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2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB:2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB 16/09/09 12:18 Page I B. De Luca, D. J. Ellis, P. Pace, S. Ranzoli Books and Bookmarks COMPLEMENTARY AND LINK MODULES Victorian Age LOESCHER EDITORE De Luca, Ellis, Pace, Ranzoli - Books and Bookmarks, cod. 2634 © Loescher Editore 2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB:2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB 16/09/09 12:18 Page II © Loescher - 2003 http://www.loescher.it I diritti di traduzione, di memorizzazione elettronica, di riproduzione e di adattamento totale o parziale con qualsiasi mezzo (compresi i microfilm e le copie fotostatiche) sono riservati per tutti i paesi. Fotocopie per uso personale (cioè privato e individuale) nei limiti del 15% di ciascun volume possono essere effettuate negli esercizi che aderiscono all’accordo tra SIAE - AIE - SNS e CNA - Confartigianato - CASA del 18 dicembre 2000, dietro pagamento del compenso previsto in tale accordo. 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Ristampe 6 5 4 3 2 1 2008 2007 2006 2005 2004 2003 N Loescher Editore S.r.l. opera con sistema qualità certificato CERMET n° 1679-A secondo la norma UNI EN ISO 9001-94 Coordinamento del progetto : Mario Sacco Coordinamento editoriale: Laura Trimarchi Redazione: Laura Trimarchi, Daniela Penzavalle Progetto grafico: Elio Vigna Design - Torino Ricerca iconografica: Emanuela Mazzucchetti, Valentina Ratto Cartografia: LS International Cartography - Milano Fotolito: Graphic Center - Torino Videoimpaginazione: Camaggio S.r.l. Grafica - Torino Stampa: Sograte - Città di Castello (PG) De Luca, Ellis, Pace, Ranzoli - Books and Bookmarks, cod. 2634 © Loescher Editore 2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB:2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB 16/09/09 12:18 Page III Table of Contents 1 INTRODUCTION A Classic Novelist: Charles Dickens MODU LE 2 MODULE 1 Fiction in the 19th Century 2 Classic Fiction in English Literature STE P One BOOKMARK: The Road to Classic Fiction STE P One Narrative Voices and the Reading Public in 19th-Century Fiction 3 STUDY BOX: Developments in Narrative Technique in 19th-Century Fiction STE P Two Two Psychological Realism in Mainstream Fiction: George Eliot GEORGE ELIOT from Adam Bede Text one, 8 Text two, 9 Text three, 10 Text four, 11 STUDY BOX: Aspects of Realism in Mainstream Fiction A Classic Plot 36 Three Reading from the Novel 41 CHARLES DICKENS from Great Expectations 7 8 13 Text one, STE P Four 41 Text two, Three Mystery and Horror Stories and the ‘Sensation Novel’ Dickens and the Classic Novel EDGAR ALLAN POE from The Oval Portrait WILKIE COLLINS from The Woman in White STUDY BOX: Classic Fiction in Context 15 15 19 41 48 BOOKMARK: Dickens’ Style STE P 34 35 6 STE P STE P 33 ■ Assignment Towards the Essay 50 50 51 53 STUDY BOX: Features of Gothic, Mystery and Horror Fiction and of the Sensation Novel STE P Four Psychological Fiction: Henry James HENRY JAMES from The Turn of the Screw STUDY BOX: The Birth of the Psychological Novel ■ Assignment Towards the Essay 22 26 26 28 31 Beyond Literature ■ FILM The Woman in White Great Expectations (1946) Great Expectations (1998) 55 57 59 ■ MUSIC The Woman in White Great Expectations (1946) 60 61 De Luca, Ellis, Pace, Ranzoli - Books and Bookmarks, cod. 2634 © Loescher Editore 2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB:2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB 16/09/09 12:18 Page IV TA B L E O F C O N T E N TS Personal File Appendix W. M. THACKERAY from Barry Lyndon QUICK REFERENCE Principal Features of Fiction ■ MODULE 1 REVIEW EXTENSION ■ MODULE 2 REVIEW EXTENSION from Great Expectations by Charles Dickens ■ MODULE 1 GET READY FOR TESTING INTERNAL CERTIFICATION Step Step ■ One, 70 Three, 71 63 64 64 66 68 68 69 69 MODULE 2 74 74 74 GET READY FOR TESTING INTERNAL CERTIFICATION Realism and Naturalism, Aestheticism and Decadentism in European Literatures Step Two, 74 Step Four, 75 NES (Nuovo Esame di Stato) KEYS Review Extension Get Ready for Testing 80 81 83 CROSS-CURRICULAR CARD Step Two, 70 Step Four, 72 73 One, 74 Three, 75 BOOKMARK: Social Issues in Victorian Britain 70 70 70 NES (Nuovo Esame di Stato) Step Step BOOKMARK: Aspects of the Victorian Age 75 76 76 77 78 Symbols ➔ Audiocassettes and music cassette of Books and Bookmarks ➔ Videocassette of Books and Bookmarks IV De Luca, Ellis, Pace, Ranzoli - Books and Bookmarks, cod. 2634 © Loescher Editore 86 2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB:2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB 16/09/09 12:18 Page V Victorian Age De Luca, Ellis, Pace, Ranzoli - Books and Bookmarks, cod. 2634 © Loescher Editore 2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB:2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB 16/09/09 12:18 Page VI De Luca, Ellis, Pace, Ranzoli - Books and Bookmarks, cod. 2634 © Loescher Editore 2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB:2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB 16/09/09 12:18 Page 1 TO THE TEACHER The material in this booklet (two Modules) is from volumes 1B and 2A of the main Course, Books and Bookmarks. It can be used by those who have adopted the Compact version of Books and Bookmarks or any other Course book. It provides an in-depth study on the development of fiction in the 19th century and its connections to the social and cultural background with a wide selection of authors including two American ones and with a particular focus on Dickens as one of the main exponents of 19thcentury classic fiction. It can act as an expansion of M1 of Books and Bookmarks (Compact Edition). It can also be used independently and, to facilitate this, an Appendix contains all the literary texts you may need to refer to over and above those analysed in detail. The booklet is not accompanied by a Teacher’s Guide: for keys to the activities, teachers can download appropriate sections of the Books and Bookmarks Teacher’s Guide from the Loescher website www.loescher.it/booksandbookmarks, or refer to the printed Guide of the main volume of Books and Bookmarks. The booklet does, however, contain self-study materials for review, extension and test preparation purposes. TO THE STUDENT The learning itinerary of the booklet develops over two Modules of four Steps each. The first two steps of Module 1 focus on 19th-century narrative voices and the main aspects of the realistic tradition, Step three contains an entire short story and focuses on mystery, horror and sensation, while Step four deals with the development of psychological fiction. The second Module analyses the features of the classic novel through extensive readings from Dickens’ Great Expectations and ends with an analysis of the peculiarities of Dickens’ style. You may refer to the last section of the booklet called Personal File for materials and activities which can facilitate your learning process. De Luca, Ellis, Pace, Ranzoli - Books and Bookmarks, cod. 2634 © Loescher Editore 2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB:2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB 16/09/09 12:18 Page 2 MODULE 1 Fiction in the 19th Century Fiction was the most popular genre in the 19th century, first in Britain and later in the US. It enlarged its scope as regards subject matter, themes and form, catering for a variety of tastes and became the main form of entertainment of the middle classes. It reached the status of a classic form against which all subsequent developments would be assessed. This Module will examine the main development of fiction through some significant novels and short stories of the period. LEVEL ●●● intermediate TYPE OF MODULE genre-based, textual and contextual PREREQUISITES • knowledge of the basic aspects of narrative technique (story and plot, first-person and third-person narrators, characterisation) • knowledge of the traditional structure of the short story • knowledge of the basic features of Realism and of mainstream Victorian fiction OBJ ECTIVES • analyse both American and British works of fiction of the 19th century • identify the main aspects of 19th-century narrative voices • make inferences about the relationship between fiction writers and reading public • recognise aspects of innovation of different authors in relation to the socio-cultural context and tradition • locate their works in their cultural and literary context M AT E R I A L S FICTION • The Oval Portrait (1842) by Edgar Allan Poe • from Barry Lyndon (1843) by W. M. Thackeray • from Barry Lyndon (1843) by W. M. Thackeray (APPENDIX) • from Adam Bede (1859) by George Eliot • from The Woman in White (1860) by Wilkie Collins • from The Turn of the Screw (1898) by Henry James TIME approx. 25 hours LINKS BEYOND LITERATURE: • Film, The Woman in White • Music, The Woman in White BOOKMARK: Aspects of the Victorian Age (APPENDIX) BOOKMARK: Social Issues in Victorian Britain (APPENDIX) CROSS-CURRICULAR CARD: Realism and Naturalism, Aestheticism and Decadentism in European Literatures (APPENDIX) LEAD IN Novels and Short Stories Novels and short stories, which are the focus of this Module, are still one of the most popular forms of reading entertainment nowadays. Before you start studying the period when it reached its highest level of popularity in Britain, check how much you already know about the origin and features of the genre at the beginning of the 19th century. 2 De Luca, Ellis, Pace, Ranzoli - Books and Bookmarks, cod. 2634 © Loescher Editore 2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB:2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB 16/09/09 12:18 Page 3 M1 • FICTION IN THE 19TH CENTURY 1 See how many of the following questions you can answer. Then check your replies again after you have finished the Module which contains all the information required. 1 At the beginning of the 19th century was fiction considered a major genre or as second-rate literature? 2 Name three classic English novels. 3 Which of the following types of novels developed in the 19th century? ■ detective fiction ■ Gothic fiction ■ science fiction ■ realistic fiction ■ psychological fiction ■ crime fiction 4 Did the short story develop alongside the novel or at a later time? 5 Did horror and crime fiction develop in the first or second part of the 19th century? 6 Was 19th-century American fiction influenced by British fiction or did it develop independently? STEP One Narrative Voices and the Reading Public in 19th-Century Fiction OBJ ECTIVES In Step One you will: • analyse some quotations from works of fiction of the 19th century • identify aspects of 19th-century narrative voices • infer features of the socio-cultural context and expectations of the reading public he 18th-century novel, though still in its infancy, had already laid the foundations of the genre in terms of plot, characterisation, dialogue and narrator. It combined humour, realism and serious moral concern. While the first narrative form was the first-person narrator of Robinson Crusoe (1719) by Daniel Defoe (1661-1731) derived from diary-writing, the most common form soon became that of the omniscient narrator, introduced by Henry Fielding (1707-54) in his Tom Jones (1749) who created a very articulated fictional world. In both cases the reader had a very passive role because s/he was either guided by the first-person point of view or by the omniscient narrator who, as a creator of his/her own fictional world, interpreted everything either with direct comments or through a particular tone. The novelists of the 19th century enlarged the scope of these narrative techniques with significant innovations which paved the way for the experimental techniques of the beginning of the 20th century. T 3 De Luca, Ellis, Pace, Ranzoli - Books and Bookmarks, cod. 2634 © Loescher Editore 2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB:2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB 16/09/09 12:18 Page 4 V I CTO R I A N A G E In this Step you are going to read some short quotations taken from Victorian fiction, focusing on the narrator, his/her relationship with the reading public and the type of social context that is evoked. 1 Read through the 4 extracts below and note down in the margin if a third or a first-person narrator is used in each case. T1 W. M. Thackeray, Barry Lyndon, 1843 The progress of a love-story is tedious to all those who are not concerned, and I leave such themes to the hack novel-writers1, and the young boardingschool misses for whom they write. It is not my intention to follow, step by step, the incidents of my courtship, or to narrate all the difficulties I had to contend with2, and my triumphant manner of surmounting them. Suffice it to say, I did overcome these difficulties. they refers to... them refers to... T2 George Eliot, Adam Bede, 1859 Chapter 17 In which the Story Pauses a Little 10 “This Rector of Broxton is little better than a pagan!” I hear one of my readers exclaim. “How much more edifying it would have been if you had made him give Arthur some truly spiritual advice. You might have put into his mouth the most beautiful things — quite as good as reading a sermon.” Certainly I could, if I held it the highest vocation of the novelist to represent things as they never have been and never will be. Then, of course, I might refashion life and character entirely after my own liking; I might select the most unexceptionable type of clergyman, and put my own admirable opinions into his mouth on all occasions. But it happens, on the contrary, that my strongest effort is to avoid any such arbitrary picture, and to give a faithful account of men and things as they have mirrored themselves in my mind. The mirror is doubtless defective; the outlines will sometimes be disturbed, the reflection faint or confused; but I feel as much bound to tell you as precisely as I can what that reflection is, as if I were in the witness-box narrating my experience on oath3. you refers to... I refers to... T3 Wilkie Collins, The Woman in White, 1860 Thus the story here presented will be told by more than one pen, as the story of an offence against the laws is told in Court by more than one witness — with the same object, in both cases, to present the truth always in its most direct and most intelligible aspect; and to trace the course of one complete series of events, by making the persons who have been most closely connected with them, at each successive stage, relate their own experience, word for word. 1. hack novel-writers, novelists who write only for money. 2. to contend with, face (affrontare). both cases refers to... them refers to... 3. on oath, under solemn promise (sotto giuramento). 4 De Luca, Ellis, Pace, Ranzoli - Books and Bookmarks, cod. 2634 © Loescher Editore 2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB:2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB 16/09/09 12:18 Page 5 M1 • FICTION IN THE 19TH CENTURY 10 (...) Till you came here she was in the position of hundreds of other women, who marry men without being greatly attracted by them or greatly repelled by them, and who learn to love them (when they don’t learn to hate!) after marriage, instead of before. I hope more earnestly than words can say — and you should have the self-sacrificing courage to hope too — that the new thoug hts and feelings which have distur bed the old calmness and the old content have not taken root too deeply to be ever removed. she refers to Laura, the protagonist of the novel. they refers to... What does the old calmness and the old content refer to? T4 Henry James The Turn of the Screw, 1898 10 The story had held us, round the fire, sufficiently breathless, but except the obvious remark that it was gruesome4, as on Christmas Eve in an old house a strange tale should essentially be, I remember no comment uttered5 till somebody happened to note it as the only case he had met in which such a visitation had fallen on a child. The case, I may mention, was that of an apparition in just such an old house as had gathered us for the occasion — an appearance of a dreadful kind, to a little boy sleeping in the room with his mother and waking her up in the terror of it; waking her not to dissipate his dread and soothe 6 him to sleep again, but to encounter also herself, before she had succeeded in doing so, the same sight that had shocked him. It was this observation that drew from Douglas — not immediately, but later in the evening — a reply that had the interesting consequence to which I call attention. Someone else told a story not particularly effective, which I saw he was not following. This I took for a sign that he had himself something to produce and that we should only have to wait. it refers to... a visitation from... it refers to... This refers to... 2 Read text one, then read another text from the same novel in the Appendix, p. 80. a Circle the phrases where the narrator states his intentions, box the phrases that evoke social context and underline the words and phrases that refer to the narrator’s personality. b What opinion are you led to form about the narrator from his description of himself? c How does the narrator’s personality affect the reader’s reaction to the events he relates? d What information can you derive as regards novels and reading public? 3 Consider text two. a Underline all the sentences that convey the narrator’s voice and intentions. b In what sense is the narrating “I” different from that of the first extract? c Do you think the narrative voice throughout the novel will be a first-person or third-person one? What makes you think so? 4. gruesome, inspiring horror (raccapricciante). 5. uttered, expressed (espresso). 6. soothe, calm (tranquillizzare). 5 De Luca, Ellis, Pace, Ranzoli - Books and Bookmarks, cod. 2634 © Loescher Editore 2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB:2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB 16/09/09 12:18 Page 6 V I CTO R I A N A G E 4 Read text three. a Underline all the sentences that refer to narration and narrator and circle the phrases that evoke social context. b In what way is the narrative technique similar and in what way is it different from that of the previous extract? c What aspect of the social context comes out very vividly? 5 Analyse the fourth text. a How many narrators can you infer for this story? Why? b Do you think the story will be told by a first-person or third-person narrator? Why? c What aspects of the social context as regards the popularity of fiction and one of the ways of enjoying it come out of the extract? Give examples. d Underline all the words which evoke a particular atmosphere. How would you describe it? Developments in Narrative Technique in 19th-Century Fiction STUDY BOX CHECK… 1 Refer to the extracts you have read and the activities you have done and say which text/s convey the following features of narrative technique and social context. text/s a) b) c) d) e) f) g) h) i) realistic details omniscient narrative voice first-person narration multiple narrators women’s position in society fiction as a form of social entertainment split between ‘good’ and ‘bad’ literature taste for mystery and horror taste for love stories and romantic love …………… …………… …………… …………… …………… …………… …………… …………… …………… 2 In which text/s does the narrator address the reader? Which texts refer to a shared knowledge between novelists and readers? …AND LEARN The Narrator in Victorian Fiction ▼ The First-Person Unreliable Narrator The narrative voices of the extracts you have read differ widely, ranging from the first-person narrator of Barry Lyndon, to the omniscient narrator of Adam Bede and the multiple narrators of The Woman in White. The extracts provide good examples of the developments narrative technique underwent in the 19th century, all prompted by the novelists’ desire to achieve realism, that is to make their fictional worlds as real as possible. This need to make narratives as credible as possible brought about major changes in narrative voices. Thackeray’s choice of a villain as first-person narrator enlarges the scope of the first-person point of view leaving the reader more space for interpretation. 6 De Luca, Ellis, Pace, Ranzoli - Books and Bookmarks, cod. 2634 © Loescher Editore 2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB:2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB 16/09/09 12:18 Page 7 ▼ ▼ M1 • FICTION IN THE 19TH CENTURY The Omniscient Narrator Multiple Narrators As the narrator is a liar and a rogue, his voice is not trustworthy. The reader has a more active role in interpreting and assessing what s/he is being told and passes judgements on the character of the narrator in the same way as s/he judges fellow beings. In this way the narrator/character becomes more real and, as many characters in 19th-century fiction, lives outside the novel itself as a real human being. This unreliable first-person narrator, who keeps the reader alert in order not to be deceived by his lies, sometimes takes on an omniscient perspective, when he steps in the story in the same way as the third-person omniscient narrator, with comments on novel writing or moral generalisations. The omniscient perspective is typical of the narrative voice of 19th-century fiction, whether first- or third-person. Omniscient narrators know everything of the fictional world they have created, not only the events of the story to the least detail but can also follow different characters in different places and enter their minds to read their innermost thoughts. In addition, omniscient narrators often pass judgements on the worlds and characters they have created as well as interpreting everything for the benefit of the reader, leaving little or no room for his or her own interpretations. The reader is under the constant direction of the omniscient narrator’s point of view, whose values s/he is meant to share. Wilkie Collins’ choice of multiple, first-person narrators is a further device to achieve realism reporting events from as many perspectives as possible. This device, however, here used to add to realism, was highly innovative and would pave the way for the choice of non-omniscient voices typical of 20th-century fiction, to convey not a common view of reality, but the relativity of personal experience. ➔ STEP Two P E R S O N A L F I L E : G e t R e a d y f o r Te s t i n g , p . 7 0 Psychological Realism in Mainstream Fiction: George Eliot OBJ ECTIVES In Step Two you will: • analyse Adam Bede, a novel by George Eliot • identify its most characteristic features • recognise aspects of continuity and innovation in relation to tradition • locate the novel in its cultural and literary context 7 De Luca, Ellis, Pace, Ranzoli - Books and Bookmarks, cod. 2634 © Loescher Editore 2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB:2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB 16/09/09 12:18 Page 8 V I CTO R I A N A G E GEORGE ELIOT (1819-80) ➔ B I O G R A P H Y, p. 14 Adam Bede (1859) The novel we are going to analyse is Adam Bede by George Eliot, one of the greatest novelists of the 19th century. The work exemplifies the complexity fiction had reached, not only as regards narrative technique but also in its articulate fictional world which brings to life a complex social setting, the depth of its characterisation and the richness of its themes. Te x t o n e Though the title clearly indicates that the protagonist is Adam Bede, the novel includes various other characters who can be considered as co-protagonists. We will start our analysis with an extract from Chapter 9, which portrays one of these characters, Hetty, but also introduces Adam. 1 Read the text. a Focus on Hetty. Which of the following adjectives would you use to describe her? Give reasons for your choices. shy 10 beautiful aware of her beauty coquettish attractive b Focus on Adam. 1 Underline all the adjectives used to describe him. 2 For each adjective you have underlined describing his personality find at least one quotation from the text to exemplify it. c Underline the phrases and sentences that describe the social setting. In what way does Adam stand out? Hetty was quite used to the thought that people liked to look at her. She was not blind to the fact that young Luke Britton of Broxton came to Hayslope Church on a Sunday afternoon on purpose that he might see her; and that he would have made much more decided advances if her uncle Poyser, thinking but lightly of a young man whose father’s land was so foul1 as old Luke Britton’s, had not forbidden her aunt to encourage him by any civilities2. She was aware, too, that Mr. Craig, the gardener at the Chase, was over head and ears in love with her3, and had lately made unmistakable avowals4 in luscious5 strawberries and hyperbolical peas. She knew still better, that Adam Bede — tall, upright, clever, brave Adam Bede — who carried such authority with all the people round about, and whom her uncle was always delighted to see of an evening, saying that “Adam knew a fine sight more6 o’ the nature o’ things than those as 1. foul, messy (trascurato). 2. civilities, polite acts (cortesie). 3. over head and ears in love with her, deeply in love (innamorato cotto). her refers to... Luke Britton’s... What does this reaction suggest? 4. avowals, declarations (dichiarazioni). 5. luscious, delicious (deliziose). 6. a fine sight more, a lot more (molto di più). 8 De Luca, Ellis, Pace, Ranzoli - Books and Bookmarks, cod. 2634 © Loescher Editore 2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB:2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB 16/09/09 12:18 Page 9 M1 • FICTION IN THE 19TH CENTURY 20 thought themselves his better” — she knew that this Adam, who was often rather stern7 to other people, and not much given to run after the lasses8, could be made to turn pale or red any day by a word or a look from her. Hetty’s sphere of comparison was not large, but she couldn’t help perceiving that Adam was “something like” a man; always knew what to say about things, could tell her uncle how to prop the hovel9, and had mended the churn10 in no time; knew, with only looking at it, the value of the chestnut tree that was blown down, and why the damp came in the walls, and what they must do to stop the rats; and wrote a beautiful hand that you could read off, and could do figures in his head — a degree of accomplishment totally unknown among the richest farmers of that countryside. it refers to... 2 Focus on characterisation. How are characters built (through showing or telling) and from whose point of view? 3 How do you think the relationship between Adam and Hetty will develop? Write a paragraph describing your predictions. Te x t t w o Below is a second extract, taken from the same chapter, which adds to Hetty’s characterisation. 1 Read the text and find out what happens to Hetty and how she is affected by it. 10 7. 8. 9. But for the last few weeks a new influence had come over Hetty — vague, atmospheric, shaping itself into no self-confessed hopes or prospects, but producing a pleasant narcotic effect, making her tread the ground and go about her work in a sort of dream, unconscious of weight or effort, and showing her all things through a soft, liquid veil, as if she were living not in this solid world of brick and stone, but in a beautified world, such as the sun lights up for us in the waters. Hetty had become aware that Mr. Arthur Donnithorne would take a good deal of trouble for the chance of seeing her; that he always placed himself at church so as to have the fullest view of her both sitting and standing; that he was constantly finding reasons for calling at the Hall Farm, and always would contrive1 to say something for the sake of making her speak to him and look at him. The poor child no more conceived at present the idea that the young squire could ever be her lover, than a baker’s pretty daughter in the crowd, whom a young emperor distinguishes by an imperial but admiring smile, conceives that she shall be made empress. stern, severe (severo). lasses, girls (ragazze). to prop the hovel, prevent the hut from falling (puntellare il capanno). itself refers to... her refers to... Mr Arthur Donnithorne is the squire of the village. The poor child refers to... 10. churn, large milk-can to make butter (zangola). 1. contrive, manage (riusciva). 