Robinson Crusoe
Author
Daniel Defoe was an English writer, most famous for his novel Robinson Crusoe.
He wrote more than 500 books and articles on various topics like politics, crime, religion and
psychology. His original name was Daniel Foe.
He was born in London and his birthdate is uncertain (maybe between 1659 to 1662 or 1660).
- In 1692, Defoe was arrested for debits of £700, actually his total debits may have amounted to
£17000.
- In 1702 he was arrested for vilification of the Anglican Church with his essay The shortest way with
the dissenters.
- During his imprisonment he wrote Moll Flanders.
- Between 1705 and 1707 he lived in Scotland.
- In 1715 he published The Family Instructor and in 1718 Robinson Crusoe.
- In 1731 he died at Moorfields, near London.
Plot
Robinson Crusoe is a young adult who was born in England. His father wanted him to study law, but
Robinson wished to experience life at sea. He set sail from home, but was soon shipwrecked on his way
to London. He joined another voyage, but was captured by pirates and sold into slavery in Africa.
While enslaved, Robinson met a boy named Xury. Along with Xury, he escaped on a small boat and
took refuge on an island. He later joined the voyage of a Portuguese ship and travelled to Brazil, where
he worked on a plantation. Robinson then set sail for Africa, but a storm wrecked his ship. He was now
stranded on a desert island off the coast of South America. He improvised and was able to build a
shelter and survive. Robinson was saved, from a group of native cannibals, a Native American who he
named Friday. Together they killed many cannibals and were eventually taken home in a ship that was
headed for England.
Characters
Robinson Crusoe: The main character and the narrator of the Novel. He's twenty and he likes travelling
at sea. He proves his bravery while he's alone on the island. He represents Britain which can influence
and colonize every place. He also represents the Christianity because during the story he reads the
Bible and then, after saving Friday, he converts his new friend to Christianity. Crusoe is like an English
hero who can survive with his own power and intelligence and can also find some trusty allies.
Friday: He's a young boy and will be the first ally and friend of Crusoe on the island. He's going to be
sacrificed by a group of cannibal natives when Crusoe saves him. Initially he isn't Christian and he
starts to talk to Crusoe about his own country and its religion but then he's converted to Christianity by
his friend. He is helped by Crusoe to save his own father from the group of cannibal natives.
Robinson's Father: He's from Bremen but he shifted to York, he wants Robinson to have a calm life
and to pursue a career in law. He's described as an old wise and grave man.
Xury: He's a young Moor that Robinson meets during his incarceration on the corsair ship. When
Robinson manages to escape, he swears loyalty. He follows Robinson in his journey through Brazil.
He's loyal and ready to protect him, giving him advice and keeping him company. At the end, Crusoe
sells him to the Portoguese captain on the condition that after ten years he would be freed.
The Portuguese Captain: He picks up Robinson and Xury and takes them to Brazil. He is polite, loyal
and extremely generous to Crusoe and helps him with his plantation profits even after his twentyeight
years' absence.
Commentary
Robinson Crusoe is inspired by a real story: a Scottish sailor, called Alexander Selkirk, abandoned in
1705 on an island near Chile, was found four years later in a wild state.
The entire title was: "The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, Of York,
Mariner: Who lived Eight and Twenty Years, all alone in an un-inhabited Island on the Coast of
America, near the Mouth of the Great River of Oroonoque; Having been cast on Shore by Shipwreck,
wherein all the Men perished but himself. With An Account how he was at last as strangely deliver'd by
Pyrates".
It describes synthetically the plot of the story and lets the reader imagine the story.
Robinson Crusoe is a very exciting adventure story.
Robinson became an idol: dressed in goat leathers with a hat and a rifle on his shoulder. He resists
anguish, discouragement and, thanks to his patience he comes to a perfect organization. He's an
example of a man who returns to primitiveness and becomes closer to God to get on.
Events happen in XVII century and he stays on the island for 28 years.
The book is written in first person to involve and to help readers to identify with Robinson. The
narration is full of details and highlights man's nature, that, after shipwreck, becomes lord of the little
world, explored, known and at last subdued.
The author aims at riding over difficulties through a resolute confidence in our own skills and in a God
who helps men. His characters' natures incarnate the new values of the rising. Finally we shouldn't
forget that, during the story, Crusoe uses his own Calendar which helps readers to have a full
description of Crusoe's life on the island.
Conclusions
In Robinson Crusoe there are some symbols which change in Crusoe's mind during the adventure.
Some examples of symbols are: the sea, the Bible, the footprint and the cannibals.
The ever-changing sea is a metaphor for Crusoe's changeable relationship with God. In fact during the
story Crusoe hates and loves God in different situations.
The book is a symbol of Crusoe's connection to God and later becomes a tool with which to teach
Friday the basics of Christianity.
The footprint increases Crusoe's hope to find new people on that apparently desert island.
Crusoe decides not to kill all the cannibals arrived on the island because he thinks that God is the one
who can punish people that do wrong things and not the individual man.
Our opinion about this book is good and we think the reading was fluid and not so difficult. It's not a
coincidence if this story is so famous all over the world and now we can confirm it because the book
leaves you think about serious things like religion, survival and British history.
Robinson Crusoe is a simple novel because there is development of character but not a central conflict
to be solved and it is a story which speaks about an adventure of a single man rather than a wide
plurality of characters.
4E 2013/14
Mantellina - Sacchi
Daniel Defoe (1660-1731)
1.Introduction
2.Biography
3.Plot
4.Characters analysis
5.Commentary
6.Conclusions
Moll Flanders
Introduction
The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous Moll Flanders (commonly known simply as Moll
Flanders) is a novel by Daniel Defoe, first published in 1722. It purports to be the true account of the
life of Moll, detailing her achievements from birth until old age.By 1721, Defoe had become a
recognised novelist, with the success of Robinson Crusoe in 1719. His political work was getting
sharper at this point, due to the fall of both Whig and Tory party leaders with whom he had been
associated; Robert Walpole was beginning his rise, and Defoe was never fully comfortable with the
Walpole group. Defoe's Whig views are however evident in the story of Moll, in particular the novel's
full title gives some insight into this and the outline of the plot:
The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous Moll Flanders, &c. Who was Born in Newgate, and
during a Life of continu'd Variety for Threescore Years, besides her Childhood, was Twelve Year a
Whore, five times a Wife (whereof once to her own Brother), Twelve Year a Thief, Eight Year a
Transported Felon in Virginia, at last grew Rich, liv'd Honest, and died a Penitent. Written from her
own Memorandums.
Biography
Daniel Defoe (whose real surname was Foe, he changed it to sound more gentlemanly) was an English
trader, writer, journalist, and spy, now most famous for his novel Robinson Crusoe.
In 1683, he went into business. He travelled often, selling goods like wine and wool, but he was always
in debts. He went bankrupt in 1692, and by 1703, decided to leave the business industry altogether.
Having always been interested in politics, Defoe published his first literary piece, a political pamphlet,
in 1683. He continued to write political works, working as a journalist, until the early 1700s.
Defoe took a new literary path in 1719, when he published Robinson Crusoe, a fiction novel based on
several short essays that he had composed over the years.
In the mid-1720s, Defoe returned to writing editorial pieces, focusing on morality and politics.
Some of his later works include Everybody's Business is Nobody's Business (1725); and some
nonfiction essays about marriage.
Defoe is one of the most important novel writers and he's considered one of the founders of the novel.
He wrote a total of more than 500 books, journals (he was a pioneer of economic journalism) on
various topics (including politics, crime, religion, marriage, psychology and the supernatural).
His most famous novels are:
-Robinson Crusoe (1719)
-Memoirs of a Cavalier (1720)
-Captain Singleton (1720)
-A Journal of the Plague Year (1722)
-Colonel Jack (1722)
-Moll Flanders (1722)
-Roxana: The Fortunate Mistress (1724)
Plot
Moll Flanders is born in prison because her mother was accused of felony. As an infant, Moll lives with
a kind widow who takes care of her. She grows into a beautiful teenager and she is seduced at an early
age.
Abandoned by her first lover, she is forced to marry his younger brother. He dies after a few years, and
she marries a draper who soon leaves the country as a fugitive from the law.
She marries again and moves to America, only to find out that her husband is actually her half-brother.
She leaves him disgusted and returns to England, where she becomes the mistress of a man whose wife
has gone insane. He breaks up with Moll after a religious experience.
Moll's next marriage offer is from a banker whose wife has been cheating on him. Moll agrees to marry
him if he can obtain a divorce, and meanwhile she marries a rich gentleman in Lancashire, which turns
out to be a fraud: he is as poor as she is and they say goodbye to each other.
Moll returns to marry the banker, who meanwhile has succesfully divorced his wife. He dies soon after,
however, and Moll has to start her resources once again.
She lives in poverty for several years and then begins stealing. She is quite talented at this new "trade"
and soon becomes an expert thief and a local legend. Eventually she is caught, imprisoned, and
sentenced to death. In prison at Newgate, she reunites with her Lancashire husband, who has also been
arrested.
They both manage to have their sentences reduced, and they are transported to the colonies, where they
begin a new life as plantation owners.
In America, Moll finds her brother and her son again and claims the inheritance her mother has left
her. Prosperous and repentant, she returns with her husband to England at the age of seventy.
Characters
Moll Flanders - The narrator and protagonist of the novel, who actually goes by a number of names
during the course of her lifetime. Born an orphan, she lives an adventurous and exciting life, moving
through an huge number of marriages and becoming a successful professional criminal before her
eventual retirement.
Moll's Mother - A convicted felon, Moll's mother was transported to the American colonies soon after
her daughter was born. She reappears as Moll's mother-in-law midway through the novel, when Moll
travels to Virginia with the husband who turns out to be her half-brother. She leaves her daughter a big
inheritance when she dies, which Moll reclaims in America at the end of the novel.
The Nurse - A widow in Colchester who takes care of the child Moll from the age of three through her
teenage years. The sudden death of this nurse forces Moll to a placement with a local wealthy family.
The Elder Brother - One of the two brothers in the family with which Moll spends her teenage years,
he falls in love with her. She becomes the mistress of this older brother, thinking wrongly that he wants
to marry her when he comes into his inheritance.
Robert - The younger of the two brothers who fall in love with Moll. He marries her, in spite of his
family's disapproval, but he dies after five years.
The Draper - Moll's second husband, a tradesman with the manners of a gentleman. His financial
problems sink them into poverty, and he escapes to France as a fugitive from the law.
Half-Brother - A man who marries Moll under the deception that she has a great fortune. Together
they move to Virginia, where he has his plantations. There, Moll learns that he is actually her halfbrother and leaves him to return to England.
The Gentleman - A polite man that becomes friend of Moll and eventually makes her his mistress. His
wife has a mental disease, but he stays with Moll for six years before a religious experience prompt
him to break off the relationship.
