Victorian Literature 1830 1901 (till death of Queen Victoria)

High Victorian Literature: 1830 1880

Late Victorian Literature: 1880 1900
(Victorianism is, perhaps, one of the longest periods of literature).

W. Turner, Rain, Steam and Speed (1844)

What makes this painting Victorian? The focus is on the train, a symbol of industrialization and how
Industrialization transformed the train: transport of people and materials. The country is transformed.
Britain became the workshop of the world, and it was almost literally true.
We can also observe a bridge: in order to negotiate, many sdtructures were built, such as bridges,
channels
There is no visible human figure. Theres nothing else than a train surrounded by smoke and fog.

Turner, The Fighting Tmraire (1838)

Similar atmosphere. A steamboat towing The Fighting Temeraire. Its a symbol of how something almost
insignificant can tow away something big.
Also, a symbol of two periods: putting an end to such a Napoleonic feature. Its the beginning of a new era.
This something coming to an end is also signaled in the sunset.

1. Introduction: Social and historical context

William IV 1830-37 (brother of George IV) > Queen Victoria 1837-1901 > Great Reform
Bill
-

William IV 1830 1837; Queen Victoria 1837-1901

Great Reform Bill of 1832
Political and social events. For many, it marks an end and a beginning.
Also, 1832, Sir Walter Scott died. He was one of the key figures of the
Victorian poets; Tennyson published a collection of poems.
Intended to establish a more liberal legislation (women got vote in 1928).
Industrial advances: advances in machinery, transportation that made
the Industrial Revolution possible. In 1851, Great Exhibition.
At the same time, there were international conflicts
Crimean War (1854-56)
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Indian Mutiny of 1857: bloody series of events marked by cruelty on both

sides.
- All this suggests a system of double standards: tradition, respect, peoples
appearance on the one hand. But behind that decorum, there was also
exploitation and child labor; thats how Britain became the workshop of the
world.
This situation led to a proletarian unrest:
Bread was expensive: Corn Laws kept price of bread high.
Chartist Movement: so as to oput forward more liberal movements in
society, also in parliamentary representation. Almost everybody had an
opinion on this and Charlotte Bronte agreed!
At the same time, there was a triumphant middle class: people getting
seriously rich.
Victorian Sages (Sage: a person who has a lot of wisdom).
-

Church of England lost authority; religious renewal:

John Keble
o Oxford professor; his sermon on national apostasy started the
Oxford Movement (held that Anglican Church was one of 3
branches of Catholic faith) belonging to Church.
Cardinal John Henry Newman
o Wanted return to original Catholic Church of the first centuries.
belonging to Church.
Philosophers, lay preachers:
Thomas Carlyle: Dickens dedicated Hard Times to him.
o He went against the commercial system of the laissez-faire (lack of
intervention that has potentially many risks) and against economic
and political climate in England, in general.
o Attacked Utilitarianism (something is beneficial as long as it has
some utility, a purpose. This is the philosophy that criticizes
Dickens in Hard Times); sympathy with industrial poor.

Charles Darwin, On the Origin of Species (1859) theory of the survival of

the fittest.
John Stuart Mill

o Founder of Utilitarian Society. (In favour of Utilitarianism).

Art critics:
John Ruskin.
Matthew Arnold (Culture and Anarchy, 1869).
o In the 19th century, debate about religious purpose was
fundamental in the moral definition of society and the State in
ways in which it is not now.
o In an earlier essay, Culture and its Enemies he wanted to define
culture as essential; not something that we could acquire for our
own purposes, but as a vehicle to engage with other people a
practical force, not simply theoretical knowledge. Culture = not
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only an abstract level, but something that could be enhanced as to

put people together.
His concept of culture: critical flexibility served to make culture a
practical force. Culture as an active principle of engagement, in
opposition to refined literary escapism. Culture as an internal
condition, but developed as a principle of action which should
inform an enhanced conception of the State.

2. Victorian Poetry
- Matthew Arnold also exposed his opinion on poetry:
The confusion of the present time is great, the multitude of different
voices counseling different things, bewildering. Figures from the
Church, scientific world, economy too many voices expressing their
opinion and thus, difficult to keep track.
Defined Victorian poetry as preoccupied with the dialogue of the mind
with itself. It was as if poetry was needed, as a consequence of all these
ideas.
-

Variety of the Victorian poetry:

Neo-Romantic verse
Social-problem verse the Bront sisters, Dickens, Elliot (Industrial
unrest).
Working-class verse
New Woman verse ***
Decadent, satirical and nonsense verse Poetry was used as a means of
laughing at society.
Arnold also defined the Victorian period, his period, as unpoetic as a
consequence of:
Of the growing prestige of the novel. Success of Dickens, novel was
considered for perhaps the 1st time the most important literary genre.
Realism, which was a mode of writing associated with Victorianism and
became the dominant literary form.
The gap between use and appreciation of poetry and fiction/prose became
more pronounced.
As a consequence, much Victorian poetry was perceived as inadequate.
The novel was considered a much more adequate and immediate vehicle
because of its realism.

On the other hand, Utilitarianists or like-minded philosophers asked what was

the use of poetry:
The aesthetic pleasure was not enough Arnold argued that in a scientific,
Darwinian Victorian period, people turned to poetry to interpret life for us,
to console us, to sustain us He argued that people needed poetry
independently of the kind of poetry.

Innovations in potery:
Use of dramatic monologue: writers disassociation from the speaking
subject(s) of poem.

The poem reveals psychological uncertainties of the self, as a

consequence of the proliferation of voices.
Ambiguities: monologues of madness, desire, menacing passions, moral
conflict, tensions between men and women

John P. OBrien Victorian Lady 3

Related to the new woman verse. It looks like a woman belonging to high-class because of the way shes
dressed and because of the setting (William Morris: carpet designs using leaves, plants); BUT she is looking
outside, as if longing to go there.
There is also reproduction of nature inside the house.
She is surrounded by comfort and commodities but the attitude is that of a person longing for something else:
she is like a prisoner.
We are expecting the new woman finding her voice, fighting for her rights; an active person.
Both ideas of woman coexisted in the Victorian period: angelic and active women. Remember the year 1832:
franchise and suffrage were extended. The suffragette movement was started by women at the end of the 19 th
century.

Contrasts in Victorian Poetry (just to see the huge range of poetry that was
being produced):
Edward Lears Book of Nonsense (1845) (Limerick poetry).
Alfred Tennysons (one of the most famous Victorian poets).
o In Memoriam A. H. H. (1850); elegy for a deceased friend and
lament for the passage of time.
o Idylls of the King (1857).
Coventry Patmores The Angel in the House (1854) angelic woman.
Elizabeth Barrett Brownings novel in verse Aurora Leigh (1856).
Christina Rosettis sensuous fairy-tale poem Goblin Market (1862).
Algernon Charles Swinburnes
o One of the most decadent (late Victorian period, the greatest
decadent: Oscar Wilde) and controversial Poems and Ballads
(1866).

Against idea that poetry should contain any masculine or moral

lesson, which is related to the idea of Art for Arts Sake.
Art for Arts sake movement: art in general and poetry in particular
should be free from demand to be socially useful (utilitarian) Circular
argument, tautology.
Walter Pater, also a key figure:
o All art, including poetry, aspires to the condition of music.
o It affords ephemeral pleasures.
Dante Gabriel Rosetti (Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood), Poems (1870).
William Morris radical Chants for Socialists (1891). For the first time, such
ideas are called socialist.
Rudyard Kiplings nationalist Barrack Room Ballads (1892).
W. B. Yeats modernist poetry.
Thomas Hardys ruralist Wessex Poems and Other Verses (1898).
Oscar Wildes attack or criticism of punitive Victorian society, The Ballad of
Reading Gaol (1898). (Gaol = jail).
o

[Reading of Elizabeth Barret Brownings poem 43 and Christina Rossettis In

Progress. Little theory]

Alfred, Lord Tennyson

-

Succeeded Wordsworth as Poet Laureate in 1850 Wordsworth had a long

life and belonged to a different literary movement but still, these two figures
are put in terms of coexistence. (The Poet Laureate was seen as rejection of
radicalism in Wordsworth).
Tennyson was an extremely popular author; the reading public adored him.
Universally popular; when he died, mourned as the voice of England
Later admired, but also mocked by some Modernists (obviously, a different
movement).
The stress is found in the melancholic emotion; considered a poet of sadness
and loss; introspection and reflections on the passing of time were the marks
of most of his poetry.
Great stress in musicality; primary interest/stress in feelings.
Many poems deal with death-like states or with death as release as the
termination of that suffering.
In Memoriam A. H. H. (Arthur Henry Hallam, who was a close friend of
Tennyson. )(1850). Dramatises struggle of Faith and Doubt (about Christianity
and human destiny).
Close friend Arthur Hallam died at 22, buried near Tintern Abbey
(reminiscence of Wordsworth).
Like Wordsworth (and Eliot and Hardy) he sees by glimpses and
remembers. Similar formulation about the moment of imagination so as
to write poetry.
Maud (1855), Enoch Arden (1864), Idylls of the King (1888) are other of his
poems.

[Reading of The Charge of the Light Brigade and The Splendor Falls].
3. Charles Dickens (1812 1870)
The Social or Condition of England Novel
-

Philosopher Thomas Carlyle coined term the Condition of England question.

Social realism was not the rule in Victorian England. But in fiction, there was
no tradition such as to illustrate the social realism.
Despite the many reports on the London poor or the conditions in
Manchester. Manchester was maybe the most powerful example of city
that reflects the effects of the Industrialization. There was a lot of
information, many reports; but in terms of fiction, nothing.
However, there were a few examples of novels that dealt with such situations
and that concentrated on changes in society and the relationships and
dealings between different social classes. Concentrates on changes in society,
examines relationships and issues of class:
Charles Dickens
Elisabeth Gaskell. Mostly famous for writing:
o Mary Barton (set in Manchester), North and South (North is more
Industrialized).
George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans) also wrote such novels or novels that
contained examples of Condition of England. He was quite prolific.
o Middlemarch, The Mill on the Floss, Daniel Deronda, Felix Holt,
Radical.

Charles Dickens,
Oliver Twist (1837)
Photogram from Polanskis adaptation:
- Idea of how people lived without exaggeration: no house, no Money top ay for rents People would spend the day just
sitting around.
- Condensed image/metaphor: many people were drunk, spending the Little Money they had on drinks.
- Sanitarization was less than primitive: infections were frequent, children walking barefoot

- We see Oliver Twist following the pickpocket. Theres an older man who has some children working for him.

Details on the author:

-

Wrote and most powerfully about settings he knew intimately, in particular

London (not Hard Times).
Also, writes about his personal experience:
Father imprisoned for debt; Charles Dickens himself had to work as a boy
at a blacking factory that experience left him with a kind of emotional
wound, a mental scar of shame and humiliation. For this reason, he
characterizes many children as lost, neglected or maltreated in his novels
as a kind of reflection of his own biography.
Then he became a Parliamentary reporter & minor journalist; having firsthand-access access and full-knowledge of the developments of the time
JOURNALISTIC APPROACH OF EVENTS: very visible in Hard Times. For
instance, many of the incidents of Stephen Blackpool have to do with
events taking place in the Parliament regarding social classes. Thus,
Dickens included or incorporated such debates in the plots, in debates or
in conversations in his novels Contact between reality and fiction
(events that belonged in reality were included in his fiction.
Novels published in installments: The interest in the readers was increased,
and so was the income. (It was a demanding method hated by George Elliot).
Dickens was writing sometimes three at a time; he was very prolific and a
publishing sensation.
He was also an amateur actor and public orator and reader. A celebrity
who did semi-dramatized readings of his novels.
Showed frantic energy which took its toll. His health suffered from his high
rhythm, a very demanding workload. Nonetheless, Dickens enjoyed this
method.

Dickens England: the England that he wrote about.

-

The Industrial Revolution and the Condition of England:

Country transformed between 1812 (middle of Romantic Movement) and
1870 almost beyond recognition.
Explosion in population (as well as Industrial centers and the means of
transportation), people had to move from land to cities, overcrowding,
dissolution of family units that have to move away so as to work, illness
and poverty (they could just make do).
Marx believed that the Industrial Revolution would lead to a social
revolution. For the first time we talk about working classes! We would talk
about employed people, farmers But its not until Marx at around 185060s that we talk about this term. Rise of middle classes, revolution
taken over by working classes.
In this context, Dickens wrote his novels. He was neither an intellectual nor a
reformer (be careful how we describe him!), but:
Hugely influential.
Readers came from all sectors of society.
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Dickens was criticised over his sentimentality:

A critic said his theme always that people should be nicer to each other
(disparaging).
But reputation as greatest author of the time never endangered.
Reputation at universities is still secure. Hes human, enjoyable and still
readable.
Major works: (know a few, maybe short question in exam).

Charles Dickens Hard Times (1854)

-

Criticism of:
Utilitarian philosophy (John Stuart Mill): the greatest good for the greatest
number; judging things according to their practicality.
Factory conditions, trade unions.
Divorce laws and religious organisations.
Society of self-interest: Bitzer (?????).
Fact vs. Fancy (which is one of the themes).
Reception: two views according to Marxist criticism. In the novel, plenty of
characters take place so this leads to various opinions.
1) Novel written in a hurry, no proper research, Charles Dickens unfair to
both trade unions and working people. (A consequence of research
process/composition).
2) Story of social inequality taken over by melodramatic love story social
criticism superficial. (A consequence of themes & characters used).
Louisa and Bounderby Harthouse; Stephen Rachel: these love
stories take over the theme, which is weakened with the consequence
that social criticism is superficial because of this overlapping.
Alternative 3) view:
o Hurried writing makes novel more direct, the message is more
straight-forward; criticizes savagely new industrial philosophy that
treats workers as numbers and machines. Its as if the novel was
written similar to a fable: schematic characters that help
communicate the message in a more straight-forward way.
o Pleads for fantasy and imagination, shows burden of mental and
physical imprisonment of society imposed by Industrial Revolution.
Another clear message that we get from such a schematic
approach: that the Industrial Revolution brings mental and physical
imprisonment of society.

Gradgrind apprehends his children.

