Nguyễn Duy Bình

Foreign Languages Department

Vinh University
Tel: 0947 492 309
Email: duybinhdhv@gmail.com
 Chapter 7:
THE VICTORIAN PERIOD
(1832-1901)

2021-2022
 Historical background

This age is named after Queen Victoria who reigned

over England from 1837 to 1901. It may be noticed that
though Queen Victoria came to power in 1837, the
Victorian Period began in 1832, five years before the
accession of Queen Victoria, because the literary
features of the new age became obvious during 1832.
 Historical background

The twelve years, from 1848 to 1860, of this age is

called the Age of the Pre- Raphaelites because the
artists of that time followed the art forms used before
the period of Raphael (1483-1520), the Italian artist. D.
G. Rossetti, W. H. Hunt and J. Millais formed this group
and later on Christina Rossetti, W. Morris and A.
Swinburne joined them.
 Historical background

Originally it was a movement for the painters but

eventually these ideals took the shape of a literary
movement. Medievalism, symbolism, sensuousness,
truthfulness and simplicity are the main features of the
Pre-Raphaelites. The last two decades (1880-1901) of
this period is called the Age of Aestheticism. In reaction
against the Victorian moral obsession it was held that
art should have its end in itself, which lies in its beauty
and formal perfection. These decades also called
Decadence because there was a fall and decay of the
Victorian spirit and standard in these years.
 Historical background

The important facts which influenced the literature of

this period are:
 The First Reformation Act in 1832, the Second
Reformation Act in 1867 and the Third Reformation
Act in 1884 gave voting rights to every male and
brought about significant changes in social life.
 In 1833 slaves were declared free.
 Chimney Sweeps Act in 1840 and Factory Act in
1833 prohibited child labour.
 Chapter 7:
THE VICTORIAN PERIOD
(1832-1901)

 Mechanism of railways and ships was improved which

helped develop overseas commerce and industry, and
thus, brought material affluence.
 There was a significant progress of women during this
time.
 Agriculture based society was disintegrated as the
result of the development of industry. This had a
strong effect on the rural people.
 Chapter 7:
THE VICTORIAN PERIOD
(1832-1901)

 The theory of evolution and the concept of

communism changed the traditional view of life and
religion.
 The Fabian Society was founded in 1883 to avoid
violence in class-struggle. G.B. Shaw was one of the
members of this society.
 Literary Features

 Victorian literature shifts from the Romantic

utopianism to utilitarianism, from the Romantic
imagination to reality, from the Romantic common
man to middle class.
 Victorian attitude to nature also changes. To the
Romantics it was kind and harmonious; to the
Victorians it is harsh and cruel.
 Prudery and morality become the controlling
principles of creative works.
 Literary Features

 In the early part of the age literature chooses “art for

life’s sake” as the principle of art and asserts didactic
purposes.
 The mass of writings of this age reflects a highly
idealized notion of “proper behaviour”.
 Literary Features

 A dualism of reason and emotion, materialism and

mysticism, religion and science or faith and doubt,
freedom and restriction is very common in the
literature of this period.
 Poets, novelists and essayists of this age emphasize
truth, justice, brotherhood, peace and stability.
 Dramatic monologue and elegy are popular poetic
forms of the age. Isolation, loss of faith, despair and
emancipation of women are common themes of
poems. Classical myths are retold in poems.
 Literary Features

The novel becomes the domineering literary form in the

Victorian Period. A typical Victorian novel has a long
and complicated plot, an omniscient narrator whose
comments on wrong and right serve moral purposes. It
has a setting in a known city, a child protagonist, social
and humanitarian themes, deeper character analyses,
irony in the description and justification of all events in
the final chapter. Its common subjects are exploitation
of women and children, terrible living conditions,
industrial civilization, lost identity, etc. A good number of
novels written by women raise the feminist issues.
 Literary Features

Towards the end of this period most of these features of

the Victorian Age gradually disappear. A new
movement known as the Decadence started. It brings
back “art for art’s sake”. It emphasizes sensationalism,
egocentricity, the bizarre, the artificial, etc. in literature.
Swinburne, Dowson, Pater, Morris and the Rossettis
are the writers of this group.
 THE REALISM

The realistic novel is a narration of plausible events,

set in very specific places and times and near to the
author. In this kind of novel are treated aspects
of contemporary society: as the contradictions of the
social order, and the changes of costume and mentality
in relation to major political and economic events.
 THE REALISM

The realistic novel was born in the nineteenth century,

and is characterized by the social content: such as
the description of the struggle of the bourgeoisie
against the aristocratic society, or the description of the
world of the poor and unfortunate (Dickens).
 THE REALISM

