Assignment # 1 Victorian Literature

1.- Which 2 readings did you select form the list?


* Irving, W. The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (USA, 1820-short story) and Conrad, J. Heart of Darkness (Britain, 1899-novel)

2.- Using these readings, compare (3 examples) and contrast (3 examples) the works with the ppt. presentations on Victorian Literature and culture given in class.

According the two books their reading are based in war, ingenious, and poverty suffer in the victorian age, according of power point about Victorian Literature and Culture given in class. the culture has terrible consecuences because of the war, like poverty because territorial expansion. In a Culture where middle class increase in term of money thanks to industralization and own ingenious to. The power because main characters are chasing power to put their name in history.


The Legend of Sleepy Hollow

- Irving W. used in this tale the names of some characters and places that he already knew.
- The soldier ghost is a headless horseman whose head had been carried away by a cannon-ball during the revolutionary war.
- The village is a peaceful place and people share the characteristic of good people they were pacifists, hardworker, church goer, protestan etc. the same as in the Victorian Era.
- There were a thought against immigrants. In that period they were in peace with others countries, but inside of it existed a lot of conflicts with the colons.
Heart of Darkness

- Pilgrims and characters seem to be civilized people but they were not civilized at all.

- Ambition is the reason why characters get into conflict with the rest of the world.
- It is presented the dark side of human life due poverty, bad people.
- New views on everything, new inventions and devices.
- Conrad´s deterministic thought shaped by the ideas of Darwin in the evolution of the species.
- The writer described a person or a place just as you see in a moment, things as they are.

3.- Do you feel that the readings you completed are very good or excellent examples of Victorian Literature? Why/ Why not?


I think that both books are excellent examples of the Victorian Literture. They both have the characteristics feature of this era. The have the civlil war, supersticions, the power of money, so on an so forth.


In my opinion The Legend Of Sleepy Hollow has civil wars on it and the power of money emerge, typical characteristic of this era.
 Represents a great part of the society in that period but it was just fiction for his readers.

4.- Would you recommend these readings to your friends and family? Why / Why not?
yes, of course ! I would recommend these two books to all of them who loves read interesting books and who think that they can resolve the enigmas by themselves. I have a special person to recommend the works of Allan Poe that is my friend, she loves mysteries books.
On the other hand, I think both stories are kind of difficult to read, because of details and the context they were wrote in. Rip Van Winkle could be representative as a metaphor for common people and could even be a joke.