Perhaps the clearest evidence of change can be seen when contrasting female fashion for the early to the late Victorian periods.
Women’s dresses in the 1840s included a tight sleeve below the shoulder that made it impossible for the woman to raise her arms above a right angle. Petticoats that were worn under a large skirt could weigh as much as fourteen pounds. Since the walks were not paved, it can be imagined what condition these long dresses would be in at the end of a day.
Loose shawls were later replaced by close-fitting cloaks and mantles. Corsets were worn to make the waist smaller. In the 1860s the cage crinoline replaced the petticoats, reducing the weight of the dress. However, the crinoline had from nine to eighteen hoops and extended out so far that they were beyond the control of the wearer. In the 1870s the bustle replaced the crinoline. It left the front of the dress straight and only the back puffed out. However, there were trains several yards long trailing behind the skirt which made walking difficult. The “age of restriction” seems to best describe Victorian dress to this point.
In the 1880s the Dress Reform Movement which included women took place. There were tailored dresses that were simple in design and mass produced. Sports “costumes” were also introduced. Finally, in 1895, the bicycling “new woman” adopted the “bloomer,” a short skirt and trouser outfit that had been introduced in America in 1851 by Amelia Bloomer. Women no longer wanted to be ornamental or the angel in the house.
Saturday, February 26, 2011
Friday, February 25, 2011
The Victorian Period...2
Two wars involving Great Britain occurred during the period: the Crimean War (1854-1856) and the Indian Mutiny (1857-1858). In Lighthouse we hear Mr. Ramsay reciting Tennyson’s poem “The Charge of the Light Brigade”--“Someone had blundered!” That poem refers to one of the battles of the Crimean War. According to an editorial note in the Norton Anthology of Tennyson’s poetry, the charge was a “disastrous engagement, probably the stupidest exploit in British military history.” There was a misinterpretation of orders and the brigade charged into entrenched Russian artillery. Of the 700 men in the charge only 195 returned.
The first “war correspondent” is associated with the Crimean War. William Howard Russell (1820-1907) of the London Times went to the front lines of battle and interviewed the soldiers rather than depending on the traditional headquarter dispatches. He wrote about the suffering. Men died not only in battle, but also from hunger and disease during the Russian winter: 21,000 troops were lost, 16,000 from disease.
Florence Nightingale (1820-1910) established nursing as a profession based on her work in the Crimean War. Sidney Herbert, Secretary of the War Office, asked her to take over administration of the hospital Scutari in Turkey during the war. After the Treaty of Paris of 1856 formally ended the war, she helped Herbert set up a Royal Commission on Army Medical Organization which founded the Army Medical School. Using money donated by the public to set up the Nightingale Fund, she established a nurses’ training school at St. Thomas Hospital in London.
After the experiences of that war, a War Department was established and in 1872, the purchase system, whereby a man could purchase a commission as an officer in the military without having any training or experience, was abolished. Many felt that the purchase system was one of the causes of the debacle of the charge of the Light Brigade.
The first “war correspondent” is associated with the Crimean War. William Howard Russell (1820-1907) of the London Times went to the front lines of battle and interviewed the soldiers rather than depending on the traditional headquarter dispatches. He wrote about the suffering. Men died not only in battle, but also from hunger and disease during the Russian winter: 21,000 troops were lost, 16,000 from disease.
Florence Nightingale (1820-1910) established nursing as a profession based on her work in the Crimean War. Sidney Herbert, Secretary of the War Office, asked her to take over administration of the hospital Scutari in Turkey during the war. After the Treaty of Paris of 1856 formally ended the war, she helped Herbert set up a Royal Commission on Army Medical Organization which founded the Army Medical School. Using money donated by the public to set up the Nightingale Fund, she established a nurses’ training school at St. Thomas Hospital in London.
After the experiences of that war, a War Department was established and in 1872, the purchase system, whereby a man could purchase a commission as an officer in the military without having any training or experience, was abolished. Many felt that the purchase system was one of the causes of the debacle of the charge of the Light Brigade.
Thursday, February 24, 2011
The Victorian Period
Before analyzing To The Lighthouse further, it might be interesting to look more closely at the Victorian period. Queen Victoria reigned for sixty-four years, from 1837 to 1901. The period is usually divided into three parts: Early 1837-1851; Mid 1851-1875; and Late 1875-1901. In 1837, England’s economy was based mainly on agriculture and most of the population lived in the countryside. By the end of the period, 80% of the population lived in cities, Great Britain was an Empire upon which “the sun never set,” and it was the most powerful nation in the world.
There were many legislative reforms during the period. Several Reform Acts extended the right to vote. The one of 1884 gave the vote to most men and the requirement of land ownership for qualification to serve in the House of Commons was discontinued. It wasn’t until the Representation of the People Act of 1928 that women 21 years of age and over had the right to vote.
The Married Woman’s Property Act of 1870 gave wives control over their earnings. Before that married woman had no independent existence legally because, as Eighteenth Century jurist William Blackstone wrote, a husband and wife are “one person, and that person is the husband.” A wife could not sign a contract or make a will. (Think of the central dilemma in Ibsen’s A Doll’s House.) If she earned, owned or inherited anything, it legally belonged to her husband.
Several Factory Acts were passed controlling working conditions and limiting working hours. The Factory Act of 1874 established a maximum work week of fifty-six hours. (We have to keep in mind that women and children also worked in these factories. The machines invented during the Industrial Revolution made physical strength unnecessary to operate them. Women and children represented cheaper labor. Thus, Britain could make cloth, for example, cheaper and faster than other countries, making it the world’s leading exporter.) The Factory Act of 1844 required that children nine to thirteen years of age work no more than nine hours per day and that women and young people work no more than twelve hours per week day and nine hours on Sundays. (During the years of Black Plague in England in the Fourteenth Century, the Ordinance of Laborers was issued by Edward III. It made collective bargaining illegal. About one-third of the population in Europe, mainly peasants, had died during the Plague and the Ordinance was a way for the wealthy to control the cost of wages. The Ordinance was not repealed until the Statute Law Revision Act of 1863. Perhaps these are things that should be considered in today’s anti-union climate.)
Rail transportation made travel faster and more convenient. It also made the shipping of perishable goods possible thereby enriching the diets of many people. The telegraph made communication faster. Mass printing expanded literacy and made the Victorian one of the most literary periods to that point in history.
There were many legislative reforms during the period. Several Reform Acts extended the right to vote. The one of 1884 gave the vote to most men and the requirement of land ownership for qualification to serve in the House of Commons was discontinued. It wasn’t until the Representation of the People Act of 1928 that women 21 years of age and over had the right to vote.
The Married Woman’s Property Act of 1870 gave wives control over their earnings. Before that married woman had no independent existence legally because, as Eighteenth Century jurist William Blackstone wrote, a husband and wife are “one person, and that person is the husband.” A wife could not sign a contract or make a will. (Think of the central dilemma in Ibsen’s A Doll’s House.) If she earned, owned or inherited anything, it legally belonged to her husband.
