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A P R E S E N T A T I O N F O R E N G L I S H 2 3 2 3

S T U D E N T S

P R E P A R E D B Y

D R . B R E N D A C O R N E L L

C E N T R A L T E X A S C O L L E G E

Victorian Essayists

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Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle (4 December 1795 5 February 1881) was aScottishsatirical writer, essayist, historian and teacher duringtheVictorian era.[1] He called economics "the dismal science",

wrote articles for theEdinburgh Encyclopedia, and became acontroversial social commentator.[1]

Coming from a strict Calvinist family, Carlyle was expected tobecome a preacher by his parents, but while at the Universityof Edinburgh, he lost his Christian faith. Calvinist values,however, remained with him throughout his life. Thiscombination, of a religious temperament with loss of faith intraditional Christianity, made Carlyle's work appealing tomany Victorians who were grappling with scientific andpolitical changes that threatened the traditional social order.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scottish_peoplehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satirehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Essayisthttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historianhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victorian_erahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economicshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_dismal_sciencehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calvinismhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Edinburghhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Edinburghhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Edinburghhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Edinburghhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calvinismhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_dismal_sciencehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economicshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victorian_erahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historianhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Essayisthttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satirehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scottish_people

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Early Writings

By 1821, Carlyle had abandoned the clergy as apossible career and focused on making a life as a

writer. His first attempt at fiction was "Cruthers andJonson", one of several abortive attempts at writing a

novel. Following his work on a translation ofGoethe's Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship,[1] hecame to distrust the form of the realistic novel and so

worked on developing a new form of fiction. In

addition to his essays on German literature, hebranched out into wider ranging commentary onmodern culture in his influential essaysSigns of theTimes and Characteristics.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goethehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goethe

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Essays

Later writings were generally short essays, oftenindicating the hardening of Carlyle's political positions.His notoriouslyracist essay "Occasional Discourse on theNegro Question" suggested that slavery should never

have been abolished, or else replaced with serfdom. Ithad kept order, he argued, and forced work from peoplewho would otherwise have been lazy and feckless. This and Carlyle's support for the repressive measures ofGovernor Edward Eyre in Jamaica further alienated

him from his old liberal allies. Eyre had been accused ofbrutal lynchings while suppressing a rebellion. Carlyle setup a committee to defend Eyre, while Mill organised forhis prosecution.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racisthttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occasional_Discourse_on_the_Negro_Questionhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occasional_Discourse_on_the_Negro_Questionhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serfdomhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Eyrehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Eyrehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serfdomhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occasional_Discourse_on_the_Negro_Questionhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occasional_Discourse_on_the_Negro_Questionhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racist

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John Henry Newman

John Henry Newman, C.O. (21 February 1801 11August 1890),[2][3] also referred to as CardinalNewman and Blessed John Henry Newman, wasan important figure in the religious history of England inthe 19th century. He was known nationally by the mid-

1830s.[4] Originally an evangelical Oxford academic and

clergyman in the Church of England, Newman was aleader in the Oxford Movement. This influential groupingofAnglicans wished to return the Church of England to

many Catholic beliefs and forms of worship. He left theAnglican church and converted to Roman Catholicism(1845), eventually being granted the rank ofCardinal byPope Leo XIII.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oratory_of_Saint_Philip_Nerihttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_of_Englandhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxford_Movementhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anglicanhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catholic_Churchhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cardinalhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Leo_XIIIhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Leo_XIIIhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cardinalhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catholic_Churchhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anglicanhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxford_Movementhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_of_Englandhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oratory_of_Saint_Philip_Neri

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Newmans Writings

Some of Newman's short and earlier poems are described byR. H.Hutton as "unequalled for grandeur of outline, purity of taste andradiance of total effect"; while his latest and longest, The Dream ofGerontius, attempts to represent the unseen world along the samelines as Dante. His prose style, especially in his Catholic days, isfresh and vigorous, and is attractive to many who do not sympathise

with his conclusions, from the apparent candour with whichdifficulties are admitted and grappled; while in his privatecorrespondence there is charm. He also published a set of lecturesentitled The Idea of a University. James Joyce had a lifelongadmiration for Newman's writing, and in a letter to his patronHarriet Shaw Weaver humorously remarked about Newman that

"nobody has ever written English prose that can be compared withthat of a tiresome footling little Anglican parson who afterwardsbecame a prince of the only true church".[50]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Holt_Huttonhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Holt_Huttonhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dream_of_Gerontius_(poem)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dream_of_Gerontius_(poem)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dante_Alighierihttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Joycehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harriet_Shaw_Weaverhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harriet_Shaw_Weaverhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Joycehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dante_Alighierihttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dream_of_Gerontius_(poem)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dream_of_Gerontius_(poem)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Holt_Huttonhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Holt_Hutton

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John Stuart Mill

1806-1873. Raised as a utilitarian, but laterinfluenced by the work of Wordsworth, he opposedthe utilitarian view-point of the times put forth byJeremy Bentham, who thought that poetry

"stimulated the passions and prejudices, and that itwas therefore socially harmful." (This seems like anon-going argument that can be traced from Plato'sRepublic all the way to the U.S. Senate sub-

committee on the National Endowment for the arts.Someone's always accusing poetry of either volatile,subversive, or just immoral purposes.)

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Mills Argument for Poetry

In discussing how people know the difference between something that is poetic and something that is not, Millsays "[t]he appearance of a difference is itself a real difference." This is an interesting statement. He basicallysays that once something is said, or implied, even if it isn't true necessarily, the question is out there fordiscussion.

He suggests that the differences in emphasis between the novel and poetry is so great that the forms arealmost "mutually exclusive" and he even wonders how those who really appreciate one could care at all aboutthe other. While he says that "many of the finest poems are in the form of novels, and in almost all good novelsthere is true poetry," the difference between the two is that the novel "is derived from incident" where poetry

comes from a "representation of feeling." He goes so far as to suggest that the epic poetry is not really poetry atall.

He talks about the difference between description in poetry and other kinds of writing saying that fiction orscience would try to convey the truth about the outward appearance of things. Poetry on the other hand, maynot describe the outward appearance accurately (it wouldn't even try) but would describe the thing in a waythat the emotions produced by it are rendered with "scrupulous truth."

He grants that poetry is "impassioned truth" but says that can't be all it is, because that is a description ofeloquence, which is also present in philosophy, among other things. The difference, he suggests is that"eloquence is heard, poetry is overheard." Eloquence is specifically meant to move an audience while poetry islike hearing private thoughts, and here he uses a gorgeous line: "Poetry is feeling confessing itself to

itself." This act of poetry makes it "soliloquy." He uses a simile to acting by suggesting that if an actor is tooaware of the audience, he will deliver a bad performance. The same is true of a poet. He has to write forhimself alone, even if he plans to publish it, because the moment he begins to write for someone else, the work

becomes not poetic, but eloquent.

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Works Cited

John Henry Newman: Writer.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Henry_Newman#Writer

John Stuart Mill Critical Works.http://core.ecu.edu/engl/kaind/crit/milltext.html

Thomas Carlyle Writings.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Carlyle#Earl

y_writings

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Henry_Newmanhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Henry_Newmanhttp://core.ecu.edu/engl/kaind/crit/milltext.htmlhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Carlylehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Carlylehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Carlylehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Carlylehttp://core.ecu.edu/engl/kaind/crit/milltext.htmlhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Henry_Newmanhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Henry_Newman