Victorian Society by Muhammad Amzar (182839)

Victorian Society

Introduction

The Victorian era of British history was the period of Queen Victoria’s reign from 20th June 1837 until her death on 22nd January 1901.It was a long period of peace, prosperity and refined sensibility. Major Events of the Victorian Era Some of the major events that took place during the Victorian era and influenced the literature of that time include:

1. A huge growth in population.

2. The Victorian era slightly overlaps with British Industrial Revolution. It witnessed big changes to the way people lived, worked and travelled.

3. In addition to the major developments in technology, there were emerging scientific beliefs like Charles Darwin’s Theory of Evolution.

4. And finally, there were poor conditions for working class. The Industrial Revolution led to the distance between the halves and halvenots. Hence, the writers felt obligated to speak out against the societal injustice.

Defining Victorian Literature in any satisfactory and comprehensive manner has proven troublesome. One has difficulty determining the end of the Romantic Movement and the beginning of the Victorian Period in Literature. Likewise identifying the point where Victorianism gives way to Modernism is no easy task.

Some Writers of the Victorian Era

1. CHARLES DICKENS: Arguably the most well known Victorian writers was Charles Dickens. he wrote a lot of novels about the struggles of the poor and the battle between right and wrong. ‘Oliver Twist’ or ‘David Copperfield’ have protagonists who are good people that fall into bad circumstances that they don’t deserve. his other works include ‘A Christmas Carol,’ ‘A Tale of Two Cities’ and ‘Great Expectation.’

(VICTORIAN SOCIETY & LIT - SAIRATH DAS, XII-R "1)

2. WILLIAM THACKERAY: William Thackeray was Dickens’ great rival. He is best known for his novel ‘Vanity Fair’ subtitled - a novel without a hero, which is an example of a form popular in Victorian literature.

3. THE BRONTE SISTERS: Anne, Charlotte and Emily Bronte produced notable works during that period. Some of the popular ones are: ‘Wuthering Heights’ (by Emily Bronte), ‘Jane Eyre’ (by Charlotte Bronte)

and ‘The Tenant of Wild Fell Hall’ (by Anne Bronte). They exhibited Gothic romanticism and feminist trend. Later in this period George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans) published ‘The Mill on the Floss’ in 1860 and ‘Middle March’ in 1872. In the later decades of Victorian era, Thomas Hardy was the most important novelist. his works include ‘Far From the Madding Crowd,’ ‘The Mayor of Casterbridge’ and ‘Tess of the d’Urbervilles.’Great English Poets of the Victorian Age Robert Browning and Alfred Lord Tennyson were Victorian England’s most famous poets. Browning most famous poets. Browning is best remembered for his superb dramatic monologue. The poet laureate Alfred Lord Tennyson wrote poems which were romantic in subject matter but were tempered by personal melancholy.

THE STYLE OF THE VICTORIAN NOVEL

Victorian novels tend to be idealized portraits of difficult lives in which hard work, perseverance, love and luck win out in the end; virtue would be rewarded and wrongdoers are suitably punished. They tended to be of an improving nature with a central moral lesson at heart. While this formula was the basis for much of earlier Victorian fiction, the situation became more complex as the century progressed.

Conclusion

In Victorian England, there were efforts to improve the lot of the poor. The Reform Bills of the 19th Century extended voting rights to men. For all the social inequalities which still persisted, the Victorians successfully undermined some of humanity’s most time-honoured institutions. Some writers greeted these changes with fear, others embraced the new world that was coming into being, thrilled at the progress of science and society. Together these voices speak of an important era in English literary history.