Sunday, 21 February 2021

Victorian writers and their work (Document). By Arnau López, Erin Soto and Clàudia Loro

 Victorian writers and their work                              Arnau López, Erin Soto, Clàudia Loro

Charles Dickens (Arnau)

Biography:

Charles Dickens was a british novelist, journalist, editor, illustrator and social commentator who is remembered as one of the most important writers of the 19th century.

He was born the 7th of February 1812 in Portsmouth, one of the southern coasts of England, 117 kilometers from London.

Dickens was the second of the eight children. His father, John Dickens, was a naval clerk. HIs mother, Elizabeth Barrow, wanted to be a teacher and a school director. Despite it, they were poor.

In 1816 they moved to Chatham. In 1822, the Dickens family moved to Camden Town, a poor neighborhood in London.

Charles Dickens’s father went to prison. Then, he started working at a boot-blacking factory earning 0,3 pounds a week.

At this moment, Charles was more conscient and he was feeling abandoned by the adults. These sentiments would later become a recurring theme in his writing.

Because of an inheritance his father went free.

Then he returned to studying but he left the school once again. He started working as an office employee. This job became a launching point for his writing career.


A Christmas carol

is a short novel published in 1843. 

Its plot tells the story of a greedy and selfish man named Ebenezer Scrooge and his psychological transformation after being visited by ghosts and the tree spirits of Christmas on Christmas Eve. He hated all that produced happiness. BUt those tree spirits showed the passed Christmas, the actual Christmas and the future christmas. That made him think about his death and his infancy. That made him change and his personality changed abruptement.


Oliver twist 

It’s his second novel which he published in 1837.

Oliver is an orphaned kid. He is kind and honest and helps those in need.

At the orphanage he was always hungry so one day, after his normal ration of food, he went to ask the director for more. The director offered him as an employee. Oliver gets angry with another employee and he decides to escape to London where he meets the scoundrel. He becomes a pickpocketer. After so many events, Oliver ends up living in a house on the meadow.

Lewis Carroll (Erin)

Biography:

Charles Lutwidge Dodgson was born the 27th of January of 1832 in Daresbury, Cheshire in the UK, he was the older brother of his 4 brothers and 7 sisters.  He first started studying at home where he could read some really advanced books for a little boy like The Pilgrim’s Progress which he read at the early age of 7 years.

He was sent to a school in Richmond, at the age of 12, where he seemed to adapt pretty well. 

Later in 1845 he was sent to Rugby School. 

In 1851 he moved to the Christ Church college form the Oxford University where after finishing his studies reminded as a math teacher for about 25 years. Lewis never got married and evidently he never had kids.

He died the 14th of January of 1898 in Guilford, Surrey in the UK because of a neumonia.


Highlighted work:

  • Poetry:

  • Jabberwocky: included in his novel Alice through the looking glass

  • The hunting of the snark(1875)

  • Novels:

  • Alice’s adventures in Wonderland (1865) became his best well known book, nowadays famous all around the world.

  • Alice through the looking glass(1872)

  • He also wrote a couple of logic and maths books that never succeed. 


Alice in wonderland:

Alice’s adventures in wonderland is a tale that tells the story of a girl whose name is Alice that falls into a whole that takes her to a magic world full of weird creatures called Wonderland. This book was a story that Lewis would once invent for Alice Liddell and her sisters in one of their usual walks to the river inspired by Alice, and the girls liked it so much that he would eventually publish it in 1865 and it would become his best book. This book plays with all the limits of the logic. It is considered one of the best novels of the Nonsense genre. This book has been adapted to the big screen several times by the film company Walt disney studios, the first one in 1951. And also years later to the real human version of the first book and it’s sequel Alice through the looking glass.


The Brontë Sisters (Clàudia)

Biography

The Brontë Sisters were three sisters. They were born between 1816 and 1820, in Thornton, Yorkshire.Charlotte was the older sister, the middle sister was Emily and the youngest one was Anne. Even though they attended different schools, most of their education was at home. They spent a lot of time on their own, so they started writing stories.

They were employed at various times as teachers and governesses.

