VLAD III

Dracula’s character has his origin in the historical figure of Vlad III, the prince of Wallachia, known due to the atrocities he committed during his reign.
His father, Vlad II, had managed to maintain his principality’s liberty and religious independence, thanks to a policy based on several volte-faces that led him, in 1437, to support the Sultan and the Turkish advance. So the Sultan, after he had noticed the prince’s volte-face, invited him to deal with him. It was in that moment that Vlad III, since he had been brought by his father in front of the presence of the Sultan as an hostage, could learn the Turkish torture’s techniques, that were used to punish the prisoners and the convicts. In particular he was excited and surprised at the possibility of impaling all his enemies, which allowed him to receive the name of “Tepes” (that in the Romanian language means “The Impaler”).
It dealt with a terrible instrument of torture that implied a long and painful pangs of death and that Vlad III chose for whoever was condemned to death, eliminating all the “social differences” concerning the way of dying of fellows of different social status. On the contrary, the rich people were impaled higher than the others, with the use of a silver stake.
Vlad III showed his cruelty to every human being who dared face him, with a series of killings that are remained in the historical memory and whose atrocity is destined not to disappear even in the future, thanks to the enchanting figure of the most famous vampire in the world, Dracula.

Elena Perini

Vlad the Impaler

Vlad the Impaler
Vlad III:
Vlad III, Prince of Walachia, more commonly known as Vlad the Impaler was a Wallachian voivode. His three reigns were in 1448, 1456–1462, and 1476. He was also a defender of Walachia against Ottoman expansionism.

Origin of the surname:
His Romanian surname "Drăculea" means "Son of Dracul" and is derived from his father's title, Vlad the Dragon. The word "Dracul" means "the Devil" in modern Romanian but in Vlad's day also meant "Dragon". The suffix "Ulea" can be translated as "Son of".

Atrocities:
According to the pamphlets, he appears to have been particularly concerned with female chastity. Girls who lost their virginity, adulterous wives, and unchaste widows were all targets of Vlad's cruelty. Such women often had their sexual organs cut out or their breasts cut off. They were also often impaled through the vagina on red-hot stakes that were forced through the body until they emerged from the mouth.
One report tells of the execution of an adulterous wife. The woman's breasts were cut off, and then she was skinned and impaled in a square in Târgovişte with her skin lying on a table.
Another report tells that in 1459 in the day of San Bartholomew in Braşov Vlad invited some merchants that hate him. After the dinner when the merchants were replete he ordered to his to quarter the first and then he forced the second to eat the food that his friend had in his stomach. The last merchant was boiled and then Vlad gave his body to his dogs.
One day Vlad also arrested all the nobles of his reign. The older nobles and their families were impaled on the spot. The younger and healthier nobles and their families were marched north from Târgovişte to the ruins of Poienari Castle in the mountains above the Argeş River. Vlad the Impaler was determined to rebuild this ancient fortress as his own stronghold and refuge. The enslaved boyars and their families were forced to labour for months rebuilding the old castle with materials from another nearby ruin. According to the stories, they labored until the clothes fell off their bodies and then were forced to continue working naked. Very few of the old gentry survived the suffering of building Vlad's castle. Throughout his reign, Vlad systematically eradicated the old boyar class of Wallachia.
Vlad also viewed the poor, sick and beggars as thieves. One horrific tale tells of him inviting all the sick and poor in the area to a large dinner only to have them locked inside and the building burned.
However Vlad III was extremely generous with his servants but he was also extremely cruel with his enemies.

Death:
Vlad died in a battle in 1476, after some important victories against Turks, maybe betrayed also by his allies.

Leonardo D’Alessandro

VLAD III

Vlad III from Valacchia was a Polish voivode.
Also known as Vlad Tepes or Vlad The Impaler, he was the prince of Valacchia in 1448, from 1456 to 1462, and in 1476. Thanks to his dominion Valacchia principality kept its indipendence from Ottoman empire. Because of his cruelty he was called Tepes, that in Rumanian language means “impaler”.
He was as cruel as other contemporaneous western princes, but some narrations about his cruel deeds gave a distort vision of the national Rumanian hero.