The realism is meant to capture the reality as it is and

to cancel the individual sensibility. Hence arose
important choices formally:
• a prose flat and linear, to maintain the narration in
the context of an absolute objectivity;
• the presence of a narrator who expresses himself in
the third person (external narrator);
• few spaces for the interventions of the author, for
comments and for advances.
 Charles Dickens

CHARLES DICKENS is generally considered to be one of

the greatest English novelists, and he is one of the few
whose works did not become unpopular after his death.
 Charles Dickens

He began with Pickwick (1836-7), which came out in

parts and gave English literature some of its most
charming and amusing characters. Mr Pickwick himself
is almost too kind to be true; it is fortunate for him that
he meets and employs the cheerful Sam Weller to keep
him out of most of the trouble caused by his own
kindness, or to comfort him with words of wisdom when
the trouble has not been avoided:
 Charles Dickens

Twice Dickens wrote historical novels, Barnaby Rudge

(1841) and A Tale of Two Cities (1849), a story of the
French Revolution and of events in London at the same
time. Sometimes his novels were written partly with the
purpose of improving social conditions. Oliver Twist
(1837-8), the story of a poor boy’s cruel treatment and
miserable adventures, includes descriptions of hunger,
stealing, murder and hanging.
 Charles Dickens

David Copperfield (1849-50) is based on Dickens’s

own life, which had a sad beginning. It is one of the
most popular of his novels, but it cannot be called
cheerful. Nicholas Nickleby (1838-9) is the tale of a boy
who is left poor on his father’s death. He is sent to work
in a school, Dotheboys Hall [ = Do-The-Boys], where
the master, Squeers, treats forty miserable pupils
cruelly, and teaches them nothing. Nicholas gives the
reader a good deal of pleasure when he gives the
criminal Squeers a good beating, and then escapes.
 Charles Dickens

All these novels are crowded with characters, either

fully developed or drawn by a few quick but sure
strokes of the great writer’s pen. The reader of modern
English novels or newspapers will not get far without
finding mention - in a way which supposes that the
reader needs no other explanation - of the name of a
minor character from one of the books listed above, or
reference, for example, to the evil Quilp, the great-
hearted Mrs Jarley, or honest Kit Nubbles (The Old
Curiosity Shop);
 Charles Dickens

to Mr Pecksniff, Mark Tapley, or the wicked Mrs Gamp

(Martin Chuzzlewit); to Mrs Jellyby, Jo the crossing
sweeper, or Chadband (Bleak House); to kind, strong
Joe Gargery, the dishonest Pumblechook, Mr Jaggers
the clever lawyer, his good-hearted clerk Wemmick, or
Wemmick’s ‘Aged Parent’ (Great Expectations); and so
on.
 Charles Dickens

Dickens’s prose varies in quality, but he is nearly

always readable. In his different novels he describes
and attacks many kinds of unpleasant people and
places - bad schools and schoolmasters, government
departments, bad prisons, dirty houses. His characters
include thieves, murderers, men in debt, stupid and
unwashed men and women, hungry children, and those
who do their best to deceive the honest.
 Charles Dickens

Although many of his scenes are terribly unpleasant,

he usually keeps the worst descriptions out of his
books; therefore the reader does not throw the book
into the fire, but continues to read. Some of his gentler
characters are very weak; some of the sad situations
that he describes are too miserable to be true. He uses
too much black paint. But he wanted to raise kindness
and goodness in men’s hearts, and he used tears and
laughter to reach his aim. He probably brought a little
improvement in some conditions, but very often he
failed to do so.
 David Copperfield

Dickens called David Copperfield “my favourite child”. It is

easy to understand this. David’s story is similar to Charles
Dickens’s life. He also worked in a factory when he was a
boy. He later became a popular author. At the time of
Queen Victoria, Britain was a very rich, powerful nation, but
there were big differences between rich and poor people.”
 Short summary of
David Copperfield

David Copperfield lived happily with his young, pretty

mother and their servant, Peggoty. But then his mother
married again. His new father, Mr. Murdstone, treated
David very badly. He sent David to work in a factory in
London when he was ten years old. Finally, he ran away to
his strange, eccentric aunt who hated boys! What happen
to David after that, as he grew into a young man, fell in love
and met an old schoolfriend?
 Extract
David Copperfield

