Chapter I: literature of the middle ages
A. ANGLO- Saxon period (5th - 10th centuries)
During the first five centuries of our era and long before that, Britain was inhabited by a people called Kelts,
who lived in tribes.
Britain’s history is considered to begin in the 5th century, when it was invaded from the Continent by the
fighting tribes of Angles, Saxons and Jutes. At the very end of the 5th century they settled in Britain and began
to call themselves English (after the principal tribe of settlers, called English).
Although we know very little of this period from literature some poems have nevertheless reached us. In those
early days songs called epics were created in many countries. The epics tell about the most remarkable events of
a people’s history and the deeds of one or more heroic personages.
The Song of Beowulf
The first masterpiece of English literature, the epic poem The Song of Beowulf, describes the historical past of
the land from which the Angles, Saxons and Jutes came. They brought the subject over from the Continent
when they invaded Britain, and it was made into a poem somewhere about the 7th century.
The story of Beowulf tells of the time when kings Hrothgar ruled the Danes. Hrothgar built a great house for
himself and his man. It has a large hall with flat stones in the centre. All the men slept in this hall. There was a
great feast when the hall was built. During the feast the songs from the hall were heard by a monster that lived
at the bottom of a lonely lake. The gay songs irritated him. When all Hrothgar’s men were asleep, Grendel, the
monster, appeared. He seized thirty of the sleeping men, carried them away and ate them. Night after night the
man disappeared one after another, until Hrothgar had lost nearly all of them.
One day the men that guarded the coast saw a ship approaching the shores of Denmark from Norway. A young
Viking was on board, tall and strong as a young oak-tree. It was Beowulf, who had heard of Grendel and his
doings, He had come to help Hrothgar to kill the monster. He was received with great joy by Hrothgar, who
gave a feast in his honour. When the men lay down to sleep after the feast, Grendel appeared in the dark hall.
He seized Beowulf ad a great struggle began. In this struggle the monster lost his arm, but ran away. Again
there was singing and joy in the hall the next night. But late a night a still more terrible monster, a Water Witch,
appeared. She was Grendel’s mother who had come to kill Beowulf, but she did not find him and disappeared,
carrying away one of the best of Hrothgar’s men. The next day Beowulf went after her and found her a the dead
body of Grendel. With an old sword of the giants that he found there Beowulf killed the Water Witch and cut
off Grendel’s head. Carrying the head he came back to the men who were waiting for him. Later, he returned to
his own people with rich presents from Hrothgar.
The second part of the poems tells us of Beowulf’s deeds when he was king of Norway. A fiery dragon was
destroying his country. Beowulf found the dragon’s cave and a lot of treasure in it.
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Beowulf saved his country- he killed the dragon, but the monster wounded him with his fiery breath. Beowulf
died and his people buried him on a high cliff by the seashore. Over his grave raised a mound and rode around
it, singing a song of mourning.
Thus, the epic The song of Beowulf, tells of some events from a people’s history, sings the heroic deeds of a
man, his courage and his desire of justice, his love for his people and self- sacrifice for the sake of his country.
The poem is a classical example of Anglo-Saxon poetry. It has no rhyme, but each line has alliteration, which is
a repetition, at close interval, of the same consonant in words or syllables. For example, the repetition of the
sounds b and f in the following lines makes them musical and gives them rhyme:
Then the baleful fiend its fire belched out,
And bring home burned. The blaze stood high
And land folk fighting
Another interesting feature of the poem is the use of picture names that show the subject in a new light. The
unknown poet calls the sea a ‘sail-road’, or ‘sat-stream’, the musical instruments ‘joy-wood’, ‘glee-wood’, etc.
These descriptive words, together with the subject, are called double metaphors.
B. Anglo- Norman period (11th-13th centuries)
1. Background
In the year 1066, in the Battle of Hastings, the Anglo- Saxon king’s army was defeated by William, Duke of
Normandy, who became King of England. A strong feudal monarchy was established in the country. The ruling
classes consisted of the Norman nobility and the clergy. The power of the Catholic Church had become very
great. Most of the English people became serfs.
The Normans came from the north-west of France. They brought with them the culture of their country and the
French language. Thus, three languages were spoken in England. The language of the nobility was French; the
churchmen used Latin and the common people spoke Anglo- Saxon.
The three social classes of the country had their own literature. The Normans brought the romance to England.
The romance told of love and adventure and expressed the ideas of knighthood in feudal society.
The literature of the Church was scholastic, moralizing, and it supported the feudal system. The books written in
Latin by monks, taught the common people that they should be poor and obey their masters. Their suffering on
earth, the Church said, would bring them happiness in heaven.
The Anglo- Saxon composed their own popular poetry. The main genres were the fabliaux- funny stories about
townspeople, and the bestiaries- stories in which the characters were animals.
2. Famous writers & their works
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
We can make special mention of only one other romance, which all students should read in modern translation,
namely, 'Sir Gawain (pronounced Gaw'-wain) and the Green Knight.' This is the brief and carefully constructed
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work of an unknown but very real poetic artist, who lived a century and more later than Laghamon and probably
a little earlier than Chaucer. The story consists of two old folk-tales, here finely united in the form of an
Arthurian romance and so treated as to bring out all the better side of knightly feeling, with which the author is
in charming sympathy. Like many other medieval writings, this one is preserved by mere chance in a single
manuscript, which contains also three slightly shorter religious poems (of a thousand or two lines apiece), all
possibly by the same author as the romance. One of them in particular, 'The Pearl,' is a narrative of much fine
feeling, which may well have come from so true a gentleman as he. The dialect is that of the Northwest
Midland, scarcely more intelligible to modern readers than Anglo-Saxon, but it indicates that the author
belonged to the same border region between England and Wales from which came also Geoffrey of Monmouth
and Laghamon, a region where Saxon and Norman elements were mingled with Celtic fancy and delicacy of
temperament. The meter, also, is interesting--the Anglo-Saxon unrimed alliterative verse, but divided into long
stanzas of irregular length, each ending in a 'bob' of five short riming lines.
'Sir Gawain and the Green Knight' may very fittingly bring to a close our hasty survey of the entire NormanFrench period, a period mainly of formation, which has left no literary work of great and permanent fame, but in
which, after all, there were some sincere and talented writers, who have fallen into forgetfulness rather through
the untoward accidents of time than from lack of genuine merit in themselves.
C. The Pre-Renaissance (14th -15th centuries)
1. Background
In this period, the fight between English, Latin & French came to an end. In 1362, the Parliament decided to use
English at courts. In 1399, Henry IV, the first king whose mother tongue was English came to the throne. In
1485, after the war of the Roses (1455 – 1485), the Tudor Age (1485 – 1603), an age that witnessed the growth
and prosperity of the Renaissance, began.
2. Features of literature trends: Folklore & Drama
2.1. Anglo-Saxon folklore
Anglo-Saxon folklore continued its vigorous vitality and flourished in the 15th century ballads. Originally, a
ballad was a song intended as the accompaniment to a dance. The standard ballad verse form is a quatrain, often
with one rhyming pair. Most of the 15th century ballads are centered on a legendary hero of the English people:
Robin Hood.
2.2. Drama
The drama was born in the church. In the early times, the clergymen explained the truths of religion by a series
of living pictures in which the performers acted in dumb show. Later, the actors spoke as well as acted their
parts. The plays were known as Mysteries and Miracles. The performance of these stories in church marked the
first stage in the development of drama. The second stage was reached when the Mysteries and Miracle gave
place to Morality and Interlude. The serious and comic elements in the Mysteries and Miracle were now
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separated. The Morality was didactic and the characters typified certain qualities such as Sin, Grace, and
Repentance. The Interlude was comic and aimed at amusement. The forth stage saw the beginning of English
tragedy and comedy. The Renaissance saw the flourishing of English drama.
3. Famous writers & their works
Geoffrey Chaucer and Canterbury Tales
Geoffrey Chaucer was considered the most famous writer at this time. He was the last poet of the Middle Age
and the first poet who paved the way for English realistic literature.
Chaucer was the author of a number of translations and literary works: Le roman de la rose (translation), The
Book of the Duchess. The Canterbury Tales is his most important work.
The Canterbury Tales is a collection of stories in verse told by people of different social standing. Chaucer had
planned 120 stories but wrote only 24 because death broke off his work.
The Canterbury Tales begins with the General Prologue, a detailed introduction and description of each of the
pilgrims journeying to Canterbury to catch sight of the shrine to Sir Thomas a Becket, the martyred saint of
Christianity, supposedly buried in the Cathedral of Canterbury since 1170. The pilgrims, a mixture of virtuous
and villainous characters from Medieval England, include a Knight, his son the Squire, the Knight's Yeoman, a
Prioress, a Second Nun, a Monk, a Friar, a Merchant, a Clerk, a Man of Law, a Franklin, a Weaver, a Dyer, a
Carpenter, a Tapestry-Maker, a Haberdasher, a Cook, a Shipman, a Physician, a Parson, a Miller, a Manciple, a
Reeve, a Summoner, a Pardoner, the Wife of Bath, and Chaucer himself. They each bring a slice of England to
the trip with their stories of glory, chivalry, Christianity, villainy, disloyalty, cuckoldry, and honor. Some
pilgrims are faithful to Christ and his teachings, while others openly disobey the church and its law of
faithfulness, honor, and modesty.
The pilgrimage begins in April, a time of happiness and rebirth. They pilgrims hope not only to travel in this
blessed time, but to have a rebirth of their own along the way. The pilgrimage consists of these characters
journeying to Canterbury and back, each telling two tales in each direction, as suggested by the host. At the
conclusion of the tales, the host will decide whose story is the best. The Knight is the first to tell a story, one
made up properly of honor and chivalry. His tale is followed by the Miller's opposite tale of dishonor and
frivolity. Chaucer frequently places tales of religion and Christ-like worship with tales of unfaithful women and
cuckolded men. The Reeve, the Cook, and the Man of Law tell the next stories, while the host interjects his
opinions throughout. There are several rivalries that grow from within the intertext, including the small quarrels
between the Friar and Summoner and between the Miller and Reeve. Between each tale, most pilgrims have a
prologue, in which they tell about themselves or allow Chaucer to illustrate the dynamics of the group. The
Friar and the Summoner develop a minor feud, in which they each tell tales of ill-will towards the other's
profession, and the Pardoner brings his own immoral behavior into the Tales. The Wife of Bath is a memorable
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character and is often thought of as a primordial feminist who acts on her own terms instead of those of the
man.
The Canterbury Tales are not fully completed, for the original task of having each pilgrim tell two tales is never
realized. Furthermore, two of the tales are begun and then suddenly cut off before their grand conclusion, such
as the Squire's Tale and the Tale of Sir Thopas. Some of the pilgrims never even tell one story, such as the
Tapestry-Maker and the Haberdasher, and the destination of Canterbury is not explicitly mentioned in the
pilgrims' prologues or Chaucer's Retraction.
Chaucer concludes his tales with a Retraction, asking for mercy and forgiveness from those whom he may have
offended along his course of storytelling and pilgrimage. He hopes to blame his ignorance and lack of education
on any erroneous behavior or language, for he believes that his intentions were all moralistic and honorable. In
the end, he gives all credit to Jesus Christ.
Chapter II: literature of the RENAISSANCE
I. Cultural – Historical Background
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The word’ Renaissance’ was first used by Jules Michelet, a French historian (1780-1874). First of all,
‘Renaissance’ means not only ‘the revived interest in Greek and Roman literatures’ but also ‘the discovery of
the world and human beings’. More than that, it implies ‘the awakening of men’s mind, the awakening of
individual spirit and secularism’.
1. Renaissance: the revived interest in Greek and Roman literatures
It is obvious that, in the Middle Ages, people did read and study Greek and Roman literatures, but the number
of readers of these literatures was very limited among scholars and literary men. Now, thanks to Petrarch’s and
Boccacio’s enthusiasm in propagating the spirit of humanism in Greek and Roman literatures, and thanks to the
invention of the printing machine, the number of readers of ancient writers increased greatly and the reading
and studying of Greek and Roman literatures became an interest. In this period, the spirit of humanism became
assimilated with the studying of those literatures.
2. Renaissance: the discovery of the world and human beings
The Renaissance was a great age of geographical and scientific discoveries.
In geographical field, Christopher Columbus discovered America; Amerigo Vespucci and Vasco da Gama
discovered the Philippines; Magellan travelled around the world and discovered several lads and islands. These
great geographical discoveries opened new horizons and bright prospects for European people; they longed to
discover other continents and people.
In scientific field, Newton discovered ‘Law of Gravity’, Galileo and Copernicus discovered the stars and the
stellar systems, and Kepler discovered the orbits of planets. These scientific discoveries had deep influence on
the concepts of the Middle Ages about the position ad destiny of men in the Universe.
In the Middle Ages, men completely lost their values and position. The Church of Rome taught them that men
were symbols of evils and sins, that they were slaves in this temporary world. They lived and waited for their
emancipation from this earthly hopeless life. They lived and prepared themselves for future life in paradise.
In the Renaissance, men were reborn. They began to accept this world with a much more optimistic attitude.
They enjoyed their present life and realized this earthly life was beautiful ad interesting, that men ha the right to
live and enjoy everything on earth.
3. Renaissance: the awakening of men’s mind, the awakening of individual spirit and secularism
Middle Ages men despised materialistic and sexual desires. Renaissance men were quite different: new land
discoveries, new luxurious life, new economic political and social life all created new will and eagerness in
them. Spiritually, they began to lead a revolt against the strict, cramped and austere pattern of life in the Middle
Ages.
In this age there was also a great shift in the outlook. The thought of the Middle Ages was essentially Godcentred. But humanism, by its very nature, placed a new importance on created things. This emphasis on the
importance of temporal things led to a de-emphasis of God and the eternal life. Renaissance men were no more
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subordinated to God. Their happiness was here, on earth, and it depended on their own strength and ability to
achieve it. Men were their own guides to truth ad happiness.
II. The Elizabethan Drama
1. Origin
Records of drama in English go back to the Middle Ages, a period in which numerous 'Miracle' and 'Morality'
plays were written. Such plays were often based on biblical themes, especially those involving such miraculous
events as the saving of Noah and his family in the ark, or those from which a clear moral could be drawn.
Medieval plays were usually written to coincide with such religious festivals as Christmas or Easter. They were
at first performed in the churches, but later on, the ‘Miracles’ were played on movable stages in the streets.
Out of the ‘Miracles’ arose the ‘moralities’, in which virtues and vices such as Sin, Grace, Repentance, Hope,
Belief, Justice, were personified. A humorous element soon crept into these allegorical productions, which
became a vehicle for satire. On the other hand, ‘Interludes’ (dramatic dialogues with song and clowneries) were
sometimes introduced into them in order to relieve the attention of the spectators. These interludes- in which the
characters were generally drawn from real life- enjoyed great popularity and soon assumed an independent
existence; from them the English Drama was directly evolved.
3. Theatres and Performances at the Close of the 16th Century
From the beginning of the 16th century, there had been in England numerous companies of actors playing either
in London or in provincial towns. But they were regarded by many people as ‘rogues and vagabond’ and their
social status was very uncertain until 1572, when it was provided that actors should be authorized to play under
the protection of some powerful personage: the company would bear its protector’s name, and the players be
called his ‘servants’.
Performances were at first given in inn-yard, the actors playing on a field platform erected on trestles; later on,
regular theatres were built. The companies of actors did not comprise any women: the feminine parts were
played by boys whose voice had not yet broken.
3. The Elizabethan Drama
Elizabethan drama refers to the plays produced while Queen Elizabeth reigned in England, from 1558 until
1603. England during Queen Elizabeth I’s reign is considered to have reached its greatness and glory. The
Queen herself was the symbol of the glory of the country. Despite plagues and other calamities, England grew
prosperous and powerful and deserved to be called ‘Merry England’.
When William Shakespeare came to London to carry on his theatre work, he found everything in his favour: the
theatre alive and strong, people enjoying going to the theatre and plays shrewdly written for the public’s taste.
Since the first public theatre was opened in 1576, a group of talented men called the University Wits had
already developed new types of plays out of old forms and had learned what the public wanted.
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During the years 1590-1600 the whole nation became intensely interested in its past. People loved to watch
plays which sang of patriotism and of their kings. In order to meet this demand, Shakespeare wrote ten plays of
this kind.
Unlike Shakespeare, most playwrights of the time were more practical men, bent on making a living rather than
a noble calling. They may have been well-educated, but they were more eager to fill the theatres than to please
the public and the critics. As a result, drama in England, from the start, was almost a popular art rather than a
learned and classical art it was in France.
A dramatist in those days was likely to be an actor and producer. He joined a company and became its
playwright. He sold his manuscripts to it and kept no personal rights in them. Revising old plays and working
with another man on new ones were common. No manuscripts of Shakespeare, for this reason, have survived,
because they were not printed.
III. Typical Writers and Works
1. William Shakespeare (1564-1616) - The Greatest Humanist and The Idol of The Renaissance
‘No household in the English-speaking world is properly furnished unless it contains a copy of the Holy Bible
and one of the works of William Shakespeare. It is not always thought necessary that these books should be
read in maturer years, but they must be present as symbols of religion and English culture.
Shakespeare has not always been so symbolic a figure. He was an actor and playwright, when neither actors
not the stage were regarded as respectable or of any importance. The notion that he was the supreme genius of
the English race did not began until he had been dead more than a century; but since then it has become so
firmly accepted that no schoolboy can avoid a detailed study of at least one of his plays.
(Introducing Shakespeare- G.N. Harrison)
Details about William Shakespeare’s life are sketchy, mostly mere surmise based upon court or other clerical
