Đề cương ôn thi học phần Văn học Anh Mỹ (English and American literature)

ĐẠI HỌC MỞ HÀ NỘI TÀI LIỆU THI KẾT THÚC HỌC PHẦN VĂN HỌC ANH – MỸ (English and American literature) HÀ NỘI, 2022 Lecture 1: English literature from the Anglo-Saxon to the 18th century 1.1 The Anglo-Saxon Period 1.1.1 Historical context 1.1.2 Social and literary context 1.1.3 Beowulf 1.2 The Middle Ages 1.2.1 Historical context 1.2.2 Social and literary context 1.2.3 Geoffrey Chaucer and The Canterbury Tales 1.3 The Renaissance 1.3.1 Historical context 1.3.2 Social and literary context 1.3.3 William Shakespeare 1.3.3.1 Life and works 1.3.3.2 Hamlet 1.3.3.3 Romeo and Juliet 1.3.5.4 Other works 1.4 The 18th century literature 1.4.1 Historical context 1.4.2 Social and literary context 1.4.3 Daniel Defoe 1.4.4 Jonathan Swift 1.5 Questions and exercises Lecture 2: The 19th century English Literature 2.1 The Romanticism 2.1.1 Historical context 2.1.2 Social and literary context 2.1.3 Robert Burns 2.1.4 William Worthworth 2.1.5 Jane Austen 2.2 The Critical Realism 2.2.1 Historical context 2.2.2 Social and literary context 2.2.3 Charles Dickens 2.2.4 The Bronte Sisters 2.2.5 William Makepeace Thackeray 2.3 Questions and exercises Lecture 3: The 20th century English Literature 3.1 Historical context 3.2 Social and literary context 3.3 George Bernard Shaw 3.4 Graham Green 3.3 Questions and Exercises Lecture 4: American Literature 4.1 Historical context 4.2 Social and literary context 4.3 Jack London 4.4 O’Henry 4.5 Earnest Hemingway 4.6 Questions and Exercises Câu hỏi 1: Những điểm đặc biệt, tiêu biểu nên văn học Mỹ History of American Literature OVERVIEW During its early history, America was a series of British colonies on the eastern coast of the present-day United States Therefore, its literary tradition begins as linked to the broader tradition of English literature However, unique American characteristics and the breadth of its production usually now cause it to be considered a separate path and tradition Colonial Literature Some of the earliest forms of American literature were pamphlets and writings extolling the benefits of the colonies to both a European and colonist audience John Smith Captain John Smith could be considered the first American author with his works: A True Relation of Virginia (1608) The revolutionary period also contained Samuel Adams political writings, including those by colonist Samuel Adams Two key figures were Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Paine Franklin's Poor Richard's Almanac and The Benjamin Franklin Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin are esteemed works with their wit and influence toward the formation of a budding American identity Thomas Paine Early U.S Literature In the post-war period, The Federalist essays by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay represented a historical Alexander Hamilton discussion of government organization and republican values Thomas Jefferson's United States Declaration of Independence, his influence on the James Madison Constitution, and the mass of his letters have led to him being considered one of the most talented early American writers John Jay The first American novel is sometimes considered to be William Hill Brown's The Power of Sympathy (1789) Much of the early literature of the new nation struggled Thomas Jefferson to find a uniquely American voice European forms and styles were often transferred to new locales and critics often saw them as inferior W.H Brown Unique American Style With the War of 1812 and an increasing desire to produce uniquely American work, a number of key new literary figures appeared, perhaps most prominently Washington Irving Washington Irving, James Fenimore Cooper, and Edgar Allan Poe Irving, often considered the first writer to develop a unique American style (although James Fenimore this is debated) wrote humorous works Cooper in Salmagundi and the well-known satire A History of New York, by Diedrich Edgar Allan Poe Knickerbocker (1809) Antitranscendental works from Melville (Moby-Dick), Hawthorne (Scarlet Letter), and Poe (The Fall of the House of Usher) all comprise the Dark Romanticism subgenre of Hawthorne literature popular during this time American 19th Century Poetry America's two greatest 19th-century poets could hardly have been more different in temperament and style Walt Whitman (1819-1892) was a working man, a traveler, a selfappointed nurse during the American Civil War (18611865), and a poetic innovator His magnum opus was Leaves of Grass, in which he uses a free-flowing verse and lines of irregular length to depict the all-inclusiveness of American democracy Taking that motif one step further, the poet equates the vast range of American experience with himself without being egotistical Emily Dickinson (1830-1886), on the other hand, lived the sheltered life of a genteel unmarried woman in small-town Amherst, Massachusetts Within its formal structure, her poetry is ingenious, witty, exquisitely wrought, and psychologically penetrating Her work was unconventional for its day, and little of it was published during her lifetime Many of her poems dwell on death, often with a mischievous twist Walt Whitman Emily Dickinson Realism Mark Twain (the pen name of Samuel Langhorne Clemens, 1835-1910) was the first major American writer to be born away from the East Coast in the border state of Missouri His regional masterpieces were the memoir Life on the Mississippi and the novel Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Twain's style changed the way Americans write their language His characters speak like real people and sound distinctively American, using local dialects, newly invented words, and regional accents Henry James (18431916) confronted the Old WorldNew World dilemma by writing directly about it Among his more accessible works are the novellas Daisy Miller, about an enchanting American girl in Europe, and The Turn of the Screw, an enigmatic ghost story Mark Twain Henry James Turn of the Century At the beginning of the 20th century, American novelists were expanding fiction's social spectrum to encompass both high and low life and sometimes connected to the naturalist school of realism More directly political writings discussed social issues and power of corporations Some like Edward Bellamy in Looking Backward outlined other possible political and social frameworks Upton Sinclair, most famous for his meat-packing novel The Jungle, advocated socialism Henry Adams' literate autobiography, The Education of Henry Adams also depicted a stinging description of the education system and modern life Experimentation in style and form soon joined the new freedom in subject matter Edward Bellamy Upton Sinclair Henry Adams Turn of the Century American writers also expressed the disillusionment following upon the war The stories and novels of F Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940) capture the restless, pleasure-hungry, defiant mood of the 1920s Fitzgerald's characteristic theme, expressed poignantly in The Great Gatsby, is the tendency of youth's golden dreams to dissolve in failure and disappointment Depression era literature was blunt and direct in its social criticism John Steinbeck (1902-1968) His style was simple and evocative, winning him the favor of the readers but not of the critics The Grapes of Wrath, considered his masterpiece, is a strong, socially-oriented novel that tells the story of the Joads, a poor family from Oklahoma and their journey to California in search of a better life Scott Fritzgerald John Steinbeck Post-World War II The period in time from the end of World War II up until, roughly, the late 1960s and early 1970s saw to the publication of some of the most popular works in American history The poetry and fiction of the "Beat Generation," largely born of a circle of intellects formed in New York City around Columbia University and established more officially some time later in San Francisco, came of age The term, Beat, referred, all at the same time, to the countercultural rhythm of the Jazz scene, to a sense of rebellion regarding the conservative stress of post-war society, and to an interest in new forms of spiritual experience through drugs, alcohol, philosophy, and religion, and specifically through Zen Buddhism Regarding the war novel specifically, there was a literary explosion in America during the post-World War II era Some of the most well known of the works produced included Norman Mailer's The Naked and the Dead (1948) Norman Mailer Câu 2: Điểm bật văn học Anh kỷ 20 Twentieth Century English Literature In the seventies of the 19th century most writers on social problems believed that science and science alone would finally sweep away all human misery and bring civilization to all Men of science were greatly admired They were invited to speak in public halls and express their opinions on all kinds of subjects Many of these scientists believed in positivism, and spread their demagogic ideas among the people But during the last decades of the 19th century doubts began to arise as to the faultless nature of European civilization People had awakened to the fact that scientific progress was increasing the wealth of the upper classes only They began to see that some human beings were born to riches for which they had not worked, while the majority was born to poverty from which there was no escape Philanthropy, never having been able to prevent poverty, now became a laughing stock Disillusionment led to pessimism and found its expression in a very pessimistic literature, the literature of the Decadence So the phrase “the End of the Century” meant not only the turn of the century: It also meant that a certain change had occurred in the more clearly-thinking minds It was the End of the Century that created writers who were interested in human society as a whole (Shaw, Galsworthy), and a new type of writer who was preoccupied with the future of mankind (Wells) The spirit of the time lasted till the First World War of 1914-1918 Some historical facts It was in the last decades of the century that new trade-unions sprang up, which workers, regardless of their qualifications, could join; even unskilled factory-hands were accepted It was now easier for the workers to help one another during strikes The trade-union officials were no longer representatives of the bourgeois liberal party: the leaders were real workers, such as Tom Mann, who later founded the British Communist Party The growing class-consciousness of the workers threw the upper class into a panic of fear In 1883 a group of independent socialists organized the Fabian Society These Socialists came from the middle class, but they wanted to improve the economic situation of the common people Many progressive-minded writers, such as Bernard Shaw, Herbert Wells and some Marxists, belonged at various times to the Fabian Society The Fabians thought that the fut~ depended on a careful scientific organization of society, which they hoped would lead the country to state capitalism They refused to recognize the ,class struggle as necessary for social progress English Fabian Socialism never became part of the actual workers' movement The activities of these Socialists are interesting, howeyer, from a 'historical point of view They investigated different systems of labour and made a thorough examination of the housing conditions in working-class districts, particularly in the East End of London with its factories and docks, which was the poorest part of the city Among the social investigators who began to walk the slums were young women from cultured families The diaries they left give a complete picture of how the workers lived Here are some of the notes The houses looked ready to fall, many of them out of the perpendicular Entire families were crowded into one room Most of the doors stood open all day as well as all night, and the passages and stairs sheltered many who were altogether homeless Here a mother would stand with her baby of'sit with it on the stairs, or companions would huddle together in cold weather Everywhere there was drunkenness, dirt