VICTORIAN PERIOD

The period extending between 1837-1901 is called the “VICTORIAN PERIOD” , and
the literature produced in this period is called “VICTORIAN LITERATURE”.
In this period we observe that England become the most prosperous country in the

world, because of the steam power being applied in industry which

caused an increase in the amount of manufactured goods. Owing to the advancement in
science and in technology the structure of the society and culture underwent a
tremendous change. The landowners started founding factories instead of doing farming. As
there is a great increase in population and as the country completed industrialisation there is

unemployment.
PERIOD I: (1837-1848) we observe an economic depression. Thomas Carlyle warns
the government that a revolution might be expected in England, if the government went on
oppression. Although England has a lot of money there is hunger on the mob. There is a corn
law in England in those times. According to this, merchants importing grains from other
countries should pay a very high customs duty to protect the farmers in England. Since there
was a foreshadowing of a revolution, they passed two laws through the parliament.
1- Bill of Rights: According to this law, people having property, which is worthy of
10 pounds would have the right to vote. It is a relaxation of the social oppression
on people.
2- Abolition of Corn Law: They fed the poor so they prevented a social upheaval.

PERIOD II: (1848-1870) this period marks the climax of prosperity. England has a
very rich middle class who wants to preserve its rights and property by the help of rigid laws
and by the rigid code of morality (status quo). They are mostly the puritans whose essence of
morality is “work hard and pray hard.” They did not tolerate the simplest pagan elements
in religion.

Charles Dickens writes in this period and criticise the social injustice. The
middle class’s imposing the puritan morality upon the people and their demands on
conformity caused problems in society. 19th century used to have two opposing approaches to

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society, social institutions, and the social values. These two attitudes found expression in
Victorian Age.

First one is a purely rational, intellectual and secular approach,

which was initiated by Jeremy Berthan and followers. They wanted to reform the social

institutions and human values intellectually and rationally. This movement

took place in the beginning of the 19th century and was followed by naturalism in
philosophy and literature
Darwin creates the intellectual storm existing in the 2nd half of the 19th century.
According to this; man is the product of a very long unceasing process of evolution of which
the aim is perfection. The fittest in a group of species develop adaptive characteristics to the
environment and transmits these adaptive features to the younger generations. This is the
process of evolution.
Naturalism adapts the existence of God. If there is no god, there are no moral values
derived from religion.
This is a denial of traditions.
There is no moral order in the universe, it is chaotic and the society is amoral.
There is only science. The scientific findings are used as a substitute for God. Ultimate reality
is given by science. Man reduced all his values to scientific values. Man’s intellectual finding
is dominant and all the scientific findings are true.
According to science, man is substance of chemical action and reaction. Man is degraded to
the level of animate nature.
Man is the slave of his biological inheritance.
He is the slave of socio-economic environment.
Balzac says there is nothing mysterious in human life. Emile Zola, in his experimental novel,
says that if you know the biological inheritance, it is possible to write a novel about a man’s
socio-economic background showing the chain of cause and result relationship of that man’s
life.
Man adapts a rational and critical approach to human values, reinterprets them in
terms of experience. Man is not an animal; he is the synthesis of body and soul.
Naturalistic Literature
1- (Despair): Hope means faith in something. Man is small and insignificant. On the level
of animate nature he is not completely rational or instinctive.

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2- There is an honest approach to human problems.
3- Scientific objectivity becomes a part of literature.
4- The artist is like a scientist who gathers his data by observing the society and human
life.
Because of socio-economic, biological inheritance facts man cannot go beyond the cause
and result relationship. The insignificance of man creates a gloomy atmosphere in
literature. Naturalistic literature is not didactic, moralistic or reformist but denies man’s
free will.
Man is a victim of his socio-economic background and biological inheritance. Man is a

passive agent in Naturalism.

