Abstract This paper explains the typical elements found in the literary genre known as Bildungsroman and then looks at the influence this particular genre had on English Victorian novels. The paper discusses three famous English novels and explains how they are examples of this genre.
From the Paper "When you read early nineteenth century novels, you notice some similarities between them with regard to construction and development of their characters. These similarities are due to the genre in which many Victorian novels fall, widely known as Bildungsroman. Bildungsroman as a genre took birth in Germany from where it came to England and affected literature of that time so much so that despite the uniqueness of each novel of that era, there are many similarities that force us to put them all under one single category."
A compare and contrast analysis of the element of development or change of its main characters in George Eliot's "Middlemarch" and "Hard Times" by Charles Dickens.
Abstract This paper examines how the Victorian era was one of change and how the rise of phenomena such as Darwinism, industrialism and urbanism undermined or challenged many of the traditions and beliefs of the population. It shows how the result was a population void of identity and how the simultaneous rise of the Bildungsroman seems to have be remedial to this problem, as the conclusion of such novels involved the arrival to spiritual solace and integrity. It looks at how George Eliot's "Middlemarch" and Charles Dickens? "Hard Times" both contain strong elements of Bildungsroman, although their methods and style differ significantly in documenting such a growth to maturity.
From the Paper "Dorothea Brooke's experience in Middlemarch is an educational one. From the opening of the novel she keen to define her role in life. She is full of "Puritan energy", and therefore extremely pious. This leads her to refuse anything she considers an indulgence. She attempts to justify her attraction towards her late mother's jewels by saying that "they are like fragments of heaven", and referring to the gems used "as spiritual revelations in the Revelations of St. John". However she refuses to wear them, dressing "not less bare of style than" the Blessed Virgin? on appearing to the "Italian Painters". She also gives up horse riding because she ?think[s] it wrong for [her]?. .....Hard Times is essentially a fable. This is evident from the outset mainly through Dickens? nomenclature. He calls his archetypal industrial town "Coketown", which in itself suggests a sooty and modern establishment. He calls the factory owner "Mr. Gradgrind", suggesting mechanisms and automation, and the local "model school" teachers "Mr. and Mrs. M"Choakumchild?. This has the effect of converting the characters into representatives of a certain theme or philosophy, and the author is no longer bound to produce a realistic or diverse personality. This is essential for Dickens as he intended to use Hard Times as a parable to highlight the potential destructiveness of utilitarianism and the Fact mentality, and can thus use some characters to epitomise utilitarian values, and others to epitomise its alternative psyches. For this reason Dickens? account of Louisa Gradgrind's growth to spiritual adulthood is less complex than that of Dorothea, although they do share significant parallels and contrasts."
Abstract This paper relates that Seamus Deane's novel "Reading in the Dark" is part autobiographical and many of the recounted intricate events actually have taken place. The author points out that the text is partially a Bildungsroman because, in the first part of the narrator's life it recounts many obstacles; however, unlike in a Bildungsroman, the greatest part of these obstacles remain unresolved as the story comes full circle and the reader finds the narrator in the very same place. The paper concludes that "Reading in the Dark" is an excellent source of historical documentation on Irish culture because the history of the boy's family parallels the history of Ireland itself in its troubled past, full of violence and political secrecy. The paper includes several quotations.
From the Paper "The novel revolves around a mystery that makes it resemble a detective story to a certain extent: the disappearance of Uncle Eddie, who is supposed to have been an informer for the IRA. The truth emerges gradually, and the boy narrator who tries to make sense of his family's story is not fully aware of the whole truth until the last part of the novel. The maze of facts and secrecy that involve almost all the members of the boy's family, both close and distant, already plunges the reader into the troubled and heavy atmosphere that the novel is charged with from beginning to the end."
Tags:bildungsroman, mystery, autobiographical, disappearance, family
This paper examines the character of Emma in Jane Austen's novel of the same name, whether she had a monstrous personality or was merely a victim of circumstances.
Abstract This essay seeks to decide whether the character of Emma is a 'monster' or victim of circumstances. It looks closely at Emma's moral progress, mapping out key events in the novel that help her to develop. It also discusses the "bildungsroman" genre and how 'Emma' is novel which partly conforms to that genre. It refers closely to the text and quotes both parts of text and outside sources. It comes to a very firm conclusion.
From the Paper "She is a refreshing change from the usual 'whiter than white' heroines that are portrayed in most novels, and instead is a very lifelike character. The other characters in the novel are more like caricatures, Emma is the only 'real' character in the book with the potential for development, and that is why we like her. The reader has the privileged view of observer so we are able to see the mistakes she makes and laugh at her mischievous plots. It is useful to compare Emma to the character of Mrs Elton."
This paper discusses the importance of "Time Passes," the second section of "To The Lighthouse" by Virginia Woolf, which is only nineteen pages long and compresses the passing of nearly a decade within these pages.
