Through Victorian Realism

In this essay I will talk about realism in the Victorian writers, staring at Great
Expectations and Mary Barton, the novels we studied in this course. First of all, if we want to
speak about realism, we have to know what the characteristics of this literary movement are
and why it happens. Realism appears in literature in the second part of nineteenth century as a
reaction versus romanticism. The total subjectivity of romanticism is replaced by a radical
objectivity even if, as we will see, the sentimentalism influences Dickens and Gaskells
novels largely. Romanticism was a movement of reaction against neoclassicism and
Illustration in which the novels took place in ancient scenarios, currently the middle age, and
new places like the colonies. In opposition of these imaginary books, realist writers wanted to
recover the lost reality of the population, describing in a faithful way the social changes,
injustices and social barriers.
With this purpose realist novels have the following general characteristics:
-They use the description to expose the nature of the new society which appears, product of
the industrial revolution and make us think about the problems and squalors of humanity
-These novels treat all the important themes of nineteenth century, class conflicts, domestic
violence, poverty, gender, rural to urban wall, hypocrisy in religion...
-Main characters usually are humble people who live a simple and sacrificial life. They are
not persons who save the world or conquer new lands, but humans who try desperately to
survive in a savage environment
- The stories normally take place in a true scenarios, either in rural or in urban context.
-The best descriptions are alternated with dialogues in which we can appreciate the different
registers depending on the social level of the speaker and the place where the book takes place

-The use of time is linear; they dont use flashbacks and flash-forwards, to keep the sentiment
of realism in the lecturer.
-The narrator is omniscient and knows all about the characters. Internal monologue is current
to transmit the feelings of the characters.
In that sense is unavoidable to refer to the context of these authors which will
conditioned the books and the way latter are written. As we know, in nineteenth century
industrial revolution was extremely developed causing a great change in human minds and
social relations. The economic power passes progressively from the hands of the aristocracy
to the bourgeoisies. The mass production begins and the inequality, rural to urban in one
hand, and owners to proletarian in the other hand, grows terribly. In the way to the economic
progress craftsmen lose the race as we can see in Great Expectations. In these complicate days
of our history the fight to move on, to progress and improve your position in a social scale is
cruel and merciless. Its a period when we find some factors that turned the stagecoach
world of Pips youth, main character of the novel, into the technologically advanced capitalist
and imperialist nation of the mid-century (Janice Carlisle Introduction, Dickens 6).
In this situation Victorians novelists make us feel the poverty, the loneliness, the
violence and any other sentiments trough an intense and detailed description of the reality.
Using a profound description the authors try to situate us in the body and soul of the
characters of the book. The so-called sentimentality I value exists not so much in the feelings
of the characters as in our feelings of their feelings, our vicarious consciousness of their
unconsciousness, and the thoughts that are saved by us as a result (Alice Jenkins and Juliet
John 14). After this short comment about the context in which novelists of Queen Victoria
times write, I would like to do a brief resume of each book I will analyse, Great expectations
and Mary Barton, to help the lecturer to understand this essay:

Great expectations tell the story of Philip Pirrip from his seven years old until his
thirtys. The novel begins in the small village where Pip lived his childhood, with his sister
and her husband Joe Gargery. He was grown up by hand, suffering the violence of his sister
at home, and great-aunts Wopsle, the clerk of the village, at school. He was submitted to
constants humiliations, with the only support of Joe, who protects him whenever he can. His
life will change completely when he is called by, Mrs Havishman, a rich woman of the town
to visit her. Pip will feel Great Expectations in that big house. From then on, Pip experiment
an internal debate with his ambitions. In one hand he will want to become a gentleman
rejecting his traditional life, he doesnt want any more to work as Joe in the forge; in the other
hand he will fall in love with Estella, the adopted child of Mrs Havishman, who will hurt him,
taught to make men suffer by the old woman who was in her turn left her alone in her
weddings day. Henceforth, Pip receives instructions of his guardian Mr Jaggers to go to
London. He tells him that Pip will be helped by someone to become a gentleman, with the
only condition that he wont try to discover the identity of his benefactor. So Pip goes to
London and lives there until one day he receives a letter of Biddy advertising him that Joe
will arrive to the capital to see him. At that moment Pip will understand that Joe will be
always his lovable friend, as no other in London, in his new life. Then he knows that Estella,
the girls he stills loving will come to London. Here Estella will break his heart with Drummle,
a man hated by Pip, destroying his Great Expectations in love. Later Pip knows that his
benefactor was the prisoner who was helped by him at the beginning of the novel, Provis, who
is Estellas father too. Pip tries to help him to escape by the hands of the police but Provis
dies. Then Mrs Havishman dies too and Pip becomes ill, being help by Joe, his faithful friend.
Finally he talks with Estella, they understand each other and they become friends.
Its definitely a story of the fight of young poor men, to become a gentleman, and to
be loved, the story of the projects, the dreams, the Great Expectations of human lives.

