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. 

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.

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.

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. 

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 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:

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.

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.

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.

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)

Themes:

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.

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.

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.