MARY SHELLEY (1797-1851)

She was born in 1797 and died in 1851, she lived during the Victorian Age and was a Victorian novelist. Mary was the daughter of a
radical philosopher, who strongly believed in education for girls and gathered intellectual meetings. Mary was exposed to the
most up-to-date and important works of her time, indeed she read a lot and grew up surrounded by the radical contemporary
ideas of the Victorian Age, and she perfectly knew romantic poets, such as Byron, Coleridge, and Blake. She fell in love with Percy
Shelley, an admirer of her father, and they eloped even though he was already married. They traveled throughout Europe
(Switzerland, France, Italy). In 1816 when she was in Italy she met Lord Byron. Between them grew a strong friendship based on
esteem for one another, she even preferred his work over her husband’s. Byron also admired her capacity to write and proposed
she write a ghost story, which will be published anonymously in 1818 as Frankenstein. At first, her husband suggested they put his
name under Frankenstein, and when he died she could put her name. For the rest of her life, she continued to write novels, but
none were as revolutionary as Frankenstein.

FRANKENSTEIN: the modern Prometheus, Mary Shelley, 1818

Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus was published anonymously in 1818, though Mary Shelley had written it in 1816. Its story
has always been immensely popular, so much so as to be considered one of the few true modern myths and to be constantly
retold in several variants in both books and films.
Frankenstein is a Romantic version of the ancient dream of creating artificial life and can be defined both as a philosophical
romance and a Gothic tale. Its lasting appeal comes mainly from two factors: the Romantics' interest in the effects of science on
men and the horrific and macabre elements of Gothic tales.
- Of the tale of terror, Mary Shelley's novel possesses emotional language and an atmosphere of suspense and danger.
- It differs from many Gothic novels because it ignores certain features - castles and medieval or exotic trappings - and
substitutes science for the supernatural. Because of the way in which it treats the theme of scientific research and its
ethical implications, Frankenstein is also considered the forerunner of science fiction.
This novel is revolutionary because of the concepts at the base of its invention:
- the ethical implication of scientific research: it is deeply influenced by the scientific discoveries of that time thanks to
Galvanism (science that thought that discovered biological electricity, i.e. contraction of a muscle stimulated by an
electrical current);
- isolation of individuals by society → concept of the outcast, felt deeper by Mary Shelley due to her being a woman;
- modern and gothic horror.
→ Prometheus stole fire from Olympus and gave it to humans in order to allow evolution and progress.

Summary
Frankenstein was the doctor, and Shelley called him the modern Prometheus, he is a brilliant scientist consumed by the ambition
of creating life from inanimate matter. He succeeds in giving life to a human-looking frame put together out of dead men's organs
by means of electric shocks. The doctor is frightened by his own creation, so the monster runs away. He later reappears in the
Swiss Alps, where he finds that all the people he comes across reject him because of his monstrous appearance. This enrages him
and sets him on a path of revenge against mankind. He kills Frankenstein's little brother, his best friend, and his wife. The doctor
feels obliged to sail to the North Pole to seek out and kill the monster, but it is the monster who mortally wounds the doctor,
accusing his creator and the rest of mankind of lacking compassion towards him, and thus pushing him toward his murderous
course. The monster then leaps from the ship onto an ice raft which is soon borne away by the Arctic sea.
→ The novel is left with an open ending.

Analysis
This creature represents the willingness to go beyond the limits of science, as in The strange case of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde. It is the
monster's own story of how he became a murderer after being rejected by men. Here he is speaking to his creator, Dr
-_creature's words show his desperate need for human friendship, "not be so desolate in this peopled earth". He
Frankenstein. The
is obsessed with this idea, to the point of taking the extreme resolution of kidnapping a child as his companion. His frustration at
being repulsed by the child, as by all men, is so great as to turn him into a murderer: the outcast of society in the end becomes a
monster in more than a physical sense.
The story can be read in two ways:
- On the one hand, Dr. Frankenstein is a scientifically updated version of Faust (+ Modern Myths, Faust, p. 146). He wants to
overcome man's limitations and acquire a God-like power over physical matter, taking life into his own hands.
- On the other hand, the monster created by Frankenstein is a symbol of the Romantic concern for the isolation of the
individual by society. In this sense, the monster is the scientific counterpart of many dark Romantic heroes: outcasts of
society who suffer through no specific fault of their own.
Frankenstein is told in the first person by three different non-omniscient narrators:
- the first part is in the epistolary form: an English explorer to the Arctic, Robert Walton, writes to his sister in England
telling her how he has saved a Swiss scientist, Dr. Frankenstein;
 - then Frankenstein himself tells the story of his life and experiments: this is an autobiographical account; within
Frankenstein's narration a report by the monster himself is inserted, which explains the reasons for his 'monstrous'
behavior;
- The narration is concluded by Walton again, again in epistolary form.

