Three Eras: Enlightenment, Romantic, and Victorian

Enlightenment increasing empiricism scientific rigor increasing questioning of religious orthodoxy Rationalism Logic over tradition

Blake Songs of experience Song of innocence Pastoral ideology

Swift Modest Proposal – Social satire Gulliver’s Travels satire of society as created in parts 1,2 and 4 parody of the travel narrative

Romantic poets – individualism – the natural world – idealism – physical and emotional passion – interest in the mystic and supernatural – Common man – Freedom and revolution – opposition to the order and rationality of classical and neoclassical artistic

Mutability Percy Bysshe Shelley, We are as clouds that veil the midnight moon; How restlessly they speed, and gleam, and quiver, Streaking the darkness radiantly!—yet soon Night closes round, and they are lost for ever: Or like forgotten lyres, whose dissonant strings Give various response to each varying blast, To whose frail frame no second motion brings One mood or modulation like the last. We rest.—A dream has power to poison sleep; We rise.—One wandering thought pollutes the day; We feel, conceive or reason, laugh or weep; Embrace fond woe, or cast our cares away: It is the same!—For, be it joy or sorrow, The path of its departure still is free: Man’s yesterday may ne’er be like his morrow; Nought may endure but Mutability.

What is a Byronic Hero? Charismatic characters with strong passions and beliefs Act in ways which are contrary to mainstream society Tend to be fearless and volatile in their emotions and behavior Mostly a handsome male Own philosophy which he will not change Has internal conflicts that are romanticized Broods over his struggles and beliefs

Victorian Era Marked as an age of peace and economic growth Victoria becomes queen of England, 1837 Voter rights in England are expanded to any man with land worth 10 pounds or more. Due to rapid urbanization and industrialization, English people called for reforms to unsafe living and working conditions. Violent rallies called for fair food prices and votes for ALL people Due to trade, food prices did eventually drop and the diet of most English people improved. Factory acts limited child labor; reducing the working day to ten hours

Vocabulary Sustenance – Nourishment; provisions

Vocabulary Glut – Surfeit; overabunance

Vocabulary deference – Respect; high regard

Vocabulary Scrupulous – Meticulous; detail-oriented

Vocabulary Censure – Reproach; criticize

Vocabulary expedient – Efficient in accomplishing a task

Vocabulary Digressed – go off the point; tangential

Vocabulary procure – Obtain; aquire

Vocabulary brevity – Shortness; brief

Vocabulary Animosity – Hatred; scorn for something

Vocabulary Dehumanization – denial of humanness to other people

Vocabulary Mantra – Saying of which you place religious or philosophical belief into

Vocabulary Superficially – Meaningful on the surface

Vocabulary Dictum – A worthwhile statement; a statement of importance

Vocabulary Elitism – Practice or belief that one is of a select group

Vocabulary Aphorism – Saying; maxim; adage

Vocabulary Repertoire – range; skills; stock

Vocabulary Conflated – To bring together in a way that heightens issue or concept at hand

Vocabulary Metonyms – Items that are parts of something that stand for the whole

Vocabulary Elided – To suppress or strike out

Vocabulary Antithesis – The exact opposite of something

Vocabulary Narcissism – Egotism; self-importance

Vocabulary Proletariat – Labor class

Vocabulary Abysmal – Terrible or dreadful

Vocabulary Acolyte – Assistant

Vocabulary Denigrates – To lessen the value of

Vocabulary Exploitation – To use in a destructive way

Vocabulary Succumb – Give into