The long and winding road
The Enlightenment
also called
the Age of Reason
or
the Augustan Age
Defoe
Robinson Crusoe
1719
objectivity
realistic description
of reality
importance given to facts rather than feelings
The Victorian Age
Romanticism
Victorian society is criticised
The Preface
to Lyrical ballads
1800
realistic description of the society of the time
novels published in instalments
Daffodils
nature
imagination
feelings
improbable coincidences
flat characters
suspense
eventful plots
Sonnet composed
upon Westminster Bridge
I want some more
emotions recollected
in tranquillity
peace
and tranquillity
solitude
Oliver Twist 1837
autobiographical elements
My heart leaps up
pantheism
childhood
ordinary world
simplicity of language
comic effects
humour
Use of irony and melodrama
Wordsworth
the moral: the rich should help the poor
symbolism
loneliness
nature
Victorian education
utilitarianism
sublime
imagination
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
Lyrical ballads
1798
supernatural
Dickens
What is a horse?
Hard Times 1854
a ballad
willing suspension of disbelief
the dark hero
pantheism
Coleridge
Romantic features
a Romantic setting
sublime
horror
gothic novel
realism
the creation of the monster
a gothic novel
Mr Rochester: a dark hero
prejudice
science fiction
feelings
Jane and John fight
the dark hero
society as corruptive
Jane is not the typical Victorian woman dependent on men; she is a strong independent woman
the creature's request
Frankenstein
1819
the overcoming of human limits
the ethical problems
of science
Jane Eyre 1847
Victorian morality
Jane's personality is partially Romantic and partially Victorian
the creature's final farewell to his creator
Mary Shelley
Mr Rochester begs Jane to stay with him
Victorian sense of duty
Victorian tendency to master feelings
with reason
Charlotte Brontë
the aim of art is just beauty
art for art's sake
Aestheticism
The preface to
the Picture of Dorian Grey
art is useless
morality or didacticism is not the aim of art
beauty is artificial
a gothic novel
the faustian influence
the importance of sensations
The Picture of Dorian Grey 1890
Dorian expresses his wish
the scandal
aphorisms
the dandy
wit and humour
the pun in the title. earnest Ernest
a farce with a very complicated plot and improbable coincidences
I was found in a bag
he criticizes the hypocrisy of Victorian society
The Importance of being Earnest 1895
Oscar Wilde
The twentieth century
Modernism
indirect interior monologue
sense of duty
fear of the unknown
Eveline
Dubliners 1914
paralysis
epiphany
the stream of consciousness
symbolism
the use of mythology
direct interior monlogue
Joyce
Molly's monologue
Ulysses 1922
a satire of the Russian revolution
an allegorical satirical fable
Snowball is chased
power corrupts
Animal farm 1946
dystopian novels
a nightmarish world
against dictatorships
Winston Smith comes back home
Winston Smith: an anti-hero
Nineteen-eighty-four
Nineteen-eighty-four 1948
Newspeak
Orwell
the Theatre of the Absurd
lack of plot
desolate setting
no characterization for the protagonists
charming spot
metaphorical meaning
lack of certainties
aimless existence
difficulty of communication
give me a carrot
Waiting for Godot 1952
monotony of human life
difficulty of understanding reality
Godot: a mysterious name
pull up your trousers
Beckett
a circular structure
a tragi-comedy
humour
tragic situation