Interpretations
- It is a romantic novel;
- It is devoted to the idea of artificial life, galvanism, and electroshock;
- It deals with the romantic interest of the implication of science in human life (anatomy, drugs, bioethics);
- It includes gothic elements: horror, macabre, body parts.
- Shelley modernizes the Faustian dream by using science → she wants to overcome men's limitations, and go beyond
death to acquire the power to give life;
- There 2 romantic heroes:
1. The creature is the typical romantic hero, isolated and rejected by society.
2. Frankenstein wants to overcome the limits and the creature that represents isolation. The creature
suffers isolation and solitude for a sin that he didn’t commit, that's why it's so romantic.

VICTORIAN AGE (1837-1901)

Queen Victoria reigned for about one century, during which there were a lot of problems and historical events, which she
promoted or fought against. She was born in 1837 and died in 1901. She became Queen at 18, in a difficult period. It was full of
political riots that came from France (for the Enlightenment ideals). With her, England became an Empire because they needed
more land and resources and felt the need to export English civilization.
The Industrial Revolution took place under Queen Victoria. This meant the triumph of industry in society, making the rural areas
deserted, because people moved from the countryside to the cities hoping for a better life causing overcrowded, filthy, and ugly
towns.
In this period there was free trade, leaving out protectionism, the Queen understood and encouraged this type of trade because it
brought real prosperity to England. For this reason, the Middle Class, also called the Bourgeoisie, was born. Self Made men were
part of the middle class because they became wealthy owning the factories and with the profits they opened banks, which were a
novelty for the period. They focused on the flourishing of the economy but didn’t look out for the other side of things.
During the Victorian era, there was the first international exhibition of London, which was promoted by the Queen’s husband,
Prince Albert. They showed up-to-date discoveries from all over Europe (such as the Steam Engine, with which they discovered
that everything can work with steam, trains, and machinery..). With this exhibition, Britain became the leading country from a
political and economic pov, and the Queen felt the right for Britain to become an empire. She followed the changes of the reign
and the reforms. For example, she signed three reform bills:
- The first was in 1832 that satisfied only the middle class and not the working class, and its poor conditions carried on.
- In 1838 the chartists, the largest organized workers' movement, so called because they drew up a People's Charter (1838),
asked for the extension of the right to vote to the working class only accepted in 1867, but miners and farmers couldn’t
vote still.
- These were finally granted franchise (i.e., the right to vote in an election) with a third Reform Bill (1884), by which suffrage
was extended to all male workers.

There was a definition of social roles:

- The Working class begins to claim rights in terms of work
- The Middle class
- The aristocracy was divided into more sections, because some wanted to follow the time-making trade, and the ancient
aristocracy remained snobbish towards the bourgeoisie, roofed in the feudal system, which is about to disappear.

Life in workhouses
Workhouses took in jobless people, children who were orphans or abandoned, old people, the disabled, and the physically or
mentally sick if they had no one to provide for them. They were usually very big institutions and they were asked to provide
accommodation, food, clothing, doctors and medicine, work and wages, education and training. The officials of the workhouse
were the Master, or the Matron, who was assisted by the school teacher, the vicar, the doctor, and a porter.
Buildings were custom-made or adapted to include all the facilities within their walls including a dining room, separate wings for
men, women, and children, kitchens, school rooms, hospital wards, and a chapel. There were often gardens and small farms
attached to make them as self-sufficient as possible.
On paper, the workhouse seemed like a good solution to the problem of the destitute but in practice they became known as
places of abuse and misery. Families were split up and could be punished if they tried to make contact. Everybody was made to
wear a uniform and to conform to regulations which were very strict and could include rules such as silence during mealtimes.
Punishments for breaking rules were harsh and humiliating.
The workday was long and the type of work was hard, repetitive, and soul-destroying. For example, the inmates would make
postal sacks, break stones, crush bones, or drive the corn mill on a treadwheel. Children were often sold to work as pauper
apprentices in factories or mines which effectively made them the property of the owner.
The food was strictly limited and living conditions were often unhealthy, overcrowded, and inhuman.
- The education the children received did not always include reading and writing meaning that any chance of bettering
themselves through education and a good job was impossible.
- Living conditions for workers were often intolerable. Reports from the period describe families cramped into dirty
single-room dwellings with very little furniture, forced to share a bed.
- Drinking water was polluted with sewage which flowed in open drains down the middle of narrow alleyways.
- The poorest lived in cellar homes, the lowest floor of a house, partly underground, which was rife with dampness and
flooded frequently.
- Sometimes animals such as geese and pigs shared the living space with their owners.
The poor endured terrible conditions. The new Poor Law of 1834 was far from being a solution to the problem: the poor were
amassed in workhouses that closely resembled jails (where they did very unpleasant jobs in return for food and shelter) and
conditions were appalling. In large cities, urban slums became synonymous with the Industrial Revolution. The filth, misery, and
moral degradation of the workers' dwellings is evidenced by different sources such as contemporary newspaper reports, essays,
novels, paintings, and engravings.

