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Why is literature important? The above illustration describes how literature is prevalent in life. Literature promotes understanding and provides us with a historical outlook of how humanity evolved in its thinking about the world around them.

Significant Aspects of Literature:

Literature is the gateway towards the horizon of learning from history and widens the understanding and knowledge about the world.

Expanding Thought and Understanding.

Expands Critical Thinking Skills.

A glimpse of the Past.

Understanding Others Culture and Beliefs.

Cultivates Wisdom.

Knowledge of Human Psyche.

Helps to Understand Ourselves.

Addressing Humanity.

During this journey, we will examine two significant shifts in British literature that illustrate how we can understand how humanity developed its thinking. We will examine the Victorian Age and Modernism.

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What are the main characteristics of the Victorian period?

Victorian era

The Victorian stereotype and double standard.

Gender and class in Victorian society.

Religion and science in the Victorian era.

Government and politics in the Victorian era.

The Victorian British Empire.

The Victorian British economy.

Victorian culture and art.

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The three phases of Victorian Literature:

1. The Early Period (1830-48): A Time of Trouble

2. The Mid-Victorian Period (1848-70): Economic Prosperity, The Growth of Empire, and Religious Controversy

3. The Late Period (1870-1901): Decay of Victorian Values. (Norton Anthology 531-540).

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The Early Period (1830-48): A Time of Troubles

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The Early Period (1830-48): A Time of Troubles

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Britain experiences significant changes due to the Industrial Revolution.  In 1830, the railway system developed (the Liverpool and Manchester Railway). "The train transformed Britain's landscape, supported the growth of its commerce, and shrank the distance between its cities" (Norton Anthology 531).

"A time of economic distress had brought the country close to revolution" (Norton Anthology) by the 1830s. Why? The Victorian era was about social class systems, reflecting who benefited and who did not.  There are many notable poets and writers whose literature reflected the changes Britain was shifting towards.

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The Mid-Victorian Period (1848-70): Economic Prosperity, The Growth of Empire, and Religious Controversy: 

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The Mid-Victorian Period (1848-70): Economic Prosperity, The Growth of Empire, and Religious Controversy: 

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The second phase of the Victorian Era had many harassing problems; however, Britain became prosperous. Many poets and authors wrote about Britain's prosperity, but it changed humanity's thinking about people in general. Charles Dicken's literary works reflected "the shortcomings of the Victorian social scene.

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The Late Period (1870-1901): Decay of Victorian Values.       

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The Late Period (1870-1901): Decay of Victorian Values.       

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The term Victorian morality is often used to describe the values of the period, which included

sexual proprietary

hard work

honesty

thrift

sense of duty and responsibility towards the less well off

Religion, morality, elitist thinking, industrialization all played an important role in the formation of what we today know as the Victorian era morality. It changed England totally by altering the very thread of social interaction, mores and traditions.

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Notable Poets & Writers of the Victorian Era

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Notable Poets & Writers of the Victorian Era

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Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806 - 1861)

Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809 - 1892)

Robert Browning (1812 - 1889)

Charles Dickens (1812 - 1870)

Christina Rossetti (1830 - 1894)

Robert Louis Stevenson (1850 - 1894)

Oscar Wilde (1854 - 1900)

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Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806 - 1861)

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Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806 - 1861)

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Elizabeth Barrett Browning was one of England's most famous poets. She provided strength to many women poets and writers. Her poetry reflected what it meant to be a woman poet while responding to social and political events during the Victorian era.

Browning states, "The poem is a portrait of the artist as a young woman committed to a socially inclusive realist art" (Norton Anthology 576).

Notable Poems:

Sonnet 43: How do I love thee? Let me count the ways (1850)

Aurora Leigh (1857)

The Cry of the Children (1843)

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Sonnet 43: How do I love thee? Let me count the ways ( 1850)

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Sonnet 43: How do I love thee? Let me count the ways ( 1850)

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Sonnet 43 portrays the speaker’s devotion to her husband. The speaker of the poem expresses her unwavering love for her spouse. She expresses to her beloved the depth of her love for him and the various ways she feels for him. She adores him with all of her soul, and she prays to God to enable her to continue to do so even after she is gone.

Browning explores subjects like love, loyalty, and relationships. One could categorize the poem as a love poem. She addresses Robert Browning, her husband, and says she loves him for various reasons, which she will then describe. At the poem’s conclusion, the theme of death is introduced when the speaker discusses how solid and long their love has been.

Literary Elements:

1. Speaker or Narrator, and Point of View. The speaker’s gender is never specified in the poem.

2. Form and Meter. The sonnet follows the Italian form as established by Petrarch.

3. Metaphors and Similes.

4. Alliteration and Assonance.

5. Irony.

6. Genre

7. Setting.

8. Tone.

The poem's meter is iambic pentameter with a rhyme scheme of ABBA ABBA CDC DCD.