Several Factory Acts were passed controlling working conditions and limiting working hours. The Factory Act of 1874 established a maximum work week of fifty-six hours. (We have to keep in mind that women and children also worked in these factories. The machines invented during the Industrial Revolution made physical strength unnecessary to operate them. Women and children represented cheaper labor. Thus, Britain could make cloth, for example, cheaper and faster than other countries, making it the world’s leading exporter.) The Factory Act of 1844 required that children nine to thirteen years of age work no more than nine hours per day and that women and young people work no more than twelve hours per week day and nine hours on Sundays. (During the years of Black Plague in England in the Fourteenth Century, the Ordinance of Laborers was issued by Edward III. It made collective bargaining illegal. About one-third of the population in Europe, mainly peasants, had died during the Plague and the Ordinance was a way for the wealthy to control the cost of wages. The Ordinance was not repealed until the Statute Law Revision Act of 1863. Perhaps these are things that should be considered in today’s anti-union climate.)
Rail transportation made travel faster and more convenient. It also made the shipping of perishable goods possible thereby enriching the diets of many people. The telegraph made communication faster. Mass printing expanded literacy and made the Victorian one of the most literary periods to that point in history.
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
To The Lighthouse...Lily (2)
In his book, Proust Was a Neuroscientist, Jonah Lehrer writes: “Though the brain is enclosed in a single skull, it is actually made of two separate lumps (the left and right hemispheres), which are designed to disagree with each other.” We see this process of dichotomy throughout To The Lighthouse as we move through the characters’ interior monologues. It’s probably clearest in Lily. Staying with the Ramsays, Lily realizes that she “was to be made to feel violently two opposite things at the same time; that’s what you feel, was one; that’s what I feel, was the other, and then they fought together in her mind” (102).
At several points she venerates Mrs. Ramsay, the image she presents and what she stands for: “’I’m in love with this all,’ waving her hand at the hedge, at the house, at the children” (19). “So that is marriage, Lily thought, a man and a woman looking at a girl throwing ball….the symbols of marriage, husband and wife” (72). During the dinner scene, looking at Mrs. Ramsay talking to William Banks, Lily thinks, “Why does she pity him? For that was the impression she gave….It was one of those misjudgments of hers that seemed to be instinctive and to arise from some need of her own rather than of other people’s. He is not in the least pitiable…Lily said to herself” (84). She sees Mrs. Ramsay’s qualities and her faults.
It is during the dinner that Lily decides to try an experiment. She knows that Mr. Tansley “wanted somebody to give him a chance of asserting himself….But, she thought…remembering how he sneered at women, ’can’t paint, can’t write,’ why should I help him to relieve himself?” However, she gives in finally and says, “Will you take me [to the lighthouse] Mr. Tansley?” (90-91).
“For, of course, if Mrs. Ramsay said to her, as in effect she did, ‘I am drowning, my dear, in seas of fire. Unless you apply some balm to the anguish of this hour and say something nice to that young man there, life will run upon the rocks--’…when Mrs. Ramsay said all this, as the glance in her eyes said it, of course for the hundred and fiftieth time Lily Briscoe had to renounce the experiment--what happens if one is not nice to that young man there--and be nice” (92).
And what are the consequences of Lily’s insincerity? “She would never know him. He would never know her. Human relations were all like that, she thought, and the worst…were between men and women. Inevitably these were extremely insincere she thought” (92). Lily knows instinctively that social manners affect something more important than the way a man feels or whether a party succeeds or not. She knows that those rules of etiquette inhibit any real understanding between people. The consequences of the Victorian habit of prizing appearance over reality, is that truth is lost.
At several points she venerates Mrs. Ramsay, the image she presents and what she stands for: “’I’m in love with this all,’ waving her hand at the hedge, at the house, at the children” (19). “So that is marriage, Lily thought, a man and a woman looking at a girl throwing ball….the symbols of marriage, husband and wife” (72). During the dinner scene, looking at Mrs. Ramsay talking to William Banks, Lily thinks, “Why does she pity him? For that was the impression she gave….It was one of those misjudgments of hers that seemed to be instinctive and to arise from some need of her own rather than of other people’s. He is not in the least pitiable…Lily said to herself” (84). She sees Mrs. Ramsay’s qualities and her faults.
It is during the dinner that Lily decides to try an experiment. She knows that Mr. Tansley “wanted somebody to give him a chance of asserting himself….But, she thought…remembering how he sneered at women, ’can’t paint, can’t write,’ why should I help him to relieve himself?” However, she gives in finally and says, “Will you take me [to the lighthouse] Mr. Tansley?” (90-91).
“For, of course, if Mrs. Ramsay said to her, as in effect she did, ‘I am drowning, my dear, in seas of fire. Unless you apply some balm to the anguish of this hour and say something nice to that young man there, life will run upon the rocks--’…when Mrs. Ramsay said all this, as the glance in her eyes said it, of course for the hundred and fiftieth time Lily Briscoe had to renounce the experiment--what happens if one is not nice to that young man there--and be nice” (92).
And what are the consequences of Lily’s insincerity? “She would never know him. He would never know her. Human relations were all like that, she thought, and the worst…were between men and women. Inevitably these were extremely insincere she thought” (92). Lily knows instinctively that social manners affect something more important than the way a man feels or whether a party succeeds or not. She knows that those rules of etiquette inhibit any real understanding between people. The consequences of the Victorian habit of prizing appearance over reality, is that truth is lost.
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
To The Lighthouse...Lily
We first see Lily at the end of chapter III in “The Window” section through Mrs. Ramsay’s rather patronizing eyes: She doesn’t believe Lily (who is 34) could ever marry--a major fault to Mrs. Ramsay; she likes Lily for her independent spirit; and she feels that “one could not take her painting very seriously” (17).
It is through Lily that Woolf explains the struggle of an artist, especially a female artist. In Britain women were barred from becoming members of the Royal Academy until 1922. It was through association with the Academy that artists were trained and where they could exhibit their works and get commissions for future works. In his “Academy Notes, 1875,” John Ruskin wrote, “I have always said no woman could paint.”
His comment is echoed by Mr. Tansley in To The Lighthouse: “How he sneered at women, ‘can’t paint, can’t write’” (91). The comment haunts Lily throughout the novel. “It was in that moment’s flight between the picture and her canvas that the demons set on her who often brought her to the verge of tears…She often felt herself struggling against terrific odds to maintain her courage…And it was then too, in the chill and windy way, as she began to paint, that there forced themselves upon her other things, her own inadequacy, her insignificance, keeping house for her father off the Brompton Road” (19).
Lily knows that she does not live up to the cultural ideal of femininity and feels depressed and often guilty that her aspirations are not “natural.” We often see her vacillation between what she wants to be and what she thinks she ought to be according to her social milieu. It is also through her perspective that we learn about the period and the people surrounding her.
It is through Lily that Woolf explains the struggle of an artist, especially a female artist. In Britain women were barred from becoming members of the Royal Academy until 1922. It was through association with the Academy that artists were trained and where they could exhibit their works and get commissions for future works. In his “Academy Notes, 1875,” John Ruskin wrote, “I have always said no woman could paint.”
