The Victorian age

-1837-1901, it ended with the death of Queen Victoria, one of the most influential monarch
in England, with Elisabeth the first and the second (longest reign).
-It’s named after queen Victoria, who became queen at the age of 18 years old, at the time
her reign was the oldest (64 years)
She married prince Albert of Sax-Coburg-Gotha, he died when he was still young. He was
appointed prince consort. They started a new royal family, a German royal family. At the
times, at their court, German was the most used language. More used than English.
Her husband death was devastating, she decided to wear only black clothes until her death.
She also started the tradition of white wedding dress

On one hand, it was an age of reforms and laws, which tried to improve the conditions of
workers, especially miners, reducing the working hours for children.

On the other hand, the condition of the common people, were terrible. There was a deep
gap between the poor people and rich. The industrialization brought wealth to the upper
classes, England became a rich and advanced country, but wealth was not equally
distributed. Also the working class had to deal with an infamous institution, the work
houses.

The purpose of work houses was to help the paupers, those people who had nothing.
This was the original idea, but at the end, work houses became worse than prisons.
The workhouses were started in 1834, in 1930 the parliament closed them, but they
remained opened, because there were lots of people who lived there, especially old people.
In the 30s the workhouses were not as cruel as they were in Victorian age but continued to
be opened. They were closed in 1980 by Margaret Thatcher.
To be taken to a workhouse meant the end to lots of people. Families were separated,
husband and wife were kept separated, the children, until were 7, could stay with their
mother, than they were taken away and sent to the male part. They ate very poor food, there
was no heating (riscaldamento). They had to wear a uniform, not warm but made of jute.

The lowest form of accommodation were ropes where people could sleep. This method was
used by drunken sailors

The Victorian age was a very puritan age, the mentality was very rigid, strict, they believed
in hard work, their beliefs was that poverty was a crime, if people were poor it was their
fault, they didn’t used the gift that god gave them at the moment of their birth. They didn’t
work hard enough, poverty was considered a responsibility. This is the reason why in the
work houses there was a cruel discipline. There was no sympathy for the poors.

Respectability was a dominant element, it was mostly hypocrisy.

They believed in keeping up appearances, while they pretended to ignore the unpleasant
aspects of society, such as dissolution, poverty social unrest. Queen Victoria and her family
was the model of the respectability, she had 10 children herself, in accordance with the
Bible, to have as many children as possible.
On one hand there was a Profit oriented mentality, only money and wealth mattered, on
the other hand, it was the age of daydreaming.

Position of Women

There were lady writer, who published their novels using male pseudonyms. (George Elliot,
pseudonym of Mary Eve Evans), because women weren’t considered good enough to write
novels.
This output is surprising considering the state of subjection of Victorian women. It is less
surprising if one remembers that the majority of novel-buyers and readers were women.
richer women had more free time, that they spent reading.

The Victorian mentality wanted the not married women, chaste, while Wives were supposed
to have sex only to have children.
The reaction was a large number of prostitutes, the women who didn’t conform to the
Victorian mentality were called “fallen women”.
If a woman wasn’t considered respectful, for example, a single mother or a prostitute, she
was marginalized and condemned to the workhouses.
A respectful woman had to be married and have children.
Usually the father was the member of the family who had a job and could provide for the
family, while the wifes stayed at home, but they didn’t do the house working, they had
servants and a personal carriage.

Sex and pornography

Sex was a crucial aspect of respectability, it was generally repressed in both its public and
private form,, it was not mentioned in novels, also because the fathers used to read books in
front of their kids, and they couldnt know about that.
(uguale a paragrafo su) The reaction was a large number of prostitutes, the women who
didn’t conform to the Victorian mentality were called “fallen women”.
There was even a written guide of prostitutes, where visitors could find the prostitutes
names, their specialties, where they lived, their age.
Also there was a large numbers of phonographic books, photos, published as scientific
books, they circulated among the man of the upper classes.

Age of fiction;
Reading became the most common form of entertainment, it became really common also
between the women of the upper classes, because they had lot of free time.
Fathers used to read books in front of their families, (of course sex was never mentioned,
kids couldn't of course hear about it) .
Literature was spreading all over the country also thanks to the evening classes for workers,
where the workers learned how to read and wright.
People of the middle classes could finally access to education.
While The royal families and members of aristocracy, used to go to famous school, like
Ethan, the most popular high school
It costed a lot, taxes were really high, but it was the best school in Great Britain. There were
also other good schools. Those schools were called public ( private), because many people
used to get education at home,
Scuole pubbliche: state schools
-Another important factor, was that novels became less and less expensive.
A new form of publication was invented, novels were published in newspaper and
magazines, weekly, this also helped the writers to feel in contact with his public.
At the end of each chapter there was a sense of suspense, which kept the reader’s interest
high and contributed to the spreading of literacy among the lower classes. People could also
cut the page and make a book, that’s the reason why some chapters are so short.
Than there were Circulating libraries, biblioteche circolanti. Lot of people used to live in
town and villages, where it wasn’t easy for them to get books, newspaper or magazines. It
was a very convenient way to get books.
The revolution of the novel
The novel
dickens modernized the novels, before dickens the last was Jane Austin, but dickens
changed the English novel making it more realistic ( so he created a powerful recreation of
the reality at it really was)
other modern characteristics introduced were the representation of the conditions of the
lower classes, and a new didactic aim
CHARLES DICKENS
He became famous while he was alive, he was a star in English literature, he became rich in
his lifetime. He’s defined the “inimitable writer”, he had a peculiar life, he’s also known as
the “lion”.
Charles Dickens was influenced by several events in his life.
He put his life into his books, he had been observing people, around him, the issues of
society, he often reused all his experiences and observations.
THE SETTING
and his life as inspiration
London was the setting of his novels, he always seemed to have something new to say
about it. He knew London very well, he had been living there most of his life and he used
to go on long walks through the streets of London, especially at night, because he met those
people who were marginalized (prostitutes, ragged people, extremely poor people,
exploited abandoned children, they told him about their life, he reused all this
experience in his books.
He used also to visit prisons, he knew the directors personally, and they let him in.
He used to spoke with prisoners, who told him about their life.
He visited also the morgue (obitorio), he heard from operators, the stories of the dead
people there, he wanted to know the conditions of the people who died there.
He used to go to London’s court, he attended the trials there, in those years he collected a
huge amount of experiences, he reused in his books, especially the hard life of women,
who were the undefended part of society, with children.
So prisons, morgue, long walk at night, (he talked with prostitutes, abandoned
children, criminal, thieves), trials, all these experience were put into his books.
he concentrated on east end, on the tidal banks, and rivers which were subjected to the
tides, the water of the river used to flouted (inondava le rive) the banks, and also the houses
that were there. He described the slums, (the round areas of London).
he was an ebullient (effervescente) writer,

