This blog is written as part of assignment of semester 1, assigned by Dr. Dilip Barad, Department of English, MKBU. In this blog I am going to discuss the Literature of the Victorian period.
Name:- Trushali Dodiya
Roll No:- 21
Semester:- 1(Batch 2022-24)
Enrollment number:- 4069206420220011
Paper No:- 105
Paper name:- History of English Literature from 1300 to 1900
Paper code:- 22396
Topic:- Literature of the Romantic period
Submitted to:- Smt. S. B. Gardi Department of English, Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University
Email Address:- trushalidodiya84@gmail.comA
Literature of the Victorian Period
Table of contents
- Introduction
- Literary characteristics
- Poems
- Novels
- Essays
- Conclusion
Introduction:-
The Victorian age begins with the execution of Louis XVI and accession of Queen Victoria in 1837. This age has produced so many works which have acquired a lasting position in English literature. In this age Industrialism gets its way and thus gives importance to materialism. Though industrialism and materialism was one side, the other side were the writers of the era, who gave much importance to human life and its truth.
This period seemed lean. It lost the poetic fruitfulness of the romantic age. Among the multitude of social and political forces of the age, four major things stand out clearly:-
- Democracy
- Equality in the nation without ruler
- The age of comparative peace
- Rapid progress in all the arts and sciences and in Mechanical inventions
The long struggle of the Anglo-Saxons for their personal liberty is settled, and democracy becomes established. The last vestige of personal Government and of the divine right of rulers disappears; the house of commons become the ruling power in England. The age is remarkable for the growth of democracy following the Reform bill of 1832, for the spread of education among all classes, for the rapid development of Arts and science and for important mechanical inventions and for the enormous extension of the bounds of human knowledge by the discoveries of science.
It is an age of democracy, age of education, of religious tolerance, the growing brotherhood, and of profound social unrest. The whole nation becomes free and equal. The slaves become freed.
This is an age of equality. The whole nation realised that the common people bear the burden and the sorrow and the poverty of war, and also realised that war is not the answer to all things.
Vast number of inventions took place in this age from spinning looms to steamboats, and from matches to electric light. All this material thing, as well as the growth of education, have their influence upon the life of people. All these inventions make an influence upon literature, prose as well as poetry.
Literary characteristic
1. An age of prose:-
Though the age produced many poets, this is an age of prose. The number of readers has increased a thousand fold with the spread of popular education. It is the age of newspapers, magazines, and modern novels. First two being the story of the world's daily life, and the novel is our pleasant form of literary entertainment. By then our modern problems and ideas can be present.
The novel in this age fills a place, which the drama held in the days of Elizabeth; and never before, in the English language, has the novel appeared in such numbers and in such perfection.
2. Moral purpose:-
In this age, literature came with the didactic moral preach. Through the literature, people get some moral insight. Art is not only sake for art, but for moral preaching. People learn something by every case, a definite purpose to sweep away error and to reveal the underlying truth of human life.
3. An age of doubt and pessimism:-
This age followed the new conception of man and of the universe which was formulated by science under the name of involution. It is also spoken of as a prosaic age, lacking in great ideals. Both these seem to be the result of judging a large thing when we are too close to it to get its proportion.
4. The New Education:-
The Education Act makes a certain measure of education compulsory. It gave rapid rise to an enormous public reading. In this age printing became cheap and the demand for books increased. Due to this, the production was multiplied. In this age the most popular form of literature was the novel.
5. The Achievement of the Age:-
With all its immense production, this age has produced no supre writer. As Edward Albert notes in his book, History of English Literature,
"It revealed no Shakespeare, no Shelley, nor a Byron nor a Scott". (Long)
Though the general literary level of this age was high.
6. International Influences:-
During the 19th century the interaction among American and European writers was remarkably fresh and strong. In Britain the influence of the great German writer was continuous and it was championed by Carlyle and Matthew Arnold.
Though in the Victorian era, novels were the dominant form, it mainly has three forms;
- Poem
- Novel
- Essay
Poem:-
There are two greatest poets of Victorian literature.
- Alfred Tennyson
- Robert Browning
Alfred Tennyson and Robert Browning both are considered as the best poets of the Victorian Era. Both have their own ways and inspirations in writing poems.
