Preview

Characteristics and Important Authors of Victorian Literature

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
558 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Characteristics and Important Authors of Victorian Literature
Characteristics of Victorian Literature
The literature of the Victorian age (1837 – 1901, named for the reign of Queen Victoria) entered in a new period after the romantic revival. The literature of this era expressed the fusion of pure romance to gross realism. Though, the Victorian Age produced great poets, the age is also remarkable for the excellence of its prose. The discoveries of science have particular effects upon the literature of the age. If you study all the great writers of this period, you will mark four general characteristics:
1. Literature of this age tends to come closer to daily life which reflects its practical problems and interests. It becomes a powerful instrument for human progress. Socially & economically,
Industrialism was on the rise and various reform movements like emancipation, child labor, women’s rights, and evolution.
2. Moral Purpose: The Victorian literature seems to deviate from "art for art's sake" and asserts its moral purpose. Tennyson, Browning, Carlyle, Ruskin - all were the teachers of England with the faith in their moral message to instruct the world.
3. Idealism: It is often considered as an age of doubt and pessimism. The influence of science is felt here. The whole age seems to be caught in the conception of man in relation to the universe with the idea of evolution.
4. Though, the age is characterized as practical and materialistic, most of the writers exalt a purely ideal life. It is an idealistic age where the great ideals like truth, justice, love, brotherhood are emphasized by poets, essayists and novelists of the age.

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

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Powerful Essays

    Victorian writers often explore the idea of childhood, with themes of persecution, education and religion being commonly prevalent. Specifically, the negative aspects of childhood seem to be explored in a manner in which writers use hyperbolic and satirical means to express their critique.…

    • 1231 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    During the Victorian Era, it was generally accepted that love was not a case of the modern, romantic ideal of falling for someone you genuinely love, but more of a career move. Men especially saw marriage as a stepping stone in their life, to advance in society. Women were treated as property and their sole purpose was to sacrifice themselves to their husbands. The typical Victorian woman was expected to bear her husband children, to ensure her family’s happiness, to be suppressed and to show minimal emotion. Hence, true love was not as common as present day, especially for the upper class, who were being constantly being scrutinised by society. These attitudes are explored in ‘Jude the Obscure’, ‘Sonnet VI’ from Sonnets from the Portuguese, and ‘Jane Eyre’.…

    • 2314 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    England’s Victorian Era began in 1837, during which Queen Victoria took the throne after her uncle, William IV, passed away. The Victorian Era lasted until 1901, the year of Queen Victoria’s death. However, the dates are sometimes modified due to the Romantic Period in Britain occurring closely in date to the Victorian Era. Nevertheless, the Victorian Era was a period of rapid change and developments in nearly all aspects of life. There were multiple advancements in technological, scientific, and medical knowledge, as well as changes in population growth. The era begins with much confidence that Britain would become the leading country in the world. Though it ultimately ended with uncertainty on how the country stood, many important events…

    • 1890 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Time will inevitably affects the way we view the world around us. As time moves on so to does ones opinions and views on the world around. Transitioning through age also affects our view on reality. In Alison Gopnik’s “Possible Worlds: Why Do Children Pretend?” she shows us the difference between how children and adults perceive things. At the same time in Sherry Turkle’s “Alone Together” we are shown how growing technology affects are views on reality. When one combines the ideas of both Turkle and Gopnik, they see a correlation between technology’s growing influence and the rate at which your view of reality changes.…

    • 1228 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Victorian Era, the years of Queen Victoria’s reign: 1837-1901 were the years that many changes began to occur. With many changing attitudes towards religion, social values and ones-self came a transition that was for the best.…

    • 305 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Victorian mores are the unspoken rules known and observed by society. In the eighteen-hundreds several mores were very important including justice, Christianity, high standards of honesty and morality, and women’s roles. All good people are part of a family, a Christian family and women are to serve men as they stand unequal to them. Marriage is simply a tool to gain more money and connections, and only people of the same social class are worthy of each other. Whichever social class someone is born into they remain in unless of course they are rich or beautiful, the poor and plain are simply there to be the butlers, maids and governesses of those who are high up. Several of these mores are demonstrated and contradicted in Charlotte Bronte’s 1847 masterpiece Jane Eyre. Jane Eyre is the life story of a young heroin that faces incredible odds and terrible situations and still manages to follow her heart and morals through an exciting life that leads her to a blissful ending. Charlotte Bronte uses her narrative to display several of the Victorian mores and demonstrate why they’re important, and alternately disprove the significance of others.…

