Art should reveal God`s rules, laws in nature. Purification, idealization.
Originality did not have importance. Aim of the artist is to present the general truth about life in a very elegant and refined manner. It was elagance rather than innovation. Wit means intelligance and allegiance. 18th century is the age of reason and enlightenment. Passions must be conrolled by reason. They felt that people had to be reasoned. They were fed up with civil wars. People of the time followed the certain rules that God gave to the nature. Classical Greek was accepted as model. The literaure of classical antiquity was accepted as the greatest model. Homer or Ovid for example. If you imitate them then you achieve great elegance. Augustan period. They were as good and as advanced as Rome was under Augustus. There were neoclassical rules. People believed that they should have some certain rules. They modelled these certain rules on classical literature in sense of classical antiquity. In the 18th century, there was no split between science and art. Art and science were believed to work together. We are postromantics and this is allien to us now. Science investigated the rules of nature and art presented the rules of nature in artistic works. They were actually doing the same thing. There was no sense of rivalry and enemity between science and art. The style aimed at clarity and order. Pope is a very important poet of the 18th century. If we look at the style in Pope`s work, it is not complicated. No difficult metaphors, no complicated and difficult style. However, it was believed that art should use a style removed from everyday speech, so more elegant. It was believed that art should use a more elegant style. They used what is sometimes called poetic diction. For example they used winged flier instead of a bird. They used words removed from ordinary language. This sounds very complicated to us. They valued satire. Satire was the instrument to attack those who did not obey the universal rules. People had time to read. You could also live by writing. In Shakespearean time, you needed an aristocrat to support you. Literature appealed to the marker. Teaching the reader new tastes was the mission of the author. You did not have to buy a book. You could borrow it from a library. In the late 17th century art and life was dominated by aristocracy. Now it was dominated by middle class.Educating the public was made by means of litarature. The literary works written in the 18th century consisted of this proportion.
93% religious tracts, sermons, essays, conduct books.
7 % of the works were literature. In other words, literary works. Literature
Alexander Pope was the most important poet of the 18th century. Pope was a Roman catholic and a hunchback. He was disadvantaged in every way. Because of his works, he achieved great fame and acceptance. Suddenly
Professor showed us two different portraits of Pope. The first one was the idealized portrait of him. He is pictured sort of if he were a Roman poet or a Roman emperor. Beautiful and what is typical,
what is general and what is universal. It is the idealized protrait. The second one was a satirical illustration of cartoon showing him as a hunchback and ugly. We wouldn`t know that they show the
same author, but this two types of art are quite typical. Idealizing, generalizing art and then the satirical art attacked people because they did not conform with the ideal. Pope was a poet of
order. In his poetry he defines the rules of his age. He speaks with great authority. He wrote number of poems and imitated the classical art. This was of course taste of the time. He also wrote
translations of Homer.
His most important works:
1. An essay on criticism. An Essay on
Criticism or An Essay in Criticism. Both are possible to say.
2. An essay on man.
To read the online version of An Essay on Criticism click here
To read the online version of An Essay on Man click here
His first work-An essay on criticism- stresses the neoclassical rules of literatures and reason and it attacks bad education. Boy were educated in classical literature, Latin and Greek, but women could not have such an education. For that reason women were diadvantaged in the 18th century. Pope speaks about good and bad literary writing and also good and bad criticism. If people do not follow the rules, then they cannot write well and also they cannot be good literary critics.
His recommendation quite clearly is to follow the nature. This is on the first column twordas the end on page one of the reader.
Nature is the source and taste of art. If you follow the rules of nature which are given by God (still divinly bright means given by God), then you will be a good poet, you will write good poetry.
If you look at the language and style, it is not metaphorical. It doesn`t try to create a very poetic language like Shakespeare for instance. It tries at least in the
18th century the term clarity. However we do not find it quite easy to read, because we are not educated in classical antiquity. We cannot understand the classical references of classical antiquity.
