The Victorian Age

1832-1900

An Introduction
 Quotes from the Times…
• “Youth is a blunder; manhood a
struggle; old age a regret”
Benjamin Disraeli, Coningsby Tennyson

• “’Tis better to have loved and

lost/ Than never to have loved at
all” Alfred, Lord Tennyson, “In
Memoriam, A.H.H.”
• “A man’s reach should exceed
his grasp,/ Or what’s a heaven Browning
for?” Robert Browning, “Andrea
del Santo”
General Info About the Time
• Enormous changes occurred in
political and social life in England and
the rest of the world
• The scientific and technical
innovations of the Industrial
Revolution, the emergence of modern
nationalism, and the European
colonization of much of Africa, the
Middle East, and the Far East
changed most of Europe
• Far-reaching new ideas created the
greatest outpouring of literary
production the world has ever seen
 Queen Victoria (1819-1901)
Reign: 1837-1901
• She had the longest reign in British
history
• Became queen at the age of 18; she
was graceful and self-assured. She
also had a gift for drawing and
painting
• Throughout her reign, she maintained
a sense of dignity and decorum that
restored the average person’s high
opinion of the monarchy after a series
of horrible, ineffective leaders
• 1840-Victoria married a German
prince, Albert, who became not king,
but Prince-consort
• After he died in 1861, she sank into a
deep depression and wore black
every day for the rest of her life
 The Growth of the British Empire
• England grew to become the greatest nation on
earth (think Heart of Darkness)
• Empire included Canada, Australia, New
Zealand, Hong Kong, Singapore, South Africa,
Kenya, and India
• England built a very large navy and merchant
fleet (for trade and colonization)
 The Growth of the British Empire
(continued)
• Imported raw materials such as cotton and silk
and exported finished goods to countries around
the world
• By the mid-1800s, England was the largest
exporter and importer of goods in the world. It
was the primary manufacturer of goods and the
wealthiest country in the world
• Because of England’s success, they felt it was
their duty to bring English values, laws, customs,
and religion to the “savage” races around the
world
The Industrial Revolution

• Factory systems emerged

• The shift in the English economy moved
away from agriculture and toward the
production of manufactured goods
• Great Exhibition of 1851-Prince Albert-
housed in the Crystal Palace (made of
glass and iron) exhibited hydraulic
presses, locomotives, machine tools,
power looms, power reapers, and
steamboat engines
 Social and Political Reform
• 1832-First Reform Act-extended the vote
to most middle-class men
• 1833-Britain abolished slavery/Factory
Act-regulated child labor in factories
• 1834-Poor Law-Amendment applied a
system of workhouses for poor people
• 1871-Trade Union Act-made it legal for
laborers to organize to protect their rights
 Religious Movement in Victorian
England
• Evangelical Movement: emphasized a
Protestant faith in personal salvation
through Christ. This movement swept
through England. Led to the creation of
the Salvation Army and YMCA.
• Oxford Movement (Tractarians): sought to
bring the official English Anglican Church
closer in rituals and beliefs to Roman
Catholicism
 Other Thoughts…
• John Stuart Mill (1806-1873)-philosopher who
created two ideas
• Utilitarianism: the object of moral action was
to bring about the greatest good for the
greatest amount of people
• (Classical) Liberalism: governments had the
right to restrict the actions of individuals only
when those actions harmed others, and that
society should use its collective resources to
provide for the basic welfare of others. Also
encouraged equal rights for women
 Other Thoughts..
• Charles Lyell (1797-1875):
• Showed that geological features on
Earth had developed continuously
Lyell
and slowly over immense periods of
time
• Charles Darwin (1809-1882):
Introduced the survival of the fittest
theory
Darwin
 Other Thoughts…
• Herbert Spencer (1820-1903): Applied Darwinism to
human society: as in nature, survival properly
belongs to the fittest, those most able to survive.
Social Darwinism was used by many Victorians to
justify social inequalities based on race, social or
economic class, or gender
• Adam Smith- 18th century economist, held that the
best government economic policy was to leave the
market alone—to follow a laissez faire or “let it be”
policy of little or no gov’t intervention
 Victorian Literature
• Four types of writing were popular
during the Victorian Era:
• Realist
• Naturalist
• The Novel
• Poetry
 Realism
• The attempt to produce in art and literature
an accurate portrayal of reality
• Realistic, detailed descriptions of everyday
life, and of its darker aspects, appealed to
many readers disillusioned by the
“progress” going on around them.
• Themes in Realist writing included
families, religion, and social reform
 Naturalism