the plots of his books are complicated, fictional, not very enjoyable, well-planned,
sometimes they can appear a little bit artificial. The conditions of publication created
pressure on Dickens to conform to the public taste.

Style
Dickens employed the most effective language and accomplished powerful descriptions of
life and character, He did so with his careful choice of adjectives, repetitions of words and
structures, juxtapositions of images and ideas, hyperbolic and ironic remarks.

his characters:
Dickens created caricatures by exaggerating and ridiculing the social
peculiarities, vanity and ambition of the London middle and lower classes. He
revolutionized the social frontiers of the novel: the 18th-century realistic, upper-
middle-class world was replaced by the one of the lower orders. He was always
on the side of the poor
Children, in particular orphans, are often the most important characters in Dickens’s novels,
often the children are represented as wise, while parents or other grown-ups are worthless.
Dickens describes the masters of mines, schoolmaster, who were the owners of school, in a
critical way, mostly because they were extremely cruel with children.
people who run the workhouses gave little food to the children, we see that for example with
oliver twist, who was born in a workhouse, where he stayed part of the childhood.
Children became the moral teachers.
Also names of the characters in Dickens are significant, Murdstone (murder + stone),
Scrooge, , Grandgrind, they reflects the characteristics of the characters.
Aim
his aim
Dickens wanted that the more educated, the wealthier classes acquired knowledge about
their poorer neighbors, of whom the knew little or nothing.
London was divided in 2 parts, there was a majestic part, clean, where rich people ignored
what was happening in the slums of london.
Dickens's task was never to get the most wronged and suffering to rebel, or even encourage
discontent, but to make the ruling classes aware of the social problems without offending his
middle-class readers.
He wanted people to do something about it and not to ignore abuses and crimes.
he was conscious about corruption and the impact of industrialism, he had a radical view, he
spoke openly about abuses, injustices, crimes, and the misery of the city.

Dickens’ childhood
Dickens knew personally the industrial society.
His childhood was quite happy until he was 12 years old, he went to school, he was a
voracious reader. Then, because of his father, he went thought a traumatic experience who
marked him for life.
His father was not able to manage the income of his family, even thought he had a good job,
he worked for the English navy (marina) he spent much more than what he earned, and the
consequence was that he was often in debt. His debtors were furious at him, till was arrested
in 1824.
he tried hiding in London, but he was taken to the notorious Marshalsea prison, known for
debtors. People who were not able to pay their debts were sent there.
Charles was only 12 years old when this happened, he was a brilliant student, he had
ambitions, he dreamed of a good job, he wanted to be a writer and was quite happy, but
because of the arrest of his father, he had to go to work, while the rest of his family went to
prison.
He had to give up school, which was the most important thing for him, and suddenly, he
found himself to be one of the many exploited children of London, to pay for his fathers
debts. He kept living in the family house, cold and empty, because he had to sell his beloved
books and furniture, to the pawnbroker (monte di pietà)
then a friend of the family offered to him a job, it was in a shoe polish fabric.
This factory was located along the river banks, the place was rat-infested, Charles could
hear the shuffling of rats’ legs when they run.
Charles’ job was to wash the pots and label them.
He left his house, rent a room, really far from the factory, he had to get up very early, he also
felt indignant at his parents, he could not understand how his parents could have ruined
his childhood and ambitions, they had forced him to give up on his dreams and
condemned him to a life of exploitation and humiliations. The other boys understood that he
was different he was called the young gentleman, but he never cried, he never spoke about
his situation.
He was very good at managing his money, he used to divide the coins into 5 papers parcel,
he knew that everyday he could not spend more money than what was contained in a paper
parcel.
After a year his father was released, he got some money from a dead hunt, but he never
forgot this experience, he revealed it only when he was an adult to his best friend, who
became his biographic.
When Charles was working, he didn’t know how much the work could last.
After 1 year, the dickens family was released, so charles wanted to give up his job and start
his education, but he was disappointed again, his mother didn’t want him to go to school
again, but suddenly, his father, who was a daydreamer, decided that Charles could go back
to school. He completed his education, and then, he became a freelance journalist, a
reporter, He wrote articles for newspaper and magazines.
He used to go to London’s court, he attended the trials there, in those years he collected a
huge amount of experiences, that reused in his books, especially the hard life of women,
who were the undefended part of society, with children.
So prisons, moard, long walk at night, (he talked with prostitutes, abandoned children,
criminal, thieves), trials, all these experience were put into his books.