and bad language Gambling was the chief amusement of the young men, and fights in the streets were common, ending at times even in murder Only a small number of dock workers had permanent work; the majority were casuals employed for one job only The casuals would walk to the docks early in the morning and wait at the entrances to the various wharves hoping for the chance that a foreman might need someone Whenever it happened that an extra man was wanted for some work on the wharf, there would be brutal fighting and struggle at the gates The houses looked ready to fall, many of them out of the perpendicular Entire families were crowded into one room Most of the doors stood open all day as well as all night, and the passages and stairs sheltered many who were altogether homeless Here a mother would stand with her baby of'sit with it on the stairs, or companions would huddle together in cold weather Everywhere there was drunkenness, dirt and bad language Gambling was the chief amusement of the young men, and fights in the streets were common, ending at times even in murder Only a small number of dock workers had permanent work; the majority were casuals employed for one job only The casuals would walk to the docks early in the morning and wait at the entrances to the various wharves hoping for the chance that a foreman might need someone Whenever it happened that an extra man was wanted for some work on the wharf, there would be brutal fighting and struggle at the gates The workers who had permanent work stood on a higher social level On Sundays they would crowd into the parks and listen to various speakers Here an atheist would stand on a soap-box and explain that if there be a God he must be a monster to permit such misery as unemployment' Back to back with the atheist, facing another crowd, would be a man from a Christian association who would explain unemployment as God's punishment of unbelievers In the summer of 1889 a great dock strike broke out in London led by Tom Mann and other workers' leaders Meanwhile the British imperialists were fighting for colonial expansion and preparing for the Boer War in South Africa The name of Joseph Chamberlain appeared in the newspapers With a view to getting the support of the nation for his colonial policy, he said in his speeches that he was against individualism, he was for a united British Empire working collectively together Collectivism was a nice word to draw the attention of the masses away from class struggle He appealed to their 'pride of country', boasting that Britain was the richest country in the world and that every man would be sure of a good living if he and his fellow workers fought for the good of the Empire The idea that the British race was superior to all others was flattering, especially to the bourgeoisie It meant that they were supermen The imperialists came to power in 1895 Four Fars later the Boer War broke out Câu 3: Tìm hiểu thơng tin nhà văn William Shakespeare William Shakespeare (1564-1616) The great English playwright and poet William Shakespeare was born on April 23, 1564 in the small town of Stratford-uponAvon, about seventy-five miles from London Ile was the son of a tradesman When a boy he went to Stratford Grammar School where Latin and Greek were almost the only subjects Life itself, William Shakespeare contact with people and his acquaintance with the rich English (1564-1616) folklore gave him more than the scholastic methods used at school In those days Stratford-upon-Avon was often visited by traveling groups of actors It is quite possible that Shakespeare saw some plays performed by such actors and was impressed by them Shakespeare lived in Stratford-upon-Avon until he was twenty-one By that time he was married and had three children At twenty-one he left Stratford-upon-Avon for London where he joined a theatrical company and worked as an actor and a playwright In the late 90s a new theatre called The Globe was built on the bank of the Thames Shakespeare became one of its owners The people of the London liked it better than any other theatre It was in The Globe that most of Shakespeare's plays were staged at that time In 1613, Shakespeare left London and returned to his native town of Stratford-upon-Avon Three years later, on April 23, 1616, he died and was buried there Shakespeare is the author of poems, 37 plays and 154 sonnets His creative work is usually divided into three periods The first period that lasted from 1590 to 1600 was marked by the optimism so characteristic of all humanist literature It is best reflected in his brilliant comedies: The Comedies of Errors (1592), The Taming of the Shrew (1593), The Two Gentlemen of Verona (1594), Love’s Labor’s Lost (1594), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1595), Much Ado About Nothing (1598), The Merry Wives of Windsor (1599), As You Like It (1599), Twelfth Night; Or, What You Will (1600) The comedies describe the adventures of young men and women, their friendship and love, their search for happiness The scene is usually laid in some southern countries But one cannot help feeling that the comedies show the “Merry England” of Shakespeare’s time The comedies are usually based on some misunderstanding that creates comic situations They are full of fun But the laughter is not a mockery directed against the people and their vices Shakespeare never moralizes in his comedies He laughs with people, but not at them His comedies are filled with humanist love for people and the belief in the nobleness and kindness of human nature The historical chronicles form another group of plays written by Shakespeare in the first period They are: King Henry VI (part II) (1590), King Henry VI (part III) (1590), King Henry VI (part I) (1591), The Tragedy of King Richard II (1592), The Tragedy of King Richard II (1595), The Life and Death of King John (1596), King Henry IV (part I) (1597), King Henry IV (part II) (1597), The Life of King Henry V (1598) Historical Chronicles are plays written on subjects from national history Shakespeare’s chronicles cover a period of more than three hundred years of English history (from the rule of King John in the 12 th century up to the 16th century) However, the main subjects of the chronicles are not the lives and fates of Kings but history itself and the development of the country Like all humanists of his time Shakespeare believed a centralized monarchy to be an ideal form of state power He thought it would put an end to the struggle of feudal and would create conditions for the progress of the country One of the great achievements of Shakespeare was that in his chronicles he showed not only the kings, feudal, and churchmen, but the lower classes too The drama The Merchant of Venice and the two early tragedies Romeo and Juliet and Julius Caesar, also written in the 90s, show a change in the playwright's understanding of life, whose approach to reality becomes more pessimistic The main works written by Shakespeare during the second period (1601-1608) are his four great tragedies: Hamlet, Prince of Denmark (1601), Othello, the Moor of Venice (1604), King Lear (1605), Macbeth (1605) The tragedies reflect the deep, unsolvable contradictions of life, the falsehood, injustice and tyranny existing in society They show people whoperish in the struggle against Evil The tragedies, like the chronicles, are also based on real events but there is a considerable difference between the two genres The playwright raised great problems of Good and Evil in both But in the chronicles they are mostly linked with political themes-the question of the state and public life of the period described In the tragedies which are centered round the life of one man Shakespeare touched on the moral problems of universal significance - honesty, cruelty, kindness, love, vanity and others That is why his tragedies are of great interest to every new generation The plays of the third period (1609 - 1612) differ from everything written by Shakespeare before The playwright still touches upon important social and moral problems But now he suggests utopian solution to them He introduces romantic and fantastic elements, which have a decisive role in his plays Due to these peculiarities the works of this period - Cymbeline (1609), The Winter's Tale (1610) and The Tempest (1612) are called romantic dramas Anglo-Saxon literature Bởi ThS Nguyễn Thế Hóa - Thứ sáu, 3/09/2021, 5:05 PM Anglo-Saxon literature (or Old English literature) encompasses literature written in Anglo-Saxon (Old English) during the 600-year Anglo-Saxon period of Britain, from the mid-5th century to the Norman Conquest of 1066 These works include genres such as epic poetry, hagiography, sermons, Bible translations, legal works, chronicles, riddles, and others In all there are about 400 surviving manuscripts from the period, a significant corpus of both popular interest and specialist research Some of the most important works from this period include the poem Beowulf, which has achieved national epic status in Britain The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle is a collection of early English history The poem Cædmon's Hymn from the 7th century is one of the oldest surviving written texts in English Anglo-Saxon literature has gone through different periods of research—in the 19th and early 20th centuries the focus was on the Germanic roots of English, later the literary merits were examined, and today the interest is withpaleography questions and the physical manuscripts themselves such as dating, place of origin, authorship, and looking at the connections between Anglo-Saxon culture and the rest of Europe in the Middle Ages Overview History of England Prehistoric Britain Roman Britain Anglo-Saxon England (before AD 43) ( 43– 410) (ca 410– 1066) Anglo-Normans ( 1066– 1154) Plantagenets ( 1154– 1485) House of Lancaster ( 1399– 1471) House of York ( 1461– 1485) House of Tudor ( 1485– 1603) House of Stuart ( 1603– 1714) United Kingdom (after 1707) A large number of manuscripts remain from the 600 year Anglo-Saxon period, with most written during the last 300 years (9th–11th century), in both Latin and the vernacular Old English literature is among the oldest vernacular languages to be written down Old English began, in written form, as a practical necessity in the aftermath of the Danish invasions—church officials were concerned that because of the drop in Latin literacy no one could read their work Likewise King Alfred the Great ( 849– 899), wanting to restore English culture, lamented the poor state of Latin education: "So general was [educational] decay in England that there were very few on this side of the Humber who could translate a letter from Latin into English; and I believe there were not many beyond the Humber" ( Pastoral Care, introduction) King Alfred noted that while very few could read Latin, many could still read Old English He thus proposed that students be educated in Old English, and those who excelled would go on to learn Latin In this way many of the texts that have survived are typical teaching and student-oriented texts In total there are about 400 surviving manuscripts containing Old English text, 189 of them considered major These manuscripts have been highly prized by collectors since the 16th century, both for their historic value and for their aesthetic beauty of uniformly spaced letters and decorative elements Not all of the texts can be fairly called literature, such as lists of names or aborted pen trials However those that can present a sizable body of work, listed here in descending order of quantity: sermons and saints' lives (the most numerous), biblical translations; translated Latin works of the early Church Fathers; Anglo-Saxon chronicles and narrative history works; laws, wills and other legal works; practical works on grammar, medicine, geography; lastly, but not least important, poetry Nearly all Anglo-Saxon authors are anonymous, with some exceptions Research in the 20th century has focused on dating the manuscripts (19th-century scholars tended to date them older than modern scholarship has found); locating where the manuscripts were