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 continued. Women’s rights started rising. The industrialisation brings 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, Devonshire. He was middle class. He was an
accomplished scholar but found little intellectual stimulation at 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. Then, he met
Robert Southey (poet). Coleridge was mentally ill and 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
It’s a lyrical ballad (= a poem written in the form and style of a folk ballad).
1
, Summary:
Part 1 The poem begins by introducing the Ancient Mariner, who stops a Wedding Guest
from attending a wedding. Despite the Guest’s efforts to leave, the Mariner continues. The
story begins with a 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 see 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, the Mariner, for
reasons unexplained, kills the albatross with his crossbow.
Part 2 At first, the other Sailors are furious with him as they believed it was responsible for
the wind. But the fog clears and the breeze continues, 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 drinks his own blood
so that he can speak to 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, 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 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
Sailors. 2 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 asks him “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 wiser man.”
Key themes:
- Religion: the Albatross = cross (hung around his neck = carrying the burden), ‘power of
speech’ at the end, 7 parts - 7 days (creation), ship, wedding.
- Sin & penance: sin is killing the bird, penance is the sailors dying causing him to be in
isolation. He turns into a preacher at the end where he is 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-
Death personification, all men suddenly die without natural cause.
- Death: he mentions that he cannot die, but all the others do.
2
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 continued. Women’s rights started rising. The industrialisation brings 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, Devonshire. He was middle class. He was an
accomplished scholar but found little intellectual stimulation at 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. Then, he met
Robert Southey (poet). Coleridge was mentally ill and 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
It’s a lyrical ballad (= a poem written in the form and style of a folk ballad).
1
, Summary:
Part 1 The poem begins by introducing the Ancient Mariner, who stops a Wedding Guest
from attending a wedding. Despite the Guest’s efforts to leave, the Mariner continues. The
story begins with a 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 see 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, the Mariner, for
reasons unexplained, kills the albatross with his crossbow.
Part 2 At first, the other Sailors are furious with him as they believed it was responsible for
the wind. But the fog clears and the breeze continues, 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 drinks his own blood
so that he can speak to 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, 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 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
Sailors. 2 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 asks him “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 wiser man.”
Key themes:
- Religion: the Albatross = cross (hung around his neck = carrying the burden), ‘power of
speech’ at the end, 7 parts - 7 days (creation), ship, wedding.
- Sin & penance: sin is killing the bird, penance is the sailors dying causing him to be in
isolation. He turns into a preacher at the end where he is 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-
Death personification, all men suddenly die without natural cause.
- Death: he mentions that he cannot die, but all the others do.
2
