SOURCE: Panitz, Esther. “Alienation and the Cult of the Individual.” In The Alien in Their Midst: Images of Jews in English Literature, pp. 162-70. Rutherford, NJ: Associated University Presses, Inc., 1981.

In the following excerpt, Panitz presents a summary of the changing image of the Jew in English literature from the time of Geoffrey Chaucer to the twentieth century, and concludes that stereotypical thinking about Jews still remains.

The certitude that had been part of Browning's life reinforced his cheerful eagerness. Yet in the midst of all that pleasant ambience, the earlier frustrations and conflicts of the Victorian Age grew into the nativisms and doubts of the twentieth century. Scientific skepticism and an emphasis on empiricism helped erode individual morality, which had been based on accepted social values. In the political arena, imperialism, which had once engendered a sense of pride in England's customs and institutions, came to be...