9 De Luca, Ellis, Pace, Ranzoli - Books and Bookmarks, cod. 2634 © Loescher Editore 2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB:2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB 16/09/09 12:18 Page 10 V I CTO R I A N A G E 2 Consider characterisation and language. a Find quotations that reveal that: – life takes on a dreamlike quality for Hetty – Hetty feels detached from everyday reality – she is unaware of her hopes and dreams. b What psychological features does characterisation most stress? c How would you describe the language used? concrete detailed figurative evocative Blackburn Museum & Art Galleries 3 Underline the sentence that conveys the extent of the gap between the social classes of the time and the phrase that conveys the narrator’s comment on Hetty’s feelings. What predictions can you make about the likely development of the story? Here is an outline of the plot so far. John Collier, Hetty Sorrel, Blackburn Museum & Art Galleries, Blackburn, Lancashire. s u m m a ry The novel is set in the English Midlands at the beginning of the 19th century. The protagonist is Adam Bede, the village carpenter, a hard-working young man of stern morals who falls in love with the vain and frivolous Hetty Sorrel, the niece of the farmer Martin Poyser. While accepting Adam’s courtship, Hetty falls in love and is seduced by the local squire°, Arthur. After the squire has deserted her, though promising to help her if she is in trouble, she finds herself pregnant, but conceals the truth even to herself and becomes engaged to Adam. Another main character in the novel is Dinah, a Methodist preacher, the niece of Martin Poyser’s wife, who is in love with Adam. Te x t t h r e e The text below is taken from Chapter 35. 1 Read and find out what Hetty decides to do when she cannot escape reality any longer. No, she has not courage to jump into that cold watery bed, and if she had, they might find her — they might find out why she had drowned herself. There is but one thing left to her: she must go away, go where they can’t find her. 1 After the first on-coming of her great dread, some weeks after her betrothal to Adam, she had waited and waited, in the blind vague hope that something would happen to set her free from her terror; but she could wait no longer. All the force of her nature had been concentrated on the one effort of concealment, and she had ° squire, a title given in the Middle Ages to a young gentleman training for knighthood. In the 19th century this term came to refer to the chief landowner in a village. she refers to... What might they find out? great dread of what? 1. betrothal, engagement of marriage (fidanzamento). 10 De Luca, Ellis, Pace, Ranzoli - Books and Bookmarks, cod. 2634 © Loescher Editore 2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB:2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB 16/09/09 12:18 Page 11 M1 • FICTION IN THE 19TH CENTURY 10 shrunk2 with irresistible dread from every course that could tend towards a betrayal of her miserable secret. Whenever the thought of writing to Arthur had occurred to her, she had rejected it: he could do nothing for her that could shelter her from discovery and scorn3 among the relatives and neighbours who once more made all 4 her world, now her airy dream had vanished. Her imagination no longer saw happiness with Arthur, for he could do nothing that would satisfy or soothe5 her pride. No, something else would happen — something must happen — to set her free from this dread. In young, childish, ignorant souls there is constantly this blind trust in some unshapen6 chance: it is as hard to a boy or girl to believe that a great wretchedness7 will actually befall them8, as to believe that they will die. her miserable secret refers to... What was her airy dream? 2 Focus on language, narrative technique and characterisation. a Circle the verbs in the present tense. In what way does the change of tenses affect narration and the reader’s response? b Underline all the sentences and phrases that convey Hetty’s state of mind. What features of Hetty’s personality are stressed? c Find quotations that convey Hetty’s lack of contact with reality. d Why does she not write to Arthur? In what way is her decision consistent with her behaviour so far? e On what aspect of Hetty’s character does the narrator provide a moral generalisation? Quote from the text to support your answer. 3 How do you expect the story to go on? s u m m a ry Hetty at last decides to leave her village and ask for Arthur’s help, but on the way she delivers her baby and kills it. She is arrested and condemned to death for child murder. Te x t f o u r The text below, taken from Chapter 47, describes Hetty’s arrival at the scene of the execution accompanied by Dinah. 1 Read the text and find out what happens when the women reach the gallows. The Last Moment It was a sight that some people remembered better even than their own sorrows — the sight in that grey clear morning, when the fatal cart with the two young women in it was descried1 by the waiting watching multitude, cleaving its way2 towards the hideous3 symbol of a deliberately-inflicted sudden death. All Stoniton had heard of Dinah Morris, the young Methodist woman who had brought the obstinate criminal to confess, and there was as much eagerness to see her as to see the wretched4 Hetty. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. shrunk, avoided (evitato). scorn, contempt (disprezzo). airy, imaginary (inconsistente). soothe, calm (placare). unshapen, improbable (improbabile). wretchedness, misery (disgrazia). the fatal cart refers to... the hideous symbol is... her refers to... 8. befall them, happen to them (capitare). 1. 2. 3. 4. descried, seen (visto). cleaving its way, cutting its way through (facendosi strada). hideous, repulsive (odioso). wretched, despicable (sciagurata). 11 De Luca, Ellis, Pace, Ranzoli - Books and Bookmarks, cod. 2634 © Loescher Editore 2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB:2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB 16/09/09 12:18 Page 12 V I CTO R I A N A G E 10 20 But Dinah was hardly conscious of the multitude. When Hetty had caught sight of the vast crowd in the distance, she had clutched5 Dinah convulsively. “Close your eyes, Hetty.” Dinah said, “and let us pray without ceasing to God.” And in a low voice, as the cart went slowly along through the midst6 of the 7 gazing crowds, she poured forth her soul with the wrestling intensity of a last pleading8, for the trembling creature that clung9 to her and clutched her as the only visible sign of love and pity. Dinah did not know that the crowd was silent, gazing at her with a sort of 10 awe — she did not even know how near they were to the fatal spot, when the cart stopped, and she shrank11 appalled12 at a loud shout hideous to her ear, like a vast yell of demons. Hetty’s shriek13 mingled with the sound, and they clasped each other in mutual horror. But it was not a shout of execration — not a yell of exultant cruelty. It was the shout of sudden excitement at the appearance of a horseman cleaving the crowd at full gallop. The horse is hot and distressed, but answers the 14 desperate spurring : the rider looks as if his eyes were glazed by madness, and he saw nothing but what was unseen by others. See, he has something in his hand — he is holding it up as if it were a signal. The Sheriff knows him: it is Arthur Donnithorne, carrying in his hand a hard-won release from death. the trembling creature is... it refers to... he refers to... 2 Focus on character. a Make notes on Dinah. What aspects of her personality are underlined? b How does her personality compare with Hetty’s? 3 Consider language. a Underline the phrases and sentences that convey the attitude of the crowd to the events and characters. What feelings are emphasised? b Focus on the use of tenses which switch from past to present. What effect does this device create? 4 Consider narrative technique, language and the reader’s reactions. Which most contribute/s to creating suspense? s u m m a ry Hetty’s sentence is commuted to transportation and Dinah eventually marries Adam. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. clutched, grasped (afferrato). midst, middle (mezzo). wrestling, struggling (battagliera). pleading, intercession (supplica). clung, held fast (si aggrappava). 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. awe, reverential fear (timore reverenziale). shrank, drew back (indietreggiò). appalled, terrified (sgomenta). shriek, scream (urlo). spurring, urging (spronare). 12 De Luca, Ellis, Pace, Ranzoli - Books and Bookmarks, cod. 2634 © Loescher Editore A Graham Dixon 1996 This is how the story ends. 2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB:2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB 16/09/09 12:18 Page 13 M1 • FICTION IN THE 19TH CENTURY Aspects of Realism in Mainstream Fiction STUDY BOX CHECK… Below are listed the main features of George Eliot’s fiction. Say to what extent they are exemplified in the texts you have read. a) b) c) d) e) creation of a very articulated fictional world mainly rural and provincial social settings skilful characterisation through showing and telling focus on psychological aspects of characterisation use of contrasting characters to highlight the contrast between positive and negative moral values f) obtrusive omniscient narrator g) stern moral code h) use of suspense …AND LEARN Realistic Fiction A. Graham-Dixon, 1996 George Eliot’s Psychological Realism John Singer Sargent, Lady Agnew of Lochnaw, c. 1892-93. A portrait of a lady from the later Victorian period. ▼ …………… …………… …………… …………… …………… …………… …………… …………… Realism in fiction means the portrayal of life as it really is without idealising it or ‘beautifying’ it. This idea of adhering to the ‘truthfulness’ of the events narrated implies a common set of values and a shared view of the world between writers and reading public who are ready to accept fiction as a mirror of reality and a true interpretation of their world. The realistic novel came into existence in a period when the general assumptions of the time were those of a common set of values according to which to judge reality. Realist novelists were concerned with everyday events of their own period and environment. They saw themselves both as entertainers and reformers, and were optimistic about improving the society they belonged to and wrote for. Notwithstanding this common ground, however, Victorian novelists vary widely in style and themes (➔ PERSONAL FILE: QUICK REFERENCE, p. 63). George Eliot is considered by many critics one of the greatest Victorian novelists and all her novels testify to the artistic level realistic fiction had reached by mid-19th century. Adam Bede is a good example of the typical features of George Eliot’s realism and of the aspects of continuity and innovation in the development of the genre. Like Jane Austen (1775-1817) in the previous century, she drew her source of inspiration, particularly in her early period, from the provincial environment of her youth. But while Jane Austen limited her field to the landed gentry, Eliot enlarged the social setting bringing to life the rural civilisation of the period including all social classes. She perfected the art of characterisation creating a gallery of life-like characters both through telling and showing and improved the technique of showing characters not only through their words and behaviour but also through other people’s reactions to them and through a skilful handling of point of view. She enlarged the scope of realism focusing on the inner life of her characters with detailed and sympathetic psychological descriptions. She created skilful and deep psychological portraits which would pave the way for the development of psychological fiction (➔ Step Four). Like Jane Austen she also conformed to a strict moral code through which characters are judged and she often contrapposed contrasting characters to make her moral point more poignant. In Adam Bede, for example, Hetty, is shown in a critical light as 13 De Luca, Ellis, Pace, Ranzoli - Books and Bookmarks, cod. 2634 © Loescher Editore 2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB:2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB 16/09/09 12:18 Page 14 ▼ ▼ V I CTO R I A N A G E Victorian and Modern Aspects of George Eliot’s Female Characters UPDATE egocentric, unfeeling and immoral and is in stark contrast with upright Dinah. Her seducer, Arthur Donnithorne, is Adam Bede’s counterpart and is made to suffer the consequences of his actions. Eliot’s novels also reveal concessions to the popular taste of her time in elements of suspense and melodrama (➔ Step Three). George Eliot is particularly notable for her delineation of female characters. She was the first novelist to explore in depth the question of woman’s role in society and in her novels she attacks the narrow-mindedness and hypocrisy that surrounded sexual morality at the time and in this sense she is indebted to Charlotte Brontë who in her Jane Eyre (1847), a novel which combines Romantic, Gothic and Realistic features, traces a realistic portrait of a woman who relies only on herself and her moral and intellectual qualities to gain selfrespect and independence. Like Charlotte, however, who like herself wrote under a male pseudonym, George Eliot was by no means a feminist in the modern sense. She upheld the traditional duties of family based on fidelity and honesty and believed that the social function of women was primarily that of marrying, bearing children and establishing loving relationships with others. Which form/s of entertainment nowadays has/have the same popularity as fiction had in the 19th century? Which make/s more concessions to popular taste? What are the features that nowadays most appeal to popular taste? BIOGRAPHY Life and Works M ary Ann (Marian) Evans was born in 1819. She attended school until her mother’s death in 1836, when she became her father’s housekeeper. She received a strict religious education, but she read widely and studied Italian and German. When her father died, she moved to London and became assistant editor of the “Westminster Review” (1851-53): her hard work and contributions made it the leading intellectual journal of the day. She met many radicals and free-thinkers and re-examined her views of Christianity. She began a relationship with George Henry Lewes, a writer and journalist who was separated from his wife. Since he could not obtain a divorce, they decided to live together, a decision which sacrificed her social reputation and led to her being outcast from her family. It was only after Lewes’s death, when she married a man twenty years younger than herself that her brother resumed relationships with her. She died in the same year in 1880. It was Lewes who discovered and helped to develop the novelist’s writing talent. Under the pen name George Eliot, Evans began to write fiction. Her first work, Scenes of Clerical Life (1857) appeared as separate tales in 1857. The following year Adam Bede was published, a more ambitious novel which met with both critical and public favour. Her reputation was strengthened by The Mill on the Floss (1860) and Silas Marner (1861). All these works dealt with the provincial middle-class world which she knew from her childhood and youth. In Romola (1863) she tried her hand 14 De Luca, Ellis, Pace, Ranzoli - Books and Bookmarks, cod. 2634 © Loescher Editore ▼ Walters-Noordhoff, 1991 GEORGE ELIOT (1819-80) 2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB:2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB 16/09/09 12:18 Page 15 M1 • FICTION IN THE 19TH CENTURY at a historical novel set in the Italian Renaissance but returned to the familiar region of the English province in Felix Holt (1866) and in Middlemarch (1871-72). The latter novel consolidated her reputation as the greatest living novelist and put an end to her social ostracism. Her last great novel, Daniel Deronda (1874-76) was not so popular but, in some respects, was her most original work. Contents and Themes George Eliot’s works have two main components. First, they were all inspired, to a greater or lesser degree, by her own life and beliefs. Secondly, they all reveal a serious intention to present an objective and faithful picture of reality. She is notable for a deep insight into human psychology, a faith in humanity which replaced her lost faith in Christianity, and a strong sense of moral duty based on the natural law of the affections rather than on religious doctrine, legal bonds or social customs. Eliot also wanted to promote a new view of the ➔ STEP lower classes and her novels often show how humble people are capable of great strength of character. Style Her greatest fictional achievement lies perhaps in her ability to recreate in her novels the farming and business life of the English provinces which she describes and brings to life with skilful and detailed descriptions both of the setting and the individuals. Her omniscient narrator goes deep into the motivations of the single characters and the relationship of the individual to society but the tone is always tempered with humour and human sympathy. Fortune After her death, her reputation declined until the middle of the 20th century when her merits were fully acknowledged. She now ranks among the great Victorian novelists. Certain critics would say she was the greatest and Middlemarch the greatest of all Victorian novels. Some of her works have been turned into successful films. P E R S O N A L F I L E : G e t R e a d y f o r Te s t i n g , p . 7 0 Three Mystery and Horror Stories and the ‘Sensation Novel’ OBJ ECTIVES In Step Three you will: • analyse a short story by an American writer, Edgar Allan Poe and an extract from a novel by a British novelist, Wilkie Collins • identify the main features of their fiction • recognise aspects of innovation in relation to the socio-cultural context and tradition EDGAR ALLAN POE (1809-49) ➔ B I O G R A P H Y, p. 24 The Oval Portrait (1842) The first text of this Step is a complete short story by an American writer, Edgar Allan Poe. The short story developed in the US in the 19th century in the form of contributions to magazines. Though Poe was not the inventor of the genre, which had already flourished 15 De Luca, Ellis, Pace, Ranzoli - Books and Bookmarks, cod. 2634 © Loescher Editore 2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB:2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB 16/09/09 12:18 Page 16 V I CTO R I A N A G E with Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-64), in his review of Hawthorne’s Twice-Told Tales he provided an analysis of the genre which set out the rules for the short story which would be very influential on its development in Europe. The Oval Portrait first appeared in a magazine in April, 1842 with a lengthy introduction in which the narrator described himself ill with fever, exhausted from lack of sleep, wounded and under the influence of opium. 1 Read the first paragraph up to line 21. a Make notes about: – setting (time and place) – characters – event b What expectations about possible development have been created? c In what way may Poe’s introduction influence the reader’s expectations? 2 Read the whole story. 10 a How far have your expectations been met? b What strikes you about the structure of this story? The château into which my valet1 had ventured to make forcible entrance, rather than permit me, in my desperately wounded condition, to pass a night in the open air, was one of those piles of commingled2 gloom3 and grandeur which have so long frowned4 among the Apennines, not less in fact than in the fancy of Mrs. Radcliffe5. To all appearance it had been temporarily and very lately abandoned. We established ourselves in one of the smallest and least sumptuously furnished apartments. It lay in a remote turret of the building. Its decorations were rich, yet tattered6 and antique. Its walls were hung with tapestry and bedecked 7 with manifold and multiform armorial trophies, together with an unusually great number of very spirited modern paintings in frames of rich golden arabesque8. In these paintings, which depended9 from the walls not only in their main surfaces, but in very many nooks10 which the bizarre architecture of the château rendered necessary — in these paintings my 11 incipient delirium, perhaps, had caused me to take deep interest; so that I bade 12 Pedro to close the heavy shutters of the room since it was already night,— to light the tongues of a tall candelabrum which stood by the head of my bed, and to throw open far and wide the fringed curtains of black velvet which enveloped the bed itself. I wished all this done that I might resign myself, if not to sleep, at least alternately to the contemplation of these pictures, and the perusal13 of a 1. valet, (domestico). 2. commingled, blended (mescolati). 3. gloom, (tetraggine). 4. frowned, showed disapproval by facial expression (guardano torvi). 5. Mrs. Radcliffe, reference to Ann Radcliffe (1764-1823) famous Gothic novelist whose Mysteries of Udolpho is partly set in the Apennines. 6. tattered, ragged (logore). it refers to... ourselves refers to... Pedro is... 7. bedecked, decorated (ornate). 8. golden arabesque, decorated with Moorish embellishments (Arabian art that flourished in Medieval Spain). 9. depended, hang (erano appesi). 10. nooks, corners (nicchie). 11. bade, ordered (ordinai). 12. shutters, wooden covers for windows (imposte). 13. perusal, careful reading (lettura). 16 De Luca, Ellis, Pace, Ranzoli - Books and Bookmarks, cod. 2634 © Loescher Editore 2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB:2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB 16/09/09 12:18 Page 17 M1 • FICTION IN THE 19TH CENTURY 50 14. purported, claimed to (si proponeva). 15. slumbering, sleeping (che dormiva). 16. niche, nook (nicchia). 17. hitherto, up to now (finora). 18. bedposts, uprights in a four-poster bed (colonne di letto a baldacchino). 19. aright, well (bene). 20. startle, bring back with a shock (riportarmi di colpo). 21. vignette, Poe refers either to a painting style in which the figure Which action? What might be the reason for such reaction? 9 40 them refers to... 99 30 small volume which had been found upon the pillow, and which purported14 to criticise and describe them. Long, long I read — and devoutly, devoutly I gazed. Rapidly and gloriously the hours flew by and the deep midnight came. The position of the candelabrum displeased me, and outreaching my hand with difficulty, rather than disturb my slumbering15 valet, I placed it so as to throw its rays more fully upon the book. But the action produced an effect altogether unanticipated. The rays of the numerous candles (for there were many) now fell within a niche16 of the room which had hitherto17 been thrown into deep shade by one of the bedposts18. I thus saw in vivid light a picture all unnoticed before. It was the portrait of a young girl just ripening into womanhood. I glanced at the painting hurriedly, and then closed my eyes. Why I did this was not at first apparent even to my own perception. But while my lids remained thus shut, I ran over in my mind my reason for so shutting them. It was an impulsive movement to gain time for thought — to make sure that my vision had not deceived me — to calm and subdue my fancy for a more sober and more certain gaze. In a very few moments I again looked fixedly at the picture. 19 That I now saw aright I could not and would not doubt; for the first flashing of the candles upon that canvas had seemed to dissipate the dreamy stupor which 20 was stealing over my senses, and to startle me at once into waking life. The portrait, I have already said, was that of a young girl. It was a mere head and shoulders, done in what is technically called a vignette21 manner; much in the style of the favourite heads of Sully22. The arms, the bosom, and even the ends of the radiant hair melted imperceptibly into the vague yet deep shadow which formed the background of the whole. The frame was oval, richly gilded and filigreed in Moresque23. As a thing of art, nothing could be more admirable than the painting itself. But it could have been neither the execution of the work, nor the immortal beauty of the countenance, which had so suddenly and so vehemently moved me. Least of all, could it have been that my fancy, shaken from its half slumber, had mistaken the head for that of a living person. I saw at once that the peculiarities of the design, of the vignetting and of the frame, must have instantly dispelled such idea — must have prevented even its momentary entertainment. Thinking earnestly upon these points, I remained, for an hour perhaps half sitting, half reclining, with my vision riveted24 upon the portrait. At length, satisfied with the true secret of its effect, I fell back within the bed. I had found the spell25 of the picture in an absolute life likeliness of expression, which, at first startling, finally confounded, subdued, and appalled me. With deep and reverent awe26 I replaced the candelabrum in its former position. The cause of my n, 1 20 o aid Ph A. Dixon, Princess Helena, miniature on ivory, Royal Collection, c. 1866. shades off gradually into the background or a portrait that implies a story – for example, early death, happy marriage, or other situations. 22. Sully, Thomas Sully (1783-1872) was a leading portrait artist of Philadelphia who (probably) was personally acquainted with Poe. 23. filigreed in Moresque, intricate embellishment in the Moorish style. 24. riveted, fastened firmly (incollati). 25. spell, irresistible attraction (malia). 26. awe, reverential fear (timore reverenziale). 17 De Luca, Ellis, Pace, Ranzoli - Books and Bookmarks, cod. 2634 © Loescher Editore 2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB:2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB 16/09/09 12:18 Page 18 V I CTO R I A N A G E 60 70 80 90 27. 28. 29. 30. 31. 32. 33. 34. 35. deep agitation being thus shut from view, I sought eagerly the volume which discussed the paintings and their histories. Turning to the number which designated the oval portrait, I there read the vague and quaint words which follow: ‘She was a maiden of rarest beauty, and not more lovely than full of glee27. 28 And evil was the hour when she saw, and loved, and wedded the painter. He, passionate, studious, austere, and having already a bride in his Art: she a maiden of rarest beauty, and not more lovely than full of glee; all light and smiles, and 29 30 31 frolicsome as the young fawn ; loving and cherishing all things; hating only the Art which was her rival; dreading only the palette and brushes and other untoward32 instruments which deprived her of the countenance of her lover. It was thus a terrible thing for this lady to hear the painter speak of his desire to portray even his young bride. But she was humble and obedient, and sat meekly33 for many weeks in the dark high turret-chamber where the light dripped upon the pale canvas only from overhead. But he, the painter, took glory in his work, which went on from hour to hour, and from day to day. And he was a passionate, and wild, and moody man, who became lost in reveries; so 34 35 that he would not see that the light which fell so ghastly in that lone turret withered36 the health and the spirits of his bride, who pined37 visibly to all but him. Yet she smiled on and still on, uncomplainingly, because she saw that the painter (who had high renown) took a fervid and burning pleasure in his task and wrought38 day and night to depict her who so loved him, yet who grew daily more dispirited and weak. And in sooth39 some who beheld40 the portrait spoke of its resemblance in low words, as of a mighty marvel, and a proof not less of the power of the painter than of his deep love for her, whom he depicted so surprisingly well. But at length, as the labour drew nearer to its conclusion, there were admitted none into the turret; for the painter had grown wild, with the ardour of his work, and turned his eyes from the canvas rarely, even to regard the countenance of his wife. And he would not see that the tints41, which he spread upon the canvas were drawn from the cheeks of her who sat beside him. And when many weeks had passed, and but a little remained to do, save one brush upon the mouth and one tint upon the eye, the spirit of the lady again flickered up42 as the flame within the socket of the lamp. And then the brush was given, and then the tint was placed; and, for one moment, the painter stood entranced43 before the work which he had wrought; but in the next, while he yet gazed, he grew tremulous and very pallid, and aghast44, and crying with a loud voice, “This is indeed Life itself!” turned suddenly to regard his beloved: — She was dead!’ glee, joy (gioa). wedded, married (sposò). frolicsome, gay (gioiosa). fawn, young dear (cerbiatta). cherishing, enjoying (godeva). untoward, unfavourable (avversi). meekly, patiently (pazientemente). ghastly, terrifying to the senses (sinistra). lone, solitary (solitaria). 36. 37. 38. 39. 40. 41. 42. 43. 44. She refers to... her lover refers to... the labour refers to... the lady refers to... withered, caused to fade (appassiva). pined, lost health (languiva). wrought, worked (lavorava). in sooth, in truth (in verità). beheld, saw (vide). tints, colours (colori). flickered up, revived (si ravvivò). entranced, enraptured (estasiato). aghast, horrified (inorridito). 18 De Luca, Ellis, Pace, Ranzoli - Books and Bookmarks, cod. 2634 © Loescher Editore 2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB:2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB 16/09/09 12:18 Page 19 M1 • FICTION IN THE 19TH CENTURY 3 The Oval Portrait is a short story in the Gothic tradition. Let us analyse how far the story conforms to tradition and how far it departs from it. a Focus on the description of the setting and events. 