Literature 4B Exam
History
Britain
The Victorian era entails Queen Victoria’s reign from 1837-1901. Victorian Britain, however,
does include Ireland and the British Empire. Slave trade was abolished in 1807, but the
keeping of slaves still continued. Women’s rights started rising. The industrialisation starts in
this century, bringing an industrial working class and urbanization. Shipping trade and rail
network expanded. Medical / sanitary developments (1948 Public Health Act). Britain
became globally dominant in imperial and naval power from the 18th century onwards
(colonialism etc).
Scientific developments in the 19th century:
- Human as object (scientific racism/sexism, physical/mental health)
- Questioning religion (Christianity), evolution, etc.
Medical developments:
- Miasma theory – germ theory
- Medical experimentation: poor/lower class people, slum hospitals, mental asylums (long-
lasting issue internationally).
- Anatomical study: grave robbing to find bodies to study.
Literature
Literary publishing became a larger-scale industry. Rise in literacy rates -> larger reading
public -> larger market & cheaper versions, advertisements. Books could be read on the go.
There also came educational reform (ex: ragged schools / church schools, elementary
schooling for both sexes compulsory, etc).
Romanticism
Romanticism goes against industrialisation, urbanization, etc.
Characteristics: appreciation of nature, focus on individual experience, focus on language
and national identity (ex: brothers Grimm in Germany).
Gothic
Characteristics: ruins, darkness, sublime landscape, secrecy, tragedy, death, suspense, the
unknown, hidden identities and motives, characters are passionate and flawed, mortality, the
supernatural.
Texts
Samuel Taylore Coleridge
He was born in the small town Ottery St. Mary, in Devonshire. He was middle class. He was
an accomplished scholar but found little intellectual stimulation at the university. Because of
this, he fled to London and enlisted in the Light Dragoons under the alias of Silas Tomkyn
Comberbache. He left Jesus College, Cambridge in 1794 without a degree. In 1794, he met
Robert Southey who also had poetic aspirations. Coleridge was mentally ill and he was a
Romantic poet. He was the person to introduce the concept of suspension of disbelief:
contract between reader and writer. It is the reader’s avoidance of logic in works of fiction.
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
Summary:
, Part 1 The poem begins by introducing the Ancient Mariner, who stops a Wedding Guest
from attending a wedding. The Mariner tells him the story of a ship. Despite the Wedding
Guest’s efforts to leave, the Mariner continues. The Mariner’s story begins with the ship
leaving harbour and sailing southward. A storm blows the ship further, where the crew are
awed as they encounter mist, snow, cold, and glaciers. An Albatross visits. The sailors greet
it as a good omen, and a new wind rises up, propelling the ship. Each day the albatross
appears and soars behind the ship. But then as the other sailor’s cry out in dismay, the
Mariner, for reasons unexplained, kills the albatross with his crossbow.
Part 2 At first, the other Sailors are furious with him for killing the bird which they believed
responsible for the wind. But the fog clears and the breeze continues (blowing them north
into the Pacific), and the crew believes that the killing is justified. But then the wind ceases
and the ship becomes trapped on a calm sea. They become increasingly thirsty, and some
sailors dream that an angered Spirit has followed them from the pole. The crew then hangs
the albatross around the Mariner’s neck.
Part 3 When the Mariner sees a ship approaching, he bites his arm and drink his own blood
so that he can alert the crew. But their joy fades as the ghostly ship, which sails without
wind, approaches. On its deck, Death and Life-in-Death gamble with dice for the lives of the
Sailors and Mariner. After Life-in-Death wins the soul of the Mariner, the Sailors die of thirst,
falling to the deck one by one, each staring at the Mariner in reproach.
Part 4 Surrounded by dead Sailors and cursed continuously by their gaze, the Mariner tries
to pray but fails. It is only in the Moonlight that the Mariner notices beautiful Water Snakes
swimming beside the ship. He becomes inspired and has a realization that all of God’s
creatures are beautiful and must be treated with respect. With this, he is finally able to pray,
and the albatross fell from his neck and sunk into the sea.