The dominant figure of speech in the poem is anaphora—the use of I love thee in eight lines, and I shall but love thee in the final line. This repetition builds rhythm while reinforcing the theme. Browning also uses alliteration, as the following examples illustrate: thee, the (Lines 1, 2, 5, 9, 12).

A hyperbole is an exaggeration or an overstatement. This is hyperbole because you can't love someone with all of those things she is describing. She is just exaggerating. "I love thee freely, as men strive for right; I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise" (lines 7-8).

Browning also uses personification in the second and third lines. She says, “I love thee to the depth and breadth and height/My soul can reach when feeling out of sight“ (lines 2-3). Browning says that even when she cannot touch him with her hand or any part of her body, her soul will still reach him.

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Elizabeth Barrett-Browning's poem-novel Aurora Leigh, first published in 1856, divided critics, causing a stir in its stance on contemporary debates regarding class and gender.

Aurora Leigh is a combination of poetry and novel. Elizabeth Barrett Browning proceeds chronologically, from Aurora’s childhood in Italy to her triumph as a mature artist. The child of a British father and an Italian mother, who dies when Aurora is only four years old, she grows up bereft of maternal nurturing, which she pursues throughout her life. Her sorrowing father leaves Aurora to the care of a servant until his own death when she is thirteen. She is whisked away to “frosty” England, in contrast to the “green reconciling earth” of Italy, the latter country being, in all senses, her “motherland.” She is placed with her father’s sister, who lives a “caged life,” a life which, in turn, encases Aurora. Her education now emphasizes useless facts and accomplishments such as “spinning glass” and the need to be “womanly,” or submissive, as her aunt defines it. Aurora befriends her cousin, Romney Leigh, master of Leigh Hall, only a few years older than she. She escapes into her father’s stored library and discovers poetry, finding her life’s work by beginning to write poetry and to receive inspiration from England’s natural world.

Themes:

Woman as an Artist.

The Proper Subject Matter of Poetry.

Love or Art

The Fallen Woman

Nineteenth-Century Feminism

The "woman question" was an important topic of debate in Victorian England. Gender inequality in politics meant that women could not vote or hold office. Women's suffrage was advocated already in the 1840s but did not become law until 1918. Economically, married women had to give control of their property to their husbands until the Married Women's Property Acts of 1870—1908. The first college for women was not established until 1848, but by the end of the Victorian era, women could get degrees at twelve colleges, though not at Oxford or Cambridge. The Industrial Revolution brought thousands of lower-class women to the cities for factory jobs and showed the need for a changed attitude about women's work. Unfortunately, when reform of working conditions for poor women finally came, the argument was not for equality but that women were too frail to withstand the sixteen-hour day and other hardships. In the meantime, the reaction of Victorian society was to put further emphasis on the importance of the woman's role in the home.

Browning's Aurora Leigh is a representation and a critique of the Victorian era and the role of women.

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Alfred Tennyson became the most famous poet of the Victorian age. With royal patronage, his poetry helped define an era. In the Twentieth Century, his influence waned. "Tennyson was the most popular of poets; his works, from 1850 onward, occupied a significant space on the bookshelves of almost every family of readers in England and the United States" (Norton Anthology 604). His literary works are prevalent in today's society.

He was born August 6th, 1809, at Somersby, Lincolnshire; he was the fourth of twelve children. Despite having wealthy relatives, the Tennysons lived in relative poverty.

His family had a long history of minor mental illnesses. Several brothers had epilepsy, which in Victorian times was feared because it was challenging to treat. Also, under the influence of heavy drinking, his father grew increasingly mentally unstable and physically weak.

Notable Poems:

The Lady of Shallot (1832)

The Charge of the Light Brigade (1854)

Crossing the Bar (1889)

Locksley Hall (1842)

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Written in a simple style, The Lady of Shalott is a tragic story of a lady trapped between superstition, convention, and individual impulses. It is also a narrative about the difference between Art and Reality. The world of art, though self-sustaining, cannot be isolated from reality. Moreover, the force of convention is not absolute, and though the protagonist in the poem dies, the anticipation of her death is woven into the poem, and the ballad-like poem is a sad tale with a subtle comment on the social milieu in which the lady has lived out her prescribed existence.

The first thing you would enjoy about the poem is its rhythmic quality. The poem is divided into four sections. The first two sections have four stanzas each, and the second has slightly varying numbers. The use of alliteration adds to the musical quality of the poem. Along with the musical quality of the verse, the pictorial quality is also striking. This is followed by images from legend and history.

