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The Victorian Age 1830-1901 Sense of rapid advancement of civilization during this period. (Reminiscent of last quarter of this century - technology -- satisfaction and anxiety). London becomes center of Western Civilization (industrial capital). Completion of Industrial revolution; movement away from land ownership to trade and marketing. England controls more than one-fourth of planet (Sun never sets on the British Empire). A period of "strenuous activity and dynamic change, of ferment of ideas and recurrent social unrest, of great inventiveness and expansion." Period characterized by an overabundance of energy. National pride was at an all-time high. Only a few felt that society was moving too fast and people were