Comparing “The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde” and “Frankenstein”​

Greg Buzwell, a scholar of Gothic literature, once said: "Robert Louis Stevenson's The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1886) is a late-Victorian variation on ideas first raised in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1818). Stevenson's monster, however, is not artificially created from stitched-together body parts, but rather emerges fully formed from the dark side of the human personality". Discuss this statement comparing Stevenson's novel and Mary Shelley's Frankenstein.

Created by Luca Dello Russo 5ASA.

     


                                                Intervista a Chris Munroe

 

 Gli studenti : Luca Dello Russo, Dorotea Serrelli e Silvana Musto della classe 4 ASA , nel corso dell’anno scolastico ,hanno studiato e letto alcuni romanzi di  Jane Austen. Hanno,così,voluto relizzare una intervista a Chris Munroe, una appassionata  lettrice americana di Jane Austen.

Chris Munroe, staff Writer/editor, ha studiato “ the art of storytelling :facts and fiction of culture at University of Redlands .

                     Interview with Chris Munroe 

                                         

Dorotea: Hello Chris,we would like to ask you some questions  about Jane Austen. How did your passion for this writer and her novels begin?

Chris:  •  I first read” Pride and Prejudice “when I was in high school. But I didn’t become really interested in her as an author until I took a class on her in college. I read all of her books in one semester. And for my final project, I did a comparison of two or three modern young adult retellings of” Pride and Prejudice.”

 Dorotea: What makes Jane Austen an immortal and modern writer in your opinion ?

 Chris: • I think Jane Austen is so immortal and modern because she wrote about relationships and feelings that were very genuine. She looked at the world around her and saw the role women had in society, which was less than equal, and she wrote stories about women who found happiness anyway. And along the way she satirized some of the inequality that she saw. For instance,” Northanger Abbey”, her first written novel (and last published) was a satirization of the Gothic novel which was popular at the time. She wrote about a young woman who seemed to believe she was living in a Gothic novel, when in fact she was not, highlighting the silliness of the genre itself.

 Dorotea:  What are the characteristics of emotional and family relationships in Jane Austen’s time?

 Chris: • I’m not sure. In my class we studied more about women’s equality at the time, reading the writings of Mary Wollstonecraft and the like. I imagine the relationships you see in the books between the characters were pretty similar to ones she saw around herself all the time. From Mr. and Mrs. Bennet (a foolish wife and a long suffering husband) to the sister in law from” Sense and Sensibility” (greedy and cold) to Emma and her father or any of the sibling relationships (warm and loving).

Silvana: Elizabeth Bennet was Jane Austen’s favourite heroine.”I must confess that I think her as delightful a creature as ever appeared in print” Do you like this character?

 Chris: • I love Elizabeth Bennet. She is so aware of what is proper and what will be best for her family and yet time and again she steps outside of propriety for the sake of her own happiness. Mom won’t send the carriage to check on Jane? She’ll just walk. Overheard Mr. Darcy talking down about her? Let him know she heard. Marrying Mr. Collins will save her sisters and mother from destitute homelessness when her father dies? She won’t do it. She is wholly independent (for a woman of her time period) and a very fun character. I can see why Austen liked her so much.

 Silvana: What do you think of the psychological analysis of the characters of her novels?

Chris:  • One of the things that has stuck with my from my college class is when we were talking about the novel Emma. My professor said that, basically, the reason Emma gets into so much trouble in the book is because she is bored. She needs, in other words, to get married to give her something to do. I’m not a huge fan of Emma, but that idea always stuck with me, that Emma caused so much trouble because she was a smart young woman with nothing to do. If she were a modern girl she would need to get a job, but in Austen’s time her only option was to marry, so that was the end Austen gave her.

 Chris:  • One other thing that I remember from class is from Persuasion. The couple who rents Anne’s father’s house are out driving one day and Austen describes them. The husband is directing the horses and every so often his wife reachers out and corrects his hold, keeping their carriage from going off in every direction. My professor made sure to point it out to us, because it’s a microcosm of their relationship and it displays some of Austen’s genius. The man drives, because that’s what society has told the couple has to happen, the woman can’t possibly drive. But every time he’s about to drive them off the road the woman calmly reaches over and corrects him.

 Silvana: Is Jane Austen a truly Romantic Novelist?

 Chris:  • If you’re talking about Romanticism (as opposed to, say, romance novels, which are a very different kind of genre) I’m going say…maybe not? So I haven’t studied the different literary eras myself, as I was much more interested in creative writing than literature when I was in college. But from my little reading from Wikipedia, I don’t think so. Jane Austen was a very grounded writer, and Romanticism seems a little too flighty for what she wrote. She was satirizing the world around her, not glorying in it, as it seems the Romantics were supposed to. However, there is a line in the Wikipedia article, “To express these feelings, it was considered the content of art had to come from the imagination of the artist, with as little interference as possible from "artificial" rules dictating what a work should consist of.” In that case, I do believe Austen had the Romantic spirit, because she did tend to write heroines who ignored and even laughed at those “artificial” rules of society. But I don’t think she was truly a Romantic.