THOMAS HARDY
Hardy was born in 1840 and raised in the region of Dorsetshire, England, the basis for
the Wessex countryside that would later appear in his fiction and poetry. He attended a
local school until he was sixteen, when his mother paid a substantial amount of money for
him to be apprenticed to an architect in Dorchester. In 1862 he moved to London, where
he worked as an architect, remaining there for a period of five years. Between 1865 and
1867 Hardy wrote many poems, none of which were published. In 1867 he returned to
Dorchester and, while continuing to work in architecture, began to write novels in his
spare time. Hardy became convinced that if he was to make a living writing, he would
have to do so as a novelist. Drawing on the way of life he absorbed in Dorsetshire as a
youth and the wide range of English writers with which he was familiar, Hardy spent
nearly thirty years as a novelist before devoting himself to poetry. In 1874 Hardy married
Emma Lavinia Gifford, who would become the subject of many of his poems. They spent
several years in happiness until the 1880s, when marital troubles began to shake the
closeness of their union.
Hardy’s first book of verse was published in 1898, when he was fifty-eight years old and
had achieved a large degree of success as a novelist. Although his verse was not nearly as
successful as his novels, Hardy continued to focus on his poetry and published seven more
books of verse before his death, developing his confidence and technical competence.
With the composition of The Dynasts: A Drama of the Napoleonic Wars (1904-08), an
epic historical drama written in verse, Hardy was hailed as a major poet. He was praised
as a master of his craft, and his writing was admired for its great emotional force and

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technical skill. Hardy continued to write until just before his death in 1928. Despite his
wish to be buried with his family, influential sentiment for his burial in Poet’s Corner of
Westminster Abbey instigated a severe compromise: the removal of his heart, which was
buried in Dorchester, and the cremation of his body, which was interred in the Abbey.

“Ah, Are You Digging On My Grave?” was first published in the Saturday Review on
September 27, 1913, then in Thomas Hardy’s 1914 collection, Satires of Circumstance:
Lyrics and Reveries with Miscellaneous Pieces. The poem reflects Hardy’s interest in
death and events beyond everyday reality, but these subjects are presented humorously,
with a strong dose of irony and satire. This treatment is somewhat unusual for Hardy, who
also produced a number of more serious poems concerning death. In “Ah, Are You
Digging On My Grave?” a deceased woman carries on a dialogue with an individual who
is disturbing her grave site. The identity of this figure, the “digger” of the woman’s grave,
is unknown through the first half of the poem. As the woman attempts to guess who the
digger is, she reveals her desire to be remembered by various figures she was acquainted
with when she was alive. In a series of ironic turns, the responses of the digger show that
the woman’s acquaintances—a “loved one,” family relatives, and a despised enemy—
have all forsaken her memory. Finally, it is revealed that the digger is the woman’s dog,
but the canine, too, is unconcerned with his former mistress and is digging only so it can
bury a bone. Though the poem contains a humorous tone, the picture Hardy paints is
bleak; the dead are almost completely eliminated from the memory of the living and do
not enjoy any form of contentment. This somber outlook is typical of Hardy’s verse,
which often presented a skeptical and negative view of the human condition.

Are you digging on my grave?
Thomas HARDY

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“Ah, are you digging on my grave
   My loved one?—planting rue?”
—“No; yesterday he went to wed
One of the brightest wealth has bred.
‘It cannot hurt her now,’ he said,                     5
   ‘That I should not be true’.”

“Then who is digging on my grave?
   My nearest dearest kin?”
—“Ah, no; they sit and think, ‘What use!
What good will planting flowers produce?               10
No tendance of her mound can loose
   Her spirit from Death’s gin’.”

“But someone digs upon my grave?
   My enemy? —prodding sly?”
—“Nay; when she heard you had passed the Gate          15
That shuts on all flesh soon or late,
She thought you no more worth her hate,
   And cares not where you lie.”

“Then, who is digging on my grave?
   Say—since I have not guessed!”                      20
—“O it is I, my mistress dear,
Your little dog, who still lives near,
And much I hope my movements here
   Have not disturbed your rest?”

“Ah, yes! You dig upon my grave …                     25
   Why flashed it not on me
That one true heart was left behind!
What feeling do we ever find
To equal among human kind
   A dog’s fidelity!”                                  30

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“Mistress, I dug upon your grave
   To bury a bone, in case
I should be hungry near this spot
When passing on my daily trot.
I am sorry, but I quite forgot                         35
It was your resting place.”

