Victorian literature

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Marina Spiazzi, Marina Tavella,
Margaret Layton © 2017
 Victorian literature

1. Early Victorian poetry

During Victoria’s reign, poetry became more concerned with social
reality and was expected to express the intellectual and moral
debate of the age. Two kinds of poetry developed:

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 Victorian literature

1. Early Victorian poetry

A narrative poem.
The speaker is
different from the poet
Different points of view.
himself.
The most popular
poetic form was The tone is
the dramatic argumentative.
monologue.

Deep interest in human There is a silent

psychology. listener.
The character is caught in
a moment of crisis.

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 Victorian literature

1. Early Victorian poetry

Outstanding poets

• Alfred Tennyson: the most popular Victorian poet.

He wrote dramatic monologues.

• Robert Browning: he raised the dramatic monologue

to new heights making it a vehicle for deep
psychological study.

• Elizabeth Barrett Browning: she wrote love sonnets

valued for their lyrical beauty.

Alfred Lord Tennyson.

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 Victorian literature

2. The Victorian novel

• There was a communion of interests and opinions between

the writers and their readers.
• The Victorians were avid consumers of literature. They
borrowed books from circulating libraries and read various
periodicals.

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 Victorian literature

2. The Victorian novel

• The Victorian reading public established the novel

as

 the dominant literary form of the age;

 the most distinctive and lasting literary
achievement of Victorian literature.

Publication of a novel in monthly instalments on

the pages of periodicals

even the poor could purchase them.

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 Victorian literature

2. The Victorian novel

Victorian novelists

•described society as they saw it;

•expressed different kinds of emotion, love, humour, fear, except those

sentiments which could offend current morals;

•were aware of the evils of their society, such as the terrible

conditions of manual workers and the exploitation of children. Their
criticism, however, was much less radical than that of contemporary
European writers;

•didacticism was one of the main features of Victorian novels,

because novelists also conceived of literature as a vehicle to correct
the vices and weaknesses of the age.

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 Victorian literature

2. The Victorian novel

Victorian novelists

• concentrated on the creation

of characters and achieved
deeper analysis of the
characters’ inner lives;

• presented retribution and

punishment in the final
chapter, where the whole
texture of events, adventures,
incidents had to be
explained and justified.

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 Victorian literature

2. The Victorian novel

• The voice of the omniscient
narrator provided a
comment on the plot and
erected a rigid barrier
between ‘right’ and ‘wrong’,
light and darkness.

• The setting chosen by most

Victorian novelists was the
town, which was the main
symbol of industrial
civilisation as well as the
expression of anonymous
lives and lost identities.

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 Victorian literature

2. The Victorian novel

The most important themes developed were

•differences and the dramatic contrast between the lower and middle
classes, between the rich and the poor Utilitarian philosophy and
damage caused by the factory system;

•children and their exploitation orphans working in a workhouse,

cruelty in boarding schools;

•education;

•women and their exploitation;

•middle-class family life.

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 Victorian literature

3. Types of novels
TYPES FEATURES MAIN EXPONENT
The novel of Dealt with economic, social W.M. Thackeray
manners problems.
The humanitarian Combined humour with a C. Dickens
novel sentimental request for
reform for the poor.
The novel of Dealt with one character’s C. Dickens
formation development from early C. Brontë
youth to maturity.
Literary nonsense Presented a nonsensical L. Carroll
universe where the social
rules and conventions are
disintegrated.
Exotic novel Dealt with adventures. R. Kipling

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