 Luca:  “ I am going to take a heroine whom no one but myself will much like" is the sentence that Jane Austen will write before composing the novel "Emma". Starting from this sentence, we can say that Emma is an anti-heroine, a rebel who refuses to recognize the principle of male authority. Can this female character embody, in a self-deprecating way, the writer's alter ego?

Chris:  • Absolutely. As I said above, one of the things I find most interesting about Emma, even though I don’t like her very much, is that she causes so much trouble because she was bored. I imagine Jane Austen felt rather bored a lot of the time too, which is why she wrote. It’s quite possible Emma is what she imagined she would be if she lived in a different socioeconomic bracket. There’s a modern author, Diana Gabaldon (she writes the Outlander series), who says that every character she writes, from the heroes to the awful, horrible, villains, are all a part of her. I’m not saying every character was Austen’s alter-ego, but I imagine many of the heroines contain traces of her, not just Emma.

 Luca:  Jane Austen was an acute observer of the society in which she lived, studied attitudes and emotions, but although her novels represent masterpieces of the pre-Romantic period, the author has a different vision of love and marriage, focusing mainly on the financial benefits derived from it. What leads the writer to this material vision of marriage?

Chris:  • Partly it was just the world she lived in. Austen was engaged for half a second to a gentleman, if I’m remembering correctly. She wasn’t a hermit, she readily engaged with society. She knew exactly what a woman could look forward to if she didn’t marry well (either as a spinster with no income beyond what her father/brothers gave her or as a woman married to man who doesn’t make enough money). Yet despite that I don’t think she took a completely material vision of marriage. After all, her stories are known to be some of the world’s greatest love stories. Jane doesn’t marry Darcy because he’s rich but because she loves him. Same goes for Emma and Anne. In fact, I’d say Persuasion is an argument against the material view of marriage. Anne doesn’t marry her love because someone convinces her he’s too poor and regrets it for years. Only when they come back together does she find true happiness.

 Luca: Jane Austen was one of the most shining icons of English literature in a complex and changing age, especially for the role in society of women who were beginning to become aware of their value, their responsibilities and above all their rights. With the protagonists of her novels, the writer describes the female universe within the wealthy English class of the Georgian period, emphasizing how women enjoyed few and limited rights and that "good marriage" was the primary goal of every family. Can we consider this wise denunciation, a sort of rebellion against the condition of women, also taking into account the active participation of the writer in the feminist movement of that time?

 Chris: • Yes, absolutely. As I’ve written above, Austen was often satirizing the world around her, making fun of the ridiculousness she saw regarding women and their place in the world. She was staunchly a feminist (think of the woman who corrects her husband’s driving in Persuasion) and I think she was definitely writing with the view of the feminist movement of the time. That’s why we studied writers like Mary Wollstonecraft in my college class.

Dorotea, Silvana and Luca: Chris,many thanks for talking to us ,today. It was very Kind of you and your answers are very interesting! 

Pride and Prejudice

Le alunne Gialanella Cristina e Sara Iannaccone di 4I hanno letto “Pride and Prejudice” di Jane Austen ed hanno realizzato un PowerPoint sul romanzo.

Shakespeare's characters on the stage

Gli alunni della classe 3 ALM, nel corso del corrente anno scolastico, hanno studiato Shakespeare e si sono appassionati molto alle sue opere e alle tematiche della sua produzione teatrale. Così con il progetto ”Read On” e i "Graded readers”, hanno letto diversi libri del grande drammaturgo inglese e hanno in particolare analizzato alcune figure femminili delle tragedie di Shakespeare, producendo dei lavori digitali. Hanno condotto una analisi approfondita della psicologia di queste figure femminili, cogliendone i tratti distintivi, unici e complessi della loro personalità, presentando la loro storia di vittime e di eroine. Inoltre, alcuni studenti: Ciardiello Gerardo, Del Coiro Manuel, Galietta Gabriele, Giro Gabriella, Iandolo Martina, Laudando Francesca, Lavanga Mariarita, Morrone Davide e Rivieccio Vincenzo hanno prodotto un PowerPoint con alcuni dialoghi delle tragedie, immaginando, poi sul palcoscenico del "Globe theatre" una conversazione tra le varie protagoniste, come donne reali del nostro tempo, che si interrogano su alcuni sentimenti universali: l’amore, la gelosia, l’odio, l’invidia, l’ambizione e si confrontano sugli aspetti dell’universo maschile e soprattutto sulle dinamiche che spesso caratterizzano le relazioni con le donne. La finalità del lavoro degli alunni è stato di cogliere la modernità di queste personaggi perché la grandezza e la genialità di Shakespeare è l’universalità del mondo che rappresenta e la conoscenza profonda dell’animo umano, che non appartiene solo ad una specifica epoca del passato, ma ad ogni età.

One aspect of Shakespeare's greatness is his extraordinary ability to observe the human soul and mind. This allowed him to create complete, credible and plausible characters, each with a well-defined personality. Shakespeare is a very current author especially for the role he has entrusted to his female characters. Never before has a writer managed to probe female psychology so analytically. In fact, he knew well the obstacles that society posed to women. The theater companies did not admit them to the stage to act and the English society of that time, as in the rest of Europe, had a sense of protection towards them, but at the same time a desire for control over them. Shakespeare's theater does not present a single model of woman, but a multiple one.The most important female figures of Shakespeare's plays are: Juliet, Ophelia, Lady Macbeth and Desdemona.



