Chief characteristic of Victorian age

 Chief characteristic of Victorian age

    Prepared by: MinkalItaliya

M.A English semester: 2

Batch: 2018-20

Enrollment No: 2069108420190020

Roll no: 19

Email id: italiyaminkal@gmail.com

Submitted to: Smt. S. B Gardi, Department of English, MKBU

Paper no-6: The Victorian Literature

 Chief Characteristics of Victorian Age

    Introduction

                The Victorian, from the coronation of Queen Victoria in 1837 untill her death in 1901, was an era of numerous disturbing social developments. The literature of the Victorian Age entered a new period after the Romantic Revival. The literature of this age was preceded by romanticism and was followed by modernism or realism. During this period, the writers were forced to write on the living issues of society. In this way the literature of this Era was directed to issues such as the growth of English democracy, the education of the masses, the progress of industrial enterprise and the rise of materialistic philosophy and the problem of newly industrialized worker. However during this period there was a lot of radical social change. Many poets of this period did not like the romanticized version of society.

Characteristics of Victorian Age

                  During this period there was a progress in the field of science and arts. But this age was equally marked by its social unrest. There were some moments like Oxford Movement and The Pre- Raphaelite Scholl of Poetry, which were the reason of social unrest in this age. This age was also an age of truth and morality of truth. Because of spreading of knowledge, people of this age become knowledgeable and it was a time to stop the war by the help of knowledge. So let’s have a look on the some important characteristic of the Victorian age.

 Industrial Revolution

           The Victorian Age is the era of Political peace and prosperity in England. As a result it brought the industrial progress. The Industrial Revolution gave the birth of industrial economy in England. Many factories and mills were established across the country. Industrial Revolution also brought the social disorder and economical sorrow in society. As a result two classes came into existence. On the one side there was a rich class of mill-owner and capitalist, while on the other side there was a poor class of labourers and factory workers. As a result a wave of social unrest blew over the England. The influences of this social unrest found their expression in the works of the writer like Mathew Arnold and Charles Dicknes.

 Victorian Realism

               The literature of the Victorian Age is the literature of realism rather than of romance. In the Victorian Literature one can experience the feeling of a return from solitude to society, from nature to industry, from concepts to issues, from spiritualism to pragmatism, from optimism to agnosticism, from lyricism to criticism and from organicism to compromise. During this time, literature became an instrument of social reform. The Victorian literature was marked with focused, propagandistic and didactic aims.

 The uniqueness of Individuality

             The writers of this age were gifted with striking originality in outlook, style, method, character and viewpoint. The uniqueness of individuality was a typical characteristic of this era.  Charles Dickens was one of the most original writers and novelist in the world. The works of Bronte sisters are characterized by their lonely path of their work. In the work of Lord Macaulay we find the energy and venture of the Victorian self-made man. William Thackeray loved to follow a haphazard path in the conduct of his stories

      The Age of Prose and Novel

             
             During the Victorian age among all literary forms novel were looking like the brightest star in the sky of England. In this age we had greatest novelist like Charles Dickens, Emily Bronte, Charlotte Bronte, Anne Bronte, George Eliot, Thomas Hardy William Thackeray and George Borrow. In this Age some of the famous novels of Charles Dickens that demands or attention, which are Oliver Twist, A Tale of Two Cities and Great Expectations.

  Deep Moral Note

              Literature of this age was marked by a Deep Moral Note. The Prose and Poetry of this era was motivated by a definite moral note. Tennyson, Browning and Ruskin were interested in spreading their message and moral philosophy to their countrymen. They were teachers of England and wanted to uplift and instruct their fellowmen. The psychological studies of George Eliot brought out the underlying truth of human life.

  The Scientific Spirit

              The literature of this age was significantly modified by the concept of science. Under the spirit of science, Victorian society lived their life. Scientific research also raised some doubtful tendencies. It could be observed in the works of this age. The questing spirit in Arthur Hugh Cough, the pessism of James Thomson and the melancholy of Mathew Arnold is the result of it. As well as the poetry of Tennyson was very much influenced by the advancement of science. In Memoriam also the undertones of scientific research could be heard. The social problems of the earlier Victorians writer like Charlotte Bronte, Dickens and Kingsley were connected with the advancement of the points in biology, psychology and pathology.