records. William Shakespeare, surely the world's most performed and admired playwright, was born in April,
1564 in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, about 100 miles northwest of London. Shakespeare was the eldest
son of Mary Arden, the daughter of a local landowner, and her husband, John Shakespeare (1530-1601), a
glover and wood dealer.
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William no doubt attended the local grammar school in Stratford where his parents lived, and would have
studied primarily Latin rhetoric, logic, and literature. At age 18 (1582), William married Anne Hathaway, a
local farmer’s daughter eight years his senior. Their first daughter (Susanna) was born six months later (1583),
and twins Judith and Hamnet were born in 1585.
Shakespeare’s life can be divided into three periods: the first 20 years in Stratford, which include his schooling,
early marriage, and fatherhood; the next 25 years as an actor and playwright in London; and the last five in
retirement back in Stratford where he enjoyed moderate wealth gained from his theatrical successes. The years
linking the first two periods are marked by a lack of information about Shakespeare, and are often referred to as
the “dark years”; the transition from active work into retirement was gradual and cannot be precisely dated.
William Shakespeare died on April 23, 1616, and was buried two days later in the chancel of Holy Trinity
Church where he had been baptized exactly 52 years earlier.
Written upon William Shakespeare’s tombstone is an appeal that he be left to rest in peace with a curse on those
who would move his bones.
Good friend, for Jesus´ sake forbeare
To digg the dust enclosed here!
Blest be ye man that spares thes stones
And curst be he that moues my bones.
Translation:
Good friend, for Jesus’ sake, forbear
To dig the dust enclosed here;
Blest be the man that spares these stones
And curst he that moves my bones.
William Shakespeare’s works
Scholars distinguish three periods in William Shakespeare’s works:
1. The early period (roughly from 1590 to 1600), during which he wrote mainly gay comedies and
dramatic histories. This is the period of optimism of William Shakespeare.
2. The middle period (roughly from 1600 to 1608), during which he wrote great tragedies and bitter
comedies. This is the period of maturity of William Shakespeare.
3. The late period (roughly from 1609 to 1612), during which he wrote legendary and lyrical plays, and
tragic comedies.
Tragedies
1. Titus Andronicus first performed in 1594 (printed in 1594),
2. Romeo and Juliet 1594-95 (1597),
3. Hamlet 1600-01 (1603),
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4. Julius Caesar 1600-01 (1623),
5. Othello 1604-05 (1622),
6. Antony and Cleopatra 1606-07 (1623),
7. King Lear 1606 (1608),
8. Coriolanus 1607-08 (1623), derived from Plutarch
9. Timon of Athens 1607-08 (1623), and
10. Macbeth 1611-1612 (1623).
Histories
11. King Henry VI Part 1 1592 (printed in 1594);
12. King Henry VI Part 2 1592-93 (1594);
13. King Henry VI Part 3 1592-93 (1623);
14. King John 1596-97 (1623);
15. King Henry IV Part 1 1597-98 (1598);
16. King Henry IV Part 2 1597-98 (1600);
17. King Henry V 1598-99 (1600);
18. Richard II 1600-01 (1597);
19. Richard III 1601 (1597); and
20. King Henry VIII 1612-13 (1623)
Comedies
21. Taming of the Shrew first performed 1593-94 (1623),
22. Comedy of Errors 1594 (1623),
23. Two Gentlemen of Verona 1594-95 (1623),
24. Love's Labour's Lost 1594-95 (1598),
25. Midsummer Night's Dream 1595-96 (1600),
26. Merchant of Venice 1596-1597 (1600),
27. Much Ado About Nothing 1598-1599 (1600),
28. As You Like It 1599-00 (1623),
29. Merry Wives of Windsor 1600-01 (1602),
30. Troilus and Cressida 1602 (1609),
31. Twelfth Night 1602 (1623),
32. All's Well That Ends Well 1602-03 (1623),
33. Measure for Measure 1604 (1623),
34. Pericles, Prince of Tyre 1608-09 (1609),
35. Tempest (1611),
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36. Cymbeline 1611-12 (1623),
37. Winter's Tale 1611-12 (1623).
2. Typical Works
Hamlet- Prince of Denmark
Critique
Hamlet is without question the most famous play in the English language. Probably written in 1601 or 1602, the
tragedy is a milestone in Shakespeare’s dramatic development; the playwright achieved artistic maturity in this
work through his brilliant depiction of the hero’s struggle with two opposing forces: moral integrity and the
need to avenge his father’s murder.
Shakespeare’s focus on this conflict was a revolutionary departure from contemporary revenge tragedies, which
tended to graphically dramatize violent acts on stage, in that it emphasized the hero’s dilemma rather than the
depiction of bloody deeds. The dramatist’s genius is also evident in his transformation of the play’s literary
sources—especially the contemporaneous Ur-Hamlet—into an exceptional tragedy. The Ur-Hamlet, or
“original Hamlet,” is a lost play that scholars believe was written mere decades before Shakespeare’s Hamlet,
providing much of the dramatic context for the later tragedy. Numerous sixteenth-century records attest to the
existence of the Ur-Hamlet, with some references linking its composition to Thomas Kyd, the author of The
Spanish Tragedy. From these sources Shakespeare created Hamlet, a supremely rich and complex literary work
that continues to delight both readers and audiences with its myriad meanings and interpretations.
In the words of Ernest Johnson, “the dilemma of Hamlet the Prince and Man” is “to disentangle himself from
the temptation to wreak justice for the wrong reasons and in evil passion, and to do what he must do at last for
the pure sake of justice.… From that dilemma of wrong feelings and right actions, he ultimately emerges,
solving the problem by attaining a proper state of mind.” Hamlet endures as the object of universal
identification because his central moral dilemma transcends the Elizabethan period, making him a man for all
ages. In his difficult struggle to somehow act within a corrupt world and yet maintain his moral integrity,
Hamlet ultimately reflects the fate of all human beings.
3. William Shakespeare’s Sonnets
What is a sonnet?
The sonnet came to birth in Sicile at the court of King Frederic I (1123-1190) – a Holy Roman emperor. His
Chancellor Piteo Della Vigna, is generally credited with the invention of the sonnet, evolving from Sicilian folk
songs.
These early sonneteers rhymed the first eight lines, or octet, of the sonnet abababab. To the octet is added a sixline stanza called the sestet, rhyming abcac, or ababa. Petrach sometimes concluded his sonnets with a couplet
aa or cc.
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English has not so many rhyme sounds as Italian so it is natural that in Elizabethan England, a new sonnet form
developed in which only two rhymes of each sound were demanded. Hence, we have the English sonnet, or
Shakespearean sonnet, which has three four- line units or quatrains and a concluding couple. The English sonnet
rhyme scheme is ababcdcdefefgg.
William Shakespeare’s Sonnets
William Shakespeare’s Sonnets are an island of poetry surrounded by a barrier of icebergs and dense fog; or in
the metaphor of Sir Walter Raleigh, the modern Oxford scholar. They have been used like wedding cakes, not
to eat but to dream upon.
The Sonnets of William Shakespeare appeared, without his permission, in 1609 and advertised as "never before
imprinted". The publisher, although reputable, clearly wanted to make use of the celebrity of William
Shakespeare who by 1609 was a famous member of the Globe Theatre and could count royalty amongst his
patrons. The 1609 quarto, entitled Shakespeare’s Sonnets, was published by Thomas Thorpe, printed by George
Eld, and sold by William Aspley and William Wright
Though it is hard to find a clear composition for the 154 sonnets by Shakespeare, on the whole we can
understand that these sonnets are about an ideal frank emotional friendship between the poet and a noble
handsome young man who was uninterruptedly praised by Shakespeare; and about a love affair between the
poet and an attractive charming Dark Lady, who was once an unlimited source of his happiness and
unhappiness. Through these sonnets, we also know that his old friend and his Muse did meet each other, did
love each other, and by so doing, both did betray him, both did bring him great sorrow ad grief, though he did
his best to try an explanation for their wrongdoings and forgive them.
This sonnet, sonnet 116, may have been written in the hours of his great sorrow and grief, in his anguish and
disappointment, about a shattered belief in love and friendship.
Sonnet 116
Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O no! it is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come:
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
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But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.
Chapter III: the classical literature (1603-1689)
I. Cultural – Historical Background
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After the death of Shakespeare, great changes took place in English life and thought. England began to split into
two warring camps: the king’s and the Parliament’s. The division was between the old and the new way of life.
On the one hand was the conservative element of the country- those who derived their wealth from the land,
from old estates, and who supported the reigning monarch and accepted the established religion of England. On
the other hand were those whose livelihood came from trade, who belonged to the town, who wanted a greater
share in the government of the country, and who thought that the Reformation of religion in England had not
gone far enough.
The new men of England, the men who gained their wealth from trade, were inclined to a sort of religious belief
very different from the established faith of England. They were for the most part Puritans: they wanted a purer
kind of Christianity than the Reformation had brought to the country. They wanted a Christianity so pure that it
would admit of no toleration, no joy, no colour, no charity; an austere religion which frowned on easy pleasure,
and published moral crimes in the most savage manner.
Briefly speaking, the 17th- century England was a time of conflicts between the king and the Parliament,
between English Protestants and Puritans. These conflicts became so acute under the reign of King Charles I
that they led to the Civil War, followed by the Restoration of the Monarchy and the ‘Glorious Revolution’.
1. The Civil War (also called The Bourgeois Revolution, 1640-1648)
After Queen Elizabeth died in 1603, James VI of Scotland became James I of England and Scotland, the first
king of The Stuarts. Being an extravagant and licentious king, James I brought with him to England the Scottish
courtiers. To make up for his luxurious expenditures and expensive court, the king was forced to impose and
raise taxes, which was rejected by the parliament dominated by puritans. The dispute between the king and the
parliament became more and more acute when Charles I, son of James I, succeeded the throne in 1652 ad very
later imprisoned those Parliament members who tried to prevent him from doing what he wanted. As a result,
the Civil War (1640-1648) between the two camps- the King’s army and the Parliament’s army- broke out.
Charles I was captured and beheaded in 1649. The Commonwealth of England (with Oliver Cromwell as Lord
Protector) was set up in 1649.
2. The Restoration of the Monarchy (1660)
No sooner had the Commonwealth been established than it developed into a tyrannical government. The
republic under the dictatorship of Cromwell imposed on England a way of life that she had never known before.
As a result, the hopes and beliefs that English people placed on Oliver Cromwell began to shatter. The political
situation in England became worse with the death of Cromwell in 1658. His son, Richard, was too inferior to his
father in intelligence and will power to maintain his heredity title (i.e. Lord Protector of The Commonwealth of
England) and to unite the Parliament’s army. England fell into a state of chaos and Charles II, an exile in
France, was called back to England to ascend the throne in 1660, restoring the English monarchy.
3. The ‘Glorious Revolution’ (1688)
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Leaving France, Charles II was promised a warm support by Louise XIV on two conditions:
1. not to interfere in the political arena in Europe, and
2. to yield certain concessions to the Roman Catholics in England.
Everything seemed to be going well until Charles’ death. In 1685, Charles II died without direct issue and let
the crown to his brother, James II. As a Stuart king, James II inherited all the extravagance licentiousness of the
Stuarts. On the other hand, James II was an extremely fanatical Stuart, who tried to play the all- powerful
monarch, regardless of the compromise between Charles II and Louis XIV. Therefore, James II was no more
supported by King Sun of France and he had to pay the price. In 1688, an arrangement was made among the top
layers for James II to flee to France, leaving the crown to his daughter, Mary, and his son-in-law, William of
Orange. This event was known as the ‘Glorious Revolution’, making the end of the Absolute Monarchy and the
beginning of the Constitutional Monarchy in England.
II. Literature
The changes that took place in political and religious life of England were truthfully reflected in the literature of
the 17th century. The Bourgeois Revolution which had sent Charles I to the scaffold and banished the Stuarts ha
been no less religious than political, for the men who opposed unrestrained royal prerogative were in majority
earnest religious men, imbued with Calvinistic principles. These men, known by the name of Puritans, had risen
to power with the establishment of the Commonwealth. The sincerity of this religious fervour is revealed by
Milton’s ‘Paradise Lost’ and Bunyan’s ‘Pilgrim’s Progress’. But the Puritan rule (1648-1660) soon degenerated
into a sombre tyranny, and the ludicrous satire of Butler, the ‘Hudibras’- a reaction against Puritanism- bears
witness to the disaffection of the public for the ‘government of the godly’.
The Puritans had overstrained men’s moral capacities ad severely punished moral crimes: on the king’s return in
1660, there was a general outburst of frivolity. The stage- always a faithful mirror of the stage of society- was
invaded with the licentiousness of the times, and there was not a comedy of Dryden, Wycherley, Vanbrugh,
Congreve, and Farquhar which was not tainted with it. Against this genera depravity, Jeremy Collier, in his
‘Short Review of the Immorality of the English Stage’ (1698), raised a vehement protest.
There was a dark period for the development of stage in England. During the Puritan rule, theatres were closed
because pleasure was regarded as sinful and stage was thought to be the world of devils. After the downfall of
the absolutely monarchy in England, the Cavaliers had emigrated to France, mostly to Paris, where, being
playgoers, they had attended the performances given at the Hotel de Bourgogne and the Palais Royal: this was
the very moment when the masterpieces of Corneille (‘Le Cid’, 1636; ‘Horace’, 1640) were calling forth
tempests of applause. The English exiles were conquered by the orderly pomp, noble pathos and psychological
depth of the French ‘classical drama’, and naturally desired, when the Restoration had brought them back to
England, to have performances of s similar kind. However, the plays written under Charles II were quite
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different from those written under Elizabeth: they were written in service of the king and his court, not in
service of the public.
Dryden (1631-1700), the most distinguished Cavalier poet and playwright, accordingly turned out heroic
dramas written in conformity to the French pattern. His tragedy ‘All for Love’ (1678) was at the time
considered as fine as Shakespeare’s ‘Antony and Cleopatra. But, as a tragic writer, Dryden was surpassed by
Otway (1652-1685), whose two tragedies ‘The Orphan’ (1680) and ‘Venice Preserved’ (1682) won European
fame.
In prose, the business of writers became to express thoughts in a clear, straight-forward, conversational
language, intelligible to any men of sense. Dryden, in his essay ‘Of Dramatic Poesie’(1668), and Locke, in his
essay ‘Concerning Human Understanding’(1690) gave models of an easy, yet dignified prose style, hardly to be
improved upon by the artists of the age of Pope. But prose in the 17 th century flourished among Puritan writers,
especially with John Bunya and John Milton, the latter being also a first-rate poet.
III. Typical Writers and Works
Typical Writers: John Milton
John Milton (1608-74) is the first great literary personality of England. He came from a London family with a
certain amount of money. He never had to earn his own living. He had leisure and was able to study, equip
himself with more learning than any previous great poets. His father was a composer of music and he himself
was blessed with musical ear. Later he was blind and his greatest work is written after this calamity struck him.
One of his great works is “On the morning of Christ’s Nativity”, in which he is not content merely to praise the
new-born heavenly-child, but must describe his victory over the false gods. From most of his works, we can see
that he was destined to be the man alone, finding no pleasure in the gay world about him. Some see Milton as
the egocentric, the proud self-centered men around whom the universe revolts: what he wants, god also must
want. If his marriage is a failure, the marriage law must be altered. If he despises woman then woman must be
despicable. According to him, he is never wrong. It is fitting epilogue to the career of this great poet. Even in
his last days, Milton is still experimentary with verse and language, producing new tones and rhythms (even
new word like “eye-witness”). In the new cynical, bright and corrupt England of Charles II, some of his works
stand as a monument to an age whose literary glories, whose moral aspirations, whose genuinely heroic spirit
can never be approached in the centuries to come. Milton is the last of the old.
Typical Work: ‘Paradise Lost’
In 1667 John Milton bestowed his great masterpiece, Paradise Lost, upon the world. In 1674 the revised second
edition was published, where he divided the original ten books into twelve and added the introductory
summaries or "Arguments" for each book at the request of confused early readers.
Chapter IV: the age of enlightenment (1689-1798)
I. Cultural – Historical Background
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The period from the middle of the 17th century to the end of the 18th century is often regarded as the historical
background for the appearance of the Enlightenment in England. Some remarkable events in this period were:
1. The Dispute of Power between the Tory and the Whig
The Bourgeois Revolution (1648) gave birth to two conflicting parties: the Whig and the Tory.
The Whig, set up by Lord Shaftesbury, belonged to the Low Church, consisting of city merchants, financiers,
bourgeoisie, and dissenters.
The Tory, set up by Dryden, belonged to the High Church, consisting of great landowners, aristocrats, and
clergymen.
In the 18th century, these two parties alternately ruled England. Their continuous disputes threw the English
political and social life into confusion.
2. The Rise of the British Empire
This was a period of the British colonial expansion. It began a time when ‘The sun never sets on the British
Empire’. Ireland was deprived of all rights; Scotland agreed to unite with England; England defeated Louis XIV
in the two wars with France and got hold of Gibralta, ‘a western key to Mediterranean Sea; most of the French
colonies in America were handed to England; Senegal and India went to England, too. The conquered lands
were used as the sources of cheap raw materials.
3. The Beginning of the Industrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution was initiated by the inventions of various kinds of machines in the 2nd half of the 18th
century. With new machines, either invented or imported, the English industry, especially the textile and mine
industries, developed rapidly. Along with the expansion of the British Empire, the enlargement of the British
market and the increasing standard of living of English people, the Industrial Revolution precipitated the
development of England into a big capitalist country.
II. Literature
The 18th century in England as well as in Europe, was the age of REASON. The writers’ central problems were
the study of ma and the origin of his virtues ad vices. Believing that’ Vice is due to ignorance’, they started a
movement for the enlightenment of the people.
The terminology ‘Enlightenment’ indicates the historical role of the bourgeoisie in the age of the Bourgeois
Revolution in comparison with the corrupt feudalism by recalling the contrast between light and dark. It also
implies the progress of the ideological movement and literature in the 18th century.
Being a period of political intrigue and increasing intellectual tendencies, the age of Enlightenment was
favourable to the development of prose rather than of poetry.
The literature of this time was illustrated by such masters of prose as Swift, the prince of English satirist; Defoe,
the father of the English novel; Adison and Steele, the creators of English essay-writing; and Pope, the
acknowledge ruler of the literary world of his day.
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The Enlightenment writers belonged to two groups:

The first group wanted to better the world by teaching including Joseph Addison, Richard Steele, Daniel
Defoe, and Alexander Pope.

The second group openly protested against vicious social orders in their social satires, including
Jonathan Swift, Henry Fielding and Robert Burns.
III. Typical Writers and Works
1. Daniel Defoe (1660 – 1731)
Daniel Defoe is rightly considered the father of the English and the European novel, for it was due to him that
the genre became once and for ever established in European literature.
Daniel Defoe’s life was complicated and adventurous. He was the son of a London butcher whose name was
Foe, to which Daniel later added the prefix De. He sometimes used it separately giving his name a French
sound. His father, being a puritan, wanted his son to become a priest. Daniel was educated at theological school.
However, he never became a priest, for he looked for another business to apply his abilities to. He became a
merchant, first in wine, then in hosiery. He traveled in Spain, Germany, France and Italy on business. Though
his travels were few they, however, gave him, a man of rich imagination, material for his future novels. Foe’s
business was not very successful and he went bankrupt more than once. He took an active part in the political
life of Britain. In 1685 he participated in the Duke of Monmouth’s revolt against James II. The rebellion was
defeated in a compromise of the aristocracy and the bourgeoisie and resulted in a compromise of these two
classes. After this defeat, Defoe had to hide himself for some time. When the Dutchman William of Orange
came to throne of England in 1688, Defoe was among his most active supporters.
It was in his later years, however, that Defoe wrote the novels for which he is now justly famous. They were
perhaps the first books that conform to the term "novel", and brought him great success. 1719's Robinson
Crusoe and its sequel, the Farther Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, are probably the most famous, but soon he
had published Captain Singleton (1720), Moll Flanders (1722), A Journal of the Plague Year (1722) and
Roxana (1724). These novels were extremely influential and showed a journalist's interest in realistic
description. Many of the works written after Roxana were travel books (e.g. A New Voyage round the World
(1724) and A Tour through the Whole Island of Great Britain (1724-6)). Defoe's simple but effective prose style
ensured him widespread popularity and he is seen as the father of the English Novel, as well as the first
journalist of great individual merit. He died in his lodgings on April 24, 1731.
Typical Work: Robinson Crusoe
Critique
2. Jonathan Swift (1667 – 1745)
The greatest satirist in the history of English literature, Jonathan Swift, was the contemporary of Steele,
Addision, Defoe and other English enlighteners of the early period. However, he stood apart from them, for
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while they supported the bourgeois order, Swift, by criticizing different aspects of the bourgeois life came to the
negation of the bourgeois society. Lunacharsky called Swift one of the first critics of bourgeois system and
capitalist reality.
Jonathan Swift was born on November 30, 1667 in Dublin in an English family. His father died seven months
before Jonathan’s birth leaving his family in poverty. Jonathan was brought up by his prosperous uncle Godwin
Swift who sent him to school and then to Trinity College in Dublin.
There he studied theology and later became a clergyman. His favorite subjects, however, were not theology but
literature, history and language. At 21 Swift went to live in England and became a private secretary of distant
relative, Sir William Temple, a writer and a well-known diplomat of the time. At Moor Park, Sir William estate,
Swift made friends with Hester Jonson, the daughter of one of Temple’s servants, fourteen years his junior.
Hester, or Stella as Swift poetically called her, remained his faithful friend through all his life. His letters to her,
written in 1710-1713, were later published in the form of a book under the title of Journal Stella.
During the two years at Moor Park, Swift read and studied much and in 1692 he took his Master of Arts Degree
at Oxford University. With the help of Sir William, Swift got the place of vicar in a small church in Kilroot
(Ireland) where he stayed for a year and a half. Then he came back to Moor Park and lived there till Sir
William’s death in 1698.
Typical Works: Gulliver’s Travels
Critique
Swift is best known for his satires. In Gulliver’s Travels, his masterpiece, he satirizes the evils of the existing
society in the form of fictitious travels.
In the first voyage to Lilliput, Gulliver finds himself in a country of very small people. He feels contempt for
their ideas, customs and institutions. The Emperor boasts that he is the delight of the Universe while as a matter
of fact; he is just as tall as a snail. Swift satirizes the hypocrisy, hostility and flattery of England in the 18 th
century.
In the second voyage to Brobdingnag, Gulliver lives in the land of giants. They are generally good-nature
creatures and treat him kindly though they were amused by his size. So we can see that Brobdingnag is an
expression of Swift’s desire to escape from the disgusting world and create an ideal monarch with a clever,
honest and kind king.
Jonathan Swift’s bitterness of satire reaches its climax in Gulliver’s third trip to Laputa. Swift ridicules the
scientists of 18th century who are isolated from the world. They are busy inventing stupid things, such as:
extracting sunbeams out of cucumbers, building houses beginning at the roof, etc. All these things don’t serve
any practical purpose and unfamiliar to humanity as a whole.
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Gulliver’s last voyage is the most biting satire of all. He finds a land governed by horses of highest intelligence
and uprightness. In this region, peace and contentment are never destroyed by disease, flattery, cheats, bribery
and social evils. These beastly creatures show Swift’s extreme pessimism caused by a deep contempt and hatred
for humanity.
Through his Gulliver’s Travel, Jonathan Swift has shown that he is the greatest satirist in English literature.
Critics have suggested that Swift intended the novel to be both an attack on mankind and its follies and a honest
assessment of mankind's positive and negative qualities. It is also considered a critique of the greatest moral,
philosophical, scientific, and political ideas of Swift's time. The greatest and most lasting accomplishment of
Gulliver's Travels may be its ability to encourage readers of any society at any time to raise important questions
about mankind's limitations, how we can structure our institutions to bring out the best in people, and what it
means to be human.
Chapter v: the 19th century English literature
A. The English Romanticism (1798-1832)
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I. Cultural – Historical Background
1. The American Revolution (1775-1783)
The American Revolution was the symbol of the growth of national consciousness in America in the last
decades of the 18th century. In May 1775, the Second Continental Congress of the 13th English colonies faced a
most basic decision: the irresistible demand for national independence. Under the leadership of George
Washington, the Colonial Army fought a heroic people’s war against Great Britain to win independence ad set
up the new United States Government. A great new nation was born on September 3, 1783 when Great Britain
reluctantly signed the peace treaty which recognized the independence of the United States of America.
The success of the American Revolution had a great influence on the political life in England. The words of the
Declaration of Independence, which was passed on 4th July 1776 by Congress, awakened all people outside the
USA the truth’ All men are created equal’.
2. The French Revolution
The French Revolution was an inevitable outcome of difficulties in both economics and politics after the
century-long wars with England. The growing bourgeoisie, supported by the starving peasants and the town
poor, went revolutionary. The success of the French Revolution (14/7/1789) also had a deep influence on
England. English workers and petty bourgeoisie, following the example of the French Revolution, stated acting.
‘Correspondence Societies’ sprang up everywhere with quite radical programmes for universal suffrage,
freedom of speech, unions, press, meeting, etc.
English literary men, in particular, welcomed the French Revolution as a new fresh air that breathed hope into
human hearts.
3. The ‘Holly Alliance’
Considering a revolutionary France under the leadership of the militarist Napoleon dangerous, England joined
other European countries to cancel Napoleon’s ambitions to conquer Europe. Defeating Napoleon at the battle
of Waterloo in 1815 England, together with her allies, set up the’Holly Alliance’. The ‘Holly Alliance’ tried to
do everything that a reactionary alliance could do to return to the pre-1789 state, and to suppress democratic
trends and revolutionary ideas. Europe entered a state of disillusionment.
4. The Industrial Revolution
With the inventions of new machines already well started in the second half of the 18th century, and with the
expansion of the United Kingdom after the fall of the Napoleonic empire, England became a powerful,
prosperous manufacturing country.
The changes that the Industrial Revolution brought about had both good ad bad effects on the social life of this
country. On the one hand, industrialization increased the wealth of the nation; on the other hand, it caused much
suffering to the working people who were thrown out of work by the introduction of machinery into mines ad
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mills. As a result, the workers began to attack workplaces, breaking machines and calling themselves Luddites.
The Luddite movement became widespread and caused lots of trouble and damage to the State.
5. The Post-War England
Filled with the dread of revolutions, the Torries in power were conservative and reactionary. Every reform was
opposed. Every democratic trend was suppressed.
In accordance with the Torry’s reactions, new economic ideas were moulded, drowning the labouring poor
more deeply into the gulf of poverty and misery. Thomas Robert Malthus (1766-1834) initiated’ Diminishing
Returns’, an economic theory which stated that, after a certain point, further increases in a particular factor of
production lead to progressively smaller increases in output. Malthus is best remembered to the world as the
British economist who wrote ‘An Essay on the Principle of Population’ (1798), arguing that a population
without planning increased faster than food production. In his opinion, poverty was impossible to eradicate
because population increased by geometrical progression whereas food and natural resources increased by
arithmetical progression. Therefore, the only thing to do was to prohibit the marriages among the poor, or
prohibit them multiplying. Otherwise, they would starve. Adam Smith (1723-1790), the author of ‘The Wealth
of the Nations’ (1776) suggested letting things work themselves out according to the ‘law of supply and
demand’. This economic idea led to the false conclusion that no struggle was necessary. In addition, ‘The Poor
Law’ (1834) drove the poor and beggars, whose subsidies were cut according to this la, to workhouses- the
‘Bastilles’ of the proletarians.
II. Literature
1. What is meant by ‘Romanticism’?
As an –ISM in literature, Romanticism was the embodiment of disillusionment and negative attitudes towards
the actual world.
Firstly, it was the embodiment of disillusionment in the consequences of the French Revolution. The
atmosphere of reaction overspreading Brittan and Europe after the formation of the ‘Holly Alliance’ seemed to
destroy the expectation to live in Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity.
Romanticism, secondly, was the embodiment of the negative attitudes of various social layers towards the way
of life that the Industrial Revolution bourgeoisie created. Under the omnipotence of money, the 19 th century
bourgeoisie led a snobbish artificial selfish life. To escape from this state of sickness, the romantics on the one
had, advocated returning to NATURE, to the meadows and mountains, where man can find himself and his
fellow-countrymen, where his soul can be saved from corruption. On the other hand, the romantics tried to
construct dream worlds from their own imagination as a refuge for their souls. The individual man, as a result,
began to shrink into his self and drown himself in the solitary ego: loneliness became a disease of the age.
As an approach to literature, Romanticism was the embodiment of the revolt against Classicism both in topic ad
in style. Topically, the great romantic poets found their inspiration chiefly in the simplicities of everyday life:
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an ordinary sunset, a walk over the hills, a cluster of spring flowers, the song of a nightingale, a cottage girl, etc.
Stylistically, the romantics expressed their feelings in everyday language, easily understood by all.
In general, in Romanticism, Reason gave way to Imagination, Feelings and Emotions. Romanticism was no
more the age of reason; it was the age of imagination and emotions.
There are six essential features of this historical romanticism:
-
A deep interest in nature and in obscure, humble or underprivileged people
-
A vivid imagination that can produce supernatural of fantastic dream worlds
-
An enthusiasm in fighting against tyrannical authority and glorifying liberty
-
A love for the remote in time and distance
-
A sense of disappointment mixed with a melancholy mood
-
A revolution in literary language-use
2. Romanticism in English Poetry
2.1. The Two Generations of the Romantics
The Conservative Trend (The Lake School)
Early in 1798 William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and Robert Southey formed a group called ‘The
Lake School’. The school was named after the beautiful lake in the North West of England where Wordsworth,
Coleridge, and Southey had been living for a long time.
The Lake poets underwent evolution in their political views and creative activities. They started with protesting
against social injustice, showing their interest in vital social problems of their time. They admired the French
Revolution so warmly that Wordsworth even travelled to France to witness the great liberation of mankind. But
later on, frightened by the blood and fire across the water, they went over to the side of reaction and started
rejecting both economic and social progress. They regretted being unwise in welcoming the French Revolution
and in believing that REASON was capable of creating an equal society. They turned away from the ideas of
the Enlightenment to the distrust of reason and rationalism. They bent their pens towards the idealization of the
patriarchal feudal past and medieval attitudes.
The Progressive Trend (The Cockney School)
Quite opposed to the conservative trend of Romanticism was the progressive trend known as the Cockney
School, whose representatives were Lord Byron, Percy Bysshe Shelly, and John Keats.
The representative of this school expressed the ideas and interests of the classes that were disappointed to see
the state of things which was a result of the capitalist development. They saw its negative sides and criticized
them. But their criticism was much more than a confirmation of the patriarchal ideas of the past, their criticism
was the expression of the longing for a better present and a wonderful future. They were little interested in the
past, only mindful of the present. Their eyes were fixed on the current affairs on the days. Their works, in
general, embodied the dream of social justice that the broad masses of people cherished.
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2.2. Contrasts between the two generations of Romanticism
Between the two generations of Romanticism there are remarkable contrasts:
Wordsworth Coleridge and Southey reached manhood in the early years of the French Revolution. They were
thoroughly imbued with revolutionary ideas, and conceived boundless hopes of regeneration of mankind. They
were bitterly disappointed when they realized that the French Revolution deviated from its noble aims, and that
the golden age promised by prophets and politicians was receding into an ever-remoter future. They accordingly
reconciled themselves with more orderly notions. They idealized medieval attitude, patriarchal feudal past and
mysterious religious doctrines and they tried to escape from the actual world to look for the ‘paradise lost’ as a
refuge for their own sufferings. In a word, the old romantics were indeed UNPRACTICAL CONSERVATIVE
DREAMERS.
Byron, Shelly, and Keas came of age at the very moment when Europe was smoking with ruins and the Holy
Alliance was dictating its orders to exhausted peoples. They had inherited the noble aspirations of their elders,
but felt frustrated in their very youth; Byron sought for a remedy of ennui in action: he travelled and fought, and
fell on the soil of Greece. Shelly, filled with revolutionary spirit to the core, tried to carry out his principles of
life, and reaped disaster: from his misery he found a refuge in the worship of intellectual beauty and in the
composition of poems expressing his unshattered belief in the ultimate triumph of justice and goodness. Keats,
the frailest of the three, drew aside from the turmoil of the world, drank deep at the fountains of beauty and died
at 26. But all these young romantics were PRACTICAL REVOLUTIONARY DREAMERS. They rose against
the tyrannical authority and social injustice in the hope to change the world with their own individual actions.
They did not bend their pens and have any compromise with the bourgeoisie in their struggle for social justice
and for a better future for the common people.
III. Typical Writers and Works
1. William Wordsworth (1770-1850)
The life of William Wordsworth was quiet and eventful. He was born in Cockermouth, Cumberland in 1770 and
spent the great part of his life in the mountains of the Lake District, where he was very deeply influenced by the
natural beauty of the country, and was always in sympathy with the humble people.
In 1788 William Wordsworth went to St John’s College, Cambridge, but no professor he met in his university
classes as much impressed on him as did the sky and the trees and the wild flowers of his native region: he
preferred devoting most of his time to the admiration of Nature to cramming for any exams at Cambridge
University; and he was more interested in reading books than in listening to the lectures.
On leaving the university, he spent a few months in London, and then crossed over to France (1790). He found
this country ‘mad with joy’ and was ready to give what aid he could to the French Republicans. He resided in
France three years. There he met two people who did change his life: Captain Michel Beaupuy, who propagated
and explained the noble aims of the French Revolution to him; and Miss Annette Vallon, with whom he fell in
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love ad gave birth to a daughter, Caroline. Attracted by the fresh air of the Revolution and the first sweet
flavour of love, he intended to devote his whole life to France and his whole heart to the French woman, but,
unfortunately, he was compelled to return to England because his relatives stopped his supplies of money.
However, he still hoped that he would return to France someday to live with his beloved wife. But the war
between England and France in 1793 broke his heart ad his hope. He did not meet his wife until 1802. No
sooner had they lived with each other in the same roof than they had to say goodbye to each other, because there
appeared some gloomy clouds in their happy sky. He was by this time experiencing a severe intellectual crisis:
continuous bloody events in France left him disillusioned and pessimistic; his dreams of brotherhood were
shattered.
With a broken heart for love and with a disillusioned and pessimistic soul for the development of the French
Revolution, he came back to his own inwards, leading a secluded life in the valley of Grasmere, the heart of his
beloved Lake District. He asked Nature and Poetry to give him the peaceful joys for which his mind was
thirsting. From then on, he withdrew from urban civilization and sought consolation in the country life.
William Wordsworth’s Poetry
Wordsworth on Nature
Nature is an unfinished treasure of romantic souls. To Wordsworth, Nature is the most valuable and beloved
source of living. He blames people who spend so much of their energy in the materialistic life that their lives
become senseless and sordid:
‘The world is too much with us; late and soon,
Getting and spending we lay waste our powers:
Little we see in Nature that is ours; we have given our heats away, a sordid boon’.
Wordsworth’s aim as poet was to search for beauty in Nature- in mountains, woods, and streams- ad to explain
this beauty to the soul of man. All the sights and sounds of Nature attracted him, and he was always looking for
an idea behind or under the beauty. As for him, Nature has a soul. The soul of man had been corrupted by town
civilization, but the soul of Nature was not. So the best way for man was to enter into communication with
Nature’s soul and Nature would lift him out of himself and place him in a higher state in which the soul of
Nature and the soul of man were united in a single harmony. The belief led him to the conclusion that nature
was man’s best moral teacher:
‘Let Nature be your teacher’.
Nature, to Wordsworth, has a message to Man. And in order to find out such a message, he tried to’ see into the
life of thing’. A wonderful sunset with its glorious colours, meant more to him than just the end of another day.
It seemed to him to be full of ‘The light that never was on sea or lad’. He felt more than he saw or heard, and it
was this feeling, which came to him direct from Nature or God, that he tried to describe in his poetry.
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Flowers, especially wild flowers such as the primrose and the daffodils gave him Nature’s message to man.
Most of us can see how beautiful even a common flower is, ad admire its loveliness and its scent. We may even
feel the beauty in our hearts as well as see it with our eyes. But how many can describe, or make clear to others,
what this feeling is? Wordsworth could, at any rate, make us realize that what we feel at the sight of a beautiful