The Banker - A rich man whom Moll agrees to marry if he will divorce his unfaithful wife. They live
happily for several years, but he then dies.
Jemy - Also called James and "my Lancashire husband," he is the only man that Moll has any real
affection for. They marry under a mutual deception and then part ways. Eventually they are reunited in
prison and begin a new life together in America.
"My Governess" - Moll's landlady and obstetrician, later her friend and crime partner. She helps Moll
manage an inconvenient pregnancy and initiates her into the criminal life.
Humphrey - Moll's son by the husband who was also her brother. She meets him when she comes
back to America, and he helps her get established there.
Commentary
Moll rises from abject poverty to wealth and security and it is possible to readers who belong more or
less to the same social class of Moll to understand her situation.
The story of Moll brings them hope and, because they are probably richer than her, they can appreciate
how lucky they are.
Moll is driven by the need for security and property is the only thing which will keep her afloat in a
very commercial society, so she constantly look for prosperity to free her from the threat of poverty,
destitution and a life of crime.
Her character is deeper than previous ones in Defoe's novels.
She wonders about the real meaning of social status and privileges, and interrogates herself about her
behaviour and about her motivations.
She is always torn between desires and impulses, but she is also energetic and surprisingly innocent,
despite her adventures and her lifestyle as a criminal. Defoe shows us the two sides of her character in
constant opposition: she can be thrifty, cold and efficient and on the other side she's reckless, excited
and bold. She is never dull. Defoe makes no moral judgment, but leaves the reader to make his own,
this is supported by the use of the first person that makes the reader able to identify himself with her.
Defoe believed that women were capable and strong. Society deprived them of education and the
opportunity to control their own affairs. Moll seems to be a creation designed to alert Defoe's readers to
a serious social injustice.
Defoe's central character, then, is a woman who is marginalised and isolated, with few friends and no
family. Her criminal background is an inevitable consequence of a series of misfortunes and the loss of
her greatest qualities: youth and good looks.
Her life is always uncertain, she often has to re-invent herself and from her earliest years has a great
aspiration towards prosperity and gentility.
Unfortunately, she is doomed not to be able to achieve her ambitions thank to social standing, so she
will have to make her own chances.
She does this manipulating men when she is young and later by a series of skilful alliances with older
women who introduce her to the crime life, convenient marriages, childbirth, prostitution and crime.
The novel is structured in a way that we can see a series of parodies of tragic situations, which often
become almost bizarre in their comic absurdity. Moll sometimes behaves insensitively, or even in a
completely criminal way, but Defoe's heroine is never despicable, but only acts in an ambitious way
everytime.
Although Moll's emotions, are mixed and unstable, she always recognises and articulates them, even if
she sometimes does not understand them at all.
Conclusions
Moll Flanders is an interesting and strange novel, because the protagonist, Moll, is not the common
type of ‘hero’: she’s selfish, she doesn’t care about love or friends, she doesn’t fight for an ideal.
In fact the whole story is about her searching the economy stability (that only a good marriage can
give her) that she didn’t have when she was younger, using all the people that she meets and trying to
create the situations of finding a rich man.
But Moll is not only those things and Defoe makes us understand that using the first narrator, which
makes the audience understand also the other countless emotions of Moll, like the desperate need to
stop fighting for surviving in a society like the one where she lives, or the disgust when she found out
that her husband is her half brother, or the complex emotions that she feels when she decides to become
a criminal, or the fear when she’s in prison or the final repentance in the last period of her life.
So it’s an exciting novel for what concerns the psychological analysis of Moll during the history, with
also some twist in the plot and a lot of adventures, even if those adventures are not the one of knights
and dragons, but about marriage are pretty interesting also as a reflection on the society.
4E 2013/14 Franco – Lo Greco
Samuel Richardson - Pamela
1. Introduction
2. Biography
3. Plot
4. Character analysis
5. Commentary
6. Conclusions
1. INTRODUCTION
Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded is one of the first epistolary novels written by Samuel Richardson, who
gave a great contribution to the development of this genre through a well organized plot and moral
undertones. It was published in 1740 and it became soon a popular success: nowadays we would call it
a bestseller. Richardson's idea was to write a conduct book (which attempts to educate the reader on
social norms).
2. BIOGRAPHY
Samuel Richardson was born in 1689 in Derbyshire, where he had a basic education. He worked in a
printer's shop before become the president of the Stationer's Company, where were reunited printers
and booksellers. Only when he was 51 he wrote his first novel (Pamela).
He had two wife because he lost his first wife and his five sons. With his second wife he had four
daughters and so anyone could continue his activity.
He died in London in 1761 when he was 71.
CAREER
When he wrote Pamela he became an important writer in London thank to his novel Pamela, which was
so famous that in London began the “Pamela obsession”.
He was well known in his city, but when he entered in the sector of the writers he had one rival who
parodied Pamela, Henry Fielding.
He used his own way of writing consisting in an epistolary form. He chose this method because he
thought that it could give the reader an easy access to the characters' world.
Richardson's success brought him to be also a very famous printer and bookseller. In fact in 1733 he
got a contract with the House of Commons which estabilished that he had to print the Journals of the
House.
In his writer career he wrote four books:
PAMELA, called also VIRTUE REWARDED, in 1740 (this is his the book of his success).
PAMELA II is the sequel of Pamela in 1741 ( the novel won a great success at the time but not as much
as Pamela).
CLARISSA, called also THE HISTORY OF A YOUNG LADY in 1748 (it is one of the longest novels
in the English language). Also this novel was written like Pamela in epistolary form.
THE HISTORY OF SIR CHARLES GRANDISON in 1753 (the novel is still relatively appreciated
and can well be seen as a comedy of manners). This novel was written like Pamela in epistolary form.
3. PLOT
-Volume 1
Pamela Andrews is a religious girl who at the age of 15 lives and works as Lady B's maidservant in
Bedfordshire. After her death her son, the landowner Mr. B begins to feel interested in Pamela.
He tries to seduce her, but he fails and in a different situation tries again to kiss Pamela. She doesn't
allow him to do it, she wants absolutely to preserve her innocence.
After this, Mr. B. wants Pamela to marry his chaplain Mr. Williams, but she refuses and decides to go
back to her parents,
But instead Pamela is driven to Lincolnshire after Mr. B has told her parents, lying, that she's having a
love affair with a poor ecclesiastic. There, there's a rude and odious housekeeper called Mr. Jewkes and
devoted to Mr. B, who stays away from that estate for a long time.
Pamela then meets Mr. Williams and they plan to continue to communicate.
The young woman is cruely beaten by the housekeeper because she was insulted by her.
Even if Mr. Williams asks for help, no one helps Pamela, and so the chaplain to help her escape Mr. B's
villainity, proposes Pamela to marry him.
When Mr. B. finds out that Pamela and Mr. Williams have a correspondence, he declares that he hates
her, and he has Mr. Williams arrested, so that he can marry Pamela to one of his servants.
Disguised as the housemaid, Mr. B. succeeds in getting into bed with Pamela, which begs him to stop
trying to seduce her. He tells her he loves her but can't marry her because of the social differences.
-Volume 2
Mrs. Jewkes finds a parcel of letters hidden by Pamela and hands it to Mr.B. He feels compassion for
her and finally decides to marry her, but before taking a decision she wants to return to her parents.
When Pamela is far from Mr.B, she realises she is in love and comes back to him, who is ill.
They talk about their future together, everyone admires Pamela and she is happy with Mr.B.
Mr. Williams is set free.
The two lovers get married.
Whilst Mr. B is away, his sister Mrs Davers comes to Pamela and treats her badly, so she runs away
and reaches Mr.B. The following day Mrs Davers behaving rudely makes her brother lose his temper.
Eventually they all get on well, but Mrs. Davers reveals that Mr. B has a daughter from a girl he
seduced in his youth.
Pamela and her husband meet his daughter and come to know that her mother is now in Jamaica.
So Pamela proposes taking the girl home with them, and they do thus.
4. CHARACTERS
PAMELA: is a lively, pretty, and courageous maid-servant. She is 15. She is subject to the sexual
advances of her new Master, Mr. B. She is a devoted daughter to her impoverished parents. The parents
gives her a moral formation in fact they want defend her purity at all costs. Pamela resists Mr. B. who
attacked her becuse he wats her, but during this week she understand that in some way she is attracted
by him. Though it takes a while for her to admit it, Pamela is attracted to Mr. B. and gradually she
comes to love him. They marry about halfway through the novel. Then with Pamela’s sweetness and
equipoise she receves the approvations of the socety and Mr. B ‘s friends.
MR.B.: He is 25 or 26. He had properties in Bedfordshire, Lincolnshire, Kent, and London. He is
Pamela’s employer, pursuer, and eventual husband. Richardson has censored Mr. B.’s name to protect
the man, but scholars have conjectured based on manuscripts that the novelist had “Brandon” in mind.
Mr. B. is libidinous, he desires Pamela to satisfy his sexual dream, even to the point of imprisoning her
in his Lincolnshire estate. His decency prevents him from consummating any of his assaults on her,
however, and under her influence he reforms in the middle of the novel.
LADY B.: Pamela’s original employer, the mother of Mr. B. and Lady Davers. Lady B. was morally
upright and kind to Pamela, educating her and contributing to the formation of her virtuous character.
On her deathbed, she told her son to look after all the Bedfordshire servants, especially Pamela.
MR.ANDREWS: Pamela’s father. He is virtuous and literate like his daughter, formerly the master of a
school, though his fortunes have since declined and he is now an agricultural laborer. He had two sons,
now dead, who pauperized him before dying. Pamela credits both her parents with forming her
character by educating her in virtue and giving her an example of honest, cheerful poverty.
MRS. JEWKES: The housekeeper at Mr. B.’s Lincolnshire estate and Pamela’s primary warder during
her stay away from her family. Pamela represents her as a villain, physically hideous. Mrs. Jewkes is
devoted to her Mr.B. and she is ready to help him in his attempted rape and seductions of Pamela.
MR. WILLIAMS: The chapline of Mr. B.’s parish in Lincolnshire. Pamela engages his assistance in
her efforts to escape her captivity, but he is ineffectual. He desires to become Pamela's husband but Mr.
B. sends him to prison. He suffers from his position as the suitor whom no one takes seriously.
5. COMMENTARY
Pamela was immediately and extremely popular with the reading public. Richardson initially also
enjoyed critical acclaim and was considered one of the most important English novelists. His
contemporaries focused almost exclusively on his moral teachings, and most praised the author for his
judgment and honesty. Critics would mention him as historically important for advancing the epistolary
form. William Hazlitt perceptively wrote that his works combine the romance of fiction with the
"literal minuteness of a common diary." His character's can be read at different levels; according to
both Richardson and critics, the characters are not as bound to the truth as they continually claim.
