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أكـاديـمـي ألـمـاسـي
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رد: Ready for the finals ? 3rd year students ONLY
second lecture
Discussion of the assignment- the given points in the last lecture
The society was divided into bits and pieces of classes. It controlled the relation between people. There were domineering class and working class. The working class keeps striving for a better situation, to develop. It created some action, movement, activity in the society. They were fighting for a political position. They acquired higher position in the society. They started having political dreams to develop their situation. This dream created a kind of activity, zest, production in the society on the political level. Literary, writers started writing about the working, middle class and how they gain power. So, this class division does make difference in the society. The lower middle class, to be higher middle class, has to get better education for their children. They would think of good schools for their children. They will push the government to work hard in reforming education. if the lower class children are working in factories and they are dreaming of a better situation in life, they should have a kind of strong demand for a better situation. It makes them to work hard to be in a better situation. All the reformation bills were issued to improve the social situation. It was due to having solid division in the society.
it also affected literature. There are poems and novels in which we find this social clashes among the classes, how people were criticizing hypocrisy in the society- like "Pride and Prejudice " . Ladies and gentlemen were not acting as they are themselves. They are showing something that is not really there. It was because they wanted to mountain a higher class.
People deserted the country side and settled in London because of business and economy. They started thinking of making themselves fit there. They started to show off. It was a society of hypocrisy. It was seen in literature. Also literature speaks bout labors and how the children were misused and abused in the factories. It also tackles human relationship of people in these different classes.
v The literature of the Victorian Age entered a new period after the romantic revival. The literature of this area expresses the fashion of pure romantic to growth realism. Though, the Victorian Age produced two great poets: Tennyson and Browning. The age is also remarkable foe excellence of its prose mainly the novel. it was the flourishing age of novel.
The discoveries of science have great affect on the literature of the age. Literature of this age tends to be closer to daily life as it reflects their particular problems , interests and moral purpose. literature of that age was reflection of time= moral problems, moral issues, critical issues, idealism.
It is also considered an age of doubts and skepticism. Though the age is characterized as being particular and materialistic, most of the writers excel a pure life.
v Darwinism played a key role in this period. People suffered skepticism and doubt. scientific discoveries shook many religious certainties- like the certainty that God is the only creator of all creation- man is on the top of God's creation and he is being privileged by so many characteristics by God – so he must obey and worship only one God- people started doubting their ancestries chain. They started to question what is there in the Bible. They started doubting everything thing, having this skeptical view concerning God. Their relation with the church was very weak. They started to question moral values including human relationship, the way of dealing with others, dealing with life, loyalty to the government. So, skepticism was a title of the age.
v Industrial Revolution started a little bit earlier than this age. The influence of this revolution exceeds to this age. It changed their attitude to commerce, to business matters. The possibility to merchandize their production was available. this was altogether with scientific inventions. it helped people and owners of factories to market their production. They built iron ships to carry their goods for trade. They established the railways which was very quick, easy and fast. It helped them in being more active and increases their production. It was the outcome of the invention of the steam engine. It was not only to export but also to import goods. The rich people are those who were possessing factories. They were controlling and having the power over the working class. The poor people were misused and abused all the time in factories. As a result of the scientific inventions, they dismissed some of the man power. Machines replaced workers. More people were losing works. They had no channels to go back to the country side. They deserted agriculture life and changed to industrial life. They started deteriorated economically as well as ethically.
v Utilitarianism (means justifies the end). This attitude destroyed the society. People became more and more interested in the materialistic world. They can use any means to reach their goals, to collect money and enjoy their life. It was danger to the ethics of the society. Ethics were not to be observed any more. One of the theory that affected the society was the Machiavellian= to do anything to reach what one wants. These principles appeared in a book written by Nicole Micaville entitled" the Prince" .
v People suffered a long period of oppression, not physical but psychological. Their freedom and needs were oppressed. They were not allowed to express themselves freely even in their relation to the church. The oppression was practiced by the church against people. They were not even free to read the Bible as it was written in Latin. So many events changed people. They started to have their own church but oppression is still there. People were diverted. Their attention was going every direction. People were heretics. Drastic and influences changed took place in the society. People started suffering these clashes and these conflicts in the society that disturbed their life. People turned their back to the church. Ethics were neglected. Human relationship started to be built on hypocrisy. There was corruption on all levels of the society. People could not avoid dealing with corruption. There was apparent seen corruption and another secretive corruption. It was weakening the surface.