THE NAME NATURE
Vlad, like his father Vlad II, belonged to the Dragon Order, one of some medieval religious knightly orders. It was founded in 1408 by Sigmund from Luxembourg, who was a Hungarian king, and his second wife, Barbara Cilli. The order’s purpose was to protect Christianity and to fight against Turkish people.
Vlad’s father was called “Dracul”, which means “dragon”, because it became his symbol. So the son was called “Draculea”. In Rumanian language “Dracul” also means Devil and so Vlad was called “Devil’s Son”. Probably this is the reason of the leggend about his character.

VLAD’S ATROCITIES
His favourite way to torture was the impalement. His methods were substantially two: the first consisted in the use of a spiky pole which perforated the condemned in the abdomen and put him up. Death could be immediate or could come after some hours.
The second impalement method consisted in the use of a rounded bar which was spreaded with grease and introduced into victim’s rectum. After that the condemned was put up and his own weight made the bar pass into his body; death could come also after two days. He adopted this method by Turkish people and created come differente methods to impale robbers, enemy warriors and treacherouses. Rich men were impaled with a Silver bar and put up above the others. Unfaithful women were impaled in front of their houses.

VLAD’S DEATH
Vlad was delivered in 1475. Then he had to organize a sort of crusade against Turkish people. In 1496, after some successes, he was bordered by Ottoman army; he died on battlefield. There are some hypotesis about the place where his corpse was put. Some think that it was burnt, others think that it was cut to pieces. Some people also think that the corpse was found in the city of Snagov, but archaeological searches found out only horse bounds.


Andrea Navicelli

Vlad III Prince of Valacchia

Vlad III of Valacchia was a Rumanian prince. Vlad III was also called Vlad Ţepeş (pronounced tse'pesh)or Vlad the Impaler. He was prince of Valacchia in 1448, from 1456 to 1462 and finally in the 1476. Thanks to his dominion, the principality of Valacchia succeeded in maintaining its independence from the Ottoman empire. For the cruelty used towards the prisoners he was nicknamed Ţepeş, that in Rumanian it means the Impaler.

The origin of the name and the tortures of Vlad:

Vlad as his father Vlad II, belonged to the order of the Dragon, one of the chivalrous orders of the Middle Ages’ religious, created in 1408 by Sigismondo of Luxemburg, king of Hungary. The purpose of the order was to protect the Catholicism and to fight against the Turks. His father Vlad II had called Dracul whosemeant it was "Dragon" since these it became his symbol. For this his child, Vlad III , was called in Rumanian “Drăculea”. But in Rumanian the term Dracul could also be interpreted as Devil. Vlad III became, therefore "Child of the Devil ". But the name with which Vlad was really remembered it is Romanian "Ţepeş", since that was the torture that reserved to his own enemies, above all the Turks because this kind of punishment was typically Ottoman.
The tool of torture preferred by Vlad was the impalement, and he created different methods to impale the thieves, the hostile warriors, the Sultan's ambassadors, the traitors. Vlad invented a way to impale the rich, stretching them more aloft some others or making to cover the pole with the silver, he invented a way to impale the merchants making to engrave some nicks on the pole so that to increase the time of the agony.

Federica Parisi

Vlad III by Martina M

Vlad III more commonly known as Vlad the Impaler, was also known as Vlad Dracula or simply Dracula. He had three reigns and Vlad the Impaler is known for the exceedingly cruel punishments he imposed during his reign.
His Romanian surname “Dràculea” means “Son of Dracul” and is derived from his father’s title, Vlad the Dragon.
The word “Dracul” means “the Devil” in modern Romanian.
Vlad was very likely born in the citadel of Sighisoara, in Transylvania in 1431. He was born as the second son to his father Vlad Dracul and his mother Princess Cneajna of Moldavia and he had two brothers.
The legend of Vlad Tepes is mostly the result of different stories about him. The Romanian, German, and the Russian stories all have their origins in the 15th century.
Besides the written stories the Romanian oral tradition provides another important source for the life of Vlad the Impaler.
Among the Romanian peasantry, Vlad Tepes was remembered as a just price who defended his people from foreign aggression, whether those foreigners were Turkish invaders or German merchants.
Vlad’s father was under considerable political pressure from the Ottoman sultan.
Vlad’s father was assassinated in the marshes near Balteni in 1447 by rebellious boyars, after that the sultan put Vlad III on the throne.
In 1456, Hungary invaded Serbia to drive out the Ottomans, and Vlad III simultaneously invaded Wallachia with his own contingent.
Since the death of Vlad’s grandfather in 1418, Wallachia had fallen into a some chaotic situation.
Vlad the Impaler had impaled 20.000 Turkish prisoner in only night.
During this reign Vlad killed a large amount of people.
Vlad died in 1476 at 45 years old during a battle.
Bram Stoker novel’s is based on the story of Vlad III and the society saw Count Dracula as Vlad.