My early childhood was extremely happy, as my beautiful

mother and kind Peggotty took care of me. But when I was
about eight, a shadow passed over my happiness. My
mother often went out walking, in her best clothes, with a
gentleman called Mr Murdstone. He had black hair, a big
black moustache and an unpleasant smile, and seemed to
be very fond of my mother. But I knew that Peggotty did not
like him.
 Extract

A few months later Peggotty told me that my mother was

going to have a short holiday with some friends. Meanwhile
Peggotty and I would go to stay with her brother Daniel in
Yarmouth, on the east coast, for two weeks. I was very
excited when we climbed into the cart, although it was sad
saying goodbye to my mother. Mr Murdstone was at her
shoulder, waving goodbye, as the driver called to his horse,
and we drove out of the village.
 Extract

When we got down from the cart in Yarmouth, after our

journey, Peggotty said, 'That's the house. Master David!' I
looked all round, but could only see an old ship on the
sand. 'Is that - that your brother's house?' I asked in delight.
And when we reached it, I saw it had doors and windows
and a chimney, just like a real house. I could not imagine a
nicer place to live. Everything was clean and tidy, and smelt
of fish. Now I was introduced to the Peggotty family.
 Extract

There was Daniel Peggotty, a kind old sailor. Although he

was not married, he had adopted two orphans, who lived
with him and called him Uncle. Ham Peggotty was a large
young man with a gentle smile, and Emily was a beautiful,
blue-eyed little girl. They all welcomed Peggotty and me
warmly. I spent a wonderfully happy two weeks there,
playing all day on the beach with Emily, and sleeping in my
own little bed on the ship. I am sure I was in love with little
Emily in my childish way, and I cried bitterly when we had
to say goodbye at the end of the holiday.
 Extract

But on the way home to Blunderstone, Peggotty looked at

me very worriedly. 'Master David, my dear,' she said
suddenly in a trembling voice. ' I must tell you - you'll have
to know now . . . While we've been away, your dear mother
- has married Mr Murdstone! He's your stepfather now!' I
was deeply shocked. I could not understand how my
mother could have married that man. And when we arrived
home, I could not help showing my mother how very
miserable 42 I was.
 Extract

I went straight to my room and lay sobbing on my bed,

which made my poor mother very unhappy too. As she
sat beside me, holding my hand, Mr Murdstone
suddenly came in. 'What's this, Clara, my love?' he
asked sternly. 'Remember, you must be firm with the
boy! I've told you before, you're too weak with him!' 'Oh
yes, Edward, I'm afraid you're right,' my mother replied
quickly. ' I 'm very sorry. I'll try to be firmer with him.'
And when she left the room, Mr Murdstone whispered
angrily to me, 'David, do you know what I'll do if you
don't obey me? I'll beat you like a dog!' I was still very
young, and I was very frightened of him.
 Extract

If he had said one kind word to me, perhaps I would have

liked and trusted him, and my life would have been
different. Instead, I hated him for the influence he had over
my dear mother, who wanted to be kind to me, but also
wanted to please her new husband. That evening Mr
Murdstone's sister arrived to 'help' my mother in the house.
A tall dark lady, with a stern, frowning face, she looked and
sounded very much like her brother. I thought she was
planning to stay with us for a long time, and I was right. In
fact, she intended to stay forever.
 Extract

She started work the next morning. 'Now, Clara,' she said
firmly to my mother at breakfast, ' I am here to help you.
You're much too pretty and thoughtless to worry about the
servants, the food and so on. So just hand me your keys to
all the cupboards, and I'll take care of everything for you.'
My poor mother just blushed, looked a little ashamed, and
obeyed. From then on. Miss Murdstone took complete
control of the house, keeping the keys hanging from her
waist as she hurried through the house, checking that
everything was being done just as she wished.
 David Copperfield

The Plight of the Weak

Throughout David Copperfield, the powerful abuse the
weak and helpless. Dickens focuses on orphans, women,
and the mentally disabled to show that exploitation—not
pity or compassion—is the rule in an industrial society.
Dickens draws on his own experience as a child to
describe the inhumanity of child labor and debtors’ prison.
His characters suffer punishment at the hands of forces
larger than themselves, even though they are morally good
people.
 David Copperfield

The arbitrary suffering of innocents makes for the most

vividly affecting scenes of the novel. David starves and
suffers in a wine-bottling factory as a child. As his guardian,
Mr. Murdstone can exploit David as factory labor because
the boy is too small and dependent on him to disobey.
Likewise, the boys at Salem House have no recourse
against the cruel Mr. Creakle. In both situations, children
deprived of the care of their natural parents suffer at the
hands of their own supposed protectors.
Thank you!

2021-2022