Elements of Richardson's work have often been praised in spite of their author; critics suggested that
the depths of his work were present unconsciously or even by accident.
6. CONCLUSIONS
This work is important to emphasize that the change of Mr. B for love and the consequent change of
Pamela. I think you could even call it work of the opposites because they pass by the satisfaction of
their amorous desires from true love. I thought that was a very pretty and pleasant work and I
appreciated the strength and sweetness of Pamela. Mr. B is one of the most determined characters I
have ever know. This book describe the game of love that is done with falling in love and subterfuges
to win the girl or the boy.
Raschio Stefano & Pomelli Diana
Tom Jones
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Introduction
Biography (life and works) (chronology)
Plot
Character analysis (personality and relationship)
Commentary (critical analysis)
Conclusions
INTRODUCTION
Henry Fielding's Tom Jones is both one of the great comic masterpieces of English literature and a
major force in the development of the novel form. By 1749, when Tom Jones appeared, the novel was
only beginning to be recognized as a potentially literary form. Fielding was the first major novelist to
write fiction without shame. It is a comedy in both senses of the formal definition: it is amusing and all
ends well. What Fielding did establish with Tom Jones, was the role of the novel as the modern epic
form.
Originally entitled The History of Tom Jones, A Foundling, the book tells the story of the title
character from infancy through his marriage to the beautiful and virtuous Sophia Western, the pursuit
of whom takes up much of the tale. Along the way, Fielding relentlessly satirizes the hypocrisy and
vanity of most of his supporting cast. He shows that the lusty rascal Tom is, in fact, an infinitely better
human being than the vicious pretenders who surround him and scheme against him while camouflaged
in a thin veneer of artificial virtue. The hero overcomes not only all external plots and obstacles but,
most importantly, his own weaknesses of character, to win both love and fortune.
BIOGRAPHY
22 april 1707 – Fielding was born at Sharpam
1728- He travelled to Leiden to study classic and law at the university
1731 – He wrote “The Roast Beef of Old England”
1734 – He married Charlotte C
1737 – Theatrical Licensing Act
1730-1740 – Satirical articles and newspapers
1741 – He writes novels and his first major success Shamela (parody of Pamela)
1743 – He published a novel in the Miscellanies Volume III. This novel is thought of as his first
1746 – He wrote “The Female Husband”
1749 – He wrote Tom Jones
1754 – He went abroad to Portugal and he died in Lisbon
Works
1728 – Love in several masques
1730 – The Temple beau
1730 – The author’s farce
1730/31 – Tom Thumb the great
1734 – Don Quixote in England
1736 – Pasquin
1737 – Historical register for the year 1736
1740 – Shamela
1742 – The history of the adventure of Joseph Andrews
1743 – Journey from this world to the next ; The history of Mr.Jonathan Wild the Great
1749 – Tom Jones
1751 – Amelia
PLOT
The gentleman Allworthy, who lives in Somersetshire with his unmarried sister Bridget Allworthy,
arrives home from a trip to London to discover a baby boy in his bed. Allworthy undertakes to discover
the mother and father of this foundling and finds local woman Jenny Jones and her tutor, Mr. Partridge,
guilty. Allworthy sends Jenny away from the county, and the poor Partridge leaves of his own accord.
Allworthy decides to bring up the boy. Soon after, Bridget marries Captain Blifil, a visitor at
Allworthy's estate, and gives birth to a son of her own, named Blifil. Captain Blifil regards Tom Jones
with jealousy, since he wishes his son to inherit all of Allworthy possessions. But soon Captain Blifil
dies .
The narrator skips forward twelve years. Blifil and Tom Jones have been brought up together, but
receive vastly different treatment from the other members of the house. Allworthy is the only person
who shows consistent affection for Tom.
Tom spends much time with Squire Western, Allworthy's neighbor. Sophia Western, Squire Western's
daughter, falls deeply in love with Tom. Tom has already conferred his affection on Molly Seagrim, the
poor daughter of Black George. When Molly becomes pregnant, Tom prevents Allworthy from
sending Molly to prison by admitting that he has fathered her child. Tom falls deeply in love with her.
Tom's commitment to Molly ends when he discovers that she has been having affairs, which means
Tom is not the father of her child and frees him to confess his feelings to Sophia.
Allworthy falls gravely ill. A lawyer named Dowling arrives and announces the death of Bridget
Allworthy. When the doctor announces that Allworthy will not die, Tom rejoices.
Mrs. Western, the aunt, comes to stay at her brother's house. She and the Squire fight constantly, but
they unite over Mrs. Western's plan to marry Sophia to Blifil. Mrs. Western promises not to reveal
Sophia's love for Tom. Sophia strongly opposes the proposal, and Squire Western grows violent with
her. Blifil tells Allworthy that Tom is a rascal and Allworthy banishes Tom from the county. Tom does
not want to leave Sophia, but decides that he must follow the path.
In Bristol, he happens to meet up with Partridge, who becomes his loyal servant. Sophia, who has run
away from Squire Western's estate to avoid marrying Blifil, discovers that Tom is having an affair with
Mrs. Waters.
Tom and Partridge arrive in London soon after, and they stay in the house of Mrs. Miller and her
daughters, Nancy. Nancy falls pregnant and Tom convinces Nightingale to marry her. Lady Bellaston
and Tom begin an affair, while he continues to pursue Sophia. When he and Sophia are reconciled,
Tom breaks off the relationship with Lady Bellaston. Yet Lady Bellaston is still determined not to
allow Sophia and Tom's love to flourish. She encourages anoter young man, Lord Fellamar, to rape
Sophia.
Soon after, Squire Western, Mrs. Western, Blifil, and Allworthy arrive in London, and Squire Western
locks Sophia in her bedroom. Mr. Fitzpatrick thinks Tom is his wife's lover and begins a duel with
Tom. Tom stabs Fitzpatrick with his sword. Partridge visits Tom in jail with the ghastly news that Mrs.
Waters is Jenny Jones, Tom's mother. Mrs. Waters meets with Allworthy and explains that Fitzpatrick
is still alive. She also tells Allworthy that a lawyer acting on behalf of an unnamed gentleman tried to
persuade her to conspire against Tom. Allworthy realizes that Blifil is this gentleman, and he decides
never to speak to him again.
Mrs. Waters also reveals that Tom's mother was Bridget Allworthy. Tom is released from prison. Mrs.
Miller explains to Sophia the reasons for Tom's marriage proposal to Lady Bellaston. Squire Western
eagerly encourages the marriage between Tom and Sophia. Sophia agrees to marry him. They live
happily on Western's estate with two children.
CHARACTERS
IMPORTANT CHARACTERS:
SQUIRE ALLWORTHY, a benevolent gentleman of Somersetshire.
BRIDGET ALLWORTHY, his sister; later wife of Capt. Blifil.
TOM JONES, foundling.
DR. BLIFIL, an unsuccessful physician.
CAPTAIN BLIFIL, his brother.
BLIFIL, son of Captain and Mrs. Bridget Blifil.
MOLLY SEAGRIM, daughter of Black George.
SECONDARY CHARACTERS:
PARTRIDGE, schoolmaster; later called “Little Benjamin.”
MRS. PARTRIDGE, his wife.
GEORGE SEAGRIM, gamekeeper, commonly called “Black George.”
ROGER THWACKUM, tutor to Master Jones and Master Blifil.
THOMAS SQUARE, a parson.
MRS. DEBORAH WILKINS, servant in Allworthy’s house.
JENNY JONES, maid servant; later known as Mrs. Waters.
MISS SOPHIA WESTERN, his daughter.
SQUIRE WESTERN.
MRS. WESTERN, his sister.
MRS. SEAGRIM, her mother.
EXTRAS:
MR. SUPPLE, a curate. MRS. HONOUR, maid to Sophia Western. ENSIGN NORTHERTON.
ENSIGN ADDERLY. WHITFIELD and MRS. WHITFIELD, host and hostess of the Bell at
Gloucester.
DOWLING, an attorney of Salisbury. The Man of the Hill. The Landlord and Landlady at Upton.
SUSAN, their maid. MR. FITZPATRICK MR. MACLACHLAN Irish Gentlemen. MRS.
FITZPATRICK, niece of Squire Western. An Irish Peer. LADY BELLASTON. A Puppet
Showman. A Merry Andrew.
GRACE, a chambermaid. The King of the Gypsies. MR. ANDERSON, an amateur highwayman.
MRS. ETOFF, maid to Lady Bellaston. MRS. MILLER, a clergyman’s widow. NANCY and
BETTY, her daughters. MR. J. NIGHTINGALE, her lodger. MR. NIGHTINGALE, his father. MR.
NIGHTINGALE, his uncle.
Tom Jones: Jones’s character is presented in the novel as a youngster up until he marries Sophia. The
reader is able to follow Jones’s maturation throughout the story. Tom’s character is constantly showing
the philosophy of carpe diem. Tom shows as if he is only capable of thinking what he is doing at the
moment and not what the consequences might be in the future. His actions are backed up by his
impulses at the time rather than by analysis. A perfect example of these impulses is when he without
hesitation goes to bed with Molly Seagrim, Mrs. Waters, and Lady Bellaston while being deeply in
love with Sophie. Jones’s line of thought is very unpredictable because he can go from deciding to join
the army or go to sea as the solution to his problems and suddenly change his plans from one moment
to the next. Jones’s direct line of thought and concern for the welfare of others brings out the
exemplary characteristic that the reader should mostly admire about Tom. He never gives much
thought on why he should help the person, he just impulsively helps everyone, this being at the cost of
his own welfare. It is Tom’s own carelessness and naïve attitude that brings him all of the problems he
faces through the novel. His constant concern for the present does not let him see the consequences of
his immediate actions. Though he brings on himself his own misery, he eventually recognizes that his
actions, especially his affairs with two middle-aged women and one that might even be his mother, lead
him to realize that what he was doing was wrong and from there on he decides to stop this behavior.
From this point on, the reader sees how Tom is able to acknowledge the importance of analyzing his
actions before doing them out of impulse and by the end of the novel he is able to practice prudence
and reflection.
Blifil: Bifil is the complete opposite of Jones’s character. Blifil does not think of someone else’s
welfare. He is always thinking what can he gain from a situation. He is obsessed with the future; all of
his actions are based on eventually getting the most amount of Allworthy’s estate. By the end of the
novel, Blifil unlike Jones has not learnt anything; on the contrary, all he did was to corrupt his values to
an even futher extent.
Squire Allworthy: Allworthy is supposed to be correct all the time, hence his last name, but his actions
as the novel progresses question his decision-making process and his better judgment of what is right
and what is wrong. He makes his conclusions on Jones’s actions not by reasoning and analyzing the
situation at hand but instead he makes his decisions following what he understands to be right or
wrong. Allworthy at the end of the novel admits that his decisions to reason the way he did and judge
Jones the way he did, were wrong.
