labour and labour problems.

✓ The traditional social pattern started changing.

✓ Ireland was united with England in 1801.

✓ In 1829 Catholic Emancipation Act was passed and religious equity was ensured. The
important facts ✓ Use of machines in fields and industries made a large number of
women jobless; of them many became either readers or writers.
Literary Features
Main Literary Features of the Age

✓ Creative enthusiasm reached almost the level of Elizabethan creative force.

✓ It shifts its focus from earlier age’s faith in reason to faith in senses, intuition, and
imagination.

✓ Subjective poetry replaces the objective poetry of the neoclassical age.

✓ It values common, “natural” man and rejects artificial urban life as subject of poetry.
Literary Features ✓ Creative enthusiasm reached almost the level of Elizabethan creative
force.

✓ It shifts its focus from earlier age’s faith in reason to faith in senses, intuition, and
imagination.

✓ Subjective poetry replaces the objective poetry of the neoclassical age.

✓ It values common, “natural” man and rejects artificial urban life as subject of poetry.
Literary Features ✓ The language of common men, not the artificial “poetic diction” of
the previous age, becomes the choice of the time.

✓ It idealizes country life and "nature” becomes a means of divine revelation.

✓ Romantic poetry reflects rebellious views against oppression, restraints, and controls.
It celebrates human rights and individualism.

✓ Romantic literature shows interest in the medieval past, the supernatural, the mystical,
the “gothic,” and the exotic.

✓ It emphasizes introspection, psychology, melancholy, and sadness. ✓ Myth and

symbolism get prominence.

✓ In style, the Romantic poetry prefers spontaneity and free experimentation to strict
conventional “rules” of composition, genre, and decorum. It prefers highly suggestive
language to the neoclassical ideal of clarity and precision.

✓ Lyric poetry dominates. Literary Features

✓ Women fiction flourishes. Mrs. Anne Radcliffe, Jane Porter, Maria Edgeworth, and
Jane Austen are female writers of the time.

✓ Criticism becomes an inseparable part of literature. Wordsworth, Coleridge, Shelley,