The most striking formal aspect of this poem is its remarkably vivid images. The Lady of Shalott was a favorite with Victorian painters and illustrators, who understandably delighted in picturing the crisis of the curse with its sprung tapestry and cracking mirror. Those images, and that of the lady’s funeral barge at the poem’s close, have been admired by many modern critics as early examples of poetic symbolism. While the magic mirror and tapestry belong to the machinery of legend and fairy tale, they seem more than props in Tennyson’s hands. The lady’s mirror, for example, reflects not only the outside world but also the condition of the lady as an outsider. The lady and the mirror capture images within frames, the mirror in its glass, the lady in her tapestry. This identification is pushed even further at the poem’s close when the lady is described as having a “glassy countenance” as she gazes toward Camelot. Having preferred realities to shadows, having rejected the mirror’s vision for her own, she becomes a mirror herself; her countenance now mirrors her coming death.

Tennyson uses the story and setting of The Lady of Shalott to explore Victorian attitudes toward sexuality and the cultural division of men and women. First, the division between the Lady of Shalott and the surrounding land mirrors the gendered separation of life and work that was common across many cultures throughout history and acutely defined during the Victorian era. Men like Lancelot and the reaper were allowed and expected to operate in the public sphere, while women were relegated to indoor duties. Men had great freedom, while women were expected to adhere to strict social norms. Through this lens, the Lady of Shalott’s castle is her home, and the "magic web with colors gay" (line 38); she weaves represents the private, domestic sphere and the duties, chores, and restrictions—the “curse”—assigned to women.

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Charge of the Light Brigade by Alfred Lord Tennyson is a historically significant poem that tells of the incredible bravery of the British cavalry during the Battle of Balaclava.

Alfred Lord Tennyson wrote The Charge of the Light Brigade in response to a battle wherein the British cavalry charged over open terrain in the Battle of Balaclava in the Crimean War (National Center). With six hundred and thirty-seven men, the British charged Russia in what Alfred Lord Tennyson saw as a suicidal charge.

Structure & Form:

The Charge of the Light Brigade by Alfred Tennyson is divided into six stanzas. The total number of lines in each stanza varies. There are a total of 55 lines in the poem. The shortest stanza is the last one. The short but energetic lines of the poem resemble the mode of military action. The poem's lines are swift in movement and try to imitate the rhythm of the battlefield. There are no specific rhyme schemes in the poem. However, some lines rhyme to resonate with the military atmosphere. Hence it is a blank-verse poem.

The metrical composition of the poem is also very odd. The poet mixes the trochaic and iambic meter in the poem. The metrical pattern of the poem reflects the sound of the military footstep. The poet uses short lines to intensify the sound of the poem.

Themes:

Patriotism. The theme of patriotism is the most crucial aspect of the poem. Six hundred cavaliers of the Light Brigade didn’t hesitate to die on the battlefield. They knew they were going into the “valley of death” (line 7), and there was no way to turn their backs. They had to accept defeat or fight till their last breath. Still, they were fearless. Though there was a mistake from the English side, the soldiers were not hesitant to move further. Such courage and conviction of heart reflect their love for the country. They were faithful patriotic souls that "Theirs but to do and die/Into the valley of Death/Rode the six hundred" (lines 15-17).

War. The theme of war is another part of the poem. Tennyson’s choice of words and military metaphors reflect the theme in the poem. However, the images depicting the battlefield incidents also reflect the poem’s proximity to the idea of war. The poet projects war as a glorifying chapter of his nation’s history.

Nationalism. The theme of nationalism is present in the last stanza of the poem. The poet tells the readers to “Honor the charge they made!" (53). The lines, “Cossack and Russian/ Reeled from the saber stroke/ Shattered and sundered" (34-36) invoke a sense of nationalism in the poem.

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According to the classicist Benjamin Jowett, Charles Dickens, "occupied a greater space than any other writer during his last thirty-five years" (Norton Anthology 707). His literary works, "to bring the transformation of the individual human heart and assert the values of hearth and home" (Norton Anthology 709).

Dickens was a moralist, satirist, and social reformer. Dicken's literary works are complex plots with striking characters that portray the Victorian era as they really were. Dickens's novels criticize the injustices of his time, especially the brutal treatment of the poor in a society sharply divided by differences of wealth, but he presents this criticism through the lives of characters that seem to live and breathe

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Ebenezer Scrooge is the protagonist, a miser and a very lonely old man. His former business partner, Jacob Marley, has been dead for seven years. The two men had built a reputation of being shrewd and merciless loan sharks in their community. Scrooge's timid clerk, Bob Cratchit, has several children at home and is very poor. Scrooge pays him very little and even begrudges giving him Christmas Day off.

Charles Dicken's tale is full of allegory, in which he builds a narrative structure in each stave that has a symbolic meaning criticizing the Victorian era and its ideology of basic human understanding in the treatment of others.