His comment is echoed by Mr. Tansley in To The Lighthouse: “How he sneered at women, ‘can’t paint, can’t write’” (91). The comment haunts Lily throughout the novel. “It was in that moment’s flight between the picture and her canvas that the demons set on her who often brought her to the verge of tears…She often felt herself struggling against terrific odds to maintain her courage…And it was then too, in the chill and windy way, as she began to paint, that there forced themselves upon her other things, her own inadequacy, her insignificance, keeping house for her father off the Brompton Road” (19).
Lily knows that she does not live up to the cultural ideal of femininity and feels depressed and often guilty that her aspirations are not “natural.” We often see her vacillation between what she wants to be and what she thinks she ought to be according to her social milieu. It is also through her perspective that we learn about the period and the people surrounding her.
Monday, February 21, 2011
To The Lighthouse...Mrs. McNab
It seems to me that at the end of "Time Passes" Woolf suggests that Mrs. McNab and what she represents will save the house/world from chaos. Woolf gives a concise biography. Mrs. McNab is seventy and her life has been one of hard work and drudgery. She has "incorrigible hope" which Woolf contrasts to "the mystic, the visionary, walking the beach...stirring a puddle, looking at a stone, asking themselves 'What am I,' 'What is this?'" (131). We could equate the visionary with the Ramsays/upper middle-class Victorians. Woolf's contrast seems to be that though the idealist may be necessary to the progress of the world, it is the pragmatist's work that will save the world and keep it in order.
We could equate the idealist's visions to the technologies of the Industrial Revolution that made life better, faster, richer. The idealists, however, could not see beyond the vision and those technical advances were used against civilization during World War I. (One example is that this is the first war where airplanes were used to drop bombs on cities.) On the other hand, the pragmatist can see the consequences and feels disapproval. Four times in the section Woolf has Mrs. McNab looking ("leering" is used several times) in the mirror and this "seeing" is always associated with hope, at one point described as "incorrigible," that is, hope that cannot be destroyed, uprooted; hope that stays regardless of upheaval.
"If the feather had fallen, if it had tipped the scale downwards, the whole house would have plunged to the depths to lie upon the sands of oblivion" (139). If Germany had won the war, civilization as the British knew it would have been doomed. "But there was a force working; something not highly conscious; something that leered, something that lurched; something not inspired to go about its work with dignified ritual or solemn chanting....Mrs. McNab, Mrs. Bast, stayed the corruption and the rot...[Thus] some rusty laborious birth seemed to be taking place" (139).
By the end of chapter IX, the house and garden are cleaned and put in order. "It was finished" (141) here refers to the cleaning of the house but it can also represent the rebuilding of the post-war world. "It was finished" is also the phrase Lily uses at the end of the novel when she completes her painting. Change is echoed by Woolf in this repreated phrase.
We could equate the idealist's visions to the technologies of the Industrial Revolution that made life better, faster, richer. The idealists, however, could not see beyond the vision and those technical advances were used against civilization during World War I. (One example is that this is the first war where airplanes were used to drop bombs on cities.) On the other hand, the pragmatist can see the consequences and feels disapproval. Four times in the section Woolf has Mrs. McNab looking ("leering" is used several times) in the mirror and this "seeing" is always associated with hope, at one point described as "incorrigible," that is, hope that cannot be destroyed, uprooted; hope that stays regardless of upheaval.
"If the feather had fallen, if it had tipped the scale downwards, the whole house would have plunged to the depths to lie upon the sands of oblivion" (139). If Germany had won the war, civilization as the British knew it would have been doomed. "But there was a force working; something not highly conscious; something that leered, something that lurched; something not inspired to go about its work with dignified ritual or solemn chanting....Mrs. McNab, Mrs. Bast, stayed the corruption and the rot...[Thus] some rusty laborious birth seemed to be taking place" (139).
By the end of chapter IX, the house and garden are cleaned and put in order. "It was finished" (141) here refers to the cleaning of the house but it can also represent the rebuilding of the post-war world. "It was finished" is also the phrase Lily uses at the end of the novel when she completes her painting. Change is echoed by Woolf in this repreated phrase.
Saturday, February 19, 2011
To The Lighthouse...Symbols
The shawl and boar's skull are mentioned throughout "Time Passes" where Woolf makes us imagine "being" in an empty house. On page 130 we are given this description: "Once only a board sprang on the landing; once in the middle of the night with a roar, with a rupture, as after centuries of quiescence, a rock rends itself from the mountain and hurtles crashing into the valley, one fold of the shawl loosened and swung to and fro." The shawl is compared to a rock, something substantial, natural, accepted. Time has made the thing seem secure, unchangeable. But after centuries of inactivity the rock does what seems unnatural: it falls into the valley. This is an image of unexpected destruction. If we read the shawl as concealment, the image is one of disclosure, exposing what is covered up underneath.
On page 133 we see the shawl again: "But slumber and sleep though it may there came later in the summer ominous sounds like the measured blows of hammers dulled on felt, which, with their repeated shocks still further loosened the shawl and cracked the tea-cups." The time is after August, 1914, and World War I is underway. In fact, the bombs "cause" the further loosening of the shawl. On the same page, in squared brackets, we learn that Andrew Ramsay, now a soldier, was killed in that bombing.
The beast's skull "gone mouldy" is seen by Mrs. McNab, the caretaker. Then we again see the shawl: "The house was left; the house was deserted. It was left like a shell on a sandhill to fill with dry salt grains now that life had left it. The long night seemed to have set in; the trifling airs, nibbling, the clammy breaths, fumbling, seemed to have triumphed. The saucepan had rusted and the mat decayed. Toads had nosed their way in. Idly, aimlessly, the swaying shawl swung to and fro." If we take the house to represent the structure of Victorian society, the war has destroyed the Victorian way of life. The shawl--that Victorian tendency to ignore or even hide unpleasantness--is coming undone and the beast's skull--the greed of Europe's imperialistic politics--is being exposed to wreck havoc in the world.
The symbolism of this section is working to reveal the mess of war and the mess that the world is in: Swallows are nested in the drawing room, poppies are among the dahlias and the artichokes are among the roses. (Woolf refers to "poppies" several times. The obvious reference is the famous war poem "In Flanders Fields" by John McCrae.) There is no order here but only chaos. What caused the chaos, what caused the war? I'd suggest that Woolf is questioning the viability of the Victorian dream "that good triumphs, happiness prevails, order rules" (132).
However, notice the qualifiers: "The long night seemed to have set in"; "the trifling airs...seemed to have triumphed." What can stop them?
On page 133 we see the shawl again: "But slumber and sleep though it may there came later in the summer ominous sounds like the measured blows of hammers dulled on felt, which, with their repeated shocks still further loosened the shawl and cracked the tea-cups." The time is after August, 1914, and World War I is underway. In fact, the bombs "cause" the further loosening of the shawl. On the same page, in squared brackets, we learn that Andrew Ramsay, now a soldier, was killed in that bombing.