Part 5 The Mariner falls into a kind of stupor and then wakes to find the dead Sailors’ bodies
reanimated by angels and at work on the ship. Powered by the Spirit from the South Pole,
the ship races homeward, where the Mariner sees a choir of angels leave the bodies of the
deceased Sailors. Two voices speak to each other about the Mariner's penance.
Part 6 The ship sails to the Mariner's native country. Here, he sees a small boat on which a
Pilot, the Pilot’s Boy, and a Hermit approach.
Part 7 The Hermit lives in the woods, his voice sounds sweet, he prays a lot. As they get
closer, the Mariner’s ship suddenly sinks, but he wakes to find himself in the Pilot’s boat.
When the Mariner speaks, the Pilot and Hermit are stunned, by fear. The Hermit prays. The
Mariner, in turn, saves his own saviours, and rows them to land, where he begs the Hermit
to grant him absolution for his sins. The Hermit crosses him and asks the Mariner “what
manner of man art thou?” The Mariner then feels compelled to tell his story. He concludes
his tale by explaining that as he travels from land to land, he is always plagued by that same
compulsion to tell his tale, and that he can tell just from looking at their faces which men
must hear his tale. He ends with the lesson that prayer is the greatest joy in life, and the best
prayers come from love and reverence of all of God’s creation. Thus, he moves onward to
find the next person who must hear his story, leaving the Wedding Guest “a sadder and a
wiser man.”
Key themes:
- Religion: the Albatross, ‘power of speech’ at the end.
- Sin & penance: sin is killing the bird, penance is the sailors dying causing him to be in
isolation. He turns into a preacher in the end where he is kind of stuck in penance having to
repeat the story all his life.
- Nature: sea, wind, sun, moon, ice.
- Supernatural: the Albatross materializes out of the fog, “glittering eye”, Life and Life-In-
History
Britain
The Victorian era entails Queen Victoria’s reign from 1837-1901. Victorian Britain, however,
does include Ireland and the British Empire. Slave trade was abolished in 1807, but the
keeping of slaves still continued. Women’s rights started rising. The industrialisation starts in
this century, bringing an industrial working class and urbanization. Shipping trade and rail
network expanded. Medical / sanitary developments (1948 Public Health Act). Britain
became globally dominant in imperial and naval power from the 18th century onwards
(colonialism etc).
Scientific developments in the 19th century:
- Human as object (scientific racism/sexism, physical/mental health)
- Questioning religion (Christianity), evolution, etc.
Medical developments:
- Miasma theory – germ theory
- Medical experimentation: poor/lower class people, slum hospitals, mental asylums (long-
lasting issue internationally).
- Anatomical study: grave robbing to find bodies to study.
Literature
Literary publishing became a larger-scale industry. Rise in literacy rates -> larger reading
public -> larger market & cheaper versions, advertisements. Books could be read on the go.
There also came educational reform (ex: ragged schools / church schools, elementary
schooling for both sexes compulsory, etc).
Romanticism
Romanticism goes against industrialisation, urbanization, etc.
Characteristics: appreciation of nature, focus on individual experience, focus on language
and national identity (ex: brothers Grimm in Germany).
Gothic
Characteristics: ruins, darkness, sublime landscape, secrecy, tragedy, death, suspense, the
unknown, hidden identities and motives, characters are passionate and flawed, mortality, the
supernatural.
Texts
Samuel Taylore Coleridge
He was born in the small town Ottery St. Mary, in Devonshire. He was middle class. He was
an accomplished scholar but found little intellectual stimulation at the university. Because of
this, he fled to London and enlisted in the Light Dragoons under the alias of Silas Tomkyn
Comberbache. He left Jesus College, Cambridge in 1794 without a degree. In 1794, he met
Robert Southey who also had poetic aspirations. Coleridge was mentally ill and he was a
Romantic poet. He was the person to introduce the concept of suspension of disbelief:
contract between reader and writer. It is the reader’s avoidance of logic in works of fiction.