If we look at this novel we can confirm that all the traditional subjects of the realism are
approached and examined using the description. Victorian authors dont make value
judgements but simply denounce the aspects of the society they reject with the help of words;
they show us the anatomy of life in their periods, the big transformation of those years. It
states that in Great Expectations we find an implicit report of social injustice, violence in
family and school, importance of appearances and falsehood particularly in the middle class,
differences rural to urban and the gender question. But this affirmation has to be justified with
the text we saw in our course, and I will do it stating some sentences of the book. For example
in the beginning of the first chapter: To five little stone lozenges, each about a foot and half
long, which were arranged in neat row beside their grave, and were sacred to the memory of
five little brothers of mine who gave up trying to get living, exceedingly early in that universal
struggle. (Dickens 24) We can deduce the inhuman conditions of life and maternity of the
poor people at that time reading this sentence. Only Pip survives in a family of five kids.
In second chapter and in the following, we observe not only the violence in Pips
family but its social support as a way for education. My sister, Mrs Joe Gargery was more
than twenty years older than I, and had established a great reputation with her and the
neighbours because she had brought me up by hand. (Dickens 27); Thickler was a waxended piece of cane, worn smooth by collision with my tickled frame.(Dickens 28) Social
injustice and prejudice are always present Its bad enough to be a blacksmiths wife (and him
a Gargery) without being your mother. (Dickens 29) We can appreciate the sentimentalism
in almost all the pages of the novel, for example in the following sentence: I was in mortal
terror of myself, from whom an awful promise had been extracted; I had no hope of
deliverance through my all-powerful sister, who repulsed me at every turn, I am afraid to
think of what I might have done, on requirement, in the secrecy of my terror. (Dickens 34)
Victorian writers use sentimentalism as a wall to protect the communal heart of the society in

the context of the industrial revolution, a new world, hard, more and more inhuman.
Sentimentalism complements descriptions to aloud us to understand life as it was for humans.
Philip Davis in Victorian Realist Prose and Sentimentality talks about that as follows Is
not that what Victorian sentimentality is: a defensive part of urban social history,
democratizing inarticulate good feeling, offering family feeling a place in the new world?
(Alice Jenkins and Juliet John 22) Novelists of Victorian age, take care usually of children,
women, human with disabilities, definitely they use oppressed collectives to report the cruel
reality, to make the lecturer think about the nature of the social system. The allusion to the
limits of the education of that time is fierce, a criticism of violence used in school containing
a report of the failure of the system. The Educational scheme or Course established by Mr
Wopsles great-aunt may be resolved into the following synopsis. The pupils ate apples and
put straws up one anothers backs, until Mr. Wopsles great-aunt collected her energies, and
made an indiscriminate totter at them with a birch rod (Dickens 84). But if one theme has to
be specially stressed, as the most important of the book, is certainly the ambition of economic
and social progress, even as a way to touch Estellas heart, to be loved. Through the main
character Pip, and his thoughts we are able to feel the fight of disadvantaged families to go up
in the social scale. Its a hard battle to escape of the constants humiliations and disdains which
lived before, a war to become a respected gentleman and to be in the same level as Estella.
This seems to be a perfect plan but Pip has a fight much more complicated to win: the internal
dilemma between his origins and particularly his pain for abandon Joe, his best friend and
Biddy, his teacher. And his desires to become someone important I set off on the four-mile
walk to our forge; pondering, as I went along, on all I had seen, and deeply revolving that I
was common labouring-boy; that my hands were course, that my boots were thick; that I had
fallen into a despicable habit of calling knaves Jacks; that I was much more ignorant than I