flower is the flower’s way of speaking to us. Or it is Nature speaking to us through the flower.
‘To me the meanest flower that blows can give
Thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears’.
To Wordsworth, poetry meant experience of this kind- moments of deep feeling- which he could remember
later when his mind was at rest. Then was the time to write them down. He did not forget what he had heard or
seen.
‘The music in my heart I bore
Long after it was heard no more’.
In short, more than any other poets of his time, Wordsworth clearly realized the relation and interaction between
the inward life of Man and the outdoor life of the objective world. Nature, no wonder, was his religion; and he
himself was ‘Nature’s high priest’.
Wordsworth on Man
Wordsworth’s love of Nature is seen not only in his admiration of natural beauty but also in his understanding
of the simple men and women of the valleys and hills of the Lake District, humble people with ordinary joys ad
sorrows. He understood the character of the poor, believed in them and admired them. He saw their courage,
strength ad hope:
‘Love had he found in huts where poor men lie,
His daily teachers had been woods and rills, the silence that is in the starry sky,
The sleep that is among the lonely hills.’
Many of his poems are about these neighbours of his, the men, women, and children among whom he lived,
people about whom little real poetry had been written in the past. In his poems on Nature, when dealing with the
source of Goodness (and especially when expressing the significance of Goodness), Wordsworth always
established his absolute belief in the noble value of the commoners. In his poems on Man, he dealt with the
primal qualities where Ma and Nature touch and blend. Thus his love for Nature was transferred to the
shepherd, the reaper, ad to other farmers and cottagers with their ordinary joys and sorrows. Other poets had
neglected them. But to Wordsworth everybody, rich or poor, was a human being. And his ears were ever open
to listen to what he called ‘the still, sad music of humanity’.
The choice of men and women in ‘humble and rustic life’ as the objects for description in his poetry resulted
from his love for them, but more basically from his conception associated with Rousseau’s name, of the ‘noble
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savage’, with its implication that men are better when closer to their ‘natural state’, uncorrupted by the
artificiality of civilization.
Wordsworth’s Typical Poems
The Daffodils (1804)
I WANDER'D lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.
Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the Milky Way,
They stretch'd in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.
The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed -- and gazed -- but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:
For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.
The Rainbow (1802)
My heart leaps up when I behold
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A rainbow in the sky:
So was it when my life began;
So is it now I am a man;
So be it when I shall grow old,
Or let me die!
The Child is father of the Man;
I could wish my days to be
Bound each to each by natural piety.
The Solitary Reaper (1805)
Behold her, single in the field,
Yon solitary Highland Lass!
Reaping and singing by herself;
Stop here, or gently pass!
Alone she cuts and binds the grain,
And sings a melancholy strain;
O listen! for the Vale profound
Is overflowing with the sound.
No Nightingale did ever chaunt
More welcome notes to weary bands
Of travellers in some shady haunt,
Among Arabian sands:
A voice so thrilling ne'er was heard
In spring-time from the Cuckoo-bird,
Breaking the silence of the seas
Among the farthest Hebrides.
Will no one tell me what she sings?—
Perhaps the plaintive numbers flow
For old, unhappy, far-off things,
And battles long ago:
Or is it some more humble lay,
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Familiar matter of to-day?
Some natural sorrow, loss, or pain,
That has been, and may be again?
Whate'er the theme, the Maiden sang
As if her song could have no ending;
I saw her singing at her work,
And o'er the sickle bending;—
I listened, motionless and still;
And, as I mounted up the hill,
The music in my heart I bore,
Long after it was heard no more.
2. George Gordon Byron (1788 – 1824)
One of the great poets of England was the revolutionary romancist George Gordon Byron. He was born on
January 22, 1788 in London, in an old aristocratic, but poor family. The boy spent his childhood in Scotland,
with his mother. At the age of ten Byron returned to England, as heir to the title of Lord and the family of castle
of Newstead Abbey. It was situated near Nottingham, close to the famous Sherwood Forest. He went to school
to Harrow, then to Cambridge University. When he was 21 he became a member of the House of Lords. In 1809
he traveled abroad, visiting Portugal, Spain, Albania, Greece and Turkey. He returned home in 1812.
In 1812 Byron delivered his speeches in House of Lords. His first speech was in defense of the Luddites. Later
he spoke on favor of the oppressed Irish people. In his speeches Byron showed himself a defender of the
peoples cause, and that made the reactionary circle hate him. When after unhappy marriage in 1812, he and his
wife parted, his enemies in the governing circles seized this opportunity and began to persecute him. The great
poet was accused of immorality and had to leave his native country.
In May 1816 Byron went to Switzerland where he made friends with the poet Percy B. Shelly, his great
contemporary. Their friendship was based on the similarity of their political convictions. Both of them hated
oppression and stood for the liberty of nations.
At the end of 1816 Byron continued his voyage and went to Italy, where he lived till 1823. There he became
actively engaged in the Carbonari movement against Austrian rule, for the liberation of Italy. The defeat of the
Carbonari uprising (1821) was a heavy blow to the great fight for liberty. In the summer of 1823 he went off to
Greece to fight for liberation from Turkish oppression. There, on April 19, 1824, Byron died of a fever. The
Greeks, who considered him their national hero, buried his heart in their country and declared national
mourning for him. His body was brought to England where it was buried near Newstead Abbey. In 1969 the
authorities finally allowed his remains to be buried in the “Poets’ Corner” in Westminster Abbey.
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Byron’s Poetry
Byron as a poet of freedom
Much more than Wordsworth and Coleridge, who, after their first enthusiasm for the French Revolution,
surrendered to caution and skepticism, more even than Keats, whose love of liberty was hardly developed to its
full range, Byron was all through his life a poet of freedom.
The struggle for freedom was clearly shown in ‘Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage’, in ‘The Oriental Tales’, and in
‘Don Juan’.
Byron as a poet of love
Byron’s second theme is love. In the subject of love, he seems to have been haunted by the dream of an ideal
first love, tender and natural, and not at all like what he had felt for the women whom he thought to have loved.
This theme is shown in Byron’s ‘The Oriental Tales’ and ‘Don Juan’.
Byron as a realist
In the great appeals for liberty which ring through Don Juan, and in the attacks which Byron makes on its
enemies, the fundamental purpose of his poem is seen: Byron set out to tell the truth. He was never tired of
insisting that the chief merit of his poem was in their truthfulness. Like his hero, he has seen the world and
known that it was ‘very much unlike what people write’. Therefore, in Don Juan, Byron declares:’ I mean to
show things really as they are, not as they ought to be: for I avow that till we see what’s what in fat, we’re far
from much improvement’. And Byron believed that by fastening upon the truth, he would improve the world.
And this belief distinguishes Byron from the other romantics: with Keats, it is the past; with Shelly, the future;
with Byron, it is the present that really interests him. Byron is always a man of the world; ad Don Juan is the
record of his personality, the personality of a poet and of a man of action.
Byron’s Typical Poems
When we two parted (1808)
When we two parted
In silence and tears,
Half broken-hearted
To sever for years,
Pale grew thy cheek and cold,
Colder thy kiss;
Truly that hour foretold
Sorrow to this.
The dew of the morning
Sunk chill on my brow--
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It felt like the warning
Of what I feel now.
Thy vows are all broken,
And light is thy fame;
I hear thy name spoken,
And share in its shame.
They name thee before me,
A knell to mine ear;
A shrudder comes o'er me-Why wert thou so dear?
They know not I knew thee,
Who knew thee so well-Long, long I shall rue thee,
Too deeply to tell.
In secret we met—
In silence I grieve,
That thy heart could forget,
Thy spirit deceive
If I should meet thee
After long years,
How should I greet thee?-With silence and tears.
Song for the Luddites (1816)
As the Liberty lads o'er the sea
Bought their freedom, and cheaply, with blood,
So we, boys, we
Will _die_ fighting, or _live_ free,
And down with all kings but King Ludd!
When the web that we weave is complete,
And the shuttle exchanged for the sword,
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We will fling the winding sheet
O'er the despot at our feet,
And dye it deep in the gore he has pour'd.
Though black as his heart its hue,
Since his veins are corrupted to mud,
Yet this is the dew
Which the tree shall renew
Of Liberty, planted by Ludd!
B. The English Critical Realism (1832-1901)
The reign of Queen Victoria, one of the longest in the annals of England (1837-1901), is also one of the most
glorious in the history of English literature.
The literature of the Victoria age does not essentially differ in spirit and poetic mood from that of the preceding
period. The study of the works produced in the second half of the 19th century will necessarily reveal gradual
changes in method and spirit, as well as manifestation of strongly individual temperaments; yet it can be said
that, on the whole, Victorian literature continues to flow in the channels of Romanticism.
I. Cultural – Historical Background
1. Aims of Chartism
In June 1836, ‘The London Workingmen’s Association’ was formed as a political and educational body
intended to attract the ‘intelligent and influential portion of the working class’. In Feb, 1837, the Association
drew up a petition to Parliament in which were embodied the six demands that afterwards became known as the
People’s Charter. They were:
1. Equal electoral district;
2. Abolition of the property qualifications for M.P.s;
3. Universal manhood suffrage;
4. Annual Parliaments;
5. Vote by ballot;
6. Payment of M.P.s
As for the conservatives (the Torries), these demands were considered by dangerous, but they were accepted
with enthusiasm by hundreds of thousands of industrial workers who saw in them the means to remove their
intolerant economic grievances. Engels declared that the six points were’ sufficient to overthrow the whole
English Constitution, Queen, and Lord included’. ‘Chartism’, he wrote,’ is of an essentially social nature, a
class movement’.
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As the movement spread beyond London, its character changed and sharp divisions arose among its leaders.
The petition was, later, rejected ad in a few months about 450 arrests were made and decline began. The failure
of Chartism in 1848 was partly a result of the weaknesses of its leadership and tactics. But these weaknesses
were themselves only a reflection of the newness and immaturity of the working class.
After the defeat in April 1848 of the Chartist movement and the defeat of the June 1848 French Revolution, a
new period began in Europe when Engels affirmed that it was a period of oppression of the workers’
movements in the whole Europe. At the same time, the bourgeoisie in England learned a dangerous but valuable
lesson from the Chartist movement and began to fear the new social incidents. As a result, they were forced to
give way in the political fields: The Age of ‘Compromise’ began.
2. The Historical Significance of Chartism
Chartism was an event of colossal historical importance for the political development of England.
It was a severe lesson for the ruling classes who could never forget those years when the workers’ mass
movement threatened the foundations of capitalism. Afraid to lose their power, the ruling classes yielded certain
concessions to the workers. The bourgeoisie had to give up some of the cruelest of their exploitation methods.
Thus, the bourgeoisie was forced to recognize the Trade Union, to introduce a number of democratic reforms.
Acting against the policy of the British Establishment, the British proletarians contributed to the historically
indispensable cause of weakening the reaction in the whole world since England was one of the wealthiest ad
most powerful countries, supporting the world’s reactionary forces.
The salient feature distinguishing the Chartist movement from Workers’ movements in other countries is the
fact that English workers earlier than any other detachment of the world’s toilers showed that they could start
and head a nation-wide popular movement with immediate aims rigidly defined. They demonstrated an
extremely high degree of class consciousness declaring the independence of their goals ad interests as sharply
opposed to those of the bourgeoisie and other exploiting classes. They unambiguously outlined their programme
which envisaged a reconstruction of society. The Chartist movement showed outstanding examples of
proletarian tactics such as the idea of the General Strike. British progressive cherish the revolutionary and
democratic traditions of the past. They study the experience of the Chartist movement and often remind the
English workers of the glorious revolutionary past.
II. Literature
It was in the period of political strife that a new trend was born in English literature: Critical Realism.
Romanticism now seemed too abstract, too aloft, too remote from the actual world. A direct and straightforward
consideration of everyday life became an imperative necessity. Writers in the Victorian age denounced the evils
of the day and pictured the lives of the people of both low and high societies, thus creating social novels. There
are some of the most essential features of this trend. They are found in the leading writers of the time,
chiefly Dickens, Thackeray, Bronte, and others.
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The introduction of a new set of characters from the working class as a new force in society.
-
A deep sense of the dramatic contrast between the rich and the poor
-
An irresistible hatred for every species of social oppression and injustice
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An illusion of bringing about social justice and harmony by reforms
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An interest in the theme of Woman Emancipation
The Victoria age was primarily an age of prose rather than poetry; therefore, we shall pay particular attention to
the two distinguished authors of critical realism: Charles Dickens and William Makepeace Thackeray.
III. Typical Writers and Works
1. Charles Dickens
Charles Dickens (1812-1870) was the greatest critical realist in the 19th century English Literature. He was born
in Portsmouth, in a poor family. He had to leave school and worked hard to support the family. At 15, he
studied short-hand and worked as a reporter, then a writer. Dickens’s life as a literary artist falls into 4 periods.
In the first period (1833 – 1841), he wrote some novels such as Oliver Twist (1838), the Posthumous parpers of
the Pickwick Club, etc. This was the period of humour and optimism.
In the second period (1842 – 1848), he had some famous novels: American notes, Dombey and son, etc. This
was the period of sarcasm and criticism.
The third period (1849 - 1860) was the period of strongest social criticism on the soulless and unwholesome
nature of competition in an industrial life. In this period, he had many novels like: David Copperfield, Bleak
House, A tale of two cities...
The fourth period (1861 – 1865) was characterized by romanticism resulting from disillusionment, with some
works such as: Great expectation, Our mutual friend.
Charles Dickens had great contribution to English and world literature. On the literary side, he was not only the
writer who had described the town-life of his day, but he was also the first genuine story teller.
On the social side, he was not merely a story teller but a social reformer who used fiction as a platform for his
social appeals, and who proved to possess a very rare quality. He brought smile with sermonic powder to people
in a complicated history.
In general, Charles Dickens was the pioneer of a great age of fiction. No doubt, English life and literature seem
to be saner and sunnier with Dickens.
David Copperfield is autobiographical in its essence. The finest of the novels is Great Expectations- a long but
tightly knit work, moving. It is in this book that Dickens reveals his understanding of the mind of the child, his
sympathy with its fantasies and its inability to understand the grown-up world. In some ways, Dickens remained
a child.
Typical Work: David Copperfield (1850)
Critique
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‘David Copperfield’ might be regarded as the peak of Dicken’s literary career. It was best loved by the author
himself. In the novel, somewhat autobiographical, Dickens engraved extremely typical characters. One of the
many qualities that distinguish ‘David Copperfield’ from more modern and more sophisticated novels is its
eternal freshness. It is, in short, a work of art which can be read and reread, chiefly for the gallery of characters
Dickens has immortalized. In this novel, his humourous and satirical art was brought to perfection. Nowhere in
all the works by Dickens, the problem of children and the responsibility of the society for them was so clearly
and seriously mentioned.
2. William Makepeace Thackeray (1811 – 1863)
W.M. Thackeray was born on Calcutta, India, in the family of an English official of high standing. Contrary to
Charles Dickens, Thackeray had a very good education both at school ad at Cambridge University. The future
writer wanted to be an artist and went to Europe to study art. For some time he lived among the artistic circles
of Paris. Later, when he returned to London, he learned that he had lost all his money, for the bank where it was
deposited had gone bankrupt. Thus, he had to earn his living. He began sketches, but was not very successful.
He started writing satirical and humorous stories and essays. Later he wrote novels and delivered lectures.
Thackeray wrote in the same year and under the same political conditions as his contemporary Dickens did.
Together they’re better appreciated that apart; they present the life of their period more completely together.
Dickens usually chose for his main character the “little” man with his troubles and difficulties. Thackeray
directed satire against representatives of the upper classes of society, whom he knew better. Dickens was
inclined to look for a happy solution that smoothed over existing contradictions. Thackeray, on the contrary,
was merciless in his satirical attacks on the ruling classes. He considered that art should be a real mirror of life.
He showed bourgeois society and its vices without softening their description. In this approach o art he was the
follower of the great satirist of the Enlightenment, Jonathan Swift.
Thackeray’s most outstanding works are The Book of Snobs (under this title he published a collection of
satirical essays) that appeared in 1846 – 1847 and his novel Vanity Fair (1847 – 1848).
Typical Work: Vanity Fair
Critique
‘Vanity Fair’, the best known of Thackeray’s works, is a social novel which shows not only the bourgeois
aristocratic society as a whole, but also the very laws which govern it. Describing the events which took place at
the beginning of the 19th century, the author presents a broad satirical picture of contemporary England. The
social background of the novel, which influences all the characters in their thought and actions, is high society
at large. Thackeray attacks the vanity, pretensions, prejudices, and corruption of the aristocracy. He mercilessly
exposes the snobbishness, hypocrisy, money worshipping and parasitism of all those who form the bulwark of
society. Thackeray shows that goodness often goes hand in hand with stupidity ad folly, that cleverness is often
knavery.
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The title of this novel was an allusion, quite familiar in these days, to the city of London which had been
described as Vanity Fair in the famous 17th century religious allegory of John Bunyan:’ The Pilgrim’s Progress’
(1678). It is also associated with the book of the Bible whose memorable words are’ ALL IS VANITY’. His
main subject is the false heartless ways and the resourceful hypocrisy of society, the silent misery of simple
souls.
Chapter VI: English literature in the 20th century
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I. Cultural – Historical Background
The 20th century witnessed a decline in economic and political power of Great Britain, which could be traced
back to the following remarkable events:
1. The Boer War (1899- 1902)
The Boer War was the fight for colony in South Africa between the British imperialists and the Dutch
colonialists. Although Great Britain defeated the Boers of the Orange Free State and the Transvaal Republic in
South Africa the fight for the expansion of the British Empire cost the life of thousands of men.
2. World War I (1914- 1918)
The First World War lasted from 1914 to 1918, in which Great Britain, France, Russia Belgium, Italy, Japan,
the Unites States, and other allies defeated Germany, Austria, Hungary, Turkey, and Bulgaria. The war lasted
only for four yeas but left heavy consequences for the following decades. It continued polarizing the English
society, left behind millions of the wounded and disabled, and created as many problems as it solved.
3. The October Revolution (1917)
The October Revolution was the overthrow of Czarism by the uprising of Mach 1917 (The February
Revolution) continued with the seizure of the central organs of State power in Petrograd by the Bolsheviks
under the leadership of Lenin on November 7, 1917 (October 25, old style- The October Revolution). It was the