Even though the style aimed at clarity, it wasn`t written for uneducated people, for simple people. This is a poem that was written for educated people. It is not for those who have just
learned to read and write. It is for the kind of class that Pope himself belongs to.
In a very similar manner, the Essay on Man sums up the attitudes of the 18th century to the position of men in the world.The intention is not to tell the reader something entirely new, but it sums up the philosophy of the time. The idea what is the position of men, what should men do and so on in an elegant manner.
The Professor began to talk about the second poem which is the Rape of the Lock on page 2 of the reader. It is a mock epic poem or a mock heroic poem.
There were two sights in art, you could either be very elegant and serious or you could be mocking and satirical. So Pope also wrote mocking poems. A mock epic or a mock heroic poem uses the style and language of an epic poem in order to present a ridiculous and trivial subject. What is the style of an epic poem? It uses a very elevated language. You know grand battles of Gods and super heroic people like Odysseus. Think of Odyssey and Iliad. These are heroic poems where gods appear and Hektor and Achilles fight. If you use such a style, such an elevated grand style for a tirivial subject , you acchive a discrapency. Something doesn`t fit. The subject matter is stupid and trivial and the style is heroic. The effect is always satirical. You make fun of a society or of a class by presenting their stupidity in a very elevated style.
The Rape of the Lock wikiepedia explanation the poem another internet explanation
What is the subject matter of Pope`s heroic poem The Rape of the Lock?
It takes up an incident that really happened in the 18th century. There is an aristocrat in love with a lady and when she was not looking he cut off a lock of hair. And a big quarrel ensued. Finally there was a reconciliation. And in Pope`s poem the reconciliation was achieved.
In Pope`s time rape was not the only sexual violation, and he is really plane on sexual violation in his poem. What he does is, he shows the trivial and stupid aristocracy who has nothing else to do but flirt and making love. And he presents them in a heroic style which is very suited for a classical battle in order to show how trivial how nonsensical that all things are.
He starts out in a very classical way by invoking the muse. ( to preside over sth. )
Above I put two versions, because there are little differences in these versions. I suggest the second version, because it is the same as in the
reader.
For analysis from internet click here for
comments from internet click
here
What dire offense from amorous causes springs,
What mighty contests rise from trivial things,
I sing This verse to Caryll, Muse! is due:
This, even Belinda may vouchsafe to view:
Slight is the subject, but not so the praise,
If she inspire, and he approve my lays.
As I said above, he starts out in a very classical way by invkoing the muse. Muse come. His exaggerated style tells you what his real aim is.
***************************************************************************
Say what strange motive, Goddess! could compel
A well-bred lord to assault a gentle belle?
Oh, say what stranger cause, yet unexplored,
Could make a gentle belle reject a lord?
In tasks so bold can little men engage,
And in soft bosoms dwells such mighty rage?
Why would a lord attack a young lady which wasn`t surprising at that time. But the nasty thing is that why should a lday say no? The picture of women presented is very trivial. Empty-headed creature rejecting the lord. Little men are lords. There is a mock here again.
*******************************************************************************
To see the combinations of grand heroic style and trivial subject matter let`s look at these lines.
The meeting Points that sacred Hair dissever
From the fair Head, for ever and for ever!
This is a great tragedy. The meeting points refer to the scissors. The tragedy is that she loses a lock of hair.
*******************************************************************************
Then flash'd the living Lightnings from her Eyes,
And Screams of Horror rend th' affrighted Skies.
She has a hysterical mood and starts to scream, because a lock of hair has been cut off.
This is a style totally inappropriate with the triviality of the subject. But of course satirically showing how these aristocrats take themselves seriously.
*******************************************************************************
Not louder Shrieks to pitying Heav'n are cast,
When Husbands or when Lap-dogs breath their last,
Women scream in this way when locks are cut off or when their husbands die or when their lapdogs die. So husbands equated to lapdogs telling you about the values of this kind of society.
*********************************************************************************
Or when rich China Vessels, fal'n from high,
In glittring Dust and painted Fragments lie!