Additionally, Dickens incorporates figurative language and imagery to express his argument that Victorian society should change its mindsets about treating poor people unfairly. He presents poor families as hardworking and kind; however, through these poor families, Dickens presents the families that they are not poor because of their pure hearts. Instead, these families have been failed by an economic system that fosters inequality and inhumanity.

Themes:

The Importance of Kindness

The Impact on Choices

The Possibility of Redemption

Important Quotes:

Stave One

"I help to support the establishments I have mentioned: they cost enough, and those who are badly off must go there." "Many can't go there, and many would rather die." "If they would rather die," said Scrooge, "they had better do it and decrease the surplus population" (Dickens 714). The rich thought the poor should be poor.

The above passage illustrates how Victorian society showed the ill-treatment of the poor. Many children were orphans working in prisons or in "Union workhouses" at this time" (Dickens 713).  Also, the above passage illustrates the themes of A Christmas Carol because it was the Victorian society that made a choice against poor people.

Stave One

"God bless you merry gentleman! May nothing you dismay!"

The song's impact sends a significant message and supports Dicken's argument about the importance of kindness, generosity, and compassion.

Stave Three

"They are Man's" (Dickens 751).

The Ghose of Christmas Present was Scrooge's second chance at redemption for the ill-treatment of people and his cursed heart and soul. The above statement is Dickens criticizing Victorian society. The figurative language provides a picture to show Scrooge how his mindset is a part of Victorian society's mindset.

The Ghost of Christmas Present instructs Scrooge to look down at the bottom of his robe, and he sees two children. "Yellow, meagre, ragged, scowling, wolfish, but prostrate, too, in their humanity" (Dickens 750). Scrooge is shocked at what he sees. Scrooge asks the ghost, did the two children belong to him. The above quote is the ghost's response to Scrooge. The two children are the product of Victorian society. Their names are "Ignorance [boy's name] and Want [girl's name]" (Dickens 751). To further illustrate the treatment of the poor, the ghost stretches his hand toward the city to signify that many poor people are receiving ill treatment. "It stretches out its hand towards the city. "Slander those who tell it ye! Admit it for your factious purposes, and make it worse! And bide the end!" (Dickens 751).

The sending of Stave three is equally important because it references Stave one of the Victorian mindset through the eyes of Scrooge.

A Christmas Carol addresses how society has developed a mindset of ill form, which through Dickens, cannot happen if humanity has to exist. Dickens supports his argument that able individuals must support those less fortunate. The rich have a responsibility to aid the poor. In conclusion, Dickens shows the readers that everyone has the ability to change until death.

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There are many adaptations of Dickens A Christmas Carol. Watch the full movie on Netflix.com.

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SCROOGE: A CHRISTMAS CAROL (2022) movie trailer

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Robert Louis Balfour Stevenson (Robert Louis Stevenson) was one of the critically acclaimed authors from Scotland who was well known for writing some of the famous works based on the poetry, fiction, and travel genres. He was highly praised and celebrated as an author.

Stevenson, just like Charles Dickens, noticed how society did not care for the less unfortunate. He noticed that mankind possessed a darker side that would affect future generations. Stevenson's literary works are still relevant to today's society in expressing the good and evil that men can represent.

Notable Works:

Treasure Island (1883)

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1885)

The Master of Ballantrae (1889)

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The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1855)

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The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1855)

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"The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" reflects "the darker side of human nature and [Stevenson's] long-standing interest in the idea of a double life" (Norton Anthology 887).

Stevenson's novella tells the story of Dr. Jekyll, who produces a drug that allows Mr. Hyde, the evil side of his personality, to take control. The novella explores themes of supernaturalism, the duality of self, and the importance and consequences of public opinion.

Themes:

Supernaturalism: The novel is an example of supernatural fiction, focusing on metaphysical concerns and the struggle between good and evil. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is a fine example of supernatural fiction. Supernatural works focus on metaphysical concerns based on the need to understand the unknown and un-nameable. In primitive societies, the reality that could not be comprehended was explained through folktales and fables—the foundation for all supernatural works. In supernatural literature, at least one of the main characters goes against the laws of nature. The themes of these works revolve around good and evil, love and hate. One overriding impulse is to regain the universe's natural order, escape from the world of unknown terrors and return to everyday life. We, as readers, respond to these works with amazement, terror, or relief as the characters struggle to return to that natural order.

Identity: Dr. Jekyll is troubled by the duality of his nature and so transforms into the diabolical Mr. Hyde. Dr. Jekyll disturbs the natural order of the universe because he struggles to accept the dual nature of his identity throughout his life. He determines that all of us are plagued with this duality: "With every day, and for both sides of my intelligence, the moral and the intellectual, I thus drew steadily nearer to that truth, by whose partial discovery I have been doomed ... that man is not truly one, but truly two ... I hazard the guess that man will be ultimately known for a mere polity of multifarious, incongruous and independent denizens." (Stevenson 919-920). Additionally, Jekyll states, "It was on the moral side, and in my own person, that I learned to recognise the thorough and primitive duality of man..." (Stevenson 920).