Sophia: Sophia is the essence of womanhood in the novel. She is very honest and obedient but she also
has a sense of independence towards her father’s wishes. After she and Tom are lovers, she is willing to
go against her father’s order to stay and marry Blifil and she leaves home to go and find Jones.
Although Sophia is very honest and loving, she does not think like Jones. She is not dedicated like
Jones. She puts her personal interest before the welfare of others.
Squire Western: Western like Tom is a very energetic and lively character. He is also a very closed
and obstinate man, once he believes in one idea, there is no one who can change his mind.
Thwankum and Square: Both these characters teach and live in Allworthy’s estate for the economic
advantages. Their intentions are clear because they favor Blifil over Tom. Even though they are both
religious men, money comes before their beliefs.
COMMENTARY
A Comic Epic Poem in Prose
The plot of Tom Jones is not only famous for its intricacy, it is also highly symmetrical in design. The
novel has eighteen books, six for the beginning, six for the middle, and six for the end. The first six
books give the cause of the action: Tom's open, sensual nature; the conflict with Blifil; the
misunderstanding with Squire Allworthy; Tom's love for Sophia and their separation. The next six
contain both the consequences of the first six and the incidents and details which will bring about a
resolution. The last six books plunge Tom into disastrous circumstances through his actions and get
him out of them again. When he is in prison about to be hanged, he hears that Sophia has refused to
speak to or see him again as a result of his affair with Lady Bellaston. As if this were not enough, he
even has to face the possibility that he might have committed incest. But it is this last misfortune which
also brings about his change of fortune: it is through Jenny Jones, Tom's purported mother who is now
known as Mrs. Waters, that the truth of Tom's birth emerges.
Tom Jones contains many conventional narrative elements as well which Fielding had already made
use of in Joseph Andrews, including an ostensibly picaresque form, inserted narrative and the
discovery of true identity. But while the character Joseph, with his origins in parody, suffers from an
element of the ridiculous, Tom emerges as a deeper character who even goes through a certain amount
of superficial moral development. Tom Jones exemplifies serious aspects of Fielding's concept of
benevolence and good nature, his generous personality reflecting Fielding's moral philosophy. At the
same time, it is from his impulsive and affectionate nature that many of his troubles spring. He is
contrasted to the hypocrite Blifil, his opposite and, as it turns out, his half-brother. Fielding frequently
uses this method of contrasting pairs to manage his huge cast of characters: Tom is opposed to Blifil,
Sophia to Molly and later Lady Bellaston, and Allworthy to Squire Western. The same technique is
used with the minor characters: the tutors of Tom and Blifil are Thwackum, representing blind respect
for authority, and Square, representing abstract ethics.
The most original and memorable element of Tom Jones, however, is the narrative voice informing
the action and discoursing on the philosophy of writing to the reader in the introductory chapters.
Fielding controls the reader's response thorough the tolerant presence of the figure of the omniscient
author. The narrative voice accounts for various comic effects Fielding achieves in this remarkable
novel; it is often the detached description which transforms a melodramatic situation into a comic one.
THEMES
The history
Tom Jones is considered one of the first prose works describable as a novel. The novel is divided into
18 smaller books. Tom Jones is a foundling discovered on the property of a very kind, wealthy
landowner, Squire Allworthy. Tom grows into a vigorous and lusty, yet honest and kind-hearted, youth.
He develops affection for his neighbor's daughter, Sophia Western. On one hand, their love reflects the
romantic comedy genre popular in 18th-century Britain. However, Tom's status as a bastard causes
Sophia's father and Allworthy to oppose their love; this criticism of class friction in society acted as a
biting social commentary. The inclusion of prostitution and sexual promiscuity in the plot was also
original for its time, and also acted as the foundation for criticism of the book's "lowness."
Virtue as action rather than thought
Fielding contrasts the concept of Virtue espoused by characters like Square and Thwackum with the
Virtue actually practiced by Jones and Allworthy. Tom is the embodiment of the very active type of
Virtue that Fielding respects.
The impossibility of stereotypical categorization
Fielding's novel attempts to break down numerous limits. In terms of genre, Fielding can't decide
whether his novel is a "philosophical History," a "Romance," or an "epi-comic prosaic poem." Fielding
suggests that cataloguing fiction is silly, and that he would rather think of himself as "the founder of a
new Province of Writing."
In another example of broken stereotypes, Fielding's characters can't be distinguished by "masculine"
or "feminine" traits: in this novel both men and women fight and cry.
The tension between Art and Artifice
Although the narrator upholds the value of natural art in his characters, he uses artifice himself in the
construction of his novel. For example, he often closes chapters by hinting to the reader what is to
follow in the next chapter, or he warns the reader that he is going to omit a scene. In such a way, he
prevents us from suspending our disbelief and giving ourselves up to the "art" of the narrative—
instead, Fielding constantly entices us to reflect on and review the process of construction.
Travel
Where the narrator opens the novel with a reference to food, he concludes the novel with a reference to
travel, casting himself as the reader's man traveler. This represents the climax of a travel motif
throughout the novel. As the characters journey from the country to the city, the narrator includes
himself as a fellow traveler, remarking that he will not trudge through the journey, but will hurry and
slow down as he pleases.
The Law
The narrator infuses his language with legal terms. For example, after a petty domestic argument with
Squire Western, Mrs. Western refers to their reconciliation as the signing of a "treaty." Such examples
reveal the narrator's technique of hyperbole—he uses technical language to build up events that are
actually irrelevant. However, there are also cases in which the narrator's legal motif is genuine, as both
Allworthy and Western are Justices of the Peace, and the lawyer Dowling plays a large part in the plot
against Tom.
The Stage
It is noteworthy that Fielding constantly alludes to the theatre, since his novel is in some ways more
"dramatic" than it is "literary." The motif of the stage reminds one that Fielding thinks of his characters
as "actors." All the same, the fact that Fielding refuses to provide detailed visual descriptions of his
characters slightly undermines his theatrical motif. Clearly, he wishes to vacillate between the visual
world of the dramatic and the written word of the prose novel.
Conclusion
The story of Tom Jones is complicated with so many episodes and so many characters.
We love the story because it is interesting and compelling.
The various events between the characters are intriguing and made us realize just how special the
novels of Henry Fielding are.
Henry Fielding is very good at writing in the third person for the first time in English literature.
The complexity of the plot and so many characters that appear are a very important feature in the novel.
TRISTRAM SHANDY
 INTRODUCTION
 BIOGRAPHY (LIFE AND WORKS) (CHRONOLOGY)
 THE PLOT (POINT OUT THE PHASES)
 CHARACTERS ANALYSIS (PERSONALITY AND RELATIONSHIPS)
 COMMENTARY (CRTICAL ANALYSIS)
 CONCLUSIONS (UNDERLINE WHAT IS RELEVANT + PERSONAL APPRECIATION)
Author (Laurence Sterne)
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24 November 1713: He was born in Clonmel, County Tipperary.
1723: Death of his father.
1733: He went to Jesus College of Cambridge.
1738: He become vicar at Sutton-in-the-Forest , near York.
1741: He married Elizabeth Lumley.
1759: His first publication (A Political Romance).
1759: First Volume Of "Life and opinion of Tristram Shandy"
1762: He went to France because he was ill with his wife and daughter.
1768: He died in London.
Introduction to the book
The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman is a humorous novel by Laurence Sterne.
It was published in nine volumes, of which the first two appearing in 1759, and seven others following
over the next seven years.
Probably Sterne's most enduring work, it purports to be the auto-biography of the title character.
Its style is marked by digression and amplification.
Plot (Tristram Shandy)
Book 1: This book starts with Tristram's conception, which went wrong because Mrs. Shandy
interrupted Mr. Shandy at the moment of ejaculation. He then introduces two characters, Yorick and
Toby. Tristram digresses about writing, philosophy, marriage, and even digressions; and we learn about
Mr. Shandy's obsession with names.
Book 2: In this book Tristram finally gets to his birth. He explains how Toby became obsessed with
building fortifications while Susannah goes for the midwife and Obadiah goes for the doctor. Toby
explains his fortifications, and Mr. Shandy keeps talking about obstetrics.
Book 3: This is a catastrophic volume. Mrs. Shandy is screaming upstairs while she labors, but Mr.
Shandy contorts himself trying to extract his handkerchief from his pocket; Dr. Slop cuts his thumb
trying to untie the knots of his doctor's bag; Susannah scrapes her arm; the midwife bangs her hip in a
fall; Dr. Slop scrapes Toby's hand demonstrating the forceps; and Dr. Slop breaks baby Tristram's nose
in the delivery.
Book 4: This book starts with a story from Slawkenbergius, a suggestive tale about a stranger who has
such a large nose. After this strange story Susannah announces that the baby Tristram is dying and
needs to be baptized. Mr. Shandy tells her to tell the parson to name the boy "Trismegistus," but
Susannah forgets the name on the way and Yorick decides she must mean "Tristram."
Book 5: At last, in this book Tristram is born. Mr. Shandy begins writing the Tristram-paedia, a
textbook expressly designed for baby Tristram but this experience doesn't go well.
Book 6: The book begins with the fallout from Tristram's circumcision. He's crying in pain while
everyone argues about what to do. Mr. Shandy decides Tristram has been spending too much time with
women and resolves to make a man out of him. The narrator announces that he's going to turn his
attention to Toby and Toby's love affair.
Book 7: In this book Tristram heads off on a major digression , a journey to Europe. The sort-of-travelnarrative begins.
Book 8: In this part Tristram takes us back more than a decade before he was born, when Toby first
came to Shandy Hall.
He tells about Toby's love and his actions.
Book 9: In this book Toby works up the nerve to court a widow.
He tells about the story of Bridget and Obadiah that want to know something about Toby.
Characters
-Tristram, the narrator:
Tristram is both the fictionalized author of The Life and Opinions of “Tristram Shandy, Gentleman”
and the child whose conception, birth, christening, and circumcision form one major sequence of the
narrative. The adult Tristram Shandy relates certain aspects of his family history, including many that
took place before his own birth, drawing from stories and hearsay as much as from his own memories.
His opinions we get in abundance; of the actual details of his life the author furnishes only traces, and
the child Tristram turns out to be a minor character.
-Walter Shandy:
Tristram's philosophically-minded father. Walter Shandy's love for abstruse and convoluted intellectual
argumentation and his readiness to embrace any strange hypothesis lead him to propound a great
number of absurd pseudo-scientific theories.
-Toby Shandy:
Tristram's uncle, and brother to Walter Shandy. After sustaining a groin-wound in battle, he retires to a
life of obsessive attention to the history and science of military fortifications. His temperament is gentle
and sentimental: Tristram tells us he wouldn't harm a fly.