Poem Summary
Lines 1-2
These first two lines of the poem present a certain mystery to the reader. Who is asking
this question? Is it indeed a person in the grave, or is it a person imagining an experience
that might happen after they die? This mystery helps to draw the reader into the poem,
though we will soon understand that the speaker is indeed a woman who is dead and
buried. Hardy will continue to make use of an anonymous voice in the poem, however,
when he introduces the second character in the work.
These lines also suggest some underlying elements that can help us to better understand
the situation. The reference to the “rue” being planted by the woman’s loved one seems an
important detail. The word rue has two essential meanings and both can be applied to the
poem. First, rue means sorrow or regret, so the woman might be indicating that her loved
one is experiencing these emotions. Initially, the speaker seems to feel that her death has
caused sorrow for the loved one and that she remains strong in his memory. In this sense,
he would be “planting rue” by mourning her death. In the following lines, however, we
learn he is not full of sorrow, so if she has this idea, it proves to be a mistake. Rue is also
the name of a shrub having bitter, strongly scented leaves. This definition of rue seems to
hint at the true nature of the relationship between the woman and the loved one. The bitter
plant contrasts with the beautiful flowers that are often placed on graves, and this contrast
becomes stronger when we remember that flowers are a traditional symbol of love and
purity. In other words, the speaker doesn’t imagine the man offering a remembrance of
beauty and affection, just one of bitterness.
Lines 3-4
In these lines, the speaker’s first question is answered by the “digger” of her grave, though
the digger’s identity is unknown at this point in the poem. The anonymous speaker

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becomes an important factor in the poem, urging the reader to push on and discover who
is talking to the woman. What’s made clear in this first stanza is that this voice does not
belong to the loved one that the woman thought she was addressing. This is indicated by
the use of the third-person “he” to refer to the man. The voice explains that the woman’s
loved one—perhaps a husband or lover—has married another woman. What’s more, he
has married a very wealthy mate and appears to be doing quite well without the woman in
the grave.

Lines 5-6
Here, the digger quotes the words of the loved one, and the man states that his recent
marriage will have no effect upon the deceased woman. With this, the poet completes the
first of several ironic passages that continue throughout the poem. In all of these, the
woman in the grave wants to believe that others are thinking of her following her death. In
reality, however, she has been largely forgotten. Hardy uses these ironic reversals to
create a somewhat humorous tone, and this type of unexpected switch is often used to
make people laugh. In this poem, Hardy’s writing becomes a kind of “black humor”
because it centers on death—a grim event that is not usually associated with merriment.
This effect is intensified because the humor of the poem reveals a sad message: the dead
woman is forgotten and eternally lonely.
Lines 7-8
This stanza again begins with a variation of the refrain, “Who is digging on my grave?”
The “Then” moves the poem forward as it enables the narrator to discount the lover and
move toward other possibilities. She chooses members of her family and imagines that
they are remembering her by caring for her grave.
Lines 9-12
Again, the voice answers the woman, telling her that her relatives are not the ones she
hears digging. Instead, they think that it’s pointless to tend her grave, as no amount of care
will raise her from the dead.
Lines 13-14
Again there is the variation of the refrain “Are You Digging On My Grave?” but this time
it is not as definitive. The speaker is more hesitant, as if she doubts herself. She also
seems to be more desperate to find someone who remembers her. Since her loved one and
her relatives have forsaken her memory, she imagines that the digging is being done by a
woman she disliked in her life, perhaps a rival. While there was ill feeling between the

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two, it seems that the buried woman finds some solace in the idea that her enemy is still
concerned enough with her presence to cause some kind of harm to her grave.