• Based on the philosophical theory that actions

and events are the results not of human
intentions, but of largely uncontrollable external
forces
• Authors chose subjects and themes common to
the lower and middle classes
• Attentive to details, striving for accuracy and
authenticity in their descriptions
 The Novel
• Emily Bronte: Wuthering Heights
• Charlotte Bronte: Jane Eyre
• Charles Dickens: Many of his Emily Bronte
novels were published in serial
form. His comic and sentimental
descriptions of the lives of people
in diverse occupations and social
classes made Dickens the most
popular Victorian novelist. A Charlotte Bronte
Christmas Carol, Great
Expectations, David Copperfield

Charles Dickens
 LITERACY and LITERATURE
• Literacy increased significantly during the Victorian Period.
• In 1837, about half the male adult population could read
and write to some extent; by the end of the century, basic
literacy was universal.
• Compulsory national education was instituted in 1880,
requiring children to attend school until the age of ten.
• Steam-powered printing presses, paper made with wood
pulp, and new typesetting machines allowed publishers to
print more material more cheaply than ever. (Abrams
1057-1058)
• Periodicals became the most
popular form of literature. In
the first 30 years of the
Victorian period, 170 new
magazines were started in
London alone (sensational tales,
religious monthlies, weekly
newspapers, political satire,
women’s magazines, monthly
miscellanies publishing fiction
and poetry).
• The reputations of many of the
major writers of the period
were established in this
magazines (Dickens, Thackeray,
Eliot, Tennyson, Browning to
name a few). (Abrams 1057-
1058)
• Novels and long works of
nonfiction prose were published
in serial form.
• Communities of readers grew as
they followed their favourite
stories, read aloud especially in
family gatherings.
• A broad readership, especially
middle-class readers,
developed; many readers
expected that literature would
not only delight but instruct,
that it would reflect the world
they lived in and illuminate
social problems. (Abrams
1058)
 The Victorian Novel
• The novel was the most dominant
form in Victorian literature.
• Victorian novels sought to represent
their social world with the variety of
classes and social settings that defined
their communities, but with new
emphasis on the possibility of social
mobility (Jane Eyre, Great
Expectations).
• For the Victorians, the novel was a
principal form of entertainment and
a spur to social sympathy as the
heroes and heroines struggled within
their living conditions to determine
their social position and find love and
happiness. (Abrams 1058-1060)
•
 VICTORIAN POETRY
• Victorian poetry developed in the context of the novel.
• As the novel emerged as a popular form, poets sought new
ways of telling stories in verse through the creation of long
narrative poems that experimented with characterization,
point of view, rhythm and meter.
• Victorian poetry also developed in the shadow of
Romanticism. Poets such as Rossetti and Swinburne
mirrored the Romantics in their expression of intimate
thoughts and personal emotions.
• Others, such as Arnold, rejected this Romantic quality in his
writing, preferring to write from a more objective point of
view in order to comment on social and political issues.
(Abrams 1060-1062)
 The Dramatic Monologue
• The dramatic monologue, in which Browning
specialized, seems an appropriate compromise
between these two approaches. It allowed for a lyric
poem (expressing personal emotion) presented by the
voice of a speaker that was distinct from the poet
himself. (Abrams 1061)

• Dramatic Monologue: A type of lyric poem in which a

character (the speaker) addresses a distinct but silent
audience imagined to be present in the poem in such a
way as to reveal a dramatic situation and, often
unintentionally, some aspect of his or her temperament
or personality. (“Dramatic Monologue”)
 Characteristics of Victorian Poetry
• A key characteristic of Victorian poetry is variety both in style and
subject matter as poets responded to the complex social and
political changes of their time. It is almost impossible to
generalize a set of characteristics common to all writers.

