(1837-1901) - · PDF file2 Etra Material he Victorian Age 1837-1901 The ictorian ge Extra...
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5 THE VICTORIAN AGE (1837-1901) Extra Material
Transcript of (1837-1901) - · PDF file2 Etra Material he Victorian Age 1837-1901 The ictorian ge Extra...
5 the victorian age (1837-1901)
extra Material
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The Victorian Age (1837-1901)Extra Material
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Charles Dickens
Hard Times (1854)
Written after Oliver Twist this novel is divided into three parts – Sowing, Reaping and Garnering. These recall quite clearly the words from the Bible: ‘As ye sow, so shall ye reap’. The ‘sowing’ (which includes the extract we are going to look at) in Hard Times is represented by family values and the education system of the time; a system which posed an opposition between fact and fancy. Dickens exaggerates the rigid Victorian emphasis on facts in education as a criticism to the harsh, yet popular, utilitarian attitude to life at the time, promoted by the philosopher and economist, John Stuart Mill. It was an attitude which praised success, the self-made man and hard work and despised poverty, lack of initiative and anything which was not productive or useful to the community. These two conflicting poles – facts, production, wealth versus imagination, feelings and emotions – are represented in various ways throughout the novel.Coketown and the factories within it create a gloomy, grey and often heartless backdrop to the developments of the novel and is a constant reminder of how an economic dependency on industry has now been created and how it can come to govern the lives of people.
The plotThe events of the novel all take place in a fictitious industrial northern town called Coketown, coke being a form of coal. The story centres around the lives of some of the people who live there: school teacher Thomas Gradgrind and his family, Sissy Jupe, whose father worked in the circus, Josiah Bounderby, a wealthy factory owner, and Stephen Blackpool, a worker in Bounderby’s factory.Gradgrind brings his children up just as he teaches his pupils, by suppressing all imagination and insisting on the importance of facts. Sissy Jupe attends his school but was brought up in the fanciful world of the circus and cannot fit into his form of teaching. Gradgrind’s daughter, Louisa, marries Mr Bounderby, thirty years her senior to please her father but also to help her brother Tom, who is given a job in Bounderby’s bank. Tom is the only person she cares for. But Tom is not like his sister and steals from his employer, blaming an honest factory worker, Stephen Blackpool. Gradgrind is forced to face up to the consequences of his children’s upbringing when Louisa leaves Bounderby and her unhappy marriage going back to her father for protection and when Tom is shown to be a thief. Gradgrind is reconciled with his daughter and is one of the few Dickensian characters to have changed by the end of the novel.
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BEFORE READING
❶ In pairs make a list of the elements which in your opinion make up the following.
1. the ideal teaching environment 2. the necessary teaching qualities to create the ideal atmosphere for learning
❷ When you have finished compare your lists to see what you agree about and discuss where you differ.
❸ Now read these lines from the beginning of the novel. The teacher, Thomas Gradgrind, is speaking.
‘Now, what I want is Facts. Teach these boys and girls nothing but1 Facts. Facts alone are wanted in life. Plant nothing else, and root out2 everything else. You can only form the minds of reasoning animals upon Facts: nothing else will ever be of any service to them. This is the principle on which I bring up my own
5 children, and this is the principle on which I bring up these children. Stick to Facts, sir!’
What are his principles of good teaching and how are they similar to his ideas of parenting? Would you like him to be your teacher?
Hard Times TExT 1
Mr Gradgrind questions his class.
‘Girl number twenty,’ said Mr Gradgrind, squarely pointing with his forefinger, ‘I don’t know that girl. Who is that girl?’
‘Sissy Jupe, sir,’ explained number twenty, blushing1, standing up, and curtseying2.
5 ‘Sissy is not a name,’ said Mr Gradgrind. ‘Don’t call yourself Sissy. Call yourself Cecilia.’
‘It’s father as calls me Sissy, sir,’ returned the young girl in a trembling3 voice, and with another curtsey.
‘Then he has no business to do it,’ said Mr Gradgrind. ‘Tell him he mustn’t. 10 Cecilia Jupe. Let me see. What is your father?’ ‘He belongs to the horse-riding, if you please, sir.’ Mr Gradgrind frowned4, and waved off the objectionable calling5 with his hand. ‘We don’t want to know anything about that, here. You mustn’t tell us about that,
here. Your father breaks horses, don’t he?’ 15 ‘If you please, sir, when they can get any to break, they do break horses in the
ring6, sir.’ ‘You mustn’t tell us about the ring, here. Very well, then. Describe your father as a
horsebreaker. He doctors sick horses, I dare say?’
1. blushing: arrossendo.
2. curtseying: facendo un inchino.
3. trembling: tremante.
4. frowned: aggrottò le ciglia.
5. calling: lavoro. 6. ring: del circo.
1. nothing but: nient’altro che.
2. root out: sradicare.
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‘Oh yes, sir.’ 20 ‘Very well, then. He is a veterinary surgeon, a farrier7 and horsebreaker. Give me
your definition of a horse.’ (Sissy Jupe was thrown into the greatest alarm by this demand.) ‘Girl number twenty unable to define a horse!’ said Mr Gradgrind, for the general
behoof8 of all the little pitchers9. ‘Girl number twenty possessed of no facts, in 25 reference to one of the commonest of animals! Some boy’s definition of a horse.
Bitzer, yours.’ The square finger, moving here and there, lighted suddenly on Bitzer, [...]. ‘Bitzer,’ said Thomas Gradgrind. ‘Your definition of a horse.’ ‘Quadruped. Graminivorous. Forty teeth, namely twenty-four grinders10, four eye- 30 teeth, and twelve incisive. Sheds11 coat12 in the spring; in marshy countries, sheds
hoofs, too. Hoofs hard, but requiring to be shod with iron. Age known by marks in mouth.’
Thus (and much more) Bitzer. ‘Now girl number twenty,’ said Gradgrind. ‘You know what a horse is.’ 35 She curtseyed again, and would have blushed deeper, if she could have blushed
deeper than she had blushed all this time.
OvER TO yOu
❶ Complete the summary below by choosing from the following words.
horses•detailed•Sissy•Jupe•classroom•ring•definition•number•difficult•doesanswers
The scene takes place in a ............................................ (1). Mr Gradgrind asks who .......................................... (2) is. He does not call her by name but by ..................................................... (3). He asks her what her father ..................................................... (4). She answers that he works with ......................................................... (5) in the ................................................... (6). Gradgrind asks her to give a ................................................ (7) of the animal. She finds this ............................................. (8) so Gradgrind asks another boy who ............................................. (9) by giving a very ............................................. (10) description.
❷ What is Sissy’s real name?
❸ Why do you think Gradgrind does not like the nickname Sissy?
❹ What does Gradgrind think of Sissy’s father’s job?
❺ Gradgrind is very satisfied with Bitzer’s definition of a horse, why?
❻ Look at the first sentence of the extract. The word ‘square’ is used to describe Gradgrind’s movement and finger. Why is this word appropriate for him?
❼ Look at Gradgrind’s speech. What linguistic device does Dickens use to give the idea of authority? (Choose.)
the imperative the conditional the interrogative
7. farrier: maniscalco. 8. behoof: vantaggio. 9. pitchers: anfore,
qui si riferisce agli scolari.
