Qs. Discuss the conflict between Science and Religion of Victorian Period.

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Victorian period (1832-1901) is one of the remarkable periods of English literature. It is named according
to Queen Victoria (1837-1901). It is said that the Victorian period is the second renaissance of England.
We get some characteristics of this era such as the conflict between science and religion, imperialism,
industrialization, materialistic outlooking, adventure, presence of women in all sectors, the domination
of novels but fluency of poetry, and so on.

We can indicate the main feature of this era that is the conflict between science and religion. In this
period, science was expanded so much. All men of this era were moving away from religion. At that time
Charles Robert Darwin (1809-1882) wrote a scientific book, "On the Origin of Species" (1859). Darwin
suggested that men are originated from monkeys. This kind of theory and scientific inventions moved
away from the faith of people from religion to other sides.

The publication of The Origin of Species by Charles Darwin in 1859 opposed the Biblical idea of the
creation of man. His another book The Descent of Man (1871) assembled new evidence that man was
descended from a lower ape like animal. Most importantly, his theory of evolution contradicted the
account of man’s origin as given in the Bible. As a result, man’s faith in orthodox religion was shaken.
Man could no longer accept without question the aspects of God’s mercy.

Similarly, Darwin with his emphasis on the ideas of ‘the survival of the fittest’, and generated a rational
view regarding man and other creatures on earth. This view started by Darwin was completed by
philosophers like Huxley Spencer, Stuart Mull etc. As a severe consequence, man lost his faith in God,
nature and religion. The mechanical view of the universe prohibited any faith into the spiritual creation
of human being.

The religious faith of man is further struck through the publication of some poems by Tennyson and
Arnold. The first poem to be mentioned here is Alfred Lord Tennyson’s In Memoriam. Tennyson wrote
this poem in honor of his beloved friend who died very young.

Through him, he questioned his faith in God. The poem reflects grief and despair which are typical
emotions in Victorian era, and it leads the reader to doubt hope and faith. However, he wants to
reconcile his beliefs with knowledge and he wants to combine soul and mind.

So, it can be said that he finds the solution of the crisis.

The second poem that should be taken into consideration is Matthew Arnold’s Dover Beach .In “Dover
Beach”, Arnold portrays a very sad picture of the Victorian society. As we know earlier, because of
Darwin's theory of evolution and the Industrial Revolution, the Victorians have lost faith in god and
religion. The poem begins with a happy tone,describing a beautiful atmosphere of the sea. But in a while
his tone is changed when he says, the grating roar made by the pebbles brings in his mind “the eternal
note of sadness”.This suggests the unrest of the society.

Again it is Tennyson who tried to bring about a compromise between science and religion.Thus, he is
called the poet of Victorian Compromise. He doesn't look upon scientific development as an obstacle to
moral upliftment with a great vision that one day science will lead English people from strength to
strength. he is regarded as the spokesman of the Victorian era. His poetry vividly foreshadows the spirits
of the age. He nicely points out the loss of spiritual and moral values that prevailed during the Victorian
age.

To sum up, it may be said that Victorian age was an era of social change. A solution was necessary to
bridge the gap between science and religion to reduce the social unrest. And we find authors like
Tennyson, Arnold who were quite successful in compromising between those.