The Image of the Gentleman in the 19-th century Literature of Britain

The word “gentleman” unites indissolubly different images, though it is still difficult to explain. When hearing a term “gentleman” we think about Englishness, belonging to a certain class, masculinity, manners and morality. We can also think about hypocrisy, out of date behaviour, inherent the characters of Victorian novels, but which no longer holds any value in today’s society.

We can hardly find a book or a character in the English literature that bears no relation to a gentleman. Since Chaucer’s times the image of gentleman becomes the integral part of fiction and critics. The 19-th century is the golden age of gentlemanliness in real life and in literature: Thackeray, Dickens, Trollope used their works to disseminate their conception of this idea in society. William Dobbin, Thackeray’s character, is an ideal gentleman. By his novel “The Great Expectations” Dickens made a significant contribution in the interpretation of the image of gentleman. The main character’s Pip, desire to become a gentleman is typical of that society, which believed in development through the constant self-perfection.

The gentleman of 19-th century literature goes through two stages of development. In the beginning of the century the religious image of gentleman predominated, that was the heart of the family. In the second half of the century the gentleman was viewed as the empire builder, adventures’ seeker, ready to conquer new worlds in the name of queen and country.

All the authors Thackeray, Dickens and Trollope get agreement that only inner traits shape a gentleman of an ordinary person.

Yatsiyk Iryna

Aestheticism

Aestheticism doesn’t belong to those theories that have long and rich history of research work. This problem has strict time borders, which are connected with Romanticism, that claims that the highest priority of human’s life is freedom of emotions, feelings and imagination.

The literary creed of Aestheticism was much in fashion at the times of Oscar Wilde and he fully embraced its philosophy of the central importance of art in life. The Aesthetic Movement encompassed the visual arts, the decorative arts and literature. “Art for art’s sake implies the autonomy of art and artist, the rejection of didactic aim and the refusal to subject art to moral or social judgements”. Art should have no spiritual meaning or message. “A work of art should be judged by beauty alone.” Basil Hallaward speaks about an abstract art in “The Picture of Dorian Gray”: “Art is always more abstract than we fancy. Form and colour tell us of form and colour – that is all”.

Wilde was involved in the aestheticism movement, which attempted to establish art as just pieces of beauty and nothing more. Many people of the Victorian Era believed all works of art had a deeper meaning and purpose other than for pleasure, but Wilde worked to disprove this idea.

He uses all possible means to show the beauty itself without any deep implicit meaning but with the help of words and their combinations. In some of Wilde’s works the traces of the ornamental prose can be distinctly viewed, which make his descriptions more vivid and expressive. A number of symbols in his works also draw attention of the readers, being a part of the aesthetic style.

Wilde’s specific poetic language characterized by repetitions and burdens which appear on its basis. Such burdens can be represented by a word or phrase, or any unit which repeats throughout the text in the same or different implementation. In this way the work becomes more complicated, coherent and rich. Such a piece of writing can’t be treated indifferently or passively any more, but aimed at sympathetic and understanding reader.

Bradly Proctor

Southeast Missouri State University (USA)