10. grinders: molari. 11. sheds: perde. 12. coat: pelo.
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❽ The reader understands that Sissy Jupe is a very shy, polite girl. What words does Dickens use to tell us this? Complete the following.
1. We know she is polite because of the use of the words ................................................................................ . 2. We know she is shy because of the use of the words ................................................................................ .
➒ How does the reader know that Gradgrind is not impressed by Sissy’s father’s job? What gesture does he use?
�� Why do you think Gradgrind does not want to hear anything about the circus ring in the classroom?
�� The pupils are described as ‘little pitchers’. How does this fit into Gradgrind’s view of the role of a teacher?
�� After Bitzer’s definition of a horse Gradgrind says, ‘Now girl number twenty... you know what a horse is’. Bearing in mind Sissy’s upbringing why is this ironic?
�� Although Dickens is considered a ‘man of his times’, from the two extracts we have seen in Oliver Twist and Hard Times we can see that he had a lot to say about the victorian period. In pairs summarise the criticisms/observations you have seen in the two extracts you have read.
�� Again, in choosing the name Gradgrind Dickens was giving the reader a clear idea of how this person is. The name is made up of two words, ‘grind’ means ‘trittare’ and also something hard or boring while ‘grad’ could be the first half of the words ‘gradient’ or ‘gradually’. Discuss in class and explain why you think this is a suitable name for this character.
�� What type of student do you think Bitzer is? Would you like to have him in your class? Discuss in class.
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Charles DickensHard Times (1854)
Hard Times TExT 2
You are going to read the description of Coketown, the fictional name where the novel is set.
Let us strike the key-note, Coketown, before pursuing our tune. It was a town of red brick, or of brick that would have been red if the smoke and ashes had allowed it; but, as matters stood, it was a town of unnatural red and black like the painted face of a savage.
5 It was a town of machinery and tall chimneys, out of which interminable serpents of smoke trailed themselves for ever and ever, and never got uncoiled1. It had a black canal in it, and a river that ran purple with ill-smelling dye2, and vast piles of building full of windows where there was a rattling and a trembling all day long, and where the piston of the steam-engine worked monotonously
10 up and down, like the head of an elephant in a state of melancholy madness. It contained several large streets all very like one another, and many small streets still more like one another, inhabited by people equally like one another, who all went in and out at the same hours, with the same sound upon the same pavements, to do the same work, and to whom every day was the same as
15 yesterday and tomorrow, and every year the counterpart of the last and the next. These attributes of Coketown were in the main inseparable from the work by
which it was sustained; against them were to be set off, comforts of life which found their way all over the world, and elegancies of life which made, we will not ask how much of the fine lady, who could scarcely bear to hear the place
20 mentioned. The rest of its features were voluntary, and they were these. You saw nothing
in Coketown but what was severely workful. If the members of a religious persuasion3 built a chapel there as the members of eighteen religious persuasions had done they made it a pious warehouse4 of red brick; with
25 sometimes (but this only in highly ornamented examples) a bell in a bird-cage on the top of it. The solitary exception was the New Church; a stuccoed edifice with a square steeple over the door, terminating in four short pinnacles like florid wooden legs. All the public inscriptions in the town were painted alike, in severe characters of black and white. The jail5 might have been theinfirmary6,
30 the infirmary might have been the jail, the town-hall might have been either, or both, or anything else, for anything that appeared to the contrary in the graces of their construction.
1. got uncoiled: si srotolavano.
2. dye: tintura. 3. persuasion: credo. 4. warehouse:
magazzino. 5. jail: carcere. 6. infirmary:
infermeria.
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OvER TO yOu
❶ List the main features of the town pointing out the dominant colour/s, sound/s and smell.
Colour/s Sound/s Smell
................................................................................ ................................................................................ ................................................................................
................................................................................ ................................................................................ ................................................................................
................................................................................ ................................................................................ ................................................................................
❷ Now list the main buildings and any difference between them.
❸ What kind of life do the inhabitants lead?
❹ ‘Let us strike’ (line 1): who is speaking?
❺ Mark similes and metaphors in the text. Which of them become symbols of industrialised life? What effect do they produce?
❻ What peculiar aspects of Dickens’s realism emerge in these pages?
❼ The name ‘Coketown’ is made up of ‘coke’. which is a type of coal, and ‘town’. Do you think this name is appropriate to the place? Discuss in class. Give reasons for your answer.
❽ Consider the general impression the reader gets of Coketown. Do you think the description conveys approval or criticism on the process of industrialisation? Discuss in class.
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Charlotte Brontë
Jane Eyre (1847)
Jane Eyre TExT 2
Jane and Mr Rochester are about to get married when Jane discovers he already has a wife. Mr Rochester suggests they live together regardless of this fact. But Jane’s reaction is not what he expected.
‘Why are you silent, Jane?’ I was experiencing an ordeal1: a hand of fiery iron grasped my vitals2. Terrible
moment: full of struggle, blackness, burning! Not a human being that ever lived could wish to be loved better than I was loved; and him who thus3 loved me I
5 absolutely worshipped4: and I must renounce love and idol. One drear5 word comprised my intolerable duty6 – ‘Depart!’
‘Jane, you understand what I want of you? Just this promise – “I will be yours, Mr Rochester.’’ ’
‘Mr Rochester, I will not be yours.’ 10 Another long silence. ‘Jane!’ recommenced he, with a gentleness that broke me down7 with grief8, and
turned me stone-cold9 with ominous10 terror – for this still voice was the pant11 of a lion rising12 – ‘Jane, do you mean to go one way in the world, and to let me go another?’
15 ‘I do.’ ‘Jane’ (bending towards13 and embracing me), ‘do you mean it now?’ ‘I do.’ ‘And now?’ softly kissing my forehead14 and cheek. ‘I do,’ extricating myself from restraint15 rapidly and completely. 20 ‘Oh, Jane, this is bitter! This – this is wicked16. It would not be wicked to love me.’ ‘It would to obey you.’ A wild look raised his brows – crossed his features17: he rose; but he forebore
yet18. I laid my hand on the back of a chair for support: I shook, I feared – but I resolved.
25 ‘One instant, Jane. Give one glance19 to my horrible life when you are gone. All happiness will be torn away with you20. What then is left? For a wife I have but the maniac upstairs: as well might you refer me to some corpse in yonder churchyard21. What shall I do, Jane? Where turn for a companion, and for some hope?’
30 ‘Do as I do: trust in God and yourself. Believe in heaven. Hope to meet again there.’
‘Then you will not yield22?’ ‘No.’ ‘Then you condemn me to live wretched23 and to die accursed24?’ His voice rose. […] 35 ‘Mr Rochester, I no more assign this fate to you than I grasp at it for myself. We
were born to strive and endure25 – you as well as I: do so. You will forget me before I forget you.’
1. ordeal: dura prova. 2. fiery iron grasped
my vitals: sentii come un ferro infuocato che mi afferrava gli organi vitali.
