Social Change Flashcards
Great Expectations
Influenced by the industrial revolution
London being the central location for opportunity and wealth which is contrasted in the novel
Also changes in the way children are brought up, criminals are treated and emphasis on education
Origin of species questions religion unrest- e.g. survival of the fittest (pip’s siblings are dead)
Class dictates everything
Wife of Bath
Written in the middle ages during a time of unrest- social, political economic due to the plague
The inevitability of death is always present
Class system- web being low bc woman as well/ knights were very well respected
Chaucer rejects the light as being a valiant protector
Written at a time where the church’s wealth was being challenged
Billy Collins
21st century and materialism
The brooklyn museum of art- how rapid change has meant people are failing to remove themselves from it and relate/ wants to go back to more simpler times by escaping into a painting
Strange Lands
Concerns of 20th century
Plays on the reader knowing references such as ‘Della Robbia’ coterie poem
Unlike GE where egypt is hardly mentioned at all
-Journey of the WoB travelling to canterbury
Feels disconnected with holiday, only there to show off and take pictures rather than experiencing it
Symbolic of the lack of american culture- “little mirrors reflecting our place in European history”
Emphasises the insignificance of people (in history). They become ‘unfocused’ ‘unphotographed and ‘blurs’- links to photograph
Inability to engage and memorise the surroundings- reliance on technology
Unlike BoB who lives in the moment- having sex and not thinking about consequences
Changing times- the ability to have a holiday, relax and escape which wasn’t available in the past- pilgrimage a form of holiday. Pip’s half day was a big thing
Modern concerns tend to be rather unimportant and trivial compared to GE/ WoB
Almost everyone is rich enough to go on holiday- emphasis on experiences and culture as opposed to money
Consolation
Tries to persuade himself he is happy to not be going on holiday
Contrasts to Strange lands
self persuasion and content- unlike pip
Irony due to in depth knowledge of the place (italy)
Taking the reader on a journey
American Sonnet
Concerns of the 20th C
Travel and communication
Lack of the conventional but ironically very conventional for collins
GE is also conventional in the sense that he is also writing to please an audience
Driving With Animals
Concerns of the 20th century- not hitting deer- car culture/ taking over the natural world
Taking the reader on a journey- literally
Heavy use of rhyme and iambic pentameter to give mood to the poem
Dreamlike
Contrast with nature and modern
Memento Mori
Impermanence
Inevitability of death
Link to Picnic, Lightning
More to do with the physicality of death- materialism (20th C)