From 1847-58 he founded a Urania cottage, a home, for prostitutes who wanted to
change their life. He ran it for several years, it was extraordinary for those days.
He was helped by Miss Coutts, a rich lady, she was interested in helping people in need,
dickens put the idea, energy and work into this plane, while miss Coutts gave him the
money.
Dickens was aware of the conditions of the women in the streets, he decided to help them in
a concrete way. He looked for an appropriate place, not in central London, a bit isolated but
well connected to the city, and to the omnibus, ( which was the ancestor of the bus, a public
transport pulled by horses). Urania cottage wasn’t so big, there was space for 12-15 girls,
the girls were prostitutes or abandoned girls likely to drift in prostitution. He interview
personally the girls, and made sure they really wanted to change.
In this house he told them how to live a different life, they were taught how to read, write,
were given nutrition food, they had 3 pasts a day, breakfast, lunch and dinner tea.
They were given their own personal bed, which, it was something they had never seen in
their life. He taught them cleanliness, how to have a regular life.
After they got up they made each other bed, in this way girls were discouraged from keep
alcohol under the bed, they were taught to do the housework, they learned how to knit, to
sew (cucire).
He didn’t want them to wear gray or black clothes, but they could chose the cloth. Once a
week they had a bath. Once a week they had to prepare the food for poors, he wanted to
trasmit them the joy of giving. He wanted them to have a flowerbed, they could grow their
own vegetable patch (orto).
The education was the necessary for a good housewife, then after a year, they were paid a
passage, a voyage to the colonies, Australia, Canada… where they could start a new life.
Many of them had a job, had a family ..
They had a doctor, who gave them treating. They were protected by the outside dangers.
They couldn’t go out alone, but on Sunday went to church all together with the matron, a
lady who looked after the girls.
They could not see visits. They were prepared for economies and started a new life, where
nobody knew them , There was also a men who informed them about migration..
there were failures, but all in all the experiment went well and lasted for 11 years. Dickens
didn’t like to show off, he never revealed that under Urania cottage there was him. Once he
published an article on Urania journal, but didn’t sign it.

he died in 1870, in his house in Kent (one of counties in England, where Canterbury is ) he
was buried in Westminster Abby, when he died a special train was organized, which
transported his grave, which had been dug.
Before Dickens coffin arrived it was already covered by flowers, he was really loved.
His books are the favorite of children, especially the story he wrote for Christmas, a
Christmas carol is his most known story ( the film recreates the Gothic and scary
atmosphere). Scrooge is an old business man, greedy, and miser, he reflects the profit
oriented mentality of society. To him the poor represents a waste of money and energy for
the country. He thinks that For poor people there are the workhouses, for criminals there are
prison. He’s arid inside. He’s unfriendly, unsympathetic, he saves money on anything, even
his own office is freezing cold. He doesn’t want to spend money on coal to heat the place, so
the poor clerk (impiegato) gets frozen, he never has a holiday, because Scrooge works even
on Christmas day.
This character was so negative, that his name became an adjective.
The plot
In the night between the 24-25, 3 ghosts appeared to him, the ghost of the Christmas past,
and he takes Scrooge back in time, when he was a boy and used to play with other kids.
He shows himself when he was alone at school, because every students went home for
Christmas holiday, but he had nobody who cared for him. Then the ghost shows him he as a
young man, when he had a girlfriend, but Scrooge abandons her because he didn’t want to
marry her.
His gf was really disappointed with him, the ghost makes him realize that his present life is
only the consequences of his past decisions.
The ghost of the present shows him the ragged abandoned children starving and freezing in
the snow, the poor people who have nothing, starving in the workhouses, slowly Scrooge
begins to change, he feels pity, then the ghost shows him his nephew, his dead sister’s son,
who despite Scrooge character loves his uncle, and every year invites him for Christmas
dinner, with his wife children and friends. They are celebrating, everybody is happy, and
they are talking about him, mocking him, calling him names, they are having fun making
fun of him. Scrooge slowly becomes better, he starts to understand his mistakes
the ghost of the future, the scariest, shows him his future as a lonely man, and shows him his
funeral, where nobody will mourn him (compiangerà), only his nephew. He will be buried in
complete loneliness. Scrooge is scared to death. When the 3 ghosts go away, he is a
completely different man, he opens his window, and can see it has been snowing, there r
children playing in snow, he donates lots of money to charity, he sends a big duck, to his
clerk for Christmas dinner. His clerk has got some children and one of them is called tiny
Tim, he is a cripple (zoppo), and without money his father can’t cure him, but Scrooge gives
him a lot of money and offers him to provide for doctors. He goes to his nephew and offers
him to celebrate Christmas.
In Christmas carol there are his favorite characters, the orphans, the victims, the industrial
systems.
In his novels there r moral teachings to help the undefended, to cherish (fare tesoro di) ,
love, affection, family.
Dickens was married for 20 years, ten children and then separated from his wife, because
she was no more the woman he had married, but he had started a relationship with a young
actress. When he died he was with her. If the Victorians had known about this relationship
his reputation would have been destroyed.
Comparison DICKENS-AUSTIN
While both writers clearly criticize their societies, their approach is markedly different. The
different sensibilities of the two writers, their different genders and their contrasting position
in society affect the way in which they write about their communities, and the way in which
they create a sense of realism in their novels. Despite the disparities between the two
authors’ writings, there are certain similarities which can be found at several points in their
works. As I said before, they both critique their society, in particular the profit oriented
mentality, but while Jane Austin focuses on the role of marriage, as a way to develop the
social status, Dickens focuses on the conditions of workers, exploited by the owners of
fabric just to earn more money.
Then I think they both have done a lot of the women’s condition, Jane Austin , she gave a
large contribute for the improvement of the conditions of women’s mentality, whose only
aim at the time was to find a man and get married. Dickens has saved girls from prostitution,
thanks to the urania cottage project.

