Philosophy and Values of the Victorians/

Characteristics of Victorian Literature
 

Major Literary Literary Literary Key

Values Ideas Form/   Content/ Genres/ Author
Structur Themes Styles s
e
Earnestness Expansion Narrative Isolation/ Dramatic Lord
of Empire over Lyric Alienation Monologu Tennyso
e n
Respectabilit Glorificatio Meter and Lack of Novel The
y n of War Rhythm communicatio Elegy Brontes
over n magazines
Imagery Oscar
Wilde

Evangelism Industrialis Objective; Pessimism Drama: Elizabet

m reflective and despair Comedy h Barrett
of and
Manners Robert
Brownin
g
Evolution and Economic Melanchol Loss of faith Rigid Charles
Progress Prosperity y or standards Dickens
meditative of
, even in personal
love behavior
poems
Hypocrisy? Reform Moral Didactic High Thomas
issues, moral tone Carlyle
didactic
Protestant   Contemporar Charles
y subjects    
work ethic Darwin
Restraint   Longer     Matthew
over Arnold
shorter
forms
Utilitarianis   More     Dante
m common Gabriel
 expression and
Strong s Christin
emphasis on a Rosetti
duty

    Medieval  Rudyard
   
subjects Kipling
and forms
 

Romantic/Victorian Contrasts

Romantic Era Victorian Era

 
Idealism Visionary/Utopian Sober/Utilitarian
View of Nature Kind/Harmonious Harsh/Cruel
Focus Inward/Individual Outward/Nation
Common man Middle class
Imagination Reality
Work
Introspection
Philosophy Transcendentalism Utilitarianism

More Victoriana
Struggle or strife
Key Metaphor
Key Theme Theory of evolution leads to crisis of faith  
Intellectual and spiritual doubt – antidote is work
Growing social Reform movements – child labour, safety, hours
consciousness Women – demand emancipation, enfranchisement, evolution
Victorian Religion, science, morality
Trinity
Nationalism Britain – first great modern industrial nation
Poets Feel alienated, betrayed – estranged from life and love – so
isolate themselves no groups or friends
 

Characteristics of Victorian Literature

The literature of the Victorian age (1837 – 1901, named for the reign of Queen Victoria) entered in a new
period after the romantic revival. The literature of this era expressed the fusion of pure romance to gross
realism. Though, the Victorian Age produced great poets, the age is also remarkable for the excellence of
its prose.
The discoveries of science have particular effects upon the literature of the age. If you study all
the great writers of this period, you will mark four general characteristics:
1. Literature of this age tends to come closer to daily life which reflects its practical
problems and interests. It becomes a powerful instrument for human progress. Socially &
economically, Industrialism was on the rise and various reform movements like
emancipation, child labor, women’s rights, and evolution.
2. Moral Purpose: The Victorian literature seems to deviate from "art for art's sake" and
asserts its moral purpose. Tennyson, Browning, Carlyle, Ruskin - all were the teachers of
England with the faith in their moral message to instruct the world.
3. Idealism: It is often considered as an age of doubt and pessimism. The influence of
science is felt here. The whole age seems to be caught in the conception of man in
relation to the universe with the idea of evolution.
4. Though, the age is characterized as practical and materialistic, most of the writers exalt
a purely ideal life. It is an idealistic age where the great ideals like truth, justice, love,
brotherhood are emphasized by poets, essayists and novelists of the age.
The Style of the Victorian Novel
Victorian novels tend to be idealized portraits of difficult lives in which hard work, perseverance,
love and luck win out in the end; virtue would be rewarded and wrongdoers are suitably
punished. They tended to be of an improving nature with a central moral lesson at heart. While
this formula was the basis for much of earlier Victorian fiction, the situation became more
complex as the century progressed.
Victorian literature is the literature produced during the reign of Queen Victoria (1837-1901)
and corresponds to the Victorian era. It forms a link and transition between the writers of the
romantic period and the very different literature of the 20th century.
The 19th century saw the novel become the leading form of literature in English. The works by
pre-Victorian writers such as Jane Austen and Walter Scott had perfected both closely-observed
social satire and adventure stories. Popular works opened a market for the novel amongst a
reading public. The 19th century is often regarded as a high point in British literature as well as
in other countries such as France, the United States and Russia. Books, and novels in particular,
became ubiquitous, and the "Victorian novelist" created legacy works with continuing appeal.
Significant Victorian novelists and poets include: Matthew Arnold, the Brontë sisters (Emily,
Anne and Charlotte Brontë), Christina Rossetti, Robert Browning, Elizabeth Barrett Browning,
Joseph Conrad, Edward Bulwer-Lytton, Wilkie Collins, Charles Dickens, Benjamin Disraeli,
George Eliot, George Meredith, Elizabeth Gaskell, George Gissing, Richard Jefferies, Thomas
Hardy, A. E. Housman, Rudyard Kipling, Robert Louis
Stevenson, Bram Stoker, Algernon Charles Swinburne, Philip Meadows Taylor, Alfred Lord
Tennyson, William Thackeray, Oscar Wilde, Lewis Carroll and H. G. Wells.