Great Expectations (1861) (many of these points are in common with Hard Times, but
not all of them!!!)
-

Great Expectations calls into question aspirations of his money-obsessed

society.
A bildungsroman
Search for self or identity, as in Oliver Twist, Nicholas Nickleby or David
Copperfield.
Fortunes of central characters in struggle to define themselves.
Charles Dickens calls into question aspirations of his money-obsessed society:
Oliver prospers in middle-class respectability and environment
but Pip triumphs in his return to his roots: Joe, Biddy and village.
Themes of search for identity and expansion of middle class overlap with
definition of a gentleman Issues of class and a few characters that
consider themselves a Great man whereas their attitude is despicable
(as Mr. Bounderby or Harthouse). On the other hand, there is Stephen
Blackpool with his integrity, respect and patience.
o Familiar class distinctions were breaking down (Ind. Rev., new
careers, reforms in church, army, civil service).
o Dickens read Samuel Smiles, Self-Help (1859): Riches and rank
have no necessary connection with genuine gentlemanly qualities.
The poor man may be a true gentleman in spirit and in daily life.
o Is there a gentleman in G.E.?

Literary criticism of Great Expectations:

-

Characters
One-dimensional characters or caricatures.
Use of label names.
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Unfair to female characters.

Characterisation, much of the source of Charles Dickenss humor.
Themes (hand in hand with characters).
Benevolence: (overgeneralization of people should be nicer to each
other) as Charles Dickens grows older, more pessimistic.
o Victory of goodness is less overwhelming; social pressures
outweigh power of the individual.
o BUT never lost admiration of benevolent man or woman (there are
always such characters in his novels).
*In Hard Times theres a balance between fact and fancy. Mr.
Gradgrind is a good example: too much fact will not lead to
happiness, and both his children are examples of this statement.
*Stephen, accused of robbing the bank and dying in the end and
his unhappy life: he suffered more than the average and his
death is the culmination.
*Louisa becomes very cynical from the beginning and all the
indications lead us to believe she wont be happy, which is what
eventually happens. Louisa ends up being happy around Sissy
and Sissys children.
Children. Charles Dickens had a Romantic view:
o They are unsullied part of humanity; society, sin and decay can be
measured by how they affect children.
*Sissy is an example of emotion and fancy vs. Louisa, who
exemplifies fact. Its interesting that in Hard Times the reader
experiences how these children grow old/up.
Prisons: symbol of mans inhumanity to man.
The law: criticised as a system run for its own benefit, not that of
individuals. E.g. The issue of divorce with Stephen Blackpool. The
importance of this passage is that Mr. Bounderby tells him that because of
his condition he wont be able to divorce and then ends up divorcing from
Louisa himself.
Wealth and its effect on the individual
o Novel ironic in that Pips wealth comes from all he despises.
o Harthouse, Tom, Mr. Bounderby, Mrs. Sparsit (more with her social
position than wealth) gentlemanly values. What makes you a
gentleman? Money or your attitude and actions?
Notable characterisation
Miss Havisham.
Joe Gargery, Herbert Pocket.
Ambiguous ending
Altered ending, generally held to be a mistake (G.E.)
A happy ending, but overall vision of novel is somber (G.E. + H.T.)
*Stephen.
*Mrs. Sparsit: example of self-interest (used for the sake of humor; we dont
feel sorry for her).
*Louisa.
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*Rachel: suffering woman. While Stephen lives and after his death. She is not
a caricature but her character is exaggerated in terms of suffering, the same
with Stephen.
*Tom.

Is it pessimistic or optimistic? How do we feel after reading the novel?

NARRATIVE CONFLICTS:
*Paradoxes of Sissy and Louisa. The issue of Sissys father is constantly
brought up by the bottle of the seven oils and the reader assumes that he
has died. Despite that, Sissy ends up being, apparently, the happiest
character.
Louisa, on the other hand, was brought up by her fathers philosophy and
she does not live a happy life.
Marxist criticism.
Hard Times is maybe the most clearly social novel, overtly containing social
criticism. Marxist criticism started at the time of the novel and the text
depicts such ideals in a clear way.
Feminist criticism on his formulation of female characters.
*Rachel.
*Mrs. Sparsit.
*Louisa.
Postcolonial criticism.
Edward Said in Orientalism (1978) emphasises importance of Australia:
o Source of Pips great expectations, as penal colony where
Magwitch is transported.

[Fragment of North and South series:

Similar to Hard Times: extreme views of the opposition between the green and polite
South and the Industrial North.
Margarets mother says: In the North, they dont want books nor culture. They only
want money and smoke; thats what they eat. Similar to characters such as
Bounderby. ]
NOTES ON CHARLES DICKENSS HARD TIMES:
Structure of the novel in three books. It follows agricultural cycles vs. the world of
machines. Like the harvesting (= recoleccin o siega) of ideas or events.
- Sowing (= poca de siembra). The first scene on education. Now, what I want is
Facts. Plant nothing else, and root out everything else. (such as fancies and feelings,
page 208 What have you done, O father, what have you done with the garden that
should have bloomed once, in this great wilderness here!).
- Reaping (= siega).
- Garnering (= recllecting fruits).
Because of these titles, we are constantly reminded of the agricultural cycles and the
natural image in contrast with the world of machines, devoid of any human feeling,

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totally inhuman. The metaphor is that what you plant, these children are going to
develop in a way or another.
Coketown is based on Preston, on Lancashire, which Dickens visited; an industrial area
which inspired him. More than criticizing utilitarianism its an exaggeration of that
philosophy.
The novel was criticized for its socialism. However, its not a social novel: there is an
attack on politicians but also on the trade Unions (both sides are criticized by Dickens
himself).
Another view that critics in modern time criticize is that Dickens didnt portray all the
problems: he failed to analyze all the problems but its true that he did reflect on the
problems derived from massive industrialization. At the same time, its not
realistic/documentary on a situation. Its more from a theatrical approach, a caricature
slightly melodramatic at some point. There are symbols as well as a moral message
which detracts from a realistic novel.
There are also commentaries on religion and religious associations. The first two
chapters have biblical references and theres a reference to the good Samaritan.
References to the Bible as a source of moral teaching. And critics suggest that Dickens
makes use of this to suggest that England has abandoned the Christian ideas in order
to embrace the philosophy of Fact.
At the same time, Dickens also criticizes the many religious dominations such as the
sabbatharians (a faith which said that people had to respect the Sabbath: activities
were restricted on Sundays because people had to go to mass; but for instance Sissy
and Rachel take a walk even if its Sunday (page 256). A similar movement: the
Teetotal society, which prohibited drinking alcohol.
We dont really have information on what is produced in Coketown, and its a bit of a
paradox that we have a Condition of England Novel and no specific or precise
descriptions of the process of production. Counter message to Industrialization:
- Circus, presented with positive tone, opposed to Industrialization.
- The Trade Union, almost ridicule (the speaker).
We can distribute the characters of the novel according to Fact or Fancy (or both).
-