The effects of industrialization

the most part of workers had not rights, if they left their job they would have no other
choice. Children and women were exploited, paid very little, the poor had to go to the
working classes.
The Victorians in part pretended they ignore the situation.
Dickens not only explores the world of work, he explores the life in the factory and
industrial towns. He describes life as monotonous and alienating, of the people who lived in
industrial towns. The workers had the same daily routine everyday. There wasn’t space for
entertainments. There wasn’t free time, there was nothing to do if not working everyday.
Everybody had to work at the same times. Towns were monotonous, there wasn’t a beautiful
architecture, building had to be only functional.
Schools, factories and mines were owned by the same people. The owners were the masters
of schools, they had to educate the future workers so they could transmit the same utilitarian
principles. Imagination, fantasy, creativity, ambitions were not important, in a functional
work. In a profit oriented mentality, the education was strictly functional, to the future job.
Only Things that could be calculated in money were important, students learned by
heart, the material facts. Children at school were deprived of imagination, fantasy and
creativity.

The log was one of the punishment, is a heavy piece of wood, which was fixed to the neck
of the offender.
The offender was locked in a cage, suspended on the ceiling of the class, and had to stend
there hours to expell their sins. Children were suspended on a machine from their arms
parents agreed and they couldn’t rebel. That was the custom and the tradition.
(8 of march, lots of women died in a factory because of a burn)
mechanical system of education

Hard Times
This novel is set in an imaginary industrial town named Coketown.
Hard Times focuses on the difference between the rich and the poor at Dickens's time,
between factory owners and workers, who were forced to work long hours for low pay in
dirty, loud and dangerous factories. As they lacked education and job skills, these workers
had few options for improving their terrible living and working conditions. This novel
criticize the materialism, which was the basic Victorian attitude to economics.
Hard Times suggests that 19th century England was turning human beings into machines by
avoiding the development of their emotions and imagination, we mostly see this through the
character of Mr Gradgrind, an educator who believes in facts and statistics, who has
founded a school where his theories are taught.
The book is divided in 3 sections, sowing, the first book, shows the seeds planted by the
Grandgrind education.
A remarkable characteristic of this novel is the sens of topicality: topical matters or
current affairs, (argomenti di attualità).
The title: The expression “hard times” was very common among the common people,
when they complained about the shortage of money and food.
Setting: Coketown is a fictional city, it is not London but it’s an imagery industrial town in
the north of England.
The name: Coketown, (coke is a kind of coal, the town of the coal) the name reminds of
unhealthy conditions and pollution, where people work long hours in factory, where the air
is black.
Coketown was inspired by the city of Preston, which was well known for the social unrest
(inquietudine sociale) and it was known for the fights, between the factory owners and the
workers.
Several strikes took place and the English government sent the army to sedate one of the
protest. Several people were killed.
As I said before, this novel is A strong critique to the mechanical system of education.
Schools, factories and mines were owned by the same people.
The owners were the masters of schools, they had to educate the future workers so they
could transmit the same utilitarian principles.
Imagination, fantasy, creativity, ambitions were not important, in a functional work. In a
profit oriented mentality, the education was strictly functional, to the future job.
Only Things that could be calculated in money were important, students learned by heart,
the material facts. Children at school were deprived of imagination, fantasy and creativity.
Only facts were important in factory and schools, disciplines were very rigid and teachers
were allowed to hit the students.
The log was one of the punishment, is a heavy piece of wood, which was fixed to the neck
of the offender.
The offender was locked in a cage, suspended on the ceiling of the class, and had to stend
there hours to expell their sins. Children were suspended on a machine from their arms
parents agreed and they couldn’t rebel. That was the custom and the tradition.

dickens contrast the world of the schools and the circus.

One of the student is a young girl, Sissi Jupe, whose father works in the circus, place of
imagination, fantasy, daydreaming and creativity, is the opposite of the mentality applied to
the factories or schools.
Merrylegs is her father’s dog, his story is mooing, this dog could dance and walk on his hind
legs. He could make tricks.
Dickens juxtaposes this mentality. Circus is made fun of in society, it means wasting time,
which could be used to make money.

Mr Gradgrind , he is named in this way because he grinds students.

Part 1(lines 1-8) Presentation of the speaker’s ideas.
Mr Gradgrind, ìbelieves in facts and statistics, stands in front of a group of students
and affirms his beliefs.
the scene takes place in a plain, bare, monotonous classroom,
the language here is colorful, as Shakespeare Dickens uses images, the imagery here is
farming, he uses( animals, plant, “to root out”), words and phrases belonging to the
semantic area of ‘farming’ . these words. are related to Mr Gradgrind’s intention to
‘cultivate’ his children.

P2 Description of Mr Gradgrind
we get an exaggerated description, not a realistic one, he uses geometric figures shapes, the
dominant one is the square.
We get a caricature of a monster, he’s inflexible, determined, we get an impression of a
threatening, unattractive person. Here we have words belonging to the semantic area of geometry as
I said, and also regularity and monotony, and we have repetition of the same word, to underlines
the speaker’s concept of education, which must be rigid and only related to facts.
his description is also grotesque, the author compares his head to the crust of a plum Pie
(torta di prugne, poichè aveva molte protuberanze), and a warehouse.
his head is full of facts, the head has that shape because all the facts, as they were pushing
his head from the inside trying to escape.
Than we know that Dickens describes the scene from the students’ point of view (only
students can see the mouth),He has a wide mouth,

COMPARISON: He compares children to vessels, to be field as if they were a jug, at the

same way as a jug is filled with beer.
So we also have the IMAGERY OF BEER: he compares the facts to the beer.
To exaggerate he images “Imperial gallons” of beer (way to measure beer) to fill the vessels

Coketown
Coketown is a fictional city, it is not London but it’s an imagery industrial town in the north
of England.
The name: Coketown, (coke is a kind of coal, the town of the coal) the name reminds of
unhealthy conditions and pollution, where people work long hours in factory, where the air
is black.
Coketown was inspired by the city of Preston, which was well known for the social unrest
(inquietudine sociale) and it was known for the fights, between the factory owners and the
workers.
Several strikes took place and the English government sent the army to sedate one of the
protest. Several people were killed.

the text
mr Gradgrind and Mr Bounderby are walking
It was ‘a town of red brick’, full of machinery and tall chimneys. It had a canal and a river,
‘vast piles of building full of windows’(we understand the Victorian architecture, full of
windows). It contained several large streets that were ‘all very like one another, and many
small streets still more like one another, also People are described in this way, alienated,
they appear to not have sensibility, they do the same things everyday, they work in the same
places, walk in the same streets.