Good and Evil: Stevenson's main focus in the novel is on the struggle between good and evil in Jekyll's soul. Jekyll confesses that in his full statement, "This, as I take it, was because all human beings, as we meet, are commingled out of good and evil: and Edward Hyde, alone in the ranks of mankind, was pure evil" (Stevenson 921). The passage represents what Stevenson saw in the late Victorian era, which significantly points to how humanity changed its perspective about how people should live within society. Also, the passage represents how the Victorian era was dying because of humanity's perspective.

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Oscar is a satirist, playwright, and poet. He was a famous literary figure in the late Victorian era. Wilde was "a critic of literature and of society" (Norton Anthology 931). For example, The Decay of Living, 1889, and The Soul of Man under Socialism, 1891, are his critique of late Victorian society.

Wilde's novel The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891) illustrates late Victorian society. Wilde ingeniously told the story of a handsome young man who went on an adventure of "sensual pleasures" (Norton Anthology 931). By the end of the story, we, the readers, discover how his portrait is hideous and gruesome. Wilde points out how humanity has a dual side. The portrait represents how Gray's soul is corrupted, which is a representation that Wilde saw in late Victorian society.

Notable Literary Works:

From The Critic as Artist (1890)

The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891)

The Importance of Being Earnest (performed 1895) published 1899

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Oscar Wilde's play criticizes late Victorian society about their guidelines of how people are supposed to conform and act in society. His "aim in writing it: "It has its philosophy...that we should treat all the trivial things in life seriously, and all the serious things of life with sincere and studied triviality" (Norton Anthology 941).

The play criticizes Victorian morals, beliefs, and social values. "The Importance of Being Earnest empties manners and morals of their underlying sense to create a nominalist world where earnest is not a quality of character, but a name" (Norton Anthology 942). Wilde's play sends a significant message to Victorian society to reinvent the wheel of social guidelines and morals.

Themes:

Morals and Morality:

Much of The Importance of Being Earnest's comedy stems from how various characters flaunt the moral strictures of the day without ever behaving beyond the pale of acceptable society. The use of the social lie is pervasive, sometimes carried to great lengths, as when Algernon goes "Bunbury [ing]" (Wilde 949)or Jack invents his rakish brother Earnest so that he may escape to the city.

Love and Passion:

One of Wilde's satiric targets is romantic and sentimental love, which he ridicules by having the women fall in love with a man because of his name rather than more personal attributes. Wilde carries a parody of romantic love to an extreme in the relationship between Algernon and Cecily, for she has fallen in love with him—and in fact, charted their entire relationship—before ever meeting him. She writes of their love in her diary, noting the ups and downs of their affair, including authoring love letters to and from herself.

Culture Clash:

The play's action is divided between the city and the country, London and the pastoral county of Hertfordshire. Traditionally, locations like these symbolize different attitudes toward life, contrasting, for example, the corruption of urban living with the simple bucolic pleasures of rural farm life. Jack says, "when one is in town one amuses oneself. When one is in the country one amuses other people. It is excessively boring" (Wilde 943). Wilde's symbolism does not adhere rigidly to audience expectations, however. Though Jack is more sedate in the country and festive in London, Cecily is far from the innocent she appears (and pretends to be around her guardian). The handling of her "affair" with Algernon/Earnest shows her to be as competent in romance as any city woman. The trait is seen again when Gwendolen visits. During their tiff over who gets Earnest (who they believe to be one man), Cecily holds her own and then some against her sophisticated city guest.

Freedom:

Jack and Algernon struggle to remain free of the restrictions of the Victorian convention. Jack maintains a double identity, being Jack in the country and Earnest in the city. Algernon achieves similar results by inventing an invalid named Bunbury, who constantly requires his attention. This similarity in Algernon and Jack's behavior also reveals the men's genuine relationship as brothers (further duality is indicated by their respective attractions to similar women, Gwendolen and Cecily).

The play The Importance of Being Earnest is a satirical look at the late Victorian era's guidelines on social value and how people should have the right to choose their own paths instead of following society's mindset of how life should be.

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The Victorian period ran mostly during Queen Victoria's rule from about 1837 to 1901. This period of literature is marked by change and even upheaval. Society was changing rapidly in terms of its technology, manufacturing, economy, and science. There was great inequality, which many authors focused on in their writing. Victorians also saw their role as encouraging society to fulfill a higher, more noble role in the larger world. Continue to the next section to learn more about Modern British Literature. Note the differences and reactions to the Victorian period, which became known as Modernism.

Modernism is a reaction to the previous Victorian period first and foremost. Modernism has a clear break with tradition, which was so important to Victorians. Writers could see the world moving away from the certainty of the Victorian era towards instability and the unknown.

