English Literature I

1) Restoration and the 18th century 1660-1785

Historical period: “Restoration” of the monarchy, monarchy needed to be restored after a short period of republic, because England came from a period of Civil War.

After Elizabeth I died, started the succession of the Stuarts, the first one was Charles I.

The Civil War was basically fought between Cavaliers, supported the king, and Roundheads, supported parliament.

The whole thing escalated until Charles I was captured and kept in secret for a long period of time, then was beheaded in 1649.

At that point there is no monarchy nor king in England for 10 years, and starts the interregnum, that is a period of time where there are two reigns. The commonwealth is established, it is a republic.

In 1660, they realized commonwealth wasn't the best choice and monarchy was restored with Charles II Stuart. He had political problems, and he was a Stuart, and the Stuarts couldn't cope with parliament.

Stuarts = give the idea of totalitarianism, they wanna rule alone.

In 1685 James II started his reign after Charles II, he wanted to make his own laws, he was Protestant but had Catholics sympathies, so he suspended laws against Catholics.

The church didn't like that James had sympathies for Catholics, this caused discontent and parliament started negotiations with somebody else, from the Netherlands. But why the Netherlands?

The Dutch William and his wife Mary arrived in England and expected to fight but they found no resistance so it became a Glorious/Bloodless Revolutions. England now finds a way to give stability by collaborating with parliament. Now parliament is divided in two main sections: whigs = formed by the middle class, people who had a business and they were more liberal tories = formed by noble people and they were conservative.

William and Mary were able to give stability, the power of the king was reduced and parliament started being more and more important, it marks the end of absolutism.

1689: Bill of Rights = The bill outlined specific constitutional and civil rights and ultimately gave Parliament power over the monarchy.

1689: Toleration Act = was made to make sure that everyone was respected.

The successor of William was a woman, Queen Anne (1702-1714).

George I Hanover, German King, ruled 1714-1727.

He gave stability and governed in collaboration with the whigs of the parliament.

2) Economy and trade

England started improving, cities became bigger, there were opportunities to work, the population grew and they started building buildings, ways to move around the cities and later on even trains.

In that period of time, London became a very beautiful city but people complain because the city is “beautiful and ugly at the same time” because there were mountains of rubbish and pollution.

3) Society

Gentle vs common people

Common people didn’t have a salary, or if they had, it was very poor.

Gentle people had a huge salary instead. There was a huge difference between their salaries and a very different standard of living.

Middle class was composed by merchants, professionals, shopkeepers etc.

C18 societies

C18 societies = groups discussing ideas in the age of discoveries.

• Royal society = composed by intellectuals discussing science.
• Royal Academy =
• Lunar Society = composed by illustrious members.
• Ladies’ debating societies = females.

Age of inventions and discoveries: the microscope was invented, a lot of experiments with electricity were made, new materials like porcelain were invented, factories were built.

Enlightenment/positivism in England

Dogma = a truth that is not demonstrated.

The real revolution as a species was when we realized we are ignorant, that makes human beings push towards discovery and curiosity.

Isaac Newton (1643-1727)

Newton says that it’s impossible to find the truth, it’s never over. We are limited.

Metaphor: he says he is like a little boy that plays in the sea shore with a little pebble and a shell. But he doesn’t know anything else about the whole ocean that is in front of him.

He was a supporter of empiricism = experience, I need to observe things in order to see how it works, I need to try things out, I need to see.

In dogma you just believe what someone tells you.

A philosopher, John Locke, wrote about society.

It’s the idea that it would be nice if men understood they are limited, if you understand your limit you can better your research in something you can know, rather than spending energies to find something you can’t know about.

Religion

Religion:

In England the population was largely Protestant, because the Church of England was Protestant.

There were Catholics.

There were Protestant that didn’t agree on something that the Church of England said, some rituals, some dogmas, some celebrations, they’re called Dissenting Protestants.

Protestantism

The founder of the Protestant revolution in England was Martin Luther of Wittenberg that published a statement, a manifesto, of 95 theses, in 1517.

He didn’t like the Catholic church anymore because the clergy appeared to be corrupted, they were not pure anymore. One of the main ideas of Protestantism was that nobody needed a priest to be in contact with God, the Bible was more than enough to have a direct access to God.

Excessive presence of statues, gold, silver that characterizes the Catholic churches, were not liked by Protestants.

The doctrine of predestination, made by John Calvin, = All human beings, from the moment they’re born are destined to damnation or salvation.

The ones destined to salvation have the possibility of repenting.

If you’re a murderer, but you’re destined to salvation, you can repent. The ones that are born destined to damnation cannot repent their actions.

For Luther, everyone can repent.

1662 Act of Uniformity = it was made to reform the Church of England and force all the Protestants to accept the Book of Common Prayers.

People who didn’t accept those rules were excluded from public life, exiled or even executed.

Why was dissent a problem? They could never really beat dissent. Because there were allocated people that supported them.

John Bunyan

He was from Bedford, north of London, and was alive between 1628-1688.

He went to a grammar school and didn’t go to university.

His mom and sister died early in his life and his dad remarried 3 times; he fought during the civil war but he was summoned by the parliamentary army as a Roundhead, he served in Ireland too and when he came back he worked in his family’s shop as a tinker.

He was part of a Protestant family but was not passionate about religion, but in his life there was a moment of conversion when he met John Gifford, a Baptist.

Baptists thought that people should not be baptized during the beginning of the life of a child but when they are actually capable of choosing if they want to get baptized or not. So people should always be baptized when they’re an adult.

In 1660 he started preaching and in 1661 was arrested until 1672.

During this period of time he wrote a lot, especially about religion.

He wrote:

• Grace abounding: it is a spiritual autobiography of the moment of his conversion. In this book we have all his thoughts and how he was tempted by God to convert, how God talked to him etc. He had visions of God, angels and biblical figures.