created—there were seven major scriptoria from which they originate: Winchester, Exeter, Worcester, Abingdon, Durham, and two Canterbury houses Christ Church and St Augustine; and identifying the regional dialects used: Northumbrian, Mercian, Kentish, West Saxon (the latter being the main dialect) Old English Poetry In this illustration from page 46 of the Caedmon (or Junius) manuscript, an angel is shown guarding the gates of paradise Old English poetry is of two types, the heroic Germanic pre-Christian and the Christian It has survived for the most part in four manuscripts The first manuscript is called the Junius manuscript (also known as the Caedmon manuscript), which is an illustrated poetic anthology The second manuscript is called the Exeter Book, also an anthology, located in the Exeter Cathedral since it was donated there in the 11th century The third manuscript is called the Vercelli Book, a mix of poetry and prose; how it came to be in Vercelli, Italy, no one knows, and is a matter of debate The fourth manuscript is called the Nowell Codex, also a mixture of poetry and prose Old English poetry had no known rules or system left to us by the Anglo-Saxons, everything we know about it is based on modern analysis The first widely accepted theory was by Eduard Sievers (1885) in which he distinguished five distinct alliterative patterns The theory of John C Pope (1942) uses musical notations which has had some acceptance; every few years a new theory arises and the topic continues to be hotly debated The most popular and well known understanding of Old English poetry continues to be Sievers' alliterative verse The system is based upon accent, alliteration, the quantity of vowels, and patterns of syllabic accentuation It consists of five permutations on a base verse scheme; any one of the five types can be used in any verse The system was inherited from and exists in one form or another in all of the olderGermanic languages Two poetic figures commonly found in Old English poetry are the Kenning, an often formulaic phrase that describes one thing in terms of another, e.g in Beowulf, the sea is called the swan's road and Litotes, a dramatic understatement employed by the author for ironic effect Old English poetry was an oral craft, and our understanding of it in written form is incomplete; for example, we know that the poet (referred to as the Scop) could be accompanied by a harp, and there may be other aural traditions we are not aware of Poetry represents the smallest amount of the surviving Old English text, but Anglo-Saxon culture had a rich tradition of oral story telling, just not much was written down or survived The poets Most Old English poets are anonymous; twelve are known by name from Medieval sources, but only four of those are known by their vernacular works to us today with any certainty: Caedmon, Bede, Alfred, and Cynewulf Of these, only Caedmon, Bede, and Alfred have known biographies Caedmon is the best-known and considered the father of Old English poetry He lived at the abbey of Whitby in Northumbria in the 7th century Only a single nine line poem remains, called Hymn, which is also the oldest surviving text in English: Now let us praise the Guardian of the Kingdom of Heaven the might of the Creator and the thought of his mind, the work of the glorious Father, how He, the eternal Lord established the beginning of every wonder For the sons of men, He, the Holy Creator first made heaven as a roof, then the Keeper of mankind, the eternal Lord God Almighty afterwards made the middle world the earth, for men (Caedmon, Hymn, Leningrad manuscript) Aldhelm, bishop of Sherborne (d 709), is known through William of Malmesbury who said he performed secular songs while accompanied by a harp Much of his Latin prose has survived, but none of his Old English remains Cynewulf has proven to be a difficult figure to identify, but recent research suggests he was from the early part of the 9th century to which a number of poems are attributed including The Fates of the Apostles and Elene (both found in the Vercelli Book), and Christ II andJuliana (both found in the Exeter Book) Heroic poems First page of Beowulf, contained in the damaged Nowell Codex The Old English poetry which has received the most attention deals with the Germanic heroic past The longest (3,182 lines), and most important, is Beowulf, which appears in the damaged Nowell Codex It tells the story of the legendary Geatish hero Beowulf who is the title character The story is set in Scandinavia, in Sweden and Denmark, and the tale likewise probably is of Scandinavian origin The story is biographical and sets the tone for much of the rest of Old English poetry It has achieved national epic status, on the same level as the Iliad, and is of interest to historians, anthropologists, literary critics, and students the world over Beyond Beowulf, other heroic poems exist Two heroic poems have survived in fragments: The Fight at Finnsburh, a retelling of one of the battle scenes in Beowulf (although this relation to Beowulf is much debated), andWaldere, a version of the events of the life of Walter of Aquitaine Two other poems mention heroic figures: Widsith is believed to be very old in parts, dating back to events in the 4th century concerning Eormanric and theGoths, and contains a catalogue of names and places associated with valiant deeds Deor is a lyric, in the style of Consolation of Philosophy, applying examples of famous heroes, including Weland and Eormanric, to the narrator's own case The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle contains various heroic poems inserted throughout The earliest from 937 is called The Battle of Brunanburh, which celebrates the victory of King Athelstan over the Scots and Norse There are five shorter poems: capture of the Five Boroughs (942); coronation of King Edgar (973); death of King Edgar (975); death of Prince Alfred (1036); and death of King Edward the Confessor (1065) The 325 line poem Battle of Maldon celebrates Earl Byrhtnoth and his men who fell in battle against the Vikings in 991 It is considered one of the finest, but both the beginning and end are missing and the only manuscript was destroyed in a fire in 1731 A well known speech is near the end of the poem: Thought shall be the harder, the heart the keener, courage the greater, as our strength lessens Here lies our leader all cut down, the valiant man in the dust; always may he mourn who now things to turn away from this warplay I am old, I will not go away, but I plan to lie down by the side of my lord, by the man so dearly loved (Battle of Maldon) Old English heroic poetry was handed down orally from generation to generation As Christianity began to appear, retellers often recast the tales of Christianity into the older heroic stories Wisdom poetry Related to the heroic tales are a number of short poems from the Exeter Book which have come to be described as "Wisdom poetry" They are lyrical and Boethian in their description of the up and down fortunes of life Gloomy in mood is The Ruin, which tells of the decay of a once glorious city of Roman Britain (Britain fell into decline after the Romans departed in the early 5th c.), and The Wanderer, in which an older man talks about an attack that happened in his youth, where his close friends and kin were all killed; memories of the slaughter have remained with him all his life He questions the wisdom of the impetuous decision to engage a possibly superior fighting force: the wise man engages in warfare to preserve civil society, and must not rush into battle but seek out allies when the odds may be against him This poet finds little glory in bravery for bravery's sake The Seafarer is the story of a somber exile from home on the sea, from which the only hope of redemption is the joy of heaven Other wisdom poems include Wulf and Eadwacer, The Wife's Lament, and The Husband's Message King Alfred the Great wrote a wisdom poem over the course of his reign based loosely on the neoplatonic philosophy of Boethius called the Lays of Boethius Grey (1847) by Anne Bronte is a story of a rector’s daughter who takes service as a governess, first with the Bloomfield family, whose undisciplined children are described as ‘tiger’ and then with the Murrays, where the conduct of her eldest charge, Rosalie, a heartless coquette, is contrasted with her own modest and gentle behaviour Rosalie marries ambitiously and unhappily, but Agnes is happily united with Mr Weston, the curate, the only one to have shown kindness in her days of servitude Other novelists included Mrs Gaskell (1819-1865) and George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans 1819-1880).The religious and social problems of England found a passionate exponent in Mrs Elizabeth Gaskell (Elizabeth Cleghorn Stevenson), the wife of a Unitarian clergyman in Manchester Her life brought her into contact with the industrial and social difficulties growing out of the struggle between master and workman; and these she treated with great skill in Mary Barton (1848) and in North and South (1855) Mary Barton is a painfully vivid picture of conditions among the working class during the economic depression which gave the decade the name of the ‘hungry forties’ The novel shows deep feeling for the poor people employed at this time in factories The book is notable for its realistic depiction of the wretchedness and poverty of the laboring class and its vigorous animus against the factory-owners and industrialists North and South is a study of the different lives led by English people, especially the poor in the north and the happier ones in the south The plot centers round Margaret Hale, a gentle girl from the south, who goes north and meets the problems of angry crowds of poor workpeople In Cranford (1853), her best – known book, she entered a different field, that of realistic observation for its own sake Cranford is a series of carefully etched portraits and sketches of English village life The life of the village, where the ladies of good family are poor, is described with immense skill The novel is justly famous for the picture it gives of gentlefolk in a sleepy Cheshire town in the early part of the century The intellectual and moral life of middle Victorian era is revealed more fully in the works of Mary Ann Evans, or George Eliot (1819-1880).She was born in 1819 and grew up in the years when, under the influence of scientific speculation, the English mind was casting loose from it theological searching She was for a time assistant editor of the Westminster Review, the organ of the freethinkers; and in this position she met John Stuart Mill, Herbert Spencer, G.H Lewes, and other liberals Her irregular union with Lewes and her renunciation of formal Christianity were the important events of her life, for they imposed upon her the responsibility of counteracting the view held by many that freedom of thought was naturally accompanied by moral laxity They strengthened her already powerful ethical impulse In 1857 she wrote: “If I live five years longer, the positive result of my existence on the side of truth and goodness will far outweigh the small negative good that would have consisted in my not doing anything to shock others Before this she had begun to experiment with fiction, her first story ‘The Sad Fortunes of the Reverend Amos Barton” appeared in Blackwood’s Magzine in 1856 She added to this story two others of moderate length and republished all three as Scenes from Clerical Life The next year she published her first novel, Adam Bede, and it was evident that a new writer and a great one had appeared Her next story, The Mill on the Floss (1860), turns on the refusal of her heroine to break the social law for the sake of her own happiness The novels of George Eliot were realistic, but she was more than an observer; she was also a scientist and a moralist She was not content to picture human life as it appears She tried to pierce behind the shows of things, and to reveal the forces by which they are controlled Accordingly she analyzes her characters In the case of the simple types this analysis takes the form