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Romantic literature:

1. Features, attidudes and views:

1. tumultuous emotions, 2. interest into, about nature, 3. stormy expressions, 4. wild, power, force, 5. appeal to people sences and emotions, 6. interested in folklore, 7. idealised beautiful nature, 8. protest against classicism, 9. return to nature, 10. critical attitude to reality. 11. Earlier the head controlled the heart, now the heart controlled the head.12. Passionate 13. Included a lot of feeling and passion.

 

2. Interests and inspiration:

1. 1. Liberty / Freedom

   2. equality

   3. fraternity (vendlus) ( die Bruderschaft)

   4. native themes

   5. simple/rural life

   6. emotional exuberance (küllus, ülevoolavus) (der Überfluss)

   7. interest in common feeling

   8. spontanouty

   9. interest in folklore and mythology

   10. interest in nature

   11. dreamed about the future or the past

 

3. Names:

W. Scott, W. Wordsworth, S.T. Coleridge, Percy Bysshe Shelly, George Gordon Byron, John Keats.

 

„Lyrical Ballads“, It’s importance:

It’s a collection of poems by Coleridge and Wordsworth, it was published in two parts, first in 1798, second in 1800. Spontaneity, excess, power, and emotion are the key features of Lyrical Ballads. It was written from people to people, not form aristrocrats to aristrocrats, the use of language was natural, similar to what ususal people talked.

 

William Wordsworth:

Through his poetry, people spoke to people, the form of the poetry was not strict, he used the form that was sutiable to particular occasion, the use of language was natural, similar to what ususal people talked. Wordsworth’s poetry gave the charm of novelty to things of everyday, he dealt with the familiar things, expressed the sense of wonder.

His poetry looks inward, rather than outward, he wants to see into the hear of things, When WW wrote that „the child is the father of the man“ he meant that adults can learn form children. He wanted to write in a simple way about everyday life and people.

Works:

• „I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud“

• „Westminster Bridge“

• „We Are Seven“

 

S. T. Coleridge:

He wrote about supernatural persons and characters, but in a way that made them credible (usutav). He dealt with the strange and unfamiliar things, expressed the sense of wonder. Coleridge sometimes creates symbolic landscapes. „Kubla Khan“ is a poem about creative imagination, it is not complete and has the subtitle „A Fragment“, We can conclude that the vision is complete, but it is so powerful that it can only be stated in parts and fragments. The journey in „The Rime of the Ancient Mariner“ symbolises a christian journey from innocence (süütus, lihtsameelsus) to experience.

Works:

• „Kubla Khan“

• „The Rime of the Ancient Mariner“

• „The Nightingale“

• „Frost at Midnight“

 

Geroge Gordon Byron:

Works:

1. Period (1807-1809)

• “Hours of Idleness” — a collection of lyric poems written while studying still at Cambridge

• “English Bards and Scotch Reviewers” — attack on Wordsworth and Coleridge, Sctoch Reviewers had criticised him in “Edinburgh Review”

2. Period (1809-1818)

• “Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage” — Cantos 1-2 made him famous in 1812; Canto 3 written in Switzerland in 1816; Canto 4 in Italy in 1818

• “Hebrew Melodies” — a collection of lyric poems

• So-called Eastern poems:

  • “The Giaour”

  • “The Bride of Abydos”

  • “The Corsair”

  • “Lara”

• In Switzerland:

  • “The Prisoner of Chillon” — a poem

  • “Manfred” — a verse drama

3. Period (1818-1824)

• In Italy:

  • “Beppo” — a satirical poem

  • “Marino Faliero” — a drama

  • “Cain” — drama

  • “The Vision of Judgement” — a satirical poem

  • “Don Juan” — unfinished

 

The Imporance of Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage

1. The main character is an interesting person, he is an outcast (väljaheidetu) from society and he seeks consolidation with nature.

2. There are good descripitons of contemporary European life in the poem.

3. There are important social and political ideas in the poem, e.g. struggle for freedom.

4. Byron presents picture of the past. His attidude to the past differs from of the earlier romanticists, he turns the past into an example for present day struggles.