had considered myself last night, and generally that I was in a low-lived bad way. (Dickens
77) Biddy and Estella represent the lovable origin and the ambition respectively.
After this Pip answer Biddy to teach him. Dickens try to show us indirectly that it is an
unfair society what humans are building with the industrial revolution, because your position
doesnt depend on your effort but on your money, your heritage, your social opportunities and
influence. All the instruments of the narrative technique and the humour are used to reproduce
the world of those years; its not a fantastic land, is simply the reality Dickens saw and lived.
So much so that Great Expectations is an autobiographic book. It seems doubtless the
connection between Dickens experience as a poor boy and his mature work as a writer
(Janice Carlisle Introduction, Dickens 3). Told in the first person and set in Ken-in the towns
of Chatham and Rochester were he passed his childhood- Great Expectations is an obviously,
but not often directly, autobiographical novel . (Janice Carlisle Introduction, Dickens 3).This
is another characteristic of the realist novels: The story takes place in a real scenario, not in an
imaginary world, or in the past. Another issue contained in the book is religion. Is not one of
the most important themes of this novel but is appears sometimes, for example as a duty for
Joe and Pip to go to the church on Sundays. My sister having so much to do, was going to
church vicariously; that is to say, Joe and I were going. (Dickens 41) We can perceive,
thanks to the descriptions made by Dickens, that the assistance to the church is like a habit of
obedience, not a true faith in the case of the family of Pip.
Now, having resumed and analysed Great Expectations, I would like to talk about the
realism in Mary Barton. Mary Barton is story about the life of urban workers in Manchester in
1839 and 40s approximately. It is a story about poverty and capitalist form of slavery but its
a love story too. The novel follows two families: The Wilsons and the Bartons. John Barton,
Marys father, loses his wife and one son and engages in workers movement fighting for
rights for workers and joining socialist principles. In this situation Mary works in an industry

of dresses and her heart is divided between his desire of help his father marrying Harry
Carson member of the rich family of Carsons and her love for Jem Wilson.
At that point Harry Carson will be killed and the police will take Jem as a suspect
because the days before they had a discussion. Esther, John Bartons sister, who is a
homeless, advertises Mary, and that one goes to Liverpool to find Will Johnson, who was
with Jem the night in which Carson was assassinated to testify in his favour at the trial. Johns
Barton was the assassin and confesses it to Harrys father who forgives him. John Barton dies
and Esther too not long after. Finally Jem and Mary married with his child and go to Canada
where Jems reputation remains intact. Mary Barton focuses her realism in the conditions of
life of workers in a years when industries and fabrics become bigger and bigger, and the
situation of poor people continues to worsen. The descriptions made by Gaskell trough his
books and characters could be a speech or summary made by a historian. Large houses are
still occupied, while spinners and weavers cottages stand empty, because the families that
once filled them are obliged to live in rooms or cellars. (Gaskell 24) In rural environment
these families were used to live in bigger houses not comfortable but probably healthier and
with the rural exodus thousands of them had to work packed together after work in inhuman
conditions in very small rooms. In this way Gaskell show us the unbearable inequality of
those years. Carriages still roll along the streets (...) shops for expensive luxuries still find
daily customers, while the workman loiters away his unemployed time in watching these
things, and thinking of the pale, uncomplaining wife at home, and the wailing children asking
in vain for enough food-of the sinking health, of the dying life of those near and dear to him
(Gaskell 24).
The introduction of Mary Barton, made by A.W.Ward, declares to us, that Mrs
Gaskells husband urges her to use her pen for the public benefit after his firsts
publications (Gaskell, li, Introduction). There is no doubt that the goal of Gaskell, as John

