UNIVERSITY OF PRISHTINA

FACULTY OF PHILOLOGY

ENGLISH DEPARTMENT

VICTORIAN

LITERATURE

Shqiprim Cani, 2014

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Contents

Fiction/Novels: Oliver Twist (Charles Dickens)………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….…...…3 David Copperfield (Charles Dickens)……………………………………………………………………………..…………………………..……5 Great Expectations (Charles Dickens)……………………………………………………………………………………………………..………7 Wuthering Heights (Emily Brontë)……………………………………………………………………………………………………………….…9 Jane Eyre (Charlotte Brontë)………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….…….……11 Tess of the d'Urbervilles (Thomas Hardy) ……………………………………………………………………………………………….……13 The Picture of Dorian Gray (Oscar Wilde) ……………………………………………………………………………………………………15 Vanity Fair (William Makepeace Thackeray) ……………………………………………………………………………………………….…………17 Silas Marner (George Eliot) ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………19

Poetry: The Lady of Shalott (Alfred Tennyson) ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………21

Ulysses (Alfred Tennyson) ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..………….……22

Mariana (Alfred Tennyson) ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………23

Porphyria's Lover (Robert Browning) ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………24

My Last Duchess (Robert Browning) ……………………………………………………………………………………………….………….……25

Dover Beach (Matthew Arnold) …………………………………………………………………………………….……………………………….…26

The Blessed Damozel (Dante Gabriel Rossetti) ………………………………………………………………………………………..….……27

Pied Beauty (Gerard Manley Hopkins) ………………………………………………………………………….……………………………………28

Non-Fiction:

What Is Poetry? (John Stuart Mill) ………………………………………………………………………………………….…………………….…29

The Pathetic Fallacy (John Ruskin) ……………………………………………………….………………………………………………………30 The Study Of Poetry (Matthew Arnold) ………………………………………………………………………………………..…………………31

The Descent of Man (Charles Darwin) ……………………………………………………………………………………………..……………34

Fiction Movies………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..…36

Most Used Exam Questions……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………37

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Fiction/Novels

OLIVER TWIST (Charles Dickens)

Oliver Twist is born in a workhouse in 1830s England. His mother, whose name no one knows, is found

on the street and dies just after Oliver’s birth. Oliver spends the first nine years of his life in a badly run

home for young orphans and then is transferred to a workhouse for adults. After the other boys bully

Oliver into asking for more gruel at the end of a meal, Mr. Bumble, the parish beadle, offers five pounds

to anyone who will take the boy away from the workhouse. Oliver narrowly escapes being apprenticed

to a brutish chimney sweep and is eventually apprenticed to a local undertaker, Mr. Sowerberry. When

the undertaker’s other apprentice, Noah Claypole, makes disparaging comments about Oliver’s mother,

Oliver attacks him and incurs the Sowerberrys’ wrath. Desperate, Oliver runs away at dawn and travels

toward London.

Outside London, Oliver, starved and exhausted, meets Jack Dawkins, a boy his own age. Jack offers him

shelter in the London house of his benefactor, Fagin. It turns out that Fagin is a career criminal who

trains orphan boys to pick pockets for him. After a few days of training, Oliver is sent on a pickpocketing

mission with two other boys. When he sees them swipe a handkerchief from an elderly gentleman,

Oliver is horrified and runs off. He is caught but narrowly escapes being convicted of the theft. Mr.

Brownlow, the man whose handkerchief was stolen, takes the feverish Oliver to his home and nurses

him back to health. Mr. Brownlow is struck by Oliver’s resemblance to a portrait of a young woman that

hangs in his house. Oliver thrives in Mr. Brownlow’s home, but two young adults in Fagin’s gang, Bill

Sikes and his lover Nancy, capture Oliver and return him to Fagin.

Fagin sends Oliver to assist Sikes in a burglary. Oliver is shot by a servant of the house and, after Sikes

escapes, is taken in by the women who live there, Mrs. Maylie and her beautiful adopted nie ce Rose.

They grow fond of Oliver, and he spends an idyllic summer with them in the countryside. But Fagin and a

mysterious man named Monks are set on recapturing Oliver. Meanwhile, it is revealed that Oliver’s

mother left behind a gold locket when she died. Monks obtains and destroys that locket. When the

Maylies come to London, Nancy meets secretly with Rose and informs her of Fagin’s designs, but a

member of Fagin’s gang overhears the conversation. When word of Nancy’s disclosure reaches Sikes, he

brutally murders Nancy and flees London. Pursued by his guilty conscience and an angry mob, he

inadvertently hangs himself while trying to escape.

Mr. Brownlow, with whom the Maylies have reunited Oliver, confronts Monks and wrings the truth

about Oliver’s parentage from him. It is revealed that Monks is Oliver’s half brother. Their father, Mr.

Leeford, was unhappily married to a wealthy woman and had an affair with Oliver’s mother, Agnes

Fleming. Monks has been pursuing Oliver all along in the hopes of ensuring that his half-brother is

deprived of his share of the family inheritance. Mr. Brownlow forces Monks to sign over Oliver’s share to

Oliver. Moreover, it is discovered that Rose is Agnes’s younger sister, hence Oliver’s aunt. Fagin is hung

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for his crimes. Finally, Mr. Brownlow adopts Oliver, and they and the Maylies retire to a blissful

existence in the countryside.

Themes:

-The Failure of Charity

-The Folly of Individualism

-Purity in a Corrupt City

-The Countryside Idealized

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DAVID COPPERFIELD (Charles Dickens)

Now a grown man, David Copperfield tells the story of his youth. As a young boy, he lives happily with

his mother and his nurse, Peggotty. His father died before he was born. During David’s early childhood,

his mother marries the violent Mr. Murdstone, who brings his strict sister, Miss Murdstone, into the

house. The Murdstones treat David cruelly, and David bites Mr. Murdstone’s hand during one beating.

The Murdstones send David away to school.

Peggotty takes David to visit her family in Yarmouth, where David meets Peggotty’s brother, Mr.

Peggotty, and his two adopted children, Ham and Little Em’ly. Mr. Peggotty’s family lives in a boat

turned upside down—a space they share with Mrs. Gummidge, the widowed wife of Mr. Peggotty’s

brother. After this visit, David attends school at Salem House, which is run by a man named Mr. Creakle.

David befriends and idolizes an egotistical young man named James Steerforth. David also befriends

Tommy Traddles, an unfortunate, fat young boy who is beaten more than the others.

David’s mother dies, and David returns home, where the Murdstones neglect him. He works at Mr.

Murdstone’s wine-bottling business and moves in with Mr. Micawber, who mismanages his finances.

When Mr. Micawber leaves London to escape his creditors, David decides to search for his father’s

sister, Miss Betsey Trotwood—his only living relative. He walks a long distance to Miss Betsey’s home,

and she takes him in on the advice of her mentally unstable friend, Mr. Dick.

Miss Betsey sends David to a school run by a man named Doctor Strong. David moves in with Mr.

Wickfield and his daughter, Agnes, while he attends school. Agnes and David become best friends.

Among Wickfield’s boarders is Uriah Heep, a snakelike young man who often involves himself in matters

that are none of his business. David graduates and goes to Yarmouth to visit Peggotty, who is now

married to Mr. Barkis, the carrier. David reflects on what profession he should pursue.

On his way to Yarmouth, David encounters James Steerforth, and they take a detour to visit Steerforth’s

mother. They arrive in Yarmouth, where Steerforth and the Peggottys become fond of one another.

When they return from Yarmouth, Miss Betsey persuades David to pursue a career as a proctor, a kind

of lawyer. David apprentices himself at the London firm of Spenlow and Jorkins and takes up lodgings

with a woman named Mrs. Crupp. Mr. Spenlow invites David to his house for a weekend. There, David

meets Spenlow’s daughter, Dora, and quickly falls in love with her.

In London, David is reunited with Tommy Traddles and Mr. Micawber. Word reaches David, through

Steerforth, that Mr. Barkis is terminally ill. David journeys to Yarmouth to visit Peggotty in her hour of

need. Little Em’ly and Ham, now engaged, are to be married upon Mr. Barkis’s death. David, however,

finds Little Em’ly upset over her impending marriage. When Mr. Barkis dies, Little Em’ly runs off with

Steerforth, who she believes will make her a lady. Mr. Peggotty is devastated but vows to find Little

Em’ly and bring her home.

Miss Betsey visits London to inform David that her financial security has been ruined because Mr.

Wickfield has joined into a partnership with Uriah Heep. David, who has become increasingly infatuated

with Dora, vows to work as hard as he can to make their life together possible. Mr. Spenlow, however,

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forbids Dora from marrying David. Mr. Spenlow dies in a carriage accident that night, and Dora goes to

live with her two aunts. Meanwhile, Uriah Heep informs Doctor Strong that he suspects Doctor Strong’s

wife, Annie, of having an affair with her young cousin, Jack Maldon.