Modernism is marked by experimentation and individualism. This came from the shocking reality of the Great War, World War I, which lasted from 1914 to 1918. WWI forced a more bleak perspective and left people struggling to understand how such horrors could take place.

Modernists turned from society to explore the individual, sometimes recording the workings of the mind, usually the dark workings. The modernist saw a sense of decay and growing alienation for individuals.

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A break from with tradition, which includes institutionalized religion, politics, cultural and social norms.

• Questioning the constructed world, absolute truth, etc.
• Expressing sense of alienation, loss, and despair.
• Individualism and illumination of inner strength.

The poets and authors in Modernism illustrated genuine feelings about the world around them. The pictures they painted produce a "realist" perspective of humanity's moral, beliefs, and traditions, especially during the wars country's faced.

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Notable Poets and Authors in British Literature during Modernism

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Notable Poets and Authors in British Literature during Modernism

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There are an array of British poets and authors who are Modernists.

Thomas Hardy (1840 - 1928):

Ah, Are You Digging on My Grave? (1914)

Joseph Conrad (1857 - 1924):

The Heart of Darkness (1899)

Wilfred Owen (1893 - 1918):

Dulce Et Decorum Est (Oct 1917 - Mar. 1918)

Disabled (Oct. 1917 - July 1918)

Una Marson (1905 - 1965)

They also Serve

Love Songs

Black Burden

Little Brown Girl

* -- Poems are published in Una Marson's Toward the Stars, February 1945
William Butler Yeats (1865 - 1939):

A Dialogue of Self and Soul (July-Dec 1927)

Virginia Woolf (1882 - 1941):

Professions for Women (1942)

T. S. Eliot (1888 - 1965):

The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock (1910-11)

The Waste Land (1921)

The Hollow Man (1924-25)

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Joseph Conrad was born Józef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski on December 3, 1857, in Berdichev (now Berdychiv). Conrad began his own literary career in 1895 by publishing his first novel, Almayer's Folly, an adventure tale set in the Borneo jungles. Before the turn of the century, he wrote two of his most famous and enduring novels. Lord Jim (1900) is the story of an outcast young sailor who comes to terms with his past acts of cowardice and eventually becomes the leader of a small South Seas country. Heart of Darkness (1902) is a novella describing a British man's journey deep into the Congo of Africa, where he encounters the cruel and mysterious Kurtz, a European trader who has established himself as a ruler of the native people there.

Lord Jim and Heart of Darkness contain the signature elements of Conrad's writing: faraway settings; dramatic conflicts between human characters and the brutal forces of nature; and themes of individualism, the violent side of human nature, and racial prejudice. Conrad was interested in showing "psycho-political" situations that drew parallels between the inner lives of single characters and the broader sweep of human history.

Conrad's work influenced numerous later 20th-century writers, from T. S. Eliot, Graham Greene, Virginia Woolf, and William Faulkner. His books have been translated into dozens of languages and are still taught in schools and universities. (Biography.com)

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Joseph Conrad Documentary - Biography of the life of Joseph Conrad

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Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness "probes the meaning of a gross failure of duty on the part of a romantic and idealistic young sailor" (Norton Anthology 1057). He illustrates "the complexity of experience and the difficulty of judging human actions" (Norton Anthology 1057). Also, Conrad develops multiple narrative strategies to show the "boundaries between civilization and barbarism" (Norton Anthology 1057).

Overview:

Heart of Darkness is a frame narrative in which Marlow relates the events of his trip up the Congo River to several other men.

Conrad tackles themes of imperialism and colonialism in the Heart of Darkness. Kurtz and Marlow are white outsiders benefiting from the exploitation and denigration of African natives. The language Conrad uses (including racial epithets) reinforces the evils and the inhumanity of colonialism.

Kurtz’s descent into madness comes after many years of imperialism, bringing out evils that might not otherwise have surfaced. His mental deterioration symbolizes the decay of Western civilization.

Themes:

Darkness: Marlow sees “darkness” in the practices of imperialism, though the book maintains the racist implication that the uncivilized land and people led to Europeans’ corruption.

Alienation and Loneliness: Kurtz’s isolation in a remote area contributes to his madness. Marlow’s experiences in Africa likewise cause him to feel alienated from other men.

Chaos and Order: Colonialism’s false sense of order is contrasted with the chaos of the ivory trade and of African society in general, as Marlow sees it.

Marlow’s journey is a symbolic quest into the dark heart of man. This bent toward evil, the concept of “original sin,” goes against the Enlightenment view that man in his heart is good, but society corrupts him. Conrad rejects this notion, stating that darkness lies in each of us. Given a certain set of circumstances and attitudes, an individual can—and will—be overcome by the darkness and the horror that was the final vision of Kurtz as he approached death.

