Understanding Victorian Literature (1837-1901)

Victorian literature has a romantic appeal to it these days. One can only think of Victorian culture, with the class and aristocracy firmly in place. However, we can’t forget that the Victorian movement separated from the Romantic movement, and the Transcendentalist, which lasted the reign of Queen Victoria from 1837 to 1901. In this post, we will understand what caused this movement and the writers involved.

Factors Generating the Movement

England grew massively during Queen Victoria’s reign (from 14 million to over 30 million people). Rapid population growth changed living conditions and person-to-person interaction. There was also the Industrial Revolution, so technology moved quickly forward. As such, social issues became more noticeable, such as living conditions for the people from low-income households, and the use of debtor’s prisons.

Additionally, when it came to intellectual changes, Darwinism was becoming a factor for the religious and science communities. Therefore, people were thinking about their impact on the world in different ways, just as they had during the Renaissance, the Neoclassical Period, the Romanticist period, etc. The ideas of realistic interpretation fell hand-in-hand with the very real nature of the world.

Outside of social factors, we have an emergence of the novel. Society saw this as the most “fashionable vehicle for the transmission of literature” and society saw “the novel as a genre” rising “to entertain the rising middle class” which depicted “contemporary life in a changing society” (englishpost.org).  Now, we already heard stories about the novel really taking off (The Theatrical Licensing Act), but now technology was really hitting its stride and books were easier for people on the last rung of the social ladder to get their hands on.

Finally, the working class suffered at the hands of all this innovation, as their working conditions were terrible. The artists of the time crafted works criticizing these conditions.

Important Victorian Literature

Considering these conditions and changing attitudes, Charles Dickens emergence makes sense. Dickens wrote many stories and novels that featured aspects of Victorian society. For example, A Christmas Carol tells the tale of a greedy, miserly old man who treats his workers terribly and who ignores the social problems of his day. In return, he his haunted by three ghosts. In fact, one can argue that Dickens’ description of Scrooge perfectly captures the attitudes of the lower class toward the wealthy elite.

“Oh! But he was a tight-fisted hand at the grindstone, Scrooge! a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous, old sinner! Hard and sharp as flint, from which no steel had ever struck out generous fire; secret and self-contained, and solitary as an oyster. The cold within him froze his features, nipped his pointed nose, shriveled his cheek, stiffened his gait; made his eyes red, his thin lips blue; and spoke out shrewdly in his grating voice.”

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

George Eliot, whose real name was actually Mary Ann Evans, wrote important literature during this time. She wrote under a male pen-name similar to Jane Austen and Charlotte Bronte in order to see her work published. Her novels Adam Bede (1859) and Middlemarch (1871)–which was an eight-book pastoral novel–have left a lasting impression.

Victorian Poetry

The poetry of the time differed slightly in tone from the prose writers. The major players, such as Lord Alfred Tennyson, Robert Browning, and Elizabeth Barrett Browning, supported the ideas of Darwinism and were skeptical of religion. But, they understood that history was important, so connecting with olden times held maximum value to their ethos. Here, we have a small piece of a famous poem by Alfred, Lord Tennyson, from Idylls of the King: The Last Tournament

“Then Arthur rose and Lancelot follow’d him,

And while they stood without the doors, the King

Turn’d to him saying, ‘Is it then so well?

Or mine the blame that oft I seem as he

Of whom was written, ‘A sound is in his ears’?

The foot that loiters, bidden go,–the glance

That only seems half-loyal to command,–

A manner somewhat fall’n from reverence—

Or have I dream’d the bearing of our knights

Tells of a manhood ever less and lower?

Or whence the fear lest this my realm, uprear’d,

By noble deeds at one with noble vows,

From flat confusion and brute violences,

Reel back into the beast, and be no more?”

Conclusion

The Victorian era was a marvelous time for literature. There were great strides in social criticism and a focus on the rationale moving forward. This era would inspire future generations as well and be a touchstone for literature and censure, including the trial of Oscar Wilde.