Three Eras: Enlightenment,
Romantic, and Victorian
Enlightenment
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increasing empiricism
scientific rigor
increasing questioning of religious orthodoxy
Rationalism
Logic over tradition
Blake
• Songs of experience
• Song of innocence
• Pastoral ideology
Swift
• Modest Proposal
– Social satire
• Gulliver’s Travels
satire of society as created in parts 1,2 and 4
parody of the travel narrative
• Romantic poets
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individualism
the natural world
idealism
physical and emotional passion
interest in the mystic and supernatural
Common man
Freedom and revolution
opposition to the order and rationality of classical
and neoclassical artistic
Mutability
Percy Bysshe Shelley, 1792 - 1822
We are as clouds that veil the midnight moon;
How restlessly they speed, and gleam, and quiver,
Streaking the darkness radiantly!—yet soon
Night closes round, and they are lost for ever:
Or like forgotten lyres, whose dissonant strings
Give various response to each varying blast,
To whose frail frame no second motion brings
One mood or modulation like the last.
We rest.—A dream has power to poison sleep;
We rise.—One wandering thought pollutes the day;
We feel, conceive or reason, laugh or weep;
Embrace fond woe, or cast our cares away:
It is the same!—For, be it joy or sorrow,
The path of its departure still is free:
Man’s yesterday may ne’er be like his morrow;
Nought may endure but Mutability.
What is a Byronic Hero?
• Charismatic characters with strong passions and
beliefs
• Act in ways which are contrary to mainstream
society
• Tend to be fearless and volatile in their emotions
and behavior
• Mostly a handsome male
• Own philosophy which he will not change
• Has internal conflicts that are romanticized
• Broods over his struggles and beliefs
Victorian Era
• Marked as an age of peace and economic growth
• Victoria becomes queen of England, 1837
• Voter rights in England are expanded to any man with land
worth 10 pounds or more.
• Due to rapid urbanization and industrialization, English
people called for reforms to unsafe living and working
conditions.
• Violent rallies called for fair food prices and votes for ALL
people
• Due to trade, food prices did eventually drop and the diet
of most English people improved.
• Factory acts limited child labor; reducing the working day to
ten hours
Vocabulary
• Sustenance
– Nourishment; provisions
Vocabulary
• Glut
– Surfeit; overabunance
Vocabulary
• deference
– Respect; high regard
Vocabulary
• Scrupulous
– Meticulous; detail-oriented
Vocabulary
• Censure
– Reproach; criticize
Vocabulary
• expedient
– Efficient in accomplishing a task
Vocabulary
• Digressed
– go off the point; tangential
Vocabulary
• procure
– Obtain; aquire
Vocabulary
• brevity
– Shortness; brief
Vocabulary
• Animosity
– Hatred; scorn for something
Vocabulary
• Dehumanization
– denial of humanness to other people
Vocabulary
• Mantra
– Saying of which you place religious or
philosophical belief into
Vocabulary
• Superficially
– Meaningful on the surface
Vocabulary
• Dictum
– A worthwhile statement; a statement of
importance
Vocabulary
• Elitism
– Practice or belief that one is of a select group
Vocabulary
• Aphorism
– Saying; maxim; adage
Vocabulary
• Repertoire
– range; skills; stock
Vocabulary
• Conflated
– To bring together in a way that heightens issue or
concept at hand
Vocabulary
• Metonyms
– Items that are parts of something that stand for
the whole
Vocabulary
• Elided
– To suppress or strike out
Vocabulary
• Antithesis
– The exact opposite of something
Vocabulary
• Narcissism
– Egotism; self-importance
Vocabulary
• Proletariat
– Labor class
Vocabulary
• Abysmal
– Terrible or dreadful
Vocabulary
• Acolyte
– Assistant
Vocabulary
• Denigrates
– To lessen the value of
Vocabulary
• Exploitation
– To use in a destructive way
Vocabulary
• Succumb
– Give into