The author uses a series of words linked to industrialization and urbanization, such as
“town”, “machinery”, “chimney”, “canal”, “piston of the steam engine”.
But we find also a completely opposite semantic field linked to wild and Nature, we see
words such as “savage”, “serpents”, “elephant”, that create a strong contrast with the
previous ones. The purpose of such lexical choice may be to underline one similarity
between Coketown and a jungle: Coketown is a chaotic place, where society is like a
jungle. English people considered the places that they colonized uncivil, but Dickens
remarks that Coketown wasn’t so different. It’s an unhealthy place, where human rights
aren’t respected, and people are unhappy.
simile; Lines 5-6, 10-11. The red brick stained with black is likened to the ‘painted face
of a savage’ (line 6); this image is negative, describing something alien and
frightening.
The elephant image (lines 10-11)-we have a Comparison between piston and a
head of an elephant in a state of melancholy madness.
The text says that this scene of pistons, going up and down, seemed to be an
enormous animal with a long trunk, but performing a movement which was
unnatural, melancholy and mad.
• metaphor. Line 7. The serpent is the coils of smoke from the chimneys of the
factories; once again the image is negative and suggests something animate and
evil (it goes on forever, therefore never dies) rather than the product of
machinery.

The words referring to smell and sound are ‘ill-smelling’ (line 8), ‘rattling’ and ‘trembling’
(line 9), and ‘the same sound’ (line 13).

The Bronte sisters

Patrick Bronte, the father of the Bronte sister, was Irish, he was born in Ireland in a very
poor family, but he was talented and very brilliant, he won a scholarship to Cambridge.
He had 5 girls and a boy, but the mother died when the children were young, and also the
other 2 older daughter, because they were send to a school for the poor pastors, where they
got very poor food and only cold water.
These girls felt ill with consumption, and they died because of it.
Because of this episode, Patrick decided to educated his other children at home.
They didn’t get a school education, but Patrick was brilliant, he taught them about politics,
current affairs, the issues of society, even thought usually these topics were forbidden to
girls those days.
Patrick encouraged their love for reading, he let them read every book, there was no such
thing as a forbidden book.
So event thought they lived in very isolated place, they grew up really open-minded.
The place where they lived was also really polluted, also the drinkable water, because of
waste of the cemetery which penetrated in the in the water. This caused the spreading of
cholera and typhus. The situation was so bad, that Patrick had to write a letter to London
and ask for an inspector to come.

Charlotte was the last of her sister to die, at the age of 34 years old, she might also have
been pregnant.
Charlotte is famous for the publication of Jane Eyre.
Their brother, Branwell, had a dissolute life, he ruined himself with alcohol and drugs. He
was involved in a love affair with his wife’s boss, he was madly in love with her, while she
wasn’t. When his boss died, she didn’t accept to marry him, but instead she married a richer
man, and he got crazy.
Emily died when she was 30, she was the most talented writer. She used also to write
poems, and she is famous for Wuthering Heights.
Since they were children, they all used to write stories together, Charlotte was able to wright
in really small books.
In order to get their books published, they used male pseudonymous.

Wuthering heights
The novel revolves around two houses, Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange,
inhabited by the Earnshaws and the Lintons.

The preface
In the second edition of the book, Charlotte adds a preface, where she speaks about her
sister Emily, describing her as deeply rooted in the place where she was born, Emily loved
to taking long walks in the moors, she was very kind, sensitive, gentle, but she never left the
house. She had very few relationship with the other inhabitants. She is described as an
homebred country girl.
Charlotte with this preface created the myth of Emily Bronte, as a talented writer who never
learned from schools or teachers. She is described as stronger than a man but simpler than a
child. Possibily the first sentence is true, but she wasn’t simpler than a child. she had
powerful imagination, her language shows her very good education and her reading, she was
a keen reader, she loved studying and reading, her language was really sophisticated. She
was really well-prepared.