of comment, rapid, incisive and convincing In the case of the more conscious, developed characters, her analysis is more elaborate and more sustained For her heroines Eliot drew largely upon her own spiritual experience, and this personal psychology she supplemented by wide reading, especially in the literature of confessions In this way she gained an extraordinary vividness in portraying the inner life Her most characteristic passages are those in which she follows the ebb and flow of decision in a character’s mind, dwelling on the triumph or defeat of a personality in a drama where there is but one actor It is to be noted that George Eliot never lets her case drop with the individual analysis She always strives to make her case typical, to show that the personal action and the results for both the individual and society accord with general laws Her chief function as a writer is the interpretation of the world in terms of morality She does not deal with party question, nor primarily with industrial or social problems Her ethical motive is a broader one than the emancipation of thought or the formulation of a political program It is to show how, in obedience to law, character grows or decays; how a single fault or flaw brings suffering and death and throws a world into ruin; how on the other hand, there is a making perfect through suffering, a regeneration through sin itself, a hope for the world through the renunciation and self-sacrifice of the individual In the history of fiction the last generation of the 19th.century can be distinguished from the first two generations by the comparatively small number of first – rate novelists it produced and by the virtual abandonment by such novelists of the types – the historical novel, the novel of manners, and the social novel – that, alone or in combination, had been popular since the opening of the century Such novelists as Meredith, Hardy, and James developed complex forms of prose – fiction by skillfully fusing elements earlier novelists had left distinct Thus, in Meredith and James elements from the novel of manners are combined imperceptibly with searching studies in psychology and morals, and in Hardy romantic elements from the regional novel and fused with a variety of philosophic pessimism In consequence, the English novel in the third generation of the century attained heights of conscious artistry earlier novelists had rarely achieved We turn now to the poetry of the age Alfred Tennyson (1809-1892), who later was made Lord Tennyson for his contribution to lit, sums up many of the preoccupations of the period in work which is thoroughly Romantic Romantic, however, with a difference, for Tennyson brings to his sensuous verse a care, a deliberate contrivance of effect, which suggests Pope more than Keats His music is distinctive, but its flow is by no means ‘artless’ – nothing is left to chance The first works are ‘irresponsible’, delighting in the world of the senses, but the sense of Victorian responsibility is not long in coming, and moral problems begin to rude The Palace of art teaches that beauty must be shared almost suggesting the substitution of art galleries and public libraries for the aristocratic gloating over personal treasures Tennyson is an optimist Some of his visions, as in Locksley Hall, are of a happy, liberal future and even ‘the Parliament of man, the Federation of the World’ As a technician, he is unsurpassed and the skill with which he manages the simple stanza of the long In Memoriam – immense variety, no monotony – is superb Robert Browning (1812-1889) approaches, in his language and imagery, the poetry of our own time Both are, to some extent, anti-romantic: there are railway – trains, cigars, grand pianos, ‘scrofulous French novels’ and trousers; language is often colloquial and even slangy There is a lot humor (rarely found in the romantics) and a kind of self-mockery in the grotesque rhymes that Browning sometimes uses He also suggests the modern poets in his obscurity, but his obscurity does not derive from complexity of thought; it comes from impatience with language and a deliberate desire to dazzle the reader – Browning’s vocabulary is large and his fondness for little-known words proverbial his early Sordello is so difficult that, of one of the lines, he himself said, ‘when I wrote that only God and Robert Browning knew what it meant; now God only knows’ Elizabeth Browning (1819-1861) was, in her day, thought to be superior as a poet to her husband her Aurora Leigh, a blank –verse novel, was hailed as the greatest thing since Shakespeare, but, though it is readable, we cannot now find many marks of greatness in it Her lyrics- especially the Sonnets from the Portuguese – are pretty, displaying a woman’s passion which seems feeble in comparison with Emily Bronte’s and technically little more than competent he End of Victorianism: socialistic literature, realism, naturalism, neo-romanticism and the Aesthetic Movement Bởi ThS Nguyễn Thế Hóa - Thứ năm, 30/09/2021, 10:27 PM English realists of 19 c used humor and satire that gave them possibility to deepen the realistic features of their novels Very often satire was accompanied with tragic overtones The main purpose for writers was realism, socially sharp, critical directed, epical in content Satire was the main means for writing about life contradictions For the realists of 19th c was not so important the main overtones of novel – comic or tragic, they pursued their main goal – to realistic description of reality The writers of the end of 19th c were oriented on dramatic genres Jorge Meredith published his novel “Egoist” with subtitle “narrative comedy’; Joseph Conrad gave a meaning to his novels as tragic; Thomas Hardy compared his novels with Sophocles; Jorge Moore used in his articles the term ‘tragic novel’ and ‘dramatic novel’ The changing literary tastes were reflected in the valuation of novelist’s classics At the end of century realism contradicted to decadence permeated by pessimism, irrationalism and mysticism Also we have to study the literature of imperialism and neo-romanticism, socialistic literature At the end of 19th century the movement of working class developed since the events of Paris Commune in France and well-spreading of socialistic ideas in England There is one movement in the History of English Literature named the literature of socialistic movement The ideas of socialism reached literature circles and as the result, several books of this movement got their popularity Among the prominent authors of socialistic movement were William Morris, Ethel Lillian Voynich and Robert Tressol Thomas Hardy (1840-1928) achieved a reputation both as novelist and as poet, although most of his poems were not given to the world until after his career as a novelist had ended His wider reputation began, with Tess of the D’Urbervilles (1891) and was established by Jude the Obscure (1896) After that time he devoted himself to poetry, writing a very large number of lyrics and ballads and a long poem in dramatic form The Dynasts 19031908, in which he develops themes of the great world struggle centering about Napoleon Hardy began to write novels when George Eliot was at her height of her fame, and her influence is clearly to be seen in his work Like her he is a psychologist and a bold realist, indeed, in his realism, he had also before him the examples of the French naturalists, Zola and Maupassant Thomas Hardy attempted in his novels to comment on the macrocosm of the human race through an intense study of a microcosm well known to him, the rural society of nineteenth-century 'Wessex', named after the ancient kingdom of Alfred the Great In his novels nature plays an important part; indeed Nature is herself a character Mostly his novel’s scenes are set among trees, farms, fields, and low hills He thought that the moral principles of human life were best preserved in the country It was the reason of confrontation in his novels the morally pure country with dirty immorality of city The writer always defended rural England as the base of national culture, patriarchal traditions which slowly disappeared with the further development of capitalism Hardy disliked bourgeois progress and often gave sharp, satiric criticism to capitalism His critical approach often was intervolved with pessimistic and fatal moods which were sprang along with the collapse of illusions National character of Hardy’s masterpieces was in deep description of tragedy which fell down on the shoulders of people living in rural areas The clash of capitalism and countryside was the main theme of Hardy’s novels The environment for Hardy played an important role Hardy studied how a character was governed by Environment and verse visa That is why his first novels were grouped in Novels of Character and Environment" Naturalism is a mode of fiction that was developed by a school of writers in accordance with a particular philosophical thesis This thesis, a product of the evolution theory of Charles Darwin, held that a human being exists entirely in the order of nature and does not have a soul nor any mode of participating in a religious or spiritual world beyond the natural world, and therefore, that such a being is merely a higher-order animal whose character and behavior are entirely determined by two kinds of forces, heredity and environment A person inherits compulsive instincts- especially hunger, the drive to accumulate possessions, and sexuality – and is then subject to the social and economic forces in the family, the class, and the milieu into which that person is born Thus, naturalists believed that one's heredity and surroundings decide one's character Whereas realism seeks only to describe subjects as they really are, naturalism also attempts to determine "scientifically" the underlying forces (i.e the environment or heredity) influencing these subjects' actions They are both opposed to romanticism, in which subjects may receive highly symbolic, idealistic, or even supernatural treatment Naturalistic works often include awkward or pitiable subject matter The main proponent of naturalism in fiction was Emile Zola, who wrote a treatise on the subject ("Le roman experimental") and employed the style in his many novels Naturalistic works exposed the dark harshness of life, including poverty, racism, prejudice, disease, prostitution, filth, etc They were often very pessimistic and frequently criticized for being too blunt Aspects of the naturalistic mode in selection and management of subject matter and its harsh manner of rendering its materials are apparent in many novels and dramas, such as Hardy’s Jude the Obscure, various plays by Eugene O’Neill in 1920, in naturalistic novel of Emile Zola’s, for example Nana, 1880 and in Theodore Dreiser’s An American Tragedy, 1925 In English literature the representatives of Naturalistic mode were George Gissing (1857-1903), George Moore (1852-1933), Arthur Morrison (1863-1945) Gissing's fiction is broadly naturalistic and anti-romantic in taste and exclusively urban in setting His early novels are set among the London slums and deal with the life there in remorseless and penetrating, but not very sympathetic, detail: the best of these is The Nether World (1889), a masterpiece of minute, unsentimental observation of conditions at the bottom of the social pyramid Other novels, of which the most characteristic is The Unclassed (1884) and the best New Grub Street (1891), deal with a special class of characters which Gissing made peculiarly his own Sex, class and money the three poles around which all his work revolves The term Neo-romanticism is synonymous with post-Romanticism or late Romanticism This movement embraces the period from about 1880 to about 1910 It is considered a reaction on naturalism The naturalist stresses external observation; the neo-romanticist adds feeling, internal observation Many books of authors from this period tend to be philosophical and historical The artists in this period drew their inspiration from artists of the age of romanticism Important characteristics: longing for perfect love, imaginary paradise, death, history