The beast's skull "gone mouldy" is seen by Mrs. McNab, the caretaker. Then we again see the shawl: "The house was left; the house was deserted. It was left like a shell on a sandhill to fill with dry salt grains now that life had left it. The long night seemed to have set in; the trifling airs, nibbling, the clammy breaths, fumbling, seemed to have triumphed. The saucepan had rusted and the mat decayed. Toads had nosed their way in. Idly, aimlessly, the swaying shawl swung to and fro." If we take the house to represent the structure of Victorian society, the war has destroyed the Victorian way of life. The shawl--that Victorian tendency to ignore or even hide unpleasantness--is coming undone and the beast's skull--the greed of Europe's imperialistic politics--is being exposed to wreck havoc in the world.
The symbolism of this section is working to reveal the mess of war and the mess that the world is in: Swallows are nested in the drawing room, poppies are among the dahlias and the artichokes are among the roses. (Woolf refers to "poppies" several times. The obvious reference is the famous war poem "In Flanders Fields" by John McCrae.) There is no order here but only chaos. What caused the chaos, what caused the war? I'd suggest that Woolf is questioning the viability of the Victorian dream "that good triumphs, happiness prevails, order rules" (132).
However, notice the qualifiers: "The long night seemed to have set in"; "the trifling airs...seemed to have triumphed." What can stop them?
Friday, February 18, 2011
The Angel in the House...2
Mrs. Ramsay represents much of what is good about the Victorian period. She is a good wife and mother, supporting her family with her love and concern. In a scene near the end of "The Window" (pages 114-115) she diplomatically solves an argument between James and Cam. A boar's skull has been nailed to their nursery wall and the shadows cast by its horns scare Cam and she wants it removed. However, James insists that the skull not be touched. Mrs. Ramsay needs to placate both of them.
"'Well then,' she said, 'we will cover it up' and...she quickly took her own shawl off and wound it round the skull, round and round and round, and then she came back to Cam and laid her head almost flat on the pillow beside Cam's and said how lovely it looked now; how the fairies would love it; it was like a bird's nest; it was like a beautiful mountain...until she sat upright and saw that Cam was asleep. Now, she whispered, crossing over to his bed, James must go to sleep too, for see, she said, the boar's skull was still there; they had done just what he wanted."
Mrs. Ramsay has taken a situation that could have escalated into a fight between siblings, solved it, and brought peace. Her solution, however, is a cover-up, depicting another aspect of the Victorian character. In his book The Victorian Frame of Mind, Walter E Houghton describes this aspect as "an unfortunate strain of hypocrisy" wherein the Victorians "concealed or suppressed their true convictions...[and] sacrificed sincerity to propriety....They refused to look at life candidly. They shut their eyes to whatever was ugly or unpleasant and pretended it didn't exist" (394-395).
Mrs. Ramsay's solution is, in fact, evasion. She has hidden the skull and given it an acceptable appearance, but the skull is still there. The trouble with covering up a problem is that the problem remains and can develop into something worse. We can understand this by viewing the skull and shawl as symbols when Woolf describes them in the "Time Passes" section.
"'Well then,' she said, 'we will cover it up' and...she quickly took her own shawl off and wound it round the skull, round and round and round, and then she came back to Cam and laid her head almost flat on the pillow beside Cam's and said how lovely it looked now; how the fairies would love it; it was like a bird's nest; it was like a beautiful mountain...until she sat upright and saw that Cam was asleep. Now, she whispered, crossing over to his bed, James must go to sleep too, for see, she said, the boar's skull was still there; they had done just what he wanted."
Mrs. Ramsay has taken a situation that could have escalated into a fight between siblings, solved it, and brought peace. Her solution, however, is a cover-up, depicting another aspect of the Victorian character. In his book The Victorian Frame of Mind, Walter E Houghton describes this aspect as "an unfortunate strain of hypocrisy" wherein the Victorians "concealed or suppressed their true convictions...[and] sacrificed sincerity to propriety....They refused to look at life candidly. They shut their eyes to whatever was ugly or unpleasant and pretended it didn't exist" (394-395).
Mrs. Ramsay's solution is, in fact, evasion. She has hidden the skull and given it an acceptable appearance, but the skull is still there. The trouble with covering up a problem is that the problem remains and can develop into something worse. We can understand this by viewing the skull and shawl as symbols when Woolf describes them in the "Time Passes" section.
Thursday, February 17, 2011
The Angel in the House
The title is taken from a popular poem, a panegyric to marital bliss from the Victorian male's perspective, written by Coventry Patmore and first published in 1854. (It was reprinted in 1896 and its popularity--second only to Tennyson's "Idylls of the King"--was in part a response by conservatives to the growing feminist movement.) The wife is described as "devout/Her countenance angelical.../Her modesty, her chiefest grace.../In mind and manners how discreet.../How amiable and innocent.../Her will's indomitably bent/On mere submissiveness to him."
For me, this describes Mrs. Ramsay. I don't know that Woolf consciously meant to portray Mrs. Ramsay as the Angel however. In a paper she read to the Women's Service League on January 31, 1931, titled "Professions for Women," Woolf describes the Angel in the House, in part as a parody of Patmore's poem: "She was intensely sympathetic. She was immensely charming. She was utterly unselfish. She excelled in the difficult arts of family life. She sacrificed herself daily...Her purity was supposed to be her chief beauty--her blushes, her great grace. In those days--the last of Queen Victoria--every house had its Angel."
Woolf's problem as a writer was that this "phantom" got in the way and tried to guide her writing, whispering to her: "'My dear, you are a young woman. You are writing about a book that has been written by a man. Be sympathetic; be tender; flatter; deceive; use all the arts and wiles of our sex. Never let anybody guess that you have a mind of your own.'" Woolf's solution to the problem was to kill the Angel: "I took up the inkpot and flung it at her." "Had I not killed her she would have killed me."
In Lighthouse Mrs. Ramsay's daughters want to rebel against the Angel's philosophy (chapter I, page 7): "She was now formidable to behold, and it was only in silence, looking up from their plates, after she had spoken so severly about Charles Tansley, that her daughters, Prue, Nancy, Rose--could sport with infidel ideas which they had brewed for themselves of a life different from hers; in Paris, perhaps; a wilder life; not always taking care of some man or other."
In the next sentence, however, her daughters honor their mother's "strange severity, her extreme courtesy." Woolf is portraying the complicated relationship between mother and daughters, representing the Victorian generation and the Modern generation. This portrayal is another theme that Woolf is suggesting from her post World War I perspective. Many of her generation blamed their parents' generation for that war. However, they also recognized the strengths of the Victorians and we'll see many examples of this conflict in the novel.