THE SETTING
The novel is built around the contrast between the two houses on the Yorkshire moors:
Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange.
Wuthering Heights is severe and gloomy, rooted in local tradition and custom;
Wuthering Heights It’s a tipical yorkshire house, the author wants the reader to know the
traditions of inhabitants of Yorkshire, which are unknown to the majority of people
the climate there was really cold, we know this because in a letter that Emily wrights, on her
birthday, which was on 30 of august, affirms that the climate is winding and rainy.
So, as I said, The author describes the typical everyday life of Yorkshire, Emily often
mentions a roaring fire, people used to do everything with fire.
the servants there got up at 4-5 o clock and went to bed very early, the people there weren't
poor, but their life was tiring
Emily gives also a description of typical food, for example porridge, oatmeal
mugs.
Considering Thrushcross Grange, the home of the Lintons, reflects their conception of life,
based on stability, kindness. it’s more English, more modern, there is comfortable furniture,
curtains at the window
It’s an house of a upper class family, there is a fire place but no fire, they believed in calm,
stability. They are old so they control their impulses, they are rational, kind, while the
inhabitants of wuthering heights are rude
they are different but complementary
PLOT
Heathcliff breaks into the life of these 2 family, he’s an orphan, a mysterious character, he is
taken home from Liverpool by Mr Earnshaw, the father of Hindley and Chaterine.
he is described as having a dark complexion, black hair, black eyes like burning coals
these characteristics of his physical appearances are repeated over and over.
He is a malicious character.
Hindley ill-treated Heathcliff while Catherine got on very well with him. They roamed the
moors together and promised they would stay together forever. One day Catherine was
bitten by one of the Lintons' dogs and was forced to spend five weeks at ThrushcrossGrange
to recover, which gave her the opportunity to get to know Edgar and Isabella, as well as
their quiet and refined way of life.
When mr Earnshaw dies, Hindley enslaves Heathcliff, he has no access to books or
education, he had no access to hot water, to wash himself, he is treated like an animal
When Catherine gets back to Wuthering Heights, she is completely changed.
she wears beautiful clothes, she looks like she belongs to an upper middle class family.
Heathcliff feels ashamed, because he’s dirty, shabby.
Edgar proposes to her, she accepts but she confesses to the servant of the house that she is in
love with Heathcliff, but she can’t marry him, because it would be degrading for her,
because he is a slave.
Only by marrying Edgar she would have had money and could have helped Heathcliff to
improve his social status.
Heathcliff hears the conversation and escapes for many years, when he comes back he’s
completely different, he is rich, polite, educated, he wants revenge on Hindley and destroys
him
heathcliff at the end will possess both the 2 houses

narrative structure:
The narration does not proceed according to chronological time; it starts almost at the end of
the story, in the 1801, when the events narrated are finishing.
The book develops a narrative within the narrative, including the use of flashbacks. This
complex structure creates a sense of verisimilitude and, at the same time, a feeling of
suspense.
it’s a system of “chinese boxes”, There are two major narrators, male and female, outsider
(Mr Lockwood) and insider (Nelly Dean).
At the beginning of the story Mr Lockwood, the first narrator, the new tenant of
Thrushcross Grange, visits Mr Heathcliff, at Wuthering Heights. Forced to stay the night
because of a snowstorm, Mr Lockwood has a strange dream about a girl, Catherine, who is
tapping on the window, asking to be let in after 20 years of wandering on the moors. it turns
out that the bedroom hasn't been used for years because it was where heathcliff and
catherine slept when they were little.
we reader can’t understand if there’s a ghost or it was a dream.
The man had red caterine name and her signature, this elements could have caused a
nightmare.
It’s one of the many Gothic elements present on the book
The next day Mr Lockwood returns to Thrushcross Grange and the housekeeper, Nelly
Dean, tells him the whole story of the family from the Heights.
Nelly tells the story to her, and she became the second narrator , the most important one.
She has been living with the family and she has been an eye witness to the events that have
been happening in watering heights.
She was also the person catherine confesses to.
So nelly tells the story to mr lockwood and lockwoord reports the story, but in fact he is not
the one who knows things.
THE CHARACTERS

Chaterine:The daughter of Mr. Earnshaw and his wife, Catherine falls

powerfully in love with Heathcliff, the orphan Mr. Earnshaw brings home from
Liverpool. Catherine loves Heathcliff so intensely that she claims they are the
same person. However, her desire for social advancement motivates her to
marry Edgar Linton instead. Catherine is free-spirited, beautiful, spoiled, and
often arrogant. She is given to fits of temper, and she is torn between her wild
passion for Heathcliff and her social ambition.
Heathcliff
An orphan brought to live at Wuthering Heights by Mr. Earnshaw, Heathcliff falls into an
intense, unbreakable love with Mr. Earnshaw’s daughter Catherine. After Mr. Earnshaw
dies, his resentful son Hindley abuses Heathcliff and treats him as a servant. Because of her
desire for social prominence, Catherine marries Edgar Linton instead of Heathcliff.
Heathcliff’s humiliation and misery prompt him to spend most of the rest of his life seeking
revenge on Hindley, his beloved Catherine, and their respective children (Hareton and
young Catherine). A powerful, fierce, and often cruel man, Heathcliff acquires a fortune and
uses his extraordinary powers of will to acquire both Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross
Grange, the estate of Edgar Linton.

I am Heathcliff
Catherine explains the reasons why she has decided to marry Edgar Linton.
She wants to marry Edgar because he is handsome, pleasant to be with, young, cheerful,
because he loves her and will consent her to upgrade her social status. By marrying Edgar
and acquiring a higher social status, she might help Heathcliff to improve his condition
Marrying Heathcliff would degrade her.
Nelly’s attitude
is very rational and pragmatic: she encourages Catherine to consider things in a rational way
and to reflect on the reasons of her choice. Nelly thinks the ‘worst motive’ is to marry Edgar
in order to use his money and position to help Heathcliff (Heathcliff will resent it and so
will Edgar), it is naive of Catherine to think that it would work

Nelly’s description
Nelly Dean serves as the chief narrator of Wuthering Heights. A sensible, intelligent, and
compassionate woman, she grew up essentially alongside Hindley and Catherine Earnshaw
and is deeply involved in the story she tells.
She is very sensible, practical, realistic, when catherine confesses her her intentions she
remarks that this is a mad plan, impossible. she is wise, she knows what life is like.
Nelly often loses her temper hearing Catherine plan, because she is rational, down to earth.
She makes the novel realistic
death doesn’t stop love, the book finishes with catherine and heathcliffs ghost images wsho
walks toghether
Catherine’s dream.
For Cathy dreams are ‘like wine through water, they alter the colour of her mind, they change her
ideas and stay with her, while Nelly is superstitious about dreams and fearful of what they may
foresee.
In her dream, Catherine is in heaven but she feels unhappy and cries, so the angels fling her
back to the earth, on top of Wuthering Heights, where she wakes up sobbing for joy.
Catherine’s love for Heathcliff.
Her love for Edgar will change with time, just as the trees and leaves change from one
season to another. Her love for Heathcliff is eternal, like the ‘rocks beneath’ because it
transcends time and material existence.
She feels that she is a part of Heathcliff and feels his pains as he does. She thinks that if he
did not exist, then she would not be the same person.