Dora and David marry, and Dora proves a terrible housewife, incompetent in her chores. David loves her

anyway and is generally happy. Mr. Dick facilitates a reconciliation between Doctor Strong and Annie,

who was not, in fact, cheating on her husband. Miss Dartle, Mrs. Steerforth’s ward, summons David and

informs him that Steerforth has left Little Em’ly. Miss Dartle adds that Steerforth’s servant, Littimer, has

proposed to her and that Little Em’ly has run away. David and Mr. Peggotty enlist the help of Little

Em’ly’s childhood friend Martha, who locates Little Em’ly and brings Mr. Peggotty to her. Little Em’ly and

Mr. Peggotty decide to move to Australia, as do the Micawbers, who first save the day for Agnes and

Miss Betsey by exposing Uriah Heep’s fraud against Mr. Wickfield.

A powerful storm hits Yarmouth and kills Ham while he attempts to rescue a shipwrecked sailor. The

sailor turns out to be Steerforth. Meanwhile, Dora falls ill and dies. David leaves the country to travel

abroad. His love for Agnes grows. When David returns, he and Agnes, who has long harbored a secret

love for him, get married and have several children. David pursues his writing career wi th increasing

commercial success.

Themes:

-The Plight of the Weak

-Equality in Marriage

-Wealth and Class

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GREAT EXPECTATIONS (Charles Dickens)

Pip, a young orphan living with his sister and her husband in the marshes of Kent, sits in a cemetery one

evening looking at his parents’ tombstones. Suddenly, an escaped convict springs up from behind a

tombstone, grabs Pip, and orders him to bring him food and a file for his leg irons. Pip obeys, but the

fearsome convict is soon captured anyway. The convict protects Pip by claiming to have stolen the items

himself.

One day Pip is taken by his Uncle Pumblechook to play at Satis House, the home of the wealthy dowager

Miss Havisham, who is extremely eccentric: she wears an old wedding dress everywhere she goes and

keeps all the clocks in her house stopped at the same time. During his visit, he meets a beautiful young

girl named Estella, who treats him coldly and contemptuously. Nevertheless, he falls in love with her and

dreams of becoming a wealthy gentleman so that he might be worthy of her. He even hopes that Miss

Havisham intends to make him a gentleman and marry him to Estella, but his hopes are dashed when,

after months of regular visits to Satis House, Miss Havisham decides to help him become a common

laborer in his family’s business.

With Miss Havisham’s guidance, Pip is apprenticed to his brother-in-law, Joe, who is the village

blacksmith. Pip works in the forge unhappily, struggling to better his education with the help of the

plain, kind Biddy and encountering Joe’s malicious day laborer, Orlick. One night, after an altercation

with Orlick, Pip’s sister, known as Mrs. Joe, is viciously attacked and becomes a mute invalid. From her

signals, Pip suspects that Orlick was responsible for the attack.

One day a lawyer named Jaggers appears with strange news: a secret benefactor has given Pip a large

fortune, and Pip must come to London immediately to begin his education as a gentleman. Pip happily

assumes that his previous hopes have come true—that Miss Havisham is his secret benefactor and that

the old woman intends for him to marry Estella.

In London, Pip befriends a young gentleman named Herbert Pocket and Jaggers’s law clerk, Wemmick.

He expresses disdain for his former friends and loved ones, especially Joe, but he continues to pine after

Estella. He furthers his education by studying with the tutor Matthew Pocket, Herbert’s father. Herbert

himself helps Pip learn how to act like a gentleman. When Pip turns twenty-one and begins to receive an

income from his fortune, he will secretly help Herbert buy his way into the business he has chosen for

himself. But for now, Herbert and Pip lead a fairly undisciplined life in London, enjoying themselves and

running up debts. Orlick reappears in Pip’s life, employed as Miss Havisham’s porter, but is promptly

fired by Jaggers after Pip reveals Orlick’s unsavory past. Mrs. Joe dies, and Pip goes home for the

funeral, feeling tremendous grief and remorse. Several years go by, until one night a familiar figure

barges into Pip’s room—the convict, Magwitch, who stuns Pip by announcing that he, not Miss

Havisham, is the source of Pip’s fortune. He tells Pip that he was so moved by Pip’s boyhood kindness

that he dedicated his life to making Pip a gentleman, and he made a fortune in Australia for that very

purpose.

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Pip is appalled, but he feels morally bound to help Magwitch escape London, as the convict is pursued

both by the police and by Compeyson, his former partner in crime. A complicated mystery begins to fall

into place when Pip discovers that Compeyson was the man who abandoned Miss Havisham at the altar

and that Estella is Magwitch’s daughter. Miss Havisham has raised her to break men’s hearts, as revenge

for the pain her own broken heart caused her. Pip was merely a boy for the young Estella to practice on;

Miss Havisham delighted in Estella’s ability to toy with his affections.

As the weeks pass, Pip sees the good in Magwitch and begins to care for him deeply. Before Magwitch’s

escape attempt, Estella marries an upper-class lout named Bentley Drummle. Pip makes a visit to Satis

House, where Miss Havisham begs his forgiveness for the way she has treated him in the past, and he

forgives her. Later that day, when she bends over the fireplace, her clothing catches fire and she goes up

in flames. She survives but becomes an invalid. In her final days, she will continue to repent for her

misdeeds and to plead for Pip’s forgiveness.

The time comes for Pip and his friends to spirit Magwitch away from London. Just before the escape

attempt, Pip is called to a shadowy meeting in the marshes, where he encounters the vengeful, evil

Orlick. Orlick is on the verge of killing Pip when Herbert arrives with a group of friends and saves Pip’s

life. Pip and Herbert hurry back to effect Magwitch’s escape. They try to sneak Magwitch down the river

on a rowboat, but they are discovered by the police, who Compeyson tipped off. Magwitch and

Compeyson fight in the river, and Compeyson is drowned. Magwitch is sentenced to death, and Pip loses

his fortune. Magwitch feels that his sentence is God’s forgiveness and dies at peace. Pip falls ill; Joe

comes to London to care for him, and they are reconciled. Joe gives him the news from home: Orlick,

after robbing Pumblechook, is now in jail; Miss Havisham has died and left most of her fortune to the

Pockets; Biddy has taught Joe how to read and write. After Joe leaves, Pip decides to rush home after

him and marry Biddy, but when he arrives there he discovers that she and Joe have already married.

Pip decides to go abroad with Herbert to work in the mercantile trade. Returning many years later, he

encounters Estella in the ruined garden at Satis House. Drummle, her husband, treated her badly, but he

is now dead. Pip finds that Estella’s coldness and cruelty have been replaced by a sad kindness, and the

two leave the garden hand in hand, Pip believing that they will never part again.

Themes:

-Ambition and Self-Improvement

-Social Class

-Crime, Guilt, and Innocence

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WUTHERING HEIGHTS (Emily Brontë)

In the late winter months of 1801, a man named Lockwood rents a manor house called Thrushcross

Grange in the isolated moor country of England. Here, he meets his dour landlord, Heathcliff, a wealthy

man who lives in the ancient manor of Wuthering Heights, four miles away from the Grange. In this wild,

stormy countryside, Lockwood asks his housekeeper, Nelly Dean, to tell him the story of Heathcliff and

the strange denizens of Wuthering Heights. Nelly consents, and Lockwood writes down his recollections

of her tale in his diary; these written recollections form the main part of Wuthering Heights.

Nelly remembers her childhood. As a young girl, she works as a servant at Wuthering Heights for the

owner of the manor, Mr. Earnshaw, and his family. One day, Mr. Earnshaw goes to Liverpool and returns

home with an orphan boy whom he will raise with his own children. At first, the Earnshaw children—a

boy named Hindley and his younger sister Catherine—detest the dark-skinned Heathcliff. But Catherine

quickly comes to love him, and the two soon grow inseparable, spending their days playing on the

moors. After his wife’s death, Mr. Earnshaw grows to prefer Heathcliff to his own son, and when Hindley

continues his cruelty to Heathcliff, Mr. Earnshaw sends Hindley away to college, keeping Heathcliff

nearby.

Three years later, Mr. Earnshaw dies, and Hindley inherits Wuthering Heights. He returns with a wife,

Frances, and immediately seeks revenge on Heathcliff. Once an orphan, later a pampered and favored

son, Heathcliff now finds himself treated as a common laborer, forced to work in the fields. Heathcliff

continues his close relationship with Catherine, however. One night they wander to Thrushcross Grange,

hoping to tease Edgar and Isabella Linton, the cowardly, snobbish children who live there. Catherine is

bitten by a dog and is forced to stay at the Grange to recuperate for five weeks, during which time Mrs.

Linton works to make her a proper young lady. By the time Catherine returns, she has become

infatuated with Edgar, and her relationship with Heathcliff grows more complicated.When Frances dies

after giving birth to a baby boy named Hareton, Hindley descends into the depths of alcoholism, and

behaves even more cruelly and abusively toward Heathcliff. Eventually, Catherine’s de sire for social

advancement prompts her to become engaged to Edgar Linton, despite her overpowering love for

Heathcliff. Heathcliff runs away from Wuthering Heights, staying away for three years, and returning

shortly after Catherine and Edgar’s marriage.

When Heathcliff returns, he immediately sets about seeking revenge on all who have wronged him.

Having come into a vast and mysterious wealth, he deviously lends money to the drunken Hindley,

knowing that Hindley will increase his debts and fall into deeper despondency. When Hindley dies,

Heathcliff inherits the manor. He also places himself in line to inherit Thrushcross Grange by marrying

Isabella Linton, whom he treats very cruelly. Catherine becomes ill, gives birth to a daughter, and dies.