Lamb, De Quincy and Haztitt contribute to it.
Age of Reason vs. Romantic Age
In the Age of Reason, authors proclaimed:
• Reason and judgment • Concern with the universal experience • The value of society as
a whole
The value of rules In the Romantic Age , authors proclaimed:
• Imagination and emotion • Concern with the particular experience • The value of the
individual human being • The value of free
Daniel DeFoe
Biography
 English writer, journalist, and pamphleteer  Best known for being the author of
Robinson Crusoe  Wrote more than 500 books, pamphlets, and journals  Pioneer of
economic journalism.
Born between 1659-1661  Death was April 24, 1731  Born in the parish of St. Giles
Cripplegate in London  Father worked as a tallow chandler (candle maker)  Born as
Daniel Foe, and added the de in front of his last name to make it sound aristocratic
How did he survive?
In 1665, 70,000 were killed by The Great Plague of London
In 1666, The Great Fire of London hit DeFoe’s neighborhood hard, and left only three
houses standing, one of them being DeFoe’s
In 1667, a Dutch fleet attacked Chatham via the River Thames At the age of 13, his
mother passed away
In 1703, he witnessed The Great Storm, the only hurricane to make it across the Atlantic.
The Great Storm took lives of 8,000 people.
The Unexpected
 DeFoe’s parents were Presbyterian dissenters (believed in separation of church and
state)
 He was educated in a Dissenting Academy at Newington Green, and also went to
church there
 It was expected that he would become a dissenting minister, but instead entered the
world of business
 As an salesman, he sold hosiery, general woolen goods, and wine
 Even though he was very good at his job, he was always in debt
Marriages and Poor Decisions
 1n 1684, DeFoe married Mary Tuffley and received a dowry of £3700
 The couple had EIGHT children, but two died
 DeFoe joined the ill-fated Monmouth rebellion, but gained a pardon
 He was arrested in 1692 for a debt of £700, but was really in debt close to £17,000
 He left England upon release, and travelled to Europe and Scotland
 When he came back to London, he served as a “commissioner of the glass duty”
Pamphleteering and Prison
 “An Essay upon Projects” – defended the right of King William III for his participation
in ending the Nine Years War
 “The True-Born Englishman” – defended the king against the perceived xenophobia of
his enemies
 “Legion’s Memorial” – it demanded the release of the Kentish petitioners, who asked
the Parliament to support the king in an imminent war against France
More Pamphleteering and Prison
 “The Shortest Way with the Dissenters” and “Or, Proposals for the Establishment of
the Church” – asking for extermination of dissenters  “Hymn to the Pillory” – caused
audience to throw flowers instead of harmful objects, but caused him to be incarcerated
for three days.
It wasn’t all about politics…
“A True Relation of the Apparition of One Mrs. Veal the Next Day after her Death to
One Mrs. Bargrave at Canterbury the 8th of September, 1705” – deals with interaction
between the spiritual realm and the physical realm “Appeal to Honour and Justice” –
1715 “The Family Instructor” - 1715 “Minutes of the Negotiations of Monsr. Mesnager”
– 1717 A Continuation of the Letters Writ by a Turkish Spy” - 1718 “Robinson Crusoe”
– 1719 “Captain Singleton” – 1720 “Colonel Jack” – 1722 “Religious Courtship” – 1722
The Complete English Tradesman – 1726 The New Family Instructor – 1727
More of his works
The Great Law of Subordination Considered – 1724
 Everybody’s Business is Nobody’s Business – 1725
 The Politcal History of the Devil – 1726  A System of Magick – 1726
 An Essay on the History and Reality of Appartions – 1727
 A General History of Discoveries and Improvements – 1727
 Atlas Maritimus and Commercialis – 1728
 A tour thro’ the Whole Island of Great Britain (1724- 1727)
Death
 Died in April 24, 1731 while hiding from creditors  He was buried in Bunhill Fields,
London, where his grave can still be visited  At his death, he used a minimum of 198
pseudonyms
Robinson Crusoe
 The story of Robinson Crusoe tells of a man’s shipwreck on a deserted island and his
subsequent adventures
 The story of Robinson Crusoe is based partly on the true story of Scottish castaway
Alexander Selkirk and partly on a Muslim man’s fictitious story
 The Crusoe’s friend, Friday, was based off a publicized case of a marooned Central
American.
DeFoe Inspires and Sequels
 Inspired a new genre called the “Robinsonade”
 Wyss’s The Swiss Family Robinson – 1812  J.M. Coetzee’s Foe – 1986
 Tournier’s Vendredi ou les limbes du Pacifique – 1967
 DeFoe’s The Farther Adventures of Robinson Crusoe and Serious Reflections of
Robinson Crusoe
 Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels
William Wordsworth
Life
William Wordsworth was born in 1770 in a little town in the Lake District in the north-
west of England
In 1787 he entered Cambridge and while still a university student he went on a three-
month walking tour of France, the Swiss Alps and Italy, and was greatly impressed by the
beauty of the landscape.
When he finished his degree he returned to France and became a passionate supporter of
the democratic ideals of the French Revolution.
In 1794 he went to live with his sister Dorothy in a small village in Dorset.
• In the same year he met Samuel Taylor Coleridge, a poet with similar radical political
and literary views. Thisfriendship had a lasting impact on both poets.
• William and Dorothy went to live close to Coleridge. Together they discussed political
issues, read, wrote, exchanged theories on poetry and commented on each other’s work.
In this period of intense creativity they produced the Lyrical Ballads (1798), a collection
of poems. The second edition of 1800 containedWordsworth’s famous Preface, which
was to became theManifesto of English Romanticism.
In 1799 William and Dorothy moved to Grasmere, one of the loveliest villages in the
Lake District, a region that Wordsworth immortalised inhis poetry.

Life
• In 1802 he married a childhood friend and together they had five children.
• During this period he produced Poems, in Two Volumes(1807) a collection which
includes some of his best poems.
• In 1805 he finished his masterpiece The Prelude, a longautobiographical poem
published posthumously in 1850. It describes the crucial experiences and stages of the
poet’slife and is an introspective account of his emotional andspiritual development.
His reputation began to grow and his works became increasingly popular.
• In 1843 he was given the title of Poet Laureate, in recognition of his contribution to
English literature. • In the last years of his life Wordsworth became moreconservative in
his political views, abandoning the radical politics and idealism of his youth.
• He died in 1850, at the age of eighty.
Nature
• Wordsworth was a great innovator.
• He found his greater inspiration in nature.
• His poetry offers an account of the interaction betweenman and nature, of the
influences, emotions and sensationswhich arise from this contact.
• His main interest is the poet’s response to a natural object.
• One of the most consistent concepts in his poetry is theidea that man and nature are
inseparable. Nature • Man is an active participant in the natural world.
 • Nature is something that includes both inanimate andhumane nature, each is a part of
the same whole.
• Nature comforts man in sorrow.
• Nature is a source of pleasure and joy.
• Nature teaches man to love and to act in a moral way.
• Wordsworth’s poetry celebrates the lives of simple rural people, he sees them more
sincere than people living incities.
Children
• Children are regarded as pure and innocent, uncorrupted by education and the evils of
theworld.
• Childhood is the most important stage in man’slife.
• What the child sees is both more imaginative andmore vivid than the perception of the
adult
Poetry
• Wordsworth believed that intuition, not reason, should guide the poet.
• Inspiration should come from the direct experience of the senses.
• Wordsworth exploited especially the sensibility of the eye and ear. Poetry
• Poetry, he wrote in the Preface, originates from‘the spontaneous overflow of powerful
feelings’which is filtered through ‘emotion recollected intranquillity’.
• Memory plays a fundamental role in the creativeprocess of poetry.
• Poetry results from the active relationship ofpresent to past experience. Poetry
The Poet
• The poet has greater sensibility and the ability to penetrate to the heart of things.
• The power of imagination enables him to communicate hisknowledge.
• The poet becomes a teacher who shows men how tounderstand their feelings and
improve their moral being.
• The poet’s task consist in drawing attention to the ordinarythings of life, to the humblest
people, where the deepest emotions and truths are to be found.

JANE EYRE by Charlotte Brontë

SUMMARY

G1. Jane Eyre is a young orphan being raised by Mrs. Reed, her cruel, wealthy aunt. A
servant named Bessie provides Jane with some of the few kindnesses she receives, telling
her stories and singing songs to her. One day, as punishment for fighting with her
bullying cousin John Reed, Jane’s aunt imprisons Jane in the red-room, the room in
which Jane’s Uncle Reed died. While locked in, Jane, believing that she sees her uncle’s
ghost, screams and faints. She wakes to find herself in the care of Bessie and the kindly
apothecary Mr. Lloyd, who suggests to Mrs. Reed that Jane be sent away to school. To
Jane’s delight, Mrs. Reed concurs.

G2. Once at the Lowood School, Jane finds that her life is far from idyllic. The school’s
headmaster is Mr. Brocklehurst, a cruel, hypocritical, and abusive man. Brocklehurst
preaches a doctrine of poverty and privation [praɪ ˈveɪʃ ən] to his students while using the
school’s funds to provide a wealthy and opulent lifestyle for his own family. At Lowood,
Jane befriends a young girl named Helen Burns, whose strong, martyrlike attitude toward
the school’s miseries is both helpful and displeasing to Jane. A massive typhus epidemic
sweeps Lowood, and Helen dies of consumption. The epidemic also results in the
departure of Mr. Brocklehurst by attracting attention to the insalubrious [ˌɪn sə ˈluːb
ri‿əs] conditions at Lowood. After a group of more sympathetic gentlemen takes
Brocklehurst’s place, Jane’s life improves dramatically. She spends eight more years at
Lowood, six as a student and two as a teacher.

G3. After teaching for two years, Jane yearns for new experiences. She accepts a
governess position at a manor called Thornfield, where she teaches a lively French girl
named Adèle. The distinguished housekeeper Mrs. Fairfax presides over the estate. Jane’s
employer at Thornfield is a dark, impassioned man named Rochester, with whom Jane
finds herself falling secretly in love. She saves Rochester from a fire one night, which he
claims was started by a drunken servant named Grace Poole. But because Grace Poole
continues to work at Thornfield, Jane concludes that she has not been told the entire
story. Jane sinks into despondency when Rochester brings home a beautiful but vicious
woman named Blanche Ingram. Jane expects Rochester to propose to Blanche. But
Rochester instead proposes to Jane, who accepts almost disbelievingly.

G4. The wedding day arrives, and as Jane and Mr. Rochester prepare to exchange their
vows, the voice of Mr. Mason cries out that Rochester already has a wife. Mason
introduces himself as the brother of that wife—a woman named Bertha. Mr. Mason
testifies that Bertha, whom Rochester married when he was a young man in Jamaica, is
still alive. Rochester does not deny Mason’s claims, but he explains that Bertha has gone
mad. He takes the wedding party back to Thornfield, where they witness the insane
Bertha Mason scurrying around on all fours and growling like an animal. Rochester keeps
Bertha hidden on the third story of Thornfield and pays Grace Poole to keep his wife
under control. Bertha was the real cause of the mysterious fire earlier in the story.
Knowing that it is impossible for her to be with Rochester, Jane flees Thornfield.
Penniless and hungry, Jane is forced to sleep outdoors and beg for food. At last, three
siblings who live in a manor alternatively called Marsh End and Moor House take her in.
Their names are Mary, Diana, and St. John (pronounced “Sinjin”) Rivers, and Jane
quickly becomes friends with them. St. John is a clergyman, and he finds Jane a job
teaching at a charity school in Morton. He surprises her one day by declaring that her
uncle, John Eyre, has died and left her a large fortune: 20,000 pounds. When Jane asks
how he received this news, he shocks her further by declaring that her uncle was also his
uncle: Jane and the Riverses are cousins. Jane immediately decides to share her
inheritance equally with her three newfound relatives.

G5. St. John decides to travel to India as a missionary, and he urges Jane to accompany
him—as his wife. Jane agrees to go to India but refuses to marry her cousin because she
does not love him. St. John pressures her to reconsider, and she nearly gives in. However,
she realizes that she cannot abandon forever the man she truly loves when one night she
hears Rochester’s voice calling her name over the moors. Jane immediately hurries back
to Thornfield and finds that it has been burned to the ground by Bertha Mason, who lost
her life in the fire. Rochester saved the servants but lost his eyesight and one of his hands.
Jane travels on to Rochester’s new residence, Ferndean, where he lives with two servants
named John and Mary.
At Ferndean, Rochester and Jane rebuild their relationship and soon marry. At the end of
her story, Jane writes that she has been married for ten blissful years and that she and
Rochester enjoy perfect equality in their life together. She says that after two years of
blindness, Rochester regained sight in one eye and was able to behold their first son at his
birth.

G6. Main characters

Jane Eyre - The protagonist and narrator of the novel, Jane is an intelligent, honest,
plain-featured young girl forced to contend with oppression, inequality, and hardship.
Although she meets with a series of individuals who threaten her autonomy, Jane
repeatedly succeeds at asserting herself and maintains her principles of justice, human
dignity, and morality. She also values intellectual and emotional fulfillment. Her strong
belief in gender and social equality challenges the Victorian prejudices against women
and the poor.

Edward Rochester - Jane’s employer and the master of Thornfield, Rochester is a

wealthy, passionate man with a dark secret that provides much of the novel’s suspense.
Rochester is unconventional, ready to set aside polite manners, propriety, and
consideration of social class in order to interact with Jane frankly and directly. He is rash
and impetuous and has spent much of his adult life roaming about Europe in an attempt to
avoid the consequences of his youthful indiscretions. His problems are partly the result of
his own recklessness, but he is a sympathetic figure because he has suffered for so long
as a result of his early marriage to Bertha.

-------------------
apothecary [ə ˈpɒθ ək ər‿|i]
hypocritical [ ˌhɪp ə ˈkrɪt ɪk əl]
Chapter 7: THE VICTORIAN PERIOD (1832-1901)
Historical background
This age is named after Queen Victoria who reigned over England from 1837 to 1901. It
may be noticed that though Queen Victoria came to power in 1837, the Victorian Period
began in 1832, five years before the accession of Queen Victoria, because the literary
features of the new age became obvious during 1832.
The twelve years, from 1848 to 1860, of this age is called the Age of the Pre- Raphaelites
because the artists of that time followed the art forms used before the period of Raphael
(1483-1520), the Italian artist. D. G. Rossetti, W. H. Hunt and J. Millais formed this
group and later on Christina Rossetti, W. Morris and A. Swinburne joined them
Originally it was a movement for the painters but eventually these ideals took the shape
of a literary movement. Medievalism, symbolism, sensuousness, truthfulness and
simplicity are the main features of the Pre-Raphaelites. The last two decades (1880-1901)
of this period is called the Age of Aestheticism. In reaction against the Victorian moral
obsession it was held that art should have its end in itself, which lies in its beauty and
formal perfection. These decades also called Decadence because there was a fall and
decay of the Victorian spirit and standard in these years.
The important facts which influenced the literature of this period are:
The First Reformation Act in 1832, the Second Reformation Act in 1867 and the Third
Reformation Act in 1884 gave voting rights to every male and brought about significant
changes in social life.
In 1833 slaves were declared free.
Chimney Sweeps Act in 1840 and Factory Act in 1833 prohibited child labour.
Mechanism of railways and ships was improved which helped develop overseas
commerce and industry, and thus, brought material affluence. There was a significant
progress of women during this time. Agriculture based society was disintegrated as the
result of the development of industry. This had a strong effect on the rural people
The theory of evolution and the concept of communism changed the traditional view of
life and religion. The Fabian Society was founded in 1883 to avoid violence in class-
struggle. G.B. Shaw was one of the members of this society
Literary Features
Victorian literature shifts from the Romantic utopianism to utilitarianism, from the
Romantic imagination to reality, from the Romantic common man to middle class.
Victorian attitude to nature also changes. To the Romantics it was kind and harmonious;
to the Victorians it is harsh and cruel.
Prudery and morality become the controlling principles of creative works.
Victorian literature shifts from the Romantic utopianism to utilitarianism, from the
Romantic imagination to reality, from the Romantic common man to middle class.
Victorian attitude to nature also changes. To the Romantics it was kind and harmonious;
to the Victorians it is harsh and cruel.
Prudery and morality become the controlling principles of creative works.
A dualism of reason and emotion, materialism and mysticism, religion and science or
faith and doubt, freedom and restriction is very common in the literature of this period.
Poets, novelists and essayists of this age emphasize truth, justice, brotherhood, peace and
stability. Dramatic monologue and elegy are popular poetic forms of the age. Isolation,
loss of faith, despair and emancipation of women are common themes of poems.
Classical myths are retold in poems.

The novel becomes the domineering literary form in the Victorian Period. A typical
Victorian novel has a long and complicated plot, an omniscient narrator whose comments
on wrong and right serve moral purposes. It has a setting in a known city, a child
protagonist, social and humanitarian themes, deeper character analyses, irony in the
description and justification of all events in the final chapter. Its common subjects are
exploitation of women and children, terrible living conditions, industrial civilization, lost
identity, etc. A good number of novels written by women raise the feminist issues.

Towards the end of this period most of these features of the Victorian Age gradually
disappear. A new movement known as the Decadence started. It brings back “art for art’s
sake”. It emphasizes sensationalism, egocentricity, the bizarre, the artificial, etc. in
literature. Swinburne, Dowson, Pater, Morris and the Rossettis are the writers of this
group.
The realistic novel is a narration of plausible events, set in very specific places and times
and near to the author. In this kind of novel are treated aspects of contemporary society:
as the contradictions of the social order, and the changes of costume and mentality in
relation to major political and economic events.

The realistic novel was born in the nineteenth century, and is characterized by the social
content: such as the description of the struggle of the bourgeoisie against the aristocratic
society, or the description of the world of the poor and unfortunate (Dickens).

The realism is meant to capture the reality as it is and to cancel the individual sensibility.
Hence arose important choices formally:
• a prose flat and linear, to maintain the narration in the context of an absolute
objectivity;
• the presence of a narrator who expresses himself in the third person (external narrator);
• few spaces for the interventions of the author, for comments and for advances.
Charles Dickens
CHARLES DICKENS is generally considered to be one of the greatest English novelists,
and he is one of the few whose works did not become unpopular after his death.

He began with Pickwick (1836-7), which came out in parts and gave English literature
some of its most charming and amusing characters. Mr Pickwick himself is almost too
kind to be true; it is fortunate for him that he meets and employs the cheerful Sam Weller
to keep him out of most of the trouble caused by his own kindness, or to comfort him
with words of wisdom when the trouble has not been avoided

Twice Dickens wrote historical novels, Barnaby Rudge (1841) and A Tale of Two Cities
(1849), a story of the French Revolution and of events in London at the same time.
Sometimes his novels were written partly with the purpose of improving social
conditions. Oliver Twist (1837-8), the story of a poor boy’s cruel treatment and miserable
adventures, includes descriptions of hunger, stealing, murder and hanging.

David Copperfield (1849-50) is based on Dickens’s own life, which had a sad beginning.
It is one of the most popular of his novels, but it cannot be called cheerful. Nicholas
Nickleby (1838-9) is the tale of a boy who is left poor on his father’s death. He is sent to
work in a school, Dotheboys Hall [ = Do-The-Boys], where the master, Squeers, treats
forty miserable pupils cruelly, and teaches them nothing. Nicholas gives the reader a
good deal of pleasure when he gives the criminal Squeers a good beating, and then
escapes

All these novels are crowded with characters, either fully developed or drawn by a few
quick but sure strokes of the great writer’s pen. The reader of modern English novels or
newspapers will not get far without finding mention - in a way which supposes that the
reader needs no other explanation - of the name of a minor character from one of the
books listed above, or reference, for example, to the evil Quilp, the greathearted Mrs
Jarley, or honest Kit Nubbles (The Old Curiosity Shop);
to Mr Pecksniff, Mark Tapley, or the wicked Mrs Gamp (Martin Chuzzlewit); to Mrs
Jellyby, Jo the crossing sweeper, or Chadband (Bleak House); to kind, strong Joe
Gargery, the dishonest Pumblechook, Mr Jaggers the clever lawyer, his good-hearted
clerk Wemmick, or Wemmick’s ‘Aged Parent’ (Great Expectations); and so on.
Dickens’s prose varies in quality, but he is nearly always readable. In his different novels
he describes and attacks many kinds of unpleasant people and places - bad schools and
schoolmasters, government departments, bad prisons, dirty houses. His characters include
thieves, murderers, men in debt, stupid and unwashed men and women, hungry children,
and those who do their best to deceive the honest.
Although many of his scenes are terribly unpleasant, he usually keeps the worst
descriptions out of his books; therefore the reader does not throw the book into the fire,
but continues to read. Some of his gentler characters are very weak; some of the sad
situations that he describes are too miserable to be true. He uses too much black paint.
But he wanted to raise kindness and goodness in men’s hearts, and he used tears and
laughter to reach his aim. He probably brought a little improvement in some conditions,
but very often he failed to do so
Dickens called David Copperfield “my favourite child”. It is easy to understand this.
David’s story is similar to Charles Dickens’s life. He also worked in a factory when he
was a boy. He later became a popular author. At the time of Queen Victoria, Britain was
a very rich, powerful nation, but there were big differences between rich and poor
people.”
Short summary of David Copperfield
David Copperfield lived happily with his young, pretty mother and their servant,
Peggoty. But then his mother married again. His new father, Mr. Murdstone, treated
David very badly. He sent David to work in a factory in London when he was ten years
old. Finally, he ran away to his strange, eccentric aunt who hated boys! What happen to
David after that, as he grew into a young man, fell in love and met an old schoolfriend?
Extract David Copperfield
My early childhood was extremely happy, as my beautiful mother and kind Peggotty took
care of me. But when I was about eight, a shadow passed over my happiness. My mother
often went out walking, in her best clothes, with a gentleman called Mr Murdstone. He
had black hair, a big black moustache and an unpleasant smile, and seemed to be very
fond of my mother. But I knew that Peggotty did not like him.
Extract
A few months later Peggotty told me that my mother was going to have a short holiday
with some friends. Meanwhile Peggotty and I would go to stay with her brother Daniel in
Yarmouth, on the east coast, for two weeks. I was very excited when we climbed into the
cart, although it was sad saying goodbye to my mother. Mr Murdstone was at her
shoulder, waving goodbye, as the driver called to his horse, and we drove out of the
village.
When we got down from the cart in Yarmouth, after our journey, Peggotty said, 'That's
the house. Master David!' I looked all round, but could only see an old ship on the sand.
'Is that - that your brother's house?' I asked in delight. And when we reached it, I saw it
had doors and windows and a chimney, just like a real house. I could not imagine a nicer
place to live. Everything was clean and tidy, and smelt of fish. Now I was introduced to
the Peggotty family.
There was Daniel Peggotty, a kind old sailor. Although he was not married, he had
adopted two orphans, who lived with him and called him Uncle. Ham Peggotty was a
large young man with a gentle smile, and Emily was a beautiful, blue-eyed little girl.
They all welcomed Peggotty and me warmly. I spent a wonderfully happy two weeks
there, playing all day on the beach with Emily, and sleeping in my own little bed on the
ship. I am sure I was in love with little Emily in my childish way, and I cried bitterly
when we had to say goodbye at the end of the holiday

But on the way home to Blunderstone, Peggotty looked at me very worriedly. 'Master
David, my dear,' she said suddenly in a trembling voice. ' I must tell you - you'll have to
know now . . . While we've been away, your dear mother - has married Mr Murdstone!
He's your stepfather now!' I was deeply shocked. I could not understand how my mother
could have married that man. And when we arrived home, I could not help showing my
mother how very miserable 42 I was

I went straight to my room and lay sobbing on my bed, which made my poor mother very
unhappy too. As she sat beside me, holding my hand, Mr Murdstone suddenly came in.
'What's this, Clara, my love?' he asked sternly. 'Remember, you must be firm with the
boy! I've told you before, you're too weak with him!' 'Oh yes, Edward, I'm afraid you're
right,' my mother replied quickly. ' I 'm very sorry. I'll try to be firmer with him.' And
when she left the room, Mr Murdstone whispered angrily to me, 'David, do you know
what I'll do if you don't obey me? I'll beat you like a dog!' I was still very young, and I
was very frightened of him.
If he had said one kind word to me, perhaps I would have liked and trusted him, and my
life would have been different. Instead, I hated him for the influence he had over my dear
mother, who wanted to be kind to me, but also wanted to please her new husband. That
evening Mr Murdstone's sister arrived to 'help' my mother in the house. A tall dark lady,
with a stern, frowning face, she looked and sounded very much like her brother. I thought
she was planning to stay with us for a long time, and I was right. In fact, she intended to
stay forever
She started work the next morning. 'Now, Clara,' she said firmly to my mother at
breakfast, ' I am here to help you. You're much too pretty and thoughtless to worry about
the servants, the food and so on. So just hand me your keys to all the cupboards, and I'll
take care of everything for you.' My poor mother just blushed, looked a little ashamed,
and obeyed. From then on. Miss Murdstone took complete control of the house, keeping
the keys hanging from her waist as she hurried through the house, checking that
everything was being done just as she wished
David Copperfield
The Plight of the Weak Throughout David Copperfield, the powerful abuse the weak and
helpless. Dickens focuses on orphans, women, and the mentally disabled to show that
exploitation—not pity or compassion—is the rule in an industrial society. Dickens draws
on his own experience as a child to describe the inhumanity of child labor and debtors’
prison. His characters suffer punishment at the hands of forces larger than themselves,
even though they are morally good people.
The arbitrary suffering of innocents makes for the most vividly affecting scenes of the
novel. David starves and suffers in a wine-bottling factory as a child. As his guardian,
Mr. Murdstone can exploit David as factory labor because the boy is too small and
dependent on him to disobey. Likewise, the boys at Salem House have no recourse
against the cruel Mr. Creakle. In both situations, children deprived of the care of their
natural parents suffer at the hands of their own supposed protectors.