The legend of Vlad Tepes is mostly the result of different stories about him. The Romanian, German, and the Russian stories all have their origins in the 15th century.
Besides the written stories the Romanian oral tradition provides another important source for the life of Vlad the Impaler.
Among the Romanian peasantry, Vlad Tepes was remembered as a just price who defended his people from foreign aggression, whether those foreigners were Turkish invaders or German merchants.
Vlad’s father was under considerable political pressure from the Ottoman sultan.
Vlad’s father was assassinated in the marshes near Balteni in 1447 by rebellious boyars, after that the sultan put Vlad III on the throne.
In 1456, Hungary invaded Serbia to drive out the Ottomans, and Vlad III simultaneously invaded Wallachia with his own contingent.
Since the death of Vlad’s grandfather in 1418, Wallachia had fallen into a some chaotic situation.
Vlad the Impaler had impaled 20.000 Turkish prisoner in only night.
During this reign Vlad killed more people.
Vlad death in 1476 at 45 years old during the battle.
The Bram Stoker novel’s is based on the story of Vlad III and the society see Count Dracula while Vlad.

by Martina Mari

JONATHAN HARKER

Jonathan Harker is a man who is sent by Mr Hawkins, his boss, to Transilvania, to drive a bargain with count Dracula, a count who lives in a castle in a Carpathian Mountains.
During the journey Jonathan is scared by the people he meets that tell him horrific stories about the castle but he countines his journey. When he meets Dracula he thinks that the count is a strange person and he notices rapidly he is in trap in the castle and that Dracula is a vampire, so he begins to look for a way to escape.
Secretely he tries to visit all the room of the castle but a lot of them are locked, during one of his “tours” he has a dangerous encounter with brides of Dracula but the count saves him.
Then, after some attempts, Jonathan manages to escape from the castle and finds a refuge at a convent. After that he joins with the other characters to kill Dracula, they destroy the crates of ground that the count had construct and at the end they manage to kill Dracula, and Jonathan and Mina, some years later, have a son that name Quincy, in honour of Quincy Morris.
Harker is presented as the protagonist of the story but he is a static character, in fact he has a role established from the begin of the novel to the end.

Camilla Capaccioli

Lucy

This is my work on Lucy.

MatteBag

Vlad III

Vlad III was the monarch of Wallachia, near Transilvania, in the 15th century (his kingdom continued from 1431 or 1432 to 1476). Son of Vlad II appointed under the "Order of the dragon" from which derives his son's designation "Draculea": the dragon's son (the term "Drac" means olso daemon).Vlad III became "the daemon's son" and probably that was the base of the legend linked with this macabre figure.He was known olso as "Vlade tepes" becouse of his strange and horrible way to torture enemies, learned during the Turkish prison. The monarch used to punish his victim by impaling them on stakesin two different ways: or using a pointed stake to pierce victim's abdomen; or using a stond stake that slide slowly into victim's buttoks. In this way he
Vlad III used olso different ways to impaling his enemies related to their blames (thieves, Ambassadors, warriors etc) and moreover he liked have dinner in the middle of the forks in which were impaled the victims or show them publicly.Olso about Vlad III's death there are some charming and ambiguous misteries couse we don't know perfectly the sort of his body and some recently archeological research discovered in the Vlad's tomb only horse's bones.