Heathcliff begs her spirit to remain on Earth—she may take whatever form she will, she may haunt him,

drive him mad—just as long as she does not leave him alone. Shortly thereafter, Isabella flees to London

and gives birth to Heathcliff’s son, named Linton after her family. She keeps the boy with her

there.Thirteen years pass, during which Nelly Dean serves as Catherine’s daughter’s nursemaid at

Thrushcross Grange. Young Catherine is beautiful and headstrong like her mother, but her temperament

is modified by her father’s gentler influence. Young Catherine grows up at the Grange with no

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knowledge of Wuthering Heights; one day, however, wandering through the moors, she discovers the

manor, meets Hareton, and plays together with him. Soon afterwards, Isabella dies, and Li nton comes to

live with Heathcliff. Heathcliff treats his sickly, whining son even more cruelly than he treated the boy’s

mother.Three years later, Catherine meets Heathcliff on the moors, and makes a visit to Wuthering

Heights to meet Linton. She and Linton begin a secret romance conducted entirely through letters.

When Nelly destroys Catherine’s collection of letters, the girl begins sneaking out at night to spend time

with her frail young lover, who asks her to come back and nurse him back to health. However, it quickly

becomes apparent that Linton is pursuing Catherine only because Heathcliff is forcing him to; Heathcliff

hopes that if Catherine marries Linton, his legal claim upon Thrushcross Grange—and his revenge upon

Edgar Linton—will be complete. One day, as Edgar Linton grows ill and nears death, Heathcliff lures

Nelly and Catherine back to Wuthering Heights, and holds them prisoner until Catherine marries Linton.

Soon after the marriage, Edgar dies, and his death is quickly followed by the death of the sickly Linton.

Heathcliff now controls both Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange.

He forces Catherine to live at Wuthering Heights and act as a common servant, while he rents

Thrushcross Grange to Lockwood.Nelly’s story ends as she reaches the present. Lockwood, appalled,

ends his tenancy at Thrushcross Grange and returns to London. However, six months later, he pays a

visit to Nelly, and learns of further developments in the story. Although Catherine originally mocked

Hareton’s ignorance and illiteracy (in an act of retribution, Heathcliff ended Hareton’s education after

Hindley died), Catherine grows to love Hareton as they live together at Wuthering Heights. Heathcliff

becomes more and more obsessed with the memory of the elder Catherine, to the extent that he begins

speaking to her ghost. Everything he sees reminds him of her. Shortly after a night spent walking on the

moors, Heathcliff dies. Hareton and young Catherine inherit Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange,

and they plan to be married on the next New Year’s Day. After hearing the end of the story, Lockwood

goes to visit the graves of Catherine and Heathcliff.

Themes:

-The Destructiveness of a Love That Never Changes

-The Precariousness of Social Class

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JANE EYRE (Charlotte Brontë)

Jane Eyre is a young orphan being raised by Mrs. Reed, her cruel, wealthy aunt. A servant named Bessie

provides Jane with some of the few kindnesses she receives, telling her stories and singing songs to her.

One day, as punishment for fighting with her bullying cousin John Reed, Jane’s aunt imprisons Jane in

the red-room, the room in which Jane’s Uncle Reed died. While locked in, Jane, believing that she sees

her uncle’s ghost, screams and faints. She wakes to find herself in the care of Bessie and the kindly

apothecary Mr. Lloyd, who suggests to Mrs. Reed that Jane be sent away to school. To Jane’s delight,

Mrs. Reed concurs.

Once at the Lowood School, Jane finds that her life is far from idyllic. The school’s headmaster is Mr.

Brocklehurst, a cruel, hypocritical, and abusive man. Brocklehurst preaches a doctrine of poverty and

privation to his students while using the school’s funds to provide a wealthy and opulent lifestyle for his

own family. At Lowood, Jane befriends a young girl named Helen Burns, whose strong, martyrlike

attitude toward the school’s miseries is both helpful and displeasing to Jane. A massive typhus epidemic

sweeps Lowood, and Helen dies of consumption. The epidemic also results in the departure of Mr.

Brocklehurst by attracting attention to the insalubrious conditions at Lowood. After a group of more

sympathetic gentlemen takes Brocklehurst’s place, Jane’s life improves dramatically. She spends eight

more years at Lowood, six as a student and two as a teacher.

After teaching for two years, Jane yearns for new experiences. She accepts a governess position at a

manor called Thornfield, where she teaches a lively French girl named Adèle. The distinguished

housekeeper Mrs. Fairfax presides over the estate. Jane’s employer at Thornfield is a dark, impassioned

man named Rochester, with whom Jane finds herself falling secretly in love. She saves Rochester from a

fire one night, which he claims was started by a drunken servant named Grace Poole. But because Grace

Poole continues to work at Thornfield, Jane concludes that she has not been told the entire story. Jane

sinks into despondency when Rochester brings home a beautiful but vicious woman named Blanche

Ingram. Jane expects Rochester to propose to Blanche. But Rochester instead propose s to Jane, who

accepts almost disbelievingly.

The wedding day arrives, and as Jane and Mr. Rochester prepare to exchange their vows, the voice of

Mr. Mason cries out that Rochester already has a wife. Mason introduces himself as the brother of that

wife—a woman named Bertha. Mr. Mason testifies that Bertha, whom Rochester married when he was

a young man in Jamaica, is still alive. Rochester does not deny Mason’s claims, but he explains that

Bertha has gone mad. He takes the wedding party back to Thornfield, where they witness the insane

Bertha Mason scurrying around on all fours and growling like an animal. Rochester keeps Bertha hidden

on the third story of Thornfield and pays Grace Poole to keep his wife under control. Bertha was the real

cause of the mysterious fire earlier in the story. Knowing that it is impossible for her to be with

Rochester, Jane flees Thornfield.

Penniless and hungry, Jane is forced to sleep outdoors and beg for food. At last, three siblings who live

in a manor alternatively called Marsh End and Moor House take her in. Their names are Mary, Diana,

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and St. John (pronounced “Sinjin”) Rivers, and Jane quickly becomes friends with them. St. John is a

clergyman, and he finds Jane a job teaching at a charity school in Morton. He surprises her one day by

declaring that her uncle, John Eyre, has died and left her a large fortune: 20,000 pounds. When Jane asks

how he received this news, he shocks her further by declaring that her uncle was also his uncle: Jane and

the Riverses are cousins. Jane immediately decides to share her inheritance equally with her three

newfound relatives.

St. John decides to travel to India as a missionary, and he urges Jane to accompany him—as his wife.

Jane agrees to go to India but refuses to marry her cousin because she does not love him. St. John

pressures her to reconsider, and she nearly gives in. However, she realizes that she cannot abandon

forever the man she truly loves when one night she hears Rochester’s voice calling her name over the

moors. Jane immediately hurries back to Thornfield and finds that it has been burned to the ground by

Bertha Mason, who lost her life in the fire. Rochester saved the servants but lost his eyesight and one of

his hands. Jane travels on to Rochester’s new residence, Ferndean, where he lives with two servants

named John and Mary.

At Ferndean, Rochester and Jane rebuild their relationship and soon marry. At the end of her story, Jane

writes that she has been married for ten blissful years and that she and Rochester enjoy perfect equality

in their life together. She says that after two years of blindness, Rochester regained sight in one eye and

was able to behold their first son at his birth.

Themes:

-Love Versus Autonomy

-Religion

-Social Class

-Gender Relations

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TESS OF THE D’URBERVILLES (Thomas Hardy)

The poor peddler John Durbeyfield is stunned to learn that he is the descendent of an ancient noble

family, the d’Urbervilles. Meanwhile, Tess, his eldest daughter, joins the other village girls in the May

Day dance, where Tess briefly exchanges glances with a young man. Mr. Durbeyfield and his wife decide

to send Tess to the d’Urberville mansion, where they hope Mrs. d’Urberville will make Tess’s fortune. In

reality, Mrs. d’Urberville is no relation to Tess at all: her husband, the merchant Simon Stokes, simply

changed his name to d’Urberville after he retired. But Tess does not know this fact, and when the

lascivious Alec d’Urberville, Mrs. d’Urberville’s son, procures Tess a job tending fowls on the d’Urberville

estate, Tess has no choice but to accept, since she blames herself for an accident involving the family’s

horse, its only means of income.

Tess spends several months at this job, resisting Alec’s attempts to seduce her. Finally, Alec takes

advantage of her in the woods one night after a fair. Tess knows she does not love Alec. She returns

home to her family to give birth to Alec’s child, whom she christens Sorrow. Sorrow dies soon after he is

born, and Tess spends a miserable year at home before deciding to seek work elsewhere. She finally

accepts a job as a milkmaid at the Talbothays Dairy.

At Talbothays, Tess enjoys a period of contentment and happiness. She befriends three of her fellow

milkmaids—Izz, Retty, and Marian—and meets a man named Angel Clare, who turns out to be the man

from the May Day dance at the beginning of the novel. Tess and Angel slowly fall in love. They grow

closer throughout Tess’s time at Talbothays, and she eventually accepts his proposal of marriage. Still,

she is troubled by pangs of conscience and feels she should tell Angel about her past. She writes him a

confessional note and slips it under his door, but it slides under the carpet and Angel never sees it.