-Mrs. Shandy:
Tristram's mother Mrs. Shandy insists on having the midwife attend her labor rather than Dr. Slop, out
of resentment at not being allowed to bear the child in London. On all other points, Mrs. Shandy is
singularly passive and uncontentious, which makes her a dull conversational partner for her
argumentative husband.
-Susannah:
Chambermaid to Mrs. Shandy. She is present at Tristram's birth, complicit in his mis - christening, and
partly to blame for his accidental circumcision by the fallen window shade.
-Obadiah:
Servant to Walter Shandy. We don't know much about Obadiah as a person.
-Widow Wadman:
A neighbour who has marital designs on Captain Toby Shandy, and with whom he has a brief and
abortive courtship.
Commentary
Of the nine volumes in which the novel is structured, the first and the second appeared in 1760, those
from the third to sixth in 1761-1762, the seventh and the eighth in 1765, the last in 1767.
The objective of Sterne is to lay bare the conventions of the novel as a literary form, ridiculing them.
Pretending to tell a story he, the protagonist transposes on the written page nothing but his own
personality.
“The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman” is a work entirely built on a network of
digressions that is very complex and ingenious.
The narration of an event is abruptly interrupted, to be resumed later, at some point in the work, after a
series of digressions and observations of the narrator. In reality the autobiography of Tristram Shandy,
in this way, never proceeds.
In the years of the publication of the first volumes of the novel had huge success among the reading
public.
But while his contemporaries were especially impressed by the humor, the puns and double entenders,
critics accused the author of licentiousness and beheld in his eccentricity an attempt to draw attention.
Conclusions
With this work, Sterne has acquired an exceptional position within the literature of his time, giving rise
to the largest caricature of the traditional novel that has ever been made.
The humour was an expression of the great skill of Sterne in manipulating and controlling language,
playing with words and giving order to the experience according to reports that multiply indefinitely.
In the work of Sterne you can trace a way that the reader confronts the novel totally different from the
traditional texts.
Infact, the reader is explicitly requested a participation in the writing of the text.
4E 2013/14 Tallone - Vitale
Horace Walpole
THE CASTLE OF OTRANTO (1764)
INTRODUCTION
The Castle of Otranto is a gothic novel, a kind of story characterized by mystery and evil. So it’s
different from the other novels of that period, which were realistic. In the Castle of Otranto there are
mysteries and prophecies and the story isn’t boring.
BIOGRAPHY
1717: Walpole was born in London
1737: Walpole mother's died
1738: Walpole left Cambridge
1739-1741: Walpole went on the Grand Tour with T.Gray
1741-1768: Walpole was elected Whig Member of Parliament for Callington, Cornwall
1745: Walpole's father died
1762: “Some Anecdotes of Painting in England”
1764: “Castle of Otranto”
1768: “The Mysterious mother”, “Historic Doubts on the Life and Reign of Richard III”
1780: “On modern gardening”
1784: ”A Description of the Villa of Mr. Horace Walpole”
1784-1785: “letters to Mann”
1785: “Hieroglyphic Tales”
1797: he died
PLOT
The novel begins with the impending marriage of Conrad, son the lord of the Castle Otranto, to
Isabella. On the day of the marriage, Conrad is mysteriously struck down by a helmet that falls from
the sky and crushes his skull and kills him. Remembering the curse set over the inhabitants of Castle of
Otranto that declared that, if they become too proud, they will be replaced by another family, Conrad’s
father Manfred panics. Afraid that his family is going to end, he decides to divorce his wife, Hippolita,
because she has failed to give him a healthy son. He will marry Isabella and attempt to continue his
line.
But Isabella escapes. Aided by a peasant, Theodore, she manages to escape to Friar Jerome who gives
her sanctuary before Manfred can force her into marriage. Infuriated at her attempt, Manfred sets out to
get Isabella back, but finds Theodore instead and sentences him to death for aiding Isabella. As
Theodore is being prepared for execution, Jerome realizes that Theodore is his son. Jerome begs
Manfred to spare Theodore’s life and Manfred makes the deal that if Jerome gives Isabella up,
Theodore can live.
However, before either can happen, a group of knights arrive on the scene and chaos ensues as the
knights are enlisted to help save Isabella from Manfred. Theodore is locked in a tower by Manfred.
Locked in the tower, Theodore has lost hope, but he is saved by Matilda, Manfred’s daughter. After
Matilda releases him, Theodore joins the race to find Isabella as well and manages to reach her first.
One of the knights shows up soon after Theodore arrives and a fight ensues in which Theodore wounds
the knight and it is discovered that he is Isabella’s father, Frederic.
As the inhabitants gather back at the castle of Otranto, it looks like both Isabella and Theodore have
escaped the perils of forced marriage and death as Frederic opposes the marriage between Isabella and
Manfred. However, Frederic falls for Matilda and a discussion is started between him and Manfred
about marrying the other’s daughter. Desperate, neither girl wishes for this to happen and Matilda and
Theodore plan to meet in the chapel. Suspecting something is up with Theodore, Manfred assumes that
there is a romance between Theodore and Isabella. Going to the chapel to expose them, he takes a
dagger and in a jealous rage, he stabs Matilda, mistaking her for Isabella.
Soon afterwards, it is revealed that Theodore is the true Prince of Otranto. While Manfred wallows in
self-pity, shame, and despair at the slaughtering of his daughter, Theodore marries Isabella because she
understands the sadness he feels.
CHARACTERS
MANFRED: the lord of the Castle of Otranto. He is the father of Conrad and Matilda, and the husband
of Hippolita. After his son is killed by the falling helmet, he becomes obsessed with the idea of ending
his marriage with Hippolita in pursuit of the much younger Isabella. Manfred serves as the prime
antagonist of the novel; he is the dictatorial ruler and a cruel father.
HIPPOLITA: the wife of Manfred and the mother of Conrad and Matilda. After having lost her son,
she is left with just Matilda to combat her husband. Manfred intends to divorce her due to her sterility.
Hippolita is submissive to the wills of her husband. She puts aside her morals and happiness so that her
husband can get what he wants.
CONRAD: the fifteen-year-old son of Manfred and Hippolita and the younger brother of Matilda. In
the beginning of the novel, he is crushed by a giant helmet and dies.
MATILDA: Matilda is the daughter of Hippolita and Manfred. She falls in love with Theodore but her
parents don't like him.Frederic and Manfred make plans to swap their daughters in marriage, crushing
Matilda's hope of being with Theodore. At the end of the novel, she is stabbed by her father by mistake.
ISABELLA: The daughter of Frederic and the girlfriend of Conrad. After the death of Conrad,
Manfred tries to marry her, but she doesn't want so she escapes. Isabella and Matilda have an argument
because they both have feelings for Theodore. After Matild's death, Theodore and Isabella become the
lord and the lady of the castle.
THEODORE: He is the lost son of friar Jerome. During the story he falls in love with Isabella trying
to help her to escape. At the end of the story, he marries Isabella.
COMMENTARY
GOTHIC NOVEL: the gothic novel was developed in the 18th century and is connected to the gothic
architecture, that is the setting of the novels.
This type of story is characterized by the theme of death and evil, and in particular there are ancient
prophecies.
The characters are usually ambiguous and mysterious, tormented by a difficult love. An important
character of the gothic novel is the persecuted virgin, who escape from a cruel seducer.
The gothic novel is set in the Middle Ages, which is a mysterious period, in castles, fortresses and
churches. So the religious theme is very important.
CASTLE OF OTRANTO: Castle of Otranto is a clear example of gothic novel, bacause in this story
there are all of the elements of this type of novel, like the setting and the character. There's an ancient
prophecy over the head of the lord of the castle, there's a mysterious death, connected to the prophecy,
there's a virgin escaping from the wicked lord who wants her, there's also the religious theme, with a
friar who defends the virgin. The setting is a castle of the Middle Ages. The characters are loyal to the
model of the gothic novel, so The Castle of Otranto is a great gothic novel, with the atmosphere of fear
and mystery typical of this type of novel, with the corruption of the lord who is evil with other people,
also whith his daughter and wife. There's the evil beaten by the justice of the prophecy.
CONCLUSIONS
The Castle of Otranto is a nice story because it has love plots, conspiracies, mysterious deaths and there
is the fight between evil against justice, set in a mysterious age whick the Middle Ages were, with an
atmosphere that is strange, magic and full of questions without answers. The Castle of Otranto is a
beautiful story because it is different and engaging.
Mary Shelley – Cortese – Giaquinto
INTRODUCTION
 The title of the book is simple and it doesn’t explain the plot
 Shelley wrote it in 1816 when she went with Percy Shelley and Lord Byron to Lake Geneva
 She gets the inspiration for the novel from the myth of Prometheus
 It’s an epistolary and tragic novel structured in four letters written by Captain Walton
MARY SHELLEY’S STORY
Mary Shelley was an English novelist, short story
writer, best known for her Gothic novel Frankenstein:
or, The Modern Prometheus (1818). Her father was
the political philosopher William Godwin, and her
mother was the philosopher and feminist Mary
Wollstonecraft. When Mary was four, Godwin
married his neighbour, Mary Jane Clairmont. Godwin
provided his daughter with a rich, if informal,
education, encouraging her to adhere to his liberal
political theories.
In 1814, Mary Godwin began a romantic relationship
with one of her father’s political followers, the
married Percy Shelley. The Shelleys left Britain in
1818 for Italy, where their second and third children
died before Mary Shelley gave birth to her last and
only surviving child, Percy Florence. In 1822, her
husband drowned when his sailing boat sank during a
storm near Viareggio. A year later, Mary Shelley
returned to England.
From 1839, she suffered from headaches and bouts of paralysis in parts of her body, which sometimes
prevented her from reading and writing. On 1 February 1851, at Chester Square, she died at the age of
fifty-three from what her physician suspected was a brain tumour.
CHARACTERS
VICTOR FRANKENSTEIN: Victor is one of the narrators of the story and the protagonist. Victor
changes over the course of the novel from an innocent youth fascinated by the prospects of science into
a disillusioned, guilt-ridden man determined to destroy the fruits of his arrogant scientific endeavor. At
the end of the novel, having chased his creation ever northward, Victor relates his story to
Robert Walton and then dies. With its multiple narrators and, consequently, multiple perspectives, the
novel leaves the reader with contrasting interpretations of Victor: classic mad scientist transgressing all
boundaries without concern, or brave adventurer into unknown scientific lands, not to be held
responsible for the consequences of his explorations.