Matteo Ricottini

VAN HELSING

Van Helsing is a foundamental character for the development of the story. We see him for the first time when Dr.Seward doesn't manage to cure Lucy from her "illness". So Dr.Seward decides to call Van Helsing from Holland. When he visits Lucy he realises that there's something more than an ordinary illness. In fact he informs the other characters of the existens of a supernatural creature: a vapire. Now Lucy has became a woman vampire too who sucks human's blood in order to survive. So Van Helsing explains that they have to kill her definetly. Than, thanks to Jonathan's diary, Van Helsing manages to find Dracula's castle. Here with Mina and the other male characters (Jonathan, Dr.Seward, Lord Godalming and Quincy Morris) they kill for ever the vampire that, before dying, transforms himself in dust. Van Helsing was the only who knew the presence of the vampire. Without his intervention Dr.Seward and the others couldn't helped Lucy and saved Mina.

Silvia Licciardi

Mina Murray

Mina Murray is a young girl of noble origins in fact, she's 24 years old. Later she takes the last name of her spouse Jonathan Harker. 

She is a teacher, typewriter and stenographer. she has also the passion to have a corrispondence with her friend Lucy Westerna. After the escape of Jonathan from the castle of Conte Dracula, Mina went in Transylvania and care for him. The two married before returning in England. Later on, Mine and Jonathan join to the group of Abraham Van Helsing, intent upon to find and to kill the vampire.Come to acquaintance of this threat, Dracula is revenged biting Mina and making her drinking her blood to condemn her to become a vampire. However, in this way, between Dracula and Mina it comes established a mysterious tie that will help the group of Van Helsing to trace Dracula.At the end Mina becomes free from the tie in fact she returns human. 

Mina is the reincarnation of Elisabeth, count Vlad III Dracula’s wife (in the movie by F.F. Coppola); for this reason Dracula is interested in her.

Daniele Turco

VAN HELSING

Van Helsing is a singular character.

He is a famous doctor who is introduced in the story by Dr Seward.

Dr Seward calls Van Helsing because he doesn't know Lucy's illness and he isn't able to save her. Van Helsing is the only one who understands the reason of Lucy's illness.

He shows to know many aspects of Dracula and he knows what they have to do to destroy the vampire. In fact he becomes a sourt of head of the group and he organizes the actions against the count coordinating the movements of the other.

But Van Helsing is a man of action too. Meanwhile the men follow Dracula to kill him, Van Helsing goes with Mina to Dracula's castle and he kills the three women destroying all vampires.

His role in the story is very important; he represents the knowledge, he's the only one who knows what they are fighting and the way to fight him; he is the one who gives the means to destroy the threat.

Van Helsing is the mind of the group.

Sara Poggiali

VLAD TEPES, CALLED “DRACULA”

Born in Sighiçoara in 1431, in the centre of Romania, on the Carpathians, Dracula, whose real name was Vlad Tepes Draculea, was a prince of Wallachia. The name “Tepes” meant “impaler”: the favourite method to eliminate his enemies.
“Draculea” meant “little dragon”, cause of he was the son of a dragon: the father Dracul, whose duty was to defend the Christianity from the Turkish on the Balkans.
Nevertheless, cause of his little army, he often preferred to make agreements with Turkish, paying in nature or with money, until he decided to deliver to the Turkish sultan two sons of him as hostages: one of them was the 12th years old Vlad Tepes: the sultan promised he wouldn’t invaded Wallachia.
Then Dracula had been educated to the court of the powerful and rich Turkish sultan, and to the court of Mohammed II, learning to use the terror as instrument of power.
When Vlad came back in Wallachia in 1448 to take possess of it, with the help of Turkish, after father’s death, he had to face the Boyars: from whom he was defeated, then he went in Moldavia and in a night of the year 1459, after he had invited 500 Boyars at dinner, as sign of peace, he called his army and made them impale around his palace in Tirgoviste.
The impalement, learnt by Dracula in Turkey, was a method of torture and execution involving a person being pierced with a long stake. The penetration could be through the sides, through the rectum, through the vagina, or through the mouth. This method brought to a painful death; sometimes taking days. The stake would often be planted in the ground, leaving the impaled person suspended to die.
Dracula didn’t use only the method of impalement, but others too: stake, hot oil, decapitation, etc.
During his life he had killed 100.000 people, excluding obviously the enemies died during the fights.
Successively he solved personally the problem of the heirs to the throne, gathering them in a palace and burning it.
In Transylvania he made impale 20.000 people in an only night, he had two wives and a lot of lovers, one of them told him she was pregnant for joke: he disembowelled her to be sure she was joking.
Dracula was really brave: he loved to direct his army in the first line; with his army of 30.000 unities, he opposed to the Balkan army, composed by 250.000 unities.
He applied the tactics of the “burn land”, going away leaving nothing to the enemies, using the technique of guerrilla too and dazing with psychological war the enemies, like as he blocked the way with Muslim, taken as prisoners previously.
Vlad, who was indifferent to religion, decided to convert himself and took part in the anti-Turkish campaigns.
He died in 1476 during a battle near Bucharest: he was discovered and killed by some traitor Boyars.
His head was cut and taken in Costantinopoli; Vlad was buried in the monastery of Snagov.
Immediately a lot of torments and legends of him born in that place; when the cadaver was discovered in 30 years of XX century, in his tomb they found only a yellow silk dress with silver buttons.
Today in Romany Vlad is considered as an hero of national indipendence.


