Appunti di Letteratura Inglese I "Il Settecento"

Education in the three novels

Robinson Crusoe

Talking about education in Robinson Crusoe, in the novel Defoe fictionalizes the middle-class civilizing the savage. Many critiques have focused on Robinson's education or re-education of Friday, that he calls “his man”, transforming a nameless savage into the "human being" Friday. At p. 163, we notice that Robinson is a superior since their very first meeting, he automatically suppresses the language and culture of the other. Nederveen, Professor of Sociology at the University of California Santa Barbara, wrote that Friday, as a savage, is considered to have no culture and is treated as an unwritten page: he cannot keep his name, which even subsumes him under Robinson's calendar, and Robinson imposes his own native language.

In “The Shape of a Culture” we read that, historically, this imposition can be related to the proposal by Thomas Macaulay to educate the colonies with the English language, based on the postulate of the superiority of English culture and intellect over subdued populations, even seen by Kipling as "the burden of white man". Tylor, the pioneer of cultural anthropology, elaborated important theories over the need to study the culture of other civilizations, nevertheless he still had prejudices and established a hierarchy which rewarded the Anglo-Saxon race. This led to the success of the English language as an element of unification and mediation in the colonies. Nevertheless, Defoe knows that superiority is just cultural and not mental, for example, Robinson understands that cannibalism is not due to cruelty, but to ignorance. And Friday is the Noble Savage, the "other" who has not been corrupted by civilization, and therefore symbolizes humanity's innate goodness.

That’s why Robinson Crusoe is an adventure novel with a strong message over colonial ventures, considered as civilizing missions. As we can read in Capoferro's essay, Robinson Crusoe teaches his language to Friday, especially the terms aiming to establish a relationship master-slave. This is not a benevolent act, as the words used by Defoe show, but it is a practice of power if we read the text as postcolonial readers. Then he imposes his religion mainly because he wants to preserve his only friend from eternal damnation. At p. 171 we can see the passage. Sometimes Robinson reports a certain give-and-take in teaching Friday, he learns through teaching, as we can read at p. 173.

Jane Eyre

In Jane Eyre, education provides the only route for someone who isn’t independent to improve themselves, allowing social mobility. Education in this novel is mostly aesthetic; characters learn basic music performance, basic artistic skills, and a bit of foreign language. It’s enough to make them seem cultured but not to make them actually useful for anything except teaching it. At p. 4, very early in her life, stories and tales are the most positive things that Jane experiences. In Jane’s childhood, education takes the place of every single one of her emotional and physical needs – food, shelter, family, and friendship. It is a safe haven for her, something that provides emotional satisfaction in a protected space separate from the hardships of the world, to the point that when the Reeds talk about sending her out to a harsh boarding school like Lowood she paradoxically craves it, it’s sort of an "enemy of my enemy is my friend" thing, as we read at p. 19. It’s unsurprising that she becomes a teacher and governess.

At p. 15 it’s curious that Jane loves Gulliver’s Travels, because according to Dr. Sally Minogue Jane Eyre has got a journeying nature, which is frequently remarked. Jane moves from place to place, each marking a new structural departure, as in Swift’s novel. There are 5: the childhood at Gateshead, the instruction at Lowood, governess at Thornfield, the stay at the Rivers’ at Marsh End, and the wedding with Rochester at Ferndean. Lowood is a representation of boarding schools of that time. It was inspired by Charlotte’s own experience at Cowan Bridge, a Clergy Daughter’s School. Prior to the 1870 Education Act, children in Victorian England were educated in different ways, or not at all. The system based on religious orders was started in 1831 by Robert Raikes. Boarding schools for lower classes were considered useful places to put unwanted children like Jane.