1 Which of the following aspects most contribute to giving it a Gothic flavour? exotic elements reference to literary tradition remoteness decay the finding of the book the protagonist’s physical and psychological condition solitude 2 Does mystery and horror originate more from dreadful events or from moods and states of mind? Support your answer with quotations. b Consider characters. 1 Make notes about their physical appearance and their personality. Which of the two characters shows odd traits? 2 How would you describe their relationship to each other? Support your choice with appropriate quotations. submissive loving selfish passionate destructive possessive vampiresque protective 3 Would you describe the characters as stock characters? Why/why not? c How far does the language used contribute to the creation of the atmosphere and to characterisation? 4 Consider the structure of the story. In what way does it conform to what is considered the traditional story pattern and in what way does it depart from it? WILKIE COLLINS (1824-89) ➔ B I O G R A P H Y, p. 25 The Woman in White (1860) The second text you are going to read in this Step is an extract from a novel by Wilkie Collins, The Woman in White which is considered the prototype of the sensation novel. The very first lines of the preamble to the novel prepare the reader to expect events that stretch beyond everyday experience: “This is the story of what a Woman’s patience can endure, and what a Man’s resolution can achieve.” 1 Read the Bookmark Aspects of the Victorian Age (APPENDIX, p. 81) and find out in the summary of the novel given below as many references as you can to the social context. s u m m a ry The novel is narrated by different narrators and also includes diary entries, documents and personal accounts. The larger part of the story, however, is told by Walter Hartright, a drawing teacher who is employed by Mr Fairlie to teach his nieces Laura and Marian. On his way from the station to reach the place of his employment, in the middle of the night, he has a strange meeting with a woman all dressed in white, whom he later learns is called Ann Catherick and has escaped from a mental asylum. He falls in love with Laura who bears a striking resemblance to the woman in white. (Actually she turns out to be an illegitimate daughter of Laura’s father and therefore her sister). Laura, however, had been promised in marriage by her father to Sir Percival Glyde and, though in love with Hartright, she is 19 De Luca, Ellis, Pace, Ranzoli - Books and Bookmarks, cod. 2634 © Loescher Editore 2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB:2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB 16/09/09 12:18 Page 20 V I CTO R I A N A G E bound to keep her promise. Brokenhearted Hartright leaves England, but soon after the marriage Laura gets to know the real nature of her husband who has only married her in order to get her wealth. He also turns out to be responsible for the confinement in the asylum of Anne Catherick to prevent her from revealing a secret about Sir Percival which would ruin him. Unable to get Laura to sign the document which would allow him to get his wife’s money, Sir Percival and his friend Fosco take advantage of Anne Catherick’s death to bury her as Lady MMMMA still from the film The Woman in White. Glyde and get Laura confined in the Hartright’s first meeting with the woman in white. asylum as Anne Catherick. The trick, however, is discovered by Marian who rescues her half-sister from the asylum but is not able to get her recognised as Lady Glyde. They live in poverty and Marian looks after Laura whose experience has left her unbalanced. Meanwhile Hartright returns and learns of Laura’s death. The extract below is taken from Hartright’s narrative relating events after his return from abroad. 2 Read the text and find out what Hartright discovers while visiting Laura’s tomb. 10 Time had flowed on, and silence had fallen like thick night over its course. The first sound that came after the heavenly peace rustled1 faintly like a passing breath of air over the grass at the burial-ground. I heard it nearing me slowly, until it came changed to my ear — came like footsteps moving onward — then stopped. I looked up. The sunset was near at hand. The clouds had parted — the slanting2 light fell mellow3 over the hills. The last of the day was cold and clear and still in the quiet valley of the dead. Beyond me, in the burial-ground, standing together in the cold clearness of the lower light, I saw two women. They were looking towards the tomb, looking towards me. Two. They came a little on, and stopped again. Their veils were down, and hid their faces from me. When they stopped one of them raised her veil. In the still evening I saw the face of Marian Halcombe. Changed, changed as if years had passed over it! The eyes large and wild, and looking at me with a strange terror in them. The face worn and wasted 4 piteously. Pain and fear and grief written on her as with a brand. 1. rustled, produced quick creaking sounds (frusciò). 2. slanting, oblique (obliqua). it refers to... I refers to... it refers to... 3. mellow, soft (morbida). 4. wasted, ruined (sciupata). 20 De Luca, Ellis, Pace, Ranzoli - Books and Bookmarks, cod. 2634 © Loescher Editore 2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB:2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB 16/09/09 12:18 Page 21 M1 • FICTION IN THE 19TH CENTURY 20 30 40 I took one step towards her from the grave. She never moved — she never spoke. The veiled woman with her cried out faintly. I stopped. The springs of my life fell low, and the shuddering of an unutterable5 dread crept over me from head to foot. The woman with the veiled face moved away from her companion, and came towards me slowly. Left by herself, standing by herself, Marian Halcombe spoke. It was the voice that I remembered — the voice not changed, like the frightened eyes and the wasted face. ‘My dream! my dream!’ I heard her say those words softly in the awful silence. She sank on her knees, and raised her clasped hands to heaven. ‘Father! strengthen him. Father! help him in his hour of need.’ The woman came on, slowly and silently came on. I looked at her — at her, and at none other, from that moment. 6 The voice that was praying for me faltered and sank low — then rose on a 7 sudden, and called affrightedly , called despairingly to me to come away. But the veiled woman had possession of me, body and soul. She stopped on one side of the grave. We stood face to face with the tombstone between us. She was close to the inscription on the side of the pedestal. Her gown touched the black letters. The voice came nearer, and rose and rose more passionately still. “Hide your face! don’t look at her!” “Oh, for God’s sake, spare him —” The woman lifted her veil. him refers to... Which woman? us refers to... “Sacred to the Memory of Laura, Lady Glyde —” Laura, Lady Glyde, was standing by the inscription, and was looking at me over the grave. (The Second Epoch of the Story Closes Here) a From whose point of view are events related? b Underline all the phrases referring to the setting. c To what senses does the description particularly appeal? Provide examples. d Find examples of foregrounding of words and sentences, repetition and metaphorical language and say in what way they contribute to creating a disquieting atmosphere. R. Todd-White / Penguin 3 Focus on narrative technique and language. 4 On the basis of your analysis what features of the narrative most contribute in your opinion to creating a sense of suspense and mystery? 5. unutterable, indescribable (inesprimibile). 6. faltered, hesitated (esitò). 7. affrightedly, in a frightened way (spaventata). 21 De Luca, Ellis, Pace, Ranzoli - Books and Bookmarks, cod. 2634 © Loescher Editore 2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB:2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB 16/09/09 12:18 Page 22 V I CTO R I A N A G E This is how the story ends. s u m m a ry Hartright takes the two women under his care and sets out to discover Sir Percival’s secret. He finds that he was an illegitimate child and had no right to the title. In a last attempt to save his position by stealing the parish register, Sir Percival is burnt to death and Fosco is forced to supply the information which will restore Laura’s identity. He will then be killed by a member of an Italian secret society which he has betrayed. ➔ TH E F I LM: The Woman in White, p. 55 ➔ TH E M U S I C: The Woman in White, p. 60 Features of Gothic, Mystery and Horror Fiction and of the Sensation Novel STUDY BOX CHECK… 1 Refer to Poe’s story. a Say which of the following features of the Gothic tradition are present providing quotations from the text. 1 complicated plots 2 supernatural events, presence of ghosts 3 setting in dark and mysterious places (e.g. Medieval Gothic castles or monasteries with secret passages) usually in autumn or winter, preferably night-time with bad weather 4 virtuous heroes and heroines persecuted by a villain 5 eerie and gloomy atmosphere with suggestions of terror and sorrow 6 use of emotional language b In what way does The Oval Portrait differ from the Gothic tradition? 2 On the basis of the summary of the plot and the extract you have read from The Woman in White, say which of the following features of the sensation novel you can recognise, providing examples. …AND LEARN E. A. Poe, Gothic and Mystery Tales ▼ ■ 1 complicated plots based on horror, mystery, suspense and secrecy …………… ■ 2 presence of a central secret …………… ■ 3 wide use of deception and disguise …………… ■ 4 deranged heroes and heroines …………… ■ 5 persecution and/or seduction of a young woman; intrigue, jealousy and adultery …………… ■ 6 illegal incarceration, fraud, forgery blackmail and bigamy, murder or attempted murder …………… Poe’s short story, The Oval Portrait, and the extract from The Woman in White both exemplify another main current of 19th century fiction and of Victorian fiction which developed from the already existing Gothic tradition and gave rise to a number of subgenres. 22 De Luca, Ellis, Pace, Ranzoli - Books and Bookmarks, cod. 2634 © Loescher Editore 2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB:2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB 16/09/09 12:18 Page 23 The Oval Portrait is a good example of Edgar Allan Poe’s Gothic and mystery tales both as regards theme and form. Poe chose traditional Gothic settings but focused on the psychological aspect of mystery and horror. In his stories, in fact, horror and mystery derive from the mind and the soul and are projections of subjective sensibilities. He is a master in recreating disquieting atmospheres and describing deranged or unsettled states of mind. He was obsessed by death and one of his main themes concerns the uncertain boundary between life and death and the relationship between the living and the dead, clearly portrayed in the rapport between the painter and his wife in The Oval Portrait. Another major difference as regards tradition is his use of the short story, instead of a novel with L. Daguerre, The Ruins of Holyrood Chapel, Edinburgh, complicated plots which was the usual medium of Gothic fiction, to Effect of Moonlight, oil on canvas, Liverpool, achieve a more poignant and sustained suspense. Walker Art Gallery, c. 1824 (a detail). Poe’s stories fall into two main categories: those of horror, set in A typical Gothic setting. unsettling atmospheres and those of ratiocination where he applied the rules of logic to the absurd in life and which set the basis for the modern detective story of which he is considered the inventor. Gothic and mystery also flourished in Britain, in particular in the second part of the Victorian Age and great novelists of the realistic tradition, such as Charles Dickens, contributed to its development. One of the most significant developments The Birth of of the trend, however, was the sensation novel. A hybrid, more than a genre, the the Sensation Novel sensation novel combined realism and melodrama, journalism and the fantastic, domestic and exotic, like stage melodrama, together with a deep vein of Gothic. It developed in the decade between The Great Exhibition of 1851 (the first general international exhibition held at the Crystal Palace Exposition) and the International Exhibition of 1862 which is often considered the decade of sensation in all fields. The exhibitions were a celebration of the rational trend. There was, however, another kind of reaction which was less enthusiastic about the fast pace of progress. Many felt unsettling feelings of uncertainty as rapid social change destabilised the sense of a fixed social order based on shared values. Wilkie Collins Wilkie Collins’ The Woman in White is the prototype of a type of fiction which voices the social feelings of uneasiness of the period. At the core of the story there is a secret which will be unfolded at the very end. The Gothic setting of the story is no longer a remote place but H. Courtnay Selous, The Opening Ceremony of the Great Exhibition, ▼ a domestic environment. 1 May 1851, oil on canvas, London, Victoria and Albert Museum, 1851-52. Selous / Victoria and Albert Museum, London Phaidon, 1999 ▼ ▼ M1 • FICTION IN THE 19TH CENTURY 23 De Luca, Ellis, Pace, Ranzoli - Books and Bookmarks, cod. 2634 © Loescher Editore 2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB:2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB 16/09/09 12:18 Page 24 ▼ ▼ V I CTO R I A N A G E UPDATE The family often becomes the source of threat instead of security and respectable families also have some sort of dark secret to conceal. The central character is usually a deranged woman and many of the other characters are stock characters of the Gothic tradition, such as the villain and the persecuted maid, but the gallery of characters also includes social types of the period and mirrors aspects of Victorian society, such as the fallen woman or the aristocratic villain. The use of multiple narrators is a further undermining of the security given by the omniscient perspective, challenging the reader with different versions of the same event. The unsettling feelings however were usually overcome at the end of the novel with the ultimate triumph of harmony and the respect of social rules. In what way do you think the sensation novel is still influential on today’s popular forms of entertainment? BIOGRAPHIES E . A. Poe was born in Boston into a family of itinerant actors. After his mother died in 1811, he was adopted by a Richmond merchant in Virginia and with the new family moved to England where he attended school for five years. Back in the United States he broke relations with his family, leading a very precarious life. He took to gambling and drinking, attended university very irregularly and then enlisted in the US Army. After having been expelled from West Point, he started living by the pen, taking up editorial jobs with several magazines. He was soon very busy writing reviews, essays, poems and short stories. In 1836 he married his thirteen-year-old cousin Virginia Clemm who died of tuberculosis ten years later. Her death worsened his precarious mental balance and deepened his obsession with death. The rest of his life is a story of poverty, illness, addiction to alcohol, and of unhappy love affairs. In 1849 he was found delirious in a ditch in Baltimore. He died shortly afterwards. He published three volumes of poems: Tamerlane (1927), Al Aaraaf (1829) and Poems (1831). His short novel The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym appeared in Dutton & Co., 1956 Life and Works 1838. The majority of his other writings – poems, tales and critical reviews – were published in magazines and his first collection of short stories, Tales of Grotesque and Arabesque, were collected for the first time in 1840, followed by Prose Tales of E. A. Poe in 1843. His volume of poetry The Raven and Other Poems was published in 1845. Contents and Themes Poe is considered the father of the ‘modern short story’ because he was the first to give a critical analysis of the genre. According to this analysis a short story should revolve around a single theme with a tightly-knit plot in order to reach a unity of effect and impression. His own short stories fall into two categories: horror and detection. In his horror tales (e.g., The Fall of the House of Usher) he explores the inner irrational world of human personality and shows his mastery in tracing the psychological disintegration of a sensitive mind, while in his detection tales he shows his mastery in the description of the workings of a logical mind. Style He was a master of the short form, both in poetry and fiction, but his originality of language is more evident in fiction. Poe’s aim was to create effects that appeal to the emotions and in his Gothic tales every word and every image was chosen to produce a mood of terror in the reader. Freudian literary analysis has often interpreted Poe’s work as the exploration of the subconscious of a disturbed mind. 24 De Luca, Ellis, Pace, Ranzoli - Books and Bookmarks, cod. 2634 © Loescher Editore ▼ E. A. POE (1809-49) 2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB:2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB 16/09/09 12:18 Page 25 M1 • FICTION IN THE 19TH CENTURY He was not very popular in his lifetime when he was at best considered an appealing magazine article writer and a successful journalist. He was more appreciated abroad where his works had a deep influence on European literature. His mystery, terror and horror tales gave a strong impulse to the development of the short story and of the Gothic tradition. His story The Murders of the Rue Morgue, published in 1841, has come Fortune to be considered the first model of detective fiction and set the main canons of the genre in the figure of the Great Detective and his friend and the use of ‘ratiocination’ to solve mystery. The French Symbolists considered him a genius and were deeply influenced by his use of language (➔ CROSS-CURRICULAR CARD: Realism and Naturalism, Aestheticism and Decadentism in European Literatures, APPENDIX, p. 86). WILKIE COLLINS (1824-89) T National Portrait Gallery, 1988 he son of a painter, Wilkie Collins was born in London in 1824 and was educated at private schools. When still a child he went on a tour of Italy with his family. Though he qualified as a barrister, he never practised law, and his first job was as a tea merchant. However, he soon turned to writing, starting with a biography of his father. A close friend of Charles Dickens, he contributed various articles and short stories for his periodicals Household Words and All The Year Round. He also wrote travel books and plays, but he found his true vein in fiction where, after the publication of a first historical novel, he became a master in mystery, crime and suspense. The Woman in White (1860) and The Moonstone (1868) have become classics of the genre. Other famous titles include No Name (1862) and Armadale (1866). He never married, but lived for many years with Caroline Graves, and had three illegitimate children by another woman, Martha Rudd. He lived all his life in London, but travelled widely in France and Italy, occasionally with Dickens, and in the United States. In his final years he was afflicted by gout and became addicted to opium but continued writing copiously till his death in 1889. Contents and Themes All his novels deal with mystery, suspense and crime and he became a master of all the main elements of the sensation genre. He is also considered the originator of English detective fiction Life and Works ➔ because in The Moonstone he created the first detective after Poe’s Dupin. This set the basis for the development of detective fiction, another genre which voiced the repressed fear originating from the social context and would reach its peak with Arthur Conan Doyle and his Sherlock Holmes. His fiction, however, also deals with serious themes. He attacked hypocrisy, social abuses and injustice in the legal system. His works show attention to the position of the woman, particularly in his attack on mercenary and arranged marriages and in his extraordinarily sympathetic portrayal of independent women. Style He was skilful in the construction of plots and successfully experimented in narrative technique as for example in The Woman in White where his use of multiple narrators creates an impression of verisimilitude conveying different points of view from different social and gender perspectives. He was also good at characterisation and created vivid and sympathetic portraits both of female and male characters. Fortune He was very popular with the reading public of his time, and contemporary critics also appreciated his narrative gifts, but his popularity was somewhat marred by his way of life which offended Victorian morals. Nowadays he is generally considered a minor Victorian novelist, though critics who specialise in the revision of the traditional dichotomy between high and low popular culture tend to revaluate him both for his narrative gifts and his portrayal of Victorian society. His stories of mystery and suspense have retained their popularity and his two masterpieces have been turned into successful films. P E R S O N A L F I L E : G e t R e a d y f o r Te s t i n g , p . 7 1 25 De Luca, Ellis, Pace, Ranzoli - Books and Bookmarks, cod. 2634 © Loescher Editore 2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB:2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB 16/09/09 12:18 Page 26 V I CTO R I A N A G E STEP Four Psychological Fiction: Henry James OBJ ECTIVES In Step Four you will: • analyse an extract from a short story by Henry James • identify its main features • recognise elements of innovation in the psychological treatment of mystery • locate the story in the cultural and literary context HENRY JAMES (1843-1916) ➔ B I O G R A P H Y, p. 29 In this Step you are going to read another extract from The Turn of the Screw, a short story by Henry James. The Turn of the Screw is a ghost story, and as such it is deeply rooted in the development of fiction in the second half of the Victorian Age which saw the flourishing of the genre. The story, however, is rather complex, both as regards form and theme, and has always intrigued critics and artists because it lends itself to various interpretations. It was made into a film as The Innocents (1950) and turned into an opera with the same title by Benjamin Britten in 1954. 1 Go back to extract 4 in Step One ( p. 5), taken from ➔ the Prologue of the same story. Read it again and write a paragraph about the possible content of the story. 2 Read the summary and check your predictions. s u m m a ry The story is told by one of the guests and is based on a first-person narration in the form of a diary by a young governess who is employed by an eccentric and fascinating gentleman to look after his orphaned nephew and niece, Miles and Flora, in a country house named Bly. Attracted by the personality of the man, the governess accepts his condition that she should take the whole responsibility for the household, helped only by a kind housekeeper and promises never to bother her employer with any queries. At first she finds the children angelic and is pleased with the surroundings, but very soon she feels the presence of two evil ghosts, Peter Quint, a former valet at Bly and Miss Jessel, the previous governess, who had had a guilty relationship in life. She soon becomes convinced that the children are under their evil influence and are being corrupted. As she is determined to save them, she engages in a psychological battle to exorcise the evil influence of the ghosts and rescue the children. 26 De Luca, Ellis, Pace, Ranzoli - Books and Bookmarks, cod. 2634 © Loescher Editore Oxford University Press, 1992 The Turn of the Screw (1898) 2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB:2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB 16/09/09 12:18 Page 27 M1 • FICTION IN THE 19TH CENTURY The text below is the very end of the story. The governess has just succeeded in getting Miles to tell her the truth about the reason why he had been expelled from school. Even if the ghost of Quint is looking at them from the window, Miles tells the governess that he was expelled because he told ‘things’ to some of his friends. 3 Read and find out what happens to Miles in the final confrontation with the governess. 10 20 30 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. I can’t name the exquisite pathos of the contradiction given to such a speech by such a speaker; I only know that the next instant I heard myself throw off with homely1 force: “Stuff and nonsense!” But the next after that I must have sounded stern2 enough. “What were these things?” My sternness was all for his judge, his executioner; yet it made him avert3 himself again, and that movement made me, with a single bound4 and an irrepressible cry, spring straight upon him. For there again, against the glass, as if 5 6 7 to blight his confession and stay his answer, was the hideous author of our woe — the white face of damnation. I felt a sick swim at the drop of my victory and all the return of my battle, so that the wildness of my veritable leap only served as a great betrayal. I saw him, from the midst of my act, meet it with a 8 divination , and on the perception that even now he only guessed, and that the window was still to his own eyes free, I let the impulse flamed up to convert the climax of his dismay9 into the very proof of his liberation. “No more, no more, no more!” I shrieked to my visitant as I tried to press him against me. “Is she here?” Miles panted10 as he caught with his sealed11 eyes the direction of my words. Then as his strange ‘she’ staggered me12 and, with a gasp, I echoed it, “Miss Jessel, Miss Jessel” he with a sudden fury gave me back. I seized, stupefied, his supposition — some sequel to what we had done to Flora, but this made me only want to show him that it was better still than that. “It’s not Miss Jessel! But it’s at the window — straight before us. It’s there — the coward horror, there for the last time!” At this, after a second in which his head made the movement of a baffled13 dog’s on a scent and then gave a frantic14 little shake for air and light, he was at me in a white rage, bewildered15, glaring16 vainly over the place and missing wholly, though it now, to my sense, filled the room like the taste of poison, the wide overwhelming presence. “It’s he?” I was so determined to have all my proof that I flashed into ice to challenge him. “Whom do you mean by ‘he’?” “Peter Quint — you devil!” His face gave again, round the room, its convulsed supplication. “Where?” homely, familiar (affettuosa). stern, severe (severa). avert, turn away (voltarsi). bound, jump (salto). blight, inquinare. hideous, repulsive (odioso). woe, grief (sciagura). divination, foretelling (divinazione). 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. I refers to... such a speaker refers to... him refers to... the hideous author of our woe refers to... a great betrayal of... him refers to... my visitant refers to... him refers to... it refers to... dismay, apprehension (sgomento). panted, gasped (ansimò). sealed, tightly closed (serrati). staggered me, startled (mi colpì). baffled, bewildered (incerto). frantic, greatly upset (convulso). bewildered, upset (sconvolto). glaring, looking angrily (guardando con furore). 27 De Luca, Ellis, Pace, Ranzoli - Books and Bookmarks, cod. 2634 © Loescher Editore 2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB:2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB 16/09/09 12:18 Page 28 V I CTO R I A N A G E 40 They are in my ears still, his supreme surrender of the name and his tribute to my devotion. “What does he matter now, my own? — what will he ever matter? I have you,” I launched at the beast, “but he has lost you for ever!” Then, for the demonstration of my work, “There, there!” I said to Miles. But he had already jerked straight round, stared, glared again, and seen but the quiet day. With the stroke of the loss I was so proud of he uttered the cry of a creature hurled17 over an abyss, and the grasp with which I recovered him might have been that of catching him in his fall. I caught him, yes, I had him — it may be imagined with what a passion; but at the end of a minute I began to feel what it truly was that I held. We were alone with the quiet day, and his little heart, 18 dispossessed , had stopped. the beast refers to... 4 Focus on the language. Write down on the table below words and phrases referring to the governess’ behaviour and feelings, the ghost and Miles’ reactions. • The governess’ behaviour and feelings • The ghost • Miles’ reactions …………… …………… …………… In the light of James’ psychological realism, the story is often read not as a real ghost story, but as a portrait of a neurotic woman. 5 Which of the words and phrases you listed in the table in exercise 4 may suggest that the ghosts are a projection of the governess’ inner problems, that she is neurotic and possessive and the ghosts do not exist? The ghost of Miss Jessel (above) in Benjamin Britten’s opera, The Turn of the Screw. The governess drags Flora away from the ghostly apparition (below). The Birth of the Psychological Novel STUDY BOX CHECK… 1 Say which character in the story the following quotations refer to. a) b) c) d) e) f) …AND LEARN Henry James’ Psychological Realism ▼ “with a single bound and an irrepressible cry” “the coward horror” “I had him — it may be imagined with what a passion” “a baffled dog’s on a scent” “the beast” “a creature hurled over an abyss” …………… …………… …………… …………… …………… …………… An American by birth, but both American and European in his intellectual formation, Henry James on one hand belongs to the tradition of Victorian fiction and on the other marks a significant turning point in its development. He deeply believed in the importance of art and one of his main aims in writing 17. hurled, thrown with violence (gettata). 18. dispossessed, with no power (sfinito). 28 De Luca, Ellis, Pace, Ranzoli - Books and Bookmarks, cod. 2634 © Loescher Editore 2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB:2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB 16/09/09 12:18 Page 29 ▼ ▼ M1 • FICTION IN THE 19TH CENTURY The Turn of the Screw was to raise fiction to the status of art. In this respect James marked a departure from the general character of English literature which had so far made, even at its highest levels, generous concessions to popular taste. He was influenced by sophisticated writers such as the French Flaubert and shifted the focus of the novel on character rather than action and became increasingly interested in the psychological processes of his characters, developing a highly sophisticated language to convey their limited perceptions of reality and their emotions. He applied realism to psychology developing the foundations laid by authors such as George Eliot and depicting the workings of the mind, thus becoming a pioneer of psychological realism and the master of a rich, highly complex prose style and of delineation of character. This psychological realism brought about a fragmentation of a world of reference and paved the way for the development of typical 20th-century modes of writing such as the stream of consciousness, a term coined in 1890 by James’ brother, the psychologist William James, and the interior monologue. In his particular brand of psychological novels he shows an anti-Victorian trend by bringing to the surface the sordid reality beneath the elegant surface of contemporary Victorian life denouncing the greediness, materialism and selfishness of the period. The Turn of the Screw is a clear example of James’ connection to and departure from Victorian tradition and also of the joining of the two main trends, the rational one of realism and the irrational Gothic one. He took one of the most popular genres, the ghost story, but instead of relying on cliché, sensationalism and emotional language, he privileged the analysis of states of mind, the relativity of perceptions and the ambiguity of human motivations. The ghosts themselves are ambiguous because they can be interpreted either as real ghosts or as projections of the governess’ deranged state of mind. BIOGRAPHY H e was born in New York in 1843 into a well-off family of Irish and Scottish origin. His father was a well-known theologian and his brother, William, became a famous philosopher. He was educated in New York, London, Paris and Geneva. As a result of this cosmopolitan upbringing James became as Life much a European as an American. On his return to the States in 1862 he went to Harvard Law School but was more interested in studying French and American literature than law. From 1865 onwards he contributed book reviews and short stories to periodicals, and in 1869 he returned to Europe for a Grand Tour, during which he visited Italy for the first time. It made a deep impression on him, as is apparent from his many return visits and from his choice of Italy as the setting for many of his novels. In 1875 he decided to settle in Europe, living in Paris for a year before making London his first home. In ▼ M. Leow, 1908/National Portait Gallery, London HENRY JAMES (1843-1916) 29 De Luca, Ellis, Pace, Ranzoli - Books and Bookmarks, cod. 2634 © Loescher Editore 2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB:2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB 16/09/09 12:19 Page 30 V I CTO R I A N A G E 1898 he moved to Rye, in Sussex, and died there in 1916, having decided to become a British citizen the year before. Works, Contents and Themes The novels belonging to his first years in Europe, such as Roderick Hudson (1876), The American (1877), Daisy Miller (1879), deal with the impact of European civilisation on the American character and the clash between American puritanism and European hedonism. The Portrait of a Lady (1881) is generally considered the masterpiece of this first phase. The 1880s saw a new phase in his literary career. The subject matter of his novels changed to social reform and revolution and his aim was to tell the history of his own time (after the manner of the French writer Balzac). The Bostonians (1886) and The Princess Casamassima (1886) belong to that period but neither of them were successful in England or America. This was probably the reason why he started to write for the stage. Although none of his plays was successful either, his interest in the theatre influenced the development of his narrative technique. Just as in a play the audience has to make interpretations on the basis of what the characters say or do, so James abandoned the omniscient narrator, deepening characterisation and relying on a shifting of point of view. This led to the third phase of his last great novels, written in the final decade of the 19th century and the first decade of the 20th. These were characterised by abstruse symbolic imagery, multiple points of view and considerable complexity. The Wings of the Dove (1902) and The Golden Bowl (1905) belong to this period. It was during this phase that he revised his most important novels and added prefaces outlining his fictional theories. ➔ Style Henry James is a key figure in the development of fiction for his innovations in fictional technique. The first important innovation was to discard the Victorian tradition of the three-volume novel and its “easy rambling narration” (as he called the style of his predecessors), in favour of a more disciplined story pattern. Secondly, James’s novels shifted the emphasis away from dramatic events and exciting adventures to the workings of the human consciousness – to individual psychology and the complexities of human relationships. This shift in emphasis resulted in the replacement of the traditional omniscient narrator by a less obtrusive one, and extensive use of the points of view, and internal thoughts, of different characters. This technique was later to be developed by 20th-century novelists into the interior monologue. Fortune Although a prestigious figure in the AngloAmerican literary world during his lifetime, James was never a popular novelist like Dickens and Thackeray. His last novels in particular have only ever been appreciated by a small literary élite. However he has always been greatly admired by literary critics and fellow novelists for the seriousness with which he regarded the art of fiction and his technical innovations. For his critical writings James is now also considered the father of the modern school of fictional criticism. Although novels had always been commented on and reviewed, in his famous essay The Art of Fiction he attempted to develop a theory of fiction which would recognise it as a serious art form and give it the same high status as poetry and drama. P E R S O N A L F I L E : G e t R e a d y f o r Te s t i n g , p . 7 2 30 De Luca, Ellis, Pace, Ranzoli - Books and Bookmarks, cod. 2634 © Loescher Editore 2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB:2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB 16/09/09 12:19 Page 31 M1 • FICTION IN THE 19TH CENTURY Assignment APPLYING WHAT YOU KNOW NES written TOWARDS THE ESSAY 1 Read the extract below taken from Chapter 27 of Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë. After reading the text write an essay summarising its main features as regards: a) narrative technique; b) characterisation and characters’ personalities; c) language; d) theme. Below are some guidlines for your analysis: a Does the first-person narrator voice only subjective thoughts and feelings or does she also voice an omniscient perspective? What are the moral principles that are stressed? b How do characters mainly come to life? In what way are they similar and in what way are they different? What social and moral rules do they respect or disregard? In what way/s is Jane conventional and in what way/s is she unconventional (➔ Bookmark Social Issues in Victorian Britain, Appendix, pp. 83-85)? Which of the two characters comes out as the stronger? Why? c How does the use of language reflect their personalities? What figures of speech are mainly used? d What is the theme of the passage? Jane Eyre has just discovered that Rochester, the man she loves, is married and therefore cannot marry her. She refuses his proposal to live with him all the same, telling him he will soon forget her. Rochester answers Jane thus: jane eyre 10 “You make me a liar by such language: you sully1 my honour. I declared I could not change: you tell me to my face I shall change soon. And what a distortion in your judgement, what a perversity in your ideas, is proved by your conduct! Is it better to drive a fellow-creature to despair than to transgress a mere human law, no man being injured by the breach?2 For you have neither relatives nor acquaintance whom you need fear to offend by living with me?” This was true: and while he spoke my very conscience and reason turned traitors against me, and charged me with crime in resisting him. They spoke almost as loud as Feeling: and that clamoured wildly. “Oh, comply!3” it said. “Think of his misery; think of his danger — look at his state when left alone; remember his headlong4 nature; consider the recklessness5 following on despair — soothe6 him; save him; love him; tell him you love him and will be his. Who in the world cares for you? or who will be injured by what you do?” Still indomitable was the reply — “I care for myself. The more solitary, the more friendless, the more unsustained I am, the more I will respect myself. I will keep the law given by God; sanctioned by man. I will hold to the principles received by me when I was sane, and not mad — as I am now. Laws and 1. sully, make dirty (infanghi). 2. breach, breaking of the law (infrazione). 3. comply, obey (accetta). 4. headlong, reckless (impulsiva). 5. recklessness, inconsiderate behaviour (sconsideratezza). 6. soothe, calm (placa). 31 De Luca, Ellis, Pace, Ranzoli - Books and Bookmarks, cod. 2634 © Loescher Editore 2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB:2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB 16/09/09 12:19 Page 32 V I CTO R I A N A G E 30 40 50 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. Richard Redgrave, Going into Service, oil on canvas, Private Collection, 1843. In early Victorian times becoming a governess was the only opportunity a respectable woman had of earning her own living, but she often suffered from loneliness and isolation. The girl in the painting is saying ‘goodbye’ to her family before going into service. throbs, sleady beat (pulsazioni). foregone, foreseen (previste). wrought, built up (montata). stubble, dry stems of crops (stoppia). overtaxed, used beyond limits (abusata). reed, type of tall grass (canna). uptore, eradicated (sradicassi). brittle, fragile (fragile). clutch, hold (presa). baffled, frustrated (frustrato). 32 De Luca, Ellis, Pace, Ranzoli - Books and Bookmarks, cod. 2634 © Loescher Editore Phaidon, 1999 20 principles are not for the times when there is no temptation: they are for such moments as this, when body and soul rise in mutiny against their rigour; stringent are they, inviolate they shall be. If at my individual convenience I might break them, what would be their worth? They have a worth — so I have always believed; and if I cannot believe it now, it is because I am insane — quite insane: with my veins running fire, and my hearts beating faster than I can count in throbs7. Preconceived opinions, foregone8 determinations, are all I have at this hour to stand by: there I plant my foot.” I did. Mr Rochester, reading my countenance, saw I had done so. His fury was wrought9 to the highest: he must yield to it for a moment, whatever followed; he crossed the floor and seized my arm and grasped my waist. He seemed to devour me with his flaming glance: physically, I felt, at the moment, powerless as stubble10 exposed to the draught and glow of a furnace: mentally, I still possessed my soul, and with it the certainty of ultimate safety. The soul, fortunately, has an interpreter — in the eye. My eye rose to his; and while I looked in his fierce face I gave an involuntary sigh; his grip was painful, and my overtaxed11 strength almost exhausted. “Never,” said he, as he ground his teeth, “never was anything at once so frail and so indomitable. A mere reed12 she feels in my hand!” (And he shook me with the force of his hold.) “I could bend her with my finger and thumb: and what good 13 would it do if I bent, if I uptore , if I crushed her? Consider that eye: consider the resolute, wild, free thing looking out of if, defying me, with more than courage — with a stern triumph. Whatever I do with its cage, I cannot get at it — the savage, beautiful creature! If I tear, if I rend the slight prison, my outrage will only let the captive loose. Conqueror I might be of the house; but the inmate would escape to heaven before I could call myself possessor of its clay dwelling-place. And it is you, spirit — with will and energy and virtue and purity — that I want: not alone your brittle14 frame. Of yourself you could come with soft fight and nestle against my heart, if you would: seized against your will, you will elude the grasp like an essence — you will vanish ere I inhale your fragrance. Oh! come, Jane, come!” 15 As he said this, he released me from his clutch and only looked at me. The look was far worse to resist than the frantic strain: only an idiot, however, would have succumbed now. I had dared and baffled16 his fury; I must elude his sorrow: I retired to the door. “Your are going, Jane?” “I am going, sir.” 2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB:2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB 16/09/09 12:19 Page 33 MODULE 2 A Classic Novelist: Charles Dickens In this Module you will learn about the rise of the novel and how fiction became the main genre devoted to storytelling in the 19th century. Some novelists and their work from this period have become ‘classics’. You will read some extracts from one of these classics of English literature, Great Expectations (1860-61) by Charles Dickens. Your attention will be focused on its features and how the author handles them; you will also see how the work reflects the values of the period in which it was written. LEVEL ●●● intermediate TYPE OF MODULE text-based and contextual PREREQUISITES knowledge of the conventions of fiction OBJ ECTIVES • locate a classic novelist and his work in the development of fiction • analyse the work of a classic novelist • recognise the characteristics of a novelist’s style • define classic fiction M AT E R I A L S FICTION TIM approx. 18 hours LINKS BEYOND LITERATURE: LEAD IN • from Great Expectations (1860-61) by Charles Dickens • Film, Great Expectations (1946); Great Expectations (1998) • Music, Great Expectations (1946) BOOKMARK: Aspects of the Victorian Age (APPENDIX) BOOKMARK: Social Issues in Victorian Britain (APPENDIX) CROSS-CURRICULAR CARD: Realism and Naturalism, Aestheticism and Decadentism in European Literatures (APPENDIX) The Term Classic and Its Meanings 1 Let’s begin with a vocabulary game. a Write down as many definitions of the term ‘classic’ you can think of. b Compare with your classmates. How many different definitions have been given? Write them on the board. c Pool all the definitions which refer to the field of literature. d Do any of them also apply to novels? Why or Why not? When you want to get an exhaustive definition of a literary term you may need to consult a specialised dictionary. On the next page are two definitions from two such dictionaries. 33 De Luca, Ellis, Pace, Ranzoli - Books and Bookmarks, cod. 2634 © Loescher Editore 2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB:2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB 16/09/09 12:19 Page 34 V I CTO R I A N A G E 2 Read the definitions. How many meanings can you identify? How do they compare with yours? “The adjective ‘classical’ usually applies to anything pertaining to Greece and Rome. Nearly always there is the implication of the ‘best’, a standard of excellence worthy of emulation. When applied to literature the word Classical suggests that the work has the qualities of order, harmony, proportion, balance, discipline...” Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory, Penguin “The term classic has an array of meanings. It may be applied to works from the ancient Greco-Roman tradition or those written in imitation of it … The most common usage today, however, is a more general one. We say that a work is a classic when it has gained widespread and lasting recognition, that is, when readers and critics over a period of time agree that the work has merit that transcends the particular period in which it was written … The terms may also refer to popular works that have endured the test of time. The songs ‘Light My Fire’ (1967) by the Doors, and ‘I Can’t Get No Satisfaction’ (1965) by the Rolling Stones, have been called ‘rock classics’ or ‘classic rock’.” The Bedford Glossary of Critical and Literary Terms, Bedford books STEP One Classic Fiction in English Literature OBJ ECTIVES In Step One you will: • learn how fiction began and developed as a genre and came to be considered classic literature • learn about a leading classic novelist T he Bookmark on the opposite page offers essential information about the development of fiction into a classic genre. 1 Study the Bookmark. a Identify the main stages in the development and write them down in tabular form. b Use your notes to make an oral report on the topic. 34 De Luca, Ellis, Pace, Ranzoli - Books and Bookmarks, cod. 2634 © Loescher Editore 2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB:2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB 16/09/09 12:19 Page 35 M2 • A CLASSIC NOVELIST: CHARLES DICKENS Bookmark ● The Road to Classic Fiction ● THE RISE OF THE NOVEL ● THE DEVELOPMENT OF FICTION INTO A CLASSIC GENRE Phaidon, 1999 The novel as an independent genre emerged in Britain at Though still in its early stages, the beginning of the 18th fiction soon became the main century following the form of entertainment for the improvement in printing middle classes and novel technology which made writing grew into a profitable publishing cheaper and business and attracted more faster. Journalism boomed, and more writers. The long the first important English reign of Queen Victoria, John Parry, London Street Scene, watercolour, 1837. dictionaries and grammars known as the Victorian Age This picture shows people reading posters in a London were published and helped street in Dickens’ time. (1837-1901), saw the to standardise the English flourishing of the genre and conventions and an organic language used by educated came to be known as the ‘Age of structure and was generally people. Fiction’, simply because of the acknowledged as a literary Reading soon became a new immense popularity the genre genre in its own right, on the form of entertainment among the gained in the period. Many same level as drama and poetry. middle classes, who were on the outstanding writers turned to novel increase due to the Industrial writing which soon became a ● THE PIONEERS OF Revolution. As a consequence, profitable profession. The number of THE GENRE the demand for reading material novels published yearly increased The three great pioneers of increased rapidly. enormously. The output varied both the 18th century novel were in theme and tone, but it shared Daniel Defoe (1660-1731), the common characteristics as regards ● THE MAKING OF author of Robinson Crusoe fictional conventions which reached THE GENRE (1719), Samuel Richardson a high degree of complexity and The early eighteenth-century (1689-1761), who wrote the refinement and a close relationship novel initially drew its form first epistolary novel Pamela between the reading public and the from non-fiction – diaries, (1740), and Henry Fielding, author. Novels were also serialised autobiographies, travellers’ the author of Tom Jones (1749). in magazines and this required that tales, letters and biographies They laid the foundations of each single instalment contained an of adventurers. The novel also the genre in terms of plot, element of suspense to keep the borrowed heavily from other characterisation, dialogue, reader’s interest and curiosity going. literary genres: dialogue from use of a narrator and the The novelist who best represents drama, moral ideas from essays, combination of realism, the Victorian Age both in terms of imagery from poetry. By the serious moral concern and in his life and in his work is Charles end of the century, the novel some cases humour. Dickens (1812-70). had acquired its own 2 Refer to the definitions on p. 34. Which of the meanings of the term can apply to Victorian fiction? 3 Read the following biography of Charles Dickens. Basing your answer on what you have learnt in the Bookmark, say which aspects make him representative of the Victorian Age. 35 De Luca, Ellis, Pace, Ranzoli - Books and Bookmarks, cod. 2634 © Loescher Editore 2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB:2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB 16/09/09 12:19 Page 36 V I CTO R I A N A G E Evergreen Lives, 1983 BIOGRAPHY CHARLES DICKENS (1812-70) n avid reader and enthusiastic scholar, Charles was obliged to leave school for a period when his father was put in prison for debt. He had to work in a blacking factory and this terrible experience is often echoed in his representations of children and their exploitation in his novels. He began his career as a journalist but, being a talented storyteller, he soon achieved critical and commercial success with the publication of Pickwick Papers (1936-37). After that, he devoted himself to writing fiction. He published a succession of highly successful novels, usually in monthly instalments, which increased his popularity. He was admired at all levels of Victorian society from Queen Victoria herself down. He lived a very intense life. He also worked as an editor of periodicals, supported social causes, travelled widely in Europe and in the United States, was an amateur actor and gave public readings of his works. Although Dickens never questioned the basic values of his time such as hard work, romantic love and family life, he was an effective critic of A ➔ STEP Two the injustices of Victorian society. He frequently denounced abuses in education, in the law and employment, the injustice of social institutions and the inequalities between the rich and the poor. His best-known novels are: Oliver Twist (1837-38), the story of an orphan exploited by a band of thieves, which portrays the criminal world developing in big cities as a counterpart to the rise of a wealthy class; David Copperfield (1849-50), which is to some extent autobiographical and revisits his painful childhood; Bleak House (1852-53), Hard Times (1854) and Little Dorrit (1855-57) which are remarkable for their portrayal of social selfishness and greed and their support of the welfare of the disadvantaged; Great Expectations (1860-61), which is a ‘novel of formation’ as it focuses on the psychological and moral development of the central character, and is considered his best work. Dickens displays his greatest talent in the portrayal of character, especially in the crowd of comic-realist figures who surround his virtuous and unrealistic heroes and heroines. P E R S O N A L F I L E : G e t R e a d y f o r Te s t i n g , p . 7 4 A Classic Plot OBJ ECTIVES In Step Two you will: • learn the story–line of Great Expectations • analyse the main features of its plot and subplots • recognise the impact of plot on the reader ne of the reasons that makes novels of the past, in particular those of the 19th century, classics of fiction and fascinating to read is their plot. You already know that plot is the feature that maintains the reader’s interest up to end. O You will later read some extracts from Great Expectations by Charles Dickens, but in order to understand how the plot works, you will need to work on the summary as well. 36 De Luca, Ellis, Pace, Ranzoli - Books and Bookmarks, cod. 2634 © Loescher Editore 2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB:2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB 16/09/09 12:19 Page 37 M2 • A CLASSIC NOVELIST: CHARLES DICKENS 1 Read the first part of the summary and complete the chart below with the main information about the characters in relation to Pip. Name Role Personality Impact on Pip Mrs Joe Gargery half-sister strict ......................................................... ......................................... .......................................... .......................................... ............................................ ......................................... .......................................... .......................................... ............................................ ......................................... .......................................... .......................................... ............................................ s u m m a ry SUBPLOTS Philip Pirrip, called Pip for short, is an orphan brought up by his half-sister and her husband, Joe Gargery, the village blacksmith. He is afraid of his sister, who is very strict, but has a close relationship with Joe whose apprentice he is expected to become when he is fourteen. On one of his solitary visits to his parents’graves he meets and helps a convict who has escaped from a prison ship. Even if the episode has a deep emotional impact on him at the time, Pip soon forgets it. One day Miss Havisham, a rich eccentric old lady asks him to her house to play with her ward Estella, a beautiful girl. Pip falls in love with her at first sight. But Estella comments scornfully on his coarse appearance and clumsy behaviour. So Pip becomes ashamed of his situation as a village boy and dreams of ‘becoming a gentleman’ in order to win Estella. The girl is sent abroad to finish her education. Pip stops his visits to Miss Havisham when he starts his apprenticeship with Joe, which is the life he had always been meant for. One day a lawyer, Mr Jaggers, comes up from London with news for him. An anonymous benefactor wants to give Pip some money and educate him as a gentleman in London. The convict whose name is Magwitch is eventually recaptured and transported to a penal colony in Australia. Miss Havisham lives as a recluse in a house where all the clocks are stopped at the same time. She never leaves her bedroom and wears a faded wedding dress. A prison ship like the one from which Magwitch, the convict, had escaped before meeting Pip in the opening scene of Great Expectations. Evergreen Lives, 1983 PLOT 37 De Luca, Ellis, Pace, Ranzoli - Books and Bookmarks, cod. 2634 © Loescher Editore 2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB:2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB 16/09/09 12:19 Page 38 V I CTO R I A N A G E 2 What do you think will be Pip’s role in the novel? 3 Read the rest of the summary and complete the following notes about the various stages in the relationship between Pip and Estella. Pip first meets Estella in Miss Havisham’s house. He meets her a second time ..................................................................................................................................................................................................... ............... ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ ............... ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ s u m m a ry PLOT SUBPLOTS Pip believes Miss Havisham to be his unknown benefactor, although he has no real evidence to prove it. He goes to London to start his life as a gentleman. Mr Jaggers is in charge of giving him the money he needs. In the city Pip shares rooms with Herbert Pocket, the son of a relative of Miss Havisham’s. The young man tells Pip Miss Havisham’s story which explains her eccentric behaviour. Life in London changes Pip. In his ambition to become a gentleman he forgets his old way of life and when Joe comes to London to inform him that Miss Havisham wants to see him, he feels ashamed of his friend’s coarse manners. When he goes back to the village he stays at the village inn and returns to London without even seeing Joe. At Miss Havisham’s he meets Estella again, now a refined young lady and more beautiful than ever. Not only does this visit confirm Pip in the conviction that Miss Havisham is the maker of his fortune, but also that she hopes to see him married to Estella. Back in London Pip often meets Estella and his love grows stronger and stronger. Estella warns him of her inability to love anyone because, as a result of Miss Havisham’s teaching, she only plays with men’s feelings to revenge the cruel disappointment of Miss Havisham’s wedding day. Pip’s life is suddenly shattered when Magwitch, the convict he had helped in his childhood, comes to visit him and tells him that he is his benefactor. After the first shock at this discovery, Pip’s good nature prevails and he feels gratitude and affection for the old man. Miss Havisham was abandoned on her wedding day and has never left her house since. She hates men and is bringing up Estella to take her revenge on men. Miss Havisham asks Pip to look after Estella in London. Magwitch is Pip’s real benefactor and has come back to London illegally from Australia, where he had been transported for life and has made a fortune as a sheep farmer. He will be hanged if he is discovered in London. He wanted to see Pip whose past kindness he had not forgotten and for whom he has provided as if he were his own son. 38 De Luca, Ellis, Pace, Ranzoli - Books and Bookmarks, cod. 2634 © Loescher Editore 2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB:2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB 16/09/09 12:19 Page 39 M2 • A CLASSIC NOVELIST: CHARLES DICKENS Magwitch had had a daughter but had lost track of her in her infancy while the mother’s child was being tried for murder. Jaggers, who was also Miss Havisham’s lawyer, had actually entrusted the girl to Miss Havisham to adopt while he had employed the mother as his housekeeper after her acquittal. A postcard illustrating key moments in the story of Great Expectations. S. Harrison / R. Allen Press Ltd. Bath He also organises Magwitch’s flight, with the help of Herbert, when his presence in London is discovered. The convict, however, is caught and dies in prison, but not before discovering that his long-lost daughter is alive and has become a fine young lady; she is no less than Estella. As Pip’s wealth is confiscated he is heavily in debt and falls severely ill. He is nursed by Joe who also pays his debts. Herbert meanwhile has set up a business abroad with the money Pip had given him before going bankrupt. When he recovers he joins Herbert abroad where he works hard to make a position for himself. By this time Estella has married a rich man who treats her brutally, and she is eventually left a widow. When Pip goes back to his native village at the age of 34 he is a changed man. He finds life in the village has changed too. Joe has married again after the death of his wife and has a child named Pip. Miss Havisham is long dead. Pip goes to see her old house and unexpectedly meets Estella who has gone there to see the place for the last time. The novel closes with Pip and Estella leaving the house together. It is not explicitly stated that Pip will eventually fulfil his dream of marrying Estella, although the final words of the novel imply it, “I saw no shadow of another parting from her.” 39 De Luca, Ellis, Pace, Ranzoli - Books and Bookmarks, cod. 2634 © Loescher Editore 2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB:2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB 16/09/09 12:19 Page 40 V I CTO R I A N A G E Reading the summary you will have realised that besides the main plot, in which Pip is the central character throughout the novel, there are various subplots; they are complete stories in their own right which develop alongside the main one. The two most interesting subplots concern Miss Havisham and the convict. 4 Consider the main plot and the two subplots. a Note down what coincidences link the characters of the three plots to one another. b Who is the linking character of the two subplots? c What aspects of Pip’s character are highlighted by the impact of the two subplots on his life? The novel was published in weekly instalments and was divided into three volumes when it was first published in book form. • Volume One included chapters 1-19 (Pip’s life from the age of seven to eighteen. Life in the village) • Volume Two included chapters 20-39 (Pip’s life from the age of eighteen to twenty-three. Life in London) • Volume Three included chapters 40-59 (Pip’s life from the age of twenty-three to thirty-four. Life in London, abroad and back in the village). 5 Look at the contents of the three volumes. a Is there any correspondence between the division into volumes and the periods of Pip’s life covered? b Why do you think Volume Two covers only five years of Pip’s life while the other two cover eleven? 6 Why do you think the novel lacks a clear conclusion? • to leave the reader free to speculate about possible developments • to stress the idea that life is unpredictable • because the novelist could not make up his mind about the ending • other (specify) …………… 7 From the activities you have done, what aspect do you think is most likely to involve the reader? • the complexity of the story–line • the conflict between characters • the scope of the fictional world created • the suspense • individual dramatic events/moments ➔ P E R S O N A L F I L E : G e t R e a d y f o r Te s t i n g , p . 7 4 40 De Luca, Ellis, Pace, Ranzoli - Books and Bookmarks, cod. 2634 © Loescher Editore 2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB:2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB 16/09/09 12:19 Page 41 M2 • A CLASSIC NOVELIST: CHARLES DICKENS STEP Three Reading from the Novel OBJ ECTIVES In Step Three you will: • analyse the characterisation of the protagonist • describe the fictional features of a classic novel (1812-70) ➔ CHARLES DICKENS B I O G R A P H Y, p. 3 6 Great Expectations (1860-61) Now you are going to read some pages from Great Expectations. Te x t o n e The first extract tells of a crucial event in Pip’s life. 1 Read and say: a 10 where Pip is b what part of the plot the text belongs to. Though she called me “boy” so often, and with a carelessness that was far from complimentary, she was of about my own age. She seemed much older than I, of course, being a girl, and beautiful and self-possessed1; and she was as scornful2 of me as if she had been one-and-twenty, and a queen. We went into the house by a side door — the great front entrance had two chains across it outside — and the first thing I noticed was, that the passages were all dark, and that she had left a candle burning there. She took it up, and we went through more passages and up a staircase, and still it was all dark, and only the candle lighted us. At last we came to the door of a room, and she said, “Go in”. I answered, more in shyness than politeness, “After you, miss”. To this, she returned: “Don’t be ridiculous, boy; I am not going in”. And scornfully walked away, and — what was worse — took the candle with her. This was very uncomfortable, and I was half afraid. However, the only thing to be done being to knock at the door, I knocked, and was told from within to enter. I entered, therefore, and found myself in a pretty large room, well lighted with wax candles. No glimpse of daylight was to be seen in it. It was a dressing- 1. self-possessed, calm and confident (sicura di sé). she is Estella This refers to… 2. scornful of, contemptuous of (sprezzante). 41 De Luca, Ellis, Pace, Ranzoli - Books and Bookmarks, cod. 2634 © Loescher Editore 2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB:2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB 16/09/09 12:19 Page 42 V I CTO R I A N A G E 20 30 40 50 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. room, as I supposed from the furniture, though much of it was of forms and uses then quite unknown to me. But prominent3 in it was a draped4 table with a gilded5 looking-glass, and that I made out6 at first sight to be a fine lady’s dressing-table. Whether I should have made out this object so soon, if there had been no fine lady sitting at it, I cannot say. In an arm-chair, with an elbow resting on the table and her head leaning on that hand, sat the strangest lady I have ever seen, or shall ever see. She was dressed in rich materials — satins, and lace, and silks — all of white. Her shoes were white. And she had a long white veil dependent from her hair, and she had bridal flowers in her hair, but her hair was white. Some bright jewels sparkled7 on her neck and on her hands, and some other jewels lay sparkling on the table. Dresses, less splendid than the dress she wore, and halfpacked trunks8, were scattered about. She had not quite finished dressing, for she had but one shoe on — the other was on the table near her hand — her veil was but half arranged, her watch and chain were not put on, and some lace for 9 her bosom lay with those trinkets , and with her handkerchief, and gloves, and some flowers, and a prayerbook, all confusedly heaped about the looking-glass. It was not in the first few moments that I saw all these things, though I saw more of them in the first moments than might be supposed. But, I saw that everything within my view which ought to be white, had been white long ago, and had lost its lustre, and was faded10 and yellow. I saw that the bride within the bridal dress had withered11 like the dress, and like the flowers, and had no brightness left but the brightness of her sunken eyes. I saw that the dress had been put upon the rounded figure of a young woman, and that the figure upon which it now hung loose, had shrunk to12 skin and bone. Once, I had been taken to see some ghastly13 waxwork14 at the Fair, representing I know not what impossible personage lying in state15. Once, I had been taken to one of our old marsh churches to see a skeleton in the ashes of a rich dress, that had been dug out16 of a vault under the church pavement. Now, waxwork and skeleton seemed to have dark eyes that moved and looked at me. I should have cried out, if I could. “Who is it?” said the lady at the table. “Pip, ma’am.” “Pip?” “Mr Pumblechook’s boy, ma’am. Come — to play.” “Come nearer; let me look at you. Come close.” It was when I stood before her, avoiding her eyes, that I took note of the surrounding objects in detail, and saw that her watch had stopped at twenty prominent, noticeable (evidente). draped, decorated with folded cloth (drappeggiata). gilded, painted gold (dorato). made out, saw (capii). sparkled, shone (brillavano). trunks, cases (bauli). trinkets, small decorative articles (suppellettili). was faded, had lost brightness (era sbiadita). She refers to… the bride is… me refers to… 11. withered, decayed (appassita). 12. shrunk to, reduced to (ritirata). 13. ghastly, horrible (orribile). 14. waxwork, models of human beings made in wax (statue di cera). 15. lying in state, (of a dead body) lying in a public place so that people may honour it (esposto nella camera ardente). 16. dug out of, disinterred from (disseppellito). 42 De Luca, Ellis, Pace, Ranzoli - Books and Bookmarks, cod. 2634 © Loescher Editore 2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB:2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB 16/09/09 12:19 Page 43 M2 • A CLASSIC NOVELIST: CHARLES DICKENS 60 70 80 90 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. minutes to nine, and that a clock in the room had stopped at twenty minutes to nine. “Look at me”, said Miss Havisham. “You are not afraid of a woman who has never seen the sun since you were born?” I regret to state that I was not afraid of telling the enormous lie comprehended in the answer “No”. “Do you know what I touch here?” she said, laying her hands, one upon the other, on her left side. “Yes, ma’am.” (It made me think of the young man.) “What do I touch?” “Your heart.” “Broken!” 17 She uttered the word with an eager look, and with strong emphasis, and with a weird18 smile that had a kind of boast19 in it. Afterwards, she kept her hands there for a little while, and slowly took them away as if they were heavy. “I am tired”, said Miss Havisham. “I want diversion, and I have done with men and women. Play”. 20 I think it will be conceded by my most disputatious reader, that she could hardly have directed an unfortunate boy to do anything in the wide world more difficult to be done under the circumstances. “I sometimes have sick fancies21, she went on, “and I have a sick fancy that I want to see some play. There, there!” with an impatient movement of the fingers of her right hand; “play, play, play!” For a moment, with the fear of my sister’s working me22 before my eyes, I had a desperate idea of starting round the room in the assumed character of Mr Pumblechook’s chaise-cart. But, I felt myself so unequal to the performance that I gave it up, and stood looking at Miss Havisham in what I suppose she took for a dogged23 manner, inasmuch as24 she said, when we had taken a good look at each other: “Are you sullen25 and obstinate?” “No ma’am, I am very sorry for you, and very sorry I can’t play just now. If you complain of me I shall get into trouble with my sister, so I would do it if I could; but it’s so new here, and so strange, and so fine — and melancholy —” I stopped, fearing I might say too much, or had already said it, and we took another look at each other. Before she spoke again, she turned her eyes from me, and looked at the dress she wore, and at the dressing-table and finally at herself in the looking-glass. “So new to him,” she muttered, “so old to me; so strange to him, so familiar to me; so melancholy to both of us! Call Estella.” As she was still looking at the reflection of herself, I thought she was still talking to herself, and kept quiet. eager, intense (intenso). weird, strange and frightening (spettrale). boast, self-satisfaction (vanto). disputatious, pedantic (pedante). fancies, desires (desideri). 22. 23. 24. 25. Why should his sister work him? working me, beating me (picchiasse). dogged, obstinate (testardo). inasmuch as, because (poiché). sullen, bad-tempered (musone). 43 De Luca, Ellis, Pace, Ranzoli - Books and Bookmarks, cod. 2634 © Loescher Editore 2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB:2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB 16/09/09 12:19 Page 44 V I CTO R I A N A G E 100 110 120 130 26. 27. 28. 29. 30. “Call Estella”, she repeated, flashing a look at me. “You can do that. Call Estella. At the door”. To stand in the dark in a mysterious passage of an unknown house, bawling26 Estella to a scornful young lady neither visible nor responsive, and feeling it a dreadful27 liberty so to roar28 out her name, was almost as bad as playing to order. But, she answered at last, and her light came along the dark passage like a star. Miss Havisham beckoned29 her to come close, and took up a jewel from the table, and tried its effect upon her fair young bosom and against her pretty brown hair. “Your own, one day, my dear, and you will use it well. Let me see you play cards with this boy.” “With this boy! Why, he is a common labouring-boy!” I thought I overheard Miss Havisham answer — only it seemed so unlikely — “Well? You can break his heart.” “What do you play, boy?” asked Estella of myself, with the greatest disdain. 30 “Nothing but beggar my neighbour miss.” “Beggar him,” said Miss Havisham to Estella. So we sat down to cards. It was then I began to understand that everything in the room had stopped, like the watch and the clock, a long time ago. I noticed that Miss Havisham put down the jewel exactly on the spot from which she had taken it up. As Estella dealt the cards, I glanced at the dressing-table again, and saw that the shoe upon it, once white, now yellow, had never been worn31. I glanced down at the foot from which the shoe was absent, and saw that the silk stocking on it, once white, 32 now yellow, had been trodden ragged . Without this arrest of everything, this standing still of all the pale decayed objects, not even the withered bridal dress on the collapsed form could have looked so like grave-clothes, or the long veil so like a shroud33. 34 35 So she sat, corpse-like, as we played at cards; the frillings and trimmings on her bridal dress, looking like earthy paper. I knew nothing then, of the discoveries that are occasionally made of bodies buried in ancient times, which fall to powder in the moment of being distinctly seen; but, I have often thought since, that she must have looked as if the admission of the natural light of day would have struck her to dust. “He calls the knaves, Jacks, this boy!” said Estella with disdain, before our first game was out. “And what coarse hands he has! And what thick boots!” I had never thought of being ashamed of my hands before; but I began to consider them a very indifferent pair. Her contempt for me was so strong, that it became infectious, and I caught it. bawling, shouting in a loud voice (urlando). dreadful, terrible (tremenda). to roar, to shout loudly (gridare). beckoned, signalled (fece cenno). beggar my neighbour, a game of cards (in Italian asino, omino nero). 31. 32. 33. 34. 35. she refers to… she refers to… worn, put on (indossata). trodden ragged, walked on till it had fallen to pieces (a brandelli). shroud, cloth for covering a dead body (sudario). frillings, decorations (increspature). trimmings, decorative additions (guarnizioni). 44 De Luca, Ellis, Pace, Ranzoli - Books and Bookmarks, cod. 2634 © Loescher Editore 2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB:2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB 16/09/09 12:19 Page 45 M2 • A CLASSIC NOVELIST: CHARLES DICKENS 140 150 160 170 She won the game, and dealt36. I misdealt37, as was only natural, when I knew she was lying in wait for me to do wrong; and she denounced me for a stupid clumsy38, labouring-boy. “You say nothing of her,” remarked Miss Havisham to me, as she looked on. “She says many hard things of you, but you say nothing of her. What do you think of her?” “I don’t like to say,” I stammered39. “Tell me in my ear,” said Miss Havisham, bending down. “I think she is very proud,” I replied, in a whisper. “Anything else?” “I think she is very pretty.” “Anything else?” “I think she is very insulting.” (She was looking at me then with a look of supreme aversion.) “Anything else?” “I think I should like to go home.” “And never see her again, though she is so pretty?” “I am not sure that I shouldn’t like to see her again, but I should like to go home now.” “You shall go soon,” said Miss Havisham, aloud. “Play the game out.” Saving for the one weird smile at first, I should have felt almost sure that Miss Havisham’s face could not smile. It had dropped into a watchful and brooding expression — most likely when all the things about her had become 40 transfixed and it looked as if nothing could ever lift it up again. Her chest had dropped, so that she stooped41; and her voice had dropped, so that she spoke low, and with a dead lull42 upon her; altogether, she had the appearance of having dropped, body and soul, within and without, under the weight of a crushing blow. I played the game to an end with Estella, and she beggared me. She threw the cards down on the table when she had won them all, as if she despised them for having been won of me. “When shall I have you here again?” said Miss Havisham. “Let me think.” I was beginning to remind her that to-day was Wednesday, when she checked43 me with her former impatient movement of the fingers of her right hand. “There, there! I know nothing of days of the week; I know nothing of weeks of the year. Come again after six days. You hear?” “Yes, ma’am.” “Estella, take him down. Let him have something to eat, and let him roam44 and look about him while he eats. Go, Pip.” 36. dealt, gave out the cards (diede le carte). 37. misdealt, gave out the cards in the wrong way (diedi le carte in modo errato). 38. clumsy, awkward in movement (goffo). 39. stammered, said hesitatingly (balbettai). 40. 41. 42. 43. 44. She refers to… them refers to… transfixed, immobilised (paralizzate). stooped, bent (era curva). lull, calm (calma). checked, stopped (interruppe). roam, wander about (andare in giro). 45 De Luca, Ellis, Pace, Ranzoli - Books and Bookmarks, cod. 2634 © Loescher Editore 2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB:2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB 16/09/09 12:19 Page 46 V I CTO R I A N A G E 180 I followed the candle down, as I had followed the candle up, and she stood it in the place where we had found it. Until she opened the side entrance, I had fancied45, without thinking about it, that it must necessarily be night-time. The rush of the daylight quite confounded46 me, and made me feel as if I had been in the candlelight of the strange room many hours. “You are to wait here, you boy,” said Estella; and disappeared and closed the door. 2 Focus on Pip again. a Underline all the words and phrases that convey his reactions to the scene and the other characters. b How would you summarise his feeling? Pip is …………… (choose from the list) astonished self-conscious sad frightened embarrassed cross 3 Focus on the relationship between Pip and the other two characters. a Write down in your notebook words, phrases and sentences that describe the physical appearance and the personality of the two characters Pip meets. Estella Miss Havisham Physical appearance ................................................................................. ..................................................................................... Personality ................................................................................. ..................................................................................... b Which character is described in greater detail? c Summarise briefly how the two characters appear. You can use the adjectives below or supply your own. beautiful old scornful shy spiteful tired frightening strange frightened 4 Consider characterisation. a How are the characters created (through description, narration or dialogue)? b Do they show any change in their behaviour in the extract you have read? c Which character is influenced by interaction with the others and how? 5 Consider the setting. a How is the scene described? ■1 ■2 ■3 The description starts from the general and narrows down to particulars. The description starts from particulars and widens to the general. The description starts from the general and narrows down to particulars and follows a linear route going into details on the aspects that most strike Pip. b Which are the main places mentioned? c Which of the places is described in more detail? 45. fancied, believed (creduto). 46. confounded, surprised (disorientò). 46 De Luca, Ellis, Pace, Ranzoli - Books and Bookmarks, cod. 2634 © Loescher Editore 2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB:2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB 16/09/09 12:19 Page 47 M2 • A CLASSIC NOVELIST: CHARLES DICKENS d Which of the following sentences can be used to describe the setting? Supply appropriate quotations to support your choice. ■1 ■2 ■3 ■4 ■5 ■6 ■7 The setting is completely cut off from the external world. It is very dark. It is pervaded by a sense of decay. It is cut off from the normal flow of time. It is cosy. It has a spectral quality. It is like a frozen picture. The particular atmosphere of the setting derives from many interrelated aspects that run through the whole scene. For example no colours are mentioned, the whole scene is in black and white and a sense of decay and death permeates it. Moreover the impact of Estella’s attitude to Pip conveys a sense of awkwardness. 6 Consider the language. a Make notes in your notebook of the words, phrases and similes that convey these aspects under the headings below. Sense of Colour Sense of Decay ............................................................................................................................... ........................................................................................................................................ b Which of the following features characterise the language used in the extract? ■ adjectives which convey subjective impressions ■ personification ■ simile ■ metaphor ■ factual adjectives ■ cumulation of details 7 Focus on narrative technique. Which of the following features apply to the narrator in this extract? Tick (✓) as appropriate and supply an example for each. ■1 ■2 ■3 The narrator is not a character in the story. ■4 The narrator is the protagonist of the story. The narrator adopts Pip’s point of view. ■5 The narrator adopts different points of view: of himself as a child, of himself as an adult. The point of view of Pip as a child is predominant. 8 Consider your position as a reader. a Whose point of view do you share? ➔ TH E F I LM: Great Expectations (1946), p. 57 ➔ TH E FI LM: Great Expectations (1998), p. 59 ➔ TH E M USIC: Great Expectations (1946), p. 61 47 De Luca, Ellis, Pace, Ranzoli - Books and Bookmarks, cod. 2634 © Loescher Editore 2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB:2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB 16/09/09 12:19 Page 48 V I CTO R I A N A G E b Are you led to identify with or distance yourself from the protagonist? Te x t t w o Here is the last extract which shows another aspect of the protagonist. 1 Read and say: 10 20 30 a who is with Pip “May I make so bold,” he said then, with a smile that was like a frown1, and with a frown that was like a smile, “as ask2 you how you have done well, since you and me was out on them lone shivering marshes?”3 “How?” “Ah!” He emptied his glass, got up, and stood at the side of the fire, with his heavy brown hand on the mantelshelf. He put a foot up to the bars, to dry and warm it, and the wet boot began to steam; but, he neither looked at it, nor at the fire, but steadily looked at me. It was only now that I began to tremble. When my lips had parted, and had shaped some words that were without sound, I forced myself to tell him (though I could not do it distinctly), that I had been chosen to succeed to some property. “Might a mere warmint4 ask what property?” said he. I faltered5, “I don’t know.” “Might a mere warmint ask whose property?” said he. I faltered again, “I don’t know.” “Could I make a guess, I wonder,” said the Convict, “at your income since you come6 of age! As to the first figure now. Five?7” With my heart beating like a heavy hammer of disordered action, I rose out of my chair, and stood with my hand upon the back of it, looking wildly at him. “Concerning a guardian,” he went on. “There ought to have been some guardian, or such-like, whiles8 you was9 a minor. Some lawyer, maybe. As to the first letter of that lawyer’s name now. Would it be J?” All the truth of my position came flashing on me; and its disappointments, dangers, disgraces, consequences of all kinds, rushed in in such a multitude 10 that I was borne down by them and had to struggle for every breath I drew. “Put it,” he resumed, “as the employer11 of that lawyer whose name begun12 with a J, and might be Jaggers — put it as he had come over sea to Portsmouth, and had landed there, and had wanted to come on to you. ‘However, you have found me out,’ you says13 just now. Well! However did I find you out? Why, I 1. frown, displeased look (sogghigno). 2. as ask, and ask. 3. you and me was out on them lone shivering marshes, (dialect) standard English ‘you and I were out on those lonely shivering marshes’. 4. warmint, (dialect) vermin. 5. faltered, hesitated (balbettai). 6. come (dialect) came. b what part of the plot the he refers to… Why do you think he began to tremble? What is the truth of Pip’s position? 7. As to the first figure now. Five?, i.e. would the first figure of your income be 5? 8. whiles, (dialect) while. 9. you was, (dialect) you were. 10. borne down, crushed (schiacciato). 11. Put it as the employer..., i.e. let’s assure that the employer... 12. begun, (dialect) began. 13. you says, (dialect) you say. 48 De Luca, Ellis, Pace, Ranzoli - Books and Bookmarks, cod. 2634 © Loescher Editore 2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB:2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB 16/09/09 12:19 Page 49 M2 • A CLASSIC NOVELIST: CHARLES DICKENS wrote from Portsmouth to a person in London, for particulars of your address. That person’s name? Why, Wemmick.” I could not have spoken one word, though it had been to save my life. I stood, with a hand on the chair-back and a hand on my breast, where I seemed to be suffocating — I stood so, looking wildly at him, until I grasped at the 14 t the text belongs to.chair, when the room began to surge and turn. He caught me, drew me to the sofa, put me up against the cushions, and bent on one knee before me: bringing 15 the face that I now well remembered, and that I shuddered at, very near to mine. “Yes, Pip, dear boy, I’ve made a gentleman on you16! It’s me wot17 has done 40 it! I swore that time, sure as ever I earned a guinea, that guinea should go to you. I swore arterwards18, sure as ever I spec’lated19 and got rich, you should get rich. I lived rough20, that21 you should live smooth22; I worked hard, that you should be above work. What odds23, dear boy? Do I tell it, fur you to feel a obligation? 