T M 08 (336)

Erin's Class Notes

Erin McClamroch

Foss

BVL Class Summary

March 14th, 2011

Black vs. Blue: Life, Existence and Religion (Class of March 8th, 2011)

The students of British Victorian Literature were horrified to return from break and be greeted with a fiendish “Reward Quiz” which not only proved to have difficult questions, but also proved to be difficultly dictated by Dr. Foss. Following the horror we were all brought up to speed on the department meeting that went on a bit longer than planned, and the following grocery store trip with surprising results. Though the students were led to believe that the Louis Carol “Silly Day” that occurred before Spring Break was completed on that specific day, it was proven that a bit of that class still lingered in the air as Dr. Foss got on his soap box to espouse the use of blue ink pens over black ink pens. While this preceding section might have seemed like off-topic ramblings, it was clearly a well thought out introduction to our topic of the day. This topic focusing on evolution (and of course how somehow the black pen has unjustly evolved past the blue pen) and the effects that the ideas of evolution had on religious thoughts of the time.

Charles Darwin authored a number of pieces about the evolution of both species in general and of men. In his piece “Origin of Species”, Darwin explores natural selection and the idea that every living creature experiences a struggle for existence. After citing specific examples of the development of new species and adaptations of things like tigers, parasites, dandelions and water beetles, he delves into a more relevant focus for today’s class when he begins discussing death. In the last paragraph on page 1277 Darwin states, “Maybe there is some collective work, but there is a struggle that all must face---we must face the full belief that the war of nature isn’t incessant and that death is prompt.” This selection, and the whole work in general of “The Origin of Species” really spells out how the advances of science are beginning to undermine the sentiments of Victorian Christianity in that now there is nothing left to ignore because it is all explained pretty blatantly.

In the next piece for discussion for the day we examined another famous work by Darwin “The Evolution of Man” where Darwin finally confronts head on the idea that humans are descended from some less organized for; a fact that he states is irrefutable. Darwin claims that man is not the work of a separate act of creation since the development of the embryo of many other mammals is similar to that of the human development. Darwin then begins to take on the idea of the immortality of the soul and a discussion on when it begins. He questions why we can’t imagine that the soul and the person have historically grown throughout time and that the birth of the individual and the species are equally part of the grand sequence of events.

With this lens of scientific knowledge and the impact that it has had on religion of the time, we broke into small groups to discuss the poetry that we read today: “Dover Beach” and “Hymn to Proserpine”. As groups we were charged with looking at the poems both individually and in conversation with each other and with the scientific writings of Darwin; they were looked at as engagements with Victorian doubt and whether they were moving towards doubt or faith. Our group found that Swineburn’s “Dover Beach” seems very literal, talking about a sea of faith and the melancholy that this represents and how this alludes to his belief that people should stay traditional and not lose what their cultures have. A slight bend in his logic is when he compares himself to Sophicles who was a Greek philosopher and who probably didn’t believe in the Hebrew idea of God. Line 31-34 Swineburn talks about the “ignorant armies” where it seems he is making the statement that religion has become just a stab in the dark and since science has become so disheartening it makes it hard to find absolute happiness.

The small group continued by looking at “Hymn to Proserpine” and its relation to religion as even the title clearly evokes a religious reading. The whole poem seems very questioning as it mentions that all the gods are dead except for death who is asleep. Not only does it make the poem anticlimactic with the ending of sheer nothingness, but it also makes a resounding point that there is no god that is stronger than death even though many believe that god is immortal. In following with death, Line 74 seems to be saying that Jesus will be proved false and when he is replaced then heaven won’t matter because after you die there is just nothing. Line 13 discusses how all the gods have been dethroned which seems as though it should be impossible since gods are supposed to be all powerful, but in this sense there is something that is more powerful. In this poem the soul is being said to be beaten like a rock which brings two different thoughts: one being that a rock is hard and can withstand a great deal of beating, but at the same time a rock is only so hard and will eventually break. The odd part about this poem is that some lines are oddly hopeful and sound almost like biblical references like line 11 where “daily breath” is very similar to “daily bread” in the Lord’s Prayer.

Following the small group work Foss read through the “Grande Chartruese” and discussed how it relates to the death of faith. In this poem he discusses how he feels kindred to the monks since no one seems to understand them, just as no one understands Arnold’s tears. Arnold goes on to discuss how teachers are the ones who made him believe that Christianity may not work anymore with their teachings. This poem really brings to light the idea of religion, but also makes the reader consider the question of art versus life.

As a class we finished the poems we read for class by discussing Christina Rossetti and her poems “Uphill” and “Birthday” which both seem to have very reassuring religious tones. “Uphill” discussing life’s journey and how life is a struggle, but then you will get to heaven which will always welcome you and give you the rest you deserve. “Birthday” discusses the coming of Christ and how Rossetti believes that she will be reborn through him. It seems as if her poems, and this one in particular, are really a backlash to the other poems read today since it talks about how the beginning of life is really the discovery of religion and of Jesus.

Religion and science are two things that seem to be stuck in an immortal clash of power and truth, just as black pens and blue pens. Charles Darwin has come up with many convincing arguments to prove his Theory of Evolution and the religious beliefs of the time took a hit and the doubts grew as shown in “Hymn to Proserpine” and even somewhat in “Dover Beach”. At the same time, religion has remained strong as people hold fast to their faith and keep their God strong as Rosetti does in her poems. It is interesting to see how elements of the past still remain constant in the present and to really explore the different viewpoints at length.