2,525 words (approx. 10.1 pages), 1 source, MLA, $ 76.95
Abstract This paper explains that Virginia Woolf's "To The Lighthouse," which is told using "stream of consciousness," is a modernist anti-Bildungsroman in which the reader sees excellent examples of experimentation with time shifting, complex allusions, multiple narrative voices, and inter-subjectivity. The author points out that, in the" Time Passes" section, human beings become secondary, while the novel shifts from its focus on psychology to chronology by contrasting its characters with the characters in the first section, by demonstrating the cruel effects of time on the Ramsey's house and on the people who spent time there in the first section of the novel, and by miniaturizing the historical time for Europe during and after World War I. The paper relates that the material objects used in the second part are reminders of the elegant Victorian life shown in the first half of the novel; and, in the second section, the reader sees how these objects can't save the people from the forces of nature and the outside world. Instead, the reader is given the idea that only outside forces can affect the social fabric of society, rather than the philosophies of the men, as in the first section.
From the Paper "The story is told in three sections. The first section, "The Window," takes up half the book and introduces us to the many characters and complex relationships within the Ramsey's summer house. Each character's interior thoughts are shown, as well as the other character's reactions and influences upon them. As the day comes to an end, we are left content as Mr. and Mrs. Ramsey manage to put their differences behind them and give the other what they needed in order to be at peace within their relationship. However, the second section, "Time Passes," takes a very different approach. The omniscient narrator tells of the decay of the house over the years and of the deaths of Mrs. Ramsey, Prue and Andrew. The house is occupied by darkness, wind and rain, as opposed to the people whose relationships and lives we read about in the first section. The third section, "The Lighthouse," takes place back at the summer house ten years after the first section."
Abstract This paper explains that gothic novels often establish a sense of mystery which is aided, to a greater or lesser extent, by some involvement with supernatural forces, often relying on religious
conventions for expression in the text. In Charlotte Bronte's "Jane Eyre", this sense of religious or supernatural mystery allows Jane to expostulate from her double-narrative point of view on the suspicious happenings at Thornfield House, where Jane is employed as a governess. The author points out that the role of religion can be seen in many ways in the novel using the characters Mr. Brocklehurst, St. John Rivers, Jane (the protagonist) and Rochester as the opposite of the role of religion. The paper relates that "Jane Eyre" takes place in a
society plagued by situations in which women are regarded as religious angels who are kept in a state of either decorative consumption or holistic servitude.
From the Paper "When Jane is relating to Mr. Brocklehurst at the school, he is a religious figure who gives mandates and constantly draws attention to the faults of others. Like St. John Rivers later in the novel, this character represents what Jane sees to be religious authority, and its goal towards her life is apparently repressive in nature. "And I was placed there, by whom I don't know: I was in no condition to not particulars; I was only aware that they had hoisted me up to the height of Mr. Brocklehurst's nose, and that a spread of shot orange and purple silk pelisses, and a cloud of silvery plumage extended and waved
below me. (He said) 'You see she is yet young... Who would think that the Evil One had already found a servant and agent in her?'" (Bronte). It can be seen therefore that Brocklehurst represents a sort of oppression over Jane in terms of influencing perceptions of her early in the novel."
Tags:bildungsroman, supernatural, mystery, double-narrative, women
This paper discusses maturation, a common theme in 20th century American literature, as found in Stephen Crane's "The Open Boat", John Steinbeck's "Flight", Zora Neale Hurston's "The Gilded Six Bits" and Richard Wright's "The Man Who was Almost a Man".
1,460 words (approx. 5.8 pages), 0 sources, 2004, $ 48.95
Abstract This paper explains that these maturation novels are a genre of literature called Bildungsroman, German for "formation novel", in which the main character usually is involved in a crisis and ends up recognizing his role in the world, a process that is usually typical of the maturation of the character throughout the story. The author points out that in these stories the process is an intellectual and moral growth: "The Open Boat", the growth is caused by experience, allowing the correspondent to finally feel the loss of the soldier through his comrade; "Flight", the growth takes place in the journey of a boy too eager to be a man; "The Gilded Six Bits" a full transformation from boy to man takes place as the character learns to deal with his emotions, feelings and responsibility; "The Boy Who was Almost a Man", the character never quite fully completes the maturity process, but the reader is taken through his bumpy ordeal. The paper concludes that all of these growths are very real and natural, leaving the reader with a new sense of understanding in this process of self-development and change.