Mr Gradgrind: has to adapd his philosophy towards the end because Louisa
lives an unhappy life. There is also the conflict with Tom. Both his older
children impose a challenge to his philosophy: Tom cheats, steals Hes
totally a dishonest person. Page 10: Thomas Gradgrind, sir. A man of
realities. A man of fact and calculations. A man who proceeds upon the
principle that two and two are four, and nothing over, and who is not to be
talked into allowing for anything lower.
He grinds information and even personalities.
Mrs. Gradgrind: Presented as a caricature. An example of victim of an
excessive belief in facts. Pages 21, 57. I beg of you, Louisa, to do nothing of
that description, for goodness sake you inconsiderate girl, or I shall never
hear the last of it from your father.
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Sissy (Cecilia Jupe): Addressed by number. Its ironic that she, belonging to
the circus, is not able to describe a horse in school. Pages 11-12. Girl number
twenty unable to define a horse. Bitzers description of the horse:
Quadruped. Graminivorous. Forty teeth, namely twenty-four grinders, four
eye-teeth, and twelve incisive. Sheds coat in the spring; in marshy countries,
sheds hoofs, too. Hoofs hard, but requiring to be shod with iron. Age known
by marks in mouth.
Sissy sees beyond facts. Page 60. If there is misery involved, she cannot only
see the numbers. I thought I couldnt know whether it was a prosperous
nation or no, and whether I was in a thriving state or not, unless I knew who
had the money, and whether any of it was mine. [] It was not in the figures
at all.
whats her role in the novel? The situation and the relationship between her
and Louisa changes. When Louisa decides to marry Bounderby, Sissy is
shocked and Louisa feels embarrassed. From this moment onwards, their
intimacy stops to be resumed later in the novel again: Sissy is practical and
knows what to do; shes a matter-of-fact person, a clear-minded, clear-headed
person. Contradictory to her role as belonging to fancy (because of the
circus). SYMBOLOGY: Cecilia is Saint of the Music and also, Sissy
resembles sister.
Mr. Bounderby + Mrs. Sparsit: because of how she exploits her origin and her
social pedigree and the way she follows Bounderby; shes living of the
generosity of him. Corilinian nose and idea of sparse, limited. She calls
Bounderby Noodle (page 191). Importance of the stairs and Louisa (page
193). She sees Louisa descending stairs.
Bounderby: bounder, someone whose social behavior is seen as unpleasant.
Hes always telling his life story and refers to himself as Mr Bounderby of
Coketown.
Louisa is between fact and fancy because of her life. Image of FIRE: in most
cases, the physical fire which Louisa herself and Tom look at. Symbol of
thinking, reflecting. She marries Bounderby because of her father and
because of Tom, the two persons that she loves the most.
Tom: belongs to idea of facts. Hes referred to as a whelp.
Pritzer: Misunderstood utilitarianism. Belongs to Fact.
Rachel: Not really fanciful. Referred to as an angel and always wearing black.
Mr. Sleary: Fancy. The circus is a business related to fancy but its still
business. Dubious issue when he helps Tom get away.
Stephen Blackpool: he would go hand in hand with Rachel. Page 66: Stephen
looked older, but he had had a hard life. It is said that every life has its roses
and thorns; there seemed, however, to have been a misadventure or mistake
in Stephens case, whereby somebody else had become possessed of his
roses, and he had become possessed of the same somebody elses thorns in
addition to his own. He had known, to use his words, a peck of trouble. He
was usually called Old Stephen, in a kind of rough homage to the fact.
He always says that its all a muddle, very confusing. Also, he speaks in
dialect close to the North. Stephen was stoned, similar to a martyr, because
he opposed the authorities. His accident was not at all uncommon at that
time.
13

Harthouse: fanciful life.

Symbols of the narrative:

-

Serpent together with the Melancholy elephant represents the factories in

Coketown, the black/grey coil and the smoke resulting from burning coke. The
elephants represent the machines going up and down, non-stop.
Pegasus (page 33): represents the world of fancy of the circus, related to
mythology. In opposition with Sissys horse.
Fire: object of contemplation of future and decisions.
Page 19: A fire with nothing to burn, a starved imagination keeping life in
itself somehow, which brightened its expression Imagination.
Also, real, physical fire in front of which they sit.
The one in the factories in Coketown.
The fairy lights (description of Coketown).

Main narrative conflicts:

-

Tom - Louisa.
Conflict between they both when he robbed the bank.
Both of them with Mr Gradgrind, because of his philosophy.
How are these conflicts resolved? Tom dies alone and, on the other hand,
Louisa has a kind of surrogate family. Her conflict is more central to the
novel.
Stephen wife Rachel.
Inability to remarry because he cannot afford a divorce. The wife is a drunk
who does not love Stephen anymore.
Louisa Harthouse.
Sissy her father.
Not resolved, but assumed that he dies when Merrylegs, the dog, comes
back alone. The presence of the 7 oils is a constant reminder of this story.
Stephen Union Bounderby.
Stephen ends up dead because of the accusation of robbing the bank.
Sissy Gradgrind.
Bounderby Mrs Sparsit.
Bounderby Mother.
Louisa Sissy.
Their relationship evolves throughout the novel.

***** In-class commentary, page 256 *****

Beginning of chapter 6, The Starlight. Importance of previous and following
fragments: they are about to find Stephen. Its just the previous moment of the
narrative of a resolution of one of the conflicts in the novel. Theres a contrast between
the previous, dramatic fragment when they wonder where Stephen is, and this
fragment, where the description Is more peaceful. This idea of everything stopping
before something major/essential happens comes from a famous essay of the time:
Thomas De Quincey, On the Knocking at the Gate in Macbeth. Its as if the positive

14

fragment is going to be tainted with tragedy. The quietness and peace seems to stop
everything else and creates tension when they find Stephen.
Remember:
Identification + Contextualization: of the novel in that period and of the fragment in the
novel (+ its relevance). With Dickens its easy to combine with the theory: 1854, a
Victorian novel, related to Industrial Revolution, Coketown, described as monotonous,
inhabited by people who always do the same, representative of the Ind. Rev. and not
real but imitating the city of Lancashire.
Whose point of view do we have? Sissys and Rachels. Its a description of the outskirts
of the city, totally opposed to the one from Messrs Bounderby and Gradgrind on page
27: Town of red brick, [] unnatural red and black, [] serpents of smoke, [] a river
that ran purple with ill-smelling dye, [] like the head of an elephant in a state of
melancholy madness, [] all very like one another. Here, in the fragment of page 256,
there is criticism of the restrictions and an intrusive narrator There were larks singing
(though it was Sunday). Also, criticism of the many religious societies: reference to
activities that take place on Sundays: people should not do anything enjoyable on
Sunday, but Dickens says that there is nothing wrong with that (again, intrusive
narrator).
The positive lexical field of the green landscape, the blue sky and still, the description
reminds us of the area of Coketown here and there with heaps of coal [] Engines at
pits mouths . (the whole area has been perforated to find lodes of coke). The reason
for the excessive positive terms is because of The two charcters that appear in the
fragment are Rachel and Sissy. Rachel is an exemplary woman associated with feelings
and warmth. Sissy comes from a fancy background, the circus. These characters are
in the countryside, outside Coketown, and they fit naturally in such an environment.
Its a preparation for Stephens discovery.
There is also a prolepsis of Toms escape: the far-off sea. Tom runs away overseas,
maybe to the colonies.
Coketown is like a sin for everything: the ashes and the penance remind us of
easter. How sinful is it to have a place like Coketown! But also literal meaning, because
there were ashes all over Coketown. This city is a misguided consequence of the
Industrialization and the utilitarianism: although these were well-intended, the
consequences were negative. Coketown is a sin itself and its putting penance on other
people as well. Its not life, its penance.
[With Coketowns description of page 27, beginning of chapter 5 The Key-note was
ironic.]
The lexical field related to senses is unusual because its not related to facts: coal,
green, singing, scents, fresh.
There are also references to the cardinal points: at one side the city, at the other
side, the hills. Then the sea, related to another passage, the resolution of Toms
conflict.

