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Filosofická Fakulta Masarykovy Univerzity Masarykova univerzita Filozofická fakulta Katedra anglistiky a amerikanistiky Bakalářská diplomová práce Lenka Melicherová Lenka 2011 Lenka Melicherová 20 11 Masaryk University Faculty of Arts Department of English and American Studies English Language and Literature Lenka Melicherová Eighteenth-Century English Village as Illustrated in Two Works by Oliver Goldsmith Bachelor‟s Diploma Thesis Supervisor: PhDr. Lidia Kyzlinková, CSc., M.Litt. 2011 I declare that I have worked on this thesis independently, using only the primary and secondary sources listed in the bibliography. …………………………………………….. Acknowledgement I would like to thank my supervisor PhDr. Lidia Kyzlinková, CSc., M.Litt. for her kind help and invaluable advice. I would also like to thank her for introducing the work of Oliver Goldsmith to me which proved as a brilliant topic for me to deal with in the thesis. Table of Contents 1. INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................... 5 2. HISTORICAL AND SOCIAL BACKGROUND .................................................... 7 2.1 English Village in the Eighteenth Century ......................................................... 7 2.2 The Agricultural Revolution and Its Effect on Society .................................... 10 2.3 Other Aspects of the Rural Life in Eighteenth-Century England .................... 16 3. GOLDSMITH‟S CONTRIBUTION TO HISTORY AND LITERATURE .......... 19 3.1 Ireland and England in Goldsmith‟s Life and Writing ................................. 19 3.2 Analysis of The Deserted Village ................................................................. 21 3.3 Analysis of The Vicar of Wakefield .............................................................. 29 4. CONCLUSION ....................................................................................................... 38 5. WORKS CITED ..................................................................................................... 40 1. INTRODUCTION Eighteenth-century England witnessed many profound changes due to the Industrial and Agricultural Revolutions which affected the ordinary way of life of all social classes. One of the most important results that changed the character of England was the rural outmigration to towns and consequently the disappearance of life from typical English villages. Oliver Goldsmith is a mid-eighteenth-century Anglo-Irish writer who in his poem The Deserted Village devotes much attention to the issue of enclosure and depopulation which preceded the actual leaving of villagers‟ native land. His novel The Vicar of Wakefield reveals a pastoral image of a parish which is spoiled only through the influence of the town and its indecent citizens. The aim of this major B.A. thesis is to explore what features of the eighteenth-century village life are portrayed in two Goldsmith‟s works, to find out to what extent are his Irish origins involved in the writing and to prove that he defends the rural community and criticises depopulation and the impact of the urban area on English villages. The thesis begins with the theoretical part presenting the most important historical and social facts of a typical English village and analysing its transformation during the Agricultural Revolution. First, this part deals with the land division, its use by the rural community and with the social stratification of the rural population, enumerating all social classes distinguished according to their amount of wealth. The situation in parishes and the responsibilities of parsons are also mentioned. Second, the general changes in the population, trade and agriculture brought about by the Agricultural Revolution in England are described. The change in self-sufficiency of the village is also presented by means of comparison. Several contemporary critical views are offered to emphasize the impact of enclosure and depopulation on the rural society. Finally, ordinary aspects of everyday village life such as the issues of diet, housing, 5 criminality and prisons are described. The facts presented in the theoretical part are referred to by the examples from the primary texts in the analytical part to demonstrate that the issues Goldsmith writes about are based on the contemporary situation. In the analytical part of the thesis, the attention is first drawn to Goldsmith‟s Irish cultural background and then his two literary works are analysed from the socio- historical point of view. Some of Goldsmith‟s convictions which stem from his Irish origins are revealed to underlie the process of writing of both the poem and the novel. Both chapters dealing with Goldsmith‟s works begin with a brief overview of the general critical reception of the work and proceed to the actual analysis of the social and historical facts as depicted through Goldsmith‟s worldview. The analysis of the poem is carried out in a section-by-section manner whereas the crucial scenes and important facts from the novel are dealt with in separate paragraphs according to the particular aspect being chosen for the analysis. The analyses are complemented by critical references and observations from the primary texts. Several rhetorical and lexical elements are also observed in order to explore the extent of Goldsmith‟s emotional involvement in the issues depicted. 6 2. HISTORICAL AND SOCIAL BACKGROUND 2.1 English Village in the Eighteenth Century According to Trevelyan, the town was not the nucleus of national life in eighteenth-century England. It was the village with its tales, old customs and traditional way of life that was superior to the town as far as the shaping of national consciousness is concerned. Trevelyan confirms this idea by stating that “village life embraced the chief daily concerns of the majority of Englishmen. It was the principal nursery of the national character” (British History 2). However, it is important to note that it was the eighteenth century that saw the great migration of the English from villages to towns. For instance, London attracted many people from rural England and Ireland and “after the plague and fire in the 1660's the city doubled in population by 1800” (Weitzman 473). By the end of the eighteenth century, the countryside and its role for an Englishman were significantly different to that from the beginning of the century. At the time when Queen Anne ascended the throne, the population of England and Wales was estimated to be about 5,475,000 people and only 1,400,000 came from the urban area (Bayne-Powell 1). Therefore about 4 million Englishmen lived in the countryside. This rural population seldom left the village. It was only the country gentry and farmers who visited towns when travelling to market to sell their crops. Ordinary countrymen usually spent the whole life within the borders of their parish. As regards the landscape of eighteenth century England, moorlands, swamps, heaths and wastes were typical of the country and a great part of the land remained uncultivated. According to Gregory King, the total acreage of England and Wales was about 37 million acres, of which 11 million were arable (Bayne-Powell 3). The situation dramatically changed after 1700. At that time, about half the land was unenclosed. In the course of the eighteenth century, the rising number of parliamentary enclosures of 7 waste and common land resulted in the conversion of uncultivated areas into arable land or pasture. Rectangular hedged fields replaced open fields and significantly changed the traditional manner of life in the English countryside. At the beginning of the eighteenth century, the landscape of an ordinary English village could be classified into several areas. As Bayne-Powell reports, the village was usually surrounded by the woodland and the commoner could cut what wood he needed. Then there was the waste which was in fact common pasture or heath where sheep might graze or peat might be cut. If there was a stream running through the village, the meadow lands or “ings” could be found nearby. It was an area for growing hay and for grazing the cows. The ploughland was the most important part of the rural landscape because crops for the village community were grown here. It was divided into strips of land where only grass formed the boundaries. Small farmers worked on their strips of land until the time of the harvest. It was a great event for each village because the crops had to be gathered and processed before the winter started and a festive supper was held to celebrate abundant harvest (4-5). Enclosure brought many changes to the system of land usage and to the division of land. Across the country, individual strips of land were gradually enclosed into one fenced field where its landowner could introduce new methods of growing crops. The harvesting was now performed by several hired labourers. Many small farmers therefore lost their land and had to search for means of subsistence somewhere else. In order to be able to describe the social hierarchy of a village it is necessary to consider the distribution of wealth among several social groups of England in general. Mathias presents a statistical survey by Gregory King and by two other later statisticians (44). In his statistical survey from 1688, Gregory King classified the English into seven social groups. The most influential group in England included Lords, Baronets, Knights, 8 Esquires and Gentlemen who represented the nobility and the gentry in the eighteenth century. Nobles usually held important offices in the country.
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