In novel, the early leader in the revival of romantic fiction was Robert Louis Stevenson, who, by the charm of his personality, the elegance of his style, the cheerfulness of his view of life, no less than his gallant and adventurous novels, achieved a remarkable vogue before the close of the 19th.c In the late 19th.c and early 20th.c, the novel exhibited two tendencies, each of which in some measure represents a reaction from Victorianism The first of these tendencies – illustrated by such diverse writers as Stevenson, Kipling, Conrad – was motivated by the desire to restore the spirit of romance to the novel The methods of these writers differed widely, but they were allied in their attempt to escape from the limitations of a drab and stuffy realism by seeking material or modes that would invest their novels with the aura of romance Aestheticism or the Aesthetic Movement, was a European phenomenon during the latter 19th c.that had its chief headquarters in France In opposition to the dominance of scientific thinking, and in challenge to the widespread indifference or hostility of the middle-class society of their time to any art that was not useful or did not teach moral values, French writers developed the view that a work of art is the supreme value among human products precisely because it its self-sufficient and has no use or moral aim outside its own being The end of a work of art is simply to exist in its formal perfection; that is to be beautiful and to be contemplated as an end in itself A motto of A became the phrase – art for art’s sake The views of French Aestheticism were introduced into Victorian England by Walther Parter, with his emphasis on high artifice and stylistic subtlety, his recommendation to crown one’s life with exquisite sensations, and his advocacy of the supreme value of beauty and of ‘the love of art for its own sake’ The artistic and moral views of A were also expressed by Algernon Charles Swinburne and by English writers of the 1890s such as Oscar Wilde, Arthur Symons and Lionel Johnson The influence of ideas stressed in a – especially the view of the ‘autonomy’ (self-sufficiency) of a work of art, the emphasis on craft and artistry and the concept of a poem or novel as an end in itself and as investor with ‘intrinsic’ values – has been important in the writings of prominent 20th c authors such as Yeats, Eliot, Hulme The related developments we can find in Decadance The doctrine of A also supported views and values that developed into a movement called ‘the Decadence’ The term (not regarded by its exponents as derogatory) was based on qualities attributed to the literature of Hellenistic Greece in the last three centuries B.C and to Roman lit after the death of the Emperor Augustus in 14 A.D These literatures were said to possess the high refinement and subtle beauties of a culture and art that have passed their healthy beginning, but manifest a special savor of beginning decay.Such was also held to be the state of European civilization, especially in France, as it approached the end of the 19th.c The second major tendency in the novel is that illustrated by such conspicuous writers as Galsworthy and Wells These writers regarded the novel as a social document, and in some cases as a medium for propaganda, their aim was to represent the life of their time, not only accurately by critically For the social novel a distinguished tradition had been established by such 19th.c writers as George Eliot, Charles Dickens But the novelists of the turn of the century differed from their literary ancestors in the severity of their criticism and the depth of their antipathy to the age in which they had grown up and which they chose to depict On the whole, the social novel won a wider audience in this period and proved a more characteristic form than any of the varieties of romanticism William makepeace Thackeray (1811-1863) part Bởi ThS Nguyễn Thế Hóa - Thứ năm, 30/09/2021, 10:28 PM "Thackeray possesses great tatent Of all the European writers of the present time Dickens alone can be placed on a level with the author of Vanity Fair What a wealth of art, how precise and thorough are his observations, what a knowledge of life, of the human heart, what a bright and noble power of love, what a subtle humour, how precise and distinct are his depictions, how wonderfully charming his narration." Chernyshevsky William Makepeace Thackeray and Charles Dickens were the greatest representatives of Critical Realism in English literature of the 19th century In his novels Thackeray gives a vivid description of the upper classes of society, their mode of life, manners and tastes He shows their pride and tyranny, their hypocrisy, and snobbishness, and their selfishness and general wickedness His knowledge of human nature is broad and his portrayal of it is keenly analytical Thackeray's works lack the gentle humour so typical of Dickens's style His criticism is strong, his satire is sharp and bitter He is a genius in portraying negative characters; his positive characters are less vivid, but all of them are true to life Thackeray used to say that he wished to describe men and women as they really are The picture of life of the ruling classes of England in the 19th century as drawn by Thackeray remains a classical example of social satire up to the present day William Makepeace Thackeray was born in a prosperous middle-class family His father was a well-to-do English official in Calcutta, India When the boy was six years old, he was taken from Calcutta, where he was born, to England to be educated From Charterhouse school he passed on to Cambridge University While a student, William spent much of his time drawing cartoons and writing verses, chiefly parodies He did not stay long at the University, for he could not bear the scholastic atmosphere of the place Besides, his ambition was to become an artist, so he left the University without graduating and went to Germany, Italy and France to study art In Germany Goethe, and this meeting left a deep impression on him Williamakepeace Thackeray (1811-1863) part Bởi ThS Nguyễn Thế Hóa - Thứ năm, 30/09/2021, 10:29 PM William Makepeace Thackeray was born in Calcutta on 18 July 1811 Both his parents were of Anglo-Indian descent, and his father, Richmond Thackeray, was appointed to a lucrative position as Collector of a district near Calcutta soon after William's birth Richmond Thackeray died of a fever in 1815, and his son was sent home to England at five years old to be educated, stopping at St Helena on the way and having a servant point out to him the prisoner Napoleon, who "eats three sheep every day, and all the little children he can lay hands on!" (Ray 1.66) The separation from his mother, who stayed in India to marry her childhood sweetheart, was recalled by Thackeray nearly half a century later "A ghaut, or river-stair, at Calcutta; and a day when, down those steps, to a boat which was in waiting, came two children, whose mothers remained on shore" ( Ray 1.65) and his reunion with her a few years later informs young Henry Esmond's first vision of Lady Castlewood Though Thackeray's recollections of his early years in India were scanty, the culture of Anglo-Indians figures prominently in a number of his works, includingThe Tremendous Adventures of Major Goliah Gahagan, Vanity Fair, and The Newcomes Thackeray was given the "education of a gentleman" at private boarding schools (so-called "public schools"), including six years at Charterhouse, and the canings and other abuses he suffered in these institutions became the basis for remembrances in essays, such as The Roundabout Papers, as well as episodes in novels (Vanity Fair and The Newcomes, again, offer important examples) He also recalled the dryasdust lessons in the classical languages he was forced to learn and their deleterious effect on his feelings for classical literature, along with the grateful escapes he made to the popular fictions of the day, works such as Scott's Heart of Midlothian or Pierce Egan's Life in London He was not a standout as a student, but he went on to Cambridge, where he entered Trinity College in 1819 His tutor was William Whewell (philosopher of natural science, nowadays of interest for his theory of discovery), but Thackeray saw little of the inaccessible don, preferring to spend his time at wine parties Thanks to such amusements, his own inability to excel at mathematics, the poor preparation he had received at Charterhouse, and a penchant for gambling and trips to the Continent, Thackeray left the university without a degree after two years The life of the undergraduate at "Oxbridge" is represented obliquely for "the life of such boys does not bear telling altogether" inPendennis Thackeray did, however, form friendships at Cambridge that were lasting, the most important of which was with Edward Fitzgerald And while he failed to distinguish himself at school, he did develop the fondness for Horace and other classical authors his childhood experiences had almost robbed him of After leaving Cambridge, Thackeray traveled on the Continent, spending a winter at Weimar, which included an introduction to the aged Goethe Thackeray took away from Weimar a command of the language, a knowledge of German Romantic literature, and an increasing skepticism about religious doctrine The time he spent here is reflected in the "Pumpernickel" chapters of Vanity Fair On his return from Germany, Thackeray lived the life of a propertied young gentleman, including more gambling, drinking in taverns, and, undoubtedly, sexual encounters with women Though just how wild Thackeray's life was at this time remains ambiguous—Ray prints a journal entry in which he is repelled by William Maginn's taste in brothels—he most probably first developed at this time his "stricture of the urethra," a condition which would plague him for the rest of his life and which Monsarrat speculates was a consequence of gonorrhea Thackeray's next attempt at finding an occupation led him to the Inns of Court, where he tried briefly to study law and gathered instead more of the atmosphere of "gentlemanly idleness" (Ray 1.149) that was to find its way intoPendennis Ray next places Thackeray in the shady world of bill-discounters in London, but soon he invested part of his patrimony in a weekly paper, The National Standard, which he took over as editor and proprietor Though the paper went under quickly, it gave Thackeray his first taste of the world of London journalism, where he was soon to begin a long and haphazard apprenticeship Thackeray's father had left him an estate of approximately 17,000 pounds, but this fortune was lost, mostly through the failure of an Indian bank, an event from his life that Thackeray once again found use for in The Newcomes This financial disaster forced Thackeray out of idleness and into serious work as a journalist After trying out briefly the life of an artist in bohemian London and Paris in 1834 and 1835, Thackeray began to put both pen and pencil to work for such periodicals as Fraser's Magazine, The Morning Chronicle, and, most successfully, Punch It was in Paris, as well, that he met his wife, Isabella Shawe, and the two settled briefly here when first married (in 1836) before returning to London Before the success of Vanity Fair, Thackeray worked as a free-lance journalist for about ten years, publishing literary criticism, art criticism, topical articles, and fiction either anonymously or under a number of comic pseudonyms.The Yellowplush Papers (1837-38), Catherine (1839-40), A Shabby Genteel Story (1840), Samuel Titmarsh and the Great Hoggarty Diamond (1841), and Barry Lyndon (1844) all appeared in Fraser's, while The Book of Snobs (1846-7) gave Thackeray his first notoriety when it appeared as The Snobs of England in Punch During this apprenticeship, Thackeray also produced his first books, collections of essays and observations published as travel books The Paris Sketch Book (1840) sold enough to cover its costs, provide its author with decent payment, and, perhaps most importantly for Thackeray, interest publishers in seeing more of his work He sold The