Victorian literature ‫‬

VICTORIAN LITERATURE

Dr. M. Fahmy Raiyah

CONTENTS
 THE VICTORIAN PERIOD: SOCIAL AND CULTURAL CONTEXTS
- The British Empire
- The Industrial Revolution
The Impact of the Industrial Revolution
I. The Emergence of Overcrowded Cities
II. Child Labor
- Cultural Context: Smith, Darwin, and Mill
 LITERATURE
- Literature of Social Protest
- The Victorian Novel
- Victorian Poetry
- Victorian Drama

THE VICTORIAN ERA:
SOCIAL AND CULTURAL
CONTEXTS

THE VICTORIAN PERIOD
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 the
Victorian age, Britain was the world's most powerful
nation. By the end of Victoria's reign, the British
empire extended over about one-fifth of the earth's
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.

THE BRITISH EMPIRE
Queen Victoria ruled over a vast and
expanding empire, over which, it was said, the
sun never set. The British considered the
empire as a means of fulfilling the white man’s
mission of civilizing the nations under their
control and spreading Western values
throughout the whole world.

THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION
It started at the end of the eighteenth 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. But
as industry grew, it was accompanied by a rapid
increase in the numbers of the urban working-class
poor. Workers in the cities lived in miserable
conditions. Urban squalor and misery were signs of
a massive change in the English society.

The Impact of the Industrial Revolution
I. The Emergence of Overcrowded Cities
One result of the advance of technology
was the unprecedented growth of cities.
People, in search of work left the countryside
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.

The old rural social pattern was receding under the impact of harsh
industrialization

The homeless waiting for admission into a workhouse are depicted in
this picture by Luke Fildes

Applicants for Admission to a Casual Ward
Luke Fildes, 1874.

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 very
little 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 an
adult.

CULTURAL CONTEXT
 ADAM SMITH: Smith’s economic ideas had great influence on Victorian
thinking. In The Wealth of Nations (1776), advocated free trade and believed
that the market is best left untouched. Government intervention only prevents
the economy from righting itself. He therefore strongly opposed any
government interference with business affairs. He was against trade restrictions
and minimum wage laws as being harmful to a nation's economy. This laissez-
faire policy of government non-intervention remained popular throughout the
Victorian Era. Capitalists often twisted his words to oppose child labor laws,
maximum working hours, and factory health codes.
 CHARLES DARWIN: Darwin’s theory of evolution, proposed in his book The
Origin of Species (1859), has transformed the way we think about the natural
world. The book was extremely controversial because it implied that man was
simply another form of animal and that people might have evolved from apes.
Darwin was strongly attacked, particularly by the Church. The theory of
evolution led to a crisis of faith and spiritual doubt among so many people.
 JOHN STUART MILL: Mill was a champion of individual rights in his book On
Liberty (1869), and a pioneer of women’s rights in The Subjection of Women
(1869). Mill attacked the tyranny of the majority who would deny liberty to
individuals through public opinion.

LITERATURE OF SOCIAL PROTEST
The social and cultural background of the period has
had a deep impact on literature of the Victorian period.
Some works of literature protested the grim reality of the
industrial age. Depicting the deplorable conditions in
factories and mines, the plight of child labor, the
discrimination against women, and other social issues,
such literary works were a means of social reform.
Elizabeth Gaskell’s Mary Barton was one of the first novels
to warn against the problems of industrialization. Charles
Dickens’ works Oliver Twist and Hard Times treated the
themes of child abuse, poverty, urban squalor, crime, and
corrupt educational systems.

THE VICTORIAN NOVEL
The novel was the dominant genre in the Victorian
period. Charles Dickens (1812-1870) created a host of
unforgettable characters in such novels as Oliver Twist,
Great Expectations, David Copperfield, Hard Times,
and A Tale of Two Cities. William Thackeray's (1811-
1863) most famous work is Vanity Fair. Charlotte
Bronte’s (1816–55) Jane Eyre and Emily Bronte’s
(1818–48) Wuthering Heights are classics of English
literature. George Eliot's (1819–80) most important
works are Middlemarch, The Mill on the Floss and
Adam Bede. The major novelist of the later part of the
period was Thomas Hardy (1840-1928), whose best
works include Tess of the D'Urbervilles, Far from the
Madding Crowd, and Jude the Obscure.

VICTORIAN POETRY
Many characteristics of romantic poetry continued in poetry of
the Victorian period.
 However, Victorian poetry, in general, is less subjective than the
romantic.
 An interest in the past, both the classical and the medieval, appears in
the subjects, and in the use of mythological and historical allusions.
 The dramatic monologue is used greatly by the poets.
 The themes are more realistic, discussing such issues as child labor,
the rights of women, science and religion.
 Victorian poetry is mostly pictorial, heavily relying on visual imagery.
 The elegy is one of the most popular poetic forms in the period, a
form of poetry that laments the dead or the past.
 Victorian poetry is often characterized by doubt and psychological
conflicts.
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.

Elizabeth Barrett
Alfred Tennyson Robert Browning
Browning

Thomas Hardy Gerard Manley Hopkins Christina Rossetti

VICTORIAN DRAMA
Throughout the nineteenth century, drama
continued its decline since the Restoration period.
Most works of the period lack depth and originality.
Two playwrights are exceptions to this trend: Oscar
Wild (1856-1900) and George Bernard Shaw (1856-
1950). Oscar Wild’s comedies such as The Importance
of Being Earnest and Lady Windermere's Fan abound
in verbal polish and cynicism. Shaw’s plays addressed
such social questions as education, marriage, and the
class system in a comic vein. His works include Man
and Superman, Pygmalion, and St. Joan.

Oscar Wilde George Bernard Shaw
(1856-1900) (1856-1950)

Ulysses and the Sirens
J. M. W. Waterhouse , 1891

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