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
Summary:
, Part 1 The poem begins by introducing the Ancient Mariner, who stops a Wedding Guest
from attending a wedding. The Mariner tells him the story of a ship. Despite the Wedding
Guest’s efforts to leave, the Mariner continues. The Mariner’s story begins with the ship
leaving harbour and sailing southward. A storm blows the ship further, where the crew are
awed as they encounter mist, snow, cold, and glaciers. An Albatross visits. The sailors greet
it as a good omen, and a new wind rises up, propelling the ship. Each day the albatross
appears and soars behind the ship. But then as the other sailor’s cry out in dismay, the
Mariner, for reasons unexplained, kills the albatross with his crossbow.
Part 2 At first, the other Sailors are furious with him for killing the bird which they believed
responsible for the wind. But the fog clears and the breeze continues (blowing them north
into the Pacific), and the crew believes that the killing is justified. But then the wind ceases
and the ship becomes trapped on a calm sea. They become increasingly thirsty, and some
sailors dream that an angered Spirit has followed them from the pole. The crew then hangs
the albatross around the Mariner’s neck.
Part 3 When the Mariner sees a ship approaching, he bites his arm and drink his own blood
so that he can alert the crew. But their joy fades as the ghostly ship, which sails without
wind, approaches. On its deck, Death and Life-in-Death gamble with dice for the lives of the
Sailors and Mariner. After Life-in-Death wins the soul of the Mariner, the Sailors die of thirst,
falling to the deck one by one, each staring at the Mariner in reproach.
Part 4 Surrounded by dead Sailors and cursed continuously by their gaze, the Mariner tries
to pray but fails. It is only in the Moonlight that the Mariner notices beautiful Water Snakes
swimming beside the ship. He becomes inspired and has a realization that all of God’s
creatures are beautiful and must be treated with respect. With this, he is finally able to pray,
and the albatross fell from his neck and sunk into the sea.
Part 5 The Mariner falls into a kind of stupor and then wakes to find the dead Sailors’ bodies
reanimated by angels and at work on the ship. Powered by the Spirit from the South Pole,
the ship races homeward, where the Mariner sees a choir of angels leave the bodies of the
deceased Sailors. Two voices speak to each other about the Mariner's penance.
Part 6 The ship sails to the Mariner's native country. Here, he sees a small boat on which a
Pilot, the Pilot’s Boy, and a Hermit approach.
Part 7 The Hermit lives in the woods, his voice sounds sweet, he prays a lot. As they get
closer, the Mariner’s ship suddenly sinks, but he wakes to find himself in the Pilot’s boat.
When the Mariner speaks, the Pilot and Hermit are stunned, by fear. The Hermit prays. The
Mariner, in turn, saves his own saviours, and rows them to land, where he begs the Hermit
to grant him absolution for his sins. The Hermit crosses him and asks the Mariner “what
manner of man art thou?” The Mariner then feels compelled to tell his story. He concludes
his tale by explaining that as he travels from land to land, he is always plagued by that same
compulsion to tell his tale, and that he can tell just from looking at their faces which men
must hear his tale. He ends with the lesson that prayer is the greatest joy in life, and the best
prayers come from love and reverence of all of God’s creation. Thus, he moves onward to
find the next person who must hear his story, leaving the Wedding Guest “a sadder and a
wiser man.”
Key themes:
- Religion: the Albatross, ‘power of speech’ at the end.
- Sin & penance: sin is killing the bird, penance is the sailors dying causing him to be in
isolation. He turns into a preacher in the end where he is kind of stuck in penance having to
repeat the story all his life.
- Nature: sea, wind, sun, moon, ice.
- Supernatural: the Albatross materializes out of the fog, “glittering eye”, Life and Life-In-