In 1846 they published their first volume of poetry. They used male names, because women weren’t allowed to publish anything. Charlotte as Currer, Emily as Ellis, and Anne as Acton, their surname was Bell.

They published several novels on their own, some had more success than others. Emily died of tuberculosis in 1848 and Anne the same way next year.

Charlotte continued writing and got married. She died the same way as her sisters, in 1855.


Highlighted work 

  • Anne's work: Agnes Grey and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, which sold well.
  • Emily’s work: Wuthering heights, that didn’t have great success.
  • Charlotte’s work: Jane Eyre, was a best seller book that year,Villete and Shirley.


Jane Eyre

The novel starts with Jane Eyre, who is an orphan girl, living in her aunt’s house. There, she is abused by her aunt and her cousins. She leaves her aunt’s house and goes to a girls school, named Lowood school. She spends eight years there becoming a teacher. One day she decides to leave and find a job as a governess. She starts living there, in Thornfield Hall when she falls in love with the house owner, Mr. Rochester. They plan to marry but it doesn’t end well and Jane goes away. She has a rough time living on the street, but she is lucky and finds a family that welcomes her. Later she finds out that this family are their cousins, and she is actually rich. Eventually she realises that she is still in love with Mr.Rochester, comes back and they finally get married.




 

Queen Victoria POWERPOINT (Cèsar Fernàndez, Ivet Lòpez & Pol Cuartero) by Pol Cuartero Labrador on Scribd

Queen Victoria SCRIPT (Cèsar Fernàndez, Ivet Lòpez & Pol Cuartero)

QUEEN VICTORIA

Longevity


Queen Victoria was born the 24th of May, 1819 at Kensington Palace, in London. She died the 22nd of January, 1901 at Osborne Palace in Wight Island, near Southampton.

She died at the age of 81, an older age than what it was used to in her times.


Her reign lasted for 63 years and seven months. Queen Victoria’s reign was the longest of the British crown until the current queen broke his record a few years ago, in 2015.

The current queen and Victoria still have a blood relation. Elizabeth II is the great-great grandchildren of Queen Victoria. That means that prince William, the most likely future king of the United Kingdom will follow Queen Victoria’s lineage as he is her great-great-great-great grandson.

Victoria was crowned in May 1838 and maintained his reign until she died. She wasn’t expected to be the queen but when his uncle took the throne because his brother died, she became her next sucesor because he didn’t have any direct descendants. As a result, when William IV, his uncle, died, she took the throne and became the queen.

Years later, in December 1861 her husband Albert died. The queen was 42 years old when this happened. She was so in love that she never recovered from his husband’s death. This caused that she started appearing less in public and wore black clothes the rest of her life as a sign of mourning.

Love affair with Albert


The marriage between the young Queen and the German prince, two first cousins, was a love match. 


Paintings and photographs projected an image of a virtuous, devoted young couple with obedient and happy children. 


But behind the doors of their palace, the young couple were locked into a power struggle. It is said that King Albert didn't have the importance and recognition that he wanted. After their wedding, Albert took over more and more of Victoria's work as queen and also, her pregnancies forced her to step aside. For that reason, Victoria was conflicted: on one side, she admired her "angel" (like she used to call his husband) for his talents and ability but on the other side, she really hated being robbed of her powers as queen which caused the start of many fights. For his part, Albert was terrified of Victoria’s violent outbursts, fearing that she had inherited the madness of her grandfather George III, who had periods of mental ill health.


However, the physical attraction between the pair was never over and, between 1840 and 1857, Victoria gave birth to nine children.


Wedding dress anecdote


Queen Victoria’s wedding to Prince Albert in 1840 was the most popular event as it was a celebration of love.

The Queen adorned her skirt with 139 inches in circumference and 37-40 inches in depth. It’s important to note that the gown was constructed only of British materials, to patronize industries that were in decline.

Queen Victoria’s wedding dress was not the first of its kind, but it was different that any monarch had worn before her. She wanted to be seen, so she didn’t wear the red ermine robe of state. She decided to wear a white dress when for the time it was very unusual. After that, all representations in Godey‘s (a magazine very famous in its time) and other fashion magazines picked up on that. The white wedding dress became the standard symbol for innocence and romance.