 

The Romantic and Realistic elements in „Don Juan“

The plot and the way the hero is depicted are realistic. Don Juan is not a typical romantic character, but a naive young man. He falls in love with Donna Julia, because he is young and she is beautiful. He becomes very unhappy, when his mother sends him abroad. Making Don Juan act in natural way, Byron shows a true-to-life character.

The romantic element is strongly felt, too. Like other romantic poets, Byron acts against tradition: in the works of other authors Don Juan was shown as a man who tempted women into sin, Byron’s Don Juan is not seducer of women, bu is seduced by them. The beautiful descriptions of Southern nature make Don Juan a typical romantic poem.

The Byronic Hero:

proud, gigantic, lonely fighting, rebellious (mässuline), passionate, hating oppression, unconventional, gloomy (morn, kurb, sünge) (bedrückt), silent, alien in spirit, scornful (põlastav) (höhnisch), defiant (trotsiv)(trotzig).

 

Sir Walter Scott

• He writes about revolution, history and social change.

• Characters are from all levels of society

• His novels:

  • Scottish: „Waverly“, „Rob Roy“, „Guy Mannering“

  • English: „Ivanhoe“, „The Monastery“, „The Abbot“

  • Continental: „Quentin Durward“

• His mastery:

  • He created Scotland as a historical setting and gave the nineteenth-century world, especially nineteenth-century Great Britain, historical identity.

  • He made the novel most popular literary forms in the 19^th and 20^th centuries.

  • Described the historical past of his country.

  • Sometimes idealised old times.

  • His descripitons of life, customs and habits of his people are very realistic.

• Scott as a poet:

  • He started his literary activities as a romantic poet writing a number of ballads, but soon he realised that it was out of fashion.

 

Jane Austen:

• Her main interest is in the moral, social and psychological behaviour of her characters.

• Her observation of people apply to human nature in general.

• Her 6 novels:

  • „Sense and Sensibility“ – 1811

  • „Pride and Prejudice“ – 1813

  • „Mansfield Park“ – 1814

  • „Emma“ - 1816

  • „Northanger Abbey“ – 1818

  • „Presuasion“ - 1818

 

„Pride and Prejudice“

Principal Characters:

• Mr. Bennet, father of five daughters

• Mrs. Bennet, his opinionated wife

• Elizabeth, their intelligent middle daughter, and Mr. Bennet’s favorite child

• Jane, Elizabeth’s beautiful older sister

• Lydia, the Bennet’s impetuous youngest daughter

• Mr. Binglcy, Jane’s rich and amiable suitor

• Mr. Darcy, Bingley’s arrogant and wealthy friend

• Reverend Collins, a conceited bore

• Mr. Wickman, an army officer

 

The main subject of the novel is courtship and marriage, a man looking for a woman or a woman looking for a man.

 

Themes:

• Happy and strong marriage takes time to build and must be based on mutual feeling, understanding, and respect .

• Pride and Prejudice depicts a society in which a woman’s reputation is of the utmost importance. A woman is expected to behave in certain ways.

• The lines of class are strictly drawn. While the Bennets, who are middle class, may socialize with the upper-class Bingleys and Darcys, they are clearly their social inferiors and are treated as such.

 

Characters:

• Elisabeth Bennet:

  • She is lovely, clever, intelligent, and, in a novel defined by dialogue, she converses as brilliantly as anyone.

  • Her honesty, virtue, and lively wit enable her to rise above the nonsense and bad behavior that pervade her class-bound and often spiteful society.

  • Her sharp tongue and tendency to make hasty judgments often lead her astray (eksiteele).

• Mr Darcy:

  • He is intelligent and forthright (otsekohene), he too has a tendency to judge too hastily and harshly, and his high birth and wealth make him too proud and too conscious of his social status.

• Jane Bennet and Charles Bingley:

  • They both are cheerful, friendly, and good-natured, always ready to think the best of others; they lack entirely the prickly (okkaline) egotism (isekus) of Elizabeth and Darcy.

  • Jane’s gentle spirit serves as a foil for her sister’s fiery (ägedus, raevukus), contentious nature, while Bingley’s eager friendliness contrasts with Darcy’s stiff pride. Their principal characteristics are goodwill and compatibility, and the contrast of their romance with that of Darcy and Elizabeth is remarkable.

 

Kaur :: Oct.17.2006 :: Inglise kirjandus, Kool :: No Comments »

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