15

The female charcters of Sissy and Rachel are not exaggerated nor caricaturized, but
they are schematic. Stephen, on the other hand, reminds us of a martyr. He dies
because of someone elses sins, its a tragedy (relate with title of book the third
Garnering.

4. Victorian Fiction: Charlotte, Emily and Anne Bront

Victorian Novelists:
-

George Eliot
Adam Bede, The Lifted Veil (1859)
Silas Marner, The Weaver of Raveloe (1861)
Felix Holt, the Radical (1866)
***Middlemarch (1871-2)
The Bront sisters
W. M. Thackeray
Anthony Trollope
Barchester Towers (one of the Barchestershire novels). Imaginary country.
Point out how he creates names with special traits: Proudie, Quiverfull,
Slope, Bold
About bickering of provincial Anglical clergy over control of the diocese
and Evangelical reform Religion and the practice of religion was one of
the key areas of the period.
Charles Dickens: together with Jane Austen, one of the key writers. (know
titles)!!!
Hard Times (1854)
Great Expectations (1860)
Elizabeth Gaskell
The Victorian novel like a moral history of modern life: in many novels,
changes from Industrialization, life of workers and their conditions were the
topics discussed. Little towns such as Coketown suffered the consequences of
Industrialization; larger cities as well, but not in such a great way. Nowadays,
the artistic value is debated, at least in general terms. Regardless of this, the
novel was very popular at the time:

The novel as a genre gained in the 1840s the popularity of 1740s

o

Between 1847 and 1850: Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, Vanity Fair
and David Copperfield.

The popularity of realistic novel seems to go with broadening middle-class

democracy .

16

There was an eager, larger than before, reading public: the more extensive
the middle class, the greater acceptance of the novel. The two go hand in
hand.

Fed with serials and three-decker novels; authors were prolific.

o

As a consequence, the quality was not always consistent, neither in

fiction nor in verse.

Novel was a major entertainment form and books became big business.

Dickens and Eliot made millions, but most Victorian writers had a
profession (another than writing).

William Makepeace Thackeray (1811 1863) (focus only on power point).

-

Sketchwriter and caricaturist for Punch.

Work full of war references
To Seven Years War (1756-63) in Barry Lyndon (1852)
To Battle of Waterloo (1815) in Vanity Fair (1847-48)
To War of American Independence (1775-83) in The Virginians (1857)
Unlike other Victorians, does not show people behaving well.
Vanity Fair, a Novel without a Hero
Satire on ancient theme of upward social mobility (social climbers).
Fortunes of Becky Sharp, a fearless, unscrupulous social climber; opposed
to Amelia Sedley, mild and decent.
Regency (1811-20) society presented as heartless, driven by money and
pleasure.

Elizabeth Gaskell (1810 1865): the Industrial Novel (already mentioned in the
Condition of England novel).
-

Together with F. Engels, the most memorable contemporary observer of

Manchester, which Carlyle called a sublime, prophetic city. Manchester
was taken as an example of what the country could develop epitome of
what the excess of Industrialization could make, as well as Liverpool.
Mary Barton: A Tale of Manchester Life (1848)
Describes lives of some of those who elbowed me daily in the busy
streets of the town. She uses herself as a character in the novel.
Looks back on Hungry Forties, middle-class indifference, emigration and
distress.
Frankness about prejudices of both mill-owners and mill-workers: she does
not present one side as good and the other side as bad; both have
prejudices.
1848 marked climax of Chartism. Also peack of revolutions through
Europe.
North and South (1855)
17

Distinction between rural, deferential, traditionally stratified southern

England and industrial, pushy, class-conscious North.
Life of Charlotte Brnte (1857): biography of her friend.

Charlotte Bront (1816-55) (Focus on her and Emily, not so much on Ann).
Their father had quite a considerable library at home and the sisters created
their own imaginary world. They took refuge on culture to escape the boredom and
limits of their town.
-

Shirley, Villette, The Professor

Jane Eyre (1847). Elements of Chartism.
First person autobiography of the character, not the author. Its a novel of
developments, a Bildungsroman (Victorian realism favoured this, very
popular in Victorian times, as Great Expectations).
Remember that were dealing with a writer whos not supposed to be
writing about such topics (and the same and even more applies to her
sister). She was young, unexperienced and living in such a place. Then,
suddenly, she writes about these very strong minded female protagonists
opposing the abuse of authority (whether an upper-class relative, a
priest But, theres always an explanation. Shes an orphan and its not
the use of authority that she criticizes, but the abuse of it).
Orphan heroine suffers, is tested, and triumphs.
Opposes the misuse of authority:
o an aunt, a clergyman, an employer or an admirer.
Puts conscience before love
o Refuses to become Rochesters mistress. The major conflict, when
she falls in love with Rochester, whos already married. He has
hidden it to her and to the reader, but Janes in love with him.
Rochester himself has a difficult situation: his wife is a lunatic and
instead of sending her to an asylum , he hides her in one of the
wings of the mansion (the wife is Bertha Mason and this conflict of
the wife hidden is the main gothic element in the novel. We also
have to take into account that we only know the point of view of
Rochester but not Berthas).
o Jane also refuses to accompany St John Rivers on his mission to
India.
o Finally returns to Rochester when he is free and in need (after his
house is burnt by Bertha).
o The Bronts life was Gothic: lost their mother, strict father, two
elder sister who had died while on board school, a male brother
with financial problems (opium).

*Settings and plot in Jane Eyre. In the title of each setting there are clues on the rites of
passage that mark a transition on Jane:
-

Gateshead (gate, transition)

