reading novels as a form of entertainment
Explanation:
This was a dousey. That was the biggest wall of text I've seen in this entire course, & I had to read it like 3 times.
The top part of the wall is historical context, a top-down view of what's going on in Victorian England. Some important takeaways are these quotes:
- "And since the number of readers had increased a thousandfold with the spread of popular education, it was the age of the newspaper, the magazine, and the modern novel"
- "The novel was a pleasant form of literary entertainment, as well as our most successful method of presenting modern problems and modern ideals"
- "It strived to tell the whole truth, showing moral and physical diseases as they were"
So with these quotes, we have established that novels are popular, they are entertainment, & they dipict realistic events with realistic moral ambigoiuty
The 2nd part is much more down to earth, we're looking at a slice of high-class Victorian life. The set up earlier should pay off here.
- "This book I had again and again perused with delight. I considered it a narrative of facts, and discovered in it a vein of interest deeper than what I found in fairy tales:"
Right off the bat, we can tell she's reading a novel. This one is about exploration into far off corners of the British Empire, making it a very factual book.
She would read this again & again, dreaming about one day traveling to these lands to live out the stories for herself-
- "Lilliput and Brobdignag being, in my creed, solid parts of the earth's surface, I doubted not that I might one day, by taking a long voyage, see with my own eyes the little fields, houses, and trees, the diminutive people, the tiny cows, sheep, and birds of the one realm; and the corn-fields forest-high, the mighty mastiffs, the monster cats, the tower-like men and women, of the other"
This enthusiasm would fade however. One day after opeing the book she learns that the story isn't only about fun & adventure
- "when I turned over its leaves [pages], and sought in its marvellous pictures the charm I had, till now, never failed to find—all was eerie and dreary; the giants were gaunt goblins, the pigmies malevolent and fearful imps, Gulliver a most desolate wanderer in most dread and dangerous regions. I closed the book, which I dared no longer peruse,"
Initially coming in for entertainment & adventure, her world was shattered by the harsh realities novels of the time where known for.
For better or worse, she has developed out of her innocence & now sees the world differently after reading the novel again-
- "I had often heard the song before, and always with lively delight - But now, though her voice was still sweet, I found in its melody an indescribable sadness"
Armed with all of this knowldege, we return to the initial question:
- A) There are no mentions of social obligations the narrator must oblige to, so that choice is out
- B) The way she describes intrest in the book leaves me with some doubt about the novel being only for academic purposes. You don't watch Saving Private Ryan for souly academic reasons, even if the movie is very historically accurate
- C) She clearly would like to travel to distant lands, her recollection of the book is what triggers her to rea it that one fateful time, but even if this is a good catalyst for her development as a character, it neglects the historical context the question demands we follow. In other words, the top part doesn't say anything about "travel to distant lands", so we're not following the "historical context" part of the question
- D) I believe that defining novels as a form of entertainment satifies both the "historical context" part, & the "development" part of the question
after literally 44 minutes though, I have not surefire way to verify my answer ._. you're a god if you've read all this btw