They were places of harsh discipline, inadequate diet, and little learning. Jane makes her way the best at Lowood, becoming a monitor and then a teacher. Teachers were often strict and scary. It was the job of unmarried ladies, that's why we call the teacher Miss, and when they married they would stop. Most teachers were not qualified, they learnt "on the job". Some larger schools used a system of monitors, like Lowood. The teacher would select a number of the brightest pupils and they would then be taught in separate lessons after school. The next day these monitors then took a group of boys each and taught them the things they themselves had just learned. Besides the part of the book at Thornfield, where education can just be commented on as a private relationship between a teacher and a pupil, typical of wealthy families, another remarkable point is the village school at Morton, another school having a religious basis. It’s Jane’s community service time, something way more difficult and way more low-to-the-ground than she was trained for, but she can feel good about it, as we can read at p. 317.

Frankenstein

With reference to Frankenstein, the hideous creature is such a representation of Otherness that he doesn't even have the right to be educated, worse than the savages, and is compelled to rely upon his own intuition and self-education to survive. The case offers a critical look at the question of "nature versus nurture". Self-education plays a critical role in shaping the subjectivity of Victor Frankenstein's monster. Patterned after the evolution of human learning, the monster’s spontaneous learning proceeds through major stages.

First, at p. 81, is the accidental discovery of fire followed by the realization of the monster that knowledge yields power. After mastering his senses, the creature notices the power of speech and wants to learn to communicate, at p. 87. He learns language observing the De Laceys and then learns how to read, reading John Milton’s Paradise Lost. It is a striking stage of his self-education, because always being alone, none can teach him what is right and what is wrong. Without correct guidance, he finally loses his way identifying himself as the fallen angel.

According to Ronald Carstens, Professor of Social and Behavioral Sciences at the Ohio Dominican University, Frankenstein can be considered as a cautionary tale of failed education, specifically as an example of a failed western education leading to criminality. Rousseau believed that humans were intrinsically good in their natural state, before civilization, and were corrupted by society. Shelley directly agrees with what Rousseau said in Emile, by stating that the monster initially has amiable intentions, which are corrupted by society’s inability to accept him. Another relation between Emile and Frankenstein is Rousseau’s principle that ignorance is bliss because knowledge makes aware of a reality that can be overwhelming. We have two references to this: one from the monster, at p. 93, and one from Victor, at p. 42.

Other parts of the program

If we want to extend the theme of education to other parts of the program of English Literature I, we can touch Alexander Pope, because we can find references to Classical Education in his An Essay on Criticism, where in some passages he references Homer, Virgil's Aeneid, and promotes their study as a means to learn the art of criticism. Criticism was the focus of Pope's essay, a skill cherished by the neoclassical movement, encouraged by all stages of the Trivium: grammar, logic, and rhetoric.

Then we can run over Wordsworth, since in the Preface of the Lyrical Ballads Wordsworth shows Nature as a source of knowledge, able to educate men through the study of natural phenomena, sharpening his ability to feel.

About the history of English literature, in "The Shape of a Culture" we read that in the XIX century the political class directs to the problem of instruction and of its spreading to the social classes which had been excluded. The educational system is organized according to new principles, based on decentralization and a national curriculum. Forster approves the Education Act in 1870 and applications to elementary schools increase fourfold.

The instruments of literary communication change after the crisis of lending libraries, and mass culture forms emerge, like the first magazines and popular newspapers. In Part III of Gulliver’s Travels, Laputa is inhabited by scientists and thinkers, but they are lost in their thoughts and have lost their practicality and sense of reality, warping, in a satire of extreme rationalism, deism, and experiments of the British Society. Many critics to education in the Victorian Age can be found in Dickens’ tales, especially in Hard Times.

The XVIII century

The XVIII century is a century in which we pass from a static to a dynamic vision of the world, from the idea of uniformity and accuracy to differentiation and variety of opinions and perceptions. According to natural rationality, Art must reproduce the eternity of human nature and Nature itself, which were considered unchanging and constant. The age is also known as the Neoclassical and Augustan period. Writers of the time placed great emphasis on the original writings produced by classical Greek and Roman literature, imitating writers of the age of Augustus. Classical influences were prevalent in poetry with the use of rhyming, and in prose with its satire.