From the Paper "In Wright's "The Man Who was Almost a Man," the journey of maturing into manhood is left unfinished. Dave Saunders, although thinking otherwise, never becomes a man. Dave sees men in the field one-day shooting, so he decides to purchase a gun. He associates the obtaining of a gun with becoming a man; to him the gun represents manhood. The pistol also has phallic connotation as well. After accidentally shooting the mule, Dave is not received by the other men around him, causing him to run away in search of acknowledgment somewhere else. He practices shooting, hesitant at first with his eyes closed and his head turned, he fires the pistol. It isn't until after he has fired the pistol that he realizes it wasn't as scary as he made it out to be. Once he overcomes this small hurdle he immediately feels he is a man."
Abstract This paper reviews Nick Hornsby's novel "High Fidelity." It discusses the general plot of the novel and describes, in detail, the role of the character Rob Fleming in the plot. The paper compares the character of Rob to the traditional Bildungsroman character and suggests that he does not fit with this typical role. It describes scenes and narratives of Rob's to explain this view-point.
From the Paper "Eventually, by the end of the novel, Rob begins to acknowledge Laura's humanity as well as his own. This separates him from his friends: "'we're not as bad as you think, Rob.' 'You couldn't be. Look, Barry. There's going to be people from Laura's work there, people who own dogs and babies and Tina Turner albums. How are you going to cope with them?'" (303) Rob has, like the Bildungsroman hero, become integrated into a larger society and become a man and learned to judge persons on more meaningful criteria than their love of counter-cultural music on LPs. But rather than suggest that this is a loss of youth, ingenuity, and vitality, Rob's maturity comes to Laura, to the reader, and ultimately to himself as a relief, as this maturity has been long overdue."
Abstract This paper presents an in-depth study of a Bildungsroman (coming-of-age) theme and Freud's theories of sexuality and gender as they apply to the Henry James novel "What Maisie Knew." The paper discusses the basis of Sigmund Freud's theories on the development of infantile/childhood sexuality and relates this to the novel. The paper presents examples from the story to support the discussion.
From the Paper "What Maisie Knew is a complex tale with a central coming-of-age theme, indicating the presence of both Freudian theories on sexuality and gender, and various components of a Bildungsroman novel. These classifications can be directly correlated with the detailed development of Henry James' title character, whom author Thomas Jeffers describes in his book Apprenticeships: The Bildungsroman from Goethe to Santayana, as "a sort of Alice who, if she were totally luckless, could become a sort of Lolita" (Jeffers 106)."
Abstract This paper explains that the novel "1959" by Thulani Davis narrates the custom of passage of Katherine "Willie" Tarrant. By using a first-person narrator, Davis presents a suggestive description of a young African-American teenager living in the 1950s, which was a period weighed down by injustice and increasing ethnic conflict. The author relates that "1959" is often praised for its fusion of the historic and the fictional. The use of the juvenile narrative voice places the novel within the tradition of the female Bildungsroman.
Table of Contents:
Summary
Themes and Meanings
Critical Context
From the Paper "Willie's remarkable teacher, Mae Taliaferro, rigorously prepares her students for the possible move. She refuses to teach the erroneous and biased material covered in the out-of-date textbooks that the all-white board of education has provided for the Wells students. One of the board members, Herman Shaw, is outraged by what he, a white supremacist, views as Mae's teaching of communist thought, and he calls for her dismissal. The African American community, however, stands behind Taliaferro, and Shaw's edict is dismissed."
Tags: teenage progenitor, personal history, community, female bildungsroman
Abstract In this article, the writer examines the use of irony in the novel 'Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship' by J.W.V. Goethe. Three levels of irony are uncovered. The writer discusses that at the simplest level there is the pedagogic irony, which is necessary for the composition of the bildungsroman. The writer then notes that there is the irony of 'strangeness', which is characteristic of Goethe, who believed that the practice of art should always be infused by the aesthetic sensibility. The writer goes on to explain that the most pronounced irony comes from the fact that we are not explicitly told about the secret designs of the Society of the Temple, who are monitoring and manipulating the events in the life of Wilhelm, so that he acquires maturity in exact accordance with their particular humanist philosophy. The writer discusses that stress is laid on how Wilhelm's experiences are made to coincide with those of Hamlet.
From the Paper "Such irony is termed pedagogic. It is as if the author has placed himself in the position of pedagogue, who customarily puts his pupils in confusion, bewilderment, or shame. It works on the philosophy that one only learns through error, and that there is no linear and straightforward approach to education. The pedagogue allows his pupils to err only because he is there to correct them. Goethe's use of irony in the novel has, however, more dimensions of significance. At one level he believes in committing error, but at another he does not. So, in the end of the novel we discover that Wilhelm Meister does not encounter life in a spontaneous way, but instead is secretly guided by an arcane order, who are directed by the precepts of Freemasonry. It reflects a contradiction in the outlook of Goethe, which in turn emerges from the contradiction inherent in the German Enlightenment, of which Goethe was a leading figure."
