Angel and Alec: Angel and Devil?

Let's focus for a moment on the men in Tess's life. How should the reader regard Angel Clare and Alec d'Urberville? How similar are they? How different? How does each view, and care about, Tess?

Fallen Women

OH MY GOSH! What a discussion this week! I can see that my teaching days are limited with you lot!

We mentioned this in class, but I'd like you to discuss the different views of the fallen women from the poetry thus far (and the poetry for next week if you'd like) and from Tess. According to these works, what does it mean to be fallen and can/should a fallen woman be redeemed?

I cannot wait to see what you have to say. . . . .

I am posting early, so you can still get your posts in on the discussion due this week before I grade them.

Tess as Nature Goddess

List as many references as you can from the novel so far where Tess is described as a part of nature in some way. Why do you think Hardy is setting her against this background? Does it make her situation more or less tragic--or more at odds with Victorian mores and religious morality?

Tying it all Together

I think we have talked out The Moonstone. So, use this space this week to post your thesis for your analysis essay and the works you will use to prove it. This is a good time to test your ideas on yourself and bounce them off a sympathetic audience.

The novel I was trying to think about in class, and had so clearly repressed, is The Way of all Flesh by Samuel Butler. Big Downer!!!

Robert Browning--Take Two

The book tells us that Browning was interested in psychological motivation. How do the poems we have read explore the workings of the mind? How is Browning able to reveal the characters of his characters in the dramatic monologues that exposes their psyches?

Gosh, I'm sorry that not more of you like Browning, but, as a professor of mine in graduate school told me when I complained about reading an author I hated, "He is important, so read it." I realize that your comments are simply comments and not complaints, but I think this still holds.

Narrative Strategy and The Moonstone

How reliable is the narrator Gabriel Betteredge in his portion of The Moonstone? How objective does he want to be, and how objective is he actually?

Robert Browning--Take One

What strikes you as distinctive about the poems by Robert Browning that we have read so far? How are they like or unlike the rest of the Victorian poetry--take your pick here--that we have read thus far? In this response you can refer to things like subject, tone, poetic feeling, etc.

Purpose of Fiction

After our discussion of the narrator in Barchester Towers--both in this blog and in class--what do you think the narrator--and perhaps by extension, Trollope--believes is the purpose of fiction? Because the novel is so self-consciously fiction, does it undermine or emphasize that purpose?

The Situation in Barchester

After the gloomy portrayal of life from Dickens, we move to the pleasant country life of Trollope. Based on volume 1 of the novel (what you read for this week--so please don't give away anything in the next volume for those reading ahead), what do you make of the narrator? Who is the narrator and how does he (or she??) feel about the various characters? Is the narrator a Proudieite or a Grantleyite? Also, how are the class differences that you wrote of so well in your discussion of Dickens addressed in this novel?

Literature as Social Commentary

Dickens and the poetry we have been reading all take a stand in protesting some aspect of Victorian culture and society. What issues and motifs do you see repeated in these works? What connections can you see between them?

Yep. Think about your essays here. Use this space to discuss your ideas and each other.

Aw a Muddle

Philosophers have been engaged in the debate of reason v passion since debate began. It seems that Dickens also enters the debate with Hard Times. Does Dickens create characters and the classes they represent that line up against one another in this debate? How so, and how effective is his portrayal? What consequence does he show in "Reaping," and does he suggest a solution?


Excuse, again, the late post. I haven't had access to a computer until now. Amazing, isn't it??

Giving Voice to the Silent

The anthology states that Elizabeth Barrett Browning's poetry deals with the "silenced," those with no voice. It seems that Charles Dickens also gives voice to those marginalized (the Hands, specifically). How effective is he, especially in comparison to EBB? And, how are Dickens and EBB's works different from those of Clough and the Rossettis in commenting on the industrialized 19th century?

Elizabeth Barrett Browning as Protest Poet

How effective do you think poetry is as a form of social protest in general? Specifically, how effective is Elizabeth Barrett Browning as a protest poet? Please make specific references to the poems.

Please excuse the late post!