Science
*New scientific discoveries with Charles Darwin (Evolution Theory).
Developing knowledge in anatomy and physiology, they started doing autopsies. But there is a dark side because they needed
bodies, so people living in the slums started to disappear and their bodies were “donated” to science.

Social reforms
During the Victorian Age several important social reforms were carried out. The most important, besides the Reform Bills, which
extended the right to vote too much of the male middle class, were:
- the Mines Act (1862), which forbade the employment of women and children in mines;
- the Emancipation of religious sects (1871), which allowed Catholics to hold government jobs and to enter the universities
of Oxford and Cambridge;
- the Trade Union Act (1875), which legalized the activities of the unions of workers. The unions grew steadily and came to
play an important role in determining internal policy.

Victorian compromise = the negative side was to be hidden from the world, whereas the nice side was to be shown off.

VICTORIAN COMPROMISE
In our time the term Victorian suggests an idea of prudishness - extreme propriety, often hypocritical, in behavior or speech, and
especially with regards to sexual matters. In fact, many of the less pleasant sides of the Victorians were inherited from the
previous age and did not disappear after Victoria's death.
Others were derived from the philosophical and social theories of the time. Utilitarian philosophers, especially Jeremy Bentham
(1748-1832), claimed that everything had to be judged according to standards of utility and how much it promoted the material
happiness of the greatest number of people. However, this led to unrestrained competition and exploitation of human and natural
resources. The Victorian establishment refused to admit the existence of a materialistic philosophy of life, trying to cover the
unpleasant aspects of progress under a veil of respectability and facile optimism. This was the so-called Victorian Compromise.
The outward strictness of Victorian morals and behavior was, however, inconsistent with what was actually happening in society.
The upper and middle classes, for example, could not tolerate the word leg spoken in polite society - both women's and table legs
were covered with long skirts - but didn't care about the social conditions that pushed thousands of women into prostitution. As
the century advanced, Victorian moral standards began to break down. This was particularly true of the family, which had been
the stronghold of Victorian respectability. Women felt more and more stifled being confined to the home most of the time and
some writers began to expose the fundamental hypocrisy of Victorian society.

THE EARLY VICTORIAN NOVEL

The leading genre
For the first time in literary history, the novel became the leading genre. It reflected the practical bent of the age, the new social
and economic developments, scientific discoveries, and the ethical problems raised by the Industrial Revolution. Novels were
commonly read aloud by well-to-do families, especially in the evenings after dinner.
Public readings were also common among the lower class, where larger groups listened to the best reader in the group. The
novelist clearly had to avoid topics that could cause embarrassment to the ladies or the children present in the audience.
The writers' compromise
Generally speaking, Victorian readers expected to be instructed and at the same time to be entertained. Novelists were
conditioned by their readers' expectations and so they clearly show both the desire to please and the fear of shock. This explains
why early Victorian novels present conformity to accepted moral standards together with great liveliness.

Technical features of the early Victorian novel

The general tendency of the period was toward mild realism. The characters of the novel tended to be acceptable to the majority
of readers, and identification on the part of the public was mainly in terms of comedy (especially Dickens' characters) or the
drama of passion (especially the Brontë sisters' heroines). Narrators were generally omniscient, at different levels: the narrator in
Dickens, for example, is usually a companion to the reader, and shows sound common sense; in Charlotte Brontë, it is a
passionate deeply-involved first-person narrator. Emily Brontë, however, is a notable exception since in Wuthering Heights she
makes use of three different narrators involving a shifting point of view.

