THE EVOLUTION OF NINETEENTH-CENTURY TRAGIC LITERATURE (HAMLET, SELF-CONSCIOUSNESS, SHAKESPEARE, WORDSWORTH, KEATS, ELIOT, CONRAD)
Abstract
In nineteenth-century England uncertainty about the value of life precipitated a belief that life is tragic. The first chapter of this study examines the new "tragic sense" which preoccupied nineteenth-century writers--its causes and its distinctive characteristics--and the connections between ancient and modern tragic literature. Chapter II focuses on Hamlet as the first victim of the modern disease of self-consciousness, the principal subject of modern tragic literature, foregrounding a continuing emphasis on Hamlet's influence in the nineteenth century and demonstrating that Hamlet ultimately provides modern characters with an example of how to break the bonds of introspection and resolve their crises. As Chapter III illustrates, self-consciousness reached the epidemic stage in the early nineteenth century, when it manifests itself most clearly in the poetry of Wordsworth. The evolution of Wordsworth's tragic poetry is revealed first in two narratives ("Michael," The Excursion, Book I), where the most profound tragic resonances are deflected, and then in two lyrics ("Resolution and Independence," the "Immortality Ode"), where full tragic response could no longer be averted. Chapter IV traces the progression of Keats, spurred by the examples of Shakespeare and Wordsworth, from a poet of escapist romance to tragic poet. Chapter V studies George Eliot's The Mill on the Floss as a tragic novel, its heroine, Maggie Tulliver, confronting many of the problems (e.g., man's separation from the natural world, the difficulty of adapting to an impersonal industrial world) dramatized in Wordsworth's poems. In addition, it is shown how Eliot used the narrator's role to comment on the tragic nature of Maggie's life. Similarly, in Conrad's Lord Jim, the subject of Chapter VI, a narrator (Marlow) helps shape our perception of Jim. This novel severely challenges the adaptability of the tragic to the modern world: the complex ambiguities of Jim's case lead Marlow to question the very possibility of purpose in modern life. Ultimately, however, Marlow sees through Jim that purpose must be self-determined. Jim refuses to accept life as absurd; his persistent struggle to validate life's meaning makes him, for all his errors, a tragic hero.
Degree
Ph.D.
Subject Area
British and Irish literature
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