Mary Shelley e Jane Austen: riassunto

MARY SHELLEY E JANE AUSTEN

The Novel in the Romantic Age. During the Romantic Age, over poetry, also the Novel was used as a literary kind.

The most important figures of this period were Walter Scott, Jane Austen and Mary Shelley.
Walter Scott is famous for the historical novel, and in particular for his masterpiece ‘Ivanhoe’. Scott can be considered such as Alessandro Manzoni and his masterpiece ‘I Promessi Sposi’.
Another kind of novel is the ‘Gothic novel’, that tells of the macabre, obscure, fantastic, supernatural, and is often set in castles or cemeteries. Gothic novel was influenced by the concept of the sublime theorised by Edmund Burke that provoke in the soul of the man a sense of terror and majesty. Mary Shelley is the most important figure of this literary kind.

La condizione delle donne dell'età vittoriana

JANE AUSTEN: IL ROMANZO

Jane Austen. In her novel, Jane Austen speak about the social problem of the time. She is romantic for age, but Augustan for mentality. The most important works are ‘Sense e Sensibility’ and ‘Pride and Prejudice’.

The life: Jan Austen was born in the village of Steventon in England, in 1775. Her father was the rector of the village, in fact she has been able to study because had a private library at home. In 1805 her father died and she and her mother and sister were forced to move to Southampton. Four years later her brother provided them with a small house in the village of Chawton. Jane Austen died in 1817, at the age of 41.

Sense and Sensibility: the plot - The story speaks about two sisters, Elionor and Marianne Dashwood. The first that represent the rationality and the second that represent the sentiment. They have a situation similar to Jane Austen. In fact when their father dies, they are dispossessed (espropriate) of the family estate and they, with their mother and their half-brother John (fratellastro), go to live in a small house of the village.
Elionor falls in love with the brother of John, Edward, who though attracted to Elionor, remains distant from her.
Meanwhile Marianne falls in love with the handsome but penniless John Willoughby, who returns her feelings. Bus soon she discovers that he has a relationship with a rich heiress (erede), so she became depressed. At the same time Elionor discovers that Edward has been secretly engaged (impegnato) to Lucy. But when Elionor learns that Lucy had left Edward, she accepts his proposal to marry him. Marianne does the same thing with Colonel Brandon, an old friend of family, accepting to marry him.

William Blake e Mary Shelley: riassunto

JANE AUSTEN: RAGIONE E SENTIMENTO

Sense and Sensibility: interpretations - The work speaks about the problems of the women, that are excluded by the heredity and find themselves to fight (lottare) with the sentiment and the rationality. The story interlinks these two problem. The society dominated by male forces (costringe) single women to find partner or to live on the charity of relatives. The happiness of Elionor and Marianne depends on their ability to choose well. Every it is a problem of knowledge, that is in accord with the dominant philosophical current of the time of Austen.
The main aspect of this works is the contraposition of the sentiment of Marianne and the sense of Elionor. But at the end Elionor demonstrates that she is able to use the sensibility, while Marianne will not use never the sense.

Mary Shelley: vita e opere

MARY SHELLEY: VITA

Mary Shelley. The life She was born at the end of the 18th century, and she was the only child of a famous feminist and a philosopher. In fact, when she was child, she was surrounded by famous philosophers, writers and poet. Mary Shelley poetry was influenced by a macrabe Gothicism. In fact, her most important work is ‘Frankenstein’, that he wrote when she was only nineteen.
Mary Shelley, after a tormented existence (that, after the success and her husband's death, continued full of scandals, economic problems and loves rejected), died in London in 1851, after leading a peaceful retirement in the company of her only son.