24 Not a bit. I tell it, fur you to know as that there hunted dunghill dog wot you kep life in25, got his head so high that he could make a gentleman — and, Pip, you’re him!” The abhorrence in which I held the man, the dread I had of him, the repugnance with which I shrank from him, could not have been exceeded if he had been some terrible beast. 50 “Look’ee26 here, Pip. I’m your second father. You’re my son — more to me nor27 any son. I’ve put away money, only for you to spend.” Wemmick is Jagger’s secretary the man is… 2 Consider the relationship between Pip and the convict. a How would you describe the convict’s feelings and mood? Choose from the list below giving an example for each choice. benefactor. • He is very proud of what he has achieved in his own life. • He feels affection for Pip. • He enjoys revealing he is Pip’s • He enjoys seeing what Pip has • He is sure he has done a positive thing. become. b Underline the verbs, phrases and sentences that reveal Pip’s reactions to what the convict tells him. What effect does the contrast between Pip’s feelings and the convict’s create? ➔ P E R S O N A L F I L E : G e t R e a d y f o r Te s t i n g , p . 7 5 14. surge, move (ondeggiare). 15. shuddered, shook with horror or revulsion (mi fece rabbrividire). 16. on you, (dialect) of you. 17. wot, (dialect) what, here used to mean who. 18. arterwards, (dialect) afterwards. 19. spec’lated, (dialect) speculated, tried to make money (feci delle speculazioni). 20. lived rough, had a difficult life (ebbi una vita dura). 21. that, in order that. 22. live smooth, have an easy life (avessi una vita facile). 23. What odds?, what does it matter. 24. fur you, (dialect) for you. 25. as that there hunted dunghill dog wot you kep life in, (dialect) that that wretched human being whose life you saved. 26. Look’ee, (dialect) look. 27. nor, (dialect) than. 49 De Luca, Ellis, Pace, Ranzoli - Books and Bookmarks, cod. 2634 © Loescher Editore 2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB:2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB 16/09/09 12:19 Page 50 V I CTO R I A N A G E STEP Four c What do you, as a reader, think of Pip and his reaction? Dickens and the Classic Novel OBJ ECTIVES In Step Four you will: • identify the characteristics of Dickens’ style • define a classic novel The exercises you have done in the previous Step should have made you aware of many of the characteristics of Dickens’ style. The term ‘style’ covers the specific way of using language which is a characteristic of an author, but more broadly it also includes the specific way of handling the various features of a genre by an author. The Bookmark below summarises in note form the main features of Dickens’ style. Bookmark ● Dickens’ Style ● STORY AND PLOT – choice of sensational situations and themes. – Complex, often based on main character’s ● LANGUAGE development, rich in National Porteait Gallery sensational and melodramatic devices – emphasis on some events through the handling of fictional time. ● FICTIONAL WORLD – Gallery of memorable characters, created both Robert William Buss, Dickens’s Dream, watercolour and pencil, 1875. The picture shows Dickens in his study surrounded by the characters of his novels. through showing and telling, often caricatured; – lively interaction between characters – very detailed settings in tune with the story-line and the characters – creation of very emotional atmospheres. ● NARRATIVE TECHNIQUE AND READER’S INVOLVEMENT – Omniscient narrator – involvement of the reader through the handling of point of view – emotional tone – direct address by the narrator – Highly figurative language – repetition of key words and syntactical structures – flair for dialogue – detailed descriptions. ● THEMES – Exploitation of children – poor educational system, psychological and moral growth of one character – unsafe factory conditions – greediness and selfishness of rich upper classes – the plight of the working class – triumph of good over evil. 50 De Luca, Ellis, Pace, Ranzoli - Books and Bookmarks, cod. 2634 © Loescher Editore 2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB:2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB 16/09/09 12:19 Page 51 M2 • A CLASSIC NOVELIST: CHARLES DICKENS 1 Read it and say which features you have come across in the texts you have read, supporting your choices with appropriate evidence from the texts. Below is a definition paragraph of the classic novel as exemplified in Dickens’ Great Expectations. 2 Read the paragraph and say which meaning the word ‘classic’ takes on in the case of fiction. 10 The classic novel is characterised by the creation of a complex fictional world which the reader accepts as real. It is centred around a powerful character having an eventful life and acting against a lifelike and detailed setting. The novel generally ends in a happy way or at least with good triumphing over evil. The narrative voice is usually that of an omniscient narrator who expresses the dominant moral views of the time. The reader is involved both emotionally and rationally because s/he shares his/her views of the world with the novelist. All the conventions of fictions are present and are exploited in a very articulated way. These features are typical of the novels of the first part of the Victorian Age which have come to be seen as models against which to judge all the further evolutions of the genre. Classic Fiction in Context STUDY BOX CHECK… Check what you have learnt in this Module by completing the following paragraph about Great Expectations. The main 1) ............................................................................ of the novel revolves around Pip’s life from the age of seven to the age of thirty-three. The 2) ............................................................................ is narrated by a first-person 3) ............................................................................ through description, 4) ............................................................................ and narration. The 5) ............................................................................ narrator is Pip, the main character, who employs two different 6) ............................................................................ . The first is that of himself as a 7) ............................................................................ ; the second is that of himself as an 8) ............................................................................ remembering and commenting on past Phaidon, 1999 9) ............................................................................ . The reader shares Pip’s point of view as an adult in ▼ Luke Fildes, Applicants for Admission to a Casual Ward, oil on canvas, 1874. The painting illustrates poor people in Victorian Society. 51 De Luca, Ellis, Pace, Ranzoli - Books and Bookmarks, cod. 2634 © Loescher Editore 2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB:2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB 16/09/09 12:19 Page 52 ▼ ▼ V I CTO R I A N A G E judging events but he is also able to participate in and sympathise with the 10) ............................................................................ of Pip as a child. 11) ............................................................................ come to life both through their interaction and the narrator’s description. While Pip as a child is seen through his own eyes as an adult, the other characters are seen mainly through Pip’s eyes as a child. Pip’s 12) ............................................................................ emerges mostly from his reactions to what he sees and from his interaction with other characters. The 13) ............................................................................ , is described in great detail. The language is highly figurative but also detailed and descriptive and repetition is frequently used. …AND LEARN Realistic Fiction Phaidon, 1999 Novelists and Society The term ‘classic fiction’ is synonymous with the realistic fiction which had first emerged in Britain in the 18th century but particularly flourished in the early Victorian Age (1837-1901). In that period more and more authors took to novel writing, enlarging the scope of the genre and refining fictional techniques. The aim of realistic fiction is to represent life as it really is, that is, to create a fictional world which the reader accepts as real and to which s/he responds both emotionally and rationally. This implies a set of values equally shared by writer and readers as a frame of reference. Novelists saw and denounced the evils of their time, such as poverty, the exploitation of children and workers, and the inadequate educational system, the selfishness of the upper classes. However, like their reading public, they did not question the fundamental idea that the establishment was right, that progress was beneficial and social evils were only a temporary and inevitable setback. Life was seen and judged from the same point of view by novelists and readers alike. The fictional world of the novels represented what was good and bad in the society of the time. The stories were complex and involving and generally had a happy end with good triumphing over evil. Main characters conformed to the accepted rules of moral behaviour. Both characters and events were presented through the eyes of an omniscient narrator who gave voice to and supported the conventional set of values of the time. This sense of a shared world between novelists and their public Abraham Solomon, Brighton Solomon, oil on wood, c. 1860. The painting shows the upper middle class in Victorian times holidaying at the seaside. ➔ P E R S O N A L F I L E : G e t R e a d y f o r Te s t i n g , p . 7 5 52 De Luca, Ellis, Pace, Ranzoli - Books and Bookmarks, cod. 2634 © Loescher Editore 2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB:2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB 16/09/09 12:19 Page 53 M2 • A CLASSIC NOVELIST: CHARLES DICKENS Assignment NES written accounts for the success of the genre and explains some of the main features of the realistic novel and the similarities between the various novelists notwithstanding differences of style and theme. APPLYING WHAT YOU KNOW TOWARDS THE ESSAY Below is a short summary of another classic novel of the 19th century, Vanity Fair (1847-48) by W. M. Thackeray, and a passage from it. 1 Read both and then write an essay (approx. 250-300 words) on the novel’s main features following the outline below. • The Story What is it about? • Narrative technique Who narrates the story and how is it narrated? • Characters Who are they? What are they like? How are they created? • Setting What kind of setting is it? What function does it fulfil? • Language What are the main features of the language used in the extract? s u m m a ry This novel is based on the life and adventures of two contrasting characters, Rebecca Sharp, the orphan of an artist and a French opera dancer and Amelia Sedley, the daughter of a rich City merchant. It is set at the time of the Napoleonic Wars. Amelia, though apparently secure and happy, experiences a series of misadventures: her father’s bankruptcy, an unhappy marriage soon ended by her husband’s death in the war, money problems. At the end she finds happiness in her second marriage to Captain Dobbin, a friend of her husband’s who had always been in love with her. Rebecca, on the other hand, after the failure of her plan to marry Amelia’s brother, becomes a governess and the favourite of a rich lady, Miss Crawley, whose nephew, Rawdon, she marries. She experiences ups and downs in her life and resorts to all sorts of scheming in order to improve her social and financial position. Eventually her marriage breaks up and she turns to a disreputable life on the Continent. Vanity Fair by W. M. Thackeray Rawdon left her1 and walked home rapidly. It was nine o’ clock at night. He ran across the streets, and the great squares of Vanity Fair, and at length came up breathless opposite his own house. He started back and fell against the railings, trembling as he looked up. The drawing-room windows were blazing with light. She2 had said that she was in bed and ill. He stood there for some time, the light from the rooms on his pale face. 1. her, refers to Rawdon’s sister-in-law. 2. She, refers to Rawdon’s wife, Becky. 53 De Luca, Ellis, Pace, Ranzoli - Books and Bookmarks, cod. 2634 © Loescher Editore 2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB:2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB 16/09/09 12:19 Page 54 V I CTO R I A N A G E 10 20 30 40 50 He took out his door-key and let himself into the house. He could hear laughter in the upper rooms. He was in the balldress in which he had been captured the night before. He went silently up the stairs; leaning against the banisters at the stairhead. Nobody was stirring in the house besides — all the servants had been sent away. Rawdon heard laughter within — laughter and singing. Becky was singing a snatch of the song of the night before; a hoarse voice shouted “Brava! Brava!” — it was Lord Steyne’s. Rawdon opened the door and went in. A little table with a dinner was laid out — and wine and plate. Steyne was hanging over the sofa on which Becky sat. The wretched woman was in a brilliant full toilette, her arms and all her fingers sparkling with bracelets and rings; and the brilliants on her breast which Steyne had given her. He had her hand in his, and was bowing over it to kiss it, when Becky started up with a faint scream as she caught sight of Rawdon’s white face. At the next instant she tried a smile, a horrid smile, as if to welcome her husband: and Steyne rose up, grinding his teeth, pale, and with fury in his looks. He, too, attempted a laugh — and came forward holding out his hand. “What, come back! How d’ye do, Crawley?” he said, the nerves of his mouth twitching as he tried to grin at the intruder. There was that in Rawdon’s face which caused Becky to fling herself before him. “I am innocent, Rawdon,” she said; “before God, I am innocent.” She clung hold of his coat, of his hands; her own were all covered with serpents, and rings, and baubles. “I am innocent. Say I am innocent,” she said to Lord Steyne. He thought a trap had been laid for him, and was as furious with the wife as with the husband. “You innocent! Damn you,” he screamed out. “You innocent! Why, every trinket you have on your body is paid for by me. I have given you thousands of pounds which this fellow has spent, and for which he has sold you. Innocent, by —! You’re as innocent as your mother, the ballet-girl, and your husband the bully. Don’t think to frighten me as you have done others. Make way, sir, and let me pass;” and Lord Steyne seized up his hat, and, with flame in his eyes, and looking his enemy fiercely in the face, marched upon him, never for a moment doubting that the other would give way. But Rawdon Crawley springing out, seized him by the neckcloth, until Steyne, almost strangled, writhed, and bent under his arm. “You lie, you dog!” said Rawdon. “You lie, you coward and villain!” And he struck the Peer twice over the face with his open hand, and flung him bleeding to the ground. It was all done before Rebecca could interpose. She stood there trembling before him. She admired her husband, strong, brave, and victorious. “Come here,” he said. — She came up at once. “Take off those things.” — She began, trembling, pulling the jewels from her arms, and the rings from her shaking fingers, and held them all in a heap quivering and looking up at him. “Throw them down,” he said, and she dropped them. He tore the diamond ornament out of her breast, and flung it at Lord Steyne. It cut him on his bald forehead. Steyne wore the scar to his dying day. 54 De Luca, Ellis, Pace, Ranzoli - Books and Bookmarks, cod. 2634 © Loescher Editore 2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB:2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB 16/09/09 12:19 Page 55 2 What are the similarities and differences between the texts you haveMUSIC read in the VISUAL ModuleART FILM and this one? Beyond Literature FILM THE WOMAN IN WHITE (1997) directed by Tim Fywell, starring Tara Fitzgerald as Marian, Justine Waddell as Laura and Andrew Lincoln as Walter Hartright ( ➔ p. 22) This adaptation of Collins’ novel recreates the suspense in the book and also gives an insight into 19th-century English society. Before starting to work on the clip revise the summary of the story on pp. 19-20 and 22. 1 (PREVIEWING) Below is a possible version of the screenplay for this clip. a Read it and form a mental picture of what is going on. b Find the following information: 1 2 3 4 5 What characters are involved? What different settings are there? What is the crucial event about? What makes it clear that the warden is not Sir Percival’s accomplice? How does the scene compare with the original plot? SCRIPT Scene 1. INTERIOR. Dark corridor and large bare room. (1 tracking shot) Three characters walk along a corridor. They reach a balcony overlooking a room lit up by daylight. Downstairs a woman is sitting on a chair in a corner facing a wall. Marian walks along the balcony while Walter starts talking to the Warden. WALTER Oh, I’ve just remembered Sir Percival had this message for you. WARDEN For me, Sir? (2 ..........................................................) Marian walks along the balcony. WALTER He wanted to know if you’d heard from Mrs Cartherick, Ann’s mother. WARDEN No, Sir, I haven’t heard anything from Mrs Cartherick. As Sir Percival said, ... (3 very long shot)The woman sitting on a chair; her face is not visible. (4 medium shot) MARIAn (going down the stairs slowly): Ann ... (5 very long shot) MARIAN (almost at the foot of the stairs): Ann ... (6 close-up) MARIAN (on the lower floor looking at the woman): It is a friend ... (7 medium long shot) The woman is sitting with a listless attitude; her long hair hides her face; she starts turning her head. (8 close-up) MARIAN (horrified expression): Oh ... Laura (9 extreme close-up) Laura’s face has a vacant expression. (10 from close-up to extreme close-up) Marian in tears embraces Laura. (11 ..........................................................) Walter rushes downstairs from the balcony above. (12 extreme close-up) MARIAN (embracing Laura): Oh, my God in heaven (13 close-up) Walter stops transfixed by shock. (14 ..........................................................) Laura looks towards him; Marian’s face also turns towards him. (15 close-up) WALTER (rushing to embrace Laura): Laura (16 ..........................................................) Marian kisses Laura. (17 very long shot) The three characters below; the warden looks down from the balcony. Scene 2. INTERIOR. Warden’s office. (18 medium shot) The warden is sitting on an armchair with worried expression. 55 De Luca, Ellis, Pace, Ranzoli - Books and Bookmarks, cod. 2634 © Loescher Editore 2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB:2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB 16/09/09 12:19 Page 56 BEYOND LITERATURE WALTER We’ll see you are not blamed. (19 close-up) WALTER (to the warden): And for now nobody need know she has left. 56 De Luca, Ellis, Pace, Ranzoli - Books and Bookmarks, cod. 2634 © Loescher Editore 2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB:2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB 16/09/09 12:19 Page 57 FILM 2 (FIRST VIEWING) Watch the clip and explain whether the sequence is similar to or different from what you imagined. FILM ( ➔ p. 47) 3 (SECOND VIEWING) Watch again carefully. a Write the appropriate type of shot in the blanks in the text above: medium shot close-up extreme close-up tracking shot b Point out in which shot/s the contrast light/darkness is emphasised. To what effect do you think? characters? 4 (THIRd VIEWING) a Identify which of the shots in brackets are also high angle and low angle. In which case do they convey the subjective point of view of one of the b What type of shots have a narrative function and which ones have been used to convey feelings and pathos? In order to analyse the music score of the clip go to the Music Section, p. 60. 57 De Luca, Ellis, Pace, Ranzoli - Books and Bookmarks, cod. 2634 © Loescher Editore 2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB:2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB 16/09/09 12:19 Page 58 BEYOND LITERATURE GREAT EXPECTATIONS (1946) directed by David Lean, starring Anthony Wager as young Pip, Jean Simmons as young Estella and Martha Hunt as Miss Havisham The film has become a classic. 1 (FIRST VIEWING. SOUND ON) Watch the clip. Here is a list of shots in the sequence. They are given in jumbled order. While watching, number them in the correct order. ■ a) Hands playing a game of cards. ■ b) Detail of a book on a table covered with cobwebs and with a spider. ■ c) Pip and Estella go up the stairs. ■ d) Pip opens the door and enters Miss Havisham’s room. ■ e) Pip drops his cards. ■ f) Pip approaches Miss Havisham. ■ g) Estella enters Miss Havisham’s room. ■ h) Estella goes away and Pip knocks at the door. ■ i) Pip gets closer to Miss Havisham. ■ j) Estella approaches Miss Havisham and is shown a necklace. ■ k) Pip and Estella stand in front of a door. 58 De Luca, Ellis, Pace, Ranzoli - Books and Bookmarks, cod. 2634 © Loescher Editore 2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB:2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB 16/09/09 12:19 Page 59 FILM GREAT EXPECTATIONS FILM ( ➔ p. 47) (1998) ALFONSO CUARÓN, STARRING ETHAN HAWKE AS FINN, GWYNETH PALTROW AS ESTELLA, ROBERT DE NIRO AS THE CONVICT, ANNE BANCROFT AS MISS NORA DINSMOOR, JEREMY KISSNER AS YOUNG FINN AND RAQUEL BEAUDENE AS YOUNG ESTELLA DIRECTED BY This film is a modern version of Dickens’ classic novel. You are going to watch the same episode as in the previous clip. 1 (FIRST VIEWING) Watch and compare this clip with the one from David Lean’s Great Expectations. Point out similarities and differences as regards: – setting – characters’ clothes/physical appearance – atmosphere – characters’ behaviour/reactions 2 (SECOND VIEWING) Watch and listen carefully. Fill in the blanks in the script below. SCRIPT FINN (narrator): YOUNG ESTELLA: YOUNG FINN: YOUNG ESTELLA: FINN (narrator): MISS DINSMOOR: Old Miss Dinsmoor hadn’t been seen in years. I’d heard that she was 1) .................................. Go ahead. Aren’t you 2) .................................. ? Don’t think so. ... but 3) .................................. knew how crazy. Her room 4) .................................. of dead flowers and cat piss. (a record player and records; the 5) .................................. starts playing; a cage with a green 6) .................................. in the middle of the room; the back figure of a woman who starts 7) .................................. to the music; the woman turns about and 8) .................................. towards Finn.) Chobum! Besame, besame mucho. Each time I cling to your kiss I hear music 9) .................................. . Besame, besame mucho. Hold me my darling and say that you’ll always be 10) .................................. . 3 Watch again and match the images (below left) and the film technique (below right) used in the clip. 1 Finn enters the room 2 record player and records 3 Finn approaching the cage 4 parrot in the cage 5 Finn’s eyes looking at the parrot 6 woman holding boy in her arms a) long shot b) close-up c) medium shot d) detail e) subjective point of view f) zooming in 4 Which of the two film clips did you like better? Why? 59 De Luca, Ellis, Pace, Ranzoli - Books and Bookmarks, cod. 2634 © Loescher Editore 2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB:2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB 16/09/09 12:19 Page 60 BEYOND LITERATURE THE WOMAN IN WHITE MUSIC (1997) music by David Ferguson We will now consider the music of the clip from The Woman in White which was composed by David Ferguson (➔ Biography below). 1 (FIRST LISTENING) Watch and listen. ( ➔ p. 22) a When does the music start? b How would you describe the music and the sensations it arouses? sweet c menacing lugubrious soothing tense melancholic sombre passionate Can you detect any significant change in the musical sequence? If so, where? 2 (SECOND LISTENING) Watch and listen again. In column A are listed shots of the sequence and in column B the description of the music in jumbled order. a Match them. A B 1 Marian approaches Laura a) enters voice with descending melody accompanied by the harp b) ascending theme played by acute strings c) ascending main theme played by the cello d) slow descending melody of winds 2 Marian goes down the stairs and addresses Laura 3 Laura slowly turns her head and Marian recognises her 4 Marian hugs Laura b Where does the music underline the following feelings? 1 reaches an emotional climax and then eases 3 evokes feelings of nostalgia and melancholy 2 becomes more passionate with a sense of 4 evokes suggestions of further impending aching and distress dangers The theme of this piece is the main theme of the film and is often associated with the woman in white and her apparitions. 3 (THIRD LISTENING) Focus again on the whole sequence. a Which of the following aspects does the theme underline? It… ■ underlines key moments in the narration ■ underlines sudden changes of perspective ■ evokes feelings of tension and suspense ■ underlines solutions of mystery ■ has a premonitory function ■ stresses mystery b Where does the theme particularly hint at a link between Laura and Ann’s destinies? c In what way does the music involve the viewer? BIOGRAPHY DAVID FERGUSON (b. 1953) F ilm and TV soundtrack composer, he was born in 1953 in South London. He started his career in the theatre, but in the ’80s he joined a group and turned to pop music. When the group split up he started soundtrack work for Channel 4. His music for film versions of best sellers such as Ruth Rendell’s novels gained him fame and he is now ranked among the best British film composers. 60 De Luca, Ellis, Pace, Ranzoli - Books and Bookmarks, cod. 2634 © Loescher Editore 2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB:2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB 16/09/09 12:19 Page 61 MUSIC GREAT EXPECTATIONS MUSIC (1946) music by Walter Goehr You are going to analyse some of the aspects of the musical comment of the film clip taken from Great Expectations, composed by Walter Goehr (➔ Biography below). 1 (FIRST LISTENING) Watch the clip again and focus on the music. ( ➔ p. 47) a When does the musical comment stop and when does it start again? b Would you say that the music underlines actions or feelings? 2 (SECOND LISTENING) Focus on the first part of the musical comment. a b Match the main actions listed on the left with the appropriate musical comments listed on the right. 1 The children go up the stairs. 2 The children reach the top of the stairs. Estella leaves Pip and Pip stares at the closed door. 3 Pip knocks on the door and slowly opens it. a) The crescendo reaches its apex with a chord and an acute tremolo and an incisive playing of ottavinos. Descending scale of bassoons and then low strings accompanied by an acute tremolo of violins. b) The tremolo of strings turns into a disquieting ascending phrase of the whole orchestra, in crescendo. The crescendo stops abruptly when Miss Havisham starts speaking. c) The music is characterised by a crescendo of winds against a background of a steady and pressing rhythmic beat. Match each description with the following functions. ■ 1 underlines both the action and the protagonist’s anxiety and involves the viewer in the protagonist’s emotions ■ 2 stresses Pip’s anxiety and fear ■ 3 underlines both the action and Pip’s feelings of fear and wonder. 3 (THIRD LISTENING) Listen again and focus on the second part of the musical comment. a When does the music underline Pip’s point of view or Miss Havisham’s point of view? b How would you describe the quality of the music in this part? disturbing soft eerie soothing premonitory tense BIOGRAPHY WALTER GOEHR (1903-60) onductor and composer of German birth, he settled in England and took British nationality in 1933. He conducted the most famous European orchestras of C the time, among which that of the BBC. He wrote orchestral music and music for the radio and films. 