Assignment:Paper no.105. History of English Literature from 1350 to 1900

 Paper Name: 105.History of English Literature from 1350 to 1900  

Topic Name: Chief characteristics of Victorian Era 

Subject Code No:22396

Name: Divya Sheta 

Roll No.:06

Enrollment No.:4069206420210033

Email ID: divyasheta@gmail.com

Batch:2020-23 MA SEM-I

Submitted to: Smt.S.B.Gardi Department of English, MK Bhavanagar University.

• Introduction:

According to Shaheer, the founder of 'Literature Times' Web-page,"The Victorian Age of British historical past was Queen Victoria’s reign from 20 June 1837 till her death on 22 January 1901. It was an extended period of peace, prosperity, progress, and essential social reforms for Britain; however, it was characterized by poverty, injustice, and social unrest. The era was preceded by the Georgian period and followed by the Edwardian period.During the early part of the period, the House of Commons was headed by two parties, the Whigs and the Tories. From the late 1850s onwards, the Whigs became the Liberals; the Tories became the Conservatives.

The term “Victorian” continues to be used as a synonym for “prude” today, a term that reflects the intense repression of the age. But this can be a relatively limited view of the Victorians. An enormous section of society was engaged within the discussion and debate of new ideas and theories. Almost everyone was a voracious reader, and intellectual seriousness and liveliness shaped the view for the more in-depth progress, change, and adjustment through the era.

During the 1800s, the Industrial Revolution unfold throughout Britain, which changes from a rural society to an urban one. In 1837, Britain was a rural nation, with 80% of the inhabitants living within the countryside. Most individuals have been farmers or spun wool and cotton to weave into cloth. Soon new machines were invented that would do these jobs in a fraction of the time. This left many individuals out of work to flocked to the towns looking for jobs in new industries. Victoria’s reign (1827-1901) was an age of essential reforms within the political and social fields."

• Literature of the Victorian Age

While within the preceding Romantic period, poetry had been the dominant genre. During the Victorian Age, novels turned into the most well-liked literature and the main form of entertainment. They have been first printed in serial form within the pages of periodicals. Victorian novels are typically idealized as portraits of complicated lives. Hard work, perseverance, love, and luck win out ultimately; they managed to be improving with a central moral lesson at heart.

The reclaiming of the past was a significant part of Victorian literature with interest in both classical literature and the medieval literature of England.The Victorians cherished the heroic, chivalrous tales of knights of old. So they hoped to regain some of that noble, courtly behavior and impress it upon the individuals both at home and on the broader empire.

• Victorian age is divided into three groups:

• The Early-Victorian novel. The primary writer was Charles Dickens. Themes: social and humanitarian;
• The Mid- Victorian novel. Leading writers: Bronte sisters and Robert Stevenson. Themes: Romantic and Gothic traditions and psychological vein;
• The Late- Victorian novel. Prominent writers: Thomas Hardy and Oscar Wilde. Themes: a sense of dissatisfaction with values of the age.

• General Characteristics of Victorian Age

Literature of this age tends to come closer to everyday life, reflecting its practical issues and pursuits. It turns into a vital instrument for human progress. Socially & economically, Industrialism was on the rise, and various reform actions like emancipation, child labor, women’s rights, and evolution.

• Moral Purpose: Victorian literature appears to deviate from “art for art’s sake” and asserts its moral purpose. Tennyson, Browning, Carlyle, Ruskin – all have been the teachers of England with the faith of their moral message to instruct the world.
• Idealism: It is usually thought of as an age of doubt and pessimism. The effect of science is felt right here. 
• The entire age appears to be caught within the conception of man regarding the universe with the idea of evolution.
• Though the age is characterized as sensible and materialistic, most writers exalt a purely ideal life.
• It is an idealistic age where poets emphasize great beliefs like truth, justice, love, brotherhood, essayists, and novelists of the period.

• Common Features of Victorian Noels

• A narrator that comment and erect an inflexible barrier between right and wrong;
• The setting typically was the city, image of industrial civilization, and in the identical time expression of anonymous lives;
• The plot was lengthy and sophisticated;
• The evaluation of the characters’ inner lives;
• In the final chapter, the events are explained and justified.

• Literary Features of the age According to Edward Albert:

• The Revolt. 

Many writers protested against the deadening effects of the conventions.

Carlyle and Matthew Arnold, in their different accents, were loud in their

denunciations; Thackeray never tired of satirizing the snobbishness of the age; and

Browning's cobbly mannerisms were an indirect challenge to the velvety diction and the

smooth self-satisfaction of the Tennysonian school. As the age proceeded the reaction

strengthened. In poetry the Pre-Raphaelites, led by Swinburne and William Morris,

proclaimed no morality but that of the artist's regard for his art. By the vigour of his

methods Swinburne horrified the timorous, and made himself rather ridiculous in the

eyes of sensible people. It remained for Thomas Hardy (whom we reserve for the next

chapter) to pull aside the Victorian veils and shutters and with the large tolerance of the

master to regard men's actions with open gaze.

• Intellectual Developments.

The literary product was inevitably affected by the new ideas in science, religion, and politics. On the Origin of Species (1859) of Darwin shook to its foundations scientific thought. We can perceive the influence of such a work in Tennyson's In Memoriam, in Matthew Arnold's meditative poetry, and in the works of Carlyle. In religious and ethical thought the 'Oxford Movement,' as it was called, was the  most noteworthy advance. This movement had its source among the young and eager thinkers of the old university, and was headed by the great Newman, who ultimately (1845) joined the Church of Rome. As a religious portent it marked the widespread discontent with the existing beliefs of the Church of England; as a literary influence it affected many writers of note, including Newman himself, Froude, Maurice, Kingsley, and Gladstone.

• The New Education.

The Education Acts, making a certain measure of education compulsory, rapidly produced an enormous reading public. The cheapening of printing and paper increased the demand for books, so that the production was multiplied. The most popular form of literature was the novel, and the novelists responded with a will. Much of their work was of a high standard, so much 'So that it has been asserted by competent critics that the middle years of the nineteenth century were the richest in the whole history of the novel.

• International Influences. 

During the nineteenth century the interaction among

American and European writers was remarkably fresh and strong. In Britain the

influence of the great German writers was continuous, and it was championed by

Carlyle and Matthew Arnold. Subject nations, in particular the Italians, were a

sympathetic theme for prose and verse. The Brownings, Swinburne, Morris, and

Meredith were deeply absorbed in the long struggle of the followers of Garibaldi and

Cavour; and when Italian freedom was gained the rejoicings were genuine.

• Conclusion: 

With all its immense production, the age produced no supreme writer. It revealed no Shakespeare, no Shelley, nor (in the international sense) a Byron or a Scott. The general literary level was, however, very high; and it was an age, moreover, of spacious intellectual horizons, noble endeavour, and bright

aspirations.