3. thus: così. 4. worshipped:
adorava. 5. drear: terribile. 6. duty: dovere. 7. broke me down: mi
abbatté. 8. grief: dolore. 9. turned me stone-
cold: mi gelò. 10. ominous: sinistro. 11. pant: ansimare. 12. rising: che si alza. 13. bending towards:
volgendosi verso. 14. forehead: fronte. 15. extricating myself
from restraint: liberandomi.
16. wicked: crudele. 17. raised his brows
– crossed his features: aggrottò le sopracciglia, attraversò il suo viso (i tratti del suo viso).
18. he forebore yet: si trattenne tuttavia.
19. give one glance: dà un’occhiata.
20. will be torn away with you: sarà portata (strappata) via.
21. in yonder churchyard: in quel cimitero.
22. yield: cedere. 23. wretched:
disgraziato. 24. accursed:
maledetto. 25. to strive and
endure: combattere e sopportare.
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OvER TO yOu
❶ Choose the correct alternative.
1. What is Jane’s state of mind? She is sorry and confused. She is self confident and aggressive. She is angry and offended. 2. What are her feelings for Mr Rochester? She is very afraid of him. She is quite fond of him. She loves him very much.
❷ Mr Rochester says: ‘This -- this is wicked. It would not be wicked to love me’. Jane’s answer is: ‘It would to obey you.’ Complete the following sentences.
1. Mr Rochester’s idea of wicked is .................................................................................................................. . 2. Jane, however, .................................................................................................................. .
❸ In the sentence that closes the passage Jane speaks about destiny. Can you explain the concept she expresses in your own words?
❹ What aspects of Mr Rochester’s character are revealed here? Choose from the following.
weakness strength intensity of feelings stubbornness pride intelligence
➎ Which of the two characters seems stronger? Why?
➏ Which of these statements is true about the language used by the writer?
1. It is realistic and convincing. T F
2. It is artificial and refined. T F
3. It is fluid and colloquial. T F
4. It is very rich in imagery. T F
5. It has no rhetorical expressions. T F
6. It has some metaphors and similes. T F
❼ Do you find Jane Eyre’s reaction coherent with victorian morality or do you think it is unconventional? Explain you answer.
➑ Mr Rochester combines masculine tenderness with a certain roughness. Do you think this could be the image of an ideal man today?
➒ Do you think that if Jane really loved Mr Rochester she should have stayed with him, married or not?
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Thomas Hardy
Tess of the d’Urbervilles (1891)
Tess of the d’Urbervilles TExT 2
The extract you are going to read is astride the fourth and the fifth phase. After the wedding, in the evening the couple talks about their lives.
He then told her of that time of his life to which allusion has been made when, tossed about by doubts and difficulties in London, like a cork on the waves, he plunged into eight-and-forty hours’ dissipation with a stranger.
‘Happily I awoke almost immediately to a sense of my folly,’ he continued. ‘I 5 would have no more to say to her, and I came home. I have never repeated the
offence. But I felt I should like to treat you with perfect frankness and honour, and I could not do so without telling this. Do you forgive me?’
She pressed his hand tightly for an answer. ‘Then we will dismiss it at once and for ever! - too painful as it is for the occasion 10 -and talk of something lighter.’ ‘O, Angel I am almost glad because now you can forgive me! I have not made my
confession. I have a confession, too remember, I said so.’ ‘Ah, to be sure! Now then for it, wicked little one.’ ‘Perhaps, although you smile, it is as serious as yours, or more so.’ 15 ‘It can hardly be more serious, dearest.’ ‘It cannot O no, it cannot!’ She jumped up joyfully at the hope. ‘No, it cannot be
more serious, certainly,’ she cried, ‘because ’tis just the same! I will tell you now.’ She sat down again. Their hands were still joined. The ashes under the grate were lit by the fire 20 vertically, like a torrid waste. Imagination might have beheld a Last Day
luridness1 in this red-coaled glow, which fell on his face and hand, and on hers, peering into the loose hair about her brow, and firing the delicate skin underneath. A large shadow of her shape rose upon the wall and ceiling. She bent forward, at which each diamond2 on her neck gave a sinister wink like a
25 toad’s; and pressing her forehead against his temple she entered on her story of her acquaintance with Alec d’Urberville and its results, murmuring the words without flinching, and with her eyelids drooping down.
1. Last Day luridness: un riflesso rosseggiante da fine del mondo.
2. diamond: Angel aveva regalato a Tess una collana di diamanti.
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END OF PHASE THE FOURTH
PHASE THE FIFTH
The Woman Pays
[...] His face had withered. In the strenuousness of his concentration he treadled3
fitfully on the floor. He could not, by any contrivance, think closely enough; that was the meaning of his vague movement. When he spoke it was in the most inadequate, commonplace voice of the many varied tones she had heard from him.
5 ‘Tess!’ ‘Yes, dearest.’ ‘Am I to believe this? From your manner I am to take it as true. O you cannot be
out of your mind! You ought to be! Yet you are not... My wife, my Tess nothing in you warrants4 such a supposition as that?’
10 ‘I am not out of my mind,’ she said. ‘And yet –‘ He looked vacantly at her, to resume with dazed senses: ‘Why didn’t
you tell me before? Ah, yes, you would have told me, in a way but I hindered5 you, I remember!’
These and other of his words were nothing but the perfunctory babble6 of the 15 surface while the depths remained paralyzed. He turned away, and bent over a
chair. Tess followed him to the middle of the room where he was, and stood there staring at him with eyes that did not weep. Presently she slid down upon her knees beside his foot, and from this position she crouched in a heap.
‘In the name of our love, forgive me!’ she whispered with a dry mouth. 20 ‘I have forgiven you for the same!’ And, as he did not answer, she said again ‘Forgive me as you are forgiven! I forgive you, Angel.’ ‘You - yes, you do.’ ‘But you do not forgive me?’ 25 ‘O Tess, forgiveness does not apply to the case! You were one person; now you are
another. [...]’
OvER TO yOu
❶ What does Angel reveal to Tess? What is her reaction?
❷ What does Tess reveal to Angel? What is his reaction?
❸ What light does this episode throw on the personalities of Angel and Tess and on the quality of their love for each other?
❹ Look at the summary of the story so far. Which episode/s seem/s to be caused by a malignant fate?
❺ What conclusions can you draw about the pressure of social values and conventions on these two characters? Discuss in class.
3. treadled: agitava un piede.
4. warrants: giustifica.
5. hindered: l’ho impedito.
6. perfunctory babble: balbettio frettoloso.
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Oscar Wilde
The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891)
The Picture of Dorian Gray TExT 2
The passage you are going to read is from the first part of the novel. Lord Henry Walton has come to visit Hallward while Dorian is sitting for the finishing touches to his portrait. This is their first meeting and Lord Henry explains to the young man his doctrine of life.
To me, Beauty is the wonder of wonders. It is only shallow people who do not judge by appearances. The true mystery of the world is the visible, not the invisible... Yes, Mr Gray, the gods have been good to you. But what the gods give they quickly take away. You have only a few years in which to live really,
5 perfectly, and fully. When your youth goes, your beauty will go with it, and then you will suddenly discover that there are no triumphs left for you, or have to content yourself with those mean triumphs that the memory of your past will make more bitter than defeats. Every month as it wanes brings you nearer to something dreadful. Time is jealous of you, and wars against your lilies and your
10 roses. You will become sallow1, and hollow-cheeked, and dull-eyed. You will suffer horribly... Ah! realize your youth while you have it. Don’t squander the gold of your days, listening to the tedious, trying to improve the hopeless failure, or giving away your life to the ignorant, the common, and the vulgar. These are the sickly aims, the false ideals, of our age. Live! Live the wonderful life that is in you!
