LITERARY HISTORY
The 19th century
Part 2
19th century literature
TIMELINE 19th CENTURY AUTHORS
England
Jane Austen: 1775-1817
Mary Shelley: 1797-1851
Charlotte Brontë: 1816-1855
Emily Brontë: 1818-1848
Anne Brontë: 1820-1849
USA
Nathaniel Hawthorne: 1804-1864
Mark Twain: 1835-1910
19th century literature
TIMELINE 19th CENTURY (American Literature)
 Transcendentalism: 1840-1860
 Age of Realism: 1865-1900
19th century literature
American Literature in the 19th century
It was in the late 18th and early 19th
centuries that the nation’s first novels were
published. With the Anglo-American War
(1812-1815) and an increasing desire to
produce uniquely American literature and
culture, a number of key new literary
figures emerged, perhaps most
prominently Washington Irving, James
Fenimore Cooper, and Edgar Allan Poe.
In America there was NO Victorian Age.
Check out this timeline
19th century literature
Nathaniel Hawthorne: 1804-1864
 Born in Salem, Mass.
 Family of Salem Witch trial judge:
John Hathorne
 Transcendentalist
Transcendentalism was a philosophical
movement that developed in the 1830s and
1840s in the New England area of the USA.
Among the transcendentalists' core beliefs was
the inherent goodness of both man and nature.
Transcendentalists believed that society and its
institutions - particularly organized religion and
political parties - ultimately corrupted the purity
of the individual.
19th century literature
19th century literature
The SALEM witch trials: 1692
 An episode in American history of
mass hysteria, during which people
were (unfairly) accused of witchcraft
 An excess of 19 people were unjustly
hanged for witchcraft, 5 more people
died in prison (jail fees)
 “Naming names” (also communist
hunt, USA, 1950s)
 Salem, Massachussetts – Puritan
community – fire & brimstone, devilobsessed
19th century literature
Nathaniel Hawthorne – The Scarlet Letter
 Published in 1850
 Boston, 1640’s
 Hester Prynne – an adulteress (hence
the letter A)
 Pearl – Hester’s illegitimate daughter
 Arthur Dimmesdale - Hester’s lover, also
the minister
 Roger Chillingworth – Hester’s husband,
believed dead
19th century literature
Nathaniel Hawthorne – The Scarlet Letter
Themes in The Scarlet Letter:
 Open vs. Overt Guilt / Honesty
 Hate
 Jealousy
 Loyalty
 Religion
 Nature vs. Man-made communities
Watch the SparkNotes summary
19th century literature
Mark Twain: 1835-1910
Mark Twain (the pen name used by
Samuel Langhorne Clemens) was the first
major American writer to be born away
from the East Coast – in Hannibal, in the
border state of Missouri. His regional
masterpieces were the memoir Life on the
Mississippi and the novels Adventures of
Tom Sawyer and Adventures of
Huckleberry Finn (seen as the first “Great
American Novel”).
He was a master riverboat pilot on the
Mississippi River. ‘Mark Twain’ was the call
made when a boat was in safe water (two
fathoms = 3.7 m).
19th century literature
Mark Twain: 1835-1910
Twain's style – influenced by journalism,
wedded to the vernacular, direct and
unadorned but also highly evocative and
irreverently humorous – changed the way
Americans write their language. His
characters speak like real people and
sound distinctively American, using local
dialects, newly invented words, and
regional accents.
Example: “Yo' ole father doan' know yit what
he's a-gwyne to do. (from Huckleberry Finn)
19th century literature
Mark Twain – Huckleberry Finn
 Published in 1884/5
 Age of Realism: 1865-1900
 Mark Twain believed that
humanity's freedom of choice was
limited by the power of outside
forces. Realistic writers like Twain
often set their stories in specific
American regions, rushing to
capture the “local colour” before it
was lost.
 Watch the SparkNotes summary
19th century literature
Mark Twain – Huckleberry Finn
Themes in Huckleberry Finn:
 Racism
 Slavery
 Loyalty/Friendship
 Adventure
 Religion
 Regionality (Missisippi region)
19th century literature
Mark Twain – Huckleberry Finn
Huck is an Unreliable Narrator.
Because he is innocent (a child) it
leads him to make overly charitable
judgments about the characters in
the novel. His credibility therefore is
seriously compromised.
Watch part 3 of the Huckleberry
Finn film to see how Huck’s journey
on the Mississippi begins.