Lorenzo Quercioli

VLAD III DRACULEA PRINCE OF WALLACHIA

Vlad III was born in 1431 in Sighisoara in Wallachia and he was known with the name of "Vlad Tepes" (that in Rumanian means impaler). Vlad was a member of the order of the Dragon: this order had the aim to protect the Christendam and to fight against the Turk invasion. Vlad III was the son of Vlad II that was called Dracul (dragon or devil in Rumaninan) and for this reason Vlad Tepes was called also the "Devil's son". During all his life, the prince of Wallachia had to fight against the Turks and he bacame famous for his atrocity towards his enemies: he tortured them by impalling them with two different methods (depending on the social class of the victim).
We can see Vlad's cruelty in some different episodes: in 1460 in the city of Sibiu, he impaled 10000 people and spread the corpses with honey in order to attract every kind of insect; in 1461 an ambassador of the Sultan didn't take off his turban in the presence of Vlad so the prince made nail it on the messenger's head. Vlad reigned on the Wallachia for three times: the first on 1448, the second from 1456 to 1462 and the third in 1475. During all his reigns he impaled between 40000 to 100000 people until he died in 1476 during a battle against Ottomans. We hadn't precise informations about Vlad's corpse: some people think that it was burned, some others think that it was divided and exposed in Istanbul and some others think that it was buried in a church in Snagov.

Francesco Poggi

Vlad III of Valacchia

HIS LIFE:
Vlad III was born in Sighişoara,Valacchia, on 2nd November of 1431 and he was a Voivòda,a special rank of general in East of Europe of tha times, and also the prince of that territories.
Uder his domination he managed in keeping the indipendece by Ottoman Empire, so this actions won him the title of hero, on the other hand his cruelty won him the appellative of Ţepeş(that means the impaler).
He was imprisoned from 1462 after the treason of Mattia Corvino of Hungary and got back his freedom in 1475 thanks to Stephen the Great,but he had to marry Stephen's daughter, to change his religion, and to lead a crusade against the Turkish in the 1476,in which he found the death on the battlefield.

THE ORIGIN OF HIS NAME:
Vlad III was also known as Drăculea and as The Tepes.
The first refers to Vlad II,the father of Vlad III, who was known as Dracul: in rumanian language this word means at the same time dragon and devil.
The second was the result of Vlad cruelty against Turkish and other enmies of his:he used to impale them in lots of way always new, and he enjoyed watching them suffer and died

Lorenzo Bettazzi

The true history of Vlad III “the Tapes”


Vlad III Dracula was born in 1431 in Sighisoara, a medieval village in Transylvania and he was the son of Vlad II, the Prince of Wallachia. Since he was young he didn’t receive many attentions from his father, who was mainly mindful of his firstborn, and so he was assigned to Byzantine monks in order to receive a Christian education.
In the middle of 15th century Vlad II was oppressed by many foreign powers and was forced to interrupt the war against Turks in order to obtain the military support of Sultan Murad, who invited him to Adrianople to treat. However Vlad II , aware of the inclemency of Turks, brought with him his two sons – Vlad III and Radu – to offer them as hostages to save his life.
During his imprisonment Vlad III had the opportunity to learn the techniques used by Turks to torture prisoners, and he remained so impressed by the torture of impaling that, during his second reign, he inflicted it to such a high number of convicted that he started to be known as “the tapes” (which means “the impaler” in the Rumanian language).
In 1447 as soon as he received the news of his father’s death he decided to escape from his prison in order to recover the throne of his father, but his first reign lasted only a few months due to the return of Vladislao, who has been appointed successor to his father during his imprisonment. In 1456 Vlad III managed to regain the throne and he immediately started such a cruel repression against his enemies that earned the role of protagonist in Stoker’s novel: Dracula. At the end of his second reign he was deposed thanks to a deception of Turks and he managed to obtain his reign back only in 1475 but, just one year later, he was killed on the battlefield.