Juliet is beautiful, rebellious, kind and loving. At the beginning she appears as an obedient child: she usually does what her parents say. Her first meeting with Romeo causes her to move towards maturity. She immediately shows determination and strength in her open confessions of love and desire for Romeo. She belongs to no characterization, classification or idealization: she is a real woman. Juliet is a "political" victim, but shares the fatal fate with the lover Romeo: the two lovers are therefore mirroring each other and die because they are unable to live in a historical/family context, where feelings are placed at the bottom rung of general interests.







Ophelia, on the other hand, in the tragedy "Hamlet", is a much more naive character than Juliet and her main trait is obedience to her father, a characteristic which, in the sixteenth century, was essential for the reputation of a young woman. The girl, however, is divided between obedience to Polonius and love for Hamlet, and this division will lead to a tragic end for the young woman. When the court councilor asks his daughter to act as bait to spy on Hamlet, on behalf of King Claudio, Ophelia will have no choice: according to the customs of the time, the woman is subject to paternal authority (when this authority still does not belong to the husband), and has no full faculty for her actions. When Hamlet discovers Polonius' game, he accuses the young woman of being unfaithful, of having misled him, and the entire female world of the young man collapses with Ophelia. For Hamlet, disappointed by the two most important women of his life, those who should have protected and comforted him, the whole female world becomes false and treacherous, and manifests this thought of his to Ophelia: it is the beginning of the end between our two characters. Hamlet's words, combined with love disappointment first and his father's death later, will lead Ophelia to madness. Through the character of the young woman, the enormous distinction between the sexes that distinguishes the culture of the time emerges: we saw how a woman was subjected to paternal decisions until marriage and her husband's choices afterwards.







Lady Macbeth is a character very similar to Ophelia, because she too is overwhelmed by madness. Lady Macbeth is a devoted wife, her ambitious plan are for her husband. In the first part of the play she shows great strength of will and is the driving force behind her husband. In the second part of the play she gradually loses her confidence, she starts to walk in her sleep and is obsessed with the spots of blood she sees on her hands. She is finally overcome by madness and dies.









Desdemona, in the tragedy “Othello”, is presented as a simple object of desire and jealousy throughout the tragedy. Her love for Othello is so sincere and confidence that she lets herself be guided blindly by her husband. She is presented from two different points of view: through Iago’s vulgar remarks and Othello’s praise of her beauty and innocence. After reaching the heights of her love and happiness, she starts on a downward path that leads her from love to death. While Othello is about to kill her, she withdraws into obstinate incredulity: her death may be seen as a punishment for having married the Moor secretly.

Davide Morrone, 3ALM

Climate change

Climate change 

Gli alunni Annapia Aurigemma, Angelamaria Colucci, Ilaria Aurigemma, Francesco Dello Russo e Vincenzo Galdieri della 2ALM hanno letto dei libri della biblioteca  “Read on “ sulle problematiche ambientali e sul cambiamento climatico. Gli studenti si sono appassionati all’argomento, che è stato trattato nel percorso multidisciplinare della classe e con entusiasmo   e interesse hanno prodotto dei power point.

Physics: The Standard Model

A cura del gruppo 5 4A Scienze Applicate (Luca Dello Russo, Claudio Gaudino e Ernesto Iiriti)

Gli alunni Luca Dello Russo, Claudio Gaudino e Ernesto Iiriti, grazie alle loro conoscenze in campo fisico, informatico e grafico, hanno realizzato, in gruppo, una presentazione interattiva e multimediale in 3D che illustra il Modello Standard. Esso descrive la materia (Part 1: Fermions) e le interazioni presenti nell'Universo (Part 2: Bosons). Il progetto, la cui realizzazione ha richiesto diverse ricerche e progettazione grafica ed informatica, ha contribuito a migliorare le conoscenze in campo scientifico ed inoltre ha dato l'opportunità a noi ragazzi di lavorare in gruppo in modo produttivo, efficiente e collaborativo.

Intervista immaginaria ad una appassionata lettrice di Jane Austen

L’alunna Dorotea Serrelli di 4ASA ha studiato Jane Austen dalla quale è rimasta particolarmente affascinata. Dopo la lettura di alcuni suoi romanzi, ha immaginato e realizzato con grande fantasia, una intervista ad una appassionata lettrice della scrittrice inglese. L’alunna ha posto delle domande che la incuriosivano particolarmente sulle tematiche trattate nei romanzi di Jane Austen  e soprattutto immaginando il messaggio che la scrittrice   avrebbe dato ai giovani ,in momento  così difficile per l’umanità, a causa della emergenza sanitaria del coronavirus.

           

An Imaginary Interview with a passionate reader  of Jane Austen.

Dorotea : Hello Catherine, how are you?

CATHERINE: Hi Dorotea. I’m fine!

Dorotea: Today I have  phoned you because I wanted to ask you some questions about Jane Austen and her novels.

CATHERINE: Oh, I’m very happy to answer your questions. I love novels written by Jane Austen.

