Pamela a novel of sensibility

This time we are going to focus on Pamela, a novel of sensibility written by Samuel Richardson in 1740. In this novel is quite interesting the moral plot inside it rather than a narrative one which was the common things in novels during this time.

 

Pamela is a series of letters written by the main character, Pamela, to her parents. These letters allow us to know directly  what she thinks about things. We do not get information about other characters, we just get what Pamela´s perceives of them. The letters can be divided in early letters in which she asks her parents for advices and tells them her problems and, when she is imprisioned in her house, she is not sure anymore her parents will get their letters. These late letters can be seen as a diary.

After reading Pamela, readers can be divided in Pamelists or Anti-pamelists. Pamelists describe Pamela as a kind, naive and innocent person...we could say "She appears as she is". On the other side, Anti-pamelists describe her as a clever, seducing and manipulating person...."She hides things". It is very curious how the same novel can inspire so diferent feelings in its readers

I think this "novel" is pretty interesting for understanding the feeling of sensibility people had during this period. The constrast between appearance and feeling can be easily understood here because nowadays this concept seems rather strange or even ridiculous.

Sources:
http://www.gradesaver.com/pamela-or-virtue-rewarded/study-guide/short-summary/
http://www.123helpme.com/view.asp?id=6484

The Duchess

My next post is going to be about the second film we watched in class. The film it is called "The Duchess" and its about the few or even non-existent women's rights in any decision during that period.

The film dramatizes the way Georgiana, the main protagonist, has to marry a cold and much older man than her just because he is the Duke of Devonshire. When they married she became the Duchess, but the only purpose for this is Duke wanted to have a male child. He didn´t wanted anything else, he is a person unable to show love, sympathy or affection to other people. Although the dark personality of her Husband, Georgiana is able to become a fashion icon, a loving mother, a skillful political speaker and a darling reference to common people. But at the same time she has to face a husband who only wishes a male child and nothing more, an adopted small child from one of his husband´s waitress, her best friend becoming his husband´s second wife, being raped for only giving birth female children, not be able to love the man of her dreams, not having any kind of support from her own mother, etc. In the end she stays with her children, her husband and her best friend until she dies.

Women were forced to marry men for economic or social interests, it didn´t matter if they loved each other or if they hadn´t met before. The most important thing at that time was the appearance. It didn´t matter to be honest, you just need to appear like it. The clothes were also a very important part together with the manners, the reason for this is obvious. Any person was the things most people thought about him/her, although if those things are lies, and according to that people would judge anyone in the society in what we could call a general opinion. Here I shall mention the common sentence “Caesar's wife must not only be honest but appear”.  In this period women had little choices to because most hard decisions were already made by others and they could just obey.

Sources:

http://movies.nytimes.com/2008/09/19/movies/19duch.html

http://www.perioddramas.com/articles/the-duchess.php

The Rape of the Lock

Last week we have been analisyng in deep detail The Rape of the Lock by Alexander Pope. Here I will relate it with Aubrey Vincent Beardsley.

First of all, Aubrey was born the 21 of August in 1872 and died in 1898, he was an English illustrator, critic, author and painter. His drawings made in black and white focused on emphasizing the grotesque, the decadent and the erotic characteristics.

For The Rape of the Lock he made a total of nine pictures divided between the Cantos. Each picture reffers to a certain moment inside the poem and, I think we can locate each picture between a rather small amount of verses inside the poem.

The first one is called “The Morning Dream”, we are in Canto I and I think we can locate it between verses 19-23:

“Belinda still her downy pillow press’d,
Her guardian Sylph prolong’d the balmy rest:
’Twas he had summon’d to her silent bed
The morning-dream that hover’d o’er her head,"

 The Second one is called "The Billet-doux", Canto I, verses 42-46

“He said; when Shock, who thought she slept too long, Leap’d up, and waked his mistress with his tongue. ’Twas then, Belinda, if report say true, Thy eyes first open’d on a billet-doux; Wounds, charms, and ardours, were no sooner read, But all the vision vanish’d from thy head.”