Conrad’s pessimistic view is that civilization is weaker than darkness than evil. It will eventually be overcome, as Kurtz was in Africa. Kurtz thus becomes a cautionary tale, warning of this lurking evil, not in some foreign locale, but within the human heart of the most civilized creatures. Lastly, Conrad's Heart of Darkness is a personal experience of Conrad's journey through Africa. The story entails elements of modernism because we can see humanity's Heart of Darkness.

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Wilfred Owen, who wrote some of the best British poetry on World War I, composed nearly all of his poems in slightly over a year, from August 1917 to September 1918. In November 1918 he was killed in action at the age of 25, one week before the Armistice.

Wilfred Owen's poetry reflects an "emerging awareness of the poor's sufferings" (Norton Anthology 1117). His war poems reflect how horrific war was on humanity. He uses figurative language with imagery to show his experience with battle.

His poetry illustrates alliteration, assonance and rhyme to present the readers of what war is and can do to societies.

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Dulce Et Decorum Est (Oct. 1917 - Mar. 1918)

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Dulce Et Decorum Est (Oct. 1917 - Mar. 1918)

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Wilfred Owen's war poetry is compelling that illustrates the conditions of war. His poems describe war's effects on the men serving our country. We, as readers, get a personal perspective of the war from the trenches.

The poem Dulce et Decorum Est is a prominent anti-war poem written by Wilfred Owen about the events surrounding the First World War. Owen served as a Lieutenant in the War and felt the soldiers’ pain and the absolute truth behind war.

In the poem, he creates a hierarchical division of events. First, he discusses the general unwillingness of the soldiers who are facing the wrath of war to continue with the war. The soldiers are caught in a sudden gas attack, which forms a green sea, most probably chlorine gas. "As under a green sea, I saw him drowning" (line 14). Owen then moves on to depict the trauma the narrator suffers while he watches his fellow soldier succumb to the deadly gas poisoning and can do nothing. Finally, he makes an outstanding commentary on how the perspectives of people talking about war and the soldiers witnessing it differ.

Themes:

The Limitations of Patriotism

In Wilfred Owen’s time, most English schoolboys learned that war was glorious, as exemplified in the Latin phrase that gives the poem its title: “Dulce et decorum est / Pro patria mori,” a quotation from the Roman poet Horace which means that to die for one’s country is sweet and fitting. Owen’s imagery clarifies that war is anything but heroic, glorious, or sweet. It is degrading, turning young men into “beggars” (1) and “hags” (2) who limp along on bleeding feet. It is not brave, strong men meeting in honorable battle; instead, it is the impersonal horror of exploding canisters of lethal green nerve gas and dying men thrown onto wagons. We are shown the image of a man helplessly gasping for breath as his bloody lungs are shredded by gas, an image that haunts the speaker in his dreams.

"In all my dreams, before my helpless sight/He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning" (15-16). There is nothing noble in any of this. The imagery is shattering, showing war as a hideous nightmare.

The poem ends by stating that patriotic lies that glorify wars ultimately perpetuate them and lead to needless suffering and death. The speaker extends this truth to the audience throughout the final stanza, addressing readers as “you” and implying that they have either heard or repeated the lie that dying for one’s country is noble. Owen wants readers to know the truth and believes that if they truly understood the horrors of war, they would end the perpetuation of that “old Lie" (27).

The Realities of War

The poem’s speaker makes a desperate attempt to end the abhorrence of war by telling the truth about it. Many anti-war poets during World War I hoped that if people knew what modern warfare was really like, they would turn away from war and stop supporting it.

War is horrific and inhumane, killing innocents because major actors in the country want to be superior.

After the shock of this powerful imagery, Owen ends the poem with his message. The speaker informs “you” (21), either the reader or an individual person bent on expressing false ideas of the glory of war, that if they had seen war—which Owen has just let them glimpse—they would not repeat the lie that it is sweet or fitting. Owens implies that wars only happen because people lie about their reality. His poem is an attempt, to tell the truth.

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Una Maud Victoria Marson was a Jamaican-born feminist activist, poet, playwright, and radio programmer. Marson became acclaimed for her outspoken ideas about empowering black women, letting society know of their burdens and ordeals, and being proud of one's heritage.

Also, Marson was a prominent orator for many women's organizations in England, focusing on improving women's economic and social status in the West Indies. She illustrated a black feminist outlook "on the mainstream black internationalist discourse – but she also challenged white feminists to recognise the racism that Black women had to endure" (newint.org 2018).

Notable Works:

Toward the Stars (1945)

Pocomania (1938)

Caribbean Voices (radio broadcast)

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The above illustration reflects Una Marson's poetry in Toward the Stars (1945). Marson's poetry collection reflects British society in times of war, reflecting the human perspective or the "realness" of humanity's worldview. Her poetry reflects on the role of women, which was a never-ending struggle to make the world realize that women are just as equal as men.