They scream whenever something happens no matter whether the husbands die or they break away.
There is a second mock epic poem or mock heroic poem which Alexander Pope wrote. The Dunciad.
He wrote a poem in which he put all the people he didn`t like. Personal attack and sattire were acceptable at that times if you were a famous writer.
He wrote a poem called the seasons. It is a nature poem. It describes spring, summer, fall and winter. Nature is always portrayed in harmony with human beings. Nature was not wild in the 18th century.
In our reader on page 9
Elegy written in a Country Churchyard.
internet comment internet comment 2
It belongs to type of poetry which is called graveyard poetry. Poet points towards the romantic period. In atmosphere already romantic, in attitude typically 18th century poem. Romantics were rebellious, but he is not a rebellious port. He still accepts the social hierarchy. The reason why romantics were rebellious was that they followed the French revolution. This poem is not a rebellious one and has a gothic atmosphere. It is full of castles, graveyards and it has a spooky atmosphere which is dark. All his political thoughts and his language is rational. Remeber that 18th century valued ratuionalism. Gothich atmosphere became popular at the end of the 18th century.
Drama in the 18th century went into decline. Court and many of the aristocrats lost their interest. Middle class arose and they liked sentimentality. In the 17th century you have restoration comedy, and it is amoral not immoral. Not relevant whether you are moral or not, it is relevant whether you are clever. In the 18th century sentimental comedy arose.
If we look at tragedy: Neoclassical tragedy was full of rules. It was felt that drama must keep three unities which are time, place and action. You couldn`t change the place. The stage changes weren`t realistic. It had to take place within 24 hours and it could have only one action. There was no subplot. Shakespeare would consider it faulty.
Besides middle class, second reason was licensing. You needed a permission for a place. People began to write novels On the whole, drama is not one of the greatest of the 18th century.
Among prose novel, we can say that before the 18th century there was hardly any novel. Genre of novel developed in England in the 18th century. Father
would read the novel aloud and the whole family used to sit around him and listen to him. Attitude to women changed in the second half of the century. Women were immoral and sexually explicit. It became problematic to read novels to women that were considered immoral and sexually
explicit. From the middle of the 18thc entury it became problamatic. Father reading to his three daughters, and suddenly he tells them ohh stop your ears, this is not for you. It was not the case in
the middle of the 18th century. Slowy slowly it developed and it became worse and worse. It became worse in the 19th century.
In our reader on page 3. It is one of the articles published in a newly-founded newspaper whose name is The Tatler.
It is about women and wives. All women are trivial. They are mainly interested in clothing and jewellery. They are only interested in triviality and they don`t have intelelctual capacity. This was the standard picture of women, because nobody educated them. He recommends a domestic life in the country where husband and wife live a domestic life in harmony and wife should be confined to the family to the house and should achive happines not by walking around in the newest fashion, but by leading a domestic and a happy life. Again style aims at clarity. There is no colloquial style, and aimed at making things clear so that an educated public could understand it. What is remarkable is he quotes from classical poems. Again this shows you how highly classical literature was valued. If you want an example you turn as a model to the classical writers and he quoted from classical writers in order to prove that he was right. He quotes from Ovid in the beginning. It is not aimed to be read by wives and women, because men could understand Greek quatations. However women couldn`t.
Robinson Crusoe is a bourgeois genre and appeals to the middle-class reader and it is about a family matter. It focuses on individual experience and tries to be realistic. Realistic in the sense of portraying real life. In general the new genre which was novel was meant as a middle class reading. Daniel Defoe is called the father of English novel. But we have to say that the novel grew from many sources. He did not simply pulled out a novel out of nothing. There was a tradition of biographical writing, religious writing and travel writing before. Defoe came from a dissenting family. Dissenters were not part of the church of England.
Defoe has his education in trade as a boy coming from a dissenting family like other dissenters.