For me, this describes Mrs. Ramsay. I don't know that Woolf consciously meant to portray Mrs. Ramsay as the Angel however. In a paper she read to the Women's Service League on January 31, 1931, titled "Professions for Women," Woolf describes the Angel in the House, in part as a parody of Patmore's poem: "She was intensely sympathetic. She was immensely charming. She was utterly unselfish. She excelled in the difficult arts of family life. She sacrificed herself daily...Her purity was supposed to be her chief beauty--her blushes, her great grace. In those days--the last of Queen Victoria--every house had its Angel."
Woolf's problem as a writer was that this "phantom" got in the way and tried to guide her writing, whispering to her: "'My dear, you are a young woman. You are writing about a book that has been written by a man. Be sympathetic; be tender; flatter; deceive; use all the arts and wiles of our sex. Never let anybody guess that you have a mind of your own.'" Woolf's solution to the problem was to kill the Angel: "I took up the inkpot and flung it at her." "Had I not killed her she would have killed me."
In Lighthouse Mrs. Ramsay's daughters want to rebel against the Angel's philosophy (chapter I, page 7): "She was now formidable to behold, and it was only in silence, looking up from their plates, after she had spoken so severly about Charles Tansley, that her daughters, Prue, Nancy, Rose--could sport with infidel ideas which they had brewed for themselves of a life different from hers; in Paris, perhaps; a wilder life; not always taking care of some man or other."
In the next sentence, however, her daughters honor their mother's "strange severity, her extreme courtesy." Woolf is portraying the complicated relationship between mother and daughters, representing the Victorian generation and the Modern generation. This portrayal is another theme that Woolf is suggesting from her post World War I perspective. Many of her generation blamed their parents' generation for that war. However, they also recognized the strengths of the Victorians and we'll see many examples of this conflict in the novel.
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
To The Lighthouse...Mrs. Ramsay
I consider Mrs. Ramsay to be the "Angel of the House," by which I mean the Victorian ideal woman: She is devoted to her children and submissive to her husband. We see this very clearly in the scene in chapter VI of "The Window" section (page 33 in most editions) when Mr. Ramsay loses his temper and says "Damn you" to her. (This is a very unusual thing for him to do and he is immediately contrite.)
Mrs. Ramsay goes from this thought: "To pursue truth with such astonishing lack of consideration for other people's feelings, to rend the thin veils of civilisation so wantonly, so brutally, was to her so horrible an outrage of human decency that, without replying, dazed and blinded, she bent her head as if to let the pelt of jagged hail, the drench of dirty water, bespatter her unrebuked," to this thought: "There was nobody whom she reverenced as she reverenced him....She was not good enough to tie his shoe strings, she felt."
Her dilemma here is that the husband she adores has just spoiled the plans of an outting that her favorite and youngest child, James, had been looking forward to. (We'll get back to this scene from Mr. Ramsay's perspective later.) Who should she protect?
In her role as Angel, Mrs. Ramsay idealizes the male. "Indeed, she had the whole of the other sex under her protection: for reasons she could not explain, for their chivalry and valour, for the fact that they negotiated treaties, ruled India, controlled finance....and woe betide the girl--pray Heaven it was none of her daughters!--who did not feel the worth of it, and all that it implied, to the marrow of her bones!"
It seems to me that hers are all the wrong reasons to honor men. She blindly supports the patriarchal tradition which she seems to consider the natural state of things and wants to indoctrinate younger women in her beliefs. And what do her daughters feel? More on the Angel tomorrow.
Mrs. Ramsay goes from this thought: "To pursue truth with such astonishing lack of consideration for other people's feelings, to rend the thin veils of civilisation so wantonly, so brutally, was to her so horrible an outrage of human decency that, without replying, dazed and blinded, she bent her head as if to let the pelt of jagged hail, the drench of dirty water, bespatter her unrebuked," to this thought: "There was nobody whom she reverenced as she reverenced him....She was not good enough to tie his shoe strings, she felt."
Her dilemma here is that the husband she adores has just spoiled the plans of an outting that her favorite and youngest child, James, had been looking forward to. (We'll get back to this scene from Mr. Ramsay's perspective later.) Who should she protect?
In her role as Angel, Mrs. Ramsay idealizes the male. "Indeed, she had the whole of the other sex under her protection: for reasons she could not explain, for their chivalry and valour, for the fact that they negotiated treaties, ruled India, controlled finance....and woe betide the girl--pray Heaven it was none of her daughters!--who did not feel the worth of it, and all that it implied, to the marrow of her bones!"
It seems to me that hers are all the wrong reasons to honor men. She blindly supports the patriarchal tradition which she seems to consider the natural state of things and wants to indoctrinate younger women in her beliefs. And what do her daughters feel? More on the Angel tomorrow.
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
To The Lighthouse...Introduction
My students always find Woolf's novel extremely challenging. I always tell them not to worry about it but to go with the flow of the prose and it will become easier to follow the "meaning."
The difficulty is that Woolf's stream of consciousness technique in this novel is indirect interior monologue. (For those familiar with James Joyce's Ulysses, the narrative there is direct interior monologue: The reader always knows whose mind is thinking/telling the story.) In Lighthouse, the narrative is sometimes from the omniscient narrator, and at other times it flows through the minds of the various characters. There is also direct dialog and sometimes unspoken dialog. (We can look at specific examples later.) There is also no traditional plot. Woolf is exploring changes in social values from the Victorian to the Modern periods through "ordinary" people on ordinary days.
The novel is divided into three parts. In "The Window" section present time is from 6PM to approximately 11PM on a day in the middle of September, 1909, at the Ramsay's summer home on the Isle of Skye. We are in a Victorian domestic setting. (Queen Victoria died in 1901. However, Mr. and Mrs. Ramsay, 60 and 50 years of age, are products of that era.)
The shortest section is "Time Passes" which covers the next ten years, including World War I. The narration in this section is extremely interesting because the setting is the empty summer home and "certain airs" seem to narrate parts of it. Reality is described in squared brackets.
The third section is "The Lighthouse" and involves the survivors returning to the summer home one day in late summer, 1919.
This novel is the most autobiographical of any of Woolf's fiction. She is describing, in the first section, her parents and family. Her sister, the painter Vanessa Bell, wrote this in a letter to Woolf after first reading the novel (which was published in 1927):
"I think I am more incapable than anyone else in the world of making an aesthetic judgement on it--only I know that I have somewhere a feeling about it as a work of art which will perhaps gradually take shape & which must be enormously strong to make any impression on me at all beside the other feelings which you roused in me....It seemed to me in the first part of the book you have given a portrait of mother which is more like her to me than anything I could ever have conceived of as possible. It is almost painful to have her so raised from the dead...It was like meeting her again with onself grown up & on equal terms....You have given father too I think as clearly, but perhaps...that isn't quite so difficult....So you see as far as portrait painting goes you seem to me to be a supreme artist & it is so shattering to find oneself face to face with those two again that I can hardly consider anything else."
I'd like to look at the portrait of Mrs. Ramsay first.