15 Let nothing be lost upon you. Be always searching for new sensations. Be afraid of nothing... A new Hedonism2 - that is what our century wants. You might be its visible symbol.
OvER TO yOu
❶ Answer the following questions.
1. What does Lord Henry value most of all? 2. What does he exhort Dorian to do?
❷ What do ‘lilies and roses’ stand for?
❸ What do you think may be the ‘false ideals of our age’?
❹ Do you agree (also in part) or totally disagree with Henry’s philosophy of life? Discuss in class.
1. sallow: di colorito giallastro.
2. Hedonism: Edonismo.
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Oscar Wilde
The Importance of Being Earnest (1895)
The Importance of Being Earnest TExT 2
In the scene you are going to read Jack is at Algernon’s flat. Gwendolen and her mother, Lady Bracknell, have just called.
ACT 1 (...) JACK. Charming day it has been, Miss Fairfax. GWENDOLEN. Pray don’t talk to me about the weather, Mr Worthing. Whenever
people talk to me about the weather, I always feel quite certain that they mean 5 something else. And that makes me so nervous. JACK. I do mean something else. GWENDOLEN. I thought so. In fact, I am never wrong. JACK. And I would like to be allowed to take advantage of1 Lady Bracknell’s
temporary absence... 10 GWENDOLEN. I would certainly advise you to do so. Mamma has a way of
coming back suddenly into a room that I have often had to speak to her about. JACK. (nervously) Miss Fairfax, ever since I met you I have admired you more than any girl... I have ever met since... I met you.
GWENDOLEN. Yes, I am quite well aware of the fact. And I often wish that in 15 public, at any rate, you had been more demonstrative. For me you have always
had an irresistible fascination. Even before I met you I was far from indifferent to you (JACK looks at her in amazement.) We live, as I hope you know, Mr Worthing, in an age of ideals. The fact is constantly mentioned in the more expensive monthly magazines, and has now reached the provincial pulpits2, I am told; and my ideal
20 has always been to love some one of the name of Ernest. There is something in that name that inspires absolute confidence. The moment Algernon first mentioned to me that he had a friend called Ernest, I knew I was destined to love you.
JACK. You really love me, Gwendolen? GWENDOLEN. Passionately! 25 JACK. Darling! You don’t know how happy you’ve made me. GWENDOLEN. My own Ernest! JACK. But you don’t really mean to say that you couldn’t love me if my name
wasn’t Ernest? GWENDOLEN. But your name is Ernest. 30 JACK. Yes, I know it is. But supposing it was something else? Do you mean to say
you couldn’t love me then? GWENDOLEN.(glibly3) Ab! that is clearly a metaphysical speculation, and like
most metaphysical speculations has very little reference at all to actual facts of real life, as we know them.
35 JACK. Personally, darling, to speak quite candidly, I don’t much care about the name of Ernest... I don’t think the name suits me at all.
GWENDOLEN. It suits you perfectly. It is a divine name. It has a music of its own.
1. take advantage of: approfittare di.
2. pulpits: pulpiti. 3. glibly: con
scioltezza.
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It produces vibrations. JACK. Well, really, Gwendolen, I must say that there are lots of other much nicer 40 names. I think Jack, for instance, a charming name. Gwendolen Jack? ... No, there is very little music in the name Jack, if any at all,
indeed. It does not thrill. It produces absolutely no vibrations... I have known several Jacks, and they all, without exception, were more than usually plain. Besides, Jack is a notorious domesticity4 for John! And I pity any woman who is
45 married to a man called John. She would probably never be allowed to know the entrancing5 pleasure of a single moment’s solitude. The only really safe name is Ernest.
JACK. Gwendolen, I must get christened 6at once - I mean we must get married at once. There is no time to be lost.
GWENDOLEN. Married, Mr Worthing? 50 JACK. (astounded) Well... surely. You know that I love you, and you led me to
believe, Miss Fairfax, that you were not absolutely indifferent to me. GWENDOLEN. I adore you. But you haven’t proposed7 to me yet. Nothing has been said at all about marriage. The subject has not even been touched on.
JACK. Well... may I propose to you now? 55 GWENDOLEN. I think it would be an admirable opportunity. And to spare you
any possible disappointment, Mr Worthing, I think it only fair to tell you quite frankly beforehand that I am fully determined to accept you.
JACK. Gwendolen! GWENDOLEN. Yes, Mr Worthing, what have you got to say to me? 60 JACK. You know what I have got to say to you. GWENDOLEN. Yes, but you don’t say it.
JACK. Gwendolen, will you marry me? (Goes on his knees). GWENDOLEN. Of course I will, darling. How long you have been about it! I am afraid you have had very little experience in how to propose. 65 JACK. My own one, I have never loved anyone in the world but you. GWENDOLEN. Yes, but men often propose for practice. I know my brother Gerald
does. All my girl-friends tell me so.
OvER TO yOu
❶ What does Jack want to say to Gwendolen?
❷ How does Gwendolen react?
❸ What does Gwendolen think Jack’s name is? Why does she like that name?
❹ What does she think of the name Jack?
❺ What does the audience know about Jack that Gwendolen does not know?
❻ Why does Gwendloen address Jack formally in this part of the dialogue (line 49-59)?
❼ Which of the two characters Jack and Gwendolen seems to be more decisive?
❽ How would you describe their language?
emotional formal
inappropriate unemotional
overformal incongruous
➒ Do any of Gwendolen’s statements strike you as absurd, incongruous or unexpected? Why? Discuss in class.
4. domesticity: diminutivo.
5. entrancing: incantevole.
6. get christened: farmi battezzare.
7. proposed: chiesto di sposarti.
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George Bernard Shaw
Mrs Warren’s Profession (1894)
This play was written in 1894 but was refused a licence for public performance by the official Censor. It was eventually produced in 1902 in a private theatre, which did not require the Censor’s authorisation.
A ‘problem play’ for victorian societyMrs Warren was a prostitute; although she never says that in so many words, her profession can be easily inferred from the story of her life. But she did that job, because it brought her good money, she did not do it for pleasure. Her speech is carefully constructed to make her final point that prostitution is a crime created and exploited by hypocritical society. She never fumbles for words nor does she have hesitations. The presence of her daughter Vivie is only important in the role of making such objections and remarks as are necessary for the speaker to make her point absolutely clear. The passage exemplifies a typical characteristic in many plays by Shaw: the use of dialogue to develop a thesis in a ‘problem play’, that is a play dealing with a topical issue. In this case the issue is prostitution. Mrs Warren’s profession is ‘a problem play’ because it is concerned with an argument which was taboo in Victorian society topical genre, the sexual morality of women.
