The Victorian Era

The Victorian Era English Literature from 1830-1900

SerializedDramatic Novel Monologue The Early Victorian TheVictorianOptimism Compromise and Faith

Evolution of the Novel CHARLES DICKENS • Father of Modern English Novel • Bestexample of serializedformatin English. • Looseplots, strongcharacters. • Mostnovelswereoptimistic: thewicked are punished and therighteousrewarded. • Authenticexperience: Dickens worked in factory as a child, experiencemarkedhimforlife.

Tale of TwoCities Lucy- the central thread of the novel:willshe be tornapartbytheconflict? Cruncher- whatishisjob and whatsignificancedoesithave? TheDefarges- do theyrepresentsomething positive ornegative? Whichelements are representedfrom Gothic and Victorian?

TheFamilyBronte • 3 Sisters: Anne, Charlotte and Emily. • Usedpseudonyms, one novel each, shared similar style. • Focusedon intense relationships, deeplyflawedcharacters. • Combined Gothic elementswithVictorianconventions. Major Works: WutheringHeightsand Jane Eyre

Gothic to Victorian Transition Vulnerable Child Moralizingtone NarrativeComplexity Duality Supernatural Intense Emotions Nature as fearful, impressive “Byronic” figures

English Positivism • John Stuart Mill • Progressive • On Liberty • Utilitarianism • Jeremy Bentham • “Moral Economics” The London Times • Heroic Idealism • Thomas Carlyle • Conservative • Sartor Resartus • German Idealism • J.G. Fichte • Self-consciousness

Transcendentalism Origin: Reaction To: Elements Of: Main Focus: • New England, in the 1830’s • Harvard Intellectualism Protestant Church. • Romanticism German Idealism Eastern mysticism • Self-reliance Goodness of nature and the individual Corruptive influence of society and institutions

Born to prominent Boston family. Studied at Harvard, then entered divinity school. • Worked as a minister briefly, but was unable to accept traditional doctrine. • In 1832, Emerson traveled in Europe, meeting many prominent intellectuals. • In Paris, at the public Jardines, he was moved by the variation of species and had an epiphany about the interconnectedness of all life. Ralph Waldo Emerson(1803-1882)

Born to middle class family in Concord, MA. Attended Harvard, although he did not seek a professional career. • Met Emerson as a young man, and the older man became his mentor. • Thoreau was the perfect disciple: a quick and practical mind, and a clear, precise style of prose. • Throughout his life, Thoreau was a man of uncompromising principles, something of a hermit saint for American intellectualism. Henry David Thoreau(1817-1862)

1845: Anno Mirabilis Began project at Walden Pond • Rented a small cabin and surrounding land • Lived for two years off only what he could produce • Intended as an experiment in self-sufficiency and simple living • Resulting novel became an American classic and philosophical masterpiece Arrested and jailed in Concord • While visiting town during Walden project, he is accosted by tax collector • Told he owes six years back taxes, refuses to pay for political reasons • Jailed overnight, his mother pays the owed taxes and he is released • The experience is influential, leads to his essay “On Civil Disobedience”

“Walden has become such a totem of the back-to-nature, preservationist, anti-business, civil-disobedience mindset… that the book risks being as revered and unread as the Bible.” - John Updike

Major American Authors of the Period Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter Herman Melville, Moby Dick Edgar Allan Poe, “The Tell-Tale Heart”

Dramatic Monologue Form A single person speaks, who is decidedly NOT the poet The speaker addresses and interacts with others, whose presence is noted only by the speaker’s clues The poet’s aim is to reveal what lies beneath the speaker’s words… “… as if one were listening to someone nearby talking on a cell-phone…” -what is the poet attempting to infer? -what points of view are implied?

Two Men and a Persona Tennyson • Structural and metrical virtuoso, sought perfection. • Poet of the people- represented his age. • Always had edge of melancholy and doubt. Browning • Always experimented, sometimes sacrificed eloquence for effect. • Unknown for most of life- poetry was esoteric. • Hugely influential in 20th century poetry.

Uses figures from classic or medieval mythology. Uses figures from history or that embody rare conditions. Tennyson Browning MONOLOGUES Speaker functions as a mask for Tennyson’s own feelings. Speaker functions as independent being, rather than extension. In Memoriam A.H.H. (1850) The Ring and the Book (1868)

In Memoriam The Way of the Soul:Faith and Doubt Took 17 years to write. When published, Tennyson was named Laureate Made up of 131 cantos, plus prologue and epilogue, stanza numbers vary in each canto Stanzas are ABBA rhymes, in iambic tetrameter Prologue was one of the last parts written, summarizes journey from doubt to faith References to Christmas throughout mark the passage of the years

Revival of Theatre Aestheticism/ Decadentism The Late Victorian Colonialism and Empire Rejection of Positivism

Late Victorian Deepeningdissatisfactionwithacceptedhypocrisy of Victorian Era (such as “VictorianCompromise) Focus of interest in theforbiddenand the idea of perversion… Decadentism/Aestheticism

Breakdown of the Victorian Period Early Victorian • Poetry and Monologue • Development of Novel • Optimism and Pessimism • Faith and Doubt • Duality and the “Victorian Compromise” Late Victorian • Colonialism and Empire • The Revival of Theatre • Aesthetes and Decadents • The Anti-Victorians

The Victorian Era