Lines 15-16

The reference to passing “the Gate” is another term for the woman’s death. Hardy’s use of
the phrase seems to allude to the idea of the pearly gates that theoretically mark the
entrance to heaven. He does not present a glorified picture of this passageway, however,
as is typically the case with such an image. Instead, “the Gate / … shuts on all flesh,” a
phrase that suggests death is like a trap, not a place where one receives heavenly rewards.
This image reinforces the one in line 12, where the unknown speaker made reference to
“Death’s gin”—gin meaning a type of snare or trap that is used to catch animals.
Lines 17-18
Here, the unknown voice presents one of the most direct, and most chilling, statements of
the poem’s central idea: the deceased woman has been forgotten by the living and does
not concern them at all.
Lines 19-20
In this stanza, the woman finally gives up her game of trying to guess who is digging on
the grave and asks a direct question of the unknown voice.
Lines 21-24
Here, the identity of the unknown speaker is revealed. This is a key turning point in the
poem. Until now, the reader has been involved in the mystery of who might be speaking
to the woman, and this puzzle has been one of the elements that has kept the reader caught
up in the developing narrative. Now that this mystery has been solved, the poet must find
a new way to hold the reader’s interest. He does this in two ways. First, he uses the
unexpected and humorous twist of having a dog be the individual who is speaking.
Second, he creates another ironic set-up in the following stanzas to once again show that
the woman has little importance in the living world.
Lines 25-30
The fifth stanza is given over completely to the woman who talks of the dog’s loyalty.
This is the woman’s longest stretch of unbroken commentary in the poem, and it serves to
build up the reader’s expectations for the ironic conclusion in the final paragraph. In a
sense, this final situation is exactly the same as the ones that have preceded it: the

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woman’s explanation for the digging shows that she wants her former acquaintances to
remember her and be touched by her death; the reality is the opposite—they have little
concern for her now that she is gone. By lengthening the woman’s explanation in this
paragraph, as well as the dog’s subsequent reply, Hardy gives more zing to this last
incident and brings the poem toward its conclusion.
Lines 31-34
In the final stanza, Hardy takes the poem to its highest level of satire as the dog indicates
that the bone is more important than his former mistress. The mention of the bone also
suggests the way in which those in the living world now view the woman; she is simply a
pile of bones buried in the ground and no longer has importance to those she used to
know.
Lines 35-36
With the final lines, Hardy drives home his central point: the woman has been forgotten
by those she once knew.

The Lady of Shalott (1832)

BY ALFRED, LORD TENNYSON

Part I 
On either side the river lie 
Long fields of barley and of rye, 
That clothe the wold and meet the sky; 
And thro' the field the road runs by 
       To many-tower'd Camelot; 
The yellow-leaved waterlily 
The green-sheathed daffodilly 
Tremble in the water chilly 
       Round about Shalott. 

Willows whiten, aspens shiver. 

The sunbeam showers break and quiver 
In the stream that runneth ever 
By the island in the river 
       Flowing down to Camelot. 

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Four gray walls, and four gray towers 
Overlook a space of flowers, 
And the silent isle imbowers 
    
   The Lady of Shalott. 

Underneath the bearded barley, 

The reaper, reaping late and early, 
Hears her ever chanting cheerly, 
Like an angel, singing clearly, 
       O'er the stream of Camelot. 
Piling the sheaves in furrows airy, 
Beneath the moon, the reaper weary 
Listening whispers, ' 'Tis the fairy, 
       Lady of Shalott.' 

The little isle is all inrail'd 

With a rose-fence, and overtrail'd 
With roses: by the marge unhail'd 
The shallop flitteth silken sail'd, 
       Skimming down to Camelot. 
A pearl garland winds her head: 
She leaneth on a velvet bed, 
Full royally apparelled, 
       The Lady of Shalott. 

Part II 
No time hath she to sport and play: 
A charmed web she weaves alway. 
A curse is on her, if she stay 
Her weaving, either night or day, 
       To look down to Camelot. 
She knows not what the curse may be; 
Therefore she weaveth steadily, 

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Therefore no other care hath she, 
       The Lady of Shalott. 

She lives with little joy or fear. 

Over the water, running near, 
The sheepbell tinkles in her ear. 
Before her hangs a mirror clear, 
       Reflecting tower'd Camelot. 
And as the mazy web she whirls, 
She sees the surly village churls, 
And the red cloaks of market girls 
       Pass onward from Shalott. 

Sometimes a troop of damsels glad, 

An abbot on an ambling pad, 
Sometimes a curly shepherd lad, 
Or long-hair'd page in crimson clad, 
       Goes by to tower'd Camelot: 
And sometimes thro' the mirror blue 
The knights come riding two and two: 
She hath no loyal knight and true, 
       The Lady of Shalott. 

