THE VICTORIAN AGE

We talked about the Victorian Age in the course. This period was between 1830 and 1901. Victoria was queen in this period and she had the longest reign in British history. She was elegant and confident. Also, she was the first woman who wore wedding dress. It is very surprising for me. She governed the country successfully and the British Empire began to grow. British Empire expanded to Canada, Australia, Singapore, South Africa, New Zealand, Kenya, India and Hong Kong. Therefore, other countries said “The sun never sets on England” for British Empire. Besides these improvements, they imported raw materials and exported finished goods. British Empire was the wealthiest country in the world thanks to them. Moreover, political and social reforms which included The Second Reform Act, Trade Union Act and The Third Reform Act. The women began to vote. So, British Empire was the most brilliant period. Unlike these good things; pollution increased because of industrialism, everywhere was unhygienic and there was epidemic diseases like cholera, typhoid.

THE RIME OF THE ANCIENT MARINER

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner is a poem which was written by Samuel Taylor Coleridge in 1797-1798. It is one of the most striking examples of English Literature. It was written in Romantic Period. Therefore, it has romantic elements. Some of them are nature, strong human emotions, supernatural forces, sin and restoration.

Topic of the poem is experiences of a sailor. The sailor goes to sea voyage and he experiences many events in this time. Firstly, he and his sailor friends go to an area which is surrounded by ice. Because the area is ice, they can’t go to anywhere and they stay there. The while they see an Albatross, the Mariner kills the Albatross by thinking bad chances for them. But, the others think giving chances. After then, the area becomes so hot and they become thirsty. They think that all bad things happen because of Albatross dead. Then, all sailors die except for the Mariner.  He survives and he becomes telling the story to people on wedding ceremony.

ROMANTICS

I want to give more information about Romantics. Initially, the most important thing of Romantics was feeling. Feeling, senses and imagination were everything for them. They ignored reason and formal rules in their works. Also, spontaneous overflow of feeling is used in the works by them and nature was inspiration for their works. They respected ones who moved according to feelings. Besides, the innocent people were children and loony according to them. Finally, they supported human rights, individualism, freedom in their works.

WHY DID ROBINSON CRUSOE KEEP A DIARY?

He kept a diary because he wanted to write his experiences in the island. He wrote everything that he lived. The diary was both his friend and his past & future. He was busy with it. Sometimes he talked with it while there wasn't Friday, because he would need to talk with anyone. So, the diary was everything for him. May be, when he left from island, he wanted something which would remember his life in the island. 

ROBINSON CRUSOE

How would you behave when you first met Friday if you were in Robinson's condition?

I want to answer this question. If I were Robinson, I would do the same thing because people want to communicate with someone. Especially, if you were alone in an island, you would need more one to comminicate. So, I would teach my language and I would be a friend with him. Besides, because I would need one who would help me, I would provide to obey me. And, I would think that leaving from the island was easier when we were together.

A MODEST PROPOSAL

It was written by Jonathan Swift in 1729. He wrote this proposal in order to prevent children in Ireland. He was towards the country because people in Ireland were used slaves by English. He gave more suggestions to achieve this. When I first heard, I was very shock because his suggestions were quite interesting. For example, he supported that babies should be used  nutrients. After they had been grown up certain age, they can be killed and they can be used nutrients. So, economy of the country increases and babies provide this instead of giving nutrients from other countries. Besides, this provides that parents take fewer responsibilities because parents will have fewer children. Finally, this provides that importance of women increases. Men care about women because they have babies. As we have seen, his ideas are interesting but they provide to understand lacks of the country.

PARADISE LOST

Firstly, I want to give some information about Paradise Lost. Then, I will talk about why the God placed forbidden fruit in the Heaven.  

Paradise Lost is an epic poem. It was written by John Milton. It consists of 10 books. It is about being expelled of Adam and Eve because of forbidden fruit. Satan cheated on them in order to revenge from the God, and he achieved this. Finally, Adam and Eve were expelled from the Heaven.

Why did the God place forbidden fruit in the Heaven? I think, although the God knew the result of this, the God wanted to test Adam and Eve. Also, The God wanted to see whether he and she obey or disobey. Unfortunately, Adam and Eve were deceived by Satan and they ate the forbidden fruit. So, the God saw that Adam and Eve disobeyed. May be, the God created the world before existing Adam and Eve. The God placed forbidden fruit deliberately in order to provide going of Adam and Eve to the world. So, the God planned this.

PURITANS

Puritans were people who lived in the 16th and 17 centuries. They established a form  of Protestantism. They were quite different from others living in the same period. Therefore, I wanted to more information about this group. The most well-known feature is that they were against pleasure. This was especially against church rules. Also, they thought that everything should be simple. They were against exaggerated things. For example, churches should be design simple because there were these places in order to pray God. Besides, morality was important for Puritans.

 

METAPHYSICAL POETRY

 

This week, our topics were Metaphysical Poetry and examples of these poems.  Initially, I want to talk about Metaphysical Poetry.  This period on poems emerged on 17th century. These poems rely on wit and they are lyrics.  Language is understandable in these poems. Also, there are many conceits in these poems. As for poets, they thought love as physical. They didn’t think it platonic like others. May be, these different features of poems provided to reach today. I think they are interesting and unique works which were written about love.

John Donne and George Herbert are major poets of this period. They wrote poems by unusual style. I was affected by The Flea (J. Donne) and Easter Wings (G. Herbert). Especially, The Flea is quite different and strange poem. The poet used effectively flea to describe love.May be; one day, if a flea or a mosquito sucks my blood, I will remember this poem and I will feel myself like lovers in the poem. :)