Class: 6A-09

Group members:
Khuong Du Kim (part A - Social situation and influences on literature)
Doan Thi Thu (part B Critical Realism)
Nguyen Thi Thanh (part C Feminism)
THE VICTORIAN LITERATURE
(1832 1901)
A. Social situation and influences on literature
I. Industrial revolution and literature
1. Industrial revolution

Began in the mid-18th century

Before: England was a land of small farms and cottage industries

o Small farms: most farmers lived on a few acres and grew vegetables, grains, and a
few head of livestock, cattle and sheep grazed in pastures owned by the state
o Cottage industries: small family-run businesses that produced goods that were
used by the general population in daily life. On weekends and market days, the
cottage industry owners took their wares to town to sell.

After: Goods were mass-produced by factories, faster and cheaper

o Cottage industries were put out of business, the home business owners moved to
the big industrialized cities to find employment in factories
o The communal grazing lands were turned into private hunting lands for the
aristocracy; poor farmers couldnt feed their livestock, moving to the cities to work
in the factories.
o Working conditions in the factories were deplorable.

Employees had to work long hours, six days a week, in dangerous conditions.

The government turned a blind eye to all this (laissez-faire).

Safety laws and child labor laws were nonexistent.

o Living conditions of factory workers were crowded and filthy

2. Influences on literature

1798: William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge published a book of poems
entitled Lyrical Ballads, focusing on the common people. They spoke to and for the factory
workers and others who felt helpless and powerless, drew attention to the plight of the
downtrodden and abused, which gradually led to improved working and living conditions.

1854: Charles Dickens published Hard Times, highlighting the social and economic
pressures of the times and warned society of the consequences associated with abandoning
human emotion and adopting the way of the machine.

II. Class division and literature

1. Class division

Upper classes: hereditary aristocracy combination of nobility and emerging wealthy

commercial classes

Middle class: grew enormously, increase its affluence to consolidate and hold the economic
position thanks to the Reform Bill 1832

Lower class: large number, live more wretchedly for being thrown off land into the cities to
form the great urban working class, wanting and slowly getting changes and reforms

2. Influences on literature

The struggles of classes became a common theme:

o Alfred, Lord Tennyson (poem Locksley Hall) criticized materialism
o Charles Dickens (A Christmas Carol) featured:

Ebenezer Scrooge - a wealthy money-hungry man who threw away all his
human connection for the sake of making money, became isolated and
miserable while not even realize why

The ghost of Jacob Marley showed that the pursuit of money ends up
holding a person down rather than helping them out

o Christina Rossetti (Goblin Market) - problems with the current capitalistic society:
greed, alienation, and a loss of self.

Through these examples of Victorian Literature it is easy to see that each of the classes had
their own problems:
o The poor: trying to find work, food, and better working conditions
o Middle class: finding identity in a new class and bettering themselves

o The rich: alienation, greed, and loss of self

III. Woman question and literature
1. The woman question

A phrase used in connection with a social change in the later half of the 19th century which
questioned the fundamental roles of women in countries such as the United Kingdom, the
United States of America, Canada, and Russia.

In England, the Industrial Revolution brought hundreds of thousands of lower-class women

into factory jobs, presenting a challenge to traditional ideas of a woman's place.

Issues of women's rights dominated cultural discussions in newspapers and intellectual

circles:
o 1857: if men were violent wives could divorce
o 1870: women could keep money they earned
o 1878: if a woman split with her husband, she was allowed to claim money for her
and her children
o 1891: wives were no longer forced to stay with their husband as they had been.

2. Influences on literature

Several writers, especially women writers such as Emily and Charlotte Bronte or George
Eliot (Mary Ann Evans), depicted heroine that didn't embody the ideal Victorian woman
o Jane Eyre - Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
o Catherine Earnshaw - Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
o Maggie Tulliver - The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot

B. Critical Realism
I. Charles Dickens (1812-1870)
-

Being one of the greatest representatives of the English critical realism in Victorian Age

Suffering bitter life as a child and seeing so much evilness in capitalist society

Giving the most vivid picture of everyday life, of the ordinary people of his time in his
works

Famous works: The Pickwick Papers, Oliver Twist, Dombey and Son, Hard Times and A
Tale of Two Cities

II. Dickens Critical Realism in David Copperfield

-

Basing on his early life experiences

Criticizing the vices, hypocrisy and laziness

Showing sympathy with the benevolent, the poor and the innocent

1. The Criticism to the Miserable Family Life

- David lives without fathers love and care (he was born six months after his fathers death)
- He learned at home with his mother
- Marriage of his mother and Mr. Murdston who was stingy and cruel:
+ His study was disrupted
+ His mother could not love him as before
Through the description of David Copperfields miserable family life, Dickens vigorously
criticized the vices and injustices of the capitalist society
-

Besty Davids ant gave him family love and good education at school

The author praised the kindness

2. The Criticism to Childrens Education
* As a child: Family education became ruthless and useless under cruel hearted Mr. Murdston
* At school: - He was under a brutal headmaster
=> David nearly lost the chance of learning knowledge at school
=> This description set off the evilness of school education in capitalist society
- He learned much from society
=> The evil society not only hurt the laboring people, but also created the valiant of
the time. It is the combination of criticizing and idealism.
3. The Criticism to the Capitalist Society
- Dickens draws inhumanity of child labor (overworked and half-starved)
- High class used debt to mutilate other poor people or working class
=> It can be concluded that the inhumane society moulds the evil people
=> Dickens criticized the capitalist society.

C. Feminism
The first wave refers to the movement of 1830-1900 periods (Victorian Age) in the UK, which
dealt mainly with suffrage, working conditions and educational rights for women and girls.
I. Charlotte Bronte
1. Background (year of born, childhood, Bronte sisters, occupation and pen names)
2. Career
- Her typical works: novels, poems.
- Her first approaching to writing.
- Assessment on her works:
+ Standards of English literature
+ Sparkle a movement in feminism in literature.
-Influenced by: William Wordsworth, Lord G. Byron, W. Shakespeare, etc.
II. Feminism- JANE EYRE
1. Definition: Collection of movement aimed at defining, establishing, and defending equal
political, economic, and social rights and equal opportunities for women.
2. Jane Eyre: Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Louisa May Alcott, Emily Dickinson wrote before about
the same theme but not succeed and strongly develop until Charlotte Bronte.
- Defy most of unfair cultural standards: Be ornament of society
Worship the men
Totally depend on their husbands
Womens career is marriage.
Limited education: history, geography.
Ex: + Desire to survive with dignity and liberty and to escape when living in unloving
environment with cruel Aunt Reed.
+ Look for her own career.
+ Perfectly happy as a simple teacher and her own school with a few students.
+ Do not allow her goal to rest solely on marry like many other women.
-

Wish to be equal with men and expresses her viewpoint in word and action. Jane's
commitment to dignity, independence, freedom of choice:

Ex:

+ Be annoyed by Mr. Rochesters jewels and expensive garments on the wedding.

+ Do not define herself by economic status and beauty.

+ Maintain a life without any economic reliance on any other (still Adeles governess
after married Mr. Rochester)
- Defies the Victorian expectation of submitting to a man's will
+ Leave Mr. Rochester: a life of security, promise and a love for unknown.
+ Refuse St. Johns demand for marry for reason of religious views and lack of true love
(Against the unreasonable belief that man have right to take control over women).

Since 1839, the Reform had great changes on marriage law and legal status of
women, they become independent and separate person. However, there no
woman surgeons or physicians, women were confined as nurse. Besides, paying
occupation for them are writer and governess.

Therefore, in Charlotte time, feminism was still desire and hope of individual.