    • 1660 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Raevon Felton

    • 739 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The Victorian Era was a time during which Queen Victoria, born in 1819, reigned over the United Kingdom, ruling from 1837 until her death in 1901(“Victorian Era”). 1830 is considered the beginning of the Victorian Era to some literary historians, but the keystone that really made its mark on this era was the passage of the First Reform Bill in 1832 . This bill gave the middle-class Englishmen some form of hope toward finally being heard by their government (“Victorian Era”). “The death of the poet laureate William Wordsworth in 1850, rang the death knell for idyllic romanticism in the arts and the onset of Victorian high seriousness with the ascent of Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809-1892) as the new poet laureate”(“Victorian Era”). This time period was more of a time of transition, and the end of the Victorian Era became evident in 1861, when prince Albert died of typhoid or cancer. The Victorian Era was considered the time period when literature began to develop from Romantic to the literature of the twentieth century (“Victorian Literature”). The widowed queen withdrew from the throne therefore robbing Great Britain of an intelligent and astute leader”(“Victorian Era”).…

    • 739 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Like the many of us today that are obsessed with reputation and appearance, the Victorians were just as bad, most of their life was centred around what other people think of them. What is the right way to dress and talk? Victorians showed how important reputation and appearance is to them in their everyday life from the way they dress to the literature they wrote and read. This is shown very clearly in two texts that I shall be analysing and comparing. They are; Jane Eyre written by Charlotte Bronte and the A Doll’s House written by Henrik Ibsen.…

    • 976 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Victorian vs Romantic

    • 705 Words
    • 3 Pages

    In this essay I will be comparing and contrasting the works of William Wordsworth from the Romantic Age and Alfred, Lord Tennyson from the Victorian Age.…

    • 705 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    During the Victorian Age, we see a resurgence of Medievalist practices and ideas. Many writers and poets recreated the Arthurian Legend through a Victorian lens. The Victorian Era was a romanticized time period with strict moral and social codes of conduct. This is clearly portrayed in Tennyson’s work Idylls of the King – a Victorian rendition of the legend of King Arthur. Lord Alfred Tennyson is known as one of the “Victorians” due to his poetry that so greatly accepted and promoted the Victorian culture. William Morris, on the other hand, was more ahead of his time. His works often included a resistance to the conventional assumptions of the Victorian Age and he was associated with an artistic reform movement called the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. This group of artists, poets, and writers rejected the current artistic movements during the 19th century and tried to focus on the classical eras. The character of Queen Guinevere evolves from an immoral and adulterous woman in Idylls of the King to a liberated and strong-minded woman in The Defence of Guenevere.…

    • 540 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The present era is the era of science. Science has undoubtedly done a great service to mankind. Man, a rational being, has been curious to explore mysteries of nature and this led to many discoveries being made in various part of the world. But he is never satisfied with the acquired knowledge and is always keen to unravelle mysteries of the universe. He has conquered the land and air. His incredible lust for knowledge has revolutionised human life and raised the standard of life. He was able to invent innumerable ways of making his life comfortable and happy. Every sphere of life has been revolutionised by…

    • 290 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Victorian Era Ideologies

    • 1018 Words
    • 5 Pages

    The Victorian era which lasted during the reign of Queen Victoria from 1837 to 1901, established the foundations of many social, cultural and moral ideologies in which many are present to this day. Everywhere you look you can almost always see something Victorian-inspired from floral patterned curtains to elegantly hand crafted candlesticks. When visualizing ‘The Victorian Era’ lavish balls, lace covered dresses, tea parties and fancy lifestyles come to mind. However, the Victorian era is much more than this. Victorians were judgmental, proud and often selfish people, as their biggest goal in life was usually to make and/or keep a name for themselves which meant marrying their daughters off to rich, aristocrats to preventing their family members from achieving happiness for their own comfort. Thomas Hardy, Jane Austen and Charles Dickens all show Victorian ideologies through their characters.…

    • 1018 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Victorian era of British history was the period of Queen Victoria's reign from 20 June…

    • 1076 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Victorian Age marks a very important period in British literature and life itself, mainly due to industrialism, which affected the fast advancement in technology. In this time, the center of influence shifts from Paris to London, whilst life shifts from ownership of land to modern urban economy (Greenblatt & Abrams, 2006, p.979). The Victorian Era began in 1930, while the Queen Victoria ascends to the throne in 1937, ruling the British Empire until 1901, thus being part of the developments of the time. Queen Victoria was a devoted queen and mother of 9 children. She became the symbol of earnestness, moral values, importance of family and ideal motherhood while reigning the country, this way representing the values and beliefs…

    • 1217 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    The Victorian Era was unlike the previous era, the Romantic Era, which focused in romanticising the realities of life, because it focused on the hardships that society faced and challenged previous traditions. According to Josh Rahn, in…

    • 1820 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays