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1、Chapter4 Victorian Period1836-19012. background(1)early years: rapid economic development as well as serious social problems(2)the next twenty years: prosperity and relative stability. a national spirit of earnestness, respectability, modesty domesticity(3)the last three decades: the decline of the
2、British empire and the decay of the Victorian values3. idea:(1)Darwins The Origin of Species; The Descent of Man shook the theoretical basis of the traditional faith(2)Utilitarianism: whether it could promote the material happiness(3)socially conscious writers criticized(2)s depreciation of cultural
3、 values, cold indifference towards human feeling(4)literature: magnitude and diversity, romantically and realistically4.critical realist writers: criticized the society, concerned about the fate of common peopleCharles Dickens1.theme:critical realist writers, criticize: poverty, injustice, hypocrisy
4、, corruptness2.works: Oliver Twist; The Pickwick Paper; David Copperfield; Domeby and Son; A Tale of Two Cities; Bleak House; Little Dorrit; Hard Times; Great Expectations3.characteristics:(1)he is skillful in the dialect and have a large vocabulary(2)character portrayal(3)characters are mostly inno
5、cent, helpless ,persecuted child characters(4)a mixture of humor and sympathism(5)bizarre figure, horrible 4.Oliver Twist: the cruelty and hypocrisy of the workhouse system and the dark criminal underworld lifeThe Bronte Sisters1.scene:vast,rough,untouched moorland wilderness2.Charlotte Bronte: Jane
6、 Eyre Mr. Rochester and Jane Eyre. Rochester: a grim-looking, energetic, quick-tempered, but an understanding middle-aged man Jane Eyre: has a burning spirit and a longing to love and be loved Jane Eyre: struggles for recognition of her basic rights and equality as a woman. Its an individual conscio
7、us struggle towards self-realization. She gets joy through the sacrifice of herself or her weakness overcome3.Emily Bronte: Wuthering Heights(uses flashbacks)Nelly: Catherines old nurse, narrator, told Mr.Lockwood, a temporary tenant the storyAlfred Tennyson1.Crossing the Bar; Ulysses; Break, Break,
8、 Break2.evaluation:Poet Laureate (Wordsworth, Southey)3.features:a powerful expression of the poets philosophical and religious thoughts, his doubts about life, soul.Robert Browning1.features:perfects dramatic monologue, keeps readers onmouseover, thoughtful and enlightened2.works: My Last Dutches,
9、in heroic couplets, dramatic monologueGeorge Eliot1.idea:founder of stream of consciousness, focus on inner struggle. hereditary influences govern human action. concern for the destiny of woman. the tragedy of women lies in their very birth(hereditary influences)2.works features :naturalistic and ps
10、ychological novel3.works:Middlemarch:a full view of life in a small EnglishtownThomas Hardy1.evaluation:naturalist(D.H.Lawrance; Theodore Dreiser; George Eliot),also critical realist writer (Dickens)2.works:Wessex，The Return of the Nature; The Mayor of Casterbridge; Tess of the DUrbervilles; Jude th
11、e Obscure3.features:nostalgic(Washington Irving; F.Scott Fitzergerald; William Faulkner),also pessimistic4.naturalism:Darwins idea of survival of the fittest(1)man is born with tragic,inevitably bound by his own hereditary traits(2)man proves powerless before fate however he tries,he seldom escapes
12、his doomed destiny5.Tess of the DUrbervilles:(1)criticize the society, hypocrisy of the society(2)nauralism, the misery, poverty Tess suffersChapter5 The Modern Period (England)1.background:second half of the 19th century to early of the 20th decades(1)natural and social sciences enormously advanced
13、(2)capitalism came into its monopoly stage(3)the gap between the rich and the poor was further deepened(4)World War 1 2 broke2.what ideas influence this period: all kinds of philosophical ideas(1)Karl Marx: scientific socialism(2)Darwins theory of evolution, survival of the fittest(3)Freuds analytic
14、al psychology(4)The irrationalist philosophers give immense influence3.ideas:(1)Modernism originated from skepticism and disillusion of capitalism(2)The French symbolism announced modernism(3)takes the irrational philosophy and the theory of psycho-analysis as its theoretical base.The major themes a
15、re the distorted,alienated and ill relationships4.difference between Modernism and RealismModernism is a reaction against realism in many aspects(1)Modernism rejects rationalism, which is the theoretical base of Realism(2)Modernism refects the source of Realism, i.e. the external, objective, material world(3)Modernism rejects almost all the traditional elements in literature5.D.H.Lawences works features:(1)he interests in exploring the psychological development, he thinks life impulse