Irish Sketch Book (1843) to Chapman and Hall, the publishers of Dickens and Carlyle, and also turned a comic series done forPunch about a trip to the East into another book, Notes on a Journey from Cornhill to Grand Cairo (1846) In addition he considered doing a series for Blackwood's on Belgium This arduous combination of hack writing (often completed inLondon clubs for the peace and quiet they afforded) and frequent travel took Thackeray away from home quite a bit, and as he later recognized kept him from detecting the seriousness of his wife's growing depression Thackeray and Isabella Shawe had had a happy marriage during their first years of penury But as financial demands forced Thackeray into more and more work, Isabella was more isolated and lonely After the birth of her third child (the second had died at six months), she began to withdraw, becoming apathetic and fitful by turns and fighting with her husband's grandmother, "a pestering old body." Thackeray was told by doctors that all Isabella needed was a change of air When she became suicidal, leaping into the ocean during a trip to see her unsympathetic mother in Ireland (whom her son-in-law later represented as the termagent Mrs Mackenzie in The Newcomes), Thackeray began a series of futile searches for a cure He took Isabella to various spas and sanitoriums, at one point undergoing a "water cure" with her, since she wouldn't it alone He continued to hope for some time that she would make a full recovery For the next several years he shuttled back and forth between London and Paris, from the journalism that supported himself and his debt-laden family, to his parents and children in Paris, and to his wife in French asylums Once Thackeray had established himself as a writer with the moderate success of his travel books, the greater success of his Punch series, and the beginning of a full-fledged novel, he brought his daughters and wife over from the Continent (lodging Isabella not in one of the terrible asylums he toured but with two women in Camberwell) Eventually he resigned himself to Isabella's condition, an indifference to seemingly all around her, including himself and the children, and he maintained his wife in institutions while raising his daughters with the help of his mother, who never was to be satisfied with the governesses Thackeray tried He seems to have been a loving, if busy, father, as is testified by the touching reminiscences of Anne Thackeray Ritchie's biographical introductions to his works In 1847-48 he hit the big time with Vanity Fair The novel had a slow start the first chapters were rejected by several publishers but eventually it sold in the neighborhood of 7,000 numbers a month Just as importantly, it was the talk of the town, and Thackeray finally had a name that gained notice and reviews in journals such as the Edinburgh Review He also finally found relief from the harrowing grind of writing anything that would sell so he could support his household Pendennis followed in 1849-50, but it was interrrupted at roughly the midpoint for months by a severe illness which may have been cholera This novel ran concurrently with David Copperfield, and their dual appearance brought about the first of many comparisons with Dickens, by David Masson in the North British Review (May 1851) Thackeray now felt that he and Dickens were battling for king of the novelists' hill, though he would never equal Dickens's popularity, except with the critics The novel is a semiautobiographical bildungsroman that draws on, among other things, Thackeray's disappointments in college, ambivalent relation with his mother, and insider's knowledge of the London publishing world In 1852, The History of Henry Esmond was published as a 3-volume novel without first being serialized and with special type meant to imitate the appearance of an eighteenth-century book This was the most carefully planned of Thackeray's novels, and for it he did a considerable amount of historical research The book was celebrated for its brilliance, and Thackeray recognized it as "the very best I can my card" (Monsarrat 285), despite the "cutthroat melancholy" he felt it was infused with At the time, it caused a sensation thanks to its controversial ending, wherein the hero marries a woman who early in the novel seemed a "mother" to him During these years of success, Thackeray lived virtually a bachelor life in London, even though now he had his daughters and grandmother with him He spent much time with friends, enlivening the weekly staff dinners for Punch, attending the social functions of a fashionable society hitherto closed to him, and becoming the constant attendant on Jane Brookfield, the wife of an old friend from Cambridge Thackeray and the Brookfields were involved in an increasingly tense emotional triangle, until his first trip to America in 1852 provided the time and distance for Thackeray to extricate himself emotionally William Brookfield's coldness and peremptory desire to dominate his wife, her resistance and the accompanying need for someone to turn to, and Thackeray's loneliness and characteristic susceptibility to a fascinating woman combined to create a complicated affair A curate who was disappointed in his wish for advancement in the Church, Brookfield alternately ignored or forbade his wife's warm communications with the successful novelist Jane returned Thackeray's ardent expressions of friendship, lamented her husband's inability to understand her, and then surprised her platonic lover by getting pregnant by the husband she supposedly had no sympathy for Thackeray, for his part, professed for the wife a devotion that was pure and remained a companion of the husband, but nonetheless felt betrayed by Jane's tendency to cool down the correspondence when Brookfield complained Thackeray eventually caused a dramatic break in these arrangements by berating Brookfield for his neglectful treatment of his wife The curate packed up his household for a vacation in Madeira, and, by the time Thackeray heard of Jane's second pregnancy, during his own trip to America, he had decided never to return to the vassalage he had endured for seven years Various aspects of Jane Brookfield appear in Amelia Sedley and Beatrix Castlewood, and the affair itself informs the triangle of Henry Esmond, Rachel, and Lord Castlewood Williamakepeace Thackeray (1811-1863) part 2-1 Bởi ThS Nguyễn Thế Hóa - Thứ năm, 30/09/2021, 10:31 PM Thackeray followed in Dickens's footsteps with a lecturing tour of America A reprise of his tour of the British Isles speaking on The English Humourists, these lectures were profitable for Thackeray and also provided influential if now exploded views of both Swift and Sterne Thackeray saw America through the eyes of friendly hosts, and he was more careful not to offend than Dickens had been, choosing, for instance, not to write a profitable account of his journey Thackeray was also more tolerant of slavery he wrote home to his mother that he did not recognize blacks as equals, though he did condemn the institution on moral grounds Susceptible to criticism from his hosts that the living conditions for English workers were worse than those for slaves, he chose to believe (at least on this first tour) that the whipping of slaves was rare and that families were not normally separated on the auction block Thackeray made enduring friendships during his trip, most significantly with the Baxter family of New York The eldest daughter, Sally, enchanted the novelist as a number of vibrant, intelligent, beautiful young women had done before her and she became the model for Ethel Newcome He visited her on his second tour of the States when she was married to a South Carolina gentleman, and he lamented her sad life when she sat alone in Charleston, dying of tuberculosis, after the outbreak of the Civil War The panoramic novel The Newcomes (1853-55) one of the books Henry James called "loose, baggy monsters"-brought Thackeray back to both novel-writing (after more than a year off) and his own century, as well as to the social satire of Vanity Fair The main targets of this novel are snobbery and mercenary marriages He also brought out in 1855 his most enduring Christmas book, the fairy tale The Rose and the Ring, which he called a "Fireside Pantomime." After a second profitable lecturing tour on The Four Georges (that is, the Hanoverian kings of the eighteenth- and early nineteenth-centuries), Thackeray stood for Parliament as an independent and was defeated when a wellknown politician was substituted for the man he thought he was to run against Thackeray believed his advocacy of entertainment on the Sabbath was also crucial in his defeat In 1857-59, he published The Virginians, a novel set before and during the American Revolution, which is a sequel to Henry Esmond, and which Thackeray intended as a fond tribute to the country where he made a number of friends though he inadvertently angered some particularly patriotic Americans with his mild but not-especiallyheroic portrait of George Washington The novel is noteworthy for the problems Thackeray had with the plot, its action being repeatedly forstalled by narrative intrusions, and the Revolutionary War being postponed till the book is almost over In place of the action are Thackeray's philosophical meditations on the staleness of novel plots in effect, a radical questioning of the value of fiction and other problems of representation Of the several literary quarrels in which Thackeray had engaged during his life, the "Garrick Club affair" was to be the best known, for though he and Dickens had scuffled over the "Dignity of Literature" and other minor disagreements (often exacerbated by the interference of John Forster), this fight caused a breach in their friendship that almost lasted to the end of Thackeray's life it was healed only in his last months, through a surprise meeting and handshake on the steps of a London club Thackeray had taken offense at some personal remarks in a column by Edmund Yates and demanded an apology, eventually taking the affair to the Garrick Club committee Already upset with Thackeray for an indiscreet remark about his affair with Ellen Ternan, Dickens championed Yates, helping him to write letters both to Thackeray and, in his defense, to the club's committee Despite Dickens's intervention, Yates eventually lost the vote of the Club's members, but the quarrel was stretched out through journal articles and pamphlets "What pains me most," Thackeray was to tell Charles Kingsley, "is that Dickens should have been his adviser, and next that I should have had to lay a heavy hand on a young man who, I take it, has been cruelly punished by the issue of the affair, and I believe is hardly aware of the nature of his own offence, and doesn't even now understand that a gentleman should resent the monstrous insult which he volunteered" (Monsarrat 393) In 1860, Thackeray accepted the editorship of a new magazine to be published by George Smith, and he was both astounded and delighted with the money he was offered for his name and labors The Cornhill began its history with a record circulation and a number of distinguished contributors, several of whom were persuaded to contribute by Thackeray's participation Never completely comfortable with editorial duties, however, he resigned after a tenure of approximately two years "Thorns in the Cushion," one of The Roundabout Papers a series of conversational essays modelled after his own favorites, Montaigne and Howell humorously details the pains he felt in rejecting manuscripts and receiving criticism of the magazine He also published his last complete novel, The Adventures of Philip (1861-62) in the magazine, and the incomplete Denis Duval (1864) appeared there after his death Toward the end of his life, Thackeray was proud that through his writing he had recouped the patrimony lost to bank failures and gambling, and that he passed on to his daughters an inheritance sufficient for their support and a grand house in Kensington he had built during his Cornhill years He had also taken pride in his daughter Anne's first steps in her own