61 De Luca, Ellis, Pace, Ranzoli - Books and Bookmarks, cod. 2634 © Loescher Editore 2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB:2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB 16/09/09 12:19 Page 62 Personal File The Personal File consists of several sections students can use to meet their own specific needs with or without their teacher’s guidance. • Quick Reference provides a brief and essential outline of the Module content and/or any revision material you may need; • Review and Extension serve specific functions. Review revisits key words and concepts the Module has taught. Extension extends students’ knowledge on one or more aspects of the Module; • Get Ready for Testing offers two kinds of tests. Those for internal certification are objective and self-assessed. Those for the Nuovo Esame di Stato (NES) are of various kinds and more complex. Keys for self-correction are on pp. 76-78. De Luca, Ellis, Pace, Ranzoli - Books and Bookmarks, cod. 2634 © Loescher Editore 2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB:2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB 16/09/09 12:19 Page 63 QUICK REFERENCE M1 M2 Principal Features of Fiction ■ FICTIONAL TEXTS create a fictional world through narration, description and dialogue. Writers of fiction can choose existing conventions or create new ones. Two types of fiction are the novel and the short story. The novel originated and became popular in the 18th century; it is usually longer than a short story, it builds up a more complex world, can include a variety of characters and may have different types of plot. The short story is shorter, it gives a glimpse of life, is centred around a single key moment in people’s lives and can represent a turning point for the main character(s). Its traditional structure involves an introductory section, a middle or development and a conclusion. ■ ELEMENTS OF NARRATIVE include the story, a setting, events and characters. The organization of the events into a story is called the ‘plot’. This organization usually differs from the chronological sequencing of the story. The sequencing of the plot is referred to as ‘fictional time’. Setting refers to time, place and social environment. Characters are revealed in two ways: by what the author tells us about them and what they show us through their words and actions. Methods of narration vary. The point of view of the narration and the choice of narrator are crucial. The point of view can be stable or shift during the narrative. Narrators can be omniscient or non-omniscient. Two traditional narrators used in fiction are the first and third-person narrator. Beyond the text lies the reader and the writer has an implied reader in mind when creating the narrative. The writer’s message which s/he conveys through the narration is referred to as its ‘theme’. 63 De Luca, Ellis, Pace, Ranzoli - Books and Bookmarks, cod. 2634 © Loescher Editore 2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB:2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB 16/09/09 12:19 Page 64 REVIEW A N D Module EXTENSION ➔ key, p. 76 1 1 Complete the following statements about fiction. 1 Fiction was the main form of ................................... of the middle classes. 2 The foundations of the genre in terms of plot, characterisation, dialogue and narrator were established in the ................................... . 3 The first narrative form was the ................................... introduced by Daniel Defoe in his Robinson Crusoe. 4 The ................................... was introduced by Henry Fielding in his Tom Jones. 5 The main aim of 19th-century novelists was to achieve ................................... . ➔ key, p. 76 2 Match the items of column A to the appropriate definitions in column B. A B a) report events from different perspectives 1 first-person unreliable narrators b) explain characters’ psychological motivations 2 omniscient narrators c) the narrative voice is not trustworthy 3 multiple narrators d) know everything of the fictional world they have created e) describe events from a limited perspective ➔ key, p. 76 3 Fill in the gaps in the following description which summarises the relationships between the main characters in Adam Bede. Adam Bede is the (1) .......................................... who falls in love with (2) .......................................... . She, however, is seduced by the local (3) .......................................... Arthur Donnithorne. When she is sentenced to (4) .......................................... for the murder of her (5) .......................................... she is assisted by (6) .......................................... , a female preacher who is in love with (7) .......................................... and who will eventually marry (8) .......................................... . ➔ key, p. 76 4 Complete the following notes about George Eliot’s fiction. 1 mainly rural and provincial social .......................................... 2 characterisation through .......................................... and .......................................... 3 focus on .......................................... aspects of characterisation 4 obtrusive ........................................... narrator 5 stern moral .......................................... 64 De Luca, Ellis, Pace, Ranzoli - Books and Bookmarks, cod. 2634 © Loescher Editore 2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB:2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB 16/09/09 12:19 Page 65 REVIEW A N D Module EXTENSION ➔ key, p. 76 1 5 Say if the following elements apply to The Oval Portrait by E. A. Poe or to The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins or both. 01 story within the story 02 night-time 03 bad weather 04 eerie and gloomy atmosphere with suggestions of terror and sorrow 05 use of emotional language 06 complicated plot based on horror, mystery, suspense and secrecy 07 presence of a central secret 08 deranged heroine 09 first-person narrator 10 multiple narrators ➔ key, The Oval Portrait The Woman in White Both ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ 6 Fill in the gaps in the following paragraph about Henry James. p. 76 Henry James is a key figure in the development of fiction for his innovations in fictional (1) ................................... . His novels shifted the emphasis away from dramatic (2) ................................... and exciting adventures to the working of the human (3) ................................... . This shift in emphasis resulted in the replacement of the traditional (4) ................................... narrator by a less obtrusive one, and extensive use of the (5) ................................... , and internal thoughts, of different characters. This technique was later developed by 20th-century novelists into the (6) ................................... . 65 De Luca, Ellis, Pace, Ranzoli - Books and Bookmarks, cod. 2634 © Loescher Editore 2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB:2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB 16/09/09 12:19 Page 66 REVIEW A N D Module EXTENSION 1 The following extracts are taken from the novels and stories you have read in the Module, although extracts from Poe are not included. ➔ key, p. 77 1 Read the texts. a Assign them to the appropriate novel/short story. b Revise the summary of the plot and explain to what part the extracts refer. Text One from ............................................................................................................... I can see Douglas there before the fire, to which he had got up to present his back, looking down at this converser with his hands in his pockets. “Nobody but me, till now, has ever heard. It’s quite too horrible.” This was naturally declared by several voices to give the thing the utmost price, and our friend, with quiet art, prepared his triumph by turning his eyes over the rest of us and going on: “It’s beyond everything. Nothing at all that I know touches it.” Text Two 10 from ............................................................................................................... There was a feeble dawn in the room when Hetty awoke, a little after four o'clock, with a sense of dull misery, the cause of which broke upon her gradually, as she began to discern the objects round her in the dim light. And then came the frightening thought that she had to conceal her misery, as well as to bear it, in this dreary daylight that was coming. She could lie no longer; she got up and went towards the table: there lay the letter; she opened her treasure-drawer: there lay the earrings and the locket – the signs of all her short happiness – the signs of the life-long dreariness that was to follow it. Looking at the little trinkets which she had once eyed and fingered so fondly as the earnest of her future paradise of finery, she lived back in the moments when they had been given to her with such tender caresses, such strangely pretty words, such glowing looks, which filled her with a bewildering delicious surprise – they were so much sweeter than she had thought anything could be. And the Arthur who had spoken to her and whose arm she felt round her, his cheek against hers, his very breath upon her – was the cruel, cruel Arthur who had written that letter – that letter which she snatched and crushed and then opened again, that she might read it once more. The half-benumbed mental condition which was the effect of the last night's violent crying, made it necessary to her to look again and see if her wretched thoughts were actually true – if the letter was really so cruel. She crushed it up again in anger. She hated the writer of that letter – hated him for the very reason that she hung upon him with all her love – all the girlish passion and vanity that made up her love. 66 De Luca, Ellis, Pace, Ranzoli - Books and Bookmarks, cod. 2634 © Loescher Editore 2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB:2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB 16/09/09 12:19 Page 67 REVIEW A N D Module EXTENSION Text Three 1 from ............................................................................................................... By the time the Countess’s widowhood was expired, I had found means to be received into her house; I had her women perpetually talking in my favour, vaunting my powers, expatiating upon my reputation, and boasting of my success and popularity in the fashionable world. Text Four from ............................................................................................................... So she spoke. In writing those last words, I have written all. The pen falters in my hand. The long, happy labour of many months is over. Marian was the good angel of our lives — let Marian end our Story. ➔ key, p. 77 ➔ key, p. 77 2 Who is the narrator in each extract? 3 Which of the features concerning an author’s style and theme which you have studied are present in the extracts? 67 De Luca, Ellis, Pace, Ranzoli - Books and Bookmarks, cod. 2634 © Loescher Editore 2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB:2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB 16/09/09 12:19 Page 68 REVIEW A N D Module EXTENSION ➔ key, p. 76 2 1 Complete the table below in note form. Rise of the Novel: when: why: ➔ key, p. 76 .............................................................................................................................................................................. .................................................................................................................................................................................. Forms it drew on: ............................................................................................................................................................................................... Pioneers: who: Features: ............................................................................................................................................................................................... Development: when: ................................................................................................................................................................................. .............................................................................................................................................................................. 2 Choose the correct answer. 1 Pip is 2 Estella is Miss Havisham's 3 Pip's life changes thanks to 4 Pip and Estella 5 The character who acts as a link between the two plots is ➔ key, p. 76 a) Joe's son b) an orphan c) the convict's nephew a) niece b) ward c) granddaughter a) Miss Havisham b) the convict c) the lawyer a) meet only as children b) meet as children and then once again in London c) meet as children, in London and are reunited at the end of the novel. a) Joe b) Miss Havisham c) the lawyer 3 Answer the following questions. 1 What is the basis of the main plot in Great Expectations? 2 What are the two main subplots? 3 Which part/s of Pip’s life is/are given prominence and why? 4 What kind of novelist is Dickens? 5 What are his main themes? 6 What are the distinctive features of his fiction? 4 Write three paragraphs about the novel Great Expectations by expanding your notes in activity 1. 68 De Luca, Ellis, Pace, Ranzoli - Books and Bookmarks, cod. 2634 © Loescher Editore 2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB:2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB 16/09/09 12:19 Page 69 REVIEW A N D Module EXTENSION ➔ key, p. 77 2 1 Read the following extract from Great Expectations and say to what part of the novel it belongs. 10 20 “Now, I 1 return to this young fellow. And the communication I have got to make is, that he has great expectations”. Joe and I gasped, and looked at one another. “I am instructed to communicate to him”, said Mr Jaggers, throwing his finger at me sideways, “that he will come into a handsome property. Further, that it is the desire of the present possessor of that property, that he be immediately removed from his present sphere of life and from this place, and be brought up as a gentleman – in a word, as a young fellow of great expectations.” My dream was out; my wild fancy was surpassed by sober reality; Miss Havisham was going to make my fortune on a grand scale. “Now, Mr Pip”, pursued the lawyer, “I address the rest of what I have to say, to you. You are to understand, first, that it is the request of the person from whom I take my instructions, that you always bear the name of Pip. You will have no objection, I dare say, to your great expectations being 2 encumbered with that easy condition. But if you have any objection, this is the time to mention it”. My heart was beating so fast, and there was such a singing in my ears, that I could scarcely 3 stammer I had no objection. “I should think not! Now you are to understand, secondly, Mr Pip, that the name of the person who is your liberal benefactor remains a profound secret, until the person chooses to reveal it. I am empowered to mention that it is the intetion of the person to reveal it at first hand by word of mouth to yourself. When or where that intention may be carried out, I cannot say; no one can say. It may be years hence. (C. Dickens, Great Expectations, Harmondsworth, Penguin Books, 1970) 2 Summarise the extract following the outline. – what news the lawyer has for Pip – who Pip thinks his benefactor is – what the benefactor’s two conditions are ➔ key, p. 77 3 Describe the lawyer’s language and behaviour, using the adjectives below or supplying your own. colloquial friendly intimidating ➔ key, formal legalistic businesslike comic emphatic 4 Underline the words and phrases that convey Pip’s reactions to the news. p. 77 a How would you describe Pip’s feelings when he hears the news? b What aspect/s of his character does his reaction suggest? 1. I, is the lawyer. 2. encumbered with, limited by (limitate). 3. stammer; say hesitatingly and clumsily, repeating words (balbettare). 69 De Luca, Ellis, Pace, Ranzoli - Books and Bookmarks, cod. 2634 © Loescher Editore 2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB:2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB 16/09/09 12:19 Page 70 G E T R E A DY F O R Module TE STI N G 1 Write your score .................... / 58 INTERNAL CERTIFICATION STEP ➔ key, p. 78 12 Action 46➔ 58 Go on 32➔ 45 Review 0 ➔ 44 Repeat One 1 Read the following quotations taken from the texts you have read in Step One of the Module. * a Assign them to the appropriate text. 1 “... my strongest effort is to avoid any such arbitrary picture, and to give a faithful account of men and things as they have mirrored themselves in my mind.” 2 “... she was in the position of hundreds of other women, who marry men without being greatly attracted by them or greatly repelled by them.” 3 “It is not my intention to follow, step by step, the incidents of my courtship, or to narrate all the difficulties I had to contend with...” 4 “The case, I may mention, was that of an apparition in just such an old house as had gathered us for the occasion - an appearance of a dreadful kind, to a little boy sleeping in the room with his mother...” b For each text say what kind of narrator is employed. c Say to which text/s the following functions of the narrator apply. 1 describes an aspect of social context 2 evokes a particular atmosphere 3 the narrator speaks about realism in fiction 4 the narrator states his intentions STEP ➔ key, p. 78 6 Band Two 1 Read the following quotations taken from Adam Bede and answer the questions. * a) “... always knew what to say about things, could tell her uncle how to prop the hovel, and had mended the churn in no time” 1 Who is the character described? 2 Who does “her” refer to? b) “... he always placed himself at church so as to have the fullest view of her both sitting and standing; that he was constantly finding reasons for calling at the Hall Farm...” 3 What character is being described? c) “It was a sight that some people remembered better even than their own sorrows...” 4 What event is described? d) “It was the shout of sudden excitement at the appearance of a horseman cleaving the crowd at full gallop.” 5 Who is the horseman? 6 What is his errand? * The numbers on the left indicate the maximum number of points for each exercise. 70 De Luca, Ellis, Pace, Ranzoli - Books and Bookmarks, cod. 2634 © Loescher Editore 2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB:2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB 16/09/09 12:19 Page 71 GET READY FOR TESTING ➔ key, p. 77 10 2 Fill in the gaps in the paragraph below. * George Eliot belongs to mainstream Victorian (1) .......................................... which aimed to present an objective and faithful picture of (2) .......................................... . She is notable for her ability to recreate the farming and business life of the English (3) .......................................... which she brings to life with detailed descriptions both of the (4) .......................................... and the individuals. She gives sympathetic portraits of humble (5) .......................................... with great strength of character. Her characters, particularly (6) .......................................... characters, come to life both through (7) .......................................... and telling and through the narrator’s comments. Her (8) .......................................... narrator goes deep into the motivations of the single characters and the relationship of the individual to society which she judges with a strong sense of (9) .......................................... duty though her tone is always tempered with (10) .......................................... and human sympathy. STEP ➔ key, p. 77 6 Three 1 Say if the following quotations are taken from The Oval Portrait by E. A. Poe or from The * Woman in White by Wilkie Collins. The Oval Portrait The Woman in White ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ 1 “.... grew daily more dispirited and weak.” 2 “Time had flowed on, and silence had fallen like thick night over its course.” ■ ■ 3 “The rays of the numerous candles (for there were many) now fell within a niche of the room which had hitherto been thrown into deep shade by one of the bedposts.” 4 “The voice that was praying for me faltered and sank low - then rose of a sudden, and called affrightedly, called despairingly to me to come away.” 5 “Their veils were down, and hid their faces from me.” 6 “... he would not see that the tints, which he spread upon the canvas were drawn from the cheeks of her who sat beside him.” ➔ key, p. 77 6 2 Say if the following statements about Poe and Wilkie Collins are true (T) or false (F). * T 1 Poe and Wilkie Collins exemplify the Gothic current of 19th-century fiction. 2 Poe wrote only detective stories. 3 Wilkie Collins is the inventor of the sensation novel. 4 Poe’s stories focus on the psychological aspect of mystery and horror. 5 Wilkie Collins sets his novels in Gothic castles. 6 The characters in The Woman in White mirror social types of the period. ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ F ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ 71 De Luca, Ellis, Pace, Ranzoli - Books and Bookmarks, cod. 2634 © Loescher Editore 2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB:2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB 16/09/09 12:19 Page 72 GET READY FOR TESTING STEP ➔ key, p. 77 12 Four 1 Say if the following statements about Henry James and The Turn of the Screw are true (T) or false (F). * T 10 James belongs to the current of the sensation novel. 20 His work was deeply rooted in the development of traditional Victorian fiction. 30 He is a forerunner of 20th-century narrative techniques. 40 The Turn of the Screw brings the two main trends of 19th-century fiction, the rational one of Realism and the irrational Gothic one. 50 The story is told by an omniscient narrator. 60 It is set in a country house. 70 The new governess finds the children angelic. 80 She believes the children are under the influence of evil ghosts. 90 She engages in a psychological battle to exorcise the evil influence of the ghosts. 10 The extract is the very beginning of the story. 11 The style aims at creating sensation. 12 It is not clear whether the ghosts are real or a projections of the governess’ deranged state of mind. ➔ key, p. 77 6 2 Choose the right answer for each of the questions below. * 1 Which of the following types of novels developed in the 19th century? (choose three) ■a realistic fiction ■b Gothic fiction ■c science fiction ■d detective fiction ■e psychological fiction 2 Which of the following narratives employ more than one narrator? ■a Barry Lyndon ■b Adam Bede ■c The Woman in White ■d The Turn of the Screw 3 George Eliot’s output paved the way for the development of the psychological novel with: ■a her use of suspense ■b her skilful characterisation ■c her focus on female characters 4 Which author is considered the inventor of the detective story? ■a Wilkie Collins ■b E. A. Poe ■c Henry James 5 Henry James’ fiction is a milestone in the development of literature for: ■a his mastery of psychological realism ■b his ability to please popular taste ■c his indictment of Victorian values 6 In the second part of the Victorian Age: ■a the importance of fiction decreased ■b novelists became more critical of social values ■c novelists relied only on sensation to please the reading public 72 De Luca, Ellis, Pace, Ranzoli - Books and Bookmarks, cod. 2634 © Loescher Editore F ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ 2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB:2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB 16/09/09 12:19 Page 73 GET READY FOR TESTING NES (Nuovo Esame di Stato) Discussion Questions 1 Answer the following discussion questions. 1 What are the most characteristic features of 19th-century realistic fiction? 2 How did the Gothic tradition develop in the 19th century? 3 In what way did Wilkie Collins contribute to the development of the novel? 4 What are the main innovative aspects of James’ fiction? The Oral Report 1 Choose two of the authors you have studied in the Module and prepare a short talk to present them to the class outlining their main features and the points they have in common. 73 De Luca, Ellis, Pace, Ranzoli - Books and Bookmarks, cod. 2634 © Loescher Editore 2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB:2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB 16/09/09 12:19 Page 74 G E T R E A DY F O R Module TE STI N G 2 Write your score .................... / 45 Band Action 36 ➔ 45 Go on 26 ➔ 35 Review 0 ➔ 25 Repeat INTERNAL CERTIFICATION STEP One ➔ key, p. 78 10 1 Say if the following statements are true (T) or false (F). T * 10 The novel emerged in Britain at the beginning of the 17th century. 20 The improvement in printing technology was one of the reasons for its development. 30 Reading became the main form of entertainment among the lower classes. 40 The early novel drew its form from non-fiction. 50 The novel also borrowed some of its features from other literary genres. 60 Dickens was one of the pioneers of the genre. 70 Novel writing also became a profitable profession. 80 Fictional conventions developed greatly. 90 There developed a close relationship between novelists and the reading public. 10 Dickens was the most popular Victorian novelist. STEP ➔ key, p. 78 13 ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ F ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ Two 1 Below are some statements about the plot of Great Expectations. On the basis of the text you have read and the linking summaries, decide if they are true (T) or false (F). Then number the true ones in the order they occur in the plot. T F ■ a) After the lawyer’s revelation about his great expectations, Pip goes to London. ■ ■ ■ b) Great Expectations tells the whole story of Pip’s life. ■ ■ ■ c) Pip is expected to become a blacksmith, like Joe, when he grows up. ■ ■ ■ d) The novel starts when Pip is seven. He is an orphan who lives with his sister ■ ■ and her husband Joe Gargery. ■ e) When Pip is fourteen, and already an apprentice to Joe, his dreams of becoming a ■ gentleman come true because an unknown benefactor provides him with an income. ■ ■ f) The novel ends with Pip marrying Estella. ■ ■ ■ g) When Pip meets Estella at Miss Havisham’s house and falls in love with her, ■ ■ he becomes ashamed of his social station and dreams of becoming a gentleman. ■ h) Pip secretly believes Miss Havisham to be his benefactor. ■ ■ ■ i) As a child, Pip helps a convict to escape. For a time he is haunted by the memory ■ ■ of the fact, but then forgets about it. ■ j) When Pip learns who the convict is, he feels very grateful for the sacrifices the ■ ■ convict has made to allow him to become a gentleman. ■ k) In London Pip leads the life of a gentleman and becomes ashamed of his former ■ ■ relationship with Joe who belongs to a lower social class. ■ l) After his first reaction of disgust and shame, when he learns who the convict is, ■ ■ Pip’s good nature prevails and he helps him to escape again when he is found out. ■ m) The convict is caught and Pip is ruined. ■ ■ ■ n) When he comes back to his native village, at the age of 33, Pip meets Estella again. ■ ■ ■ o) After the convict’s death Pip goes back to his native village to live with Joe. ■ ■ * The numbers on the left indicate the maximum number of points for each exercise. 74 De Luca, Ellis, Pace, Ranzoli - Books and Bookmarks, cod. 2634 © Loescher Editore 2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB:2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB 16/09/09 12:19 Page 75 GET READY FOR TESTING STEP ➔ key, Three 1 Fill in the gaps. p. 78 10 Pip, the protagonist, is the first person narrator. In the passage about his first visit to Miss Havisham’s house he relates events from two different (1) .......................................... . One point of view is that of himself as a (2) ..........................................; the other point of view is that of himself at the time of narration, as an adult remembering and commenting on past (3) .......................................... . This technique enables the author to create a vivid scene which is seen simultaneously through the eyes of a child and of an adult. The (4) .......................................... finds himself in the position of Pip as an adult in judging events but he is also able to participate in and sympathise with the feelings of Pip as a child. The narrative technique also influences the way characters come to life. They do so both through their interaction in (5) .......................................... and the narrator’s description. Pip’s personality emerges mostly from his reactions to what he sees and from interaction with the other (6) .......................................... . He is both shy and frightened. The (7) .......................................... is also described in great detail through young Pip’s eyes. The strangeness of the room is created through his astonished and frightened reactions. The scene is built up through (8) .........................................., dialogue and narration. The passage is about a significant moment in Pip’s life and in his perception of himself. The (9) .......................................... .......................................... enables the reader to experience things through the eyes of Pip as a child while at the same time offering him an adult (10) .......................................... . STEP ➔ key, p. 78 12 Four 1 Beside each description of Dickens’ style write the appropriate technical term. 1 Skilful dialogue and detailed descriptions are widely employed. .......................................... 