I.
Romanticism vs. Classicism and Rationalism
Source of
inspiration
Attitudes/interests
Social concerns
Classicism and
Rationalism
Scientific
observation of the
outer world; Logic
Classical greek and
roman literature
pragmatic
Interest in science,
technology
Concerned with
general, universal
experiences
Believed in following
standards and
traditions
Felt optimistic about
the present
Emphasized
moderation and selfrestraint
Appreciated
elegance,
refinement
Valued stability and
harmony
Favored a social
hierarchy
Interested in
maintaining
aristocracy
Concerned with
society as a whole
Believed that nature
should be controlled
by humans
Romanticism
Examination of inner
feelings, emotions;
imaginations
The literature of the
middle ages
idealistic
Interested in the
mysterious and
supernatural
Concerned with the
particular
Sought to develop
new forms of
expressions
Romanticized the
past
Tended toward
excess and
spontaneity
Appreciated folk
traditions
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Desired radical
change
Favored democracy
Concerned with
common people
Concerned with the
individual
Felt that nature
should be untamed
II. Romantic Literature
1. William wordsworth and samuel taylor
coleridge’s lyrical ballads
2. Jean-jacques Rosseau- prepared a way for
a new artistic movement, Romanticism
3. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe- turned to
the German literature of the medieval ages
4. Poetry, essays and novels
5. William wordsworth- nature poet
6. Second generation poets- George Gordon,
Lord Byron-( brooding passionate,
rebellious figures), Percy Bysshe Shelley,
John Keats
7. Periodicals (3 greatest essayist of the era:
Charles Lamb, William Halzitt and Thomas
De Quincey)
8. Romantic Novels: Gothic (Mary
Wollstonecraft Shelley), novel of manners
(Jane Austen), historical romances (Sir
Walter Scott)
9. End of romantic: first reform bill of 1832
III. Victorian Age
1. Businesses expanded, factories were everywhere,
Britain became the leader in manufacturing
2. “the sun never sets on the British empire” –
despite the problems, Britain can still rise.
3. Literacy increased
4. Victoria – married Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha
(the marriage angered the parliament, her relatives
and her constituents); Albert was only prince
consort; empress of India; when Albert died, she
could not function as queen anymore and it lead to
constitutional monarchy
5. Whig=liberal party (against colonial expansion);
Tories = conservatives (supported imperialism)
6. Second reform bill of 1867- voting rights were
extended to tenant farmers and better paid
workers (most males can vote now)
7. Slow reform
8. Trade policies: corn law(high taxes on corn), end to
protectionism (people can not import and/or
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export goods) to help the farmers, free trade
(because of famine)
Electoral reform: “people’s charter” or chartist
movement (many good effects. E.g. women can
now go to universities, abolished slavery, voting
rights for all males, etc)
Ireland thingies….
“the white man’s burden” : two territories were
formed: settled territories (with many whites) and
outright colonies (few whites)
Crimean war- only major European war Britain
fought during the era.
Britain regained the title of being the greatest and
most powerful country again.
Victorian thought: they believed that no matter
how hard the situation is, they can still rise and
they can improve themselves.
Political and economic Theories: laissez-faire
theory( the government can not intervene in
economic affairs); reformist liberalism (the
intervention of the government is needed to
protect the weak from the powerful); socialism
(limits/ends the private ownership of different
industries)
Evangelicalism – commitment to social reform
(YMCA or young men’s Christian association,
salvation army)
Oxford movement- more traditional church ritual
Charles Darwin’s evolution theory
Social Darwinism – “survival of the fittest”-Herbert
Spencer
Movements: romanticism, realism, naturalism, PreRaphaelite Brotherhood (ignore the ugliness of
industrialization, Dante Gabriel Rossetti) Aesthetic
Movement (art for art’s sake)
Alfred lord Tennyson- medieval themes
Robert browning- romantic attitudes but with
influence of realism; dramatic monologue
Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Christina Rossetti, George
Meredith
Emily Bronte- characters from childhood :D:D
Matthew Arnold- free verse
Thomas Hardy- workers and farmers
A.E. Houseman- society state during the Victorian
age
Rudyard Kipling- “white man’s burden”
Gerard Manly Hopkins – sprung rhythm
Middle class men loved novels
Novelists wrote for magazines which contains
series of stories that were read by the Victorians
Emily Bronte and Charlotte Bronte- realism
Charles Dickens – popular; novels with poignant
details
George Meredith- romantic poet; psychological
studies of characters and their motives
Mary Ann Evans (a.k.a. George Eliot)- moral issues
and personal relationships; some women used
male names to hide their identity because of
discrimination
William Makepeace Thackeray, Anthony Trollope,
Elizabeth Gaskell, Samuel Butler- realistic themes
Robert Louie Stevenson (Treasure Island), Rudyard
Kipling – action-packed adventure stories
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle- Sherlock Holmes mysteries
Thomas Carlyle (also wrote historical biographies)
and Thomas Babington Macaulay- greatest
historians
Elizabeth Gaskell’s Life of Charlotte Bronte- most
outstanding literary biography of the era
41. Mathew Arnold- made a sharp attack on the British
class system in Culture and anarchy, his famous
work of social criticism
IV. Figures of Speech
1. Simile- “like” or “as”
2. Metaphor- comparison by making a statement that
one thing is another
3. Personification- gives human qualities to an object,
an animal, an idea or anything abstract
4. Apostrophe- addresses
5. Allusion- indirect reference
6. Antonomoasia – change of proper name for a
common or other name or vice versa
7. Hyperbole- exaggeration or extravagant statement
8. Meiosis- positive understatement
9. Litotes- negative understatement
10. Repetition
11. Rhetorical question
12. Antithesis- a seeming contradiction of ideas,
words, clauses or sentences creating a parallelism
that serves to emphasize opposition of ideas
13. Paradox- illogical contradiction
14. Irony a.) Verbal irony- sarcastic remarks b.) irony of
situation c.) dramatic irony
15. Oxymoron- expression or phrase that appears to
be or is alleged to be self-contradictory
16. Chiasmus- crossing. (e.g. I love you as you love me)
17. Alliteration- repetition of initial consonant sound
(seen in magazine articles, comic/cartoon
characters, restaurants and expressions)
18. Assonance- repetition of vowel sounds
19. Onomatopoeia
20. Pun
21. Euphemism- substitution ogf an inoffensive term
for one considered offensively explicit
22. Metonymy- the use of a single characteristic to
identify a more complex entity
23. Synecdoche- part is exchanged for a whole