Victoria had chosen to wear white mostly because it was the perfect color to highlight the delicate lace of her dress, and she also banned anyone that wanted to wear white clothes because she wanted to stand out.


 Offspring. Grandmother of Europe 

Her links with the other European Royal families made her the name 'the grandmother of Europe'. Why? Because her legacy can be found in all Europe's Royal families. Some of Victoria's and Albert's grandchildren are the queen of Denmark, Margrethe II, the king of sweden, Carl XVI Gustaf and the king of Norway, Harald V.


Leopold, her youngest son, was affected with the disease Haemophilia B, like his brothers and sisters, but he was the only one who suffered the disease, because it only appears on men. At least two of his five brothers and sisters carried this disease. Some carriers of the disease from all European Royal families are: the last Tsarevich of Russia, Alexei Nikolaevich, Alfonso, Prince of Asturias and Infante Gonzalo of Spain. These two last died (not together) due to a car accident. (Alfonso in Miami and Infante in Austria) Both got few injuries, but the haemophilia caused them internal bleeding and they died at the age of 31 and 19.


Name sakes 

After her death, places and memorials were dedicated to her, like the Victoria falls (the largest waterfalls in the world). The Seychelles and the British Columbia (Canada) capitals are named with her name. 




Anecdotes


Assasination attempts

Queen Victoria survived to several assassination attempts during her reign, there were exactly eight attempts.


The first one happened when the queen was 18 years old. All happened while Queen Victoria was going in her carriage. Suddenly a man called Edward Oxford fired her with his gun. He was finally accused of high treason. The sentence was not guilty for reasons of insanity.


The final attempt to kill her was the eight notable try. It took place in 1882, and as the first one, the criminal tried to hurt her by shooting the carriage where she was.

This time, the man who shot was a Scottish poet called Roderick Maclean.

For different reasons he was sentenced not guilty of high treason but he had to live out his days in an asylum the rest of his life.


All this tries to kill her made her become even more famous and popular between the public.


Love proposal

A curiosity of the relationship between Victoria and Albert is that it was her who proposed marriage to him after four years of friendship. According to the tradition she had to do it because a man couldn’t propose to the queen.


Victorian writers and their work (Power Point). By Erin Soto, Arnau López and Clàudia Loro

Victorian Writers by Clàudia Loro on Scribd

Saturday, 20 February 2021

Sherlock Holmes & Dr. Watson by Anna B, Ester P and Maria G (script)

SCRIPT FOR “SHERLOCK HOLMES AND DR. WATSON”

by Anna B, Maria G and Ester P


Hello, good morning everyone, we are Anna, Maria and Ester and today we are here to talk about Sherlock Holmes and Dr.Watson. 

In our presentation we will first give you a brief description of Sherlock and in which real person was he based on. Later on, we’ll describe Dr. Watson and, at the end, we’ll compare the characters to other TV series and films that have been produced after the original one.


Sherlock Holmes is a fictional character that was created by Arthur Conan Doyle in 1887. He is an English consulting detective who lives in London at 221b Baker Street.

Physically, he is tall (over 6 feet) and gaunt, he has a long, thin, eager face. His nose is long and thin too, and his lips are firm. His eyes are grey and particularly sharp, he also has thin hands and arms. His hair is black and he usually wears a tweed suit or frock-coat. 

As everyone knows, Holmes likes smoking cigars, cigarettes, and of course, pipes. He is interested in music too, as he plays the violin. Moreover, he is into sports as boxing.

Watson describes him as an automaton, a calculating machine with something positively inhuman in him. He is very impatient, nervous, and has the habit of biting his nails. He is also egotistical and with didactic manners. His most obvious weakness is that he is impatient with less intelligent people than him.

He loves admiration and applause and has an old carelessness of manner and a half-humorous, half-cynical vein which is his habitual attitude and this behaviour is most often annoying to Watson.

Arthur Conan Doyle based his characters on real people and so he did with Sherlock. The character was inspired by Joseph Bell, who was a professor who served at the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary as Arthur Conan Doyle did.

