Victorian History and Literature (Novels, Poems & Drams )

All Universities University

For English Literature Students

Presentation By: Fida Muhammad

The Victorian Age

• “The Victorian” era of British history was the period of Queen

Victoria’s reign from 1837 until her death in 1901. It was a long

period of peace, prosperity, refined culture, great advancements in

technology, and national self-confidence for Britain.

• During theVictorian age, Britain was the worlds most powerful

nation. By the end of Victorias reign, the British empire extended

over about one-fifth of the earths surface. Like Elizabethan

England, Victorian England saw great expansion of wealth, power,

and culture. But as Victorian England was a time of great ambition

and grandeur, it was also a time of misery, squalor, and urban

ugliness.

Queen Victoria’s

The Growth of the British Empire

• England grew to become the greatest nation on earth• Empire included Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong,

Singapore, South Africa, Kenya, and India• England built a very large navy and merchant fleet (for trade

and colonization)

The Growth of the British Empire (continued)

• Imported raw materials such as cotton and silk and exported finished goods to countries around the world• By the mid-1800s, England was the largest exporter

and importer of goods in the world. It was the primary manufacturer of goods and the wealthiest country in the world• Because of England’s success, they felt it was their

duty to bring English values, laws, customs, and religion to the “savage” races around the world

The Industrial Revolution• It started at the end of the eigh teenth century, when theoretical

knowledge and practical technology were connected. Scientific

ideas were applied to the making of machines that transformed the

way things were made and dramatically changed people’s

lifestyles. A formerly agricultural nation was now based on urban

and industrial growth. Butas industry grew, it was accompanied by

a rapid increase in the numbers of the urban working-classpoor.

Workers in the cities lived in miserable conditions. Urban squalor

and misery were signs ofa massive change in the English society.

• The Age of Steam

• Mass Production

The Impact of the Industrial Revolutions : • I) The Emergence of Over crowded Cities One result of the

advance of technology was the unprecedented growth of cities. People, in search of work left the country side to work in factories in the different cities of Britain. They had to live in very dirty and unhealthy conditions. There were too many workers and not enough houses. People were living like animals. Diseases raged, hunger, poverty, and deprivation prevailed, crime accelerated, and misery increased.

• II) Child Labor Children were expected to help to support their families. They often worked long hours in dangerous jobs and in difficult situations for verylittle wages. For example, there were the climbing boys employed by the chimney sweeps, the little children who could scramble under the moving machinery to retrieve the cotton fluff; boys and girls working down the coal mines, crawling through tunnels too narrow and low to take anadult.

a. John Stuart Mill (1806-1873)-philosopher who created two ideas• Utilitarianism: the object of moral action was to bring

about the greatest good for the greatest amount of people• Liberalism: governments had the right to restrict the actions

of individuals only when those actions harmed others, and that society should use its collective resources to provide for the basic welfare of others. Also encouraged equal rights for women.

Victorian Thinkers

b. Charles Lyell (1797-1875):Showed that geological features on Earth had developed continuously and slowly over immense periods of time

c. Charles Darwin (1809-1882): Introduced the survival of the fittest theory

Lyell Darwin

• d. John ruskin• The most Romantic prose of the Victorian (1819-1900)• Ruskin’s greatness is as striking as his singularity, an

instance of the effect of Evangelicalism and Romanticism on an only child. • e. John Henry Newman• The master of Victorian Non-Fictional prose (1801-90) • f. Herbert Spencer (1820-1903): Applied Darwinism to

human society: as in nature, survival properly belongs to the fittest, those most able to survive. Social Darwinism was used by many Victorians to justify social inequalities based on race, social or economic class, or gender• g. Adam Smith - 18th century economist, held that the

best government economic policy was to leave the market alone—to follow a laissez faire or “let it be” policy of little or no gov’t intervention

Woman freedom

• The New Woman of the 1880s and 1890s

a) Smoking, swearing, riding a bike, debating in public, wearing men’s clothing, refusing marriage

b) A figure of greater sexual, social, and economic independence

• 1890s: women experience greater access to education, employment, political and legal rights, and civic visibility.

Literacy, Publication, and Reading

• By the end of the century, literacy was almost universal.

• Compulsory national education required to the age of ten.

• Due to technological advances, an explosion of things to read, including newspapers, periodicals, and books.

• Novels and short fiction were published in serial form.

• The reading public expected literature to illuminate social problems.

Victorian Literature

• • Novels: dominant literary form; “social problem” novel, “domestic” novel

• • Poetry: influenced by Romantic period;• – dramatic monologue: a lyric poem in the voice of a speaker

who is not the poet• • Drama: frivolous, romantic, witty; mocked contemporary

values (satirical)• • Non-fiction: essays, criticism, history, biography,newspapers,

and magazines• – “The Age of Periodicals”• – “The Age of Reading”

1. Novel• A. EARLY-VICTORIAN NOVEL (or social-problem novel)

dealing with social and humanitarian themes

• realism, criticism of social evils but faith in progress, general optimism

• The main representative was CHARLES DICKENS.

• B. MID-VICTORIAN NOVEL (novel of purpose)

• showing Romantic and Gothic elements and a psychological interest. The main representative writers were the BRONTË sisters and ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON.

• C. LATE- VICTORIAN NOVEL (naturalistic novel near to European Naturalism) showing a scientific look at human life, objectivity of observation, dissatisfaction with Victorian values. The main representative writers were THOMAS HARDY and OSCAR WILDE.

For the first time, women were major writers: the Brontes. Elizabeth Gaskell, George Eliot

Emily Bronte

Charlotte BronteCharles Dickens

2. Poetry

• The greatest poets of the period are Alfred Lord Tennyson and Robert Browning.

• Other important poets are Matthew Arnold, Gerard Manley Hopkins, Christina Rossetti, Elizabeth Barrett Browning. Thomas Hardy is considered the best poet of the late Victorians.

Browning

• Leading poet of Victorian age• Alfred began to write poetry at an early age in the style of Lord Byron.

•Tennyson published Poems, Chiefly Lyrical, in 1830, which included the popular "Mariana".

Alfred Lord Tennyson (1809-1892)

• Raised the DRAMATIC MONOLOGUE

• Notable Work: Playwright and master of dramatic dialogue poetry wrote “A Death in the Desert”, “My Last Dutchess”, and “A Grammarian’s Funeral”

Robert Browning (1812-1889)

Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861)

• With Robert, one of literature’s greatest love affairs.

• One of the most prominent poets of the Victorian Era

• Notable Work: How Do I Love Thee? (Sonnet 43)

3. Drama

• The theater was a flourishing and popular institution during the Victorian period.• Bernard Shaw and Oscar Wilde transformed British theater

with their comic masterpieces.

Thank You For your attention...