Bartons fight in the novel, is to defend the poor and fatherless: see that such as are in need
and necessity have right. (Gaskell, li, Introduction) So she thought that it was no necessary
to make value judgements, the harsh reality speaking for itself. But if one chapter show us the
consequences of capitalism is Poverty and death. The rules of capitalism protect the
owners, like Carson family, while workers are affected by all the troubles. When the Mill is
destroyed by the fire, Carson family doesnt fall into poverty because they were well
insured. (Gaskell 62). There were happy family evenings, now that the men of business had
time for domestic enjoyments. (Gaskell 63). The contrast between rich and poor families is
masterfully decrypted by Gaskell, just a few words down. The language is clear and simple
but the image they transmit us is powerful and sentimental. There is another side of the
picture. There were homes over which Carsons fire threw a deep, terrible gloom; the homes
of those who would fain work, and no man gave unto them-the homes of those to whom leisure
was a curse. (Gaskell 63). But Mary Barton doesnt reproduce only the horrible situation of
workers, but also reflects the arguments exposed by them versus patrons, and the answers,
generally based in economic theories, of the owner of factories, and even the incapacity of the
Government and Parliament to face the conflicts and act as a conciliator, probably because
they were, precisely, their oppressors. The indigence and sufferings of the operatives induced
a suspicion in the minds of many of them, that their legislators, their magistrates, their
employers, and even the ministers of religion, were in general, their oppressors and enemies
(Gaskell 95).
John Barton represents the man whose heart finally conducts him to fight hand by
hand with workers versus employers, the natural humble spirit of socialism, ideology which
was coming to birth. After his experiences with poor people especially in London, Barton
became a Chartist, a Communist, all that is commonly called wild and visionary (Gaskell
196). Gaskell describes with this sentence the feelings of thousands of workers who hug fight

for rights. Socialist ideology as I said is exposed in the book verbi gratia: For three years
past trade had been getting worse and worse, and the price of provisions higher and higher.
This disparity between the amount of the earnings of the working classes and the price of
their food, occasionated in more cases than could well be imagined, disease and death.
(Gaskell 94) We find here implicit the concepts of alienation of workers and plus value which
remains in owners wallets.
In addition this book paints the organisation of workers in Trade Unions making a tour
through the history of the first years of social fight, drawing attention to the honour of
standing for dignity and life, but recognising workers errors too. Sometimes, when we read
Mary Barton we have the feeling that we are walking through all the workers-masters fights
of our nineteenth and even twentieth century. In this sense we can see how the movement of
Trade Union begins as a solidarity reaction between labour men versus capitalists. Trade
Unions connected with different branches of business, supported with money, countenance,
and encouragement of every kind, the stand with the Manchester power-loom weavers were
making against their masters(Gaskell 198).
Another point which I would like to emphasise is the use of regionalism and slang
language to give more realism to the scenes of the book. Each character speaks just with the
words that he would have spoken in the reality. Thats another great success of Gaskells
novel in the sense of realism. An example of regionalism could be the following: I donnot
want it for mysel, tho weve none to spare (Gaskell 64) In the footnote of this page 64, they
explain us that Don is constantly used in Lancashire (county of England) for do as it
was by our old writers (Gaskell, 64).
The narrator in Mary Barton, contrary to the case of Great Expectations, is a third
singular person narrator, while in Dickens novel is Pip, the main character of the book. In

Mary Barton is omniscient too, and its for that reason, from the point of view of the realist
description, that I find Gaskells book more easily included in the classic characteristics of
realism. Mary Barton is a shout for workers, a report of injustice of capitalism. In the other
hand the lecture of Great Expectations was more sentimental and was easier for me, because
of the unique way in which Dickens describe characters, Pips, feelings. Dickens its
probably the best writer mixing realism and sentimentalism. Dickens wrote in an inmortal
way. I mean that I felt identify with Pirrip in his feelings about expectations. Fortunately
maybe most of humans cannot feel themselves identify with the violence which Pip lives, but
the story of desires of progress, personal development and love for another person is a daily
feeling in our world. Thats one the most important victories of realism authors: novels being
fruits of their times, almost as historic statements, they still keeping all their sense nowadays.
I think that realism is as well immortal as way to claim versus unfairness. If reality exists, as it
is proper of his name, realist novels must exist. Hopefully, one day a realist novel will reflect
a utopia.

Bibliography:
Cotsell Michael. 1990. Critical Essays on Charles Dickens Great Expectations.
Boston, Massachusetts. G.K.Hall & Co.

Dickens, Charles. 1996. Great Expectations. New York. Bedford Books of St.
Martins Press
Gaskell, Elisabeth. 1974. The Works of Mrs Gaskell. Leutershausen, Germany. Georg
Olms.
Jenkins Alice and John Juliet. 2000. Rereading Victorian Fiction. London. Macmillan.
The National Archives. Government of United Kingdom.