Elizabeth Barrett Browning is the most outstanding literary figure in the Victorian Age. She is responsible for establishing the image of poetry in the 19th century. She suffered the corruption of her time, of her own father. He was a merchant of slaves. She suffered the oppression of her father.
She was highly and deeply educated. She was a good reader- book-worm. She managed to educate herself by reading the Bible, literature, participating in the activity of missionary of the church. She developed a lung sickness. While she was riding a horse, she fell down and she hurt her own sight. She suffered a lot both physically and emotionally.
Her family moved to London. They used to live in the country side. They suffered financial problems. She used to spend her time writing and reading. She developed a relation with Robert Browning, the man whom she married later on. They eloped to Italy and lived there. She started publishing her works very early in 1833. In 1845, she wrote her Sonnets from the Portuguese. She was very keen in choosing the name. People were not ready due to the criticism of the society and other issues; they were hesitant and reluctant to publish their books under their names. She used to translate books. She was a translator. She wrote her sonnets twice with two names. First she published it entitled Sonnets to ….. And she published them another time entitled" Sonnets from the Portuguese. This gives the impression that it is a translation from others. She was protecting herself against any directly criticism. They sonnets speak about her emotional relationship with Robert Browning.
While living in Italy, she got involved with Italian issues. She was emotionally attached to the Italian Revolution= seek of Independence. She was to criticize deeply by this.
She was to be rediscovered in the 20th centuries because of her poems written about the Italian political issues. She wrote some poems to the Italian national cause but she received a lot of criticism at that time.
She was rediscovered and her fame was established as being one of the outstanding figures in the Victorian period especially because of her national poems written in Italy.
Ethically speaking, she was very loyal to her society. She worked hard writing her poetry to change the society. She tried to make propaganda for good manners through her poetry. She was an idealistic poet.
She is the romantic poetess of the Victorian period. She is a romantic Victorian poet. She is discussing deep ethical issues in her poems.
Sonnets from the Portuguese was written in 1844. Her relation with Robert Browning was a secret relation. She never expected to have a happy end to this relation because her father stopped the marriage of any of his children. She was not sure about this relation because she used to look down upon herself comparing to Robert Browning. She never believed that he could love her. She wrote a poem entitled "How do I love thee?" It was a question given by Robert Browning himself. Due to her sickness, due to her suffering because of her father's oppression she was not hopeful about having a happy end for her love story. One incident that affected her life was the death of her brother. She lost her brother at sea. It added to her suffering. She became heart broken.
Her relation with Robert Browning took her to a new side of life. We can divide her life into two stages; one stage that is full of pain, remorse, a gloomy stage of her life because of her sickness, physical and emotional pain, oppression. She refused the way her father was working in trading with slaves. All these things added to her pain. She started to feel a kind of abuse. This is why we find her speaking about death as well as love.
Sonnets from the Portuguese is written wonderfully. It is a very nice and interesting poem.
Sonnet 1
I. "I thought once how Theocritus had sung..."
I thought once how Theocritus had sung
Of the sweet years, the dear and wished-for years,
Who each one in a gracious hand appears
To bear a gift for mortals, old or young:
And, as I mused it in his antique tongue,
I saw, in gradual vision through my tears,
The sweet, sad years, the melancholy years,
Those of my own life, who by turns had flung
A shadow across me. Straightway I was 'ware,
So weeping, how a mystic Shape did move
Behind me, and drew me backward by the hair;
And a voice said in mastery, while I strove, ---
'Guess now who holds thee?' --- 'Death,' I said. But, there,
The silver answer rang, --- 'Not Death, but Love.'