18

Jane lives as an orphan thanks to the charity of the family but they
consider her inferior and dont love her.
Aunt Reed, cousin John (rude and violent), Bessie (the only one that
shows affection towards her).
First rite of passage (Red Room); seen with whats left of her family. Jane
was punished and locked up there. Its the first imposition of authority
(misused) and its a moment of terror for her. Many feminist critics relate
this room with menstruation.
Lowood (low mood). Its an orphanage.
Mr Brocklehurst kind of calvinist clergyman and the ruler of the
orphanage. Everything that he preaches against is what his family
has; vanity.
Helen Burns Jane befriends her. The surname is metaphor of death and
of affection. Its the first time that Jane loves passionately and ends up
suffering. Jane is left alone.
Leaves family behind; second rite of passage (humiliation). Jane becomes
a teacher there and at some point decides that she needs to go
somewhere beyond Lowood.
Thornfield Hall (field of thorns)
Greatest happiness of Jane is her falling in love with Rochester and
its a reciprocated love. She will suffer again. Rochester is the prototypical
Byronic hero: attractive, cultured BUT with a mistery, something that is
not clear and that perhaps makes him even more attractive.
Adleis the ward of Rochester. Not her daughter, but hes compassionate.
Hes her guardian.
Mrs Fairfax is a distant relative and the housekeeper.
Blanche Ingram is to make Jane jealous. Shes everything that Jane is not,
but neither she loves Rochester nor he loves her.
Bertha Mason the wife and a mistery.
Love is the main rite of passage (and the loneliness on the moors). Jane is
put to physical danger because she abandons everything. She only has her
clothes but nothing else and she wonders brokenhearted at the moors
(where the Bronte sisters used to live). She is rescued from peope from the
Moor House.
Moor House
Diana and St John Rivers. The Rivers.
Place where coincidence happens. The Rivers are her cousins but not only
that An uncle of Jane in the West Indies has made a fortune and he
wants her to be named her inheritor. He contacted aunt Reed but she told
him that Jane had died Its a moment of reacquisition of family and
enrichment.
Eyre = heiress.
St John is a clergyman and asks her to marry him. They dont love each
other but he would be a good husband to her. And she thinks what has
love brought to me anyway? Nothing. However, she hears a telepathic
message of Rochester and she goes to find him.
Ferndean Manor (vegetation is very dense)

19

We observe a reversed fairytale: the Lady rescues the Prince. As she

learns, tragedy had stroked at Thornfield Hall. Bertha set fire to the house
and Jane finds a maimed Rochester (hand and eye). He has come very low:
physically. He is jealous and proposes again. Now, more or less, hes
symbolically at the same level as her. Now she has everything she didnt
have: family and wealth.
Jane Eyre stands completely on her own. Shes married Rochester because
she wanted but she could have been independent.
Gothic elements: Jane Eyre is together with Frankenstein the prototype of
gothic novel:
Red room
Master & creole wife.
Bigamy.
Telepathic call: interest from Charlotte Bronte on pseudoscience.
Fire: as symbol of purifying element. Thornfield is, after all, the place
where bigamy is proposed.
Life of the Bronts was gothic (Refuge on their own fantasy world.)
Bertha and Jane as double gangers: same as Viktor Frankenstein and the
monster, Dr J and Mr Hide It was like the Victorian double morality. Below
the surface there was Jack the ripper, child labour, prostitution,
industrialization When with Jane there are constrints, Bertha dares doing
it. Some critics claim that this may be the reason why shes been locked
up
A Bildungsroman
A novel of development
o From childhood and innocence to maturity and experience.
o At the time, restlessness and willing to achieve something else is
opposed to the idea of angel in the house. And so is Jane!
o A female bildungsroman, one of the first in Western literature.
Jane Eyre keeps her name even after marriage.
o Flinches when she hears Rochester call her Jane Rochester (doesnt
like it).
o Her way towards becoming a heroine, and an heiress.
o Reader, I married him. This kind of epilogue or coda after the
novel means that the agent of the action of marrying was her, not
we or he marrying her. Its unusual at the time.
o Novel criticised for Jane Eyres pride, seen as a vice. Jane Eyre is
considered as a particular, one of a kind character
Interpretation
Postmodernism: novel can be read in different keys
o Realist, Gothic, fairy-tale, feminist, post-colonial, romance.
Seems contradictory that both realist and Gothic at the same time!
But its Gothic mainly because of Bertha. Fairy-tale because of all
the coincidences at the end. Post-colonial also because of Bertha:
she comes from the West Indies, shes a Creole. Feminist because
of the lack of Berthas version (Jean Rhyps Wide Sargasso Sea).
20

Romance because of the traditional meaning of romance:

traditional, with symbols
What critics have pointed out
There was no possibility of taking a walk that day. The very first
sentence of the novel is negative, almost as a lait-motif in Jane Eyres life.
What does Bessie say Ive done? Bessie was the servant in charge of
the children. Jane was frequently accused of lying and most of the times,
she was wrongly accused. Its a sentence that Jane says once her aunt
accuses her.
Analysts say that its quite unusual for a child to confront an adult in
Victorian times (children were supposed to be seen but not heard).
Novel closes with reference to St John .
The whole novel is around romance and still, the last word of the momoir
that Jane writes is about St John. Its a prayer for his death as a good
missionaire and in terms of narrative conflict, it seems a weird ending. But
the Christian message is there.
o Victorian morality (Christian message).
o Rochester ends up half blind and maimed: handicapped, his pride
has been punished (Christian message).
Images of cold and fire
Constant throughout the novel. Cold, when Jane leaves and wonders
around the moors and also, cold comes usually as a lack of affection/love
and in contrast, Helen Burns (warm). As we get closer to the house,
warmth is transformed into fire, with sexual connotations (idea of the
doppelganger, opposites that complement each other). Also, fire is
symbolically purifying: the house is destroyed by fire as well as all the
pride an ambition of Rochester is punished.
From the 1960s many critics interested, especially feminist. Sandra Gilbert
and Susan Gubar: The Madwoman in the Attic. We dont have Berthas
version of why shes been put to the margins and kept silent. Maybe shes
been misunderstood.
Its interesting that the novel was dedicated to W.M. Thackeray without
Cahrlotte Bront knowing that his wife was a lunatic.

Emily Bront (1818-1848) -Wuthering Heights (1847)

(All the passion mentioned in Jane Eyre is nothing compared to Wuthering Heights).

Very good example of Victorian Gothic. Pure Gothic with the exception of
some passages. The novel is even depressing. Jane Eyre had just some Gothic
elements (Bertha Mason and mysteries surrounding her).
Landscape: Wordsworths sensitivity plus meaning. Emphasis on rage and
extreme passions and emotions.
Mixture of emotional extremism + realism
First considered morbid and violent, then reassessed. The novel was later
studied and the conclusion was that it fuses romance (ingredients
belonging to primitive examples of novels such as simplistic plot,
exaggerations, coincidences) and realism.
Complexity of the narration
21

The novel opens with a character, Lockwood, who bought a property in the
moors. Hes from London and got lost at the moors. The novel is narrated
by him. While lost and in the middle of a storm, he stumbles upon
Wuthering Heights, home of his landlord Heathcliff.
Genteel southern English conventions do not apply in Northern moors
(rough behavior); however, hes left inside and put in a room not used for a
long time, not welcoming. He gets woken up and a ghost holds his hand
and hurts him; blood everywhere Im Cathy, let me in. Lockwood then
asks Nelly, the housekeeper, whether she believes death can come back.
Narration then taken up by housekeeper Nelly Dean. The story of Cathy
will then be narrated.
Interlocked destinies of Earnshaw and Linton families;
o Tale of three generations of two families whose relations are
wrecked by suitable but fatal marriage of Cahterine Earnshaw of
Wuthering Heights to Edgar Linton of Thrushcross Grange.
o Edgar Linton and Catherine marry. Heathcliff was found as a boy in
Liverpool, of unknown origin and is intended to be Catherines
brother. They grow up, fall in love with each other BUT Catherine is
proud and wants to be a lady. So the Lintons come in. Edgar Linton
is the opposite of Heathcliff. Cathy is not attracted to him but he
can provide her with wealth, which is what she wants. The conflict
is that Heathcliff will revenge his rejection for three generations.
He left and came back with a fortune of unknown origin. At the
end, Heathcliff asks himself if all that much hatred was worth it.
Even Emilys sister Charlotte Bront mentioned/criticised horror of great
darkness that hangs over the work.
Heathcliffs hatred dies with him; books madness and cruelty are not
endorsed (=aprobado, respaldado) by Emily Bront, but they remain
disturbing.
Eventually, two or more characters share the same name, which creates
confusion. However, its intentional: the author wanted to provoke this
feeling in the reader. There are various narrators but, as opposed to
Frankenstein, its not stated whos talking at the moment.
Theres situational irony: the info given to a character is not the same as a
reader is given. Its usually vital information, as in the following fragment
when Heathcliff overhears Catherine without her knowing that he can hear
her:
Ive no more business to marry Edgar Linton than I have to be in heaven;
and if the wicked man in there had not brought Heathcliff so low, I
shouldnt have thought of it. It would degrade me to marry Heathcliff now;
so he shall never know how I love him; and that, not because hes
handsome, Nelly, but because hes more myself than I am.