The Shortest Way with Dissenters was written by by Defoe. In this book he uses irony. In this satirical work, there is a fanatic speaker of the church, and he says why don`t we punish dissenters. People got this proposal which is given voise in this satire as a serious proposal, but later on when they understood that Defoe was not serious with his proposal in this political satire, they put him in sentence. He quit political writing because of that. For more information please click here and also click here .
The other novels written by Daniel Defoe are: Moll Flanders click here also click here and also please click here
Roxana click here and click here internet comment
Both of these women - Moll and Roxana- are prostitutes. Nowadays these novels are called picturesque novels. In the picturesque novels there is a vagabond travelling around and he has a great number of adventures. It is episodic, because one adventure follow another adventure.
Moll Flanders: Moll marries at least 5 times. She has to survive. She is a thief and a prostitute. In the end, she becomes rich in America. She reforms in the end.
This picturesque novel shows the underworld of London and the society. In both of the novels - Moll Flanders and roxana- the characters are representatives of their classes. We seein both of
these novels, a woman who has to exploit her body in order to survive
Novel is an interesting and a very successful genre in the 18th century, because it focuses on individual characters who have experiences . But in the 18th century
these characters are also representatives of their class, profession, a certain region or what so ever. So it is both. It is an individual character and also someone who is physical, not an out
of the way character. Not somebody who was unique. Novel had much more freedom than any other genre. Since the novel was very new, nobody developed rules for it. Novely appeladed to the middle class.
Poetry had to be written according to some certain rules. Drama was very often hindered by the rules. Since the novel was very new, nobody has developed any rules for it. And this was a big
advantage. You will see that the novels developed in a great number of forms and indeed turns out to be the most successful genre in English literature and in literature worldwide.
Daniel Defoe pretends not to be the author but he pretends to be the mere editor of the novel. He pretends that a sailor by the name Robinson Crusoe wrote this. He pretends this is a real life story. Why? Because people at that time were really interested in reading real things. And because the dissenters were sometimes quite critical of literature. We know that Defoe comes from a dissenting family. They felt that literature simly made you idle. You did not work, you were sitting and reading. They also felt that women shouldn`t read because it fills their brains with romance. They are simply looking for their prince and becomming romantic. It was quite clever to write the novel as a real life story for these reasons. If you look at the novel, it always pretends to be a real life story. It is so detailed in many ways. It really gives you the impression that there was a man called Robinson Crusoe who actually wrote that story. Daniel Defore, Defoe is a pen-name. His paretns were originally called Foe. Daniel Defore proves to be the enemy of women by excluding them. The novel Foe which we have to read is a reference to Daniel Defoe.
He wrote around the middle of the 18th century and he came from a lower middle class background. He wrote model letters for people who didn`t really know how to writea letter. e.g. How do you write a good letter of condelence or a letter of recommending a maid to someone else, sort of official letters. There was a marlet for this kind of things. How do you write a good letter of recommendation, how do you write a good letter of condelence and so on. Since he was successful, he hit upon the idea of writing a novel in letter. Novels in letters are callded epistolary novels. Epistolary novel is a novel consisting of many letters which various people write to one another. What is the advantage of such novels? The advantage is great immidiacy. You really hear the emotions and the speech of characters. There is no distance, no time to think about the experience. There is no distance between what is called the narrating I and the experiencing I.Somebody has an experience, runs to the table and write it down to her friend or to her mother whatever. You have great immidiacy and it is a very lively genre.
Richardson wrote two famous novels which are Pamela and Clarissa. These are epistolary novels.
Pamela: Pamela is a servant in the house of a rich aristocrat. She is a virtues girl. Virtue means chastity. If you lose your chastity then you are an outcast of the society in the 18th century. He tries to seduce this youg servant girl. He gives her presents and flatters her and so on and aso on. But she is virtues, he tries to rape her. But all the times he was interrupted. Somebody locks at the door and she find time to lock herself etc etc... He is so frustrated and in the end he marries her, because otherwise he can`t have her. The novel was written in a very lively manner by letters of Pamela to her parents and parents to Pamela and Mr. B to whoever.