ROBERT WALTON: Walton’s letters to his sister form a frame around the main narrative, Victor
Frankenstein’s tragic story. Walton captains a North Pole–bound ship that gets trapped between sheets
of ice. While waiting for the ice to thaw, he and his crew pick up Victor, weak and emaciated from his
long chase after the monster. However, he also plays a role that parallels Victor’s in many ways. Like
Victor, Walton is an explorer. Victor’s influence on him is paradoxical: one moment he exhorts
Walton’s almost-mutinous men to stay the path courageously, regardless of danger; the next, he serves
as an abject example of the dangers of heedless scientific ambition. In his ultimate decision to
terminate his treacherous pursuit, Walton serves as a foil to Victor, either not obsessive enough to risk
almost-certain death or not courageous enough to allow his passion to drive him.
THE MONSTER: The monster is Victor Frankenstein’s creation, assembled from old body parts and
strange chemicals, animated by a mysterious spark. Abandoned by his creator and confused, he tries to
integrate himself into society. While Victor feels unmitigated hatred for his creation, the monster shows
that he is not a purely evil being. The monster’s eloquent narration of events (as provided by Victor)
reveals his remarkable sensitivity and benevolence.
ELIZABETH LAVENZA: is an Italian orphan that victor’s family adopt, is the wife of Victor. She is
the object of the monster’s revenge against his creator, Victor.
COMMENTARY
There are three points of view : the captain, who is the narrator inside , in the letters he writes to his
sister, Dr. Frankenstein , who is the main narrator in telling his story, and the monster , who in turn tell
their own, but none of them knows how the story will end. The incident set around 1700, maybe
because the time is not determined . The protagonist of the story is Victor Frankenstein , initially a boy
very interested in science and from that a succession of events will follow.
First, the hometown of the protagonist, Geneva (Switzerland) is described accurately . Then a part of
the story is set in England, where Victor looks for a period of calm to soothe his pain .
The text is written with simplicity and attention to the personality and feelings of the protagonists.
There are many dialogues between the characters, but the most important and significant ones are those
between Victor Frankenstein and his creature .
The main scenes take place in the woods and hills of Switzerland near Mont Blanc, in the laboratory of
Victor. The facts that decide the development of the story, are the claims of Frankenstein and in
particular the deaths of his beloved ones. The story told is presented seemingly unreal and full of
horror, but the end conceals a meaning and a profound moral. The story has a moral meaning, as Man
who wants to show how he has always been driven by the desire to understand the mystery of life and
death, often makes big mistakes in this search for absolute truth that no one will ever be able
understand.
CONCLUSIONS
We can say that this book is complex and intricate, the events of the story are often intertwined, but the
style of the writer makes the reading easy to understand and very compelling. This novel was very
successful over the years in fact they were written many other stories inspired by it and films have been
made. On these versions, the plot is often different from the original one told by Mary Shelley.
In conclusion we can say that this story is of a high standard.
Lorenzo Giaccone, Stefano Schubert e Francesca Vanni
Pride and Prejudice
 Introduction
 Biography (author: life and works)(chronology)
 The plot (point out the phases)
 characters analysis (personality and relationships)
 commentary (critical analysis)
 Conclusions(underline what is relevant + personal appreciation).
INTRO
Pride and Prejudice is a novel of manners by Jane Austen, first published in 1813.
The story follows the main character Elizabeth Bennet as she deals with issues of manners,
morality, education, and marriage in the society of the landed gentry of early 19th-century
England.
BIOGRAPHY
TIMELINE:





1775: she was born
1797: work is completed on the first draft of First Impressions
1811: she publishes Sense and Sensibility
1813: Pride & Prejudice is published
1817: she dies
JANE AUSTEN was born at the Rectory in Steventon, a little village in north-east Hampshire, on 16th
December 1775. She was the seventh child and second daughter of the rector; her only sister, like Jane
herself, never married.
During the 1790s she wrote the first drafts of Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, and
Northanger Abbey; her trips to Kent and Bath gave her the local colour for the settings of these last
two books.
While the Austens were based in Bath, they went on holidays to seaside resorts in the West Country,
including Lyme Regis in Dorset - this gave Jane the background for Persuasion.
In Hampshire estates Jane was at leisure to devote herself to writing, and between 1810-1817 she
revised her three early novels and also composed another three - Mansfield Park, Emma, and
Persuasion.
Jane fell ill in 1816 - possibly with Addison's Disease - and in the summer of 1817 her family took her
to Winchester for medical treatment. However, the doctor could do nothing for her, and she died
peacefully on 18th July 1817
Jane's novels reflect the world of the English country gentry of the period, as she herself had
experienced it.
PLOT
The novel "Pride and Prejudice" is about the relationship between Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy.
Elizabeth, the main character, is one of five sisters: Jane, Mary, Kitty, Lydia and herself. The most
important characters of the family are Mrs Bennet, the mother who wants her daughters to get married,
Mr. Bennet, a man who is exasperated by his wife, Jane, the eldest sister and Lydia, the youngest.
The novel begins when Mr. Bingley, a wealthy man, moves to Netherfield; he immediatly becomes
close to Jane.
During a ball, Elizabeth hears that Mr. Darcy is insulting her. This fact makes a strong prejudice that
lasts almost all the novel.
Another man, Mr. Wickham, who was mistreated in the past by Mr. Darcy, is appreciated by Elizabeth,
in fact she thinks that he's a kind and handsome person.
Because Bingley moves to London, Jane is discouraged.
Darcy wants to marry Elizabeth, but she refuses because of the injury he did.
Then Darcy writes a long letter to Elizabeth in which he explains to her the disappointment he had with
Mr. Wickham.
After that, Elizabeth goes to Darcy's estate with her aunt and her uncle, and it's right here that the
change starts.
Elizabeth's younger sister goes away with Mr. Wickham, who has lots of debts, and this is why he
doesn't want to marry Lydia. Fortunately, Darcy pays all the debts and makes him marry Lydia so,
when Elizabeth realises that he paid Wickham, she thinks he wants the good of the family. In the end,
Darcy proposes to Elizabeth again to marry him, she accepts and finally also Bingley moves back to
Netherfield and becomes engaged with Jane.
MAIN CHARACTERS
Elizabeth: She is the protagonist of the novel and she's Mr.Bennet's second daughter. She's the most
intelligent and sensible of the five sisters.
She realizes the error of her initial prejudice about Mr.Darcy, in fact only at the end she admits to
herself that she is in love with him.
Mrs.Bennet: She's a woman that is so consumed by the desire to see her daughter married that she
borders on the ridiculous.
Mr.Darcy: His wealth makes him too proud, in fact, he thinks he shouldn't love Elizabeth because of
the lower social position of the family, but he is so much attracted to her that finally asks her twice to
marry him.
Jane: She immediately falls in love with Bingley but she gets really disappointed when he seems to lose
interest in her, but she patiently waits. At the end of the novel she is rewarded when Bingley asks her to
marry him.
CRITICAL ANALYSIS
Pride and Prejudice, probably the most popular of Austen's finished novels, was also the first to be
composed. It continues to be popular today because of its memorable characters and the general appeal
of the story.
In Pride and Prejudice, Austen displays a masterful use of irony, dialogue, and realism that support the
character development and the experience of reading the novel.
The reader finds various forms of exquisite irony in this novel. Sometimes characters are unconsciously
ironic: Mrs. Bennet, Mr. Collins, other times Mr. Bennet and Elizabeth serve to directly express the
author's ironic opinion. Elizabeth's irony, for example, is lighthearted when Jane asks when she began
to love Mr. Darcy.
Dialogue also plays an important role in Pride and Prejudice. The pieces of dialogue are consistently
the most vivid and important parts of the novel, this is natural because novels were mostly read aloud
in Austen's time, so good dialogue was extremely important.
The things written in the novel happen to nearly all readers. For example, it is very natural for
Elizabeth and Darcy to be angry at each other after she first turns him down, and it is very natural for
them to feel twinges of regret, and then have a complete change of mind with the passage of time.
She writes about what she knows: we never see so much of the male characters, instead they are
sketches compared with her heroines. Though Darcy is a particular exception because he's a round
characters, just like female characters.
Finally, people who dislike Austen's works often cite the lack of extreme emotions as their main
reason. Even so, Austen's ability to create unforgettable characters, build well-structured plots, makes
her stories and themes as relevant today as they were two hundred years ago.
CONCLUSIONS
Relevant points
Two hundred years after it was first published, Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice is a relevant to
modern readers as it ever was.
It’s a tale of human weaknesses, of friendships and that most fundamental of feelings, in fact Pride and
Prejudice has become one of the best-known love stories ever written.
There are many reasons why Pride and Prejudice is still relevant today.
The need for moral guidance remains through all ages and Jane Austen is a superbly moral writer. She
perfected the comedy of manners, which shows the interaction between the moral world and the social
world. This novel is a perfect example.
Austen has delighted generations of readers and will continue to do so in years to come, in fact she
created in the person of Elizabeth Bennet one of the most delightful characters ever to appear in print.
What's more Austen's comic characters are unsurpassed in English literature, as an example in Pride
and Prejudice, Mr.Collins.
Personal comments
I was quickly hooked by the flawed, wonderfully drawn characters, the razor-sharp picture of an
oppressively class-bound culture, and the strong woman at the center who skillfully wove her way
through all the genteel perils.
It is written from a woman's point of view in that time. I am deeply impressed with the authors ability
to keep me thinking of the story after I had shut the covers. Even though it doesn't explicitly refer to it,
Pride and Prejudice makes me think of one word in particular- Equality. Especially the discussion
between Miss. Bingley, Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth. I find myself thinking about it so much. I love the
depth of the characters. And the thinking that goes into each of their words.
Jane Austen: Emma
Pagani & Nastasia
 Introduction
 Biography ( life and works) ( chronology)
 Plot ( point out the phases)
 Character analysis ( personality and relationship)
 Commentary ( critical analysis)
 Conclusions ( underline what is relevant + personal appreciation)
 Introduction
Emma is a novel about young and snobbish attitudes and love stories. The novel was first published in
December 1815.
 Biography
16 December 1775 : Jane Austen was born in Steventon Rectory, Hampshire, England by close-knit
family located on the lower social class of the English landed gentry. Austen's family was large: six
brothers called James, George, Edward, Henry Thomas, Francis William, Charles John and one sister,
Cassandra Elizabeth, who, like Jane, died unmarried.
1782 : the family and close friends started to stage a series of plays and she joined in these activities, as
a spectator at first and as a participant when she was older.
1783 : according to family tradition, Jane and Cassandra were sent to Oxford to be educated by Mrs.
Ann Cawley. Both girls caught thypus and Jane nearly died.
1785 : Jane left her home for boarding school with her sister after being educated at home for two
years.
December 1786 : Jane and Cassandra had returned home because the Austens could not afford to send
both of their daughters to school.
1787 : she began to write poems, stories, and plays for her own and her family's pleasure. 29 of these
early works are now referred to as the Juvenilia, containing pieces written between 1787 and 1793.