After their wedding, Angel and Tess both confess indiscretions: Angel tells Tess about an affair he had

with an older woman in London, and Tess tells Angel about her history with Alec. Tess forgives Angel,

but Angel cannot forgive Tess. He gives her some money and boards a ship bound for Brazil, where he

thinks he might establish a farm. He tells Tess he will try to accept her past but warns her not to try to

join him until he comes for her.

Tess struggles. She has a difficult time finding work and is forced to take a job at an unpleasant and

unprosperous farm. She tries to visit Angel’s family but overhears his brothers discussing Angel’s poor

marriage, so she leaves. She hears a wandering preacher speak and is stunned to discover that he is Alec

d’Urberville, who has been converted to Christianity by Angel’s father, the Reverend Clare. Alec and Tess

are each shaken by their encounter, and Alec appallingly begs Tess never to tempt him again. Soon after,

however, he again begs Tess to marry him, having turned his back on his -religious ways.

Tess learns from her sister Liza-Lu that her mother is near death, and Tess is forced to return home to

take care of her. Her mother recovers, but her father unexpectedly dies soon after. When the family is

evicted from their home, Alec offers help. But Tess refuses to accept, knowing he only wants to obligate

her to him again.

14

At last, Angel decides to forgive his wife. He leaves Brazil, desperate to find her. Instead, he finds her

mother, who tells him Tess has gone to a village called Sandbourne. There, he finds Tess in an expensive

boardinghouse called The Herons, where he tells her he has forgiven her and begs her to take him back.

Tess tells him he has come too late. She was unable to resist and went back to Alec d’Urberville. Angel

leaves in a daze, and, heartbroken to the point of madness, Tess goes upstairs and stabs her lover to

death. When the landlady finds Alec’s body, she raises an alarm, but Tess has already fled to find Angel.

Angel agrees to help Tess, though he cannot quite believe that she has actually murdered Alec. They

hide out in an empty mansion for a few days, then travel farther. When they come to Stonehenge, Tess

goes to sleep, but when morning breaks shortly thereafter, a search party discovers them. Tess is

arrested and sent to jail. Angel and Liza-Lu watch as a black flag is raised over the prison, signaling Tess’s

execution.

Themes:

-The Injustice of Existence

-Changing Ideas of Social Class in Victorian England

-Men Dominating Women

15

DORIAN GRAY (Oscar Wilde)

In the stately London home of his aunt, Lady Brandon, the well-known artist Basil Hallward meets Dorian

Gray. Dorian is a cultured, wealthy, and impossibly beautiful young man who immediately captures

Basil’s artistic imagination. Dorian sits for several portraits, and Basil often depicts him as an ancient

Greek hero or a mythological figure. When the novel opens, the artist is completing his first portrait of

Dorian as he truly is, but, as he admits to his friend Lord Henry Wotton, the painting disappoints him

because it reveals too much of his feeling for his subject. Lord Henry, a famous wit who enjoys

scandalizing his friends by celebrating youth, beauty, and the selfish pursuit of pleasure, disagrees,

claiming that the portrait is Basil’s masterpiece. Dorian arrives at the studio, and Basil reluctantly

introduces him to Lord Henry, who he fears will have a damaging influence on the impressionable,

young Dorian.

Basil’s fears are well founded; before the end of their first conversation, Lord Henry upsets Dorian with a

speech about the transient nature of beauty and youth. Worried that these, his most impressive

characteristics, are fading day by day, Dorian curses his portrait, which he believes will one day remind

him of the beauty he will have lost. In a fit of distress, he pledges his soul if only the painting could bear

the burden of age and infamy, allowing him to stay forever young. After Dorian’s outbursts, Lord Henry

reaffirms his desire to own the portrait; however, Basil insists the portrait belongs to Dorian.

Over the next few weeks, Lord Henry’s influence over Dorian grows stronger. The youth becomes a

disciple of the “new Hedonism” and proposes to live a life dedicated to the pursuit of pleasure. He falls

in love with Sibyl Vane, a young actress who performs in a theater in London’s slums. He adores he r

acting; she, in turn, refers to him as “Prince Charming” and refuses to heed the warnings of her brother,

James Vane, that Dorian is no good for her. Overcome by her emotions for Dorian, Sibyl decides that she

can no longer act, wondering how she can pretend to love on the stage now that she has experienced

the real thing. Dorian, who loves Sibyl because of her ability to act, cruelly breaks his engagement with

her. After doing so, he returns home to notice that his face in Basil’s portrait of him has changed: it now

sneers. Frightened that his wish for his likeness in the painting to bear the ill effects of his behavior has

come true and that his sins will be recorded on the canvas, he resolves to make amends with Sibyl the

next day. The following afternoon, however, Lord Henry brings news that Sibyl has killed herself. At Lord

Henry’s urging, Dorian decides to consider her death a sort of artistic triumph—she personified

tragedy—and to put the matter behind him. Meanwhile, Dorian hides his portrait in a remote upper

room of his house, where no one other than he can watch its transformation.

Lord Henry gives Dorian a book that describes the wicked exploits of a nineteenth-century Frenchman; it

becomes Dorian’s bible as he sinks ever deeper into a life of sin and corruption. He lives a life devoted to

garnering new experiences and sensations with no regard for conventional standards of morality or the

consequences of his actions. Eighteen years pass. Dorian’s reputation suffers in circles of polite London

society, where rumors spread regarding his scandalous exploits. His peers nevertheless continue to

accept him because he remains young and beautiful. The figure in the painting, however, grows

increasingly wizened and hideous. On a dark, foggy night, Basil Hallward arrives at Dorian’s home to

confront him about the rumors that plague his reputation. The two argue, and Dorian eventually offers

16

Basil a look at his (Dorian’s) soul. He shows Basil the now-hideous portrait, and Hallward, horrified, begs

him to repent. Dorian claims it is too late for penance and kills Basil in a fit of rage.

In order to dispose of the body, Dorian employs the help of an estranged friend, a doctor, whom he

blackmails. The night after the murder, Dorian makes his way to an opium den, where he encounters

James Vane, who attempts to avenge Sibyl’s death. Dorian escapes to his country estate. While

entertaining guests, he notices James Vane peering in through a window, and he becomes wracked by

fear and guilt. When a hunting party accidentally shoots and kills Vane, Dorian feels safe again. He

resolves to amend his life but cannot muster the courage to confess his crimes, and the painting now

reveals his supposed desire to repent for what it is—hypocrisy. In a fury, Dorian picks up the knife he

used to stab Basil Hallward and attempts to destroy the painting. There is a crash, and his servants enter

to find the portrait, unharmed, showing Dorian Gray as a beautiful young man. On the floor lies the body

of their master—an old man, horribly wrinkled and disfigured, with a knife plunged into his heart.

Themes:

-The Purpose of Art

-The Supremacy of Youth and Beauty

-The Superficial Nature of Society

-The Negative Consequences of Influence

17

VANITY FAIR (William Makepeace Thackeray)

The novel opens at Miss Pinkerton's Academy for young women, where readers are introduced to

Amelia and Becky, the novel's female protagonists. Amelia and Becky are friends, but they are nothing

alike. Amelia is kind and innocent and comes from a family with money. Becky Sharp, on the other hand,

is sharp and scheming and emerges from an impoverished situation. Miss Pinkerton, utterly disgusted

with Becky's behavior, sets her up in a governess position at the Crawley estate.

Before she takes her position, Becky spends a little over a week at Amelia's home. She spends her time

ingratiating herself with the Sedleys and wooing Amelia's brother Jos, an overweight, shy and vain tax

collector on break from his job in India. Becky nearly succeeds in arranging the marriage, until George,

Amelia's love interest, steps in and convinces Jos he has behaved like a fool. Jos, humiliated, abandons

home and Becky, furious with George, moves on to her job.

The Crawleys are a rather despicable bunch and nothing like what Becky suspected. They are all

scheming for the inheritance of Aunt Matilda, who is ill. Becky once again ingratiates herself with the

family and earns the particular affections of Sir Pitt and Rawdon, who both ask for her hand in marriage.

She admits begrudgingly to Sir Pitt that she agreed to marry Rawdon in secret, and everyone in the

family is outraged when they hear this news.

Meanwhile, Amelia pines over George, who disrespects and disregards her while he is in the military.

Dobbin, who is George's closest friend and who is also secretly in love with Amelia, begs him to treat her

kindly. George eventually agrees to marry Amelia, but just as his father predicted, the Sedleys come to

financial ruin because of Mr. Sedley's poor business decisions. George's father disowns him in response

to Dobbin's efforts to get him to accept the marriage.

The Duke of Wellington has declared war on Napoleon's army; since all the men are in the military,

everyone goes to Belgium to prepare for the war. When the husbands go off to fight, the general's wife

takes care of the women who are left behind. Amelia worries about George, and Rawdon mourns having

to leave Becky, but Becky seems unconcerned about her soon-to-be husband and instead appears to be

developing a flirtation with George. Unfortunately, George dies in the Battle of Waterloo.