first socialist revolution of the proletariat and its victory showed a way out for the workers in their
uncompromising class struggle for a better life.
The October Revolution inspired the oppressed to rise up in arms to fight for their own interests. Struck by the
triumph of the Revolution, English intellectuals and writers went to Russia to find out how the oppressed
managed their State.
4. The Struggle for National Independence of Ireland (1916-1921)
In 1916, Ireland began their struggle against Great Britain for national independence. Defeated, Great Britain
had to concede the independence of Ireland in 1921. In the following year, the Republic of Ireland was founded.
5. The General Crises (1929-1933)
The 20th century saw the ferment of the general crises, which were caused by the vigorous and unplanned
development of free enterprises in Great Britain. The depression following these crises had great impact on the
life of the ordinary people.
6. World War II (1939-1945)
The Second World War broke out in 1939, in which Great Britain, France, the Soviet Union, the United States,
and other allies defeated Germany, Italy, and Japan.
The Second World War proved far more catastrophic than the First World War. In this war, not only the
military forces but also the civilian population of Great Britain were involved. The Germans attacked Britain
and bombed London. By the end of the war in September 1945, England had suffered the loss of hundreds of
37
thousands of people and the devastation of wide urban areas in London. National economic system and
financial resources were badly affected.
7. The General Strikes of the British Workers (1926; 1962; 1972)
The general strikes in Great Britain revealed the seriousness of the class struggle of the British workers against
the capitalist monopoly in this country.
The General Strike broke out in Britain in 1926. In 1962, the British railway workers went out on strike for
higher pay. The increase in price and inflation which seriously affected the life of the working people led to the
nation-wide strikes in 1972.
These strikes represented the maturity and the solidarity of the British workers in their economic and political
struggles against the state monopoly.
In general, Great Britain in this century lost her domination of the past. In the main political problems of the
world, she participated as one of the most active partners of the United States, who has become much stronger
and taken over the leading role of the capitalist world.
II. Literature
1. The Transition from the Victorian Age
The Victorian age lost itself in the sands ten or fifteen years before the close of the 19 th century. The Victorian
age had been a time of optimism, the basis of which was England’s material prosperity. The British flag had
followed her trade and forces to every corner of the world, and a empire had been greatly enlarged. During the
last two decades of the century, the material prosperity began to be assailed by foreign competition; new social
forces came into play.
A current of pessimism- arising partly from the discordance which existed between the teaching of the Bible
and the message of science, partly from the consciousness that the evils denounced by Carlyle and Ruskin- has
not been adequately dealt with invaded literature. Thomas Hardy (1840-1928) was the most remarkable
exponent of this literary pessimism. His ‘Wessex Novels’ (several of which were masterpieces of realistic
description and psychological penetration
) were dominated by the notion of a relentless fate, or more exactly
of uncompromising determinism. Men, in the novels of Thomas Hardy were slaves to their environments, to
their instincts, to their heredity; most of them were destined to live a life of utter misery, without any hope of
redemption during their brief transit through this sorrow world.
Still more tragic was the note of despondency one heard in the verse of James Thomson (1834-1882), whose
poetry was that of 'sheer, overmastering, inexorable despair’. Thomson proclaimed
That every struggle brings defeat
Because Fate holds no prize to crown success;
That all the oracles are dumb or cheat
Because they have no secret to express;
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That none can pierce the vast black veil uncertain
Because there is no light behind the curtain;
That all is vanity and nothingness.
(The City of Dreadful Night)
From this atmosphere of despondency may young writers sought to free themselves. Some fled, on the wings of
imagination, to the land of romance. Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894), an essayist, a novelist, and
occasionally a poet, was the pioneer of this new literature of adventure. His ‘Treasure Island’, which made him
at once one of the most popular writers of the day, was followed by fascinating historical romances, such as
‘The Master of Ballantrae’. Stevenson was one of these pure artists who believed that ‘life is hard enough for
poor mortals without having it indefinitely embittered for them by bad art’. He said of himself that he was’ a
poetical character with a prose talent’.
The cherishing of ‘Art for Art’s Sake’ was one of the market tendencies of the transitional period from the
Victorian age to the dawn of the 20th century. Oscar Wilde (1856-1900), the best representative of pure
aestheticism, recoiled from political and social controversy, and rejected the artistic doctrines of Ruskin.’ They
are the elect’, he said, ‘to whom beautiful things mean only beauty. There is no such thing as a moral or an
immoral book. Books are well written or badly written, that is all’.
2. English Literature in the 20th century
English Literature in the 20th century can be grouped into four main trends:
2.1. The Imperialist Trend
Writers of this trend such as Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936) and Herbert George Wells (1866-1946) supported
the idea of the expansion of imperialism.
During the Boer war, Kipling supported the policy of British expansion. He was the voice of imperialism
triumphant. He proclaimed, in prose and in verse, the grandeaur of all that is best in English tradition. He
exalted the energy, the spirit of adventure and discovery, the sense of organization, the discipline, the piety,
which have made throughout the centuries the grandeur of the English nation. He also sang of the new feeling
of brotherhood which now united the different communities of the British Empire.
Herbert George Wells, with psychological interest and social purpose, built his stories upon scientific fancy. As
Wells advanced in his literary career, the interest of his fiction shifted more and more to philosophical and
social criticism. He wished humanity to be organized on a more rational basis, to do away with the deadening
influence of tradition and with the anarchy of mercantilism. With a rich imagination, a vitality of creation and a
clear and forceful style, Wells produced may literary works of merit which made him one of the great
intellectual forces of modern England.
2.2. The Progressive Realistic Trend
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The Realistic literature in the 20th century was conditioned by the vices in various aspects of the English
society.
Writers in this trend understood the working and living conditions of the working people and sympathized with
the sufferings of the underprivileged, but they could not find a way out for them. They yearned for a better
society but they did not know which one it would be. They even talked of revolution to change the social order
but they also feared that a socialist revolution would be too violent.
The greatest writers of the new era did not, however, shrink from the problems which had increased in
complexity and acuteness. Essayists, novelists, and playwrights exposed the cant and selfishness of degraded
Victorianism. ‘I write plays’, sad Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) ‘with the deliberate object of converting the nation
to my opinions’. Bernard Shaw realized that the objective of literature was to solve human problems and to lead
the people in their struggle against injustice. In 1895 Shaw joined the Fabian Society, a social organization
supporting the idea of passing to socialism by means of social reforms.
Of the realistic novel, Arnold Bennett (1867-1931) was one of the most brilliant representatives. His first novel,
‘A man from the North’ was published in 1898; but it was only with’ The Old Wives’ Tale’ (1908) that he
asserted himself as a prominent writer. The picture that Arnold Bennett gave of his characters was of
remarkable actuality. No detail was too small to escape his glance; no class of people was too humble to be
excluded from the rage of his observation. He could invest even what was uninteresting with prodigious
interest, ad the lives of the dull became exciting in his hands.
Another famous writer of the realistic trend was William Somerset Maugham(1874-1965). His rich experience
of life and his acute insight into human nature provided ground for his analytical and critical quality of his
works. This quality kept his frequent audience in frequent suspense and his stories forever fresh. His famous
works’ Of Human Bondage’ (1915) and ‘The Moon and Six Pence’ (1919) are still widely read.
Hardly less influential was John Galsworthy (1867-1933), a novelist and playwright, perhaps the most complete
and perfect writer of his day. With a highly artistic temperament, Galsworthy veiled the severity of argument
under the grace of an easy, unpretentious style, now and then relieved by delightful touches of poetry. His
novels were elaborately constructed. His masterpiece was perhaps ‘The Man of Property’ (later on expanded, by
the addition of ‘The India Summer of a Forsyte’, ‘In Chancery’ and ‘To Let’, into the ‘Forsyte Saga’), in which
he gave a vivid, though sober, picture of the ravages affected in the wealthy middle- class family of the Forsytes
by the tenacious, unimaginative, soulless ‘spirit of property’.
Realism and romance were blended in the novels and tales of Joseph Conrad (1857-1924), who did not become
acquainted with the English language until his twenty-first year. His wonderful descriptions of sea-life ad
storms were founded on his personal experiences on several merchant-vessels, mainly in the East.
On the scene of realistic literature also arose Graham Greene (1905-1991), who never confined himself to a
narrow world. His concern of the world at large and his attitude towards political problems lay in man’s
40
predicament and individual’s responsibility for the sufferings of others. ‘The Quiet American’, his masterpiece,
published in 1955, was considered one of the best novels on anti-colonial literature.
2.3. The Decadent Trend
During the 20’s there appeared writers who did not believe in human nature and society. Compared with the
Victorian writers whose world outlook was critical but optimistic, all the English writers of the early 20 th
century looked for a new way of expressiveness and many succumbed to decadence. While the late 19th century
critical realist tended to reveal the vices of the capitalist society without any doubt about the goodness in human
nature, the early 20th century writers were poisoned with pessimism. The early 20th century English writers,
horrified by the bloodshed of World War I, feverishly looked for the causes of the war. Being unable to see the
real cause- the clashing greeds of imperialist countries and their competition in enrichment- they put the blame
on the development of technology, and on the inborn depravity of man.
Frustrated by the reality, these writers tried to escape every contact with social life ad retreat to their own
worlds. They became’ introverts’, turning aside to explore the subconscious, the subtle sensations and
perceptions in the inner life. Life in all its complexity and fullness and vigour no longer occupied them.
The decadent trend in English literature was closely associated with James Joyce (1882-1941), Thomas Stearns
Eliot (1888-1965), and David Herbert Lawrence (1885-1930).
2.4. The Socialist Realistic Trend
The socialist realistic trend with its tradition established since the Chartist movement gained wider recognition
among readers.
In the 1930’s, a new type of writers came into being in England: the writers-fighters. The writers of this period
took a very active pat in socio-political activities. Such communist writers as Ralph Fox (1900-1937), John
Cornford (1915-1936), Christopher Caudwell (1907-1937) and Sean O’Casey (1880-1964) were also antifascist fighters. Of the socialist realistic trend, Ralph Fox was one of the pioneers. He propagated the idea of
Marxism and revealed the seriousness of the class struggle of the time in his famous works ‘Class Struggle in
the Epoch of Imperialism’ (1933), ‘The Colonial Policy of British Imperialism’ (1933), and ‘Communism in a
Changing Civilization’ (1935).
III. Typical Writers and Works
1. Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936)
Rudyard Kipling was born in Bombay, but educated in England at the United Services College, Westward Ho,
Bideford. In 1882 he returned to India, where he worked for Anglo-Indian newspapers. His literary career began
with Departmental Ditties (1886), but subsequently he became chiefly known as a writer of short stories. A
prolific writer, he achieved fame quickly. Kipling was the poet of the British Empire and its yeoman, the
common soldier, whom he glorified in many of his works, in particular Plain Tales from the Hills (1888) and
Soldiers Three (1888), collections of short stories with roughly and affectionately drawn soldier portraits. His
41
Barrack Room Ballads (1892) were written for, as much as about, the common soldier. In 1894 appeared his
Jungle Book, which became a children's classic all over the world. Kim (1901), the story of Kimball O'Hara and
his adventures in the Himalayas, is perhaps his most felicitous work. Other works include The Second Jungle
Book (1895), The Seven Seas (1896), Captains Courageous (1897), The Day's Work (1898), Stalky and Co.
(1899), Just So Stories (1902), Trafficks and Discoveries (1904), Puck of Pook's Hill (1906), Actions and
Reactions (1909), Debits and Credits (1926), Thy Servant a Dog (1930), and Limits and Renewals (1932).
During the First World War Kipling wrote some propaganda books. His collected poems appeared in 1933.
Kipling was the recipient of many honorary degrees and other awards. In 1926 he received the Gold Medal of
the Royal Society of Literature, which only Scott, Meredith, and Hardy had been awarded before him.
Typical Work: Jungle Book
Critique
Rudyard Kipling, winner of the Nobel Prize in 1907, wrote these stories for children while living in Brattleboro,
Vermont. The Jungle Book and The Second Jungle Book are children’s classics which attempt to teach the
lessons of justice, loyalty, and tribal laws. It is evident from reading these books that here is a master writer who
loved children and could tell them a good story with an underlying meaning that adults can appreciate as well.
2. George Bernard Shaw (1856 – 1950)
George Bernard Shaw was an Irishman. He was born in Dublin (Ireland) in a middle-class bourgeois family. At
an early age he left Ireland and went to London to earn his living. He wrote later that he was then a simple
proletarian. That’s why, when he began to be interested in politics, he joined one of the socialist organizations
that existed at that time. So he used to say “I became socialist and am proud of it”. It is true that his socialism
was rather passive, like that of Galsworthy and Wells. He considered reform to be the main way of reorganizing
society.
Shaw was always very active in social and political life of his country and saw very clearly where the evil in
society lay. When World War II broke out, he stressed that the enemies of mankind were neither Germany nor
Great Britain, but imperialism. He was among the first of the English intellectual to welcome the Great October
Socialist Revolution and remain a sincere friend of our country.
In 1931 Shaw came to the Soviet Union, where he celebrated his 75th birthday. His first visit in Moscow was to
the Lenin Mausoleum. On his departure he said that he was leaving the country of hope, to return to the country
of despair.
Shaw made a revolution in the English theatre with the new ideas he brought into it. He considered that the
theatre should rouse people, make them think and suffer. People, he said, should be taught to look at life
soberly, intelligently. An oculist had once told him that he had perfectly normal sight, which only about ten
percent of all the people of the world had. Shaw liked to add to this that his intellectual eyesight was also
normal. That was why he understood things better than most people. He considered it his study to disclose the
42
real state of things that people seldom saw. Therefore, he introduced the so-called “problem” plays in which he
set different social problems and tried to solve them through dialogue of his characters. He used to say that his
way of joking was to speak the truth. Indeed, many bitter truths were presented to the audience, hidden in
playful paradoxes, which were the playwright’s favorite device.
The main theme of Shaw’s plays was, throughout his life, the criticism. With this criticism he began his activity
as a playwright in 1892, when his first comedy, Widower’s House was written.
Typical Work : Major Barbara
Critique
3. Graham Greene (1904)
Graham Greene was born at Berkhamsted, near London. His father, Charles Henry Greene, was headmaster of
the local Church school. Henry Greene was a catholic and this strongly influenced the views of the writer since
his very childhood.
Graham Greene was educated in Oxford. From 1926 to 130 he was sub-editor of the London Times. He
travelled a good deal in Mexico, which later became a scene of many of his novels. Greene started writing in the
late 20s. He wrote a lot of short stories, critical essays, travel books, and plays.
Since the beginning of his literary career Greene has been writing along two lines-the so-called ‘serious novels’
and the ‘entertaining novels’. While the former are generally a meditation on the psychology of man, the latter
are more of the detective type of novels. The group of ‘serious novels’ is represented by The Man Within
(1929), England Made Me (1953), The Power and the Glory (1940), The Heart of the Matter (1948), The Quiet
American (1995), A Burnt-Out Case (1961).
The ‘entertaining novels’ are Stamboul Train (1932), A Gun for Sale (1936), The Confidential Agent (1939),
Loser Takes All (1955), The Ministry of Fear (1968).
The borderline between these two groups is, however, vague because the former are often constructed along
detective or adventure lines while the latter present serious problems.
Greene’s novels touch on the burning political issues of the day- the American war in Vietnam in The Quiet
American, racism in South Africa in The Human Factor (1978), the people’s struggle against the reactionary
dictatorship in Haiti in The Comedians (1966). The social and political events serve as a background against
which problems of ethical character are solved. Greene’s novels present a profound research into the depths of
human psychology and are permeated with philosophical meditations on the nature of man and human
predicament.
The major conflict in several of his novels occurs between believers, who live according to the law of the
Church and unbelievers. And yet Greene avoids the easy solution that the believer will be saved ad the
unbeliever damned. He tries to find a way to reconcile these opposite views, which at the early period of his
writing was its weakest point.
43
Typical Work: The Quiet American
The Quiet American is one of Greene's later books, published in 1955, and draws on his experiences as a SIS
agent spying for Britain in World War II in Sierra Leone in the early 1940s and on winters spent from 1951 to
1954 in Saigon reporting on the French colonial war for The Times and Le Figaro. He was apparently inspired
to write The Quiet American in October 1951 while driving back to Saigon from the Ben Tre province. He was
accompanied by an American aid worker who lectured him about finding a “third force in Vietnam”. Greene
spent three years writing it.
Critique
There are novels, famous not only for their literary values but also for their historical background. Those novels
force the characters to express their opinions and to show their attitudes. The characters cannot be just onlookers. They cannot always ignore the reality of life, but, up to some time, they have to take sides and
transform it. Such a novel is ‘The Quiet American’, a novel about Vietnam, a masterpiece on anti-colonial
literature.
Published in 1955, right after the end of the Vietnamese resistance against the French colonialists, the novel is
generally regarded both as a new discovery and as a prophecy of the American evil interference in Vietnam.
Since the publication of this novel, the term’ the quiet American’ has soon become a symbol of American new
colonialists, who used to make trouble, organize coups d’etat, and provoke rebellions in many countries under a
clean, innocent cover.
However, such a new discovery and a prophecy could hardly be made and exposed by other writers in the
1950s. The contribution of Graham Greene, therefore, lies in the creation of a vivid, convincing artistic image
of a ‘pioneer’, Pyle- the quiet America- who symbolizes all the evil characteristics of American new
colonialists.
Another strong point of ‘The Quiet American’ is that, through this novel, Graham Greene critically and
ironically attacked the American dirty machinations in their attempts to set up the so-called ‘Third Force’, a
force believed to be a National Democracy working for the reconciliation and reunion of the Vietnamese people
in North and South Vietnam.
The strongest point of this novel is the devotion of the author to the Vietnamese resistance against America
imperialist: like Fowler. Greene eventually came to realize that nobody could stand outside the VietnamAmerican War; that nobody could even sit on the fence; that up to some time ma has to make a choice and take
a side if man remains to be human. Greene’s character did make a choice and take a side, and so did Greene
himself: he chose to take sides with the Vietnamese ad strongly condemned the American intervention. This
marked a turning point in the life and career of Graham Greene, a Christian writer, who used to be haunted by
our ancestral sins and write about the most spleenful aspects of a haunted spirit.
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Topic for writing assignments