The plotMrs Warren speaks to her daughter Vivie, a well-educated young woman who has just graduated in mathematics at Cambridge and seems to have a talent for business. Their relationship is a strained one. She tells her daughter about her past (the passage you are going to read) and she forgives her on the grounds of poverty and social injustice. But when she finds out that Mrs Warren, although no longer in financial need, is still the manageress of several brothels in various European cities and shares profits with a wealthy English aristocrat of high social standing, she parts with her forever.
Mrs Warren’s Profession The following passage is from the second of the four acts in the play.
MRS WARREN. (...) D’you know what your gran’ mother was? VIVIE. No. MRS WARREN. No, you dont. I do. She called herself a widow and had a fried-fish
shop down bythe Mint1, and kept herself and four daughters out of it. Two 5 of us were sisters: that was me and Liz; and we were both good-looking and
well made. I suppose our father was a well-fed man: mother pretended he was a gentleman; but I dont know. The other two were only half sisters2 undersized3, ugly, starved looking4, hard working, honest poor creatures: Liz and I would have half-murdered them if mother hadnt half-murdered us to keep our hands off them.
10 They were the respectable ones. Well, what did they get by their respectability?
1. the Mint: la Zecca. 2. half sisters:
sorellastre. 3. undersized:
mingherline.
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I’ll tell you. One of them worked in a whitelead5 factory twelve hours a day for nine shillings a week until she died of lead poisoning. She only expected to get her hands a little paralyzed; but she died. The other was always held up6to us as a model because she married a Government laborer in the Deptford victualling
15 yard7, and kept his room and the three children neat and tidy on eighteen shillings a week until he took to drink. That was worth being respectable for, wasnt it?
VIVIE. (now thoughtfully attentive) Did you and your sister think so? MRS WARREN. Liz didnt, I can tell you: she had more spirit. We both went to a 20 church school that was part of the ladylike airs we gave ourselves to be superior
to the children that knew nothing and went nowhere and we stayed there until Liz went out one night and never came back. I know the schoolmistress thought I’d soon follow her example; for the clergyman was always warning me that Lizzie’d end by jumping off Waterloo Bridge8. Poor fool: that was all he knew
25 about it! But I was more afraid of the whitelead factory than I was of the river; and so would you have been in my place. That clergyman got me a situation9 as scullery maid10 in a temperance restaurant11 where they sent out for anything12
you liked. Then I was waitress; and then I went to the bar at Waterloo station13
fourteen hours a day serving drinks and washing glasses for four shillings a 30 week and my board. That was considered a great promotion for me. Well, one
cold, wretched14 night, when I was so tired I could hardly keep myself awake, who should come up for a half of Scotch15 but Lizzie, in a long fur cloak, elegant and comfortable, with a lot of sovereigns in her purse.
VIVIE. (grimly) My aunt Lizzie! 35 MRS WARREN. Yes; and a very good aunt to have, too. She’s living down at
Winchester16 now, close to the cathedral, one of the most respectable ladies there. Chaperones girls at the county ball; if you please. No river for Liz, thank you! You remind me of Liz a little: she was a first-rate business woman saved money from the beginning never let herself look too like what she was never lost her head
40 or threw away a chance. When she saw I’d grown up good-looking she said to me across the bar ‘What are you doing there, you little fool? wearing out17 your health and your appearance for other people’s profit!’ Liz was saving money then to take a house for herself in Brussels; and she thought we two could save faster than one. So she lent me some money and gave me a start18; and I saved steadily
45 and first paid her back, and then went into business with her as her partner. Why shouldnt I have done it? The house in Brussels was real high class; a much better place for a woman to be in than the factory where Anne Jane got poisoned. None of our girls were ever treated as I was treated in the scullery of that temperance place, or at the Waterloo bar, or at home. Would you have had me stay in them and
50 become a worn out old drudge19 before I was forty? VIVIE. (intensely interested by this time) No; but why did you choose that business?
Saving money and good management will succeed in any business. MRS WARREN. Yes, saving money. But where can a woman get the money to save
in any other business? Could you save out of four shillings a week and keep 55 yourself dressed as well? Not you. Of course, if youre a plain woman and cant
earn anything more; or if you have a turn for 20music, or the stage, or newspaper-writing: thats different. But neither Liz nor I had any turn for such things: all we had was our appearance and our turn for pleasing men. Do you think we were such fools as to let other people trade in21 our good looks by employing us as
60 shopgirls, or barmaids, or waitresses, when we could trade in them ourselves and get all the profits instead of starvation wages22? Not likely.
VIVIE. You were certainly quite justified from the business point of view.
4. starved looking: dall’espressione affamata.
5. whitelead: bianco di piombo.
6. held up: proposta. 7. victualling yard:
magazzino viveri. 8. Waterloo Bridge:
uno dei ponti sul Tamigi, a Londra.
9. situation: lavoro. 10. scullery maid:
sguattera. 11. temperance
restaurant: ristorante dove era vietata la vendita di bevande alcooliche.
12. sent out for anything: mandavano a prendere altrove qualunque bevanda.
13. Waterloo station: stazione ferroviaria vicina a Waterloo Bridge.
14. wretched: orrenda. 15. Scotch: whisky. 16. Winchester:
cittadina dell’Inghilterra meridionale, famosa per la sua cattedrale.
17. wearing out: stai consumando.
18. gave me a start: mi avviò alla professione.
19. drudge: sgobbona. 20. have a turn for: hai
talento per. 21. trade in:
guadagnare. 22. starvation wages:
una paga da fame. 23. fancy: la fantasia.
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MRS WARREN. Yes; or any other point of view. What is any respectable girl brought up to do but to catch some rich man’s fancy23 and get the benefit of his
65 money by marrying him? as if a marriage ceremony could make any difference in the right or wrong of the thing! Oh, the hypocrisy of the world makes me sick!
OvER TO yOu
❶ What does Mrs Warren reveal to her daughter? Is the name of her profession mentioned?
❷ How did she start her profession?
❸ What reason does she give for choosing it instead of another job?
❹ How does it compare to marriage in Mrs Warren’s opinion?
❺ Focus on the characters. Which of the following statements do you think apply to the passage? (Choose.)
The characters have the complexity of real people. The characters are mainly mouthpieces for the author’s ideas on a topical problem. The dialogue sounds like a carefully constructed discussion aimed at
demonstrating the truth of a thesis. The dialogue sounds like a spontaneous exchange of opinion. The language has the fluency and eloquence of a well-prepared public speech. The language is naturalistic in that it reproduces the contradictions, hesitations
and false starts of a real speech. The overall tone is grave in accordance with the seriousness of the subject matter. The overall tone is light in spite of the seriousness of the subject matter, and
occasionally provocative.
❻ Do you think the author condemns Mrs Warren for choosing her profession or not? Context
❼ Shaw describes the critics’ reaction to the first performance to the play as ‘an hysterical tumult of protest’. Why do you think the play had a scandalous reputation in its days? Identify what statements in the dialogue were most likely to shock the audience at the turn of the 20th century.
❽ What aim do you think the author had in mind in dealing with this theme?
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Emily Dickinson
‘I’m Nobody’ (C.1892)
BEFORE READING
❶ Read the following short poem, written around 1862. In pairs discuss what aspects of Emily Dickinson’s life the poem reflects.
❷ What do you find unusual about this poem; consider the tone – is it depressing or humorous? Is there a contrast between theme and tone?