He wrote a much more serious novel which is Clarissa.
Clarissa : Clarissa is a virtues middle-class woman and she doesn`t want to marry the man that her parents selected for her. She runs away from home more or less because of that reason. She thinks that a young aristocrat will help her. But of course he doesn`t help her, he rapes her. And then he regrets, he want to marry her afterwards, but she has lost all faith in him and she dies because she was viloted. Clarissa is represented as a middle- class virtues woman. She will not be bought and she will not marry a man who rapes her. She absolutely refuses to do that. These things happen between Clarissa Harlowe and Robert Lovelace. Lovelace whos is the rapist is also a fascinating character. He is not totally evil. He is simply impetuous and very strong-willed and thinks he can have everything because he is an aristocrat. They write to one anotehr various letters. If we look at the style of the letters that Lovelace wrote, we can say that he is extremely self-assured and he orders his friends around do this do that. He is extremely passionate and lacks self-control. This is excatly the problem. He uses swear words and exclamations all the time. And he thinks he can manipulate women.
If you look at her style, it is neat and mild. She addresses her friends never asking for something rather saying don`t worry, you should be happy. It is a typical attitude of self-sacrifice, of putting herself last not first. It is not full of swear words. It avoids all exclamations and undue emotions. It is rational and virtues. Lovelace talks like an aristocratic man and she talks like a virtues middle-class woman. The style really gives away the two role models. Richardson was very influential in the development of the novel in the 19th century as he wrote about the inner emotions of the characters.
Henry Fielding came from an upper-class or he has gentry background. His attitude to things is entirely different from Richardson. He started to write for the stage. Because of licensing act matter he turned into novel. His answer to Pamela in our reader on page 6 there is an excerpt from the novel and it is called Joseph Andrews. The situation in Jospeh Andrews is very smilar to Pamela. There is a young servant in the hosue of an aristocrat. And the aristocrat tries to seduce or rape him. The gender roles are reversed. The servant is male and the would-be rapist is female. You have got an old and an ugly aristocrat lady who is running after this young servant. And also her old mate. So there are two old women who want to seduce this young man. The very reversal of the gender roles makes all the fun. Because if a woman is seduced by a man, this is very serious. She loses her reputation. If a man was seduced by a woman, no one in the 18th century would have cared. Joseph Andrews says nooo I don`t want anything to do with you. It is actually funny because he takes a role modell which actually suits for women. Joseph Abdrews started out as a parody of Pamela. But then it very quickly developed into something much more important. Namely a satire of 18th century life. It starts out in the house of the lady Booby, who is supposedly the sister of Mr. B in Pamela. He calles her Booby on purpose. Mr. B in Pamela can also be Mr. Booby.
Joseph Andrews runs away from the house to save his chastity and has number of adventures on the way. And the novel turns into a picturesque novel. Joseph travels around in 18th century England and finally he finds his sweatheart. In the novel Joseph was robbed by highway men. They robbed his money and left him totally naked. And there is a stagecoage found him naked on the way. They started to argue whether they should accept a naked man in the coach because they cannot have naked man in the stagecoach or whether they shouldn`t leave him die on the beach. There is an attack on 18th century materialsim and hypocrisy. Betty one of the women on the stagecoach gave him her sweater. She did not faint or escape like the other women of the 18th century in front of a completely naked man. Instead, she prefers to help him. Namely there is an attack on hypocrisy and an attack on materialism. Betty who helped him was not a chatse woman. Wheter you are chate or not was not so important. Kindness and humanity is much more important for Fielding at least. Even though Betty has a number of lovers, Fielding doesn`t care this. She helps Joseph. She doesn`t escape or faint like the otehr women of her century. That is the important thing.
From the reader page 10, 11, 12,13,14 and 15 will be read until John Ruskin. John Ruskin won`t be read, because he is already a romantic period.
THE END
You can do it, too! Sign up for free now at https://www.jimdo.com