Different views on the roles of women presented in twentieth-century English literature

Views of parent-child relations or relationships among different generations

Views of problems caused by class differences or racism in society

Views of love relationships or marriage

Views of love in different Victorian works

Development of 19th-century realism in poetry and fiction

Use of humor in literary works
45

Report on a nineteenth- or twentieth-century British author (of adults' or children’s literature). Focus on
at least one major literary work by that author which you have read.

Report on a social, historical, political, religious or scientific issue in Britain as it is reflected in
particular works of literature. For example, in some of Dickens’ novels problems with the educational
system in England are illustrated. Darwin’s theory of evolution and Freud’s psychoanalytical theories
had a major impact on many writers. Yeats, Joyce, and others wrote about political problems in Ireland.

Report on a particular place in the British Isles or former British Empire and the sense of place conveyed
in specific literary work(s). For example, the Bronte sisters wrote about the Yorkshire moors, George
Eliot’s novels are set in the rural Midlands where she grew up, Dickens and T. S. Eliot made use of
London scenes in their times, Irish places were important to Joyce and Yeats. Bring some pictures to
class or display pictures on the Internet or in PowerPoint.

Create a short skit or some other kind of production that dramatizes a literary piece.

Report on some aspect of social history that relates to particular works of literature. What Jane Austen
Knew and Charles Dickens Ate is an interesting book on nineteenth-century life.

Select any work of British literature that interests you and discuss how it illustrates major characteristics
of literary trends.

Why do we consider Vanity Fair to be one of the greatest examples of the 19th century critical realism?

What themes does Charlotte Bronte touch upon in Jane Eyre?

Why has Byron often been called a poet of “world sorrow”?

What themes did Oscar Wilde touch on his novel The Picture of Dorian Gray?