Sir Pitt, in the wake of his second wife's death, takes up with his butler's daughter, causing scandal at

the household. The young Pitt Crawley finds a sweet wife who manages to earn the approval of Aunt

Matilda, who never thought much of the older of Sir Pitt's sons. Both Amelia and Becky give birth to

sons, and for a while Becky and Rawdon manage to live well on very little money; Becky is skilled at

avoiding payments. The Sedleys, on the other hand, continue to slip further into financial ruin. Amelia

sends Georgy, her son, to live with the Osbornes because of her difficult situation.

When Sir Pitt dies, young Mr. Crawley inherits the estate and Aunt Matilda's money, and he invites

Becky and Rawdon and their son to come live with him. Becky ingratiates herself with a man named Lord

Steyne, who brings her out into society, sends little Rawdon, her son, away from school, and generally

distracts her from her husband. When she neglects to send money to get Rawdon out of prison, where

he has landed himself for unpaid gambling debts, he decides to investigate her new relationship. When

18

he returns home, he finds jewels in her belongings, and he decides to duel Lord Steyne. The fight is

avoided, but Rawdon moves away.

Dobbin returns to England, and he finds Amelia, who is still grieving the loss of George. Dobbin stays

anyway to help Amelia care for her son. Mr. Osborne dies and leaves some of his money for Amelia and

Georgy, and three of them go off to Europe, where they find Becky. Becky admits to Amelia that she had

been developing a relationship with George, and Amelia finally comes to her senses, sees George for

who he really was, and marries Dobbin.

Themes:

-Vanity -Heroism -Time

19

SILAS MARNER (George Eliot)

Silas Marner is the weaver in the English countryside village of Raveloe in the early nineteenth century.

Like many weavers of his time, he is an outsider—the object of suspicion because of his special skills and

the fact that he has come to Raveloe from elsewhere. The villagers see Silas as especially odd because of

the curious cataleptic fits he occasionally suffers. Silas has ended up in Raveloe because the members of

his religious sect in Lantern Yard, an insular neighborhood in a larger town, falsely accused him of theft

and excommunicated him.

Much shaken after the accusation, Silas finds nothing familiar in Raveloe to reawaken his faith and falls

into a numbing routine of solitary work. His one attempt at neighborliness backfires: when an herbal

remedy he suggests for a neighbor’s illness works, he is rumored to be a sort of witch doctor. With little

else to live for, Silas becomes infatuated with the money he earns for his work and hoards it, living off as

little as possible. Every night he pulls his gold out from its hiding place beneath his floorboards to count

it. He carries on in this way for fifteen years.

Squire Cass is the wealthiest man in Raveloe, and his two eldest sons are Godfrey and Dunstan, or

Dunsey. Dunsey is greedy and cruel, and enjoys tormenting Godfrey, the eldest son. Godfrey is good-

natured but weak-willed, and, though secretly married to the opium addict Molly Farren, he is in love

with Nancy Lammeter. Dunsey talked Godfrey into the marriage and repeatedly blackmails him with

threats to reveal the marriage to their father. Godfrey gives Dunsey 100 pounds of the rent money paid

to him by one of their father’s tenants. Godfrey then finds himself in a bind when Dunsey insists that

Godfrey repay the sum himself. Dunsey once again threatens to reveal Godfrey’s marriage but, after

some arguing, offers to sell Godfrey’s prize horse, Wildfire, to repay the loan.

The next day, Dunsey meets with some friends who are hunting and negotiates the sale of the horse.

Dunsey decides to participate in the hunt before finalizing the sale, and, in doing so, he has a riding

accident that kills the horse. Knowing the rumors of Silas’s hoard, Dunsey makes plans to intimidate the

weaver into lending him money. His walk home takes him by Silas’s cottage, and, finding the cottage

empty, Dunsey steals the money instead.

Silas returns from an errand to find his money gone. Overwhelmed by the loss, he runs to the local

tavern for help and announces the theft to a sympathetic audience of tavern regulars. The theft

becomes the talk of the village, and a theory arises that the thief might have been a peddler who came

through the village some time before. Godfrey, meanwhile, is distracted by thoughts of Dunsey, who has

not returned home. After hearing that Wildfire has been found dead, Godfrey decides to tell his father

about the money, though not about his marriage. The Squire flies into a rage at the news, but does not

do anything drastic to punish Godfrey.

Silas is utterly disconsolate at the loss of his gold and numbly continues his weaving. Some of the

townspeople stop by to offer their condolences and advice. Among these visitors, Dolly Winthrop stands

out. Like many of the others, she encourages Silas to go to church—something he has not done since he

was banished from Lantern Yard—but she is also gentler and more genuinely sympathetic.

20

Nancy Lammeter arrives at Squire Cass’s famed New Year’s dance resolved to reject Godfrey’s advances

because of his unsound character. However, Godfrey is more direct and insistent than he has been in a

long time, and Nancy finds herself exhilarated by the evening in spite of her resolution. Meanwhile,

Molly, Godfrey’s secret wife, is making her way to the Casses’ house to reveal the secret marriage. She

has their daughter, a toddler, in her arms. Tiring after her long walk, Molly takes a draft of opium and

passes out by the road. Seeing Silas’s cottage and drawn by the light of the fire, Molly’s little girl

wanders through the open door and falls asleep at Silas’s hearth.

Silas is having one of his fits at the time and does not notice the little girl enter his cottage. When he

comes to, he sees her already asleep on his hearth, and is as stunned by her appearance as he was by

the disappearance of his money. A while later, Silas traces the girl’s footsteps outside and finds Molly’s

body lying in the snow. Silas goes to the Squire’s house to find the doctor, and causes a stir at the dance

when he arrives with the baby girl in his arms. Godfrey, recognizing his daughter, accompanies the

doctor to Silas’s cottage. When the doctor declares that Molly is dead, Godfrey realizes that his secret is

safe. He does not claim his daughter, and Silas adopts her.

Silas grows increasingly attached to the child and names her Eppie, after his mother and sister. With

Dolly Winthrop’s help, Silas raises the child lovingly. Eppie begins to serve as a bridge between Silas and

the rest of the villagers, who offer him help and advice and have come to think of him as an exemplary

person because of what he has done. Eppie also brings Silas out of the benumbed state he fell into after

the loss of his gold. In his newfound happiness, Silas begins to explore the memories of his past that he

has long repressed.

The novel jumps ahead sixteen years. Godfrey has married Nancy and Squire Cass has died. Godfrey has

inherited his father’s house, but he and Nancy have no children. Their one daughter died at birth, and

Nancy has refused to adopt. Eppie has grown into a pretty and spirited young woman, and Silas a

contented father. The stone-pit behind Silas’s cottage is drained to water neighboring fields, and

Dunsey’s skeleton is found at the bottom, along with Silas’s gold. The discovery frightens Godfrey, who

becomes convinced that his own secrets are destined to be uncovered as well. He confesses the truth to

Nancy about his marriage to Molly and fathering of Eppie. Nancy is not angry but regretful, saying that

they could have adopted Eppie legitimately if Godfrey had told her earlier.

That evening, Godfrey and Nancy decide to visit Silas’s cottage to confess the truth of Eppie’s lineage

and claim her as their daughter. However, after hearing Godfrey and Nancy’s story, Eppie tells them she

would rather stay with Silas than live with her biological father. Godfrey and Nancy leave, resigning

themselves to helping Eppie from afar. The next day Silas decides to visit Lantern Yard to see if he was

ever cleared of the theft of which he was accused years before.

Themes:

-The Individual Versus the Community

-Character as Destiny

-The Interdependence of Faith and Community

21

Poetry

The Lady of Shalott

This is a pretty long poem, and a lot goes on, but Tennyson makes it easier to follow along by breaking

the action up into four parts. We'll take you through them quickly, to give you an overview:

Part 1: The poem opens with a description of a field by a river. There's a road running through the field

that apparently leads to Camelot, the legendary castle of King Arthur. From the road you can see an

island in the middle of the river called the Island of Shalott. On that island there is a little castle, which is

the home of the mysterious Lady of Shalott. People pass by the island all the time, on boats and barges

and on foot, but they never see the Lady. Occasionally, people working in the fields around the island

will hear her singing an eerie song.

Part 2: Now we actually move inside the castle on the island, and Tennyson describes the Lady herself.

First we learn that she spends her days weaving a magic web, and that she has been cursed, forbidden

to look outside. So instead she watches the world go by in a magic mirror. She sees shadows of the men

and women who pass on the road, and she weaves the things she sees into her web. We also learn that

she is "half sick" of this life of watching and weaving.

Part 3: Now the big event: One day the studly Sir Lancelot rides by the island, covered in jewels and

shining armor. Most of this chunk of the poem is spent describing Lancelot. When his image appears in

the mirror, the Lady is so completely captivated that she breaks the rule and looks out her window on

the real world. When she does this and catches a glimpse of Lancelot and Camelot, the magic mirror

cracks, and she knows she's in trouble.

Part 4: Knowing that it's game over, the Lady finds a boat by the side of the river and writes her name on

it. After looking at Camelot for a while she lies down in the boat and lets it slip downstream. She drifts

down the river, singing her final song, and dies before she gets to Camelot. The people of Camelot come

out to see the body of the Lady and her boat, and are afraid. Lancelot also trots out, decides that she's

pretty, and says a little prayer for her.

22

Ulysses

Ulysses (Odysseus) declares that there is little point in his staying home “by this still hearth” with his old

wife, doling out rewards and punishments for the unnamed masses who live in his kingdom.