The difficulty is that Woolf's stream of consciousness technique in this novel is indirect interior monologue. (For those familiar with James Joyce's Ulysses, the narrative there is direct interior monologue: The reader always knows whose mind is thinking/telling the story.) In Lighthouse, the narrative is sometimes from the omniscient narrator, and at other times it flows through the minds of the various characters. There is also direct dialog and sometimes unspoken dialog. (We can look at specific examples later.) There is also no traditional plot. Woolf is exploring changes in social values from the Victorian to the Modern periods through "ordinary" people on ordinary days.
The novel is divided into three parts. In "The Window" section present time is from 6PM to approximately 11PM on a day in the middle of September, 1909, at the Ramsay's summer home on the Isle of Skye. We are in a Victorian domestic setting. (Queen Victoria died in 1901. However, Mr. and Mrs. Ramsay, 60 and 50 years of age, are products of that era.)
The shortest section is "Time Passes" which covers the next ten years, including World War I. The narration in this section is extremely interesting because the setting is the empty summer home and "certain airs" seem to narrate parts of it. Reality is described in squared brackets.
The third section is "The Lighthouse" and involves the survivors returning to the summer home one day in late summer, 1919.
This novel is the most autobiographical of any of Woolf's fiction. She is describing, in the first section, her parents and family. Her sister, the painter Vanessa Bell, wrote this in a letter to Woolf after first reading the novel (which was published in 1927):
"I think I am more incapable than anyone else in the world of making an aesthetic judgement on it--only I know that I have somewhere a feeling about it as a work of art which will perhaps gradually take shape & which must be enormously strong to make any impression on me at all beside the other feelings which you roused in me....It seemed to me in the first part of the book you have given a portrait of mother which is more like her to me than anything I could ever have conceived of as possible. It is almost painful to have her so raised from the dead...It was like meeting her again with onself grown up & on equal terms....You have given father too I think as clearly, but perhaps...that isn't quite so difficult....So you see as far as portrait painting goes you seem to me to be a supreme artist & it is so shattering to find oneself face to face with those two again that I can hardly consider anything else."
I'd like to look at the portrait of Mrs. Ramsay first.
Monday, February 14, 2011
Literature and Science
I'm reading Proust was a Neuroscientist by Jonah Lehrer. In essays he portrays eight artists from the Modern Period (late 19th through 20th centuries) and looks at their insights into the ways the mind works. He includes writers as well as Cezanne, Stravinsky, and interestingly Auguste Escoffier. I jumped to the chapter on Virginia Woolf which he subtitles "The Emergent Self." I'm going to read all eight essays but I want to compare his analysis with Woolf's To The Lighthouse.
He says something specifically that relates to Woolf's use of the stream-of-consciousness technique which I find fascinating: "Experiment after experiment has shown that any given experience can endure for about ten seconds in short-term memory. After that, the brain exhausts its capacity for the present tense, and its new consciousness must begin anew, with a new stream. As the modernists anticipated, the permanent-seeming self is actually an endless procession of disjointed moments."
Woolf believed that during an ordinary day one experienced what she called "moments of being" in which perception, intuition and truth seem to come together. She portrays this throughout Lighthouse. Reading about the science and applying it to the literature is going to be fun!
He says something specifically that relates to Woolf's use of the stream-of-consciousness technique which I find fascinating: "Experiment after experiment has shown that any given experience can endure for about ten seconds in short-term memory. After that, the brain exhausts its capacity for the present tense, and its new consciousness must begin anew, with a new stream. As the modernists anticipated, the permanent-seeming self is actually an endless procession of disjointed moments."
Woolf believed that during an ordinary day one experienced what she called "moments of being" in which perception, intuition and truth seem to come together. She portrays this throughout Lighthouse. Reading about the science and applying it to the literature is going to be fun!
Sunday, February 13, 2011
Authors...?
This actually seems to be more of a monolog than a dialog but what author should we discuss next?
Saturday, February 12, 2011
Pride and Prejudice...6
To us Elizabeth and Darcy seem the most sensible characters in the novel. However, in Austen's day they were very unconventional. Elizabeth will only marry for love no matter what the consequences. Darcy, the single man in possession of a good fortune, seems to have very specific qualifications when it comes to an "accomplished" woman.
In a discussion of the subject in Chapter VIII (on one page Austen uses "accomplished" six times), Bingley says, "They all paint tables, cover skreens and net purses. I scarcely know any one who cannot do all this, and I am sure I never heard a young lady spoken of for the first time, without being informed that she was very accomplished." To that his sister adds, "A woman must have a thorough knowledge of music, singing, drawing, dancing, and the modern languages, to deserve the word; and besides all this, she must possess a certain something in her air and manner of walking, the tone of her voice, her address and expressions, or the word will be but half deserved." Darcy says, "All this she must possess and to all this she must yet add something more substantial, in the improvement of her mind by extensive reading."
What kind of woman have Bingley and his sister described? Darcy on the other hand is not buying the advice of the conduct books which claim that a woman should not appear to be intelligent even if she is.
That customed changed gradually. In 1871, Newnham College was founded in Cambridge. It was a woman's college. The students, however, could not receive a degree only a certificate. The college did not gain full membership in the university until 1948 and it wasn't until the 1970s that some of the men's colleges admitted women. What would Austen think of our progress?
In a discussion of the subject in Chapter VIII (on one page Austen uses "accomplished" six times), Bingley says, "They all paint tables, cover skreens and net purses. I scarcely know any one who cannot do all this, and I am sure I never heard a young lady spoken of for the first time, without being informed that she was very accomplished." To that his sister adds, "A woman must have a thorough knowledge of music, singing, drawing, dancing, and the modern languages, to deserve the word; and besides all this, she must possess a certain something in her air and manner of walking, the tone of her voice, her address and expressions, or the word will be but half deserved." Darcy says, "All this she must possess and to all this she must yet add something more substantial, in the improvement of her mind by extensive reading."
What kind of woman have Bingley and his sister described? Darcy on the other hand is not buying the advice of the conduct books which claim that a woman should not appear to be intelligent even if she is.
That customed changed gradually. In 1871, Newnham College was founded in Cambridge. It was a woman's college. The students, however, could not receive a degree only a certificate. The college did not gain full membership in the university until 1948 and it wasn't until the 1970s that some of the men's colleges admitted women. What would Austen think of our progress?
Friday, February 11, 2011
Pride and Prejudice...5
Lady Catherine de Bourgh is the aunt of Darcy, sister of his mother. (Her father was an earl. We know it was her father who had the title because she is called "Lady Catherine." If it had been her husband who had the title she would be called Lady de Bourgh.) Austen satirizes this character by portraying her not as dignified, but as ludicrous as Mrs. Bennet.
One of the first things we learn about Lady Catherine is that "she likes to have the distinction of rank preserved." In other words, she does not question the social hierarchy since she is among the "highest." Some of the problems with this hierarchy are that rank is determined by birth not merit; it keeps power (social and political) in the hands of a few and leaves no opportunities for anyone else; relationships between humans are fixed (one was not supposed to marry outside of one's "class") and are determined by social structure.