‘I’m Nobody’ – I’m Nobody! Who are you? Are you nobody – too? Then there’s a pair of us? Don’t tell! They’d advertise – you know!
5 How dreary1 – to be – somebody! How public – like Frog – To tell your name – the livelong June2
To an admiring Bog3!
1. dreary: monotono. 2. livelong June: tutto
il giugno. 3. Bog: pantano.
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George Eliot
Middlemarch (1871-72)
Middlemarch TExT 2
Dorothea is on her honeymoon with Causabon in Rome. But she feels sad and disappointed.
Two hours later, Dorothea was seated in an inner room or boudoir of a handsome apartment in the Via Sistina.
I am sorry to add that she was sobbing1 bitterly, with such abandonment to this relief of an oppressed heart as a woman habitually controlled by pride on her
5 own account and thoughtfulness for others will sometimes allow herself when she feels securely alone. And Mr Casaubon was certain to remain away for some time at the Vatican.
Yet Dorothea had no distinctly shapen grievance2 that she could state even to herself; and in the midst of3 her confused thought and passion, the mental act
10 that was struggling forth into clearness4was a self-accusing cry that her feeling of desolation was the fault of her own spiritual poverty. She had married the man of her choice, and with the advantage over most girls that she had contemplated her marriage chiefly as the beginning of new duties: from the very first she had thought of Mr Casaubon as having a mind so much above her own, that he must
15 often be claimed by studies which she could not entirely share; moreover, after the brief narrow experience of her girlhood she was beholding5 Rome, the city of visible history, where the past of a whole hemisphere seems moving in funeral procession with strange ancestral images and trophies gathered from afar. […]
In their conversation before marriage, Mr Casaubon had often dwelt6 on some 20 explanation or questionable detail of which Dorothea did not see the bearing7;
but such imperfect coherence seemed due to the brokenness of their intercourse, and, supported by her faith in their future, she had listened with fervid patience to a recitation of possible arguments to be brought against Mr Casaubon’s entirely new view of the Philistine god Dagon and other fish-deities8, thinking
25 that hereafter she should see this subject which touched him so nearly from the same high ground whence doubtless it had become so important to him. Again, the matter-of-course statement and tone of dismissal with which he treated what to her were the most stirring9 thoughts, was accounted for10 as belonging to the sense of haste and preoccupation in which she herself shared
30 during their engagement. But now, since they had been in Rome, with all the depths of her emotion roused to tumultuous activity, and with life made a new problem by new elements, she had been becoming more and more aware, with a certain terror, that her mind was continually sliding into inward fits of anger11
and repulsion, or else into forlorn weariness12. How far the judicious Hooker13or 35 any other hero of erudition would have been the same at Mr Casaubon’s time of
life, she had no means of knowing, so that he could not have the advantage of
1. sobbing: singhiozzando.
2. no distincly shapen grievance: dolore non proprio chiaro.
3. in the midst of: nel mezzo di.
4. was struggling forth into clearness: stava lottando per ottenere chiarezza.
5. was beholding: stava vedendo.
6. had often dwelt: si era spesso soffermato.
7. the bearing: il senso.
8. fish-deities: gli dei. 9. stirring: che la
inquietavano. 10. was accounted for:
era giustificato. 11. was continually
sliding…fits of anger: scivolava interiormente verso scoppi d’ira.
12. forlorn weariness: stanchezza.
13. Hooker: importante teologo che pose le basi della teologia anglicana (1554-1600).
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comparison; but her husband’s way of commenting on the strangely impressive objects around them had begun to affect her with a sort of mental shiver14: he had perhaps the best intention of acquitting himself worthily15, but only of
40 acquitting himself. What was fresh to her mind was worn out to his; and such capacity of thought and feeling as had ever been stimulated in him by the general life of mankind had long shrunk16 to a sort of dried preparation, a lifeless embalmment17 of knowledge.
OvER TO yOu
❶ Complete the following passage.
Dorothea is in a handsome ……………….............................…… (1) in Rome. She is ……………….............................…… (2) while her husband Casaubon is still in ……………….............................…… (3). Her cry is self-accusing because she thinks that her feeling of desolation is the result of her ………………......................…… (4).
❷ Why does Dorothea think that she has an advantage over most girls?
❸ How had she judged Mr Casaubon?
❹ Now how does she judge him? (See the last part of the passage.)
❺ What feelings does Dorothea express here? (Choose.)
love and hatred disappointment and sadness disgust and hatred
❻ What kind of person does Mr Casaubon seem to be?
❼ Is the narrator neutral or does he intrude in the narrative?
❽ Dorothea is bitterly disappointed by Casaubon but only begins to understand him during the honeymoon. Do you think this can happen to many couples today? Why? Why not? Discuss in class.
14. shiver: brivido. 15. acquitting himself
worthily: assolvere degnamente il suo compito.
16. had long shrunk: si era ristretta a.
17. embalmment: imbalsamamento.
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Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864)
Descendant of one of the Puritan settlers of Massachusetts Bay Colony, Hawthorne was born in Salem, Massachusetts in 1804. After graduating he lived in isolation for twelve years in his mother’s house in Salem, reading and writing. He first became known with the publication of Twice-Told Tales in 1837. To earn his living he took a job as a measurer of salt and coal in Boston, where he drew material for The Scarlet Letter (1850). In 1842 he got married and started a very happy and productive period. He moved to Lennox where he became a friend of Melville’s and where he continued writing. He travelled to Italy where he started writing The Marble Faun (1860). In 1860 he moved back to the US where his health declined rapidly till his death in 1864.
Main works• Twice-Told Tales (1837)• The Scarlet Letter (1850)• The House of the Seven Gables (1851)• The Blithedale romance (1852)• The Marble Faun (1860)
Hawthorne was one of the authors who detached themselves from the European cultural tradition to express typical American themes in original forms. His novels are explorations of the human conscience. Their plots usually develop around a haunted mind, sin and revenge are recurrent themes.
Hawthorne and PuritanismHawthorne has often been described as ‘the artist of Puritanism’ especially for his masterpiece, The Scarlet Letter. As most of his tales, it originates from a real situation that he develops into an imagined experience not aimed at a realistic portrait but at the recreation of an emotional atmosphere. The Scarlet Letter is prefaced by a long essay (entitled ‘The Custom House’) in which Hawthorne tells about the discovery of a foolscap and a letter ‘A’ which inspired him to study the Puritan period. Through Hester’s story, Hawthorne evokes the positive aspects of a Puritan community such as the capacity of endurance which allowed its members to survive the hardships of the beginning of a new life in an unknown continent and their religious spirit. He also brings to our notice the limits of their creed such as their intransigence and their dualistic vision of life dominated by a clear-cut division between good and evil and an obsession with sin.
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SymbolismAll of Hawthorne’s fiction is built around a network of symbols that often vary in the course of narration. In The Scarlet Letterthe most powerful symbol is the letter A which stands for ‘adulteress’. It is a mark of humiliation for the Puritan community, while for Hester it is a symbol of unjust humiliation and pride in herself and her individuality; it is also a reminder of sin for Dimmesdale. The scaffold and the cottage also become powerful symbols of shame and emargination.