Dorotea: Ok. How did your passion for Jane Austen and her novels begin?

CATHERINE: Well, this passion broke out when with my family  I saw the film “Pride and Prejudice”(1940), with Greer Garson and Laurence Olivier, based on Jane Austen’s novel  which was brilliant.

So, some days later, I saw the novel “Pride and Prejudice” in a bookshop and I bought it.

Dorotea: what makes Jane Austen an immortal and modern writer according to you?

CATHERINE: In my opinion, Jane Austen is one of the most important novelists who really “created a world” through literature because she talks about daily life and rural world as a reflection of the entire society of the time, using an absolutely unscrupulous irony and politely unconventional heroines, who conquer us with their autonomy, moral values, courage and determination.

In her novels, Jane Austen treats a true literary microcosm populated by lively and rounded characters, in which everyone, in every place and every time, can  recognize.

These themes are conveyed by a perfect and poetic writing. For this reason, I think we have to read Jane Austen’s novels very carefully because a moment of inattention can neglect an important phrase and, consequently, the message that author wants to communicate isn’t fully understood.

Dorotea: I agree with you, Catherine. What are the characteristics of emotional and family relationships in Jane Austen’s time?

Then,  we can find  these relationships  contained especially in the novel “Emma”, can they  still be considered current, especially today during the pandemic caused by Coronavirus, according to you?

CATHERINE: Wow, it’s a great question!

The first aspect to underline about society in Jane Austen’s time is the sociality.

Jane Austen lived in an age and in a society where, conversation, meetings, walks in company, visits to friends and neighbors were the most important part of daily life.

The transfers from one part of the town to the other took place naturally in carriage and the most sensational events were the dances and the parties.

Jane Austen, in fact, in her novel “Emma” (my favourite novel!) describes with majestry the importance of dances and parties, which, we could say, are the great social protagonists of Austen’s literature.

During these social events, people made new friends, had fun until late at night, and the young women had the opportunity to find a husband.

For example, Emma meets Harriet, her new friend, during a party, organized by her father’s friends; then, during a Christmas dinner organized by Mr and Mrs Weston, Emma matchmakes Harriet and the clergyman Mr Elton, in order to find a rich and good husband for Harriet, who is poor. This plan, however, fails.

In a society where female freedom was limited to the point that a woman wasn’t allowed to walk alone or to write a letter to a man who wasn’t a relative or boyfriend, the dances were an extraordinary opportunities to make herself known and, then, to get married.

The pandemic and the consequent lockdown situation has  forced us to change in a drastic and sudden way, thoughts, emotions, relationship life in the sentimental, social and work contest.

Behaviours that were customary have  become dangerous, must be avoided and the risk of being infected or infecting is deadly.

In this situation, interpersonal relationships have also changed.

The great effort that we have been making is to move from a relational way characterized by physical proximity to one in which this is prohibited or risky.

I realize that a relevant part of the relationship with a person is expressed with the body and its language.

Today, instead, we have to connect to others in a virtual way.

The screens of our computers or smartphones can give us a lot in terms of contact, but we can  connect us with each other only through sight and hearing, excluding the other senses.

They are a resource but, at the same time, a limitation. 

Dorotea: I totally agree with you, Catherine. What is the antidote that Jane Austen, accordind to you, could give us in this difficult situation?

CATHERINE: In my opinion, the antidote that Jane Austen could give us through her novels in this situation is solidarity between men and the emotional bond present in the members of a family.

I hope that family and emotional relationships can rely on that sincerity, which characterizes the relationships described by Jane Austen in her novels.

Dorotea: Yes, I hope so! It was a pleasure to talk to you. See you soon Catherine.

CATHERINE: Bye Bye Dorotea.

Realized by Dorotea Serrelli

Class: 4°A SA

Comparison: Mary Shelley & Jane Austen

by Luca Dello Russo

Il video mette in evidenza le analogie e le differenze tra due scrittrici della letteratura inglese del XVIII - XIX sec. Mary Shelley (1797-1851) e Jane Austen (1775 - 1817). La Austen ha affrontato tematiche prettamente femminili, legate al suo tempo con una certa ironia, evidenziando la sottomissione delle donne che accettavano il matrimonio pur di assicurarsi uno status sociale ed una stabilità economica e Mary Shelley, il cui capolavoro “Frankenstein o Il moderno Prometeo” (“Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus”) prese vita a seguito di una conversazione sul galvanismo e sulla possibilità di far rivivere un cadavere attraverso gli esperimenti del filosofo naturale e poeta Erasmus Darwin che si diceva avesse dato vita ad un morto. Due grandi donne che, nonostante la mentalità fortemente maschilista di quel periodo, sono diventate immortali attraverso le loro opere.

2020 Vision contest "17 goals to transform our world"

2020 Vision contest :  read, think and act!

Gli alunni Luca Dello Russo, Ernesto Iiriti, Angelo Giordano e Francesco Di  Guglielmo della classe 4 ASA e  Davide Sorrentino della classe 2 ALM  hanno partecipato alla competizione 2020 vision contest /Oxford University Press.    

                                           "   Read On  :  Leggi, Pensa e Agisci !"