Renfield

This is my work about Renfield: the description of the character and his role in the story.
R. M. Renfield is one of the characters of "Dracula". He’s a patient of Doctor Seward’s mental hospital because of his madness. He’s 59 years old, he has a sanguine temperament, great physical strength, he’s morbidity excitable. After Count Dracula’s arrival in England he begins to deteriorate and to have a very strange behaviour. In fact he uses sugar to catch flies, he uses flies to feed spiders, he uses spiders to feed birds and finally he eats birds. So he’s a zoophagus and often invokes a mysterious lord. In the story the protagonists understand a relationship between Renfield and Dracula: the mad is not a vampire but he wants to become that. Renfield’s variable behaviour is a sort of indication of Dracula’s movements in London.

Lapi Matteo

Vlad III

This is my work on Vlad III, it is the description about the life and the horrific punishment of this leader.

Semox

about Dracula...

It is believed that the character of Dracula in Bram Stoker’s novel was based upon the historical figure Vlad Tepes (pronounced tse-pesh), who intermittently ruled an area of the Balkans called Wallachia in the mid 15th century.


He was also called by the names Vlad III, Vlad Dracula and Vlad the Impaler. The word Tepes stands for "impaler" and was so coined because of Vlad’s propensity to punish victims by impaling them on stakes, then displaying them publicly to frighten his enemies and to warn would-be transgressors of his strict moral code. He is credited with killing between 40,000 to 100,000 people in this fashion.

The Tell-Tale Heart short movie

This is a movie version of "The Tell-Tale Heart"

It's really frightening, isn't it?

Write down your impressions.

Answers of the listening on "Cloning"

Ok! Here we are..! Hi guys! I’ve been working for hours to do this homework but finally I’ve done it! =)

1. What are the main types of cloning? The main types of cloning are: reproductive cloning, where a new baby will be created and therapeutic cloning, where only some of the cells will be copied.


2. What is the aim of stem cells into the body? Stem cells regenerate tissue: they replace cells that are lost through natural processes.
   


3. What are scientists actually studying? Scientists are studying the possibility of treating certain diseases such as Parkinson, hearth disease or disease of the brain by introducing new stem cells into the body; embryo cells are the centre of much of the current research.
   


4. How was the sheep Dolly created? The sheep Dolly was created trough cloning: a nucleus taken from an adult sheep cell was inserted into an empty egg.
   


5. Why would therapeutic cloning be useful? Therapeutic cloning can solve reject problems in organ transplants.
   


6. What does Professor Gardner think would be possible in the future? Professor Gardner thinks it may be possible to extract the nucleus of a cell from the patient to briefly clone an embryo of him and then to use the embryo stem cell to treat him. In future this method could even be used to create a personalized bank of stem cells that can be stored and used when the patient needs them.
   


7. What kind of ethical dilemmas are the governments facing? The governments are facing such ethical dilemmas: should scientist be allowed to harvest stem cells from embryos? Should the cloning of human embryos be permitted?
   


8. In Britain what is the limit of time research? In Britain the research is permitted on embryos up to fourteen days old.
   


9. What is Professor Donaldson’s opinion on the cloning research? Professor Donaldson thinks that the creation of a human being through cloning should not be permitted under any circumstances. It’s illegal at the moment and should remain illegal.
   


10. Why is not possible in certain states to make research of embryos? In certain states the research on embryos is not possible because an embryo, however young, is considered a human being. Embryo has the potential to become a human being.

"the sheep Dolly"


Lorenzo Quercioli

trak listening 25-11-08

Hewre's the listening on "Cloning"

is

Edgar Alla Poe: Tales of Imagination

E.A. Poe, besiodes being the creator of the Detective Story, is considered the master of the short story in general.