RomanceIn the preface to his later novel The House of the Seven Gables, Hawthorne describes his narratives as ‘romances’ which broke away from fidelity to everyday life and commonplace to take up a wider, more imaginative perspective. Through his fiction Hawthorne aimed to take the reader away from the actual world into universal aspects of psychology. Each of his major romances has a preface in which he explains the setting: this is usually ‘a time out of time’, ‘an intermediate space where the business of life doesn’t intrude’, in Hawthorne’s words.
The Scarlet LetterNathaliel Hawthorne wrote The Scarlet Letter, by many considered his masterpiece, in 1850. It was the first novel published in the United States to make wide use of symbolism. Set in Boston in 1642, when the town was the seat of government for the Massachusetts Bay Colony, the story evokes and brings to life a very significant and political period in the shaping of the US.
The plotHester Prynne, a beautiful young English woman, is the wife of a much older man, Chillingworth, who decides to emigrate to the American colonies. He sends her ahead because he has to settle some business. As he fails to join her, he is thought to be dead. Hester becomes pregnant, but refuses to name her lover and is tried in front of the Puritan community for adultery. She is sentenced to prison and to wear a scarlet letter A, which stands for Adulteress, on the bodice of her dress and to stand publicly on the scaffold for three hours holding her baby. From there she sees her husband who later will make her swear to keep his identity secret. Hester settles in the outskirts of the town and she lives by her needlework. She raises her child, Pearl, with such freedom that the governor wants to take the girl from her, but Dimmesdale, the unmarried pastor of the congregation speaks up for Hester, who is finally allowed to keep her daughter. Chillingworth, who suspects that Dimmesdale is the father of Hester’s child, become his physician in order to discover the truth and take his revenge. Hester warns Dimmesdale against Chillingworth and they decide to leave the place and set up home together. But on the day of their departure Dimmesdale reveals his sin to the community and dies. Soon after, Chillingworth dies too and leaves Pearl a rich woman. Mother and daughter leave the community, but later Hester comes back and she is accepted by the community as a respectable person.
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The Scarlet Letter (1850)
BEFORE READING
The novel is set in Massachusetts. It was the first of the Northern American colonies and was founded in 1620 by English Calvinists and Puritans escaping religious persecutions at home. Do you remember what their name was and how their ship was called?
The Scarlet Letter When the young woman – the mother of his child – stood fully revealed before
the crowd, it seemed to be her first impulse to clasp1 the infant closely to her bosom; not so much by an impulse of motherly affection, as that she might thereby2 conceal a certain token3, which was wrought4 or fastened into her dress.
5 In a moment, however, wisely judging that one token of her shame would but poorly serve to hide another, she took the baby on her arm, and, with a burning blush, and yet a haughty5 smile, and a glance that would not be abashed6, looked around at her townspeople and neighbours. On the breast of her gown, in fine red cloth, surrounded with an elaborate embroidery and fantasticflourishes7 of
10 gold thread, appeared the letter A. It was so artistically done, and with so much fertility and gorgeous8 luxuriance of fancy, that it had all the effect of a fast and fitting decoration to the apparel which she wore; and which was of a splendor in accordance with the taste of the age, but greatly beyond what was allowed by the sumptuary regulations9 of the colony.
15 The young woman was tall, with a figure of perfect elegance, on a large scale. She had dark and abundant hair, so glossy that it threw off the sunshine with a gleam, and a face which, besides being beautiful from regularity of feature and richness of complexion, had the impressiveness belonging to a marked brow and deep black eyes. She was lady-like, too, after the manner
20 of the femininegentility10 of those days; characterized by a certain state and dignity, rather than by the delicate, evanescent, and indescribable grace, which is now recognized as its indication. And never had Hester Prynne appeared more lady-like, in the antique interpretation of the term, than as she issued from the prison. Those who had before known her, and had expected to
25 behold herdimmed11 and obscured by a disastrous cloud, were astonished, and even startled12, to perceive how her beauty shone out, and made a halo of the misfortune and ignominy in which she was enveloped. It may be true, that, to a sensitive observer, there was something exquisitely painful in it. Her attire13, which, indeed, she had wrought for the occasion, in prison, and had modelled
30 much after her own fancy, seemed to express the attitude of her spirit, the desperate recklessness14 of her mood, by its wild and picturesque peculiarity. But the point which drew all eyes, and, as it were, transfigured the wearer, - so that both men and women, who had been familiarly acquainted with Hester Prynne, were now impressed as if they beheld15 her for the first time, - was that scarlet
35 letter, so fantastically embroidered and illuminated16 upon her bosom. It had the effect of a spell17, taking her out of the ordinary relations with humanity, and inclosing her in a sphere by herself.
‘She hath18 good skill at her needle, that’s certain,’ remarked one of the female spectators; ‘but did ever a woman, before this brazen19 hussy20, contrive such a
40 way of showing it! Why, gossips21, what is it but to laugh in the faces of our godly magistrates, and make a pride out of what they, worthy gentlemen, meant for a punishment’?’
1. to clasp: stringere. 2. thereby: così. 3. token: segno. 4. wrought: intarsiato. 5. haughty: altero. 6. abashed:
imbarazzato. 7. flourishes: svolazzi. 8. gorgeous: sfarzosa. 9. sumptuary
regulations: leggi che regolano le spese nelle colonie.
10. gentility: nobiltà. 11. dimmed: offuscata. 12. startled: sbigottite. 13. attire: vestito. 14. recklessness:
avventatezza. 15. beheld: vedessero. 16. illuminated:
miniata. 17. spell: incantesimo. 18. hath: ha (forma
arcaica di has). 19. brazen:
svergognata. 20. hussy: sgualdrina. 21. gossips: comari.
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OvER TO yOu
❶ Refer to the summary of the story-line and say what part this text refers to.
❷ Focus on Hester. Make notes about her next to these headings.
attitude ...........................................................................................................................................................................................
physical appearance ...........................................................................................................................................................................................
clothes ...........................................................................................................................................................................................
➌ Now focus on the Scarlet Letter and note down where it is, who made it and what features are emphasised.
➍ How does Hester bear the punishment she has been sentenced to? (Choose.)
She rebels against it. She humbly submits to it. She bears it with dignity. She despises her judges. She rejects Puritan values.
➎ What is the people’s reaction to the sight of Hester? In what way are they disappointed in their expectation?
➏ Do their reaction reveal a compassionate attitude or a censorious one?
➐ What is Hester’s position in society as a consequence of her punishment? How does she bear her plight?
Analysis and interpretation
➑ What does ‘one token of her shame’ refer to?
➒ What kind of personality comes out of the description? Choose from the list below, supporting your choice with quotations from the text.
arrogant independent courageous proud uncompromising obstinate
�� What is the society in which Hester lives characterised by?
�� What kind of narrator tells the story?
�� What aspects (positive and negative) of the Puritan culture are underlined in this passage? Discuss in class.
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William M. Thackeray (1811-1863)
William Makepeace Thackeray was born in 1811 in Calcutta, where his father held an important position with the East India Company, but he was sent tot England to be educated as it was the custom of the time. He was a restless young man and left Cambridge in 1830 without taking a degree. He travelled first to Germany and then to Paris where he indulged in the passions for theatre, the ballet and gambling. After losing his inherited income, he started to work as a journalist in Paris where he met Isabella Shawe who was to become his wife in 1836. But his family was not a happy one. After bearing three children, of whom only two survived, she succumbed to mental illness and eventually had to be placed in a private home for the rest of her life. Under the pressure of financial necessity Thackeray wrote satires, sketches and political
articles for various newspapers and magazines. After the publication of Barry Lyndon in 1844 he wrote six more novels. The one which is considered is masterpiece is Vanity Fair (1848), a study of the manners of the London upper-middle class of early 19th century. He gave a series of lectures both in England and in the US and continued to write till his death in 1863.
Main works• Barry Lyndon (1844)• Vanity Fair (1848)• Henry Esmond (1852)• The Virginians (1857-59)
Contents and themesLust for money and social status, selfishness and corruption are Thackeray’s main themes. The protagonists of his works are often disreputable people who highlight negative aspects of society such as Barry Lyndon or Becky Sharp, the protagonist inVanity Fair, a social climber who succeeds in marrying into the aristocracy but then loses her position out of excessive greed.
StyleThackeray himself said he was indebted to Fielding, particularly in the tome of the narrative voice employed. Whether first person or third person his narrator is very obtrusive. In Vanity Fair he comments, digresses and directs the reader’s reactions to the events narrated. His presence permeates the novel to such an extent as to become a remarkable voice, although not a character in the story. As in Barry Lyndon, the narrative voice often seems to be on the side of the negative hero or heroine and this attitude of Thackeray’s to the world of his novel, and his inhabitants, led to charges of cynicism from those of his Victorian readers who preferred a less ambiguous moral viewpoint.
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FortuneNotwithstanding some critical attitudes, Thackeray was very popular and his success gained him the friendship of fashionable member of London high society. Today he is still one of the most popular authors of classic novels and both Vanity Fair andBarry Lyndon have been turned into popular films.
BarryLyndonIt is Thackeray’s first long work of fiction. It is written in the first person in the form of an autobiographical memoir. It appeared in serial form in Fraser’s Magazine in 1884 and later in volume form. The novel is divided into 19 chapters. Irony is a feature of Thackeray’s fiction for which he is indebted to Henry Fielding (1707-54), author of Tom Jones (1749) and one of the fathers of fiction. Thackeray is also indebted to Fielding as regards plot. In fact his novels are mainly based on a picaresque plot. The novel tells the adventures of a hero who does not usually follow social conventions.
The plotSet in the second half of the 18th century, it is the story of Redmond Barry or Bally Barry, born to a genteel but ruined Irish family. When still a teenager he has to leave Ireland because wrongly supposed to have killed a British captain in a duel. He serves in the Seventh Years’ War. While acting as a spy, he meets the Chevalier de Balibari, who turns out to be his own uncle. The two get together and make a fortune through gambling. Barry becomes a man of fashion, marries a widow and takes her name. He leads a dissipate life and not only squanders his wife’s fortune, but ill-treats her and her son from her former marriage. In the end his wife succeeds in rebelling against him and Barry is compelled to live abroad once more on a small pension granted him by his wife. At her death, however, he is left penniless and ends his life in prison, looked after by his old mother.
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Barry Lyndon (1844)
BEFORE READING
I return to Ireland, and exhibit my splendour and generosity in that kingdom. How were times changed with me now! I had left my country a poor penniless boy […]. I returned an accomplished man, with property to the amount of five thousands guineas in my possession.
Who is the narrative voice here? What do we learn about his life?
Barry Lyndon TExT 1
I had a quick ear and a fine voice, which my mother cultivated to the best of her power, and she taught me to step a minuet1 gravely and gracefully, and thus laid the foundation of my future success in life. The common dances I learned, as, perhaps, I ought not to confess, in the servants’ hall, which, you
5 may be sure, was never without a piper2, and where I was considered unrivalled both at a hornpipe3 and a jig4. In the matter of book-learning, I had always an uncommon taste for reading plays and novels, as the best part of a gentleman’s polite education, and never let a pedlar5pass the village, if I had a penny, without having a ballad or two from him. As for your dull grammar and Greek, and Latin,
10 and stuff, I have always hated them from my youth upwards, and said, very unmistakably, I would have none of them.’
OvER TO yOu
❶ What part of Barry’s life does this passage refer to?
❷ Answer true or false.
1. He could dance very well. T F
2. He lived in a big city. T F
3. He liked reading. T F
4. He didn’t like ancient languages. T F
❸ What aspects of Barry’s personality are revealed in this passage?
1. to step a minuet: ballare il minuetto.
2. piper: suonatore di cornamusa.
3. hornpipe: danza eseguita soprattutto dai marinai.
4. jig: giga. 5. pedlar: venditore
ambulante.
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William M. Thackeray Barry Lyndon (1844)
Barry Lyndon TExT 2
Although I have described the utter1 disgust and distaste which speedily took possession of my breast as regarded Lady Lyndon; and although I took no particular pains (for I am all frankness and aboveboard2) to disguise my feelings in general, yet she was of such a mean3 spirit that she pursued me with her
5 regard in spite of my indifference to her, and would kindle up4 at the smallest kind word I spoke to her. The fact is, between my respected reader and myself, that I was one of the handsomest and most dashing5 young men of England in those days, and my wife was violently in love with me; and though I say it who shouldn’t, as the phrase goes, my wife was not the only woman of rank in
10 London who had a favourable opinion of the humble Irish adventurer. What ariddle6 these women are, I have often thought! I have seen the most elegant creatures at St. James’s grow wild for love of the coarsest7 and most vulgar of men; the cleverest women passionately admire the most illiterate of our sex, and so on. There is no end to the contrariety in the foolish creatures; and though I
15 don’t mean to hint that I am vulgar or illiterate, as the persons mentioned above (I would cut the throat of any man who dared to whisper a word against my birth or my breeding), yet I have shown that Lady Lyndon had plenty of reason to dislike me if she chose; but, like the rest of her silly sex, she was governed by infatuation, not reason, and, up to the very last day of our being together, would
20 be reconciled to me, and fondle me8, if I addressed her a single kind word. ‘Ah,’ she would say, in these moments of tenderness, ‘ah, Redmond, if you would always be so!’ And in these fits of love she was the most easy creature in the world to be persuaded, and would have signed away her whole property, had it been possible.’
OvER TO yOu
❶ Answer true or false.
1. He feels utter disgust for Lady Lyndon. T F
2. He thinks she is deeply in love with him. T F
3. He judges himself as a poor and ugly man. T F
4. He judges his wife as clever and tender. T F
❷ Who is ‘the humble Irish adventurer’?
❸ Who are the ‘foolish creatures’?
❹ From these extracts what kind of personality does Barry seem to have? Does he seem to be a likeable person? Choose from the list below and give reasons for your choice.
self-centred sociable ambitious
generous hardworking greedy
optimistic unscrupulous vain
1. utter: assoluto. 2. aboveboard: onesto. 3. mean: meschino. 4. kindle up:
infiammarsi. 5. dashing: distinti. 6. riddle: enigma. 7. coarsest: più rozzo. 8. fondle me:
coccolarmi.
