THE VICTORIAN NOVEL

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THE VICTORIAN NOVEL

• DEAN CRISTINA
• ZANABONI FEDERICA

5A
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THE VICTORIAN AGE. TRENDS
PURITANISM
DARWINISM
UTILITARIANISM
Scientific approach
Progress
Wealth
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Main themes of the Victorian novel

• The birth of a new class the working class
• Poverty
• The industrial system of production
• The clash between classes
• The desire to rise and the fear of falling down
  the social ladder
• The growth of towns
• The struggle for democracy
• Education and children
• Middle class family life

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Characteristic elements in Victorian fiction
REALISM derived from the 18th century narratives
The exaggeration of the tones
PATHOS
THE GROTESQUE
The reading public was predominantly middle class
and in particular lower middle class.
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Setting The Victorian novel is generally set in
an anonymous city
Characters they give shape to anonymous masses so
that they are recognizable
They are considered real
Each chapter was anxiously awaited
Literature becomes an object of mass consumption
(of industrial production)
Everything we have said applies perfectly to
Charles Dickens.
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OLIVER TWIST
Analysis of an extract from
TITLE
It is the name of the protagonist
Oliver and his companions can only eat small
rations of food and they are hungry. Oliver asks
for more and all are stupefied
STORY LINE
CHARACTERIZATION
Actions and words
SETTING
Dinning hall of the work house, an institution
for poor people
Third person omniscient narrator, telling and
showing
NARRATIVE TECHNIQUE
THEME/S
Children, poverty, hypocrisy of Victorian society
READERS POSITION
The reader is not free because of the narrators
filter
MESSAGE
The creation of a tragic-comic vision of the
Victorian world through irony and exaggeration
PUBLISHING AND ITS RELATION TO THE NOVEL
It is an extract from chapter 2, published in
1837-38
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NICHOLAS NICKLEBY
Analysis of an extract from
TITLE
It is the name of the protagonist
After breakfast the boys go to their class.
Nicholas Nickleby is ready for his first teaching
day. Mr Squeers shows him his modes of education
STORY LINE
CHARACTERIZATION
Actions, words and thoughts
SETTING
Dotheboys Hall, a school for boys in Yorkshire
Third person omniscient narrator, telling and
showing
NARRATIVE TECHNIQUE
THEME/S
Children, poverty, education, hypocrisy of the
Victorian society
READERS POSITION
The reader is not free because of the narrators
filter
MESSAGE
The creation of a tragic-comic vision of the
educational institutions of the Victorian period
through irony and exaggeration
PUBLISHING AND ITS RELATION TO THE NOVEL
It is from one of the early chapters, published
in 1838-39
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HARD TIMES
Analysis of an extract from
TITLE
It refers to the difficult period in which the
story takes place
Mr Bounderby is described in his physical aspect,
personality and his life. He is now a rich man
and he is proud to be a self-made man. He is
speaking with Mrs Gradgrind
STORY LINE
CHARACTERIZATION
Narrators description and Bounderbys words
SETTING
Coketown
Third person omniscient narrator, telling and
showing
NARRATIVE TECHNIQUE
THEME/S
Industrialization, utilitarianism and poverty
READERS POSITION
The reader is not totally free because of the
narrators filter
An example of self-made man who rises the social
ladder, according to the Puritan ethic
MESSAGE
It is from the first book (chapter 4), published
in 1854
PUBLISHING AND ITS RELATION TO THE NOVEL
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To conclude
presence of the typical themes of the Victorian
Novel. themes from the ill-treatment of children
to the problems of industrialization use of
pathos and the grotesque. memorable characters
Dickens wants to condemn the social injustices
of his time