My love for Linton is like the foliage in the woods; time will change it, Im
well aware, as winter changes the trees. My love for Heathcliff resembles the
eternal rocks beneath a source of little visible delight, but necessary. Nelly, I

22

am Heathcliff! Hes always, always in my mind not as a pleasure, any more

than I am always a pleasure to myself, but as my own being.
-

This time, I remembered I was lying in the oak closet, and I heard distinctly
the gusty wind, and the driving of the snow; I heard, also, the fir bough repeat
its teasing sound, and ascribed it to the right cause: but it annoyed me so
much, that I resolved to silence it, if possible; and, I thought, I rose and
endeavoured to unhasp the casement. The hook was soldered into the staple:
a circumstance observed by me when awake, but forgotten. `I must stop it,
nevertheless!' I muttered, knocking my knuckles through the glass, and
stretching an arm out to seize the importunate branch; instead of which, my
fingers closed on the fingers of a little, ice-cold hand! The intense horror of
nightmare came over me: I tried to draw back my arm, but the hand clung to
it, and a most melancholy voice sobbed, `Let me in--let me in!' `Who are
you?' I asked, struggling, meanwhile, to disengage myself. `Catherine Linton,'
it replied, shiveringly [] ' As it spoke, I discerned, obscurely, a child's face
looking through the window. Terror made me cruel; and, finding it useless to
attempt shaking the creature off, I pulled its wrist on to the broken pane, and
rubbed it to and fro till the blood ran down and soaked the bedclothes: still it
wailed, `Let me in!' and maintained its tenacious grip, almost maddening me
with fear. [] `It is twenty years,' mourned the voice: `twenty years. I've
been a waif for twenty years!' Thereat began a feeble scratching outside, and
the pile of books moved as if thrust forward. I tried to jump up; but could not
stir a limb; and so yelled aloud, in a frenzy of fright. To my confusion, I
discovered the yell was not ideal: hasty footsteps approached my chamber
door; somebody pushed it open, with a vigorous hand, and a light glimmered
through the squares at the top of the bed. I sat shuddering yet, and wiping
the perspiration from my forehead. [] Heathcliff stood near the entrance, in
his shirt and trousers: with a candle dripping over his fingers, and his face as
white as the wall behind him. The first creak of the oak startled him like an
electric shock! the light leaped from his hold to a distance of some feet, and
his agitation was so extreme, that he could hardly pick it up.

John Sutherland: Is Heathcliff a murderer? (Text).

George Eliot - (1819-1880)

-

Pen name of Mary Ann Evans.

Together with Charles Dickens, key figure of Victorian fiction. Very prolific:
famous enough to live on her writing novels.
Hailed in her time as one of the great living novelists (and even nowadays).
Adam Bede (1859)
*The Mill on the Floss (1860)
*Silas Marner (1861)
*Middlemarch (1872) Considered her most accomplished novel.
Daniel Deronda (1876)
The novelist becomes a moralist. Emphasis on morality and ethics.
23

Explores through lens of her fiction how character and circumstance

interact. Shes very good t mixing circumstances and psychological traits.
Strengths of her fiction
Her realism, ability to write accurate dialogue
Knowledge of provincial life (shes a writer of the countryside vs. Dickens
who is considered the writer of the city).
Her strongest: characterization; very recognizable characters.
She conveys the idea that the role of art is to deepen human sympathies
Optimistic view of humanity
Against Victorian suspicion of science Victorianism is an era where
traditional beliefs are doubted and on the whole there is a feeling of
suspicion and because of this, many people were uncomfortable. She is
very much of science and for what science could do to society. She is
towards progression.
*George Elliot derived a principle from Sir W. Scott (his reputation has
declined. He was considered one of the best, together with Jane Austen).
There is no private life which has not been determined by a wider public
life
Like J. Austen, she wrote about ordinary life rather than grand events
You read about individuals rather than grand events. Thats what make her
novels interesting.
She represents a major step in Victorian novel.
George Elliots ability to go into a characters mind and draw it in all its
complexity and depth, to go into the characters minds, puts her in a different
level than Dickens. Shes almost unique.
George Ellios life was highly unconventional
She openly lived with a married man for many years.
Despite this, she had a surprisingly traditional morality (contradictory?).
And gained tremendous respect from those who knew her.

Worn Out (Thomas Faed, 1868)

24

We see exhaustion.Impression of a worker whos just arrived from the factory. That was one of the things that
the Great Reform Act had to do, dealing with working hours. Its a humble setting full of affection. The
contradiction is that we are presented with sad characters but the colours used in the painting suggest that
there is a source of warmth.

We may relate this painting to Silas Marner or The Weaver of Raveloe (1861).
-

Plot: Silas was a weaver and suffers the transition from a small town to a
larger industrial city: Industrial Revolution destroyed many businesses.
All her knowledge converted into imaginative creation
Interested in psychological research, as Charlotte Bront.
Pseudo-sciences nowadays abandoned such as mesmerism and
consciousness (her long short story The Lifted Veil deals with this topic).
Ancient myths raised to a higher state compatible with reason: myths,
folklore, features of fables but in a way which is compatible with reason, in a
rational way.
Anthropological elements.
Fable, romance (traditional elements, repetitions, coincidences...), realism.
Themes:
Religion
o George Elliot against institutionalised religion but at the same time,
she uses elements of myths, providence and the supernatural.
o

Critical of how worship had become corrupted by zealotry and arid

institutional formulas.

Favoured a new Religion of Humanity, the religion of the future

because she followed the progressive thinkers in Germany and
England.

Optimistic view of humanity.

She was against Victorian suspicion of science.

From early evangelical Protestant faith to secular humanism: had

unshakeable faith in human advancement and secular reason.

Discarded primitive Christian superstitions that did not stand up to

rational scrutiny.

Non-conformity in industrial period.

Consciousness, identity and community.

Pastoral country living vs. industrial town.

History and historical change.

Parallels:
o

Wordsworths poem Michael.

Shakespeares The Winters Tale.

25

Coleridges Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner.

George Eliots own life.

