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Facoltà di Lingue e Letterature Straniere
Corso di Laurea in Mediazione Linguistica e Interculturale
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Historical and Social context
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French revolution (Goldwin and Wollstonecraft);
b
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2
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3
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a
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Daffodils
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Dorothy Wordsworth
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The Grasmere Journal
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Samuel T
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a
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6
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a
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Il documento comprende gli aspetti più importanti della vita di ciascun autore, la
poetica, il riassunto e l’analisi dei testi citati (temi principali, simboli, figure
retoriche, interpretazioni, stile, background)
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ROMANTICISM
(late 18th – mid 19th century)
Period of transformations:
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French Revolution
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Work in the city: poor living conditions, slums, low life expectancy, child labour
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Jacobin thinkers like Godwin and
Wollstonecraft supported it, whereas others (Edward Gibbon, Edmund Burke) were
against it
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Reaction to the Industrial Revolution
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Against neoclassical reason and enlightenment
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Glorification of the past and nature
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‘Sublime’: horror and fascination created by what’s infinite and mysterious
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Focus on childhood (purity, closeness to god)
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23 compositions, mostly written by Wordsworth
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Poetical principles: 1
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2
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3
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4
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The Preface: In the first edition it’s anonymous
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The poet is a teacher who must reveal the truth through an
imaginative awareness of things
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In the second edition he explicitly criticizes Coleridge’s poetry and his stylistic
choices (archaic words and spellings)
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Two generations of writers: 1
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2
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Shelley, Keats (political disillusionment, escapism,
more classical poems, elevated language)
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The Rise of the Novel was encouraged mainly by the growth of middle-class and expansion of the
reading public (more women had the chance to read)
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-he was close to his sister Dorothy
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-She and William did not meet again for 9 years
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John’s College, Cambridge
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Poetry: spontaneous emotions
-Supporter of the French Revolution, became conservative later in life
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Themes: nature and rural life
-He and Dorothy moved to Grasmere, Lake District
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-1802: marriage with Mary Hatchingson
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-1810: Wordsworth and Coleridge fought over the latter's opium addiction
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-Mary published his autobiographical "Poem to Coleridge" as The Prelude after his death
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While wondering like a cloud floating above hills, he saw a field of daffodils beside a lake,
so pretty they outdid the waves
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Now whenever he will feel vacant or pensive he will
remember it and his heart will fill with pleasure
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Each line is metered in iambic tetrameter
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Themes: Nature’s beauty uplifts the human spirit and thrives unaltered
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The metaphor implies an inherent unity between man and nature
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DOROTHY WORDSWORTH
-close relationship with her brother
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-During that time Wordsworth and her may have had an incestuous relationship
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-In 1799 they moved to Grasmere
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The Grasmere Journal
• 4 notebooks
• Observations on daily life, nature
TEXT: in the two pages she speaks about how the poem Daffodils was written
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She also talks about her feelings on his
brother’s marriage (“I gave him the wedding ring”)
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COLERIDGE 1772 – 1834
-from a clergyman’s family
-Considered a genius, “hunted by spectres”
-Cambridge college, he left when he grew bored
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-1797 friendship with Wordsworth -> he felt like his shadow
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-Serious quarrel with William and reunion
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Poetry:
imagination
Exotic speech
Seeks the supernatural in nature
Emotion = extasy

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (1/4 or Lyrical Ballads)
Plot: the mariner stops 3 men on their way to a wedding party to tell his story
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The action brought misfortune to his ship, the others slowly died of thirst
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The ship sailed on with no wind until he saw a ghost
ship, and the bodies were taken over by spirits
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Structure: short ballad stanzas 8 or 6 lines)
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It starts with a latin epigraph
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Archaic terms and spellings
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Marginal notes to help the reader
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Literary devices: repetition, euphemism, allusion,
metaphor, personification (of life/death),
simile and alliteration
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Symbol of innocence
and beauty
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When the seamen hang the dead
albatross around the mariner’s neck, it
becomes a symbol of his sin
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When
he recognizes its beauty he gains it back
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MARY SHELLEY 1797 – 1851
Life: daughter of WILLIAM GODWIN and MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT
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Met Percy Shelley at 15 when he was married
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1816 She and Percy met up with BYRON at Lake Geneva → ghost story contest →
Frankenstein (1818)
That same year they married
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She wrote fiction and non-fiction prose (biography, travel essays)
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Shelley: noted for his radical ideas and rebellious attitudes, he was expelled
from university when he wrote “the Necessity of Atheism”
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Frankenstein (Or the Modern Prometheus) 1818
Plot: Robert Walton, captain of a ship sailing to North Pole, writes letters to his sister about his
mission
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There he encounters Victor Frankenstein and takes him abroad to
help him back to health
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He wanted to discover the secrets of life so he
managed to create a living being by joining parts from corpses
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His brother dies and he’s convinced it was
the monster even though others are condemned
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He goes back to Geneva to create a new being nut destroys it,
scared of the possible consequences
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The night of his
wedding, the monster kills his wife and he swear to kill it
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Walton tells the rest of the story in other letters
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The monster travels north to die
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Dangerous knowledge and ambition
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family and alienation
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he and the doctor are
examples of overachiever
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Science fiction
First person narrator, points of view shift
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The monster has no name, it is ugly and portrayed as
dangerous
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The novel is inspired by Aldini’s experiments with electricity
on corpses
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It is
also inspired by her and Percy’s interest in chemistry
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She emphasizes with the monster, but is scared
of what could happen → reflects the era’s mentality, the
fear and interest in revolution
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It has a frame narrative (Waltons story) and layered narration
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