Still speaking to himself he proclaims that he “cannot rest from travel” but feels compelled to live to the

fullest and swallow every last drop of life. He has enjoyed all his experiences as a sailor who travels the

seas, and he considers himself a symbol for everyone who wanders and roams the earth. His travels

have exposed him to many different types of people and ways of living. They have also exposed him to

the “delight of battle” while fighting the Trojan War with his men. Ulysses declares that his travels and

encounters have shaped who he is: “I am a part of all that I have met,” he asserts. And it is only when he

is traveling that the “margin” of the globe that he has not yet traversed shrink and fade, and cease to

goad him.

Ulysses declares that it is boring to stay in one place, and that to remain stationary is to rust rather than

to shine; to stay in one place is to pretend that all there is to life is the simple act of breathing, whereas

he knows that in fact life contains much novelty, and he longs to encounter this. His spirit yearns

constantly for new experiences that will broaden his horizons; he wishes “to follow knowledge like a

sinking star” and forever grow in wisdom and in learning.

Ulysses now speaks to an unidentified audience concerning his son Telemachus, who will act as his

successor while the great hero resumes his travels: he says, “This is my son, mine own Telemachus, to

whom I leave the scepter and the isle.” He speaks highly but also patronizingly of his son’s capabilities as

a ruler, praising his prudence, dedication, and devotion to the gods. Telemachus will do his work of

governing the island while Ulysses will do his work of traveling the seas: “He works his work, I mine.”

In the final stanza, Ulysses addresses the mariners with whom he has worked, traveled, and weathered

life’s storms over many years. He declares that although he and they are old, they still have the potential

to do something noble and honorable before “the long day wanes.” He encourages them to make use of

their old age because “ ’tis not too late to seek a newer world.” He declares that his goal is to sail

onward “beyond the sunset” until his death. Perhaps, he suggests, they may even reach the “Happy

Isles,” or the paradise of perpetual summer described in Greek mythology where great heroes like the

warrior Achilles were believed to have been taken after their deaths. Although Ulysses and his mariners

are not as strong as they were in youth, they are “strong in will” and are sustained by their resolve to

push onward relentlessly: “To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.”

Form

This poem is written as a dramatic monologue: the entire poem is spoken by a single character, whose

identity is revealed by his own words. The lines are in blank verse, or unrhymed iambic pentameter,

which serves to impart a fluid and natural quality to Ulysses’s speech. Finally, the poem is divided into

four paragraph-like sections, each of which comprises a distinct thematic unit of the poem.

23

Mariana

This poem begins with the description of an abandoned farmhouse, or grange, in which the flower-pots

are covered in overgrown moss and an ornamental pear tree hangs from rusty nails on the wall. The

sheds stand abandoned and broken, and the straw (“thatch”) covering the roof of the farmhouse is

worn and full of weeds. A woman, presumably standing in the vicinity of the farmhouse, is described in a

four-line refrain that recurs—with slight modifications—as the last lines of each of the poem’s stanzas:

“She only said, ‘My life is dreary / He cometh not,’ she said; / She said, ‘I am aweary, aweary, / I would

that I were dead!’”

The woman’s tears fall with the dew in the evening and then fall again in the morning, before the dew

has dispersed. In both the morning and the evening, she is unable to look to the “sweet heaven.” At

night, when the bats have come and gone, and the sky is dark, she opens her window curtain and looks

out at the expanse of land. She comments that “The night is dreary” and repeats her death-wish refrain.

In the middle of the night, the woman wakes up to the sound of the crow, and stays up until the cock

calls out an hour before dawn. She hears the lowing of the oxen and seemingly walks in her sleep until

the cold winds of the morning come. She repeats the death-wish refrain exactly as in the first stanza,

except that this time it is “the day” and not “my life” that is dreary.

Within a stone’s throw from the wall lies an artificial passage for water filled with black waters and

lumps of moss. A silver-green poplar tree shakes back and forth and serves as the only break in an

otherwise flat, level, gray landscape. The woman repeats the refrain of the first stanza.

When the moon lies low at night, the woman looks to her white window curtain, where she sees the

shadow of the poplar swaying in the wind. But when the moon is very low and the winds exceptionally

strong, the shadow of the poplar falls not on the curtain but on her bed and across her forehead. The

woman says that “the night is dreary” and wishes once again that she were dead.

During the day, the doors creak on their hinges, the fly sings in the window pane, and the mouse cries

out or peers from behind the lining of the wall. The farmhouse is haunted by old faces, old footsteps,

and old voices, and the woman repeats the refrain exactly as it appears in the first and fourth stanzas.

The woman is confused and disturbed by the sounds of the sparrow chirping on the roof, the clock

ticking slowly, and the wind blowing through the poplar. Most of all, she hates the early evening hour

when the sun begins to set and a sunbeam lies across her bed chamber.

Form:

“Mariana” takes the form of seven twelve-line stanzas, each of which is divided into three four-line

rhyme units according to the pattern ABAB CDDC EFEF.

24

Porphyria’s Lover

The speaker lives in a cottage in the countryside. His lover, a blooming young woman named Porphyria,

comes in out of a storm and proceeds to make a fire and bring cheer to the cottage. She embraces the

speaker, offering him her bare shoulder. He tells us that he does not speak to her. Instead, he says, she

begins to tell him how she has momentarily overcome societal strictures to be with him. He realizes that

she “worship*s+” him at this instant. Realizing that she will eventually give in to society’s pressures, and

wanting to preserve the moment, he wraps her hair around her neck and strangles her. He then toys

with her corpse, opening the eyes and propping the body up against his side. He sits with her body this

way the entire night, the speaker remarking that God has not yet moved to punish him.

Form:

This poem is a dramatic monologue—a fictional speech presented as the musings of a speaker who is

separate from the poet.Porphyria already lies dead when the speaker begins. Just as the nameless

speaker seeks to stop time by killing her, so too does this kind of poem seek to freeze the consciousness

of an instant.

25

My Last Duchess

This poem is loosely based on historical events involving Alfonso, the Duke of Ferrara, who lived in

the 16th century. The Duke is the speaker of the poem, and tells us he is entertaining an emissary who

has come to negotiate the Duke’s marriage (he has recently been widowed) to the daughter of another

powerful family. As he shows the visitor through his palace, he stops before a portrait of the late

Duchess, apparently a young and lovely girl. The Duke begins reminiscing about the portrait sessions,

then about the Duchess herself. His musings give way to a diatribe on her disgraceful behavior: he

claims she flirted with everyone and did not appreciate his “gift of a nine-hundred-years- old name.” As

his monologue continues, the reader realizes with ever-more chilling certainty that the Duke in fact

caused the Duchess’s early demise: when her behavior escalated, “*he+ gave commands; / Then all

smiles stopped together.” Having made this disclosure, the Duke returns to the business at hand:

arranging for another marriage, with another young girl. As the Duke and the emissary walk leave the

painting behind, the Duke points out other notable artworks in his collection.

Form:

“My Last Duchess” comprises rhyming pentameter lines. The lines do not employ end-stops; rather, they

useenjambment—gthat is, sentences and other grammatical units do not necessarily conclude at the

end of lines. The Duke is quite a performer: he mimics others’ voices, creates hypothetical situations,

and uses the force of his personality to make horrifying information seem merely colorful. Indeed, the

poem provides a classic example of a dramatic monologue: the speaker is clearly distinct from the poet;

an audience is suggested but never appears in the poem; and the revelation of the Duke’s character is

the poem’s primary aim.

26

Dover Beach (Matthew Arnold)

The sea is calm that night. The sea is full of tides and the night is filled with moonlight. the armies - are

involved in battle on the shore. But the armies are calm as it is night.

The poet then calls his beloved to come to the window and watch the beautiful night. And the horizon

where the sea appears to meet the moon. If one can listen intently, one can also hear the sound made

by the pebbles drawn in and thrown out by the waves of the sea. These sounds strike a note of sadness

that is universal.

Long ago the same misery struck the lives of the characters created by Sophocles. The tragedy is

intensified in modern days by the loss of faith. Once upon a time the sea of faith was full. As the waters

surround the earth, faith used to form a protective ring around human life. But in modern times that

faith has disappeared and its faith cry is heard far away. It has shrunk and withdraw itself to the edge of

the earth.

Then the poet makes an earnest appeal to his beloved. He asks her to help him create an ideal world

within their room. The world outside has no joy, no love, no light, no peace, no help and above all no

faith. So he requests his beloved to come forward to create a beautiful, new world. The world out side is

a dark plain where the armies clash with each other in the night and are ignorant of what the y are doing.

The poet meas that the individual should develop a sense of peace and joy to compensate the general

loss and try to help himself in this dark ignorant world.

27

The Blessed Damozel (Dante Gabriel Rossetti)

Is a poem written in 1847 by Dante Gabriel Rossetti. It was first published three years later, in

1850. This poem is romantic and hopeful in nature. It tells the story of a young woman who dies

unexpectedly at a very young age. Her family and the young man who loves her are in disbelief.

They miss her terribly almost immediately and have great difficulty imagining that life will go on without

her. Although she has only been dead a few days at the most, it seems to them like it has been years. It

seems more like an eternity to the man she had promised herself to and left behind. To him, she was

perfect, no one could ever replace her, she was the only woman for him.