La competizione utilizza i “Graded readers “come punto di partenza per pensare alle questioni globali che trasformeranno la terra  nel corso della nostra vita e quella delle future generazioni. Gli alunni hanno scelto e trattato alcuni  dei 17 obiettivi di sviluppo sostenibile dichiarati dalle Nazioni Unite. Hanno,così, realizzato dei brevi video sull’obiettivo n 3 : ”salute e benessere”, n 7: “energia pulita”  e n 13: “ I cambiamenti climatici” per descrivere i  problemi e proporre una soluzione.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=npug7UhKt8I

 https://youtu.be/L1R063PRFls

 https://youtu.be/mE_2nHTzil4

Imaginary interview between Alessandro Manzoni & Walter Scott

by Luca Dello Russo

L'intervista immaginaria che segue, con Walter Scott e Alessandro Manzoni, ha quale obiettivo il confronto tra i due grandi scrittori. Manzoni viene indotto dalla lettura dell'autore scozzese a scrivere un romanzo in prosa decidendo, così, di rappresentare la società milanese e le persone del Seicento, epoca caratterizzata da "passioni, anarchia, disordine, follia e ridicolaggini", caratteristiche proprie, secondo lo scrittore, della società in ogni epoca. Manzoni vuole evitare "l'errore" di Walter Scott che, nei suoi romanzi si allontana dalla realtà storica, dando ampio spazio ad avventure di eroi e trame, raggiri, inganni e congiure di malvagi, creando, così, suspense. Manzoni, invece, cerca di fondere il sentimento della complessità del cuore umano, la percezione della complessità della società e il misterioso senso di imperscrutabilità della Provvidenza divina, basandosi sempre sull'utile, il vero e l'interessante e mai sulla finzione.

Be an independent learner

Be an independent learner

Create a presentation of the novel  “Emma  “ by Jane Austen

Le alunne Dorotea Serrelli e Silvana Musto della classe 4 ASA, dopo aver letto il romanzo “Emma” della biblioteca “Read on “ hanno realizzato un power point sul libro.  Le studentesse sono state affascinate dalla figura di Jane Austen come donna per i suoi interessi, legami e affetti e come scrittrice per le tematiche e lo stile con cui ha lasciato un segno indelebile nella letteratura inglese. Virginia woolf l’ha  definita “l’artista più perfetta tra le donne”. Per la sua analisi dell’universo femminile e per la capacità di emozionarci , Jane Austen rimane una delle scrittrici più amate.

Emma

Frankenstein

Be an independent learner

Briefly research the difficulties a female writer had to face in Mary Shelley’s time and create a presentation of the novel “Frankenstein “

Le alunne Dorotea Serrelli  e Silvana Musto  della classe 4 ASA ,dopo la lettura del  romanzo “Frankenstein” della biblioteca “Read on”, hanno creato un power point per presentare il libro.

Le alunne sono state affascinate dalla figura di Mary Shelley, che visse grandi tragedie, un grande amore ed entrò nel novero dei grandi scrittori della letteratura universale grazie al romanzo “Frankenstein”. Le allieve sono  state  interessate alla vera identità di Mary Shelley e hanno cercato  di cogliere il processo di formazione e le difficoltà   che ,come donna e scrittrice, ha dovuto affrontare nella sua epoca .Nonostante la fama del suo capolavoro ,Mary dovette combattere strenuamente per ottenere il riconoscimento delle sue opere; infatti, la prima volta  il romanzo fu pubblicato anonimamente e non riscosse  grande successo .Ma con la seconda edizione ,i critici rimasero spiazzati quando l’autore si rivelò  una autrice e considerarono il romanzo  “ eccellente per un uomo ,ma per una donna straordinario”. Mary fu una figura importantissima per le sue colleghe donne. Visse per tutta la  vita, secondo  i principi della madre, Mary Wollstonecraft ,una antesignana del femminismo; infatti le sue opere sostengono spesso gli ideali di collaborazione e di comprensione praticati dalle donne come strada per riformare la società civile. Aprì la strada ad altre scrittrici, dimostrando che una donna era in grado di scrivere romanzi che non parlassero solo di amore , ma anche di filosofia,  mostri, scienze, ed etica.  

Frankenstein

17 Goals to Transform Our World

I "Sustainable Development Goals" sono una collezione di 17 obiettivi globali con lo scopo di raggiungere un futuro più sostenibile per tutte le nazioni. Il seguente articolo si sofferma sul terzo goal "Good health and well-being for people" che si impegna a ridurre di un terzo le morti premature dovute a malattie entro il 2030. Nonostante siano stati fatti grandi progressi per quanto riguarda l'aumento dell'aspettativa di vita e la riduzione di alcune delle cause di morte più comuni legate alla mortalità infantile e materna, sono ancora necessari molti altri sforzi, soprattutto durante questa situazione di emergenza che il mondo sta vivendo a causa del COVID-19.

Move through literature

Move through literature

Compare and contrast the way nature is treated in Coleridge, Wordsworth and Shelley’s poetry

Gli alunni  Luca Dello Russo e Dorotea Serrelli hanno svolto individualmente  questo compito con spirito critico, ma con il loro  stile personale ed originale,  analizzando il tema della natura nella poesia  di Coleridge, Wordsworth e Shelley  ed evidenziando le somiglianze e le  differenze  che emergono nella loro poetica.  