He based Sherlock's personality on Joseph's because he also had an obsession for close observation.



Then we have Dr. Watson, in full Dr. John H. Watson, who is also a fictional character created by Arthur Conan Doyle for his Sherlock Holmes saga. 

Watson has served as an army surgeon in India for a long time, and has returned to London due to his impaired health. There is where he meets Sherlock, and they share a flat at the popular 221B Baker Street. Sherlock and him become very good friends and he is the one who narrates all their adventures and crimes.

Physically, Watson is middle-sized, strongly built, with square jaw, thick neck, and a small moustache. Furthermore, he is quite handsome; Sherlock Holmes talks about his natural "advantages" with women.

About his character, he is modest and intelligent. He is a patient and sensitive observer, but his detecting skills are not as bright as Sherlock’s.


As the character of Sherlock, Watson was based on a real person too. It’s not hundred percent sure but people think that Watson was based on William Smith. Smith was a doctor in Osteopathy who met Joseph Bell while he was studying in Edinburg. 


      

 In Shelocks’ cases he always follows a method of investigation, which is based on observation. What Sherlock proposes is to question facts before believing.

First of all, he observes. No questions or decisions made. Observation of the scene sufficed to solve the most elementary questions. Then, he raises a hypothesis, a truth that he has to corroborate or refute. Later, he follows every line of investigation, discarding wrong ones until the only one left proves to be the right one.

Holmes normally uses different kind of tips in his investigations, the ones he uses the most are: 

  • Fingerprints: he is quick to realize the value of fingerprints evidence.

  • Typewritten evidence: Holmes analises the idiosyncrasies of the suspects typewriting.

  • Handwriting: Holmes has an exaggerated ability on interpreting documents. He is able to tell gender and make deductions about the writer.

  • Footprints: Holmes also uses footprint analysis to identify culprits.

  • Ciphers: Holmes always deduces ciphers that help him to hunt the culpable.



After describing these two iconic characters, we are now going to compare several TV series and films which have been inspired in the original Sherlock Holmes. 


1.Sherlock

“Sherlock” is a 2010 TV series, which became very popular and it still is. In this series, we can see a modernized version of Sherlock and Watson. They live in the 21st century in the city of London.

It is very revealing to see how they resolve the famous Connan Doyle original crimes but this time with the help of technologies, such as smartphones, iPads, internet…  Also, Watson writes a blog where he explains all the adventures they take part in. Documenting these cases makes Holmes become known.



2.Sherlock Holmes by Hayao Miyazaki

Sherlock Holmes by Hayao Miyazaki is a cartoon series for children. We think it’s a very contrasted version to the original because in it, the characters appear as anthropomorphic, as animals, mostly dogs and foxes.



3.Sherlock Holmes (Peter Cushing)

Here we have another of the hundreds of Sherlock Holmes films and series. We have selected this old version because of the performance of the british Peter Cushing as Sherlock Holmes. He did an extraordinary interpretation and he is still known for it.  


4.Sherlock Holmes by Guy Ritchie

This mysterious film is based on a case in the 80’s. The film has differences with the original one because it is a cinematographic adaptation of Lionel Wrigam’s comic, where Sherlock shows a brilliant ability in boxing and Watson is a veteran warrior besides a doctor.




5.Enola Holmes

Enola Holmes is a 2020 film in which the principal character isn’t Sherlock Holmes. This time, Enola, which is played by the well known Millie Bobby Brown, is the main character. She is the youngest sister in the Holmes family, and she is as smart and brilliant as his brother, or even more. The plot of the film starts when her mother disappears and she has to follow her tracks to try to find her. 

Arthur Connan Doyle never talked about a younger sister, although he mentioned a brother named Mycrof, who also appears in the film. We have chosen to talk about this film because we think it’s very innovative.


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As a conclusion we would like to say that we weren’t expecting to find so many TV series and film versions of Sherlock as we have found. And, that both Sherlock and Watson, are very mysterious and interesting characters. 

Thank you for your attention, we hope you’ve liked it.