Explain what makes it possible to link Galsworthy with the best writers of world literature.
Recommended literature
1. William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Hamlet, Twelfth Night
2. John Donne.(1572-1631): The Good Morrow, Good Friday.
3. John Milton. (1608-1674): Paradise Lost.
4. John Bunyan. (1628-1688): The Pilgrim’s Progress.
5. Daniel Defoe (1660-1731): The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe.
6. Jonathan Swift.(1667-1745): Gulliver’s Travels .
7. Alexander Pope (1688-1744): The Rape of the Lock, Ode on Solitude, The Universal Prayer.
46
8. William Blake (1757-1827): Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience, The Marriage of Heaven and
Hell.
9. William Wordsworth (1770-1850): The World is Too Much With Us, The Daffodils, The Rainbow, The
Solitary Reaper
10. George Gordon Byron (1788 – 1824): When we two parted, Song for the Luddites
11. John Keats (1795-1821): On a Grecian Urn.
12. Walter Scott (1771-1832): Ivanhoe
13. Charlotte Brontë (1816-1855): Jane Eyre.
14. Jane Austen: Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility
15. Charles Dickens (1812-1870): Christmas Carol, Oliver Twist, David Copperfield,
16. Emily Bronte: Wuthering Heights
17. Lewis Carroll: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
18. William Makepeace Thackeray: Vanity Fair
19. Oscar Wilde (1854-1900): The Picture of Dorian Gray
20. Robert Browning (1812-1889): My Last Duchess.
21. Gerald M. Hopkins (1844-1889): Pied Beauty
22. William B. Yeats (1865-1939): Easter 1916, The Circus Animals’ Desertion.
23. T. S. Eliot (1888-1965): Murder in the Cathedral, The Waste Land.
24. George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950): Pygmalion, Major Barbara
25. Joseph Conrad (1857-1924): Heart of Darkness
26. D.H.Lawrence. (1885-1930): Sons and Lovers, England, My England.
27. James Joyce (1882-1941): A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Ulysses.
28. Virginia Woolf (1882-1941): Mrs. Dalloway. Modern Fiction.
29. George Orwell (1902-1950): Animal Farm.
30. Graham Green (1904-1990): End of the Affair
31. William G. Golding (1911- 1993): Lord of the Flies.
Literature quiZ 1
Middle age
1. Which people began their invasion and conquest of southwestern Britain around 450?
a) the Normans
b) the Geats
c) the Celts
d) the Anglo-Saxons
e) the Danes
2. The popular legend of which of the following figures made its earliest appearance in Celtic literature before
becoming a staple subject in French, English, and German literatures?
47
a) Sir Gawain
b) King Arthur
c) Saint Patrick
d) Saint Augustine
e) King Alfred
3. The decision of which writer to emulate French and Italian poetry in his own vernacular prompted a changed
in the status of English?
a) Margery Kempe
b) Sir Thomas Malory
c) Geoffrey Chaucer d) William Langland
e) John Gower
4. What is the first extended written specimen of Old English?
a) Boethius's Consolidation of Philosophy
b) Saint Jerome's translation of the Bible
c) Malory's Morte Darthur
d) Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People
e) a code of laws promulgated by King Ethelbert
5. Who was the first English Christian king?
a) Alfred
b) Richard III
c) Richard II
d) Henry II
e) Ethelbert
6. Old English poets, such as the Beowulf poet, were fascinated by the tension between which two aspects of
their hybrid culture?
a) Islam and Christianity
b) insular and continental philosophy
d) oral and written literatures
c) pagan and Christian moral codes
e) all of the above
7. The use of "whale-road" for sea and "life-house" for body are examples of what literary technique, popular in
Old English poetry?
a) symbolism
b) simile
c) metonymy
d) kenning
e) appositive expression
8. Which of the following statements is not an accurate description of Old English poetry?
a) Romantic love is a guiding principle of moral conduct.
b) Its formal and dignified use of speech was distant from everyday use of language.
c) Irony is a mode of perception, as much as it was a figure of speech.
d) Christian and pagan ideals are sometimes mixed.
e) Its idiom remained remarkably uniform for nearly three centuries.
9. Which of the following best describes litote, a favorite rhetorical device in Old English poetry?
a) embellishment at the service of Christian doctrine
understatement
b) repetition of parallel syntactic structures
c) ironic
d) stress on every third diphthong e) a compound of two words in place of a single word
10. Which of the following languages did not coexist in Anglo-Norman England?
a) Latin
b) German
c) French
d) Celtic
e) English
11. Which twelfth-century poet or poets claimed to have obtained narratives from Breton storytellers?
a) Geoffrey Chaucer
b) Marie de France
c) Chrétien de Troyes
d) a and c only
e) b and c only
12. To what did the word the roman, from which the genre of "romance" emerged, initially apply?
a) a work derived from a Latin text of the Roman Empire
c) a Roman official
b) a story about love and adventure
d) a work written in the French vernacular e) a series of short stories
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13. The styles of The Owl and the Nightingale and Ancrene Riwle show what about the poetry and prose written
around the year 1200?
a) They were written for sophisticated and well-educated readers.
b) Writing continued to benefit only readers fluent in Latin and French.
c) Their readers' primary language was English.
d) a and c only
e) a and b only
14. In addition to Geoffrey Chaucer and William Langland, the "flowering" of Middle English literature is
evident in the works of which of the following writers?
a) Geoffrey of Monmouth
b) the Gawain poet
c) the Beowulf poet
d) Chrétien de Troyes
e) Marie de France
15. What was Geoffrey Chaucer's final work?
a) Complaint to His Purse
b) Troilus and Criseyde
d) Legend of Good Women
c) The Canterbury Tales
e) The House of Fame
16. Who is the author of Piers Plowman?
a) Sir Thomas Malory
b) Margery Kempe
c) Geoffrey Chaucer
d) William Langland
e) Geoffrey of Monmouth
17. Which literary form, developed in the fifteenth century, personified vices and virtues?
a) the short story
b) the heroic epic
c) the morality play
16th
d) the romance
e) the limerick
century
1. Which of the following sixteenth-century works of English literature was translated into the English language
after its first publication in Latin?
a) Christopher Marlowe's Doctor Faustus
The History of King Richard III
b) William Shakespeare's King Lear
d) William Shakespeare's Sonnets
c) Thomas More's
e) Thomas More's Utopia
2. Which of the following sixteenth-century poets was not a courtier?
a) George Puttenham
b) Philip Sidney
c) Walter Ralegh
d) Thomas Wyatt
e) all of the above
3. What was the predominant religion in England during the early sixteenth century?
a) Atheism
b) Protestantism
c) Catholicism
d) Hinduism
e) Paganism
4. Which of the following might be addressed/represented by pastoral poetry?
a) an exaltation of the city life over the boring country life
engage in singing contests
b) shepherd and shepherdesses who fall in love and
c) heroic stories in epic form
and simplicity of living in the country
d) a celebration of the humility, contentment,
e) b and d only
5. Which of the following could be found in heroic poetry?
a) the glorification of a nation or people
Virgil in structure and motifs
b) exotic adventures and marvels
d) a concern with love as well as war
c) an imitation of Homer and
e) all of the above
6. Which of the following were kinds of comedies written for the Elizabeth theater?
49
a) tragic-comedy
b) humor comedy
c) city comedy
d) raucous comedy
e) all but d
7. Which of the following is true about public theaters in Elizabethan England?
a) They relied on admission charges, an innovation of the period.
c) They were located outside the city limits of London.
correlating to ticket cost.
b) The early versions were oval in shape.
d) The seating structure was tiered, with placement
e) all of the above
Early 17th century
1. What major new prose genre emerged in the Jacobean era?
a) the novel
b) the sermon
c) the familiar essay
d) the diary e) the intimate essay
2. Which of the following female authors of the Jacobean era wrote a work that became the "first" of its kind to
be published by an English woman?
a) Rachel Speght
b) Aemilia Lanyer
c) Elizabeth Cary, Lady Falkland
d) Lady Mary Wroth
e) all of the above
3. What was the general subject of the Welsh poet Katherine Philips's work?
a) celebrations of the transience of all life and beauty
b) celebrations of lesbian sexuality in terms that did not imply a male readership
c) celebrations of religious ecstasy and divine inspiration
d) celebrations of female friendship in Platonic terms normally reserved for male friendships
e) celebrations of an intense longing for past biblical eras of innocence and for the perfection of heaven
4. Who authored the scholarly biography, Life of Donne?
a) Izaak Walton
b) Katherine Philips
c) John Skelton
d) Isabella Whitney
e) Aemilia Lanyer
5. What is the title to Milton's blank-verse epic that assimilates and critiques the epic tradition?
a) L'Allegro
b) Lycidas
c) Paradise Lost
d) The Divine Comedy
e) The Beggar's Opera
6. Which writer was not active under both Elizabeth I and James I?
a) William Shakespeare
b) Ben Jonson
c) John Donne
d) Francis Bacon
e) John Milton
Restoration and the 18th century
1. Which of the following best describes the doctrine of empiricism?
a) All knowledge is derived from experience.
political power.
illusion.
b) Human perceptions are constructed and reflect structures of
c) The search for essential or ultimate principles of reality.
d) The sensory world is an
e) God is the center of an ordered and just universe.
2. Against which of the following principles did Jonathan Swift inveigh?
a) theoretical science
b) metaphysics
c) abstract logical deductions
d) a and b only
e) a, b, and c
3. Whose great English Dictionary, published in 1755, included more than fifteen hundred illustrations and
114,000 quotations?
a) William Hogarth
b) Jonathan Swift
c) Samuel Johnson
50
d) Ben Jonson
e) James Boswell
4. What was most frequently considered a source of pleasure and an object of inquiry by Augustan poets?
a) Civilization
b) Woman
c) God
d) Alcohol
e) Nature
5. Which of the following was described by its author as a "comic epic-poem in prose"?
a) Fielding's Joseph Andrews
Vanity of Human Wishes
b) Richardson's Pamela
c) Swift's Gulliver's Travels d) Johnson's The
e) Burney's Evelina
6. For which of the following poetic genres was blank verse generally not considered a good medium in the
eighteenth century?
a) love poems
b) philosophical poems
c) descriptive poems
d) meditative poems
e) epics
7. Which work exposes the frivolity of fashionable London?
a) Defoe's Robinson Crusoe
b) Swift's Gulliver's Travels
d) Richardson's Clarissa
c) Behn's Oroonoko
e) Pope's The Rape of the Lock
8. Which of the following is not generally considered a Gothic romance?
a) William Beckford's Vathek
Randsom
b) Matthew Lewis's The Monk
d) Ann Radcliffe's The Italian
c) Tobias Smollett's Roderick
e) William Godwin's Caleb Williams
9. Who wrote The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, a novel that abandons clock time for psychological
time?
a) Henry Fielding
b) Laurence Sterne
) Samuel Richardson
d) Tobias Smollett
e) Jonathan Swift
Romantic age
1. What served as the inspiration for Percy Bysshe Shelley's poems to the working classes A Song: "Men of
England" and England in 1819?
a) he organization of a working class men's choral group in Southern England
b) the Battle of Waterloo
c) the Peterloo Massacre
d) the storming of the Bastille
e) the first Reform Bill, passed in 1832, which aimed to bring greater Parliamentary representation to the
working classes
2. Who applied the term "Romantic" to the literary period dating from 1785 to 1830?
a) Wordsworth because he wanted to distinguish his poetry and the poetry of his friends from that of the ancien
régime, especially satire
b) English historians half a century after the period ended
c) "The Satanic School" of Byron, Percy Shelley, and their followers
d) Oliver Goldsmith in The Deserted Village (1770)
e) Harold Bloom
3. Which of the following became the most popular Romantic poetic form, following on Wordsworth's claim
that poetic inspiration is contained within the inner feelings of the individual poet as "the spontaneous overflow
of powerful feelings"?
51
a) the lyric poem written in the first person
b) the sonnet
c) doggerel rhyme d) the political tract
e) the ode
4. Romantic poetry about the natural world uses descriptions of nature _________.
a) for their own sake; to merely describe natural phenomenon
endowing it with traits normally associated with humans
processes of human thinking
spiritual world
b) to depict a metaphysical concept of nature by
c) as a means to demonstrate and discuss the
d) symbolically to suggest that natural objects correspond to an inner,
e) b, c, and d
5. How would "Natural Supernaturalism" be best characterized as a Romantic notion introduced by Carlyle?
a) a form of animism in which objects in the natural world are believed to be inhabited by spirits
b) a spontaneous belief in the supernatural based upon a surprise encounter with a supernatural being
c) a process by which things that are familiar and thought to be ordinary are made to appear miraculous and new
to our eyes
d) the experience of hallucinating contact with the supernatural world when taking opium
e) an oxymoron that nobody understood and that cannot be explained in the context of a discussion of Romantic
literature
6. Which setting could you not imagine a work of Romantic literature employing?
a) a field of daffodils
b) the "Orient"
c) a graveyard
d) a medieval castle
e) All of the above would be appropriate settings for Romantic literature.
7. Which poet asserted in practice and theory the value of representing rustic life and language as well as social
outcasts and delinquents not only in pastoral poetry, common before this poet's time, but also as the major
subject and medium for poetry in general?
a) William Blake
b) Alfred Lord Tennyson
d) William Wordsworth
e) Mary Wollstonecraft
c) Samuel Johnson
8. Which of the following descriptions would not have applied to any Romantic text?
a) a spiritual autobiography written in an epic style
c) a comedy of manners
b) a lyric poem written in the first person
d) a political tract demanding labor reform
e) a novel written about the intellectual and emotional development of a monster created by a scientist
9. Which of the following poems describe or celebrate an apocalyptic regeneration of humanity and the world
effected by the creative capacity of the human mind?
a) Coleridge's Dejection: An Ode
b) Blake's "Prophetic Books"
c) Carlyle's Sartor Resartus
d) Wollstonecraft's Vindication of the Rights of Woman e) all but d