CHARLES DICKENS (1812-1870)

He's one of the most popular English authors, he was born in 1812. He hadn’t had a happy childhood because his father was sent
to prison for debts, so Charles was sent to workhouses at 12.
All these experiences were a source of inspiration for his novels, he became popular in his own period, and he was appreciated
because he mentioned for the first time the dark side of Victorian compromise: prostitution, children labor, poverty, the role of
education that wasn’t education for the lower classes, and for the first time the injustice subdued by the working class.
His characters were children because he had lived in those situations, and children were considered the weakest link of the
Victorian and social system because they were orphans or abandoned, so he wanted to expose this situation and put them under
the limelight.
He was always by the side of his poor characters. His novels had also a didactical role, he wanted poverty to emerge in order to be
sold, and he wanted the middle class and aristocracy to be aware of these situations. His contemporaries accuse him of touching
untouchable themes of their time, for example in Oliver Twist he is accused of talking about criminality, and in a state that works
well, there isn’t criminality.
Dickens' language is advanced, accurate, presided, and affected, he is colored in describing his stories. He chose carefully
adjectives and images, he uses irony, the willing character is always characterized by irony, and for this reason, he is considered
the greatest novelist of English literature.

OLIVER TWIST (1837-1839, full book in 1838)

Oliver Twist, in full Oliver Twist; or, The Parish Boy’s Progress, novel by Charles Dickens, published serially under the pseudonym
“Boz” from 1837 to 1839 in Bentley’s Miscellany and in a three-volume book in 1838. The novel was the first of the author’s works
to realistically depict the impoverished London underworld and to illustrate his belief that poverty leads to crime.
Oliver Twist was very popular when it was first published, partially because of its scandalous subject matter. It depicted crime and
murder without holding back—causing it, in Victorian London, to be classed as a Newgate novel (named after Newgate Prison in
London). While critics often condemned such novels as immoral, the public usually enjoyed them. Because the novel was also
published serially, the anticipation of waiting for the next installment (and its many cliffhangers) also likely contributed to its
popularity.
Oliver Twist is endangered throughout the novel, he is an orphan and the novel beginning is indeed about the child entering a
workhouse. He is starving, so he gets away from the workhouse, because the guardian of the workhouse wants to sell him to a
chimney-sweeper. Once Oliver gets to London, he is completely exhausted and meets the crime which lies in London, he enters a
group of young pickpockets controlled by Fagin, the chief. Oliver also meets Nancy, a prostitute, who lives with Sikes, the very
villain, because he will kill that woman.
Then there is Mr. Monks, a wealthy middle-class man, who wants to adopt Oliver, but Fagin doesn’t want to and so kidnaps Oliver,
who is then helped by Nancy to rejoin Mr. Monks. In the end Sikes kills Nancy in a moment of anger.
Oliver Twist also presents a racial issue:
Fagin is a jew, often represented with gold in his hands (a racial jewish stereotype). In the first edition of the Novel he is always
called “the Jew”, also physically he is described according to the jew racial stereotype.
However, in the last edition Dickens reduces the times he used this name, because of some accusations from the jewish
community.

DAVID COPPERFIELD
David's mother who he loves very much dies, leaving the young boy in the care of his stepfather, Mr. Murdstone. Murdstone is a
rigid and cruel disciplinarian who cares nothing for David. He soon turns the boy out of his house, sending him to work in a
bottling warehouse in London. Here his landlord is Mr. Micawber who will be a true friend to the last. David suffers terribly in the
factory and runs away in search of his long-lost Aunt Trotwood who lives in Dover. She accepts David into her care and his life
begins to improve. He attends a good school and then finds work in a respectable firm. He falls in love with the beautiful, naïve
and impractical Dora Spenlow who he marries and he begins to experiment with writing as a career. Dora dies of an illness but
David eventually remarries, finding true happiness with Agnes Wickfield, who has long been his friend and confidante but who
now becomes his soul-mate.

HARD TIMES
Hard Times is the story of Thomas Gradgrind and his family. The setting is the imaginary Coketown, an industrial town inspired by
Preston in the north of England. Gradgrind is a wealthy, retired merchant who puts his faith in facts, statistics, rationality, and
practicality. He treats his oldest children, Louisa and Tom, according to these utilitarian values and opens a school in the town to
be run in the same way. He makes Louisa marry his friend, Josiah Bounderby, who is much older than her but a successful
businessman and banker.
James Harthouse, a wealthy young sophisticate from London, arrives in Coketown to begin a political career but he immediately
takes an interest in Louisa and decides to try to seduce and corrupt her. He asks Louisa to run away with him - she seems to agree
but instead returns to her father to tell him how she feels and how he has destroyed her life. Gradgrind is filled with self-reproach
and begins to reform. He gives up his 'philosophy of fact 'and devotes his political power to helping the poor.

CHARLOTTE BRONTË (1816-1855)

Charlotte Brontë, (born April 21, 1816, Thornton, Yorkshire, England—died March 31, 1855, Haworth, Yorkshire), English novelist
noted for Jane Eyre (1847), a strong narrative of a woman in conflict with her natural desires and social condition. The novel gave
new truthfulness to Victorian fiction. She later wrote Shirley (1849) and Villette (1853).

