Chapter Nine

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Chapter Nine

• The Victorian Age

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1. Historical background

• The comparison between Queen Victoria and
  Queen Elizabeth I

Being on the throne for a long period of time
Elizabeth
Victoria
More than 40 years
More than 60 years
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During their long reigns England developed
rapidly both politically and commercially.
agricultural country
Capitalism first took its shape.
industrialized country
Defeated the strong naval power Spain in 1588.
workshop
political center
financial center
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Literature flourished during their reigns.
Elizabeth
Victoria
novel
drama
Shakespeare
Dickens
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The Victorian age can be roughly divided into
three periods.
The first period 1832 --- 1848
The middle period 1848 --- 1870
The last period 1870 --- 1901
British Empire the empire on which the sun
never sets
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Industrial capitalists gained power in Parliament
The reform bill in 1832
The capitalists hired unskilled workers
stream engine
Based on the Utilitarian philosophy
Laissez faire
Founded by Jeremy Bentham
Utilitarianism
Continued by John Stuart Mill
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The mid-Victorian period was heyday of the
Victorian age.
economy peace and prosperity
workshop of the world and the worlds banker
a period of complacency, stability, optimism
Dickens
exposed the darker side of seemingly prosperous
society
Gaskell
novelists
Eliot
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The debate between the supporters of
Utilitarianism and their opponents existed for a
long time.
Two groups of the opponents
Represented by Carlyle
Cardinal Newman
Oxford Movement
Not like Christian
A powerful church
Believed spiritual belief
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2. The Victorian novelists
the year of 1832
Scott died
the end of romantic movement
Continued to be found in the works of the writers
and poets of the Victorian age.
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factors explained the rise of novels as dominant
literary genre

• the growth of urban population resulted in the
  appearance of a new reading public
• with the development of the method of printing
  and paper making, the price of books dropped
• writing had become a profession, which made it
  possible for the writers to make a living by
  writing

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• with ascendancy of the industrial capitalists,
  the majority of whom lived an idle life and need
  entertainment and novels met with their desires
• the conditions of the time the dire poverty on
  the one hand and the enormous wealth needed a
  secular form to explore human relations rather
  than sermons given in the church.
• the feminist movement had much to do with the
  growth of the novels

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Common features shared by Victorian novels

• the plot is unfolded against a social background
  which is broader than previous novels
• the cause-effect sequence is much more striking
  than before
• the most of the Victorian novels were first
  published in serial form before fully developed
  in a single book
• be tainted by the spirit of Puritanism of the
  Victorian age
• be characterized by moral purpose

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Charles Dickens (1812 1870)
Born --- at Portsmouth in 1812
Family --- father was a clerk in a Navy Pay Office
His father was put into the prison for debt.
Experiences ---
The family were living in the prison.
Dickens worked in a shoe blacking factory.
Dickens worked in a lawyers office
Learned shorthand Parliament reporter
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His works
Sketches by Boz (1836)
his first book
The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club
(1837)
brought him fame and wealth
Oliver Twist (1838)
Nicholas Nickleby (1839)
The Old Curiosity Shop (1841)
Martin Chuzzlewit (1844)
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Christmas stories

• A Christmas Carol
• The Chimes
• The cricket on the Hearth

Dickens showed his profound sympathy for the poor.
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Dombey and Son (1848)
Bleak House (1853)
Hard Times (1854)
Little Dorrit (1857)
Our Mutual Friend (1865)
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Dickens artistic techniques

• Dickens has a tendency to depict the grosteque
  characters or events.
• Dickens loves to instil life into inanimate
  things and to compare animate beings to inanimate
  things.
• Dickens is noted for his description of pathetic
  scenes that aim to arouse peoples sympathy.

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William Makepeace Thackeray (1811 1863)

• Born --- in a well to do family
• Family --- His father was an officer.
• Education --- at Cambridge, but without degree
• Achievements --- a comic illustrator and
  journalist
• Works ---

Vanity Fair (1848)
first major novel
The School of Snobs (1847)
The Newcomes (1855)
Henry Esmond (1852)
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Similarities between Thackeray and Dickens
both humourists
criticized the Victorian society satirically
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Differences between Thackeray and Dickens
The world described by them differently.
the lives of aristocrats
middle and upper classes
Thackeray
the lives of rich businessmen
the underdogs
Dickens
lower class
the unpriviledged
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advocate reforms
Dickens
sentimentalist
He liked to avail himself of every opportunity to
arouse the emotions of his readers.
Thackeray
not crusader
cynic
He saw no good in anything and doubted the
goodness of human nature.
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Dickens
romantist
let loose his imagination
Thackeray
against affectation
He is tempered by humor.
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3. The Victorian Poets

• Alfred Tennyson
• Robert Browning
• Matthew Arnold

wrote highly lyrical poems
reflected the spiritual search
the Victorian poets
living in a time of spiritual unrest
the increasingly sharpening of the class struggle
between the wealthy and the poor
reasons
the rapid progress of science and technology
the discovery of new theories of social science
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The features of Victorian poetry
The prominence of the spirit of inquiry and
criticism
scepticism and religious uncertainty
spiritual struggle and unrest
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Lord Alfred Tennyson
the leading poet
the Age of Tennyson
poet laureate
Born --- in a clergymans family
Education --- at Cambridge, but left for
financial need
Poems by Two Brothers (1827)
Works
Poems (1833, 1842)
Ulysses
The Lady of Shalott
Morte dArthur
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Robert Browning (1812 --- 1889)
family --- the son of a clerk in the Bank of
England
education --- never attended school
was privately educated by his parents
marriage --- Elizabeth Barrett in 1846
lived in Italy until his wife died
Pauline
his first poem
works ---
My Last Duchess
the most representative
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?????
Dramatic monologue
A poem in which there is one imaginary speaker
addressing an imaginary audience.
He penetrates to depth the psychology of his
characters and through their own speeches, he
analyzes and dissects his characters and reveals
the innermost secret of their lives.
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Similarities
Preached God and Immortality
Differences
Tennyson
Browning
optimistic
felt melancholy
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Matthew Arnold (1822 --- 1888)

• Born --- a clergymans family
• Family --- his fathera headmaster
• Education --- Oxford
• Work --- professor of poetry at Oxford
• Achievement --- a poet and a literary critic
• Writing aim --- reflects on the doubt of his age
• conflict between science and
  religion

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His works
Essays in Criticism (1865 and 1888)
????
Culture and Anarchy (1889)
????????
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Jane Austin (1775 1817)

• Sense and Sensibility (1811)
• Pride and Prejudice (1813)
• Northanger Abbey (1818)
• ????
• Mansfield Park (1814)
• ???????
• Emma (1816)
• Persuasion (1818)

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Pride and Prejudice
Mr. and Mrs. Bennet
Jane
Elizabeth
Bingley
Darcy