There is a kind of contrast within the poem.
There is a love affair that is clearly shown in the poem.
The idea of death is controlling her life. She is afraid that she might face the death of her emotion- that this love affair will turn into failure.
She is using easy language- everyday language.
It is full of fears, sadness and remorse. She feels lost amidst these emotions. She is emotionally suffers a conflict. But at the end of the poem, she comes to a revolution.
Elizabeth Browning and the Victorian poets revised the Italian sonnet. They mixed it together with the Shakespearian sonnet.
She considers the sonnet is another revelation of one self that is why she is very keen and cautious while writing sonnets. She was cautious that the sonnets may reveal her secrets, her personal issues. She had no choice but to write sonnets. By writing sonnets, she admits that the sonnets are revealing her life. She is cautious what to write about and how to put it in the sonnet. Writing a sonnet is enough for one for revealing his own emotions. She has to be careful about the amount of feelings to be revealed and covered and the way it should be expressed.
This group of sonnets was written in 1844. She showed it to her husband when they eloped to Italy. He lost his mother so, it was a kind of consolation for him. She tried to relax and console him. She published this group of sonnets under her name in 1850.
The name" my little Portuguese" is the name that her husband used to call her= the spoil name. The title plays two roles. It shows us that the poem is translated from Portuguese and at the same time she is referring to herself.
Sonnet= Portuguese
Portuguese= Elizabeth Browning
So, Sonnet= Elizabeth Browning
At that time, sonnet spread. They believed in the sonnet as a means to communicate their feelings. Elizabeth kept on talking about her own task as a sonneteer
I thought once how Theocritus had sung
Theocritus= a classical Greek pastoral writer. He wrote lyrics. Pastoral poetry deals with emotions.
Of the sweet years, the dear and wished-for years
It is about the past. it is a kind nostalgia to the past. She was enjoying a kind of happy life with her father in an earlier stage. She dreamt of sweet life.
Who each one in a gracious hand appears
To bear a gift for mortals, old or young:
What makes people mortal is his words- poetry. She dreams to be mortal through her poetry. Morality is a matter of being remembered.
And, as I mused it in his antique tongue,
When she started singing, writing sonnets she aimed at mortality. Mortality is gained by writing poetry. She started writing sonnets as it is an old genre, form of poetry.
I saw, in gradual vision through my tears,
The sweet, sad years, the melancholy years,
She started thinking. The act of writing sonnets brought back to her mind her own history. they were sweet memories because it is related to her childhood. They are sad because they are related to events that happened to her that made her sad- the melancholy years. She starts singing- writing sonnets, using the tongue of ancient writers. Gradually the vision of the past came to her mind reminding her, bringing to the front all her past life. They are supposed to be sweet years because they are of her childhood. Those years are sad and melancholy.
Those of my own life, who by turns had flung
A shadow across me. Straightway I was 'ware,
Her attention was brought to something that really made her alert.
So weeping, how a mystic Shape did move
it is mystic, mysterious, overwhelming, strange feeling that she never experienced. It was a mystic shape- moved behind her
Behind me, and drew me backward by the hair;
This is the only reference to her as being female. It is reference to her physicality. This shape drew her by her hair backward, taking her back to her life. She has to consider her past before getting into this relation.
And a voice said in mastery, while I strove, ---
'Guess now who holds thee?' --- 'Death,' I said. But, there,
The silver answer rang, --- 'Not Death, but Love.'
Physically, she is weak because of her illness. She was drawn by her hair. This is reference to masculine- feminine relationship. This mastery voice asks" 'Guess now who holds thee? She is overwhelmed, sick of her father. She lived years on sadness. When this mystic shape and mastery voice asked her, she guessed that it is death that drew her by her hair. it was fear that controlled her feelings. She describes this new thing to her life as being a mystic shape. It is not death but love. She is thinking of death as she is overwhelmed by her fears of losing or failing in this relation.
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