If we consider Lady Catherine's infamous visit to Elizabeth's home after hearing rumors of an engagement between Elizabeth and Darcy (whom Lady Catherine wants her own daughter to marry--first cousins often married at the time, especially if it combined estates), we see her at her "finest":
Elizabeth has asked why she should not accept Darcy. "Because honour, decorum, prudence, nay, interest, forbit it. Yes, Miss Bennet, interest; for do not expect to be noticed by his family or friends, if you wilfully act against the inclinations of all. You will be censured, slighted, and despised, by every one connected with him. Your alliance will be a disgrace; your name will never even be mentioned by any of us....If you were sensible of your own good, you would not wish to quit the sphere, in which you have been brought up."
Austen is showing what is oppressive about the power of rank and wealth. Lady Catherine is bigoted and snobbish and overbearing in her assumption of superiority. I think this demonstrates what absolute power does to an individual and to society.
One of the first things we learn about Lady Catherine is that "she likes to have the distinction of rank preserved." In other words, she does not question the social hierarchy since she is among the "highest." Some of the problems with this hierarchy are that rank is determined by birth not merit; it keeps power (social and political) in the hands of a few and leaves no opportunities for anyone else; relationships between humans are fixed (one was not supposed to marry outside of one's "class") and are determined by social structure.
If we consider Lady Catherine's infamous visit to Elizabeth's home after hearing rumors of an engagement between Elizabeth and Darcy (whom Lady Catherine wants her own daughter to marry--first cousins often married at the time, especially if it combined estates), we see her at her "finest":
Elizabeth has asked why she should not accept Darcy. "Because honour, decorum, prudence, nay, interest, forbit it. Yes, Miss Bennet, interest; for do not expect to be noticed by his family or friends, if you wilfully act against the inclinations of all. You will be censured, slighted, and despised, by every one connected with him. Your alliance will be a disgrace; your name will never even be mentioned by any of us....If you were sensible of your own good, you would not wish to quit the sphere, in which you have been brought up."
Austen is showing what is oppressive about the power of rank and wealth. Lady Catherine is bigoted and snobbish and overbearing in her assumption of superiority. I think this demonstrates what absolute power does to an individual and to society.
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Pride and Prejudice...4
Another character we dislike through Austen's satirical portrait is Mr. Collins, the one who will inherit the Bennet estate after Mr. Bennet dies. At the beginning of Chapter XV, the narrator describes him this way:
"Mr. Collins was not a sensible man, and the deficiency of nature had been but little assisted by education or society."
He is presented as a ridiculous man. However, in asking for Elizabeth's hand in marriage he is doing his duty. If she married him, Mrs. Bennet and her daughters would still have their home. In declining his offer, Elizabeth is not doing her duty and is, in fact, being selfish.
Of course Mr. Collins presents another problem with the entail system: The younger sons who did not inherit money or estate often went into the clergy even though they had no interest in the profession. They like Mr. Collins often received "the living" on a large estate. Mr. Collins was given the living of Hunsford by Lady Catherine de Bourgh, his patroness.
"Mr. Collins was not a sensible man, and the deficiency of nature had been but little assisted by education or society."
He is presented as a ridiculous man. However, in asking for Elizabeth's hand in marriage he is doing his duty. If she married him, Mrs. Bennet and her daughters would still have their home. In declining his offer, Elizabeth is not doing her duty and is, in fact, being selfish.
Of course Mr. Collins presents another problem with the entail system: The younger sons who did not inherit money or estate often went into the clergy even though they had no interest in the profession. They like Mr. Collins often received "the living" on a large estate. Mr. Collins was given the living of Hunsford by Lady Catherine de Bourgh, his patroness.
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Pride and Prejudice...3
It seems to me that one of the ways the satire works in this novel is that the reader is made to dislike the three characters who are following the social norms: Mrs. Bennet, Mr. Collins and Lady Catherine.
Mrs. Bennet is made to seem a silly and, on occasion, hysterical woman. But in trying to find husbands for her daughters, she is doing her duty. It is Mr. Bennet and his apparent indifference who is the worse parent. We do see that he is, in fact, concerned about the entail and his inability to make provisions for his family. However, he enjoys taunting his wife. Of his two youngest daughters, he says: "From all that I can collect by your manner of talking, you must be two of the silliest girls in the country. I have suspected it some time, but I am now convinced."
The silliness in females is another focus of Austen's satire: the lack of formal education for women who were not allowed to attend "public" schools or to go to university. If a woman could not have a career or be involved in politics, why should she have such an education? According to one of the popular conduct books of the day, Sermons for Young Women, by James Fordyce (this is the book that Mr. Collins chooses to read out loud to the young ladies one day after tea): "As a small amount of knowledge enterains a woman, so from a woman a small expression of kindness delights, particularly if she has beauty....Be ever cautious in displaying your good sense. It will be thought you assume superiority over the rest of the company. But if you have any learning, keep it a profound secret especially from the men, who generally look with a jealous and malignant eye on a woman of great parts and a cultivated understanding."
Who in the novel disregards this advice?
Mrs. Bennet is made to seem a silly and, on occasion, hysterical woman. But in trying to find husbands for her daughters, she is doing her duty. It is Mr. Bennet and his apparent indifference who is the worse parent. We do see that he is, in fact, concerned about the entail and his inability to make provisions for his family. However, he enjoys taunting his wife. Of his two youngest daughters, he says: "From all that I can collect by your manner of talking, you must be two of the silliest girls in the country. I have suspected it some time, but I am now convinced."
The silliness in females is another focus of Austen's satire: the lack of formal education for women who were not allowed to attend "public" schools or to go to university. If a woman could not have a career or be involved in politics, why should she have such an education? According to one of the popular conduct books of the day, Sermons for Young Women, by James Fordyce (this is the book that Mr. Collins chooses to read out loud to the young ladies one day after tea): "As a small amount of knowledge enterains a woman, so from a woman a small expression of kindness delights, particularly if she has beauty....Be ever cautious in displaying your good sense. It will be thought you assume superiority over the rest of the company. But if you have any learning, keep it a profound secret especially from the men, who generally look with a jealous and malignant eye on a woman of great parts and a cultivated understanding."
Who in the novel disregards this advice?
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
Monday, February 7, 2011
Pride and Prejudice
As with Austen's other novels, this is a comedy of manners in which she satirizes the gentry class, its rules and manners, of her time. The purpose of satire, of course, is to bring about social change.
The dilemma in this novel, published in 1813, is that the Bennets have five daughters, no sons, and the Longbourn estate is entailed. When Mr. Bennet dies the estate will go to a distant cousin, the next male in line to inherit, Mr. Collins. Mrs. Bennet and her daughters will have to leave their home and they will have to live on 200 pounds per year. That is why the "business of her life was to get her daughters married."
One of the ironic meanings of the novel's first line is that the law and custom of entail necessitates marriages of "convenience." This is expressed most clearly by the pragmatic Charlotte Lucas, the 27 year old friend of Elizabeth: "Without thinking highly either of men or of matrimony, marriage had always been her object; it was the only honouable provision for well-educated young women of small fortune, and however uncertain of giving happiness, must be their pleasantest preservative from want."
