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.