The pilgrim’s progress

It was written when he was in prison, the book it’s divided in two parts, published in two different moments. We only do part 1.

When he was in prison, one day he had a dream and he reproduced the idea of the dream in the form of a book.

The entire book 1 is presented as a dream sequence narrated by an omniscient narrator, who already knows everything about the story.

It is a religious work, Baptist background.

The fact that men are depraved is the center of the story.

This was his most popular work, an immediate best-seller. The language is simple and informal.

The Pilgrim’s Progress is a Christian allegory which means that at one hand, the book tells a story of a man leaving the City of Destruction to the Celestial city. On the other hand it tells about the general life of everyman and how one should strive for a better pious Christian life away from sins.

Part 1 is about the protagonist of the novel, Christian, who starts his journey to the celestial city and through the path he meets people.

Part 2 is about Christian’s wife, he had a family that he leaves at the beginning of the novel. So in book 2 Christian’s wife, Christiana, starts the journey herself. She doesn't do her journey all alone but becomes part of a group of Christians. Part 2 is about a kind of a group journey, not a solo experience.

Christian and Christiana are two proper names but also represent religious faith. = Allegory.

It is still an allegory but it is more realistic in terms of the journey.

Criticism said: Part I is better than Part 2.

We’re only gonna study Part I.

What’s an allegory?

What’s an allegory?

Usually it’s formed of images, signs, representations that allude to some universal truths, abstract meanings such as morality, religion, politics, theology etc.

The images that are used in an allegory are arbitrary, you can choose to represent an abstract concept anyway you want. Allegories are formed by a system of images which are connected, it’s a system of signs.

Examples: Divine Comedy (Dante); Animal Farm (George Orwell).

Style:

The apology is in poetry, written in rhyme couplets.

He uses poetry here and in other little moments in the poem itself.

Plot

Selection 0 - Author’s Apology - Similitudes and metaphors

When Bunyan began to write he didn’t expect the book in “such a mood”, he was writing about Christian’s life when he “fell into an Allegory”. He didn't expect to show this book to anybody, writing was just an activity for the spare time. Bunyan's apology takes the form of a long poem, with similitudes, metaphors and many references to the Bible.

It is not an apology as an admission of wrongdoing but an attempt to defend one’s ideas or method. In Particular, he defended his allegorical method.

Essendo protestante lui si scusa perché non ne avrebbe dovute usare così tante, difende il suo metodo allegorico.

The character “Goodwill'' indicates the way and tells them to move on.

In the city of Destruction, there lived a man who was born with the name ‘Graceless’.

Section 1 - Christian’s pilgrimage

The city stands as a symbol of the entire world as it is, with all of its sins, corruption and sorrows. He was leading an ignorant life just like everybody but one day, he got hold of a book, the Bible, and as he read and learned it he became Christian, that was his new name.

His wife was Christina, and the couple had four children.

As he continued reading, he could feel a burden on his back and realized that that burden would cause him to sink into Hell.

It was unbearable so he sought help to get relief, he met Evangelist who directed him to the Wicked Gate. Christian fails to see this Wicked gate but could see a light, so Evangelist directs him to the shining light. He told Christian to go there so he could deliver his burden.

When Christian went home he told everything to his wife, and told her that they have to leave to go to the Wicked Gate but she and their children mock him. He is sad but determined, so he leaves home and goes alone towards the shining light.

During the Journey he falls into the Slough of Despond. It is a swamp in which the pilgrim falls and all his doubts, fears, temptations become so heavy that they often drown in the mud of the swamp. Christian fights against all this and eventually another pilgrim helps him to get out of the swamp.

Section 2 - Worldly Wiseman

Christian continues his journey and soon meets Mr. Worldly Wiseman. There’s something wrong with this character because something ‘worldly’ cannot be referred to God, as it is something negative. He persuades Christian to seek another way to remove his burden, he says that Christian should visit the Village of Morality where he will get help from Mr. Legality and his son.

Christian decides to take this advice, near that place he meets Evangelist who exposes Mr. Worldly Wiseman, Legality and his son for the frauds they are, as they often try to misdirect pilgrims from choosing the right path.

Section 3 - The wicked gate

As he approaches the Wicked Gate, Beelzebub’s archers fire arrows at him from the Beelzebub castle. The gatekeeper Goodwill of Wicked Gate saves him and shows him the King’s Highway that he needs to follow.

In this case, Goodwill represents Jesus who directs Christian to the ‘place of deliverance’.

Moving forward, Christian reaches the House of Interpreter, where he is shown some emblems showing pictures of Christian’s life and death.

Finally, Christian reaches the ‘place of deliverance’ where he gets rid of the burden of his sins. As soon as he gets rid of the burden of his sins, three angels appear in front of him and offer him the greeting of peace, new garments and a scroll as a passport into the Celestial City.

The Celestial city allegorically represents Heaven and now, Christian has a new motive to reach Heaven.

He meets two men near the Hill that were trying to bypass the Hill named Danger and destruction, but they perish while proving that they are false Christians.

Christian though, succeeded.

As he reaches the top, he falls asleep. When he wakes up, he meets Mistrust and Timorous and they inform him about the great lions of the Palace Beautiful. Soon, they meet a porter named Watchful, and as they reach the beautiful palace, Watchful informs them all that they are chained and being watched to test their faith.

Christian is afraid of lions but with the help of Watchful while the other two die.

Section 4 - Fight with Apollyon

Christian spends three days there and leaves after they give him new clothes and Armour of God that will help him fight against a dragon-like demon named Apollyon.

Christian fights for over Half a day in the Valley of Humiliation; Apollyon is the Lord of the city of Destruction.