Nature in Wordsworth, Coleridge and Shelley

by Luca Dello Russo

Romanticism was an artistic, literary and cultural movement born in Europe towards the end of the 18th century. Various dates have been proposed as time limits of the Romantic period of English literature, but the most accepted ones put the beginning of the period to the publication of the “Lyrical Ballads” by William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge in 1798 and its conclusion with the crowning of Queen Victoria in 1837, although Wordsworth lived until 1850 while authors considered romantic or pre-Romantic such as Robert Burns and William Blake published some of their works before 1798. Wordsworth’s “Preface” to the second edition (1800) of Lyrical Ballads became the manifesto of the English Romantic movement in poetry. 

The focus was on feeling, passion, imagination, spontaneity which were also exalted from an artistic point of view. The adjective romantic appeared in the English language at the beginning of the 17th century to indicate something unusual related to human emotions and feelings. This new cultural movement contrasted the Enlightenment because it placed man and his feelings at the centre. Because of the Industrial Revolution, men were subjected to degrading conditions and forced labour in factories, so the poets of the 18th century felt a certain sensitivity towards man and nature. The first phase of the Romantic Movement in Germany was marked by innovations in both content and literary style and by a concern with the mystical, the subconscious, and the supernatural. The second phase of Romanticism, comprising the period from about 1805 to the 1830s, was marked by a new attention to national origins. English Romantic poetry had reached its peak in the works of John Keats, Lord Byron, and Percy Bysshe Shelley. Critics normally divide the Romantic poets into two generations; the first generation includes Wordsworth and Coleridge, while the second generation includes Byron, Shelley and Keats.  

In the famous Preface to the second edition (1800) of the Lyrical ballads Wordsworth gave his definition of poetry: poetry is above all the expression of a state of mind.

“[…] poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings: it takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquillity: the emotion is contemplated till […] the tranquility gradually disappears, and an emotion, kindred to that which was before the subject of contemplation, is gradually produced”

Poetry does not depend on the correct use of images and literary tradition, but on the flow of emotions, filtered through memory: poetry does not arise directly from an emotion, but when that emotion itself is relived in memory or "recollected in tranquillity", to use his words. The poet is a man endowed with a great sensitivity and knowledge of human nature and possesses talents superior in quality and intensity to those of the common man; he therefore has the task of showing the intimate truth of things to other men to teach them how to improve their own feelings and ethics. An essential component of his poetry is nature, no longer the mechanistic nature described by the Enlightenment, but the life of German natural philosophy, in a vision that establishes a profound continuity between nature and humanity and, through it, between man and God. The first Wordsworth seems not to be very far from a pantheistic vision of reality: the individual and humanity as a whole are unique and the poet has the task of expressing this affinity. This turning to nature, to landscape, to its primordial myths refers to another typically romantic element, the reason for the return to childhood, that is to say to that period of man's life when sensory experiences are more immediate and healthy, therefore more alive and precious for the poet because he is able to intuit the mysteries of the world, an attitude that man loses with the passing of time. Nature is contemplated in its great drawing, but also in the more minute aspects, an interest for the detail that extends to human figures: his characters are often humble people, whose simplicity is emblematic of a life conducted in harmony with nature, and it is precisely their closeness to nature that makes them the best representatives of true humanity. Nature becomes the subject and object of poetry and it is the poet's task to reveal its beauty. 

Wordsworth and Coleridge's decision to publish the “Lyrical ballads”, dealing respectively with the "natural" and the "supernatural", shows the existence of the two tendencies present among romantic poets, one towards the real world, the other towards the transcendent element. While Wordsworth decided to deal with nature, Coleridge's effort was directed towards supernatural. The supernatural became a metaphor for profound human experiences, which cannot be represented by the material world but can be expressed through the language of images: thus Coleridge's preference for the use of symbolic images and myth.

In Coleridge's ballad, “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” there is a religious interpretation linked to the killing of the albatross as an offense against nature and therefore God, from the literary point of view, however, the albatross is considered a metaphor for art. In this ballad, Coleridge transports the reader into the mystical world of the supernatural, wisely calibrated with the world of reality; the entire ballad is based on this and other oppositions, such as those between rationality and irrationality, and between reason and imagination. In the text, in fact, we find a sense of mystery because the events narrated by the old sailor are immersed in an atmosphere of nightmare. The events are pervaded by an arcane sense of mystery full of symbolic meanings, the symbol evokes a profound reality in an allusive and ambiguous way that opens to a plurality of meanings and a multiplicity of readings. The central theme is man's relationship with the supernatural, with the mysterious dimension of an invisible world around him. Therefore, to enter the universe of poetry, a voluntary suspension of disbelief is necessary. It can also be observed that knowledge of the arcane is linked to a mysterious guilt (the killing of the albatross), from which the sailor derives a curse that isolates him from sociality and condemns him to the eternal repetition of his wandering and his story. The sailor's condition is of "Life-in-Death", perpetually on the border between the two worlds of the real and the unknown.

“God save thee, ancient Mariner!