Catherine declares, “I am Heathcliff,”

they love each other profoundly, they spent almost of their childhood with one another, walking
together in the moors, their love is pure, true.

THEMES
Death is an important theme. Unlike other Victorian novels, where death is either a moment
of forgiveness or the moment when all the conflicts are settled, in Wuthering Heights death
is not an end, but a liberation of the spirit. The novel closes with the vision of the graveyard
where Catherine and Heathcliff buried, but the author is careful to say that they are sleeping,
not dead.
- The Gothic elements in the novel, such as the sinister atmosphere of Wuthering Heights
surrounded by the wilderness -, Catherine's ghost, and the dreams and superstitions often
mentioned, are used not to frighten the reader, but to convey the struggle between the two
opposed principles of love and hate, of order and chaos.
-marriage, love
- The spirit of Romanticism and its concern with the human soul are still present in the
correspondence between the violent passions of the characters and the wild natural
landscape.

Wuthering Heights collegamenti

Catherine- Madame Bovary
I would like to confront two feminine characters, Emma Bovary and Catherine Eearshaw,
even though they are really different from each other, I think they share the same problems,
as women in a male-dominant society.
in the Victorian era, and in the french society, women were usually completely dependent on
the men in their lives, from their fathers, brothers to their husbands.
Women were defined as passive, but these 2 characters show us that there is a possibility to
assert as an individual, even in historical periods in which the woman was given little space.
For both, their only way to develop their social status and improve their life-style is
marriage, they both marry two men they don’t love, just as a way to achieve other goals.
These two women don’t give up on their feelings, but try to find another way to get what
they want.
They both bow to a quiet, mediocre, outcome, but they both show us that when life is forced
by patriarchal norms, such as marriage, motherhood, . It’s an act of courage, or passion, to
find a way to get more than that.

Charles dickens- verga

the common themes between these two authors are the child labor, the intent to denounce
the conditions of exploitation, to denounce the effects of the positivist mentality, therefore
children and women were seen only as a cheaper workforce.
Charles Dickens and Giovanni Verga are among the most popular novelists in the history of
literature of all time
These two authors have wanted to represent in their works the social realities of their
countries, the England industrialized for Dickens and the closed reality of Sicily for Verga.
Most of Dickens's novels are set in London and portray the Victorian society in a realistic
way. In particular, Dickens highlights the bitter reality of slums and factories, and the
working conditions of the lower classes, especially he points out the exploitation of
children.
They had to live in workhouses, where they suffered in terrible conditions with rationed
food, inadequate clothing. They suffered injustices and violence and worked long hours a
day. As Dickens in the novel "Oliver Twist" deals with poor children and their
exploitation also Verga, in Rosso Malpelo for example, shows the conditions of the
exploited children, he describes the misery of the lower classes of Sicily.
Malpelo becomes the symbol of the human condition of exploited in a society based on
personal interest.

Oscar Wild
he wasn’t English but irish, he was born in Dublin, his actual name was much longer.
He was born in a very good family, his father was a famous eye and ear surgeon.
His mother was a poetess, both his parents loved irish tradition and folklore. In those days
ireland was still a colony of the british empire, was still tormented by the English
government, which exploited Ireland.
Both parents were in favor of irish indipendent, they were nationalists.
His mother wrote poems dedicated to irish poems, traditions.
She wrote under pseudonyms, “speranza”
his father too was very into irish traditions, he published a collection of irish legend.
oscar wild grew up with these ideas and interests in the family
he was a brilliant student, he studied in the trinity collage, than he moved to england, he
graduated to the magdalen college in oxford, where he studied humanities, latin and greek.
He won a scholarship, for translation, and also he excelled in English composition.
He was extravagant, he used to spend a lot of mind. Sometimes he was punished for
spending too much money from college. in the Bodleian library, there is a room, where we
can still see a square table with banches. There were trials, of university students who had
committed something wrong. Also oscar wilde set at that table because he spent much
money. The college considered himself in charge to parents money, because it was really
expensive to study there.
He immediately distinguish himself for his eccentricity.
When He moved to london, he felt like and evian, in a world which wasn’t his one, English
considered irish people inferior, less educated, civilised, They had prejudices against them,
that is something that marks irish history.
In those days oscar wilde was very popular, but he always felt an irish man in england. The
Victorians accepted him because he was famous, and well known for his conversations.
He was also a brilliant conversationalist. The Victorian loved having him at home.
When he went back to ireland, the irish people considered him an irish man whohad left hi
homecountry to london, the enemy, anywhere he was an outcast.
He was the best known artist of aestheticism, not because he was superficial, but because he
thought that only beauty could save them from the materialistic mentality where they lived
they thought only beauty could rescue them from materialism.
He was excellent at drawing, when he visited museums, he used to rite to his mother and
draw the scenes he saw at museums
he was famous for his wit
he was able to invent story at the moment he was telling them
he married a lady, they had 2 sons.
He created stories for them, and collected them. For example the selfish giant, the
canterbury ghost, in the letters he sound loving, one time he turned down an invite because
one of his children had the flue.
He also wrote the picture of dorian grey, but he was best known for his commedy, an ideal
husband ecc…
his fame lay on his comedies.
1891 he died, the year where hi published the 2 editions of dorian gray.
The Victorian readers were fascinated, but they also criticized it. They described the book as
morbid, immoral.
After the publication he met a young men, lord alfred douglas, he was very handsome, he
was a talented poet that oscar wilde tried to help.
His wife said that after what happened to him, their house was full of young poets who
asked for help.
He was a noblemen, son of a marquis od quennsberry, he started a relationship with him.
It was discovered that he had other homosexual lovers, even though he was a loving father
the father of alfred imposed to his son to interrupt any relationship with oscar.
His father was really mean, he is also reported to abuse his daughter, hit his wife.
“Bousy” nickname oscar gave him, he took advantage of what happened to take revenge on
his father.
At the end of a performance of oscar wilde, in the theater, with oscar there, the father of
alfren accused him of perversed.
This brought to his trials because of homosexuality, which was illegal.
The Victorian ipocrisy emerged from the 3 trials, because Many people eye witnessed in the
trials to have seen Oscar and Bousy, but than Oscar used to have love affairs with other
young men, not serious relationship but temporary young men who usually belonged to the
working class or middle class, or people who worked in shops where he went.
To the judjes questions people answered that they accepted to go to bed with him, but they
didn’t know what he wanted to do with them.
Oscar usually gave them expensive gifts , after these 3 trials, oscar was sentenced to 2 years
of hard labour, he was so sophisticated, he have never done any manual works.
He was arrested in the prison of Reading, a town in England.
In prison wrote a lot of things, a long poem about his klife in prison, whose titel was the
ballad of reading Jail.