FORM
• There was a focus on long narrative poems.
• The development of the dramatic monologue is often said to
be the great achievement of Victorian poetry.
• Some poets stuck to traditional forms such as the sonnet,
while others experimented with new or unusual forms such
as free verse (such as Matthew Arnold). (Abrams 1060-
1061)
STYLE
• It is pictorial in nature in that it uses detail to construct
visual images that represent the emotion or situation of the
poem. [For this reason, many artists illustrated Victorian
poems, and poems were often inspired by paintings.]
• Victorians use sound in a distinctive way. Some poems
offer mellifluous rhythms, alliteration, gentle vowels, and
liquid consonants, while others create rougher, harsher
sounds. Overall though, Victorian poets use sound to
convey meaning.
• Some poets wrote with a tone of pessimism and saw society
and mankind in a period of doubt and degradation. Others
wrote optimistically about the power of social change and
hope for the future.
• Diction could present an elevated or lofty tone, but at times
could also become colloquial and vulgar even within the
same poem.
SUBJECT
• Subjects include love, nature, expression of intense
personal emotion, and quest for the strange and exotic (like
the Romantics) (Brown and Bailey xi).
• For some Victorian poets, the intimate disclosures of the
heart were repulsive. The true poet was one who remained
impersonal, presenting great ideas without being distorted
by the poet’s personal values (Brown and Bailey xv).
• But poetry was also used to “preach or teach” addressing
topics such as the conflict between science and religion and
humanity’s relationship to God, the problem of poverty and
social inequality, and the social issues raised by capitalism,
consumerism, materialism, and the industrial revolution.
• For many, realism was key. It was believed poets should
speak frankly and realistically about society and human
emotionally states, even if this involves revealing the
darkest and most sordid aspects of human existence.
 Victorian Poets
• Some of the most famous Victorian Poets were:
– Alfred, Lord Tennyson
– Robert Browning
– Matthew Arnold
– Gerard Manley Hopkins
– Edgar Allan Poe (American)
– Emily Dickinson (American)
– Christina Rossetti
– Elizabeth Barrett Browning
 Oscar Wilde (1854-1900)
• B. in Dublin; father physician; mother
writer (poetry/prominent figure in Dublin
literary society)
• Excelled in classical literature (Trinity C.)
• Scholarship to Magdalen College (Oxford)
• Famous for brilliant conversation &
flamboyant manner of dress & behavior
– “Dandy” figure based himself
 Oscar Wilde (1854-1900)
• Student of “aesthetic movement” – which
rejected older Victorian insistence on
moral purposed of art
• Celebrated value of “art for art’s sake
• Settled in London
• Mocked Victorian notions about moral
seriousness of great art
• Treated art as the “supreme reality” and
treated life as “fiction”
 Oscar Wilde (1854-1900)
• The Importance of Being Earnest
(produced 1895) most famous comedy
• Complicated plot turns upon fortunes and
misfortunes of two young upper-class
Englishmen:
– John Worthing and Algernon Moncrieff
– Each lives double life; creates another
personality to escape tedious social/family
obligations
 Oscar Wilde (1854-1900)
• Plot composed of events of the most
improbable & trivial significance
• Real substance of play witty dialogue
– According to Wilde, trivial things should be
treated seriously and serious things should be
treated trivially.
-Title based on satirical double meaning:
“Ernest” is the name of fictitious character,
also designates sincere aspiration
 Oscar Wilde (1854-1900)
• Making the “earnestness” of his Ernest the
key to outrageous comedy, Wilde pokes
fun at conventional seriousness
• Uses solemn moral language to frivolous
and ridiculous action
 Oscar Wilde (1854-1900)
• The Importance of Being Earnest uses the
following literary devices:
– Paradox: seems contradictory but presents
truth
– Inverted logic: words/phrases turned upside
down reversing our expectations
– Pun: play on words using word or phrase that
has two meanings
 Oscar Wilde (1854-1900)
• Literary Devices continued
– Epigram: brief, witty, cleverly-expressed
statement
– Parody: humorous mocking imitation of
literary work
– Satire: ridicules through humor
– Irony: something you don’t expect to happen
– Foreshadowing: creates suspense through
hints to the ending
 Oscar Wilde (1854-1900)
• The Comedic Ladder
– Comedy of Ideas (high comedy)
• Characters argue about ideas like politics, religion,
sex, marriage.
• They use wit, their clever language to mock their
opponent in an argument.
• This is a subtle way to satirize people and
institutions like political parties, governments,
churches, war, and marriage.
 Oscar Wilde (1854-1900)
• Comedy of Manners (high comedy)
– The plot focuses on amorous intrigues among the
upper classes.
– The dialogue focuses on witty language. Clever
speech, insults and “put-downs” are traded between
characters.
– Society is often made up of cliques that are exclusive
with certain groups as the in-crowd, other groups (the
would-be-wits, desiring to be part of the witty crowd)
and some (the witless) on the outside.
 Oscar Wilde (1854-1900)
• Farce (can be combination of high/low)
– The plot is full of coincidences, mistimings,
mistaken identities.
– Characters are puppets of fate – they are
twins, born to the wrong class, unable to
marry, too poor, too rich, have loss of identity
because of birth or fate or accident, or are
(sometimes) twins separated, unaware of
their double.
 Oscar Wilde (1854-1900)
• Low Comedy
– Subjects of the humor consists of dirty jokes, dirty
gestures, sex, and elimination
– The extremes of humor range from exaggeration to
understatement with a focus on the physical like long
noses, cross eyes, humped back and deformities.
– The physical actions revolve around slapstick,
pratfalls, loud noises, physical mishaps, collisions –
all part of the humor of man encountering and
uncooperative universe.