From the fiends, that plague thee thus!

Why look'st thou so?'—With my cross-bow

I shot the Albatross.”

— The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, lines 79-82

Among the authors of the second generation there are Byron, Keats and Shelley. In Shelley’s prose work “A Defence of Poetry”, written in 1821 and published in 1840, his beliefs about the nature and function of poetry find a place: he defends poetry as a means of expressing the imagination. Poets are the beings endowed with the highest degree of imagination, with which they can achieve artistic representation. If poets are the unrecognised legislators of the world for the link between beauty and truth, they are endowed with the ability to see beyond the immediate reality and also become prophets of a possible reform. Only the poet can establish a true contact with reality through language and transmit its authentic meaning. Shelley was the only true radical poet among English romantics, capable of the highest visionary idealization of reality. He keenly felt the inadequacy of man's condition in relation to his ideas and his reaction was not Byron's satirical scepticism, but a constant struggle for the moral regeneration of humanity. 

Among Shelley's works, the best known is “Ode to the West Wind” where we find a nature seen as an impassive force that shows its superiority, the images of the ode all revolve around death and rebirth: death is seen in relation to the revolution that can destroy tyranny and can lead to freedom but it is also a way for the poet to escape from his own reality to be reborn into a new existence.

“The trumpet of a prophecy! O Wind,

If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?”

— Ode to the West Wind, lines 69-70

Shelley's literary production, which ranges from opera to theatre, presents typical inspiring romantic motifs such as freedom, love and nature. Shelley does not deny the role of nature that leads man to happiness and joy, but if for Wordsworth, nature animates the world, according to him, nature does not hide any message: it only leads to pleasure. Unlike Byron, Keats and Shelley, Coleridge and Wordsworth spend their lives anchored in traditional English landscapes from which they draw their inspiration to offer a more realistic view of nature, while second-generation poets cultivate ideals more linked to classicism and antiquity.

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Nature is one of the most important Romantic themes.

According to Romantics, nature doesn’t mean only a realistic description of it, but it is the main viewer of the turbulent feelings of the human soul; poets  

endow it with life, passion and feelings and talk about nature in terms once used for God, or a lover or a dear friend.

Moreover, they want to express through the poetry the complex interaction between man and nature and the emotions, the sensations that arise from this relationship.

So, nature becomes a source of poetic inspiration, which stimulates the imagination of the poet.

This particular relationship is described with mastery by William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Percy Bysshe Shelley.

Wordsworth offers a detailed account of the complex interaction between man and nature, of the influences, the emotions and the sensations that arise from this contact, rather than objective and scientific description of the natural world.

He considers that man and nature are inseparable, in particular the child, in his innocence and simplicity, is closer than the adult to the original state of harmony with nature.

So, he believes in the pre-existence of the soul and the soul, after birth, gradually loses its memory of a perfect union with the universe.

This concept, expressed in “Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood ”, is integrated with other meanings in “Lyrical Ballads”.

Nature is considered as the countryside which is opposed to the noise and confusion of the town.

Moreover, according to a pantheistic conception, nature is animated by a divine spirit.

Then, it is considered a source of feelings, joy and pleasure that comforts man in sorrow and teaches him to love and to act in a moral way.

Nature is the major source of poetic inspiration. Wordsworth considers it as “the nurse, the guide, the guardian of my heart, and soul of all my moral being”.

Unlike Wordsworth, Coleridge doesn’t see nature as a source of consolation and joy or as a moral guide.

His contemplation of nature is accompanied by consciousness of the presence of the ideal in the real.

Because of his strong Christian faith, Coleridge considers nature as the only way the “One life” (the divine power) manifests itself to man; so, all creatures must be respected, being the “personification of God” (The Rime of the Ancient Mariner ).

The natural elements and the landscape are endowed with a deep symbolic meaning.

He doesn’t identify the nature with the divine according to a pantheistic conception adopted by Wordsworth, but he sees nature and the material world in a sort of neoplatonic interpretation as projection of the real world of “Ideas” (Iperuranio) on the flux of time.

So, Coleridge believes natural images carry abstract meanings and uses them in his most poems like “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner ”.

Unlike Coleridge, Shelley considers nature as a source of joy and a life force, expression of the “Spirit of Universe”, which continually creates new life and governs natural phenomena.

So, all creatures aspire to return to the “Whole”, the “One”.

However, nature takes another meaning to Shelley: it is a shelter from injustices of life and the disappointment of the ordinary world.

In his lyrics, we can locate the poet’s own rebel spirit in communion with the natural scenery and the natural forces.

Like Wordsworth, Shelley considers nature as a source of poetic inspiration.

He, inspired by the natural phenomena and forces like the West wind in “Ode to the West Wind ”, writes his lyrics and announces it to the world of men.

So, nature is endowed of social ideals; it becomes a source of prophetic political and social revolutions.

Through it, Shelley becomes a prophet who notices all men about these great revolutions.

In “Ode to the West Wind ”, in fact, just as the wind has no voice without nature, so Shelley asks the wind to give him the liberating force of poetic inspiration, to transmit a natural force to the world of men.