This poem portrays a connection between physical features of life on Earth and spiritual wonders of

heaven. The man who the young woman has left behind has a very difficult time coping with her death.

He feels she is waiting for him somewhere and he feels destined to find her.

The young woman is on the edge of entering heaven but does not want to go without the man she

loves. She does not want to wait for him to join her. The young man still feels close to her even though

her body lies still and motionless. At one particular moment, he is sure that her long flowing hair is

surrounding him but discovers instead that it is merely autumn leaves falling freely from the

trees. Nevertheless, this gives him hope that he will one day be reunited with the woman he had once

saw a future with. Meanwhile, his love sees many couples being reunited in heaven and cannot wait for

her turn to be able to once again be with the one she loves.

"The Blessed Damozel" gives off a sense of romance, sadness and hope in its twenty-four

stanzas. Although love is lost through death, there is great hope that it will be rekindled in the future ,

even if not on Earth. When the lovers meet again, their love will be eternal in heaven. This poem helps

readers to experience the idea that death is not always the end, but sometimes a beginning to

something even greater and more powerful.

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Pied Beauty (Gerard Manley Hopkins )

The poem opens with an offering: “Glory be to God for dappled things.” In the next five lines, Hopkins

elaborates with examples of what things he means to include under this rubric of “dappled.” He includes

the mottled white and blue colors of the sky, the “brinded” (brindled or streaked) hide of a cow, and the

patches of contrasting color on a trout. The chestnuts offer a slightly more complex image: When they

fall they open to reveal the meaty interior normally concealed by the hard shell; they are compared to

the coals in a fire, black on the outside and glowing within. The wings of finches are multicolored, as is a

patchwork of farmland in which sections look different according to whether they are planted and

green, fallow, or freshly plowed. The final example is of the “trades” and activities of man, with their rich

diversity of materials and equipment.

In the final five lines, Hopkins goes on to consider more closely the characteristics of these examples he

has given, attaching moral qualities now to the concept of variety and diversity that he has elaborated

thus far mostly in terms of physical characteristics. The poem becomes an apology for these

unconventional or “strange” things, things that might not normally be valued or thought beautiful. They

are all, he avers, creations of God, which, in their multiplicity, point always to the unity and permanence

of His power and inspire us to “Praise Him.”

Form:

This is one of Hopkins’s “curtal” (or curtailed) sonnets, in which he miniaturizes the traditional sonnet

form by reducing the eight lines of the octave to six (here two tercets rhyming ABC ABC) and shortening

the six lines of the sestet to four and a half.The strikingly musical repetition of sounds throughout the

poem (“dappled,” “stipple,” “tackle,” “fickle,” “freckled,” “adazzle,” for example) enacts the creative act

the poem glorifies: the weaving together of diverse things into a pleasing and coherent whole.

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What Is Poetry? (John Stuart Mill)

1)Poetry is not "matter of fact or science."

2) Poetry's purpose is to "act upon the emotions."

3) The interest felt in a novel . . . and is derived from incident.

4) The interest excited by poetry comes from the representation of feeling.

5) Poetry works internally--this is the appeal of poetry.

6) Novels work externally--this is the appeal of eloquence.

7) That which is eloquent aims primarily to achieve a desired effect on other people.

8) That which is poetic is "feeling confessing itself to itself . . . in symbols.

9) Eloquence is heard; poetry is overheard.

Mill begins his search for a definition of what poetry is by telling us what it is not. Poetry is not "matter

of fact or science.Poetry's purpose is to "act upon the emotions." Science "addresses itself to the belief"

(roughly corresponding to Shelley's category of reason), while poetry addresses itself to the "feelings"

(Shelley's category of imagination).

But, Mill says, poetry isn't the only thing which acts on the emotions. Novelists work to make an

emotional impression on readers just as poets do. Here Mill makes his primary categorical

distinction.There is a radical distinction between the interest felt in a novel and the interest excited by

poetry for the one is derived from incident, the other from the representation of feeling.”Poetry works

internally” ; “Novels work externally”. Mill calls these the appeals of poetry and of eloquence. That

which is eloquent aims primarily to achieve a desired effect on other people that which is poetic is

feeling confessing itself to itself in symbols which are the nearest possible representations of the feeling

in the exact shape in which it exists in the poet's mind." Eloquence isheard; poetry is overheard.

The passion for story is the passion of an individual's childhood of a society's primitivism. "The minds

and hearts of greatest depth and elevation are commonly those which delight in poetry."

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The Pathetic Fallacy (John Ruskin)

Pathetic fallacy, poetic practice of attributing human emotion or responses to nature, inanimate

objects, or animals. The practice is a form of personification that is as old as poetry, in which it has

always been common to find smiling or dancing flowers, angry or cruel winds, brooding mountains,

moping owls, or happy larks. The term was coined by John Ruskin in Modern Painters (1843–60). In

some classical poetic forms such as the pastoral elegy, the pathetic fallacy is actually a required

convention. In Milton’s “On The Morning of Christ’s Nativity,” all aspects of nature react affectively to

the event of Christ’s birth.

The Stars with deep amaze

Stand fixt in steadfast gaze

Ruskin considered the excessive use of the fallacy the mark of an inferior poet. Later poets, however—

especially the Imagists of the early 20th century, as well as T.S. Eliot and Ezra Pound—used the pathetic

fallacy freely and effectively.

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The Study Of Poetry (Mathew Arnold)

In his anthology of English poetry, Arnold illustrates the allegedly objective critical judgment

of which he speaks in “The Function of Criticism at the Present Time” in terms of his

selection of those poets worthy in his view of being anthologised. In his preface to the

anthology, he clarifies what he means by ‘judgment’ by turning his attention in particular to

the questions of literary history and canons. The main criteria informing Arnold’s approach

to literary history here are literature’s higher truth (i.e. the degree to which a work captures

not the realities of this world but ideals, that is, the perfection found in the world beyond

this and which is the standard by which we ought to organise life in the here and now) and

its moral value (i.e the impact for good which literature has on the reader). Only works that

meet these criteria ought to be part of that canon of works worthy of being studied.

Using metaphors concerning rivers in what would prove subsequently to be a very

influential way, Arnold begins by arguing that the “stream of English poetry” is only

one “contributory stream to the world river of poetry” . He argues that we should

“conceive of poetry worthily, and more highly than it has been the custom” , that is, as

“capable of higher uses, and called to higher destinies, than those in general which man has

assigned to it hitherto” . He contends that we must “turn to poetry to interpret life for

us, to console us, to sustain us” because, as Wordsworth put it, it is the ‘breath and

finer spirit of all knowledge’ as a result of which it is superior to science, philosophy, and

religion. To be “capable of fulfilling such high destinies” , however, poetry must be “of

a high order of excellence” . In poetry, for this reason, the “distinction between

excellent and inferior, sound and unsound or only half-sound, true and untrue or only halftrue,

is of paramount importance” . It is in poetry that conveys the “criticism of life”

and which meets the “conditions fixed . . . by the laws of poetic truth and beauty”

that the “spirit of our race will find . . . its consolation and stay” . The criticism

of life “will be of power in proportion as the poetry conveying it is excellent, rather than

inferior, sound rather than unsound or half-sound, true rather than untrue or half-true”

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.

The “best poetry” is that which has a “power of forming, sustaining, and delighting us, as nothing else can” . Its “most precious benefit” is a “clearer, deeper sense of the best in poetry, and of the strength

and joy to be drawn from it” .

This sense should “govern our estimate of what we read” . Arnold contrasts this, what

he terms the “real estimate” , with “two other kinds of estimate, the historic estimate

and the personal estimate” , which are both “fallacies” . The former calculates a

poet’s merit on historical grounds, that is, by “regarding a poet’s work as a stage” in

the “course and development of a nation’s language, thought, and poetry” (this is the

view advanced by Hippolyte Taine). The latter calculates a poet’s merit on the basis of our

“personal affinities, likings and circumstances” which may make us “overrate the

object of our interest” because the work in question “is, or has been, of high

importance” to us personally. Many people, Arnold argues, skip “in obedience to mere

tradition and habit, from one famous name or work in its national poetry to another,

ignorant of what it misses, and of the reason for keeping what it keeps, and of the whole

process of growth in poetry” All this misses, however, the indispensability of

recognising the “reality of the poet’s classic character” , that is, the test whether his

work “belongs to the class of the very best” and that appreciation of the “wide

difference between it and all work which has not the same character” . Arnold points

out that “tracing historic origins and historical relationships” is not totally unimportant

and that to some degree personal choice enters into any attempt to anthologise works.

However, the ‘real estimate,’ from which derives the “benefit of clearly feeling and of deeply

enjoying the really excellent, the truly classic in poetry” ought to be the literary

historian’s objective.

The question arises: how exactly does one recognise the poet’s classic character?

How should one determine whether a given poet meets those criteria which allow him to be

ranked mong the best? The answer: the critic must compare the work in question to the

established classics, brief “passages, even single lines” drawn from which serve as a

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“touchstone” for assessment purposes. They, when memorised, function as an

“infallible touchstone for detecting the presence or absence of high poetic quality, and also

the degree of this quality, in all other poetry” . Having to hand “concrete examples”

and “specimens of poetry of . . . the very highest quality” suffices to “keep

clear and sound our judgments about poetry, to save us from fallacious estimates of it, to

conduct us to a real estimate” . Given that the “characters of a high quality are what

is expressed there” , Arnold contends that poetic quality is “far better recognised by

being felt in the poetry of a master, than by being perused in the prose of the critic” .