★ Alfred Tennyson
More than any other Victorian-era writer, Tennyson has seemed the embodiment of his age, both to his contemporaries and to modern readers. Alfred Tennyson was born in the depths of Lincolnshire. When he was not quite 18 his first volume of poetry, Poems by Two Brothers (1827), was published. In his poetry there is of themes of madness, murder, avarice, miserliness, social climbing, marriages arranged for profit instead of love, and estrangements between families and friends. His major works includes,
- In Memoriam
- Idylls of the King
- Poems by Two Brothers
- The Charge of the Light Brigade
- Ulysses
★ Robert Browning
Browning was born on May 7, 1812 in Camberwell, a middle-class suburb of London. His most noted work was The Ring and the Book (1868–69), the story of a Roman murder trial in 12 books. At the time of his death in 1889, he was one of the most popular poets in England. His poems are based on the themes like, Death, Truth/Subjectivity, Delusion, Beauty, The quest, Religion, The grotesque. His mojor works are,
- The Pied Piper
- Men and Women
- The Ring and the Book
- Asolando
- The Ring and the Book
There were also other poets like,
But among all, Tennyson and Browning are the glory of Victorian poetry.
Novels:-
Novel is the dominant form of Victorian literature. These are some of the major and minor novelists of the Victorian Era.
Charles Dickens, Thackeray and Hardy are considered as the greatest novelists of this period.
★ Charles Dickens:-
Charles John Huffam Dickens, was born on 7 February 1812 in Portsmouth, Hampshire, England and died on 9 June 1870 in Gad’s Hill, near Chatham, Kent. English novelist, generally considered the greatest of the Victorian era. His famous works are,
- A Christmas Carol
- David Copperfield
- Bleak House
- A Tale of Two Cities
- Great Expectations,
- Our Mutual Friend
- Hard Times
★ Thomas Hardy:-
One of the most renowned poets and novelists in English literary history is Thomas Hardy. He was born in 1840 in the English village of Higher Bockhampton in the county of Dorset. He died in 1928 at Max Gate, Dorchester. His famous works are,
- Under the Greenwood tree
- The pair of Blue eyes
- Jude the obscure
- Yes of D'Urberville
★ William Makepeace Thakeray:-
Thackeray was born in 1811 in Calcutta, India. He is a master of a pure and simple style. In all his works there is a subtle charm, impossible to describe, which gives the impression that we are listening to a gentleman. His major works are,
- Henry Esmond
- Vanity Flair
- Pendennis
- The Newcomers
- The four George's
Other novelists and their famous works are
★ Essays:-
In this age a prolific number of essays were also written. The major essayist are,
After reflecting on the works of the Victorian writers, three marked characteristics invite our attention. First, our literary men are no less than great scientists. They have made truth the supreme object of human endeavour. All the poets, novelists and Essayists were questing over so many different ways of discovering the truth of life. "One seeking truth in the natural, the other in the spiritual history of the age" (Long). Second, literature has become the mirror of truth. Third, literature has become animated by a definite moral purpose. It is not enough for the Victorian writers to create or attempt an artistic work for its own sake; the work must have a definite lesson for humanity. The poets are not only singers, but leaders; they hold up an ideal, and they compel men to recognize and follow it. They presented pictures of human life, and at the same time called us to the work of social reform, or drove home a moral lesson. The essayists are nearly all prophets or teachers, and use literature as the chief instrument of progress and education.
"They write books not primarily to delight the artistic sense, but to give bread to the hungry and water to the thirsty in soul." (Long)
Milton's famous sentence, "A good book is the precious life-blood of a master spirit," might be written across the whole Victorian era.
★ Conclusion:-
To conclude, four things emerged from Victorian literature. First, literature of this age has come very close to daily life, reflecting problems and interests, and it is a powerful instrument of human progress. Second, the tendency of literature is strongly ethical; all the great poets, novelists and Essayists of the age are moral teachers. Third, science in this age exercises as in calculable influence, This summed up in the world 'evolution'. Fourth, though the age is generally characterised as practical and materialistic it is significant that nearly all the writers from the nation delights to honour vigorously attack materialism and exalt a purely ideal conception of life. Thus all the literature of this era is mainly based on these four tendencies.
Words:- 1863
Images:- 6
Tables:- 3
Work cited
“Alfred, Lord Tennyson.” Poetry Foundation, Poetry Foundation, www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/alfred-tennyson.
Long, William J.. English Literature. India, Copia Interactive, LLC, 2021.
“Robert Browning.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., https://www.britannica.com/biography/Robert-Browning.
“Robert Browning.” Poetry Foundation, Poetry Foundation, https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/robert-browning.
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