The Third one is called "The Barge", Canto III, verses 143-148:

“And keener lightnings quicken in her eyes. The busy Sylphs surround their darling care, These set the head, and those divide the hair, Some fold the sleeve, whilst others plait the gown: And Betty’s praised for labours not her own.”

The Forth one is called "The Baron's Prayer", Canto II, verses 42-46

“And breathes three amorous sighs to raise the fire.
Then prostrate falls, and begs with ardent eyes
Soon to obtain, and long possess the prize:
The powers gave ear, and granted half his prayer,
The rest, the winds dispersed in empty air.”

 



The Fifth one is called "The Barge", Canto III, verses 13-18:

“One speaks the glory of the British Queen,
And one describes a charming Indian screen;
A third interprets motions, looks, and eyes;
At every word a reputation dies.
Snuff, or the fan, supply each pause of chat,
With singing, laughing, ogling, and all that.”

The Sixth one is called "The Rape of the Lock", Canto III, verses 125-130:

“But when to mischief mortals bend their will,
How soon they find fit instruments of ill!
Just then, Clarissa drew with tempting grace
A two-edged weapon from her shining case:
So ladies in romance assist their knight,”

The Seventh one is called "The Cave of Spleen", Canto IV, verses 10-16:

  

“For, that sad moment, when the Sylphs withdrew,
And Ariel weeping from Belinda flew,
Umbriel, a dusky, melancholy sprite,
As ever sullied the fair face of light,
Down to the central earth, his proper scene,
Repair’d, to search the gloomy cave of Spleen.”

The Eighth one is called "The Battle of the Beaux and Belles", Canto V, verses 33-34:

“Beauties in vain their pretty eyes may roll;
Charms strike the sight, but merit wins the soul.’”

 The Last one is called "The New Star", Canto V, verses 147-150:

 

 “And all those tresses shall be laid in dust,
This lock the Muse shall consecrate to fame,
And ‘midst the stars inscribe Belinda’s name.”

These ideas are no more than my own opinion, I may be right or not. Everything can be discussed or contrasted. Anyway any new idea or opinion is welcome to this concept.

List of sources:

-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rape_of_the_Lock

-http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aubrey_Beardsley
-http://www.iberlibro.com/Set-eight-engravings-illustrate-Lysistrata-BEARDSLEY/2632907556/bd
-http://www.mystudios.com/artgallery/A/Aubrey-Vincent-Beardsley/Illustration-for-%27The-Rape-of-the-Lock%27.html

Triangular Trade

Hi everybody, in my next post I would like to give a short summary about the Triangular Trade in relation with slavery during the late 16th to early 19th centuries. 

Triangular Trade was the term used to describe three very profitable journeys. These journeys traded carrying slaves, cash crops, and other manufactured goods between West Africa, American colonies and the European countries, with the northern colonies of British North America, often to New England.

Here I give you an interactive map, it is much better than this one here

http://www.nmm.ac.uk/upload/swf/flashmap10.swf

1. The outward passage from Europe to Africa carrying manufactured goods.
2. The middle passage from Africa to the Americas or the Caribbean carrying African captives and other 'commodities’.
3. The homeward passage carrying sugar, tobacco, rum, rice, cotton and other goods back to Europe.

African slaves were absolutly necessary for the continuous growing colonial cash crops, these, were exported to Europe. European goods in general, in turn, were used to purchase African slaves, which were then brought on the sea lane west from Africa to the Americas, it was called middle passage. Theses slaves were taken to work in the colonies. In exchange sugar, tobacco, rum, rice, cotton and other goods from America went back to Europe, and so on.

About the 1790s there were 480,000 enslaved people in British Caribbean colonies. About 11-12 million Africans were transported across the Atlantic into slavery. Many more had died during capture and transportation because of the bad conditions they had to face.

List of Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triangular_trade

http://lylesj.tripod.com/trade/tritrade.html

http://www.eduplace.com/kids/socsci/books/applications/imaps/maps/g5s_u3/index.html

Just a first try

Hi everyone, this is the first blog I have ever made so I am not quite familiar with anything. I will try to make it as clear, precise and funny as possible. Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoy future posts