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Essay / Victorian, Romantic, and Modernist Literature: Style as Cultural Commentary
Tony Harrison's “A Cold Coming,” William Wordsworth's “Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey,” Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights, and George's 1984 Orwell each display distinct sensibilities that reflect the era from which they come. The Modernist Manifestos differentiate the Modernist movement from previous ones by its self-conscious examination of literature's purpose in the cultural landscape, but it is precisely this quality that connects these four texts. Romantic, Victorian, and modernist texts each represent a writer's efforts to capture their era in a meaningful and relevant way. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on 'Why violent video games should not be banned'? Get an original essay The narrator of Wordsworth's 'Tintern Abbey' reveals his artistic intentions in the narrative of his poem. The Romantic literary tradition manifests a concern for a pure and untouched representation of nature that rejects lofty vocabulary and stylistic gimmicks. “Tintern Abbey” thus pays homage to the principles of romanticism while displaying the universal desire to create a valuable literary work. “Tintern Abbey” affirms the process of writing as something both enlightening and comforting. Wordsworth writes: “For I have learned to look upon nature, not as in the hour of thoughtless youth; but I often hear the sweet and sad music of humanity” (88-91). The act of writing moves the narrator's observation beyond mindless appreciation and into the state of interpretation, creating a depth that would be difficult to achieve through a mimetic representation of an object. By inserting himself into the poem, Wordsworth shows how he actively uses memory as a means of creating meaning. His struggle to capture the essence of his initial memory, his frustration at not being able to recreate the past, and finally his satisfaction with the knowledge he has acquired over the years all contribute to what was a long and fruitful journey for Wordsworth. Brone's Wuthering Heights uses the device of text-within-text framing to map the process of creating a narrative. The lack of chronology and the contradictory contributions of several narrators result in a convoluted disorder, revealing the vulnerability of the story. The story turns out to be very unstable, subject to distortions and misrepresentations. The industrialization of the Victorian period resulted in class regimentation. Although none of the characters directly experience industrialization, the prejudices inherent in the class structure influence their technique of representing one another through narration. Every character in the story exaggerates Heathcliff's brutality, just as Edward Linton comes across as pathetically feminine, Hareton as terribly stupid, Joseph as abrasive, and Catherine as hysterical. Because each of these characters carries a stigmatized personality, Lockwood seems unable to present them in a neutral light. The characters also cannot represent each other fairly, since each of them occupies a web of competing ideologies. Joseph and Hareton speak in a strange caricature of lower-class dialect while Catherine and Heathcliff exhibit extreme emotional breakdowns that defy plausibility. Therefore, Wuthering Heights challenges literature's ability to bridge class divisions. Although the novel comes from the Victorian period, it expresses nostalgia for romantic values. While modernism is concerned with moving forward, annihilating all outdated literary forms to achieve a new method of interpreting reality, the text Les Hauts.