JANE EYRE (1847)

Jane Eyre highlights the concept of the women of the period, they couldn't have their own identities → Jane Eyre and Wuthering
Heights were published under male names.
Jane Eyre was an artist, the author underlines Jane's poor origines, but she underlines her creativity (during Victorian Age women
couldn't have their own identity, a woman couldn't be exceptional in her skills, an exceptional woman was suspicious, a woman
shouldn't have her own history).
Jane Eyre is the first Bildungsroman from a female point of view.
The plot develops throughout many episodes, where Jane is the main character, Mr. Rochester is the man she falls in love with
and he has the typical gothic characteristics (he hides something, he disappears and he has villain characteristics, although he is
not a villain, he is just a victim of the system).
Mr. Rochester is married to Bertha, a creole woman. With the character of Bertha, it is explained the theme of colonialism and Mr.
Rochester was forced to marry her because she was really rich and since she was creole, she was more passionate and that's why
she is considered mad (her madness is created by the mixture in her blood). Bertha is the representation of what must be hidden
according to the Victorian compromise because she can't be controlled. Bertha is discovered because of a series of strange events
at the beginning of the novel: Jane hears laughing in the night, one night she helps Rochester escape his room, which was on fire
because Bertha wanted to kill him. Jane discovers about Bertha when she was about to marry Rochester and Bertha's uncle from
Madeira (an important place for the sugar trade and it was a step for the slavery trade) arrived and stopped everything. Bertha is
totally an outcast, she has no voice, readers hear her just laughing or screaming. At the beginning, Jane is a young woman
unconscious of herself, but throughout the story she finds herself and her role in society. She is described as an anonymous and
reserved girl, but in this way she attracts Mr. Rochester. She is a woman who works to live, she works as a tutor for Rochester's
daughter, who was born from an illegitimate relationship (hypocrisy of the Victorian compromise). Blanche is a typical aristocratic
Victorian woman, who wants to marry Rochester and he pretends to be in love with her because she is rich and he wants to hide
his love for Jane.
Jane and Mr. Rochester's relationship develops through their dialogues.
The English misty moor plays an important role in the story. → Emily Brontë and Charlotte Brontë came from a small village on the
wild and desolate Yorkshire Moors, a romantic setting that had a significant influence in their works.
In Jane Eyre there is an omniscient narrator, readers are led by it and they know more about the story than Jane herself: this
technique creates anxiety and suspense.
Rochester's house could be seen as a consciousness, the attic where Bertha lives is its most unconscious part.

OSCAR WILDE (1854-1900)

He was one of the great exponents of Aestheticism, a movement that spread in the late 19th Century in Europe and involves
different kinds of art. Aesthetists believed that beauty was the purpose of life, and that art was the means to reach it. They didn’t
partake in social or political issues and had no moral values. There was a beginning of Aestheticism with Coleridge and Byron.
Wilde was the most important among the others because he made his own life a piece of art by living as a dandy. He did what was
immoral and unproductive, that is he didn’t work. He thought that working was a waste of time, and thought that the ugliness of
the society was caused by its attachment to work.
He was a controversial figure. He was contrasted for his way of life (he was homosexual) and had to face some trials. He was
accused of being a passive sodomite and was sentenced to jail and labor until 1903.
With his works, he contrasted the Industrial Revolution system. Other intellectuals didn’t like his attitude, he didn’t hide his
rebellious behavior, but he flaunted it.
His work The Picture of Dorian Gray mirrors Wilde’s attitude towards the world; they were equally perverted.
(→ themes of Dorian gray = eternal beauty, victorian compromise). Wilde engages in many cultural fields, therefore he is attacked
by his contemporaries. (The importance of being earnest).

THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY (1890)

The fundamental theme of the novel The Picture of Dorian Gray is the deep desire to obtain and preserve eternal youth.
Dorian Gray abandons himself to a life full of luxury, lust, and corruption, proclaiming an indifference to the social and moral
themes. However, at the end of the story, he exhibits a deep morality explaining that there is a price to pay in order to live a life of
pleasures.

The picture of Dorian gray. The originality is being and remain young and beautiful apart from the crime, murder and immorality he
does. We find the esthetic themes of beauty as the purpose of life, he wants t be eternally beautiful. The second theme is Victorian
compromise, his portrait is awful, old, creeped by the horrible things he did in his life, same concept of doctor jackil and mr hide.
Good facade and hidden depravated private life.