But in her web she still delights 

To weave the mirror's magic sights, 
For often thro' the silent nights 
A funeral, with plumes and lights 
       And music, came from Camelot: 
Or when the moon was overhead 
Came two young lovers lately wed; 
'I am half sick of shadows,' said 
       The Lady of Shalott. 

Part III 

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A bow-shot from her bower-eaves, 
He rode between the barley-sheaves, 
The sun came dazzling thro' the leaves, 
And flam'd upon the brazen greaves 
       Of bold Sir Lancelot. 
A red-cross knight for ever kneel'd 
To a lady in his shield, 
That sparkled on the yellow field, 
       Beside remote Shalott. 

The gemmy bridle glitter'd free, 

Like to some branch of stars we see 
Hung in the golden Galaxy. 
The bridle bells rang merrily 
       As he rode down from Camelot: 
And from his blazon'd baldric slung 
A mighty silver bugle hung, 
And as he rode his armour rung, 
       Beside remote Shalott. 

All in the blue unclouded weather 

Thick-jewell'd shone the saddle-leather, 
The helmet and the helmet-feather 
Burn'd like one burning flame together, 
       As he rode down from Camelot. 
As often thro' the purple night, 
Below the starry clusters bright, 
Some bearded meteor, trailing light, 
       Moves over green Shalott. 

His broad clear brow in sunlight glow'd; 

On burnish'd hooves his war-horse trode; 
From underneath his helmet flow'd 
His coal-black curls as on he rode, 

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       As he rode down from Camelot. 
From the bank and from the river 
He flash'd into the crystal mirror, 
'Tirra lirra, tirra lirra:' 
       Sang Sir Lancelot. 

She left the web, she left the loom 

She made three paces thro' the room 
She saw the water-flower bloom, 
She saw the helmet and the plume, 
       She look'd down to Camelot. 
Out flew the web and floated wide; 
The mirror crack'd from side to side; 
'The curse is come upon me,' cried 
       The Lady of Shalott. 

Part IV 
In the stormy east-wind straining, 
The pale yellow woods were waning, 
The broad stream in his banks complaining, 
Heavily the low sky raining 
       Over tower'd Camelot; 
Outside the isle a shallow boat 
Beneath a willow lay afloat, 
Below the carven stern she wrote, 
       The Lady of Shalott. 

A cloudwhite crown of pearl she dight, 

All raimented in snowy white 
That loosely flew (her zone in sight 
Clasp'd with one blinding diamond bright) 
       Her wide eyes fix'd on Camelot, 
Though the squally east-wind keenly 
Blew, with folded arms serenely 

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By the water stood the queenly 
       Lady of Shalott. 

With a steady stony glance— 

Like some bold seer in a trance, 
Beholding all his own mischance, 
Mute, with a glassy countenance— 
       She look'd down to Camelot. 
It was the closing of the day: 
She loos'd the chain, and down she lay; 
The broad stream bore her far away, 
       The Lady of Shalott. 

As when to sailors while they roam, 

By creeks and outfalls far from home, 
Rising and dropping with the foam, 
From dying swans wild warblings come, 
       Blown shoreward; so to Camelot 
Still as the boathead wound along 
The willowy hills and fields among, 
They heard her chanting her deathsong, 
       The Lady of Shalott. 

A longdrawn carol, mournful, holy, 

She chanted loudly, chanted lowly, 
Till her eyes were darken'd wholly, 
And her smooth face sharpen'd slowly, 
       Turn'd to tower'd Camelot: 
For ere she reach'd upon the tide 
The first house by the water-side, 
Singing in her song she died, 
       The Lady of Shalott. 

Under tower and balcony, 

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By garden wall and gallery, 
A pale, pale corpse she floated by, 
Deadcold, between the houses high, 
       Dead into tower'd Camelot. 
Knight and burgher, lord and dame, 
To the planked wharfage came: 
Below the stern they read her name, 
       The Lady of Shalott. 

They cross'd themselves, their stars they blest, 

Knight, minstrel, abbot, squire, and guest. 
There lay a parchment on her breast, 
That puzzled more than all the rest, 
       The wellfed wits at Camelot. 
'The web was woven curiously, 
The charm is broken utterly, 
Draw near and fear not,—this is I, 
       The Lady of Shalott.'

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