However, what exactly does it mean to say that this or that work possesses a ‘high

poetic quality’? Arnold answers that poetic quality resides in both the “substance and

matter” and the “style and manner” which are “inseparable” from and

“vitally connected” to each other. The former consists in what he terms somewhat

vaguely as a “higher truth and a higher seriousness” while the latter consists in the

equally vague “diction and movement” . For the work to posses poetic quality, both

substance and style must be present. In the early twentieth century, the influential British

critic F. R. Leavis would apply Arnold’s criteria to the study of British literature in his famous

work of literary history and canon-formation, The Great Tradition. The Leavisite canon, his

views on who was in and who was out, the necessity, for example, to abandon Milton in

favour of Donne, Joyce in favour of Lawrence, shaped the views of generations of

subsequent critics even here in the Caribbean.

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The Descent of Man (Charles Darwin)

The main conclusion here arrived at, and now held by many naturalists who are well competent to form a sound judgment, is that man is descended from some less highly organised form. The grounds upon which this conclusion rests will never be shaken, for the close similarity between man and the lower animals in embryonic development, as well as in innumerable points of structure and constitution, both of high and of the most trifling importance, - the rudiments which he retains, and the abnormal revisions to which he is occasionally liable, - are facts which cannot be disputed. They have long been known, but until recently they told us nothing with respect to the origin of man. Now when viewed by the light of our knowledge of the whole organic world their meaning is unmistakable. The great principle of evolution stands up clear and firm, when these groups of facts are considered in connection with others, such as the mutual affinities of the members of the same group, their geographical distribution in past and present times, and their geological succession. It is incredible that all these facts should speak falsely. He who is not content to look, like a savage, at the phenomena of nature as disconnected, cannot any longer believe that man is the work of a separate act of creation. He will be forced to admit that the close resemblance of the embryo of man to that, for instance, of a dog - the construction of his skull, limbs and whole frame on the same plan with that of other mammals, independently of the uses to which the parts may be put - the occasional re-appearance of various structures, for instance of several muscles, which man does not normally possess, but which are common to the Quadrumana - and a crowd of analogous facts - all point in the plainest manner to the conclusion that man is the co-descendant with other mammals of a common progenitor.

By considering the embryological structure of man, - the homologies which he presents with the lower animals, - the rudiments which he retains, - and the reversions to which he is liable, we can partly recall in imagination the former condition of our early progenitors; and can approximately place them in their proper place in the zoological series. We thus learn that man is descended from a hairy, tailed quadruped, probably arboreal in its habits, and an inhabitant of the Old World. This creature, if its whole structure had been examined by a naturalist, would have been classed amongst the Quadrumana, as surely as the still more ancient progenitor of the Old and New World monkeys. The Quadrumana and all the higher mammals are probably derived from an ancient marsupial animal, and this through a long line of diversified forms, from some amphibian-like creature, and this again from some fish-like animal. In the dim obscurity of the past we can see that the early progenitor of all the Vertebrata must have been an aquatic animal, provided with branchiæ, with the two sexes united in the same individual, and with the most important organs of the body (such as the brain and heart) imperfectly or not at all developed. This animal seems to have been more like the larvæ of the existing marine Ascidians than any other known form.

The high standard of our intellectual powers and moral disposition is the greatest difficulty which presents itself, after we have been driven to this conclusion on the origin of man. But every one who admits the principle of evolution, must see that the mental powers of the higher animals, which are the same in kind with those of man, though so different in degree, are capable of advancement....

The moral nature of man has reached its present standard, partly through the advancement of his reasoning powers and consequently of a just public opinion, but especially from his sympathies having been rendered more tender and widely diffused through the effects of habit, example, instruction, and reflection. It is not improbable that after long practice virtuous tendencies may be inherited. With the more civilised races, the conviction of the existence of an all-seeing Deity has had a potent influence on

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the advance of morality. Ultimately man does not accept the praise or blame of his fellows as his sole guide though few escape this influence, but his habitual convictions, controlled by reason, afford him the safest rule. His conscience then becomes the supreme judge and monitor. Nevertheless the first foundation or origin of the moral sense lies in the social instincts, including sympathy; and these instincts no doubt were primarily gained, as in the case of the lower animals, through natural selection.

The belief in God has often been advanced as not only the greatest but the most complete of all the distinctions between man and the lower animals. It is however impossible, as we have seen, to maintain that this belief is innate or instinctive in man. On the other hand a belief in all-pervading spiritual agencies seems to be universal, and apparently follows from a considerable advance in man's reason, and from a still greater advance in his faculties of imagination, curiosity and wonder. I am aware that the assumed instinctive belief in God has been used by many persons as an argument for His existence. But this iS a rash argument, as we should thus be compelled to believe in the existence of many cruel and malignant spirits, only a little more powerful than man; for the belief in them is far more general than in a beneficent Deity. The idea of a universal and beneficent Creator does not seem to arise in the mind of man, until he has been elevated by long-continued culture....

Sexual selection has been treated at great length in this work, for, as I have attempted to shew, it has played an important part in the history of the organic world. I am aware that much remains doubtful, but I have endeavoured to give a fair view of the whole case. In the lower divisions of the animal kingdom, sexual selection seems to have done nothing: such animals are often affixed for life to the same spot, or have the sexes combined in the same individual, or what is still more important, their perceptive and intellectual faculties are not sufficiently advanced to allow of the feelings of love and jealousy, or of the exertion of choice. When, however, we come to the Arthropoda and Vertebrata, even to the lowest classes in these two great Sub-Kingdoms, sexual selection has effected much....

Sexual selection depends on the success of certain individuals over others of the same sex, in relation to the propagation of the species; whilst natural selection depends on the success of both sexes, at all ages, in relation to the general conditions of life. The sexual struggle is of two kinds; in the one it is between the individuals of the same sex, generally the males, in order to drive away or kill their rivals, the females remaining passive; whilst in the other, the struggle is likewise between the individuals of the same sex, in order to excite or charm those of the opposite sex, generally the females, which no longer remain passive, but select the more agreeable partners....

The main conclusion arrived at in this work, namely that man is descended from some lowly organised form, will, I regret to think, be highly distasteful to many. But there can hardly be a doubt that we are descended from barbarians. The astonishment which I felt on first seeing a party of Fuegians on a wild and broken shore will never be forgotten by me,< for the reflection at once rushed into my mind - such were our ancestors. These men were absolutely naked and bedaubed with paint, their long hair was tangled, their mouths frothed with excitement, and their expression was wild, startled, and distrustful. They possessed hardly any arts, and like wild animals lived on what they could catch; they had no government, and were merciless to every one not of their own small tribe. He who has seen a savage in his native land will not feel much shame, if forced to acknowledge that the blood of some more humble creature flows in his veins.

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Fiction Movies Links

Charles Dickens:

- Oliver Twist: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvl5Zl99YQk

- David Copperfield: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d40l3f_LX7Q

Charlotte Brontë :

- Jane Eyre: http://megashare.info/watch-jane-eyre-online-TXpJMk5nPT0

Emily Brontë

-Wuthering Heights: http://putlocker.bz/watch-wuthering-heights-2009-online-free-

putlocker.html

Oscar Wilde:

- Dorian Gray: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFJThpsLa4w

Thomas Hardy:

- Tess of the D'urbervilles: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NwEjOOdqGH0

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Most used Victorian questions:

-What Are the Main Characteristics of Poetry in the Victorian Age?

-When did the Victorian age begin and end ? Is it politics or literature, or both, that define it ?

-Why is Charles Darwin important for the age? How important is his work in evolution?

-What are the most important themes in fiction of this age?

-Tennyson succeeded Wordsworth as Poet Laureate in 1850. Why?

-How does the rise of science affect religion (faith) in this age?

-What is the role of poetry in the new age, according to Matthew Arnold ( in his The Study of Poetry) ?

-How does Tennyson convey Mariana’s despair in his poem Mariana ?

- Is Wuthering Heights a novel about love? If so, what kind ? If not, what is its primary theme?

- How does the loom represent in Silas Marner, and indeed for the title character himself ?

-What is the theme of Blessed Damozel ? How many voices do we hear in the poem ?

- What is the meaning of concluding part of Dover Beach ?

-What marks off the Victorian age from the previous, the Romantic age, in literature?

-What is a social problem novel? Give examples/names of such novels.

-What kind of society does Oscar Wilde depict in his “The picture of Dorian Gray” ?

-What do Lowood, Moor House, and Thornfield represent ? (in view of literature you have read)

-Compare and contrast the qualities of Thrushcross Grange and Wuthering Heights.

-Discuss the character of Tess. To what extent is she a helpless victim ? When is she strong and when is

she weak?

-Discuss the character of Alec. Is he the villain of the novel? Does he really love Tess?

-Who speaks in the poem “Ulysses”? How does he reveal his identity? What kind of a poem is this?

-How can the separated lovers unite in “The Blessed Damozel” ? What was the cause of their separation

in the first place?

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GOOD LUCK

© Shqiprim Cani, 2014.