Abstract This paper examines two great works, "Great Expectations" by Charles Dickens and "A Clockwork Orange" by Anthony Burgess, as novels that fall under the Bildungsroman genre, which is a genre of novel that deals with the growth of the protagonist. The paper explains that the Bildungsroman novel chronicles the life of the hero from childhood to adulthood and the conflict that he meets and resolves on his way to wisdom. The paper then points out that some novels come under the umbrella of Bildungsroman but may contain few deviations such as Burgess' "A Clockwork Orange" and Dickens' "Great Expectations". The paper also looks at how compared to "A Clockwork Orange", "Great Expectations" is certainly a more conformist form of Bildungsroman but the one place where it deviates from tradition is the choice of narrator. The paper analyzes each novel in relation to Bildungsroman, and concludes that both novels are masterpieces in their own right, but Dickens's work is a better example of a true English Bildungsroman than Burgess' work.
From the Paper "Dickens has used an adult voice to narrate the experiences of a child which is starkly different from other examples of the genre where narrator is either a third person or is the protagonist himself who grows with the novel. Buckley, in his book, Seasons of Youth explains the origin of Bildungsroman and its three distinct categories. He further adds that English Bildungsroman tradition was different from that of German's since the former was "in its broadest sense . . . a convenient synonym for the novel of youth or apprenticeship" (13). Buckley's intensive research indicates that English bildungsroman was not always completely autobiographical."
This paper examines Nathaniel Hawthorne's perception of the American Revolution as an era of darkness, evil, and pure decadence, by examining his short story "My Kinsman, Major Molineux".
1,086 words (approx. 4.3 pages), 0 sources, 2002, $ 37.95
Abstract This paper explains how Hawthorne created fundamentally distinct characters, not only to push Robin, the protagonist, further into the sinful chaos of the city and represent the dark theme of corruption and unruly decadence, but also to demonstrate his view that the American Revolution encompasses the chaos and vice inherent in the dark hearts of the American colonists.
From the Paper "A continual spiral into darkness forms the action of the short story, with the mob leader and the prostitute dragging Robin further into the shadowy depths of chaos. The prostitute plays an intricate role in the plot’s progression, not only adding to Robin’s confusion, but managing to create a situation in which Robin shows his strength of mind. While wandering the dim streets of Boston, Robin first encounters the prostitute who claims that Major Molineux is upstairs, a dishonest strategy to lure the young man into her home, where she can further seduce him. Initially confused by her deceit, Robin’s hopes grow stronger as he believes he has reached the end of his quest. He soon realizes, however, that her intentions are corrupt and debauched, instigating his departure due to his strong morals. Moreover, the leader of the mob, whose face is fiendishly painted black and red, controls key moments of the story. While every other character refuses to answer Robin’s inquiry as to the whereabouts of his relative – or, in the case of the prostitute, tells lies rather than speak the truth – the man of two faces is the only character willing to inform Robin where he can find Major Molineux, and is indeed the very person who brings the Major to the meeting place. Since the two-faced man is the leader of the mob, he is responsible for inducing the turning point of the story – the spectacle of his kinsman’s death – during which Robin realizes the futility of asking for help from the Major, as well as from England. The double-faced man and the deceitful prostitute play vital roles in Robin’s journey through the chaos of the city, because their actions further lead him to the breaking point of the story."
Tags:bildungsroman, boston, england, feathering, prostitution, robin, scarlet, war
Abstract This paper explores notions of childhood in Lewis Carroll's "Alice in Wonderland" and J.K. Rowling's "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone". The author stresses the use of the fantastical and the bildungsroman genre of each text.
Abstract The author points out that David Michael Kaplan's "Doe Season" makes use of dream sequences to add dramatic intensity to its plot; V.S. Naipaul's "B. Wordsworth" makes use of dream-like qualities of narration and character to create a dream-like narrative texture to its episodic plot structure. The author points out that dreams do not afford either short story a sharply delineated plot structure; Kaplan chooses to give his story a strong plot line; whereas, Naipaul does not. The paper concludes that, in both tales, the use of dream's symbolism gives an added quality and intensity to the psychology of the developing protagonists, which the stories would lack if dreams were not included into the narrative sequence.
From the Paper "Andy, of David Kaplan's "Doe Season," is a young woman who has killed a deer. In her dreams, she encounters the murdered deer, where she touches the heart of the animal she helped hunt and kill. Despite the fact that the action of touching the heart occurs in her mind, it is equally as potent for the young woman as the actual act of killing the deer, psychologically. Unlike Naipaul's story, however, "Doe Hunting" has a real-life external structure and narrative that has a more concrete verbal and narrative texture to it, although it is also true that some of the dramatic, real-life events of Kaplan's story have a dream-like intensity. For instance, over the course of the hunting vacation, when she is swimming in the sea, the young girl Andy, whom will kill the doe of the title, sees her mother lose her bathing suit by accident."