By Dorotea Serrelli

An imaginary conversation between Coleridge and Wordsworth

Be an independent learner

Rearrange the information about Coleridge’s life into a profile for a social network.

Write a brief, imaginary conversation between Coleridge  and Wordsworth  

Gli alunni Ernesto Iiriti, Angelo Giordano, Claudio Gaudino e Sabatino Vietri  della classe 4ASA hanno svolto questo compito in maniera creativa, immaginando una conversazione tra i due poeti romantici inglesi: Wordsworth e Coleridge, attualizzando il passato perché, quando i grandi poeti escono dai libri di scuola, la loro poetica si fa vita, si scopre la modernità del loro vissuto, della loro sensibilità  e del loro messaggio universale. La simpatica ed originale  conversazione dei poeti comincia   con  uno  scambio di opinioni sulla questione ambientale, poiché la natura è il tema centrale della poetica di   Wordsworth  e poi, in maniera più leggera, termina con l’invito di Coleridge ad un concerto degli “Iron Maiden”. Questo gruppo   musicale "heavy metal" britannico ha utlizzato la ballata “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner“ di Coleridge  come testo per l’omonima canzone contenuta nel disco “Powerslave”, riscuotendo molto successo durante i loro concerti dal vivo.

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Man and Nature

In questo momento di emergenza, di grande difficoltà per il nostro Paese e per il mondo intero, in cui le attività scolastiche sono state sospese ed è entrata in vigore la didattica a distanza, gli alunni delle varie classi hanno mostrato senso di responsabilità ed impegno nello studio e soprattutto hanno continuato, con motivazione e creatività, a realizzare lavori multimediali in inglese. Hanno partecipato con interesse alla competizione “2020 Vision Contest” organizzata dalla “Oxford University Press”, realizzando dei brevi video su alcuni dei 17 obiettivi di sviluppo sostenibile, concordati dall’Organizzazione delle Nazioni Unite. Inoltre hanno trattato e sviluppato in maniera critica e personale alcuni argomenti proposti dal programma curricolare e hanno presentato dei libri del progetto ”Read On“.

Gli alunni della 4A s.a. hanno affrontato lo studio delle tematiche del Romanticismo inglese, in particolare di alcuni poeti e scrittori di questo movimento letterario, e si sono impegnati nella realizzazione di alcuni lavori digitali. Uno di questi riguarda un percorso pluridisciplinare sulla natura in cui sono state analizzati i diversi aspetti della tematica nelle varie discipline.

La natura è un grandioso libro in stesura o meglio, in continua riedizione di stampa! Sin dalla sua comparsa sulla Terra l’uomo si è trovato di fronte questa compagna di viaggio, che lo sovrastava o addirittura lo sgomentava ed ha cercato di rapportarsi con lei in modo contraddittorio, sforzandosi di decifrare le sue leggi nascoste, a volte illudendosi di sottometterla all’ingegno umano, uscendo inevitabilmente sconfitto da questa impari lotta, altre volte, amandola, temendola, venerandola o persino divinizzandola. Ogni essere umano ha tentato di scrivere il fantastico libro della natura con la sua penna personale. Lo scienziato ha intinto il suo strumento di scrittura nell’inchiostro della rigida razionalità della sperimentazione, della formulazione di leggi universali in grado di sviscerare i più intimi segreti del mondo naturale. Lo scrittore vi ha scritto con la penna della sensibilità e della suggestione, mettendo su carta i messaggi che la natura inviava al suo mondo interiore. Il filosofo ha riempito le pagine di questo libro infinito con la mano tormentata di chi cerca di placare la sua ansia di ricerca di una verità universale, giungendo talora ad individuare nella natura “l'arché” ossia il principio fondamentale che spiega l’origine di ogni cosa. A volte, la natura, è stata considerata componente essenziale di un tutt’uno, di cui l’uomo è l’elemento di interazione. Il teologo, infine, l’ha considerata alla stregua di un libro straordinario scritto direttamente da Dio. A tal proposito è illuminante l’opinione di Galileo Galilei, sommo scienziato e fervente cattolico, che considerava la natura un libro, che lo scienziato deve leggere con la lente della ragione umana e il teologo con la lente di Dio.

L’alunno Dello Russo Luca ha dato il suo contributo alla stesura di questo libro infinito cimentandosi in un percorso multidisciplinare avente ad oggetto la natura nelle sue molteplici interpretazioni e nel suo controverso rapporto con l’uomo. In particolare modo, è stata sottolineata la centralità della natura nella concezione romantica europea della prima metà dell’Ottocento, ben evidenziata nella letteratura italiana e inglese; madre o matrigna che sia, dea benefica o nemica. La natura è un paesaggio silenzioso, ma di prima mano nella narrazione, una protagonista sottilmente antropomorfizzata, che fa da sfondo attivo e partecipe delle vicende umane. L’alunno Dello Russo Luca ha aggiunto nuove pagine a questo libro infinito chiamato “natura”, scritto con la penna dell’entusiasmo e della sete di conoscenza degli apprendimenti scolastici e personali, con lo spirito di chi vuole portare al di fuori delle aule scolastiche quanto è stato appreso in questo anno di studio consapevole di affacciarsi alla vita vera.

Prof.ssa Patrizia Martone

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