1793 : Jane began and then abandoned a short play, later entitled Sir Charles Grandison or the happy
Man, a comedy in 6 acts, which she returned to and completed around 1800: this was a parody of
various school textbook abridgments of Austen's favourite contemporary novel, The History of Sir
Charles Grandison, by Samuel Richardson.
She began to write longer, more sophisticated works. She started writing Lady Susan, a short epistolary
novel.
1795 : She finished writing Lady Susan.
1796 : Jane began to write her first full-length novel, Elinor and Marianne.
She also began work on a second novel, First Impressions.
August 1797 : She completed the initial draft of First Impressions when she was only 21.
November 1797 :Austen returned to Elinor and Marianne, revised it deeply; she eliminated the
epistolary format in favour of third-person.
1798 : after finishing revisions of Elinor and Marianne, Austen began writing a third novel with the
title Susan, later Northanger Abbey, a satire on the popular Gothic novel.
1799 : Jane finished Northanger Abbey.
December 1800 : the family moved to Bath and Jane was shocked. She began and then abandoned a
new novel, The Watsons.
December 1802 : an old friends' young brother proposed to Jane and she accepted: he was called Harris
Bigg-Wither. But by the next morning, Austen realised she had made a mistake and withdrew her
acceptance.
1804 : Jane started but did not complete a new novel, The Watsons.
21 January 1805 : her father died and she chose to stop work on the novel.
Winter 1805 : Jane wrote her fair copy of 'Lady Susan' and added its conclusion.
October 1811 : Elinor and Marianne was published as Sense and Sensibility.
January 1813 : Pride and Prejudice, a revision of First Impressions was published .
May 1814 : Mansfield Park was published.
November 1815 : Austen should dedicate the forthcoming Emma to the Prince Regent.
She later wrote Plan of a Novel, according to hints from various quarters, a satiric outline of the
"perfect novel"
1816 : Emma was published. Jane began to write a new novel she titled The Elliots, later published as
Persuasion. Jane Austen began to feel unwell, but she continued to work in spite of her illness.
July 1816 : She completed her first draft of The Elliots.
6 August 1816 : She finished The Elliots after rewriting the final two chapters.
1817 : Persuasion was published. Northanger Abbey was published.
January 1817 : Austen began work on a new novel she called The Brothers, later titled Sanditon upon
its first publication in 1925.
March 1817 : she stopped working probably because her illness prevented her from continuing.
May 1817 : her brothers escorted Jane to Winchester for medical treatment.
18 July 1817 : Jane Austen died in Winchester, Hampshire, England at the age of 41.
 Plot
Emma Woodhouse is a rich, pretty, and intelligent woman on the estate of Hartfield in Surrey in the
village of Highbury. She’s twenty-one years old and she has got a hypochondriac father and an elder
sister called Isabella.
At the beginning of the novel there’s a wedding between Miss Taylor, Emma's best friend and former
governess, and Mr Weston. She started matchmaking having met and made fall in love Miss Taylor and
Mr. Weston.
Emma's friend is the gentleman George Knightley, her neighbour from the estate of Donwell, and the
brother of her sister Isabella's husband, John. Against his advice, Emma tries to match her new friend
Harriet Smith, a sweet, pretty, but orphaned girl, to Mr. Elton, the local vicar. But first Emma must
persuade Harriet to refuse an advantageous marriage proposal from an educated and well-spoken young
farmer, Robert Martin: Emma snobbishly decides he isn't good enough for Harriet. Against her own
wishes, the easily-influenced Harriet rejects Mr. Martin. Then Mr Elton, thinking Emma is in love with
him, proposes to her. Mr Knightley had suggested that Mr. Elton's attentions were really directed at
her, but she had misunderstood the signs. Emma tells Mr. Elton that she had thought him attached to
Harriet, but Mr Elton is outraged at the idea of marrying the socially inferior Harriet. After Emma’s
refusal, he leaves for a sojourn in Bath, and Emma decides to interfere less in people's lives. He soon
returns from Bath with a pretentious wife, Augusta Elton, and the two women soon loathe each other.
The Eltons treat Harriet deplorably: Mr Elton publicly snobbing Harriet at a dance and Mr Knightley,
who had until this moment refrained from dancing, gallantly steps in to partner Harriet.
Then in the neighbourhood arrives the handsome and charming Frank Churchill, Mr. Weston's son,
who had been given to his dead wife's brother and his wife, the Churchills, to be grown up. All the
neighbourhood is excited because of his arrival, except Mr. Knightley, who becomes irritable whenever
his name is mentioned and suggests to Emma that Frank is smart and engaging, but he is also an
improper guy. Mr. and Miss Weston want Frank to marry Emma, but he has a secret love story with
Jane Farfaix during all the novel: she is the reserved, beautiful, and elegant niece of Emma's neighbour,
Miss Bates. Jane had lived with Miss Bates until she was nine, when Colonel Campbell, a friend of her
father's, welcomed her into his own home. Now Miss Campbell is married, and Jane has returned to her
Bates relations to living as a governess somewhere. She plays the piano very well and Emma, because
of her jealousy, tries to find a defect in Jane and she supposes that Jane loves the Colonel’s daughter’s
husband, so Jane goes back to her aunt. This suspicion comes from the fact that somebody unknown
gives a piano to Jane.
Emma tries to make herself fall in love with Frank because almost everyone seems to expect it. Frank
appears to be courting Emma and both start flirting, but when his ill aunt, Mrs. Churchill, calls Frank
home, Emma discovers she does not miss her lover. Then Mr. Weston tells Emma that he thought that
George Knightley loves Jane and Emma says that Mr. Knightley can’t get married because of the
inheritance, that would go to his nephew Henry. Later it is announced that Jane has accepted a
governess arrangement from one of Mrs. Elton's friends. When Frank’s aunt dies, the secrets behind
Jane and Frank are revealed, and Emma discovers that once again she has been wrong. Next, Harriet
tells Emma that Mr. Knightley has captured her heart, and she believes he returns her feelings. Emma
realizes that she has long been in love with Mr. Knightley, so she is jealous. When he comes back to
Highbury to console Emma because of the loss of Frank Churchill, she discovers that he is also in love
with her. He proposes and she gladly accepts. With encouragement from Mr. Knightley, the farmer,
Robert Martin, proposes to Harriet again, and this time she accepts. So at the end of the story there are
three weddings to arrange: between Jane and Frank Churchill, Harriet and Robert Martin, Emma
Woodhouse, the mistress of Hartfield, and George Knightley, the master of Donwell.
 Character analysis
Emma Woodhouse, the main character of the story, is a beautiful, exuberant and intelligent young
woman. Her mother died when she was very young, so she was spoiled by her hypochondriac father
and Miss Taylor. Emma makes some serious mistakes, mainly thinking that she is always right.
Although she has sworn she will never ever marry, she likes matchmaking for others. She seems unable
to fall in love, until she realises at the end that she has been in love with Mr. Knightley all the time.
George Knightley, is a close friend of Emma, and her only critic. Mr. Knightley is the owner of the
estate of Donwell Abbey. He is the elder brother of Mr. John Knightley, the husband of Emma's elder
sister Isabella. Mr. Knightley is irritated with Emma for persuading Harriet to refuse Mr. Martin; he
also guesses that Mr. Elton is in love with Emma. He is jealous when Frank Churchill flirts with Emma
because of his love for her.
Frank Churchill, Mr. Weston's son by his previous marriage, is an amiable young man. After his
mother's death, he was raised by his aunt and uncle. Frank enjoys dancing and music and he has a
secret love story with Jane Farfaix during all the novel.
Jane Fairfax, an orphan who lives with her aunt, Miss Bates, and her grandmother, Mrs. Bates. She is
a very beautiful, clever and elegant woman and is also talented at singing and playing the piano; she is
destined to become a governess – a prospect she dislikes.
Harriet Smith, Emma's young friend, is a very pretty girl who Emma takes under her wing at the
beginning of the novel. Harriet initially refuses a marriage proposal from farmer Robert Martin because
of Emma's belief that he isn't the best for her. Then she falls in love with Mr Knightley, but at the end
of the novel Mr. Martin and Harriet will be married.
Philip Elton is a good-looking and ambitious young vicar. Emma wants him to marry Harriet, but he
wants Emma to marry him. Mr. Elton displays his bad nature by quickly marrying another woman
because of Emma's refusal.
Mrs. Anne Weston was Emma's governess for sixteen years and her closest friend and confidante after
she marries Mr. Weston. She is a sensible woman who idolises Emma and thinks that she is a perfect
beauty.
Augusta Elton Is a vulgar woman; she is the Philip Elton’s new wife.
Mrs. Anne Weston is Emma’s governess and best friend.
Mr. Weston is Anne’s husband.
Miss Bates is a lady; she is Jane Fairfax’s aunt.
Mr. Henry Woodhouse is Emma’s father; he is an hypochondriac.
Isabella Knightley is Emma’s elder sister; she marries John Knightley.
John Knightley is Isabella’s husband and George Knightley’s brother.
 COMMENTARY
Emma Woodhouse is the first Austen heroine with no financial concerns, and this is a great departure
from Austen's other novels, in which the quest for marriage and financial security are often important
themes in the stories. Emma's ample financial resources put her in a much more privileged position
than the heroines of Austen's earlier works.
Emma is structured around marriages recently consummated or anticipated and the match between the
characters. In Austen’s time the social status was determined by a combination of family background,
reputation and wealth, and marriage was one of the main ways in which one could raise one’s social
status. This method of social advancement was especially central to women, who were deprived of the
possibility of improving their status through hard work or personal achievement.
The novel suggests that marrying too far above oneself leads to trouble. Mr. Weston’s first marriage to
Miss Churchill had ostensibly been a good move for him, because she came from a wealthy and wellconnected family, but the inequality of the relationship caused adversity to both. He marries Mrs.
Weston in the novel’s opening, and this second marriage is happier because their social statuses are
more equal.
Emma’s attempt to match Harriet with Mr. Elton is also considered inappropriate by the other
characters . Emma believes that Harriet may have noble blood and encourages her to reject Robert
Martin, but by the time it is revealed that Harriet is the daughter of a tradesman, Emma admits that Mr.
Martin is more suitable for her friend. The relationship between marriage and social status creates
hardship for other characters. For example Frank Churchill must keep his engagement to the orphan
Jane Fairfax secret because his wealthy aunt would disapprove. Finally, the match between Emma and
Mr. Knightley is considered a good one not only because they are well matched in temperament but
also because they are well matched in social class.