career as a writer her novel The Story of Elizabeth had appeared in the Cornhill His health had been declining for some years he had had recurring pain from the stricture — but he died suddenly from the bursting of a blood vessel in the brain on December 24, 1863 He was buried in Kensal Green Cemetary on December 30, with an estimated two thousand mourners paying their respects Intending to complete his education, Thackeray returned to London and began a law course in 1833 Meanwhile, the Indian bank, in which the money left to William by his father was invested, went bankrupt, and Thackeray was left penniless Therefore he had to drop his studies to earn a living For a long time he hesitated whether to take up art or literature as a profession Finally he decided to try his hand as a journalist His humorous articles, essays, reviews and short stories found a ready market He himself illustrated many of these pieces with amusing drawings, which added to the humorous effect In 1836 Thackeray married Isabella Shawe, and from this union there came three daughters Thackeray's married life was unhappy as his wife became ill after giving birth to the third child The illness affected her mind, and Thackeray threw all business aside and for many months travelled with his wife from one health resort to another hoping that she would recover, but she never regained her health In the end she was placed with an old lady who took care of her Thackeray did all he could to make her life comfort able Isabella outlived her husband by many years Thackeray's first notable works was The Book of Snobs (1846-1847) which deals with the upper classes and their followers in the middle classes, whose vices the author criticizes with the sharp pen of satire The book may be regarded as a prelude to the author's masterpiece Vanity Fair, which can be called the peak of Critical Realism Vanity Fair brought great fame to the novelist and remains his most-read work up to the present day It first appeared in twenty-four monthly parts which Thackeray illustrated himself In 1848 it came out as a complete book The Book of Snobs is a satirical description of different circles of English society in the century The gallery of snobs in the book, Great City Snobs, The University Snobs and others, convinces the reader that' snobbishness' was one of the most characteristic features of the ruling classes of England at that time "How can we help Snobbishness, with such a prodigious national institution erected for its worship? How can we help cringing to Lords? Flesh and blood can't otherwise What man can withstand the prodigious temptation? whose heart would not throb with pleasure if he could be seen walking arm-in-arm with a couple of Dukes down Pall Mall? No; it is impossible, in our condition of society, not to be sometimes a snob." "The word Snob has taken a place in our honest English vocabulary We can't define it, perhaps “We can't say what it is, any more than we can define wit, or humour, or humbug; but we know what it is." Thackeray's contribution to world literature Bởi ThS Nguyễn Thế Hóa - Thứ năm, 30/09/2021, 10:33 PM Thackeray's contribution to world literature is enormous Though the class struggle found no reflection in his works, the novelist truthfully reproduced the political atmosphere of the century This period witnessed the growth of the revolutionary movement of the English proletariat Thackeray's attitude towards the ruling classes of the country coincided with that of the broad democratic circles of England who struggled for the parliamentary reform of 1832, were in favour of the People's Charter of 1833 and actively supported the Chartist movement Thackeray developed the realistic traditions of his predecessors, the enlighteners, Jonathan Swift and Henry Fielding in particular, and became one of the most prominent realists and satirists of his age The world to him is Vanity Fair where men and women, to use his own words, "are greedy, pompous, mean, perfectly satisfied and at ease about their superior virtue They despise poverty and kindness of heart They are snobs" Thackeray loathed snobbishness, and in his works he used satire to expose the pretensions of the snobs and social climbers whom he depicts in his novels Thackeray’s literary significance lies in his contribution to the development of the novel His reflections upon Victorian England through the use of an intrusive narrator became a new form of fiction, and his sprawling panoramas of eighteenth century England give the reader a psychological treatise of the times The slow, satiric revelation of his characters and the realistic analysis of topics that other Victorian writers avoided, told in the form of a memoir by a witty, caustic observer, laid the groundwork for the psychological realism of Henry James; Thackeray’s experiments with the generational form presaged the works of John Galsworthy Thackeray’s writing can be divided into four distinct periods The first, from 1837 to 1843, was a period in which he exercised an almost passionate vigor to point out where society had gone wrong He places himself outside his writing through his superior attitude toward his characters, lower-class subjects whom he treats in the most disparaging manner conceivable There is a glimmer of the Thackeray yet to come when he shifts his focus to the middle class, and when, in The History of Samuel Titmarsh and the Great Hoggarty Diamond(1841; later published as The Great Hoggarty Diamond, 1848), he presents the likable Sam Titmarsh Thackeray cast himself as Titmarsh, thereby indicating his concern about class This concern was to dominate his writing Thackeray was unsure about his own place in the rigid English social system He thus adopted a jauntily unpretentious persona in his social fictions He developed a talent for the burlesque and began to attack other writers, ridiculing military adventure novels, satirically attacking the Newgate School, and portraying his fascination with the Europe of that time The years 1843 to 1848 marked a significant change in Thackeray’s development as a writer His personal involvement in his works became more apparent, and his association with Punch heightened his understanding of society’s injustices During this period, Thackeray wrote a series of short stories, Men’s Wives(1843), that illustrate his misgivings about women and marriage Along these same lines, he wrote several other pieces One of particular note, “Bluebeard’s Ghost,” is the tale of a young widow’s devotion to her dead partner; in it, Thackeray’s love for Jane Brookfield and his jealousy of her fidelity to her husband are clear The opulence of the eighteenth century, the lives of rogues, the education of gentlemen, and the presence of doting mothers blend in his best work of these middle years, The Luck of Barry Lyndon Although the theme of the novel is social pretension, it is also a deliberate spoof of popular historical, crime, and romantic novels The Snobs of England, by One of Themselves (1846-1874; later published as The Book of Snobs,1848, 1852) is Thackeray’s classic assault on pretentiousness His message is that the remedy for social ills is social equality Thackeray’s first great novel, Vanity Fair, marks the beginning of his literary acclaim The title, taken from John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress (1678, 1684), and Thackeray’s preface reveal the moral purpose behind his satire The History of Pendennis: His Fortunes and Misfortunes, His Friends and His Greatest Enemy (1848-1850) is an important book in any study of Thackeray’s technique, as it presents the background for the persona who was to narrateThe Newcomes and as it shows Thackeray’s struggles with Victorian priggishness In both The History of Pendennis and The Newcomes, Thackeray’s satirical edge had disappeared His retreat from satire was quite deliberate; he wanted to appeal instead to the hearts and souls of his reading public In subject matter the two novels are similar: Each concerns the styles and conventions that separate people from one another The Newcomes, however, illustrates better than The History of Pendennis the discursive style that Thackeray adopted in all of his novels—the roundabout manner of narration, the slipping back and forth in time, and the interpolations In 1852, Thackeray published what he considered to be his best piece of writing, Henry Esmond The novel may be read on many levels—as a historical fiction, as a novel of manners, and as a romance The Virginians continues the story with Henry Esmond’s grandsons, who are born in America Of all Thackeray’s novels, it is the least successful In it, Thackeray’s eighteenth century scenario has lost its appeal: The courtliness, brawling, drinking, and gambling are seen as tedious even by its chronicler Thackeray was sick of writing novels, and he admits to this in book 1, chapter 18 Thackeray’s writings constitute a vast imaginative enterprise For the first time, his panoramic realism gave readers of English literature a sense of living in a distinct yet diverse world His works offer page after page of sometimes caustic, sometimes playful, sometimes serious, sometimes Chủ đề thảo luận 01: Geoffrey Chaucer was the greatest writer of the 14th century Bởi ThS Trần Thị Hương Lý - Thứ năm, 2/09/2021, 12:13 AM After reading “ The Canterbury Tales ”, a group of students believe that Chaucer did not make a great contribution to English literature because he had only some short stories But some other students say that Geoffrey Chaucer was the founder of English Realism Via his tales, a lot of students know that he was a great artist, humourist and writer who believed in man Especially, through his collections of stories ( The Canterbury Tales ), students can see how the people in the 14 century lived and behaved They were of different walks of life with various interests and ambitions A vivid society of the 14th century come into existence Question Why is "The Canterbury Tales" important ? Question How is The Canterbury Tales a satire? Question Why is "The Canterbury Tales" assigned in many English classes? Question Why is Chaucer called the father of English poetry ? Trả lời -Question 1: It is the first major work written in English with literary merit; "Beowulf" was written in early English when English was closer to Dutch or old Germanic so it counts as "English" but you can't read it without translation "The Canterbury Tales" still is easier to read translated frankly, but with effort you can it It also give you a flavor of medieval life where the Church was the center of life, where people's classes and occupations defined life, and where English was just starting to come into its own (Latin and French were the literary languages) Because so much of it is humorous you can still relate to large parts of it The UK was a cultural backwater still so this is the first break-out of what was to be the world's greatest literary tradition You can see flavors that Shakespeare would dip into with the broad humor Question 2: Satire is the use of humor to expose someone or something's vices or flaws In The Canterbury Tales, Geoffrey Chaucer uses satire to expose the faults of institutions, and common stereotypes of his time Satire is broken into six elements, all of which are prevalent in the tales Verbal Irony - to say one thing and mean something else Mockery - to make something the laughing matter Understatement - implying the opposite something by saying less than one means Overstatement - implying something by exaggeration Parody - a mocking imitation Sarcasm - the use of praise to mock someone Even in the General Prologue, the reader is exposed to Chaucer's satiric tone This is especially true when he introduces to us the characters Question 3: One of the things which The Canterbury Tales does very well is that it provides various "slices of life" from the late fourteenth century in which it was written It is a window, or an entire set of them, into that world Chaucer's frame story of a religious pilgrimage is not terribly important except as a narrative device furnishing an excuse to get a motley assemblage