2 It is often based on the main character’s development. .......................................... 3 Omniscient narrator or first-person narrator is employed. .......................................... 4 Exploitation of children, poor educational system, unsafe factory conditions. .......................................... 5 The tone is often emotional. .......................................... 6 Language is highly figurative with repetition of key words and syntactical structures. .......................................... NES (Nuovo Esame di Stato) The Essay 1 Write an essay on Dickens’ Great Expectations following the outline given below (250-300 words). Story Narrative Technique Characters Setting Language Theme narrator / point of view / effect on the reader who are they? / what are they like? / how are they created? what kind of setting is it? / what function does it fulfil? The Oral Report 1 Choose one of the two extracts to illustrate Dickens’ main narrative features in an oral report to your class. 75 De Luca, Ellis, Pace, Ranzoli - Books and Bookmarks, cod. 2634 © Loescher Editore 2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB:2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB 16/09/09 12:19 Page 76 REVIEW A N D Keys EXTENSION 1 Module 1 1 1 entertainment, 2 18th century, 3 first-person, 4 omniscient, 5 realism 2 1 c), e); 2 b), d); 3 a) 3 1 protagonist, 2 Hetty, 3 squire, 4 death, 5 illegitimate, 6 Dinah, 7 Adam, 8 him 4 1 setting; 2 showing, telling; 3 psychological; 4 omniscient; 5 code 5 1 The Oval Portrait; 2 both; 3 The Oval Portrait; 4 both; 5 both; 6The Woman in White; 7 The Woman in White; 8 The Woman in White; 9 The Oval Portrait;10 The Woman in White 6 1 technique, 2 events, 3 mind, 4 omniscient, 5 point of view, 6 interior monologue Module 2 1 Rise of the Novel: at the beginning of the 18th century / improvement in printing technology Forms it drew on: diaries, autobiographies, travellers’ tales, letters and biographies of adventurers; dialogue from drama, moral ideas from essays, imagery from poetry Pioneers: Daniel Defoe, Samuel Richardson, and Henry Fielding Features: realism Development: main form of entertainment for the middle classes, it flourished in the Victorian Age (1837-1901) which came to be known as the ‘Age of Fiction’ 2 1b, 2b, 3b, 4c, 5c 3 1 The basis of the main plot in Great Expectations is the life and character’s development of Pip. / 2 The two main subplots concern Miss Havisham and the convict. / 3. The part of Pip’s life which is given prominence is from the age of 18 to 23. / 4 Although Dickens never questioned the basic values of his time, he was an effective critic of the injustices of Victorian society. / 5 He frequently denounces abuses in education, in the law and employment, the injustice of social institutions and the inequalities between the rich and the poor. Exploitation of children, poor educational system, psychological and moral growth of one character, unsafe factory conditions, greediness and selfishness of rich upper classes, the plight of the working class, triumph of good over evil are his main themes. / 6 Complex plots, rich in sensational and melodramatic devices; creation of a gallery of memorable characters, often caricatured; very detailed settings; creation of very emotional atmospheres; use of omniscient narrator who involves the reader through the handling of point of view; emotional tone; highly figurative language, repetition of key words and syntactical structures. 76 De Luca, Ellis, Pace, Ranzoli - Books and Bookmarks, cod. 2634 © Loescher Editore 2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB:2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB 16/09/09 12:19 Page 77 REVIEW A N D Keys EXTENSION 5 Module 1 1 a) and b) Text One: from The Turn of the Screw (prologue); Text Two: from Adam Bede (When Arthur breaks off his relationship with Hetty); Text Three: from Barry Lyndon (when Barry is at the peak of his fortunes and succeeds in marrying Lyndon’s widow); Text Four: from The Woman in White (end of the novel). 2 Text One: first-person narrator; Text Two: third-person narrator; Text Three: first-person narrator; Text Four: firstperson narrator 3 Text One: description of the psychological relationships of the characters; Text Two: psychological description of character’s state of mind; narrator’s comment on character’s personality; Text Three: narrator’s comment on society; characterisation; Text Four: presence of multiple narrators Module 2 1 The extract belongs to the initial part of the novel. 2 The lawyer informs Pip that he will come into a handsome property and that he will be moved from the place where he lives to be brought up as a gentleman. Pip thinks his benefactor is Miss Havisham. The benefactor’s two conditions are that Pip is to keep the name of Pip and that the benefactor’s name is to remain secret until the person chooses to reveal it. 3 The language is formal, businesslike and legalistic in the lawyer’s speech. It is also emphatic and intimidating in the lack of interaction between the lawyer and Pip. A comic effect may be detected in the contrast between the lawyer’s speech and Joe and Pip’s reaction. 4 a) Pip is overjoyed and can’t believe his ears because his hopes are fulfilled. / b) He seems to be ambitious and somewhat selfish. 77 De Luca, Ellis, Pace, Ranzoli - Books and Bookmarks, cod. 2634 © Loescher Editore 2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB:2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB 16/09/09 12:19 Page 78 G E T R E A DY F O R Keys TE STI N G 11 Module 1 STEP 1 2 STEP a) 1 George Eliot, Adam Bede (1859); 2 Wilkie Collins, The Woman in White (1860); 3 W. M. Thackeray, Barry Lyndon (1843); 4 Henry James, The Turn of the Screw (1898) / b) 1 omniscient narrator, 2 multiple narrators, 3 firstperson unreliable narrator, 4 first-person narrator / c) 1 Text 2, 2 Text 4, 3 Text 1, 4 Texts 1 and 3 STEP 1 One Module 2 1 STEP 1 1 Realism, 2 reality, 3 provinces, 4 setting, 5 people, 6 female, 7 showing, 8 omniscient, 9 moral, 10 humour 1 1 1 The Oval Portrait, 2 The Woman in White, 3 The Oval Portrait, 4 The Woman in White, 5 The Woman in White, 6 The Oval Portrait 2 1T, 2F, 3T, 4T; 5F, 6T STEP Three 1 points of view, 2 child, 3 events, 4 reader, 5 dialogue, 6 characters, 7 setting, 8 description, 9 narrative technique, 10 perspective STEP Three Two aT, bF, cT, dT, eT, fF, gT, hT, iT, jF, kT, lT, mF, nT, oF. 1d, 2c, 3i, 4g, 5e, 6a, 7h, 8k, 9l, 10m, 11n Two a) 1 Adam Bede, 2 Hetty / b) 3 Arthur Donnithorne / c) 4 Hetty at the gallows / d) 5 Arthur Donnithorne, 6 handing in a release from death STEP 1T, 2T, 3F, 4T, 5T, 6F, 7T, 8T, 9T, 10T STEP 1 One Four 1 style, 2 plot, 3 narrative technique, 4 themes, 5 language, 6 style Four 1 1F, 2F, 3T, 4T, 5F, 6T, 7T, 8T, 9T, 10F, 11F, 12T 2 1b, d, e; 2c, d; 3b; 4b; 5a; 6b 78 De Luca, Ellis, Pace, Ranzoli - Books and Bookmarks, cod. 2634 © Loescher Editore 2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB:2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB 16/09/09 12:19 Page 79 Appendix De Luca, Ellis, Pace, Ranzoli - Books and Bookmarks, cod. 2634 © Loescher Editore 2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB:2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB 16/09/09 12:19 Page 80 V I CTO R I A N A G E W. M. THACKERAY ( ➔ p. 4) (1811-63) Barry Lyndon (1843) (from Chapter 1) 10 I had a quick ear and a fine voice, which my mother cultivated to the best of her power, and she taught me to step a minuet1 gravely and gracefully, and thus laid the foundation of my future success in life. The common dances I learned, as, perhaps, I ought not to confess, in the servants’ hall, which, you may be sure, was never without a piper2, and where I was considered unrivalled both at a hornpipe3 and a jig4. In the matter of book-learning, I had always an uncommon taste for reading plays and novels, as the best part of a gentleman’s polite education, and never let a pedlar5 pass the village, if I had a penny, without having a ballad or two from him. As for your dull6 grammar and Greek, and Latin, and stuff, I have always hated them from my youth upwards, and said, very unmistakably, I would have none of them. 1. to step a minuet, dance a minuet (ballare il minuetto). 2. piper, musician who plays a pipe (suonatore di cornamusa). 3. hornpipe, dance performed especially by sailors. you refers to... him refers to... them refers to... 4. jig, quick, merry dance (giga). 5. pedlar, travelling salesman of small articles (ambulante). 6. dull, boring (noiosa). 80 De Luca, Ellis, Pace, Ranzoli - Books and Bookmarks, cod. 2634 © Loescher Editore 2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB:2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB 16/09/09 12:19 Page 81 APPENDIX The historical period to which the writers you are studying in this Module belong is known as the Victorian Age. It corresponds to the long reign of Queen Victoria (1837-1901). The label ‘Victorian’ has become symbolic of a very monolithic period. There are a number of reasons which account for this view of the era. The first is the long reign of Queen Victoria herself, which provided a strong sense of continuity and stability. Another major reason was Britain’s stability in political terms if compared with the turmoils of the other European States. In the first part of the century Europe was swept by a wave of revolutions culminating in 1848 and in the H. Tanworth Wells, Victoria Regina, oil on canvas, 1887. second half of the century by the Young Queen Victoria at 18 receives the news that she has become queen from the Archbishop of Canterbury and a Lord. nationalistic uprisings which brought about the unity of Italy and Germany and finally the collapse of the Hapsburg Empire. The British Empire (➔ BOOKMARK, p. 83) was a further reason for the sense of unity and stability, giving people pride in belonging to the greatest power in the world. While the rightfulness of other Empires was being challenged in Europe by national ideals, Britain strengthened its own huge Empire to support its economic system and in 1876 Queen Victoria was proclaimed Empress of India. ● THE MIDDLE CLASS In this period Great Britain was transformed from an agricultural country into a rich, industrial nation, and saw the progressive rise of the middle class (bankers, merchants, factory owners, etc.). When Queen Victoria came to the throne, the nation could be divided into three main classes: the aristocracy (mainly large landowners who held power in Parliament), the middle class (manufacturers, bankers, financiers and merchants), whose increasing wealth and respectability were opening the way to positions of power, and the working class (factory workers and rural labourers) whose extreme poverty provoked discontent. By the end of the century the middle class held the power previously held by the aristocracy at times achieved through marriage alliances, and class distinction became more based on economics than on hereditary (➔ BOOKMARK, pp. 83-85). ● MIDDLE CLASS VALUES W. Powell Frith, Many Happy Returns of the Day, oil on canvas, Harrogate, Mercer Gallery,1856. A Victorian family celebrating a birthday. ▼ ▼ It was the middle class, therefore, who set the standards of the so-called Victorian values. Their morality was based on respectability, good manners, thrift, duty, hard work, probity and faith in material progress. There was a strong belief in the family, which was usually large and in which the father’s authority was unquestioned. ‘Home’ became the paradigm of social order and stability. Frith/Mercer Gallery, Harrogate Reed Educational and Professional Publishing Ltd., 1997 Bookmark ● Aspects of the Victorian Age 81 De Luca, Ellis, Pace, Ranzoli - Books and Bookmarks, cod. 2634 © Loescher Editore 2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB:2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB 16/09/09 12:19 Page 82 ▼ ▼ V I CTO R I A N A G E A good marriage, possibly into the aristocracy, was the aim and fulfilment of middle-class girls. The other side of the respectable façade was represented by poverty, exploitation, bad sanitary conditions, prostitution, illegitimacy and very high crime figures in large cities, London in particular. These negative aspects were considered as temporary evils by the middle classes whose dominant mood in the first part of the period was optimism and faith in progress. The social mobility of the time through industry and commerce reinforced this belief. During the first decades of the century harsh working conditions in factories, high food prices and economic depression caused much discontent among the labourers and they began to organise themselves into working-class movements. Their discontent was voiced in 1838 by the Chartists, a group of radicals and workers who presented to Parliament a document called the ‘People’s Charter’ advocating a radical reform of Parliament meant to give the vote to the lower classes. The charter, however, was rejected and factory workers had to wait for the Reform Bill of 1867 to be granted the right to vote and for the Trade Union Act of 1871 to have their unions legalised. Discontent was voiced also in Ireland where the failure of the potato crop on which poor people depended for survival in 1845 caused a terrible famine which killed thousands and caused massive emigration, but the problem of Ireland was political as well as economic. Unrest increased towards the end of the century with more and more pressing demands for Home Rule which were also supported by the spreading European ideal of Nationalism. In the 1870s, moreover, the British economy entered a period of depression which lasted for the rest of the century because of increased competition from other industrial countries, especially the United States and Germany. J. L. Charmet, 1987 ● SOCIAL AND POLITICAL UNREST A detail from the Jubilee album of Queen Victoria illustrating two of the greatest achievements of industrial progress: the railway and electricity. ● VIEWS OF PROGRESS Progress was the motto of the Victorian Age which saw great advances in all branches of science. The idea of progress, however, was challenged by Romantic and Realistic artists and lost its fascination in the last decade of the century when it was associated with ideas of degeneration and decline. Up to the 1860s middle-class Victorians clung to the belief that ultimate truths could be discovered by reason and science, but in the second half of the century doubts surfaced. The publication of Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of the Species by Means of Natural Selection in 1859 shook the system. In this book he argued the natural origin of man. This theory denied God’s design in the creation of living beings and discredited the account of that creation in the Bible. Victorian Protestantism, which based itself on the Bible, was deeply affected. ● FICTION AND SOCIETY The great transformations of the period also brought about a major change in the field of literature and the arts which up to the late 18th century had relied on royal patronage or the patronage of wealthy aristocrats for their development. In this period writing became a remunerative job following the rules of the market. The increase in literacy created a wide and varied reading public. The novel became the main form of entertainment of the middle classes and at the same time the vehicle through which they shared their set of values with the rest of the nation. Reading novels was not only a private activity but a communal one as well. Novels were often read aloud in the home by one member of the family to all the household, servants included. 82 De Luca, Ellis, Pace, Ranzoli - Books and Bookmarks, cod. 2634 © Loescher Editore 2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB:2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB 16/09/09 12:19 Page 83 APPENDIX Bookmark ● Social Issues in Victorian Britain ● INDUSTRIALISATION such as Ireland, yet they were still very poor, enough for many children to die from hunger, and they were worked for long hours in horrendous conditions. Many died of industrially related diseases and accidents. The injustices of their lives inspired many to organize and attempt to fight the system – trade unions°° were born and workers organized strikes, picketing and demonstrations. ● THE EMPIRE Britain’s new prosperity and sense of optimism, inspired in part by the advance of industrialisation, also has its roots in the expansion and exploitation of the territories included in the British Empire. Imperialism was not only an economic reality, it was, too, a state of mind – a Maioaogri, 1998 Logsdail/Tate Gallery/Phaidon, 1999 The effects of industrialisation in 19th-century Britain were profound and far-reaching. The intense industrialisation of the North and the Midlands, the unrest of workers and their organization into workers’ movements or unions, the continued exploitation of children as workers, unhealthy working conditions and the developing power of a new middle class of factory owners inevitably became the subject of literature. The industrial revolution had, of course begun much earlier but it is in the Victorian Age that industrialisation becomes so intense as to cause major changes in Britain’s demography and structure. Britain’s economy changed from being that of an agrarian and maritime economy with a relatively small quantity of cottage industry° to being one based on factory-based industry involving an enormous flux of people away from the countryside into industrialised towns. A new class was born, the industrial middle class, whose firm belief in the inevitability of progress and their materialistic and utilitarian philosophy promoted a factory system which brought enormous wealth to themselves and to the country. On the other side were the workers, both beneficiaries and victims of the system. They did, in fact, escape the extreme poverty of other countries William Logsdail, St. Martin-in-the-Fields, oil on canvas, London, Tate Gallery, 1888. °° trade unions, the first were accepted and recognized in the 1870s although workers had begun to organize some decades before. ▼ ▼ ° cottage industry, small craftwork businesses, which were based in the home such as spinning and weaving. Queen Victoria with two Indian attendants. 83 De Luca, Ellis, Pace, Ranzoli - Books and Bookmarks, cod. 2634 © Loescher Editore 2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB:2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB 16/09/09 12:19 Page 84 ▼ ▼ V I CTO R I A N A G E trading companies and militia – fighting to conquer new territories and to exclude other colonizers. The enormous wealth such companies generated was recognized by the State and their authority was replaced by that of the Crown. During the second half of the century Britain extended its control over large parts of the Indian sub-continent (India, Afghanistan, Burma, the Punjab, Baluchistan), Africa (Egypt, Sudan, Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda, Rhodesia, Zambia, South Africa) and in the so-called ‘white colonies’ (Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Ireland). By the end of the century, relations were beginning to alter and people were beginning to question the treatment of the colonizers towards the colonized and the whole injustice of Imperialism. Some colonies became dominions – the ‘white colonies’ initiated the process in which countries took back more control over their internal affairs (Canada, for example, became a dominion as early as 1867) – but many others had to fight for another half century before changes occurred. ● WOMEN It is not until the early 20th century that women began to emerge from behind the shadow of male dominance – 19th century Hulton Getty Picture Coll./Könemann, 1995 Hulton Getty Picture Coll./Könemann, 1995 conviction that Britain (and other European countries such as France, Belgium and Holland) had a right to control, exploit, subjugate and ‘civilise’ other nations – which permeated the set of beliefs of the 19th century and whose influence can still be felt a century later. At the beginning of the 19th century, the Empire was really just a collection of settlements – ports, islands and coastal regions which facilitated trade. Realising the enormous untapped potential of the inland regions, settlers began to move towards more central territories and then to protect their trade routes. Companies such as the East India Company° were both A tennis party in India. ° East India Company, established since the beginning of the 17th century, it expanded its trading posts greatly in the second half of the 18th century. It exported tea, cotton, wood and pepper and Suffragettes demanding the right to vote. imported cotton textiles and other British goods. The Government of Britain replaced the company’s authority in India in 1857, bringing the country under the rule of a viceroy of the Crown. 84 De Luca, Ellis, Pace, Ranzoli - Books and Bookmarks, cod. 2634 © Loescher Editore 2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB:2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB 16/09/09 12:19 Page 85 ▼ ▼ APPENDIX England was a man’s world. That said, however, women’s position in society was undergoing gradual change. In the early and mid-century women’s behaviour was judged according to a strict set of Victorian morals, a morality which was much less rigorously applied to men. Women were expected to be dedicated to the care of the family, either as a daughter or a wife, and above all be of spotless virtue. By the end of Victoria’s reign, this severe judgment of female morals was just beginning to be questioned, particularly in literature. Women, moreover, had little control over their finances – all of a woman’s property automatically became the property of her husband on marriage. In the latter part of the century, women were finally allowed education through entry to schools and colleges and began to undertake professions – financial independence would be an important first Step towards greater autonomy. Women of the lower classes had, of course, been working throughout the Age. Their working conditions were abominable and it wasn’t until 1842°° that it became illegal to employ women and children down mines. Many of the jobs above ground were little better and work-related illnesses, disabilities and deaths were common. At all levels of society, women’s self-realisation seemed to be possible only through marriage, in particular a marriage which raised ones social status, yet the reality of wedlock was often a mere continuation of the servitude of family life and flirtations with men of a higher class often meant disillusion and ruin. The lot of women was closely linked to the issue of social class. In previous ages, three distinct classes predominated – the lower class, the middle class and the upper classes or the aristocracy. Movement between classes had been almost impossible and obeisance had to be paid to those classes which were above. It is true, however, that the optimism, wealth and progress of the Victorian Age brought about a new definition of class whose barriers became less rigid. A new and powerful group of lower and upper middle class women could be found in the families of factory owners, mainly from the North, many of whom had come from the lower classes. During the 19th century, people were still adjusting mentally to this new idea of class, the southern gentry, for example, struggled to accept the prepotency and brashness of their new northern ‘class-mates’. Their existence demanded a new openness of mind many did not yet have. Each class had had its own definition of appropriate behaviour, for example it was acceptable for women of the lower classes to show their feelings in public but not for middle or upper class women – self control was a prerequisite of being a ‘Lady’. Drinking, gambling and indulging in a little opium were seen as typical and tolerable excesses for a young gentleman but absolutely censored in women of any class. °° 1842, the year of the introduction of The Mines Act which forbade the employment of children under the age of 10 and women underground. 85 De Luca, Ellis, Pace, Ranzoli - Books and Bookmarks, cod. 2634 © Loescher Editore 2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB:2634 pp. I-V/B/001-086/BBBB 16/09/09 12:19 Page 86 Cross-curricular Card ITALIAN LITERATURE LITERATURE Realism and Naturalism, Aestheticism and Decadentism in European Literatures Realism Although Realism describes an attitude of the writer to his material which can be found at any time of history, the 19th century is considered as the period when it originated and developed as a literary movement. The novel was the favourite literary form of realist writers and was used to depict objectively the life of the middle classes whose power had become predominant in society. The movement of Realism was international but it had its theoretical roots in France. The French masters were Stendhal (1788-1842, Le Rouge et le Noir, 1830) and Balzac (1799-1850) whose novels and stories were known collectively as the Comédie Humaine. Realism was very influential on English novelists such as Dickens and Thackeray. Also the Irish playwright G. B. Shaw had been greatly influenced through the plays of the Norwegian dramatist H. Ibsen (1828-1906). Ibsen’s early works began from Realism while his later ones turned to Naturalism. Naturalism Naturalism was a late development of Realism in Europe from the 1870s onwards. The term describes literary compositions with a deterministic view of life based on the belief that human beings are controlled by the social and economic environment. Novels were used to expose social evils and express the pessimistic vision of an age overwhelmed by industrial progress and science. Naturalism originated from the works of the French novelist Emile Zola (1840-1902, Thérèse Raquin, 1867; Les Rougon-Macquart, 1871; Germinal, 1885). He emphasised determinism caused by inherited characteristics, while Gustave Flaubert (1821-80, Madame Bovary, 1857; L’Education Sentimentale, 1869) underlined economic determinism. In Britain only George Gissing is considered a naturalistic writer, but the movement also had some influence on Thomas Hardy and extended to early 20thcentury writers, e.g., Arnold Bennett. In Russian literature, Naturalism was associated with the writers Tolstoy (1828-1910) and Chechov (1860- 1904). Similar to naturalistic fiction was the movement of the Italian Verismo, which had its main exponent in Verga (1840-1922, I Malavoglia, 1881; Mastro Don Gesualdo, 1889) and influenced the early works of Pirandello (1867-1936). Aestheticism Aestheticism was a tendency which blossomed during the 1880s and owed much to the French doctrine of ‘Art for Art’s Sake’, which means that art is self-sufficient and serves no moral or political purpose. The novel A Rebours (1884) by J. K. Huysmans (1848-1907) was the French manual of Aestheticism. It was much admired by Wilde who introduced it as the ‘yellow book’ into The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891). The influence of Aestheticism is also noticeable in the early works of the German poet R. M. Rilke (1875-1926), of the Austrian H. von Hofmannsthal (1874-1929), and of the Belgian Maeterlink (1862-1949). In Italy the movement arrived later and it blended with Decadentism. It was mainly represented by some poetic works of D’Annunzio (1863-1938) and Pascoli (1855-1912). Decadentism Decadentism developed in the last decade of the 19th century. The term was adopted by new poets and writers because it reflected the uneasiness of their states of mind and attitudes in that period, and is often used to refer to the last stage of Aestheticism. It is also connected with Symbolism, a movement which grew out of the work of Baudelaire (1821-67) and is above all associated with the poets P. Verlaine (1844-96), A. Rimbaud (1854-91) and S. Mallarmé (1842-98). The French symbolists used symbols to evoke the subtle affinities between the material and spiritual worlds. They are particularly important in English literature for their influence on the two most important poets writing in English in the first half of the 20th century: T. S. Eliot and W. B. Yeats. They also influenced the development of the Russian symbolist movement. 1 Consider the movements described above and explain: a whether any of them was originally born in England b which of them exerted great influence on English literature c which European country had the most influential literature in the 19th century. 86 De Luca, Ellis, Pace, Ranzoli - Books and Bookmarks, cod. 2634 © Loescher Editore