Emma Woodhouse thinks about the wedding only in terms of financial problems and social ambition. I
think that in some cases Emma is very similar to Elizabeth Bennet: she is genuinely surprised and
somewhat disgusted when Mr. Elton declares his love for her, like Lizy when Mr Collins proposes to
her. It is only after Harriet Smith reveals her interest in Mr. Knightley that Emma realises her own
feelings for him, similar to Elizabeth’s reaction when Mr Darcy confesses her his feelings.
While Emma differs strikingly from Austen's other heroines in these respect, she resembles them in
another way: she is an intelligent young woman with too little to do and no ability to change her
location or everyday routine. Though her family is loving and her economic status secure, Emma's
everyday life is dull indeed; she has few companions her own age when the novel begins. Her
determined though inept matchmaking may represent a muted protest against the narrow scope of a
wealthy woman's life, especially that of a woman who is single and childless.
Emma has a great deal of intelligence and energy, but the best use she can make of these is to attempt
to guide the marital destinies of her friends, a project that gets her into trouble. The alternative pastimes
seem relatively trivial, at times even monotonous. Isabella is the only mother focused on in the story,
and her representation suggests that a mother’s life offers a woman little use of her intellect. Yet, when
Jane compares the governess profession to the slave trade, she makes it clear that the life of a working
woman is in no way preferable to the laziness of a woman of fortune. The novel focuses on marriage
because marriage offers women a chance to exert their power, if only for a brief time, and to affect
their own destinies without adopting the labours or efforts of the working class. Accepting or rejecting
proposals is perhaps the most active role that women are permitted to play in Emma’s world.
The novel offers how people can be blinded by imagination. Emma cannot understand the motives that
guide Mr. Elton’s behaviour because she imagines that he is in love with Harriet. Meanwhile, Mr.
Elton’s feelings for Emma cause him to mistake her behaviour for encouragement. The generally
infallible Mr. Knightley cannot form an impartial judgment of Frank Churchill because he is jealous of
Frank’s claim on Emma, and Emma speaks cruelly of Jane because her vanity makes her jealous of her.
Emma invents an attachment between Harriet and Frank and doesn't see that Harriet actually has
feelings for Knightley. At the same time, Frank’s desire to use Emma as a screen for his real preference
causes him to believe mistakenly that she is conscious of the situation between him and Jane. The
admirable, frequently ironic detachment of the narrator allows us to see many of these
misunderstandings before the characters do, and the plot is powered by a series of realizations that
permit each character to make fuller, more objective judgments.
 CONCLUSIONS
In our personal opinion, the story is full of troubles that make Emma's life engaging, however all the
love stories in the novel aren't as romantic as we had imagined. We would have preferred that the
principal love story had more depth and was more romantic.
Austen knew how to write about her contemporary age and now we can notice the differences between
our different ways of life. However, Emma is far from the idea of what female main character used to
be like, usually romantic, frail and focused on the importance of getting married, but she is also
different from woman in Regency England, because she doesn't think about herself but only about the
others' lives.
Also, Emma is an interesting novel because in many parts the story evolves with unexpected events,
like when Mr Elton confesses to Emma that he is interested in her and not in Harriet, or when we know
that Frank Churchill and Jane Fairfax have a secret love story and finally when Emma realizes that she
loves Mr Knightley, although initially she claimed she didn't want to get married.
Finally, we think that Jane Austen is a capable writer, because she wrote clearly each step of the story,
so in every moment the development of the plot was understandable by readers.
4E 2013/14 Beltrame - Croce
Jane Austen
Persuasion
Intro
Biography of the author
Plot
Characters analysis
Commentary
Conclusions
INTRO
Persuasion is Jane Austen's last completed novel. She began it soon after she had finished Emma and
completed it in August 1816. She died in 1817; Persuasion was published in December of that year.
Jane Austen was an English novelist whose works of love and action fiction, set among the landed
gentry, earned her a place as one of the most widely read writers in English literature.
Jane Austen values decorum, harmony and moderation in all things, not least in the writing of her
novels. She is like the Augustans of the Seventeenth ad Eighteenth centuries.
BIOGRAPHY
Jane Austen was born on 16 December 1775 in Steventon, in the south of England. her life was short
and uneventful: she lived with her family until her death in 1817, at the age of forty-one.
In a few years she wrote some of the finest novels: Sense and sensibility (1811), Pride and Prejudice
(1813), Mansfield Park (1814) and Emma (1816). Two other novels, Northanger Abbey and
Persuasion, were published in 1818, after her death.






Born on 16th December 1775 in Steventon;
She belonged to the gentleman-farmer class
She lived with her family in Steventon
Was mostly educated at home, though she spent a short period of time at Abbey School
She never married anybody
Died on the 18th July 1817
Novels:
I. Sense and sensibility (1811)
II. Pride and Prejudice (1813)
III. Mansfield Park (1814)
IV. Emma (1816)
V. Northanger Abbey (1818)
VI. Persuasion (1818)
PLOT
 The story talks about three girls, Elizabeth, Mary and Anne, and their father, Sir Walter Elliot.
 The most clever of the three sisters, Anne, is asked for marriage by Wentworth who's a poor
man. Her father and their neighbor, Lady Russel, because he was poor doesn't let her marry
him.
 After eight years Wentworth becomes Capitain and meet Anne again.
 Although her sister's sisters in law, Luisa and Henrietta, try to be engaged with Captain
Wentworth, Anne falls in love with him again.

At the end they get married.
CHARACTERS
Anne Elliot: Protagonist
The second daughter of Sir Walter is highly intelligent and, although accomplished and attractive, is
unmarried at 27, having broken off her engagement to Wentworth eight years previously. She fell in
love with Captain Wentworth but was persuaded by her mentor, Lady Russell, to reject his proposal
because of his poverty and uncertain future.
Sir Walter Elliot: Round Character
A vain, self-satisfied baronet, Sir Walter's extravagance, since the death of his prudent wife 13 years
before, has put his family in financial straits. Despite being strongly impressed by wealth and status he
is attracted in some way to Mrs Clay, who is beneath him in social standing.
Elizabeth Elliot: Round Character
The eldest and most beautiful daughter of Sir Walter encourages her father's imprudent spending and
extravagance. She and her father routinely put their interests ahead of Anne's, regarding her as
inconsequential.
Mary Musgrove: Round Character
The youngest daughter of Sir Walter, married to Charles Musgrove, is attention-seeking, always
looking for someone who makes fool of her, and often claims illness when she is upset. She greatly
opposes sister-in-law Henrietta's interest in marrying Charles Hayter, who Mary feels is beneath them.
Lady Russell: Round Character
A friend of the Elliots, particularly Anne, of whom she is the godmother. Years ago, she persuaded
Anne to turn down Captain Wentworth's proposal of marriage. While far more sensible than Sir Walter
Elliot, she shares his concern for rank and connections and did not think Wentworth good enough for
Anne because of his inferior birth and financial status.
Captain Frederick Wentworth: Round Character
A naval officer who was briefly engaged to Anne some years ago. At the time, he had no fortune and
uncertain prospects, he is the typical gentlemen, friendly and courteus; he has made his own fortune
working hard in the Napoleonic War.
Luisa and Henrietta: Round Characters
They're very similar, Henrietta is more insecure and more easy to persuade and Luisa is self-assured
and stubborn.
Commentary
Settings Somersetshire, Lyme Regis, and Bath, England, from the summer of 1816 to the spring of
1817
Narrator Third Person (Limited Omniscient)
The narrator tells us about what happened in the story but he didn't reveal us his personal opinions
neihter what will happen. he told us the story as if he's living the story and at the same time he's telling
it.
Genre Romance, Comedy
It's a comedy because it starts not really well, in fact at the beginning Anne refuses Wentworth because
of Lady Russel's opinion, and after some troubles caused by Anne's family ends well because Anne
marries Wentworth when he come back home. It's a romance because it tell us a love story between
Anne and Wentworth.
Tone Satirical, Ironic, Melancholy
Writing Style Clear, Sarcastic, Subtle
Jane Austen's literary style relies on a combination of parody, burlesque, irony, free indirect speech,
and a degree of realism. She uses parody and burlesque for comic effect and to critique the portrayal of
women in 18th-century sentimental and gothic novels. Austen extends her critique by highlighting
social hypocrisy through irony; she often creates an ironic tone through free indirect speech in which
the thoughts and words of the characters mix with the voice of the narrator.
Themes Avarice, the Woman in Eighteenth century, love, education, persuasion
Jane Austen's typical themes are: Education and reading, Morality, Religion, Gender, Politics, Property
and class, Individual and society.
In Persuasion we can see some of the principal themes that Austen treats in her novels like: gender,
morality, politics and society.
In this novel Jane Austen has touched on several topics. One of theme is the wealth and social class, in
fact stresses the importance of wealth and the nobility in nineteenth century. The marriages were
conditioned by wealth because they were only affair of money and not love affaire. Another theme is
the feminism, is presents in all story in the importance of women’s ideas, but in way particular is
stresses in the dialogue of Anne and her friend about women’s feelings. Deception and manipulation is
another theme, addressed in the person of Mr Elliot, who tricks the family to get the heritage. And the
principal theme is the persuasion, all novel is focused in it: two young people who were fall in love had
left for the persuasion suffered by her, and years later they met again and got married.
CONCLUSIONS
Here there are some quotations from the book that are important to us:
"They had no conversation together, no intercourse but what the commonest civility required.
Once so much to each other! Now nothing!....Now they were as strangers; nay, worse than
strangers, for they could never become acquainted It was a perpetual estrangement."
Jane Austen must have had an amazing insight into the human psyche, an unnatural ability to judge
someone's behaviour very well. And then she put it down into words. Body language and the force of
characters suddenly becomes apparent.
"Warmth and enthusiasm did captivate her still. She felt that she could so much more depend
upon the sincerity of those who sometimes looked or said a careless or a hasty thing, than of those
whose presence of mind never varied, whose tongue never slipped..."
Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me... Seems as if Austen never had that
problem.
"I can listen no longer in silence. I must speak to you by such means as are within my reach. You
pierce my soul. I am half in agony, half hope. Tell me not that I am too late, that such precious
feelings are gone for ever. I offer myself to you again with a heart even more your own than when
you almost broke it, eight years and a half ago. Dare not say that man forgets sooner than
woman, that his love has an earlier death. I have loved none but you. Unjust I may have been,
weak and resentful I have been, but never inconstant. You alone have brought me to Bath. For
you alone I think and plan. Have you not seen this? Can you fail to have understood my wishes? I
had not waited even these ten days, could I have read your feelings, as I think you must have
penetrated mine."
And if that doesn't speak to the romantic soul, then you just don't have one. My heart was so full, my
eyes teared up, and my inner romantic was completely sated.
We think that this is a beautiful story, because two young people eight years later are still fall in love.
We’d really like as is structured the novel and the characteristics of the characters, in particular way the
character of the protagonist, Anne.
That’s All Folks!
THE END