Gunga Din (Rudyard Kipling)

This poem is narrated by a British soldier who expresses admiration for an Indian water carrier who died saving his life. At the beginning of the poem, the soldiers discriminate against the servant, but at the end it is evident that the poem is one of gratitude towards him.

I do not know if this really happened, but it's amazing to see how the poems were dedicated to the servants.

If-- Brother Square- Toes' --- Rewards and Faires (Rudyard Kipling)

This poem has a very positive connotation. Many advices are given throughout the poem on how to live a full life and become a man.It is a poem dedicated to the author's son. 

This poem is a good way to encourage your child to be a good person. 

A Study in Scarlet (Arthur Conan Doyle)

This story is divided into two parts. 

The first part details how Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson met. And also, one of his adventures is presented which is based on the capture of a person who murdered two men in search of revenge. 
The second part details what events led the man to seek revenge. The love and the own justice. 

In the story aspects such as religion, justice, marriage, deduction and others are taken into account to make the story more attractive to readers.

The Signal-Man (Charles Dickens)

The Signal-man is an incredible story based on the Gothic genre. The story begins with a person who meets a signal man who works by monitoring trains that pass daily near a tunnel. However, this worker tells him how a ghost has appeared twice and after the apparitions some tragedy occurs. And, the last time he sees the ghost, he does not know how to report that something is going to happen because he has no tangible evidence, and one day after that, the signal man died in a train accident. This is just a brushstroke of what the story is about.

Dracula's Guess (Bram Stoker)

This short story was originally part of the book Dracula, but the author decided not to include it.Personally, I think it was a good decision because Dracula's book is too long an many people do not read it due to that. However, this short story gives the readers the opportunity to taste a little bit of what the book is about and may encourage them to read it.  

The story is based on an English man who visits Munich and wants to know the place. So, he leaves in a carriage to know the surroundings until he arrives at a place that the driver tells him is dangerous. Without caring the visitor decides to go to investigate and stumble upon many supernatural things and go through difficult situations until he is rescued. In the end, he is surprised because he realizes that Dracula is taking care of him even though he is in another country.

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Robert Louis Stevenson)

This was one of my favorite books read throughout the class. The mystery and suspense that the characters give to the book is contagious. The supernatural, the tragedy, the duality and all the characteristics that this literary work presents make it an amazing book. 

The novella is an exciting story about a doctor who wants to separate his evil side with a potion he created. He did, but this brought him many problems with it. Difficult situations and death was the price. But the book is a beautiful representation of gothic literature for those who like that genre.

A Man's Requirements (Elizabeth Barrett Browning)

This poem looks like another love poem of the time, but in the end it has a funny twist. 
At the beginning the reader express all the ways men want to be loved. However, in the end she explains that men ask a lot and give little in return. This is also another poem of criticism of society.





"Thus, if thou wilt prove me, Dear, 
    Woman's love no fable. 
I will love thee---- half a year----
    As a man is able." 

The Lady's Yes (Elizabeth Barret Browning)

This poem reveals a criticism of all the chauvinist practices of the time. A strong and independent woman is represented when she said yes to a man one night, but the other day she said no. Consequently, this woman also gave her some advice to keep in mind when he is courting a woman. 

"Learn to win a lady's faith 
Nobly, as the thing is high;
Bravely, as for life and death ---
With a loyal gravity." 

Porphyria's Lover (Robert Browning)

This story like others written by Browning have that mystery that surrounds them and give us an unexpected ending. Especially with this, we can see how Porphyria is madly in love with the reader, to the point that it is almost adoration. Then, the reader thinks how nice it is to be adored and begins to think what would happen if his girlfriend stopped loving him that way and comes to the conclusion that the best thing is to kill her and that her life ends in that way loving him madly. And, he convinced himself that she did not feel pain. Then, as with "My Last Duchess", the tragedy is unexpected but it happened. 


"That moment she was mine, mine, fair,
Perfectly pure and good: I found 
A thing to do, and all her hair
In one long yellow string I wound
Tree times her little throat around, 
And strangled her. No pain felt she;
I am quite sure she felt no pain." 

My Last Duchess (Robert Browning)

This poem has a certain mystery behind it. The tragedy is something that at the beginning of the poem is not on the table.However, when the reader began to mention how his wife always smiled at everyone and accepted everything they asked for, tragedy began to be as possible. The reader did not feel as someone important for her due to this issue. Then, this jealousy led him to convince himself that killing her was the best option. 

Agnes Grey (Anne Bronte)

Agnes Gray is a story that in the Victorian era was quite interesting; however, personally, today is not so exciting. It is a story that allows us to know the story of Agnes as a governess, all the problems she had to overcome and, finally, how she found love.

Some controversial issues were present in the story:

Animal abuse: The little boy who kills all those birds making them suffer.

Religion: Agnes mentioned and explained religion many times.

Feminism: The women oppresion was present all over the book.

Significant Quote:

“Reading is my favourite occupation, when I have leisure for it and books to read.” 
Anne Bronte, Agnes Grey. 