Now the cell where oscar spent his most terrible year of his life can be visited. When he was
in prison he also wrote long letter of Bousy, the title is profundis, because he has touched
the bottom of his life.
He gave these letterto a mutual friend, he told him to give the letter to bousy only after
oscar’s death.
When oscar was released he was a broken man, he had lost everything,his children, which
mean that they lived with their mother, and they lost their surname.
He lost the patria potestas, this is the reason why his father is called melvin holland.
His father, who still loved him, died when he was young.
Probably because of bone cancer.
When oscar was in prison she secretly visited him, she gave him money, but than she died.
He lost all his money because he had to pay the layers, not inly his one but also of the
Bousy’s father.
He had to sell all his mother’s books, which were valuable, so than he went bankropt.
His mother died of a broken heart.
He moved to france, his friends gave him money, he lievd than in Italy with Bousy, and
than he got back to France where he died of meninged.
He signed ballad of Jail with C. 33, name he had in prisons.
Oscar noticed that The underaged young people ended up in the same prison as the grown
ups, it was a bad thing because young people only learnt how to became prisoners.
He wrote several letters to the governement in order to improve the conditions of prisoners,
especially the young ones.
He is known as one of the best rapresentative of estethisism, his researched forbeauty was
both in his work and in his personal life.
He was also a rebel, an Irish man living in london. He also rebelled to the Victorian
hypocrisi. He show the Victorian hypochrisy in his comedy where he makes fun of the
Victorian mentality. He shows the Victorian hypocrisy in the tales he wrote to his 2 sons in
the happy princes, and his novel the picture of dorian gray. It’s his only novel.

The picture of Dorian Grey

1891, published in in serial instalments, when it was published it created a big scandal
between the Victorian readers, and also in the Victorian literary critics, they said the book
was immoral, morbid, toxic, and due to this criticism, which oscar considered unfair, he
published a second edition of the book, in which he added a preface. In this preface he
replies to the critisism of literary critic.
The principles established, said that what is important in a book is the language, the style. A
book is well written or badly written, it’s the only thing that matters.
If they found his book immoral andmorbid, it was because they were immoral and morbid.
A work of art must be only beautiful, it doesn’t have to be useful.
If the book created a big scandal it was because it was different from the traditional
Victorian novels.
People in traditional books had families, but in this case there aren’t families.
An important element in Victorian society is marriage, but the story didn’t involve a love
story between husband and wife, but a relationship which is a triangle of 3 men.
Dorian Gray, is a young men of exceptional beauty, when the book starts is 19, his name
reveals the bauty: it’s a referemant to the perfect greek arts.
Gray sounds like the color gray, we obtein gray mixing black and white. Usally back was
reffered to sin whil ewhite to purity. When the work start dorian is an innocent young men,
he is not aware of his beauty, or his potentiality of his youth and beauty together, the color
black reveals the potenciality of his soul to commit sins.
26-03
the hero o fthis story is dorian gray. Dorian stand for beauty, greek art.
His family name has the same pronuntation as the color gray.
Gray is the combination between black and white.
He is a combination of good and evil.
Another character is basil hallward, who painted the portrait. He is a close friend of dorian,
they are best friend. He isnt going to sell dorian’s painting. The novel opens in basil studio,
with the description of the studio and the garden. The third man who is part of this triangle
is lord henry.
He is an intellectual, a brilliant talkers, conversationalist, the same as oscar was.
Appearently he was superficial, he show a deep knowledge of the society where he lives,
and also of a those institution which were considered crucial and sacred by the Victorians,
like the family and the churches. He also reveals the critisism against this institution.
Lord henry is married but he says that he and his wife had to separete house.
They only had breakfast together, they speak about things that aren’t true and they separate
to have their own life. This isnt the traditional marriage, and which queen Victorian herself
considered really important. When prince albert died, when prince albert died she never
stopped wearing black.
She only wore black clothes in side of mourning.
Lord henry marriage couldn’t be more different.
He has a big influence on dorian, and he changes dorian life forever.
Dorian appears in the 2 chapter of the book, and this is a crucial chapter in the book. Lord
henry meets dorian and he is impressed by dorian beauty, and gives him a speech about the
potenciality of his beauty and youthness.