The French Lieutenant’s Woman by John Fowles Background

Victorian Issues: Evolution Victorian Issues: Evolution  1859 Charles Darwin ’ s Origin of Species  unsound; contradict a literal interpretation of the Bible.  Doubt in God e.g. Carlyle “ Characteristics “ e.g. Carlyle “ Characteristics “

Victorian Issues: Industrialism  Textiles  Railways and steel  Electricity and chemicals  Digital information technologies, miniaturization  Great Exhibition of 1851

Victorian Issues: Women  Purity and selflessness, protected and enshrined within the home, create a place of peace where man could take refuge from the difficulties of modern life.  Boredom, feminine idleness as a status symbol for upper- and middle-class.  “ Woman Question ”, concerned issues of sexaul inequality in politics, economic life, education and social intercourse.  suffrage, married women to own their own property, enlarge educational opportunities, improved employment opportunities

Alfred, Lord Tennyson(1)  Maud (1855) 6, 13, 16, 25, 43, 45, 49, 56 --an experimental monologue --an experimental monologue --portrayal of the speaker ’ s hope for --portrayal of the speaker ’ s hope for a redeeming love and his despair a redeeming love and his despair and bitterness over the social ills and bitterness over the social ills surrounding him. surrounding him. --reflects Tennyson ’ s preoccupation with the relationship of the role of women to modern civilization --reflects Tennyson ’ s preoccupation with the relationship of the role of women to modern civilization

Alfred, Lord Tennyson(2)  Mariana (1835) --the state of feeling was intensely drawn into --the state of feeling was intensely drawn into melancholy isolation. melancholy isolation. --portrayed through the consciousness of an --portrayed through the consciousness of an abandoned woman. abandoned woman.  In Memoriam (1850) 12, 15, 20, 36, 38, 41, 48 --a long elegy written over a period of --a long elegy written over a period of seventeen years embodying the poet ’ s seventeen years embodying the poet ’ s reflections on our relation to God and to nature. reflections on our relation to God and to nature. --reflects the religious uncertainties he --reflects the religious uncertainties he experienced. experienced.

Matthew Arnold  His poetry bears testimony to the refusal to compromise with the spirit of his era.  Mycerinus, the Forsaken Merman, the Scholar- Gipsy, Empedocles, display lonely and isolated protagonists, alien to their environment, projection of their creator's own essential homelessness in the Victorian world.  Meeting, Parting 21, 40, and A Farewell 9, 22, reveal the individual has to postulate some mysterious and superhuman power in order to account for the limitations of his faculties, especially as a social being, but the relationship is predestined to failure.

Pre-Raphaelites  Christina Rossetti ( ) --unmarried --unmarried --battled against a solid idea that women --battled against a solid idea that women were not to interpret scripture. were not to interpret scripture. -- used women as subjects of her poems. -- used women as subjects of her poems.  Dante Gabriel Rossetti ( ) --beauty of women ’ s face --beauty of women ’ s face --dreamy stares, breathless from --dreamy stares, breathless from visions of heaven 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 visions of heaven 1, 2, 3, 4,

Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood  Founded in 1848 by a small and influential group of people.  Hope to recapture the spiritual vividness they saw in the medieval painting before Raphael ( ).  Both painting and poetry are different ways to express the same idea.

Ecce Ancilla Domini (The Annunciation) 1850 by Dante Gabriel Rossetti auth/rossetti/

Beatrice, a Portrait of Jane Morris by Dante Gabriel Rossetti ( )

' The Blessed Damozel' by Dante Gabriel Rossetti /prbpassion/various2.cfm

Beata Beatrix (186[3-4?]-70) Painted in memory of Rossetti's wife, Lizzie Siddal, who died from an overdose of laudanum in February The theme is taken from Dante's "La Vita Nuova", in which Rossetti's favourite poet describes his unrequited love and mourning for Beatrice Portinari. beatabeatrix.htm

Siren