In one sense hilarious but in another tragic.
The dilemma in this novel, published in 1813, is that the Bennets have five daughters, no sons, and the Longbourn estate is entailed. When Mr. Bennet dies the estate will go to a distant cousin, the next male in line to inherit, Mr. Collins. Mrs. Bennet and her daughters will have to leave their home and they will have to live on 200 pounds per year. That is why the "business of her life was to get her daughters married."
One of the ironic meanings of the novel's first line is that the law and custom of entail necessitates marriages of "convenience." This is expressed most clearly by the pragmatic Charlotte Lucas, the 27 year old friend of Elizabeth: "Without thinking highly either of men or of matrimony, marriage had always been her object; it was the only honouable provision for well-educated young women of small fortune, and however uncertain of giving happiness, must be their pleasantest preservative from want."
In one sense hilarious but in another tragic.
Saturday, February 5, 2011
Authors...Jane Austen 2
Melanie is right. The first sentence is disturbing. I think that is Austen's purpose. It's an ironic statement and can, thus, be read in different ways. It has to do with her satire which I want to get into more in another post.
In one sense, the statement ("It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife") is quite literally true. In 19th Century England, a single man who inherited an estate had to have a legitimate male heir or the estate could be disbursed. It was part of the entail/primogeniture system which I want to look at further in another post.
I agree with Melanie: I'm glad things have changed. I think Jane is smiling.
In one sense, the statement ("It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife") is quite literally true. In 19th Century England, a single man who inherited an estate had to have a legitimate male heir or the estate could be disbursed. It was part of the entail/primogeniture system which I want to look at further in another post.
I agree with Melanie: I'm glad things have changed. I think Jane is smiling.
Friday, February 4, 2011
Authors...Jane Austen
Pride and Prejudice has one of my favorite opening lines:
"It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife."
What does it mean?
"It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife."
What does it mean?
Thursday, February 3, 2011
Old English Poetry
The structure of Old English poetry is interesting. As with ancient Greek poetry, Old English poetry was based on an oral tradition. The poet, called a scop, performed and recited the poetry accompanied by a musical instrument, probably a harp. The Greek rhapsoid (we derive rhapsody from the word) was accompanied by a lyre--a small stringed instrument.
Old English poetry uses alliteration. Each line is divided in half by a caesura and there are two stressed syllables in each half line. The first stressed syllable of the second half line alliterates with the stressed syllables of the first half line. An example can be found in the lines from Beowulf already quoted:
Da com of more under misthleothum
Grendel gongan Godes yrre baer
A figure of speech used in the poetry is the kenning, similar to a metaphor. (The word is derived from the Old Norse kenna, to make known. We use "ken" today in a similar way.) It reminds me of the formulaic devices used by the Greek rhapsoid to aid in memory: the dawn has "rose-red fingers." Epithets were also used: Odysseus is often referred to as "the man of twists and turns." An example of a kenning is in another line from Beowulf previously quoted:
Com on wanre niht
Scithan sceadugenga.
Grendel is the gliding walker in darkness.
Beautiful imagery I think.
Old English poetry uses alliteration. Each line is divided in half by a caesura and there are two stressed syllables in each half line. The first stressed syllable of the second half line alliterates with the stressed syllables of the first half line. An example can be found in the lines from Beowulf already quoted:
Da com of more under misthleothum
Grendel gongan Godes yrre baer
A figure of speech used in the poetry is the kenning, similar to a metaphor. (The word is derived from the Old Norse kenna, to make known. We use "ken" today in a similar way.) It reminds me of the formulaic devices used by the Greek rhapsoid to aid in memory: the dawn has "rose-red fingers." Epithets were also used: Odysseus is often referred to as "the man of twists and turns." An example of a kenning is in another line from Beowulf previously quoted:
Com on wanre niht
Scithan sceadugenga.
Grendel is the gliding walker in darkness.
Beautiful imagery I think.
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
Old English "Thorn"
It was fun reading Melanie's translation of the line from Beowulf in yesterday's post. It made me wish I had Old English symbols on my computer. For example, the "P" in Pa should not really be the capital P. It is known as the "thorn" and was borrowed from the runic alphabet because the Latin alphabet did not have a symbol for this Old English sound. We would translate it as "th" both voiced (as in "bother") and unvoiced (as in "thin").
At some point another letter was also invented for the "th" sound: the crossed small case "d." It's called "eth" in Old English. The thorn and eth were used as alternatives. During the Middle English period, the eth disappeared and the thorn continued into the sixteenth century.
Old English really looks like a "foreign" language. Here are a few more lines from Beowulf. This is a description of Grendel, the monster, coming to Hrothgar's hall.
"Com on wanre niht/Scrithan sceadugenga....Da com of more under misthleothum/Grendel gongan, Godes yrre baer."
(He comes in the black night, gliding walker in darkness....Then comes off the moor under mist-hills/Grendel stalking, bearing angry gifts.)
At some point another letter was also invented for the "th" sound: the crossed small case "d." It's called "eth" in Old English. The thorn and eth were used as alternatives. During the Middle English period, the eth disappeared and the thorn continued into the sixteenth century.
Old English really looks like a "foreign" language. Here are a few more lines from Beowulf. This is a description of Grendel, the monster, coming to Hrothgar's hall.
"Com on wanre niht/Scrithan sceadugenga....Da com of more under misthleothum/Grendel gongan, Godes yrre baer."
(He comes in the black night, gliding walker in darkness....Then comes off the moor under mist-hills/Grendel stalking, bearing angry gifts.)
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
Word-Hoard...Hoar
Hoarfrost, which we have a lot of right now, is derived from Old English har meaning gray or old. The connection with frost is that those swirling patterns sculpted on windows apparently reminded the Anglo Saxons of the curls in an old man's beard.
The Old English word is derived from Old High German her meaning old. It is related to the German hehr meaning august or sublime. The German title Herr is traced back to this and is now a title of respect.
In the Old English epic poem Beowulf there is a description of Hrothgar, King of the Danes, that uses har in the senses of old, respected and wise. This is after the scene in the hall when Grendel's mother has come to revenge her son's mortal wounding.
"Pa waes frod cyning, har hilde-rinc on hreon mode." (Then was the wise king, an old warrior, in a mournful and weary state.)
The old warrior-king knows that he needs a younger man to help defeat the monsters: Beowulf, our hero.
The Old English word is derived from Old High German her meaning old. It is related to the German hehr meaning august or sublime. The German title Herr is traced back to this and is now a title of respect.
In the Old English epic poem Beowulf there is a description of Hrothgar, King of the Danes, that uses har in the senses of old, respected and wise. This is after the scene in the hall when Grendel's mother has come to revenge her son's mortal wounding.
"Pa waes frod cyning, har hilde-rinc on hreon mode." (Then was the wise king, an old warrior, in a mournful and weary state.)
The old warrior-king knows that he needs a younger man to help defeat the monsters: Beowulf, our hero.
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