 In this age romantic elements were vanished and the writers of the age presented the harsh reality of society and human life in their work. It was an age of harsh realism rather than the fictions stories of fantasy. Novels were very famous literary form in this age.

Writers of Victorian Age

Novelists	Essayists	Poets
Charkes Dicknes	John Risk	Alferd Tennyson
George Eliot	Mathew Arnold	Robert Browning
Thomas Hardy	Thomas.B.Macaulay	D.G.Rossetti
Charlotte Bronte	Thomas Carlyle	William Morris
W.M. Thackery	John Henry Newman	Edward Fitzgerald
Elizabeth Gaskell

 Major novelist of Victorian age

   Charles Dickens (1812-1870)

           He was the most popular Victorian novelist. His novels were very popular then and continue to be so even today. His novels were focused on the hardships faced by the middle class and other social issues. His writing style was florid, poetic and it had powerful comic touch. He is well known for his novel Oliver Twist. In which he portrayed the harsh reality of workhouse in the Victorian era and as well as the victimization of women characters in the Victorian age. His other major works are Nicholas Nickleby, The Old Curiosity Shop and Barnaby Rudge: A Tale of the Riots of Eighty. His work was liked and admired by eminent writers like George Gissing and G.K.Chesterton.

    George Eliot (1819-1880)

          Mary Anne Evans who used to wrote under her penname George Eliot, was a master of novel in second half of the 19^th century. George Eliot was a master of writing portraits English rural societies, and this was what her novels were known for during the Victorian era. Eliot believed that there was something magical about her life. Her affection about this can be seen in Middlemarch, The Mill on the Floos and many more. Some of her books also had political undertones as well. She wrote about characters, who were social outsiders and also showcased the persecution of small towns in her works. The events in Middlemarch centre on the beginning of the Reform Bill of 1832 which pulls different characters in opposite directions. Her some other well known works are Romola, Silas Marner, The Mill on the Floss. Eliot is not just one of the most important female authors of all time but also one of the most important authors of all time. Her novels are just as good in style, substance, and staying power as her male Victorian counterparts like Charles Dickens, Thomas Hardy, Wilkie Collins, and more. Her novels showcase the best and worst parts of humanity and they will be lauded as long as the western canon continues to be read.

Major poets of Victorian Age

   Alfred Lord Tennyson

             One of the most important English poet of Victorian age was Alfred Lord Tennyson. The works of Alfred Lord Tennyson are best known for their close affinity with the English Mythology and English history.  Tennyson’s poetry is historically interesting on the social and political sides. Tennyson presented all the essential features of Victorian life, the ideas and tastes in his poetry and for this reason we can rightly call him the most representative literary man of the Victorian era. He is essentially a Victorian in his concept of love and his high regard for domestic virtues. In his attitude towards women he is also a true Victorian. The Victorians did not approve of women’s  struggle for rights of equality with men. It was thought that they were created for looking after the house-hold. Tennyson presents this faith in “The Princes”. His well known poems are In Memoriam, Ulysses, The Lady of Shalott, Break Break Break, The Lotos Eaters, Mariana and the Eagle.

    Robert Browning

           Robert Browning was a prolific Victorian era poet.He is naturally considered a Victorian poet, considering that he wrote during the time period of Victorian England. And yet Browning's work is simultaneously a revolt against some of the most well-defined aspects of that time, and a reflection of its characteristics. Robert Browning secured his place as a prominent poet with dramatic monologue, the form he mastered and for which he became known and influential. Browning’s first published work Pauline: A Fragment of a Confession was although formally a dramatic monologue and embodied many of his own adolescent passions and anxieties. His noteworthy poems are My Last Duchess, Meeting at Night, The Ring and the Book, Fra Lippo Lippi, Men and Women and The Lost Leader.

   Conclusion

                 Due to progress of science and art,Victorian age is also known as the modern period of progress and unrest. In this period writers were depicted about life of an individual and its connection in to Victorian society. It was an era of material development with ideal peace. This age was portrayed as a completely ideal life. It was an idealistic age where the great idea like truth, justice and brotherhood were emphasized by poets, essayist and novelists of the age.