They also Serve

The poem consists of six stanzas, with Marson's incorporating figurative language and imagery that paints a picture representing the war. The effects of war affected all of humanity from different perspectives. Line 4, "And they didn't care," represents how draining battle can be. Stanza two shows how the soldiers did not care about the world around them. "About war or hate or women/About guns and bombs and blast" (5-6).

Themes:

The Realism of War

The Effects of War

The role of Women during War

Love's Poetry

The poem represents a sonnet. It has a lyrical element that surrounds the theme of love. Also, the poem has a romantic presence of it. Marson incorporates allusion, personification (giving"love") a human quality, and metaphors of love. Marson uses imagery to convey that love is important to humanity. "Will you be the world's beloved/And I the world's lover?" (lines 1-2).

Little Brown Girl

The poem represents how Marson felt being a woman of color in England. We, as readers, can immediately feel the emotions Marson is conveying. Every line conveys Marson's message about black women in a white world. The speaker asks, "Why do you wander alone" (line 2). The second stanza represents how the girl feels walking in a society that predominately illustrates how the white community has power over people of color. "Their white, white city/" (10). Overall, Marson is sending a significant message that black women should not be treated with inequality because of the color of their skin.

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Analyzing the Victorian Era and the Modernism Era. The poetry, plays, and novella illustrate how British literature is essential to showing how prevalent humanity progressed in their thinking of the world around them. There is a shift from living by morals, social standards, traditions, and beliefs as a collective to individualism and having the right to life as one deems, including the role of women within society. Also, the authors, poets, and playwrights illustrated the shift via their literary works. We, as readers, can link how we (the community today) have our perspectives because it is connected through literature.

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"The Victorian Age." The Norton Anthology: English Literature 10th Ed. The Major Authors. Vol. 2. 2019. Print. 1015-1045.

"Elizabeth Barrett Browning." The Norton Anthology: English Literature 10th Ed. The Major Authors. Vol. 2. 2019. Print. 575-577.

Browning, Elizabeth Barrett. Sonnet 43: How do I love thee? The Norton Anthology: English Literature 10th Ed. The Major Authors. Vol. 2. 2019. Print. 582.

Browning, Elizabeth Barrett. From Aurora Leigh. The Norton Anthology: English Literature 10th Ed. The Major Authors. Vol. 2. 2019. Print. 589-603.

"Alfred, Lord Tennyson." The Norton Anthology: English Literature 10th Ed. The Major Authors. Vol. 2. 2019. Print. 604-607.

Tennyson, Alfred Lord. The Lady of Shalott. The Norton Anthology: English Literature 10th Ed. The Major Authors. Vol. 2. 2019. Print. 609-614.

Tennyson, Alfred Lord.  The Charge of the Light Brigade. The Norton Anthology: English Literature 10th Ed. The Major Authors. Vol. 2. 2019. Print. 678-679.

"Charles Dickens." The Norton Anthology: English Literature 10th Ed. The Major Authors. Vol. 2. 2019. Print. 707-709.

Dickens, Charles. "A Christmas Carol." The Norton Anthology: English Literature 10th Ed. The Major Authors. Vol. 2. 2019. Print. 710-766.

Stevenson, Robert Louis. "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde." The Norton Anthology: English Literature 10th Ed. The Major Authors. Vol. 2. 2019. Print. 887-930.

"Oscar Wilde." The Norton Anthology: English Literature 10th Ed. The Major Authors. Vol. 2. 2019. Print. 930-932.

Wilde, Oscar. "The Importance of Being Earnest." The Norton Anthology: English Literature 10th Ed. The Major Authors. Vol. 2. 2019. Print. 941-985.

Conrad, Joseph. "Heart of Darkness." The Norton Anthology: English Literature 10th Ed. The Major Authors. Vol. 2. 2019. Print. 1058-1117.

"Wilfred Owens." The Norton Anthology: English Literature 10th Ed. The Major Authors. Vol. 2. 2019. Print. 1117-1118.

Owens, Wilfred. Dulce Et Decorum Est. The Norton Anthology: English Literature 10th Ed. The Major Authors. Vol. 2. 2019. Print. 1121.

"Remembering Una Marson: Black Feminist Pioneer." (October 2018). New Internationalist. https://newint.org/features/2018/10/30/remembering-una-marson-black-feminist-pioneer#:~:text=%E2%80%98Marson%20provided%20a%20black%20feminist%20spin.

Marson, Una. Towards the Stars. chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/http://ufdcimages.uflib.ufl.edu/UF/00/07/73/96/00001/MarsonTowardstheStars.pdf.

References:
"Joseph Conrad." April 2014. Biography.com https://www.biography.com/writer/joseph-conrad.