The Lady of Shalott (Alfred Lord Tennyson)

Characters: 

Lady of Shalott 
Lancelot 

Event:

The Lady of Shalott was a Lady who was condemned to live in a tower on the island of Shalott. She could not leave or even look outside the tower because she was cursed, if she did, she would die. However, she look outside looking for Lancelot who was singing near the tower. After that, she left the tower to go to Camelot to look for Lancelot because she did not want to die in that tower. She got on a boat and wrote her name on it, but she died arriving in Camelot. 

Reflection: 

The decisions we make towards certain actions can have consequences, so it is very important to know which decisions are worthwhile and which ones are not worth it.

The Importance of Being Earnest (Oscar Wilde)

Characters: 

John (Jack/Ernest) Worthing.

Algernon Moncrieff.

Gwendolen Fairfax.

Cecily Cardew.

Lady Bracknell.

Miss Prism. 

Rev. Canon Chasuble. 

Event: 
This play took place in London.

From the play, there are some aspects that I would like to mention.

1.      The importance of a family name in that society: Even though Jack was a rich person, but without a respectable last name, Lady Bracknell was not interested in letting her only daughter marry him.

2.      The greedy society: It was noted how important money and power was at that time for the man if he wanted to marry a noble woman.

3.      The Bunbury: This might represent what Oscar Wilde had to go through as a homosexual man. It is also a critic to demonstrate what a man usually did to cover their incorrect actions.

Significant Quote:

 “Nothing will induce me to part with Bunbury, and if you ever get married, which seems to me extremely problematic, you will be very glad to know Bunbury. A man who marries without knowing Bunbury has a very tedious time of it.” (Algernon). 

The Life of the Industrial Worker (Scott and Baltzly)

Joshua Drake, called in; and Examined 

1. Joshua mentioned that he would prefer work fewer hours and earn lower wages because it is difficult to work long periods of time. 
2. "Why you would allow your children to go to work at those places where they are ill-treated or over-worked? --- Necessity compels a man that has children to let them work." This part of the essay demonstrates the need that poor people in the Victorian era lived. 
3. If it was not from necessity, I would not allow my kids to do it. 
4. They mentioned a law to reduced labour hours and wages with it, but Joshua said that he preferred that.  
5. In addition, an advantage of limiting the hours was mentioned. Limiting work hours will allow other people to have a job since many people work day and night and that takes away work from someone else.

Dover Beach (Matthew Arnold)

Event:

The setting of this poem (as it is called) is on the Dover beach in England. It is noticeable that there are two people in the room, one that describes how people come to life to suffer being pessimistic, and the other that tries to see the beauties of life. 

Reflection:

Life is never easy; however, we can not stay in a room regretting how difficult it is and paying attention only to the bad things. So, if we want to live a full life, we have to learn to accept the good or bad things that life gives us.

The Forsaken Merman (Matthew Arnold)

In the poem, Arnold describes a particular couple, a merman and a human being who got married. Living in an enchanted world, they had children. However, one day she heard the bells of the church and decided to return to the real world, leaving behind her children and husband.

Gender Society: 

This poem lets us see how at that moment society can judge a woman who leave her children behind to fulfill her dreams (whatever that may be) even harder than a man. However, at this time this has not changed much. If a woman abandons a child, it is much worse than a man. Consequently, this allows us to know how chauvinist our society was and is.

Religion:

Margaret's main decision to leave was based on religion. She saw a gap between faith and the pagans, and she did not want to lose her soul. For that reason, she went back to church.I would say that Arnold was criticizing a religion, Christianity or paganism.

Break,Break,Break (Alfred Lord Tennyson)

Event:

Lord Tennyson wrote about his dead friend, in the poem one can feel his mourning. Probably he chose a coast as setting because it represents his feelings, cold and sadness. Also, he compared himself with the sea. The sea, whatever happens, follows its course, but he could not express his feelings. 

Reflection:

Losing a loved one is always difficult, and Lord Tennyson used his poem to vent his sorrows because it was tough for him to do it with words. Personally, I think many people have the same problem, but they decide to keep all the feelings and never let them go. And that prolongs the mourning indefinitely. 

Añadir leyenda

The Cry of the Children (Elizabeth Barrett)

Analysis:This is a protest poem written by Elizabeth Barrett to complaint against the hard work that children had to do in factories and coal mines in England. Those children were destined to work long periods of time, without enough food, or basic safety, and had a great chance of dying when they were very young. Even many children preferred to die than having to work in those conditions so deplorable. This led them to even lose faith in God.

"True," say the children, "it may happen 

      That we die before our time ! 

Little Alice died last year her grave is shapen 

      Like a snowball, in the rime. 

A Walk in a Workhouse (Charles Dickens)

In this piece of literature, Dickens wrote about his experience in entering a workhouse in the eighteenth century.

He saw the suffering that lower classes had to deal with while the higher classes enjoyed many privileges.

Also, how the people there were sick and tired. The food they had was not enough for the kind of work they did, but they had to get used to eating little.

Reflection: When I was reading this essay, it was shocking to know that even though slavery was abolished many years ago, in those workplaces people were practically slaves. Children, women, men and old people were there just because they were paupers, and the owners of those places took advantage of that. Conditions that were and are not inhumane to live, only shows that at that time poor people had no control over their lives and were replaceable.