Victorian Age: History of English Literature
Historical Background
The period between 1820 and 1914 is roughly estimated as the Victorian age in British history corresponding to Queen Victoria ascending the throne, in the year 1837. She ruled for 64 years in Great Britain and Ireland till her death in 1901. This age was marked as a great age in society and also characterized by a class-based society as well as historical changes. England was moving to become one of the most stable and powerful countries in Europe. They ruled the world and spread their rich culture.
The technology and industrial revolution helped England to rule over the continent as the most powerful state. The population became greater in number and three-fourths even more population of the state was working-class. Furthermore, small towns were beginning to swell into smoky centres of manufacturing, they constructed a large number of industries there and gathered villagers in the labour of these industries. The industrial revolution bared dirt and ugliness in the lives of the poor, whose circumstances fell into mills and mines.
In the Victorian age, people who believed strongly in the theories of the church in their lives were challenged with new notions of science. The interest in natural sciences became strong as Darwin proposed the theory of Natural Selection, which described the evolution of livings from the inferior. This theory of Natural Selection changed their whole perspective on religion and thinking.
Who was Queen Victoria?
Victoria was the daughter of Prince Edward, the fourth son of King George III. She married her cousin, Prince Albert, in 1840. They had nine children and married into royal families across the continent, and she was called the grandmother of Europe.
In the nineteenth century, England was a powerful country in the world. In 1815, after Napoleon's defeat at Waterloo, the country was not involved in any war until World War I began in 1914.
Revolution in Industries
The rapid revolution of industrialization made the surroundings dirty and disorderly. Quick installations of machines and building factories in the country changed the rural areas into urban ones.
There were also negative effects of rapid change in society. The greater factories produce greater pollution. In 1845, the potato vegetable caused a famine in Ireland. That famine killed 1.5 million people, and 20% of the population was forced to emigrate.
In the 1850s, the town councils appointed Health Officers to build parks and public baths. At the end of the century, the life of the working population improved nicely.
Factories policies limited the time duration of children, with a half-holiday on Saturday. Education associations have done their job that schools were established in 1870 and made compulsory in 1880.
In this age, another revolution was taking place between science and religion. The new doctrine of Darwin that man evolved scientifically rather than man was created by God and given authority over animals. This age was fertile from a scientific perspective.
The Mood of Literature in the Victorian Age
Social and political situations affected the mood of writers and readers of the Victorian age. Therefore, authors of this age produced such literature that changed their lives. As the Romantic age is known for drama and poetry, the Victorian age is called the novel. There are several reasons for novel writings. Why was the novel called more special than drama and poetry? Because of rapid growth in the middle class, development in the education system, low book prices, public libraries, and an increasing number of women readers and writers.
The Romantic age seemed too abstract with its mystery and symbolism, but social circumstances had changed, and people love to read realistic prose. Because they were suffering from social problems due to the revolution of industrialization and natural sciences.
See more: Prologue to Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer Summary
Novelists of the Victorian Age
The victorian age produced many novelists, a few are given below:
Charles Dickens
Charles Dickens, a novelist, his full name was Charles John Huffam Dickens. He was born on 7th February 1812 in the city of Portsmouth, England. He was a famous English novelist and social critic of the Victorian age. He also produced children's literature. Charles Dickens is considered a literary brilliance because he created highly memorable characters. He wrote five novellas, fifteen novels, hundreds of short stories and nonfictional articles. He began a literary success in 1836, with the serial publication of " The Pickwick Papers".
He was famous for his satire and humour and keen observation of characters and society. His novels and stories were published in weekly and monthly instalments. He used the "Cliffhanger" technique in novels and stories, which is used in the endings of original serial publications well-kept readers in suspense. In 1859, his novel " A Tale of Two Cities" (set in London and Paris), this work is the best-known work of historical fiction. Charles Dickens has been appreciated by his fellow writers from G.K Chesterton, Tom Wolfe and Leo Tolstoy to George Orwell for his realism, prose style, unique comedy, characterization and social criticism. Whereas Henry James, Oscar Wilde and Virginia Woolf criticized his loose writing and lack of psychological depth. He died on 9th June 1870 from the Stroke. In 1870, after his death, Victorian literature took different from that at the start of the Victorian period.
William Makepeace Thackeray
William Makepeace Thackeray, a novelist lived between 1811 to 1863. During the Victorian period, Thackeray was a second level of Charles Dickens. He was Dicken's great rival and contemporary for attractive grace. Charles Dickens belongs to a poor family and lacked education, he had struggled in boyhood and was not interested in literary culture and delighted in the ideas of social justice and democracy. William Thackeray belonged to a rich family. He was more interested in the manners and morals of the upper-level society. He gave his novels an accurate and true picture of the vicious elements of society. He was a realist, satirist and moralist.
In his books, Thackeray was inclined to use eighteenth-century narrative techniques, such as omniscient narrator, digressions and direct addresses to the reader. He is best known for his novel Vanity Fair, A Novel without a Hero(1847–48). His first novel Vanity Fair was a satire of the whole society. Thackeray didn’t believe that anything like reform or morality could improve the nature of society. He continually compared his characters to actors and puppets. Thackeray liked people, but he also thought they were weak, vain and self-deceived.
Anthony Trollope (1815-1882)
Anthony Trollope was a follower of Thackeray. He was an English novelist and civil servant of the Victorian age. His great work is a series of novels that are collectively known as the "Chronicles of Barsetshire" (1855-1867), which revolves around an imaginary country. He was the first English writer to use the same characters over the sequence of novels. His style is very easy, uniform, regular and almost impersonal. The interest of people and the work of Trollope was in social life, and he pens down novels on social, political, gender issues and other subjective matters.
Elizabeth Gaskell (1810-1865)
She was an English novelist, and short story writer and she dealt with the social problems of Victorian society. She wrote Cranford (1851). He gave an attractive picture of Victorian village life and the studies of family life in daughters and wives (1864-66). Jane Eyre (1847) and Gillette (1853) by Charlotte Bronte (1816-1865). He expressed young women of daily ordinary lives.
He also took a step forward in the detail of women's Passions in her novels. The novels of the Brontë sisters basis on sensibility.
Emily Bronte (1818-1848)
She was a more original writer than her sister. She wrote a great novel, Wuthering Heights (1847), which contains a typical image of Victorian time. It contains passion, supernatural and mystery. She died at the age of thirty.