10. Which of the following periodical publications (reviews and magazines) appeared in the Romantic era?
a) London Magazine
b) The Spectator
c) The Edinburgh Review
52
d) The Tatler
e) a and c only
11. The Gothic novel, a popular genre for the Romantics, exemplified in the writing of Horace Walpole and
Ann Radcliffe, could contain which of the following elements?
a) supernatural phenomenon
b) perversion and sadism, often involving a maiden's persecution
c) plots of mystery and terror set in inhospitable, sullen landscapes
gloomy castles, and dark dungeons
d) secret passages, decaying mansions,
e) all of the above
12. Which two writers can be described as writing historical novels?
a) Mary Shelley and Percy Bysshe Shelley
Walter Scott and Maria Edgeworth
b) William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge
d) Jane Austen and Charlotte Brontë
c) Sir
e) none of the above: Romantic
novelists never wrote historical novels.
13. Which Romantic writer(s) wrote in more than one of these popular literary forms: essay, novel, drama,
poetry?
a) Percy Bysshe Shelley
Coleridge
b) William Wordsworth
c) George Gordon, Lord Byron d) Samuel Taylor
e) all of the above
Victorian age
1. Which ruler's reign marks the approximate beginning and end of the Victorian era?
a) King Henry VIII
b) Queen Elizabeth I
c) Queen Victoria
d) King John
e) all of the above, in that order, with Victoria's reign marking the most pivotal period for England's colonial
efforts in India, Africa, and the West Indies
2. Which of the following novelists best represents the mid-Victorian period's contentment with the burgeoning
economic prosperity and decreased restiveness over social and political change?
a) Anthony Trollope
b) Charles Dickens
c) John Ruskin
d) Friedrich Engels
e) Oscar Wilde
3. What does the phrase "White Man's Burden," coined by Kipling, refer to?
a) Britain's manifest destiny to colonize the world
Christianity to the peoples of the world
other parts of the world
b) the moral responsibility to bring civilization and
c) the British need to improve technology and transportation in
d) the importance of solving economic and social problems in England before
tackling the world's problems
e) a Chartist sentiment
4. Which of the following best defines Utilitarianism?
a) a farming technique aimed at maximizing productivity with the fewest tools
b) a moral arithmetic, which states that all humans aim to maximize the greatest pleasure to the greatest number
a critical methodology stating that all words have a single meaningful function within a given piece of literature
d) a philosophy dictating that we should only keep what we use on a daily basis.
e) a form of nonconformism
5. Which of the following authors promoted versions of socialism?
a) William Morris
b) John Ruskin
c) Edward FitzGerald
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d) Karl Marx
e) all but c
6. Which best describes the general feeling expressed in literature during the last decade of the Victorian era?
a) studied melancholy and aestheticism
b) sincere earnestness and Protestant zeal
c) aucous celebration
mixed with self-congratulatory sophistication d) paranoid introspection and cryptic dissent e) all of the above
7. Fill in the blanks from Tennyson's The Princess.
Man for the field and woman for the _____:
Man for the sword and for the _____ she:
Man with the head and woman with the _____:
Man to command and woman to _____.
a) crop; scabbard; foot; agree
d) hearth; needle; heart; obey
b) throne; scepter; soul; decree
c) school; scalpel; pen; set free
e) field; sword; head; command
8.Which of the following Victorian writers regularly published their work in periodicals?
a) Thomas Carlyle
b) Matthew Arnold
c) Charles Dickens
d) Elizabeth Barrett Browning
e) all of the above: In addition to short fiction, most Victorian novels appeared serialized in periodicals.
9. What best describes the subject of most Victorian novels?
a) the representation of a large and comprehensive social world in realistic detail
of alternate states of consciousness
b) a surrealist exploration
c) a mythic dream world
d) the attempt of a protagonist to define his or her place in society
e) a and d
10. What was the relationship between Victorian poets and the Romantics?
a) The Romantics remained largely forgotten until their rediscovery by T. S. Eliot in the 1920s.
b) The Victorians were disgusted by the immorality and narcissism of the Romantics.
c) The Romantics were seen as gifted but crude artists belonging to a distant, semi-barbarous age.
d) The Victorians were strongly influenced by the Romantics and experienced a sense of belatedness.
e) The Victorians were aware of no distinction between themselves and the Romantics; the distinction was only
created by critics in the twentieth century.
11. What type of writing did Walter Pater define as "the special and opportune art of the modern world"?
a) the novel
b) nonfiction prose
c) the lyric
d) comic drama e)transcripts of Parliamentary debates
12. Which of the following comic playwrights made fun of Victorian values and pretensions?
a) W. S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan
b) Oscar Wilde
c) George Bernard Shaw
d) Robert Corrigan
e) all but d
20th century
1. Which scientific or technological advance did not take place in the first fifteen years of the twentieth century?
a) Albert Einstein's theory of relativity
the internet
b) wireless communication across the Atlantic
d) the invention of the airplane
e) the mass production of cars
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c) the creation of
2. In the 1930s, younger writers such as W. H. Auden were more _______ but less _______ than older
modernists such as Eliot and Pound.
a) popular; reverenced
b) brash; confident
c) radical; inventive
d) anxious; haunting
e) spiritual; orthodox
3. Which poet could be described as part of "The Movement" of the 1950s?
a) Thom Gunn
b) Dylan Thomas
c) Pablo Picasso
d) Philip Larkin
e) both a and d
4. Which of the following writers did not come from Ireland?
a) W. B. Yeats
b) James Joyce
c) Seamus Heaney
d) Oscar Wilde
e) none of the above; all came from Ireland
5. Which novel did T. S. Eliot praise for utilizing a new "mythical method" in place of the old "narrative
method" and demonstrates the use of ancient mythology in modernist fiction to think about "making the modern
world possible for art"?
a) Virginia Woolf's The Waves
b) Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness c) James Joyce's Finnegan's Wake
d) E. M. Forster's A Passage to India
e) James Joyce's Ulysses
6. Who wrote the dystopian novel Nineteen-Eighty-Four in which Newspeak demonstrates the heightened
linguistic self-consciousness of modernist writers?
a) George Orwell
b) Virginia Woolf
c) Evelyn Waugh
d) Orson Wells
e) Aldous Huxley
7. Which of the following novels display postwar nostalgia for past imperial glory?
a) E. M. Forster's A Passage to India
c) Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness
b) Jean Rhys's Wide Sargasso Sea
d) Paul Scott's Staying On
e) c and d
8. When was the ban finally lifted on D. H. Lawrence's novel Lady Chatterley's Lover, written in 1928.
a) 1930
b) 1945
c) 1960
d) 2000
e) The ban has not yet been formally lifted.
9. Which of the following was originally the Irish Literary Theatre?
a) the Irish National Theatre
d) the Abbey Theatre
b) the Globe Theatre
c) the Independent Theatre
e) both a and d
Key to Literature quiZ
Middle age
1. d) the Anglo-Saxons
2. b) King Arthur
3. e) John Gower
4. e) a code of laws promulgated by King Ethelbert
5. e) Ethelbert
6. c) pagan and Christian moral codes
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7. d) kenning
8. a) Romantic love is a guiding principle of moral conduct.
9. c) ironic understatement
10. b) German
11. e) b and c only
12. d) a work written in the French vernacular
13. d) a and c only
14. b) the Gawain poet
15. c) The Canterbury Tales
16. d) William Langland
17. c) the morality play
16th
century
1. e) Thomas More's Utopia
2. a) George Puttenham
3. c) Catholicism
4. e) b and d only
5. e) all of the above
6. e)all but d
7. e)all of the above
Early 17th century
1. c) the familiar essay
2. e) all of the above
3. d) celebrations of female friendship in Platonic terms normally reserved for male friendships
4. a) Izaak Walton
5. c) Paradise Lost
6. e)John Milton
Restoration and the 18th century
1. a)All knowledge is derived from experience.
2. e)a, b, and c
3. c)Samuel Johnson
4. e)Nature
5. a)Fielding's Joseph Andrews
6. a)love poems
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7. e)Pope's The Rape of the Lock
8. c)Tobias Smollett's Roderick Randsom
9. b)Laurence Sterne
Romantic age
1. c)the Peterloo Massacre
2. b)English historians half a century after the period ended
3. a)the lyric poem written in the first person
4. e)b, c, and d
5. c)a process by which things that are familiar and thought to be ordinary are made to appear miraculous and
new to our eyes
6. e)All of the above would be appropriate settings for Romantic literature.
7. d)William Wordsworth
8. c)a comedy of manners
9. e)all but d
10. e)a and c only
11. e)all of the above
12. c)Sir Walter Scott and Maria Edgeworth
13. e)all of the above
Victorian age
1. c)Queen Victoria
2. a)Anthony Trollope
3. b)the moral responsibility to bring civilization and Christianity to the peoples of the world
4. b) a moral arithmetic, which states that all humans aim to maximize the greatest pleasure to the greatest
number
5. e)all but c
6. a)studied melancholy and aestheticism
7. d)hearth; needle; heart; obey
8. e)all of the above: In addition to short fiction, most Victorian novels appeared serialized in periodicals.
9. e)a and d
10. d)The Victorians were strongly influenced by the Romantics and experienced a sense of belatedness.
11. b)nonfiction prose
12. e)all but d
20th century
1. c)the creation of the internet
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2. c)radical; inventive
3. e)both a and d
4. e)none of the above; all came from Ireland
5. e)James Joyce's Ulysses
6. a)George Orwell
7. d)Paul Scott's Staying On
8. c)1960
9. e)both a and d
English Literary quiZ 2
1 - Who was the author of the famous storybook 'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'?
a. Rudard Kipling
b. John Keats
c. Lewis Carroll
d. H.G. Wells
c. 14
d. they vary
2 - How many lines does a sonnet have?
a. 10
b. 12
3-Who wrote 'Where ignorance is bliss, it is folly to be wise'?
A Browning
b. Marx
c. Shakespeare
d. Kipling
4- Name the book which opens with the line 'All children, except one grew up'?
a. The Railway Children
b. Winnie the Poo
c. Jungle Book
d. Peter Pan
5 - Which is the first Harry Potter book?
a. HP and the Goblet of Fire b. HP and the Philosopher’s Stone c. HP and the Chamber of Secrets
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6 - In which century were Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales written?
a. 14th
b. 15th
c. 16th
d. 17th
7 - What nationality was Robert Louis Stevenson, writer of 'Treasure Island'?
a. Scottish
b. Welsh
c. English
d. Irish
e. French
8 - 'Jane Eyre' was written by which Bronte sister?
a. Anne
b. Charlotte
c. Emily
9 - What is the book 'Lord of the Flies' about?
a. a road trip around the USA b. a swarm of killer flies
c. schoolboys on a desert island
10 - In the book' The Lord of the Rings', who or what is Bilbo?
a. dwarf
b. wiZard
c. troll
d. hobbit
e. man
f.
castle
11- The following taboo phrases were used by which writer?
"I fart at thee", "shit on your head', "dirty bastard"
a. Ben Johnson
b. William Shakespeare
c. Henry James
d. Ernest Hemingway
12 - Who wrote the crime novel "Ten Little Niggers"?
a. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
b. Irvine Welsh
c. Agatha Christle
d. Emile Zola
Key
1 - Who was the author of the famous storybook 'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'? c
2 - How many lines does a sonnet have? 14
3 - Who wrote 'Where ignorance is bliss, it is folly to be wise'? c
4 - Name the book which opens with the line 'All children, except one grew up'? d
5 - Which is the first Harry Potter book? b
6 - In which century were Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales written? 14
7 - What nationality was Robert Louis Stevenson, writer of 'Treasure Island'? a
8 - 'Jane Eyre' was written by which Bronte sister? b
9 - What is the book 'Lord of the Flies' about? c
10 - In the book' The Lord of the Rings', who or what is Bilbo? c
11 - The following taboo phrases were used by which writer? a
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"I fart at thee", "shit on your head', "dirty bastard"
12 - Who wrote the crime novel "Ten Little Niggers"? c
English Literary quiZ 3
1. Which Welsh poet wrote "Under Milk Wood?"
a. Anthony Hopkins
b. Richard Burton
c. Tom Jones
d. Dylan Thomas
2. Who wrote Canterbury Tales?
a. Geoffrey Chaucer
b. Dick Whittington
c. Thomas Lancaster
d. King Richard II
3. Who wrote "The Hound of the Baskervilles"?
a. Agatha Christie
b. H Ryder-Haggard
c. P D James
d. Arthur Conan Doyle
4. Wlliam Shakespeare is not the author of:
a. Titus Andronicus
b. Taming of the Shrew
c. White Devil
5. Which of the following writers wrote historical novels?
60
d. Hamlet
a. Jane Austen and Charlotte Bronte
and Samuel Taylor Coleridge
b. Sir Walter Scott and Maria Edgeworth
c. William Wordsworth
d. Mary Shelley and Percy Bysshe Shelley
6. Which of the following are Thomas Hardy books?
a. The Poor Man and the Lady
b. The Return of Native
c. Chollttee d. None of the above
7. Who wrote 'The Winter's Tale?'
a. George Bernard Shaw
b. John Dryden
c. Christopher Marlowe
d. William Shakespeare
8. Sophocles and Aeschylus were Roman playwrights.
a. True
b. False
9. The Princess, In Memoriam, and Ode on the Death of the Duke of Wellington are the works of:
a. Alfred Tennyson
b. Robert Browning
c. Oscar Wilde
d. John Milton
10. The story of ___________ revolves around Indian characters and Indian society.
a. Last Orders
b. God of Small Things
c. Disgrace
d. The Sea
11. Which of the following is not a J.K. Rowling book?
a. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban b. Quidditch Through the Ages
c. Harry Potter and the HalfBlood Prince d. Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Theme. e. None of the above
KEY
1. Dylan Thomas
2. Geoffrey Chaucer
3. Arthur Conan Doyle
4. White Devil
5. Sir Walter Scott and Maria Edgeworth
6. The Poor Man and the Lady
7. William Shakespeare
8. False
9. Alfred Tennyson
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10. God of Small Things
11. None of the above
references
Fletcher. R.H. (1918). A History of English Literature
L. Cortes & N. Nikiforova & O.Soudlenkova. English Literature
Nguyen Chi Trung. (2002). English Literature. NXB DaNang
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