*Middlemarch, A Study of Provincial Life (1872) This novel marked the peak of her
reutation.
-

Published in instalments
Setting, provincial Middlemarch in the years preceding the Great Reform Bill
(times of social and political agitation). This is the context that is written
about.
Social and political agitation
Complex novel because theres a multiple plot: Dorothea Brooke,
intelligent and idealistic, marries Mr. Casaubon, an elderly intellectual
pedant recipe for disaster: young, mature and intellectually advanced
woman marries someone only interested in books and much older than
her.
Dorotheas respect for Mr Casaubons intellectual plans turns to pity. Very
soon she becomes discontent of this marriage.
o She befriends with Mr Casaubons cousin, Will Ladislaw (perhaps
as a consequence of her discontent, we dont really know).
o But Mr Casaubon dies saying in his will that Dorothea will lose his
fortune if she marries Ladislaw.
o Eventually, she renounces to the fortune and marries the cousin
Ladislaw.
o Theme: importance of marital happiness.
Other characters: Rosamund Vincy sets out to marry the well-connected
Dr Tertius Lydgate
o The marriage is also unhappy due to her materialism and
insensitivity.
Ladislaw and Rosamund are seen in apparently compromising attitude
but Rosamund says there was nothing going on.
Eliot comments on social and political attitudes, Tory vs. pro-reform; the
importance of marital joy is also stressed.

***The Mill on the Floss (Fragment of film).

Relevance of this mill (Floss is the name of the river). The mill belongs to the Tulliver
family, who has two children: Tom Tulliver, not interested in learning nor in the arts but
who is sent to a tutor although he is not very good; and Maggie Tulliver, passionate
about books and education in general but because of being a woman she is not given
it.
Conflict when the lawyer Mr Wakem wants to dispute or challenge Mr Tulliver. Philip, his
hunchback son and Maggie establish a very sentimental relationship. Eventually, Mr
Wakem takes control of the mill because in the Tullivers family debts pile up.

26

Portrayal of human complexity: its the relationship of Tom Maggie which

makes complicated the relationship of Maggie Philip.
Theme of education and polishing of minds.
Symbolic use of water as passing of time and how conflicts happen in life
while the mill is symbol of livelihood and the income of the family.

5. LATE VICTORIAN LITERATURE

Late Victorian novel: were dealing with authors who lived in Modernism; there is a lot
of emphasis on human consciousness.
-

Introduction: a period of transition

Oscar Wilde
o The Picture of Dorian Grey (1890)
Henry James
(American; became a British citizen a year before his death). Most of his
novels are very famous.
o The Portrait of a Lady (1881), What Maisie Knew (1897)
o The Turn of the Screw (novella, a long short story, 1898), The
Wings of the Dove (1902)
o The Golden Bowl (1904)
Thomas Hardy
o Tess of the DUrbervilles, A Pure Woman (1891)

Other Victorian fiction

-

George Gissing
Realism of the poor and of a struggling writer, too hard for Victorian
society: his representations were too shocking for the Victorian period.
The Nether World (1889), New Grub Street (1891).
Rudyard Kipling
Plain Tales from the Hills (1888) and The Jungle Books (1895)
Nationalistic feelings; today recognized as short story writer, and as
someone in fact sympathetic to problems of the colonies (favored
colonialism, especially the British one).
o Oh, East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet
(The Ballad of East and West, 1889).
British Empire had tried to make them meet (East and West), but new
century brought its disintegration (WWI put an end to the British colonial
enterprise).
Robert Louis Stevenson
Novels of adventure (Treasure Island, 1883)
and The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1886)
o Horror story and psychological novel
o Expression of Victorian compromise between appearance and
reality (double morality)
o Same issue in Wilde (with The Picture of Dorian Grey) and James
Hogg
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
27

A Study in Scarlet (1887), The Sign of Four (1890)

The Hound of the Baskervilles (1902)
The Return of Sherlock Holmes (1905)
Wilkie Collins
The Woman in White (1860)
R. M. Ballantynes Coral Island
Lewis Carrolls Alices Adventures in Wonderland
H. G. Wells The Time Machine, The Invisible Man, The War of the Worlds
Samuel Butlers Erewhon and William Morris News from Nowhere, utopias
The mixture of dates of publication should be noted!

Introduction: A period of transition

-

No central figure until Modernism, there was no dominant figure in this

period.
Social movements:
William Morris, Arts and Crafts Movement (socialist movement).
G. B. Shaw, Fabian Society
Authors: emphasis on Gothicism, mystery, agnosticism, attraction for evil...
Another trend of the period was the Aestheticism, the Decadents (Art for
Arts sake movement, art didnt need a purpose).

Oscar Wilde
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The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890)

Reflected hypocrisy of Victorian society
o Theme of appearances vs. Reality, hypocrisy: Dorian Greys picture
grows older and vicious while he remains young and beautiful. The
problem is that he becomes evil and commits crimes that are
reflected in the painting.
Dorian Greys bad actions are left to readers imagination, but novel
created a scandal. The message was easy; there was no need to explain in
detail all the atrocities.
According to a critic: symbolic relations to the art and culture of his age.
In the novel, Wilde advocated for individualism and artistic freedom
o Follower of the ideas of Walter Pater, Art for Arts sake (the artist
had to be free. Art is useless, meaning that it has no practical use.
Whatever value, is because its art, and that should be enough).
o Preface: There is no such thing as a moral or immoral book. Books
are well written or badly written, that is all. All art is quite useless.

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Narcissus, Caravaggio.

Idea of the doopelganger, the

other that you carry within.

Thomas Hardy
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Atheism, pessimism and immorality characterize his fiction, which was

problematic in the Victorian period.
Struggle of man against higher force that inflicts suffering on him,
something beyond the characters.
Exploration of moral issues and responsibilities. This was the task of
the reader!
Hardy is difficult to categorize: he was born the years before
Wordsworths death and died in 1902. Two years before the publication
of some modernist works.
Novels of character and environment reflect major features of the
Victorian moral issues in combination with the higher forces so
characteristic of his novels.
Far from the Madding Crowd (1874)
Tess of the DUrbervilles (1891)
Jude the Obscure (1896)

Tess of the DUbervilles A Pure Woman (1891)

-

Plot: Tess is a pure woman, young at the beginning of the novel. She takes
part in one of the countys traditions. After this moment of enjoyment, she
is raped by Alec, her half-cousin. She gets pregnant but he wants nothing
and goes away. She gets rejected by the community and establishes a
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relationship with Angel, a man that she met at the countys celebration the
day she was raped, hiding the reality of the incident to him. Eventually,
they marry and she doesnt tell him anything until the wedding night.
Angel leaves her because of the moral and the social conventions and Tess
gets abandoned for the second time.
Eventually, Angel comes back; but while he was away, Alec came back and
told Tess that he was reformed. Tess had nothing; she was in despair and
agreed. Being Alecs mistress, Angel came back wanting to retake the
relationship. They end up running away, but Tess is caught and gets
executed. The final lines of the novel say: Finally the Gods have finished
playing with Tess.
With Hardy we find a countryside in its last stages: such ways of life linked
to the countryside were about to disappear forever after Hardys writing.
-

Themes
Changes in agricultural world, industrial revolution.
Futility of ancient families; right to names.
Difficulty of interpretation
Self vs. world fragmented or under attack.
Readers must understand relativity of values.
No conclusive explanation or satisfying closure.

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