Here you can find the links to two of his most famous short stories:
a) The Tell-Tale Heart
b) The Black Cat

The female figure in Jane Austen's novels

At long last I'am able to write this topic. I hope this is ok, so I only wish good reading.

Bye,bye Semox

I really apologise for being late but my adsl connection was broken ...:)..

hope u enjoy the reading, and sorry for the grammar mistakes!

The main theme of Jane Austin's novels is the countrygentry life, especially linked to the theme of marriage: the role and the social position of the English women in the 17th century is the principal aspect of Austin's novels.

The most important thing for a woman of that time was to get married. There aren't any characters describing better this concept than the two mothers of the novels, Ms Bennet and Ms Dashwood; their principal interest was to see their daughter married, and this desicion was such important to be taken fom all the family. But at the end, we see that the heroines manage to marry their real love who isn't always the man choosen by the family; there is always the happyendig.

The detailed description of the females figure is used by J. Austin to describe better all the different aspects of the female mind and all the different points of view of the women.
For example Elizabeth, the heroine of "Pride & Prejudice",is a very strong and instincive woman and she' s a very proud of herself girl. When she meet Darcy, she refuses to submit to his ideas, showing her proud personality. In the novel there is a journey towards selfknoledge and selfawareness of the two characters that ends with a changing of their personality.

On the other side Elinor, one of the heroines of "Sense & Sensibility" rapresents the way a thypical 17th c. woman had to be. She's sensitive but prudent in showing her feelings. She's very self-control and she's got an inner balance during all the developement of the novel.

And completely different is the personality of Elinor's sister, Marianne, that is irrational, istintive and she doesn't have problems to show her feelings and her thoughts to the men she's in love with.

The heroine that is more similar to Jane Austin's personality is in my opinion Elinor, because of her big control on herself ond on her feelings.

marty s.

THE FEMALE FIGURE IN JANE AUSTEN'S NOVELS

Jane Austen was the master of the Novel of Manner. She had a short and uneventful life: she was the daugther of a rector of a church, she received a complete learning and she was very linked to her sister Cassandra. After this short description we can understand how her style would be. The character that represents her attitude is Elinor in "Sense and Sensibility": she's a reflective woman, she has a lot of different qualities, but well balanced (reason and passion, sense and sensibility....). Marianne, that is the second heroine of the novel, instead, is more an impulsive and sensible character but she's an intelligent woman and along the novel she gradually acquires sense.
Also in "Pride and Prejudice" female characters have important roles. Elizabeth, the heroine, is a very clever woman capable of complex ideas and impressions. She has a really strong personality, she refuses the roles imposed on her by her family. We can see her attitude and strong personality when she accuses Darcy of pride and when she refuses his proposal of marriage: she is a really uncommon girl, expecially for the period in which she lives. Elizabeth's strong personality is in contrast with her sister's. Jane (this was her name), in fact, isn't a round character with her own personality, she is more a type, a flat character.
In these two works the female figures have a central role maybe because of the life and the education received by Jane Austen. But all these women are different from each others because the English author wanted to investigate and to show every different facet of the human mind, expecially the female mind.
Jane Austen succeeded in doing it introducing her characters in amorous weaves that usually ended with an happy ending (one or more weddings).

Francesco Poggi

the origin of the vampire stories

For those who are interested in the Gothic genre I propose the reading of the first "vampire" story: "The Vampire" by John William POLIDORI, published in 1819...

For the Italian version click here.

We have to wait until 1897 for the pubblication of DRACULA by Bram Stoker, the most representative novel of the sub-genre.

Enjoy it!

audio file of the class test

Now that you're at home, try to listen at the track again...maybe, it'll be easier to understand!

The Gothic Novel

In order to summarise the main concepts related to the origin of the Gothic Novel I've prepared these slides for you.
Just give a look and reply a comment adding your personal notes!

Waiting 4 u!

Hi everybody!

Hello class!

Welcome in this brand new space for our chatting on English literature.
Hope everything is gonna be ok.
You're all invited to give your personal contribution.
Feel free to post a comment and share your works, summary, documents...

Have a good work!

ilaria salvadori