of folks together in one setting; what is of more interest are the characters, and how their social classes and circumstances color the stories they tell in meaningful ways Otherwise, any of the tales could have been told by any sort of narrator-character Question 4: -Because, in the times when Chaucer walked, it was not fashionable for serious poets to write in English -Because, Chaucer established rhyming couplets as the main narrative system in English During Chaucer's lifetime there was a serious attempt to re-establish the old alliterative system as the main narrative method in English poetry It was mainly thanks to Chaucer that English adopted the rhyming system Because, Chaucer was a major force in establishing the dominant meter for English poetry, and in introducing rhyme as the main way of writing a poem Because, Chaucer more than any other writer is the reason English literature turned out the way it did -Also because, by composing in the vernacular – the everyday language spoken in London and the East Midlands – Chaucer lent respectability to a language that would develop into the medium for one of the world’s greatest bodies of the literature Chủ đề thảo luận 02: William Shakespeare’s life and works Bởi ThS Trần Thị Hương Lý - Thứ ba, 21/09/2021, 12:19 AM A group of students consider that William Shakespeare has been famous for the great number of poems, plays, sonnets of his time and the art of the language usage but some other students think that William Shakespeare has been famous for his works because his description and masterpieces were based on the real events and on subjects from the national history All the matters of the contents in his plays were stuck to the daily-life Question What are the characteristic features of Shakespeare's comedies? Question On what subjects were Shakespeare's historical chronicles written? Question What are Shakespeare's great tragedies and what they reflect? Question Why is Shakespeare still popular today? -Answer to the question 1: The first period that lasted from 1590 to 1600 was marked by the optimism so characteristic of all humanist literature The comedies describe the adventures of young men and women, their friendship and love, their search for happiness The scene is usually laid in some southern countries The comedies are usually based on some misunderstanding that creates comic situations They are full of fun But the laughter is not a mockery directed against the people and their vices Shakespeare never moralizes in his comedies He laughs with people, but not at them His comedies are filled with humanist love for people and the belief in the nobleness and kindness of human nature Answer to the question 2: Historical Chronicles are plays written on subjects from national history Shakespeare’s chronicles cover a period of more than three hundred years of English history (from the rule of King John in the 12th century up to the 16th century) However, the main subjects of the chronicles are not the lives and fates of Kings but history itself and the development of the country Like all humanists of his time Shakespeare believed a centralized monarchy to be an ideal form of state power He thought it would put an end to the struggle of feudal and would create conditions for the progress of the country One of the great achievements of Shakespeare was that in his chronicles he showed not only the kings, feudal, and churchmen, but the lower classes too Answer to the question 3: The tragedies, like the chronicles, are also based on real events but there is a considerable difference between the two genres The playwright raised great problems of Good and Evil in both But in the chronicles they are mostly linked with political themes-the question of the state and public life of the period described In the tragedies which are centered round the life of one man Shakespeare touched on the moral problems of universal significance - honesty, cruelty, kindness, love, vanity and others That is why his tragedies are of great interest to every new generation Some of them show a change in the playwright's understanding of life, whose approach to reality becomes more pessimistic Answer to the question 4: He has a large variety of themes (e.g comedy, drama, love) and types of characters (young lovers, kings etc.) which provides something for everyone and as a result, everyone can relate to his players - he has a powerful use of language and uses stong description of the characters, atmosphere, background etc - He can be in really good use of poetry his characters are human - they have positive and negative sides and have emotions and feelings Câu hỏi Why is Shakespeare best known for writing the greatest love story of all time: Romeo and Juliet ? How people react upon some themes that are in a way related to modern life ? Why is Shakespeare consider to be a national treasure? What are the kinds of jobs that Shakespeare can ? Trả lời -William Shakespeare's poetry and, particularly his plays, are still among the greatest ever, and his work is unmatched in the history of the English language It is no wonder that students around the world are still studying and reading his works, and it is only because of the high quality of his writing that his popularity has continued Shakespeare is undoubtedly the world’s most influential poet and dramatist, leading a writer to note that, "He was not of an age, but for all time!" Chủ đề thảo luận 03: Literary successes of Charles Dickens Bởi ThS Trần Thị Hương Lý - Thứ sáu, 1/10/2021, 11:01 AM Different people have different views on one matter Some students say that Charles Dickens is a great English writer after Shakespeare of the English realism literature of the 19th century Dickens is immortal, and his works vividly reproduce the social conditions of Victorian England Charles Dickens was the first author who had written of the poor with fidelity and sympathy and particularly famous for his vivid comic characterizations Charles Dickens had great contribution to English and world literature On the literary side, he was not only the writer who had described the town-life of his day, but he was also the first genuine story teller His works were also famous during Victorian age and among the great classics in all fictions Other students say that Charles Dickens was only a social reformer who used fiction as a platform for his social appeals, and who proved to possess a very rare quality He brought smile with sermonic powder to people in a complicated history He was also one of the most important social critic who used fiction effectively to criticize economic, social and moral abuses in the Victorian era He showed compassion and empathy towards the vulnerable and disadvantaged segments of English society, and contributed to several important social reforms He treated his fiction as a springboard for debates about moral and social reform Question Why some critics consider him to be a reformer of his own age ? Question What is the basic characteristics of critical realism literature ? Question What is Dickens’s contribution to world literature ? Question What are the features of Dickens’s characters ? -Charles Dickens began to write at a time when the labour movement, known as the Chartist movement, was at its height Continuous demonstrations in defence of workers' rights took place in many manufacturing towns and in London as well The actions of the Chartists had considerable effect on Dickens Though he did not believe in revolutionary action, he was on the side of the people with all his heart He wanted what the people wanted Dickens wrote about the poorest, the most unprivileged sections of the population He looked into the darkest corners of the large cities and there found the victims of capitalism Thus Dickens's immortal works became an accusation of the bourgeois system as a whole Dickens is one of the first novelists to write from the point of view of the lowest classes living in a large city His descriptions of London are accurate, even when heightened for emotional effect Little Britain is an actual street and still exists (Dickens knew London neighborhoods from the long walks–sometimes over twenty miles– which he regularly took as a relief while writing and as a way to work off pressure and energy.) Xem phúc đáp | Phúc đáp | Sao chép Trả lời: Chủ đề thảo luận 03: Literary successes of Charles Dickens Bởi ThS Trần Thị Hương Lý - Thứ tư, 6/10/2021, 10:36 AM Answer to the question : What he tries to achieve is teaching his readers to be good civilized people Therefore, he is much concerned with home, family, close personal ties, honesty, charity, and high standards of morality in his novels He deals with these themes in order to lead the people to their social obligations To this he depicts bad characters as individuals who are isolated, withdrawn, vulnerable and passive, and if they are shown active, their activity is depicted as demonic and victimizing; they are shown friendless as well as identity-less because Dickens wants to make his readers not sympathize with them but hate them What he desires to absorb his readers is the internalization of the dominant ideologies of the middle class Answer to the question : The critical realism literature in nineteenth century, is a splendid page in the bourgeois literary history and also an important heritage in the treasure trove of the world literature Critical realism shows all aspects of social life and reveals the contradiction of reality in considerable depth In their works, we can see the collapse of the feudal society and the rise of capitalism We can also see oppressive serfdom and cruel capital exploitation They particularly expose and criticize the capitalist system, which is widely involved in various fields This causes the people’s suspicion and dissatisfaction to the existing order, so it has great social significance Answer to the question : Dickens has given a full picture of 19th century English life He revealed all that was irrational and monstrous and through his wit and humour people began to see their own time and environment in a new light His method of writing inspired many others to write realistically, and great works of critical realism appeared after him Dickens never loses his warmth of feeling and quickness of sympathy In the fifties of the 19th century, however, Russian writers of democratic revolutionary thought gave him a place among the English classics Chernyshevsky, Belinsky and others held that all great writers found inspiration in ideas which resulted from the desperate struggle of the people, and which were generally recognized as the only progressive ideas of the time Answer to the question : Dickens's characters are at first sight caricatures because of the exaggeration of facts; but this exaggeration is always a logical extension of something that really exists His characters are static, but at the same time they are varied, vivid and distinct They may be divided into three types: heroes, villains and quaint people notable for their whims These three types call up three emotions: pathos, or a feeling of pity, for the virtuous characters when circumstances have turned against them; contempt for the villains, whom Dickens describes in a satirical manner which helps to tear off their mask of respectability; and a warm liking for the whimsical but generous persons Dickens was exceedingly sincere when creating his personages He said of himself: " no one can ever believe this narrative in the reading more than I believed it in the writing." ... sometimes pronounced and sometimes not;  "f" and "v" began to be differentiated (e.g feel and veal), as did "s" and "z" (e.g seal and zeal) and "ng" and "n" (e.g thing and thin);  "v" and "u" remained... Highlands and Islands), including bonnie andfash Distinctive spellings like "quh-" for "wh-" took hold (e.g quhan and quhile for whanand while), and the Scottish accent gradually became more and. .. been carried on (e.g Anglo-Saxon craft and Norseskill, wish and want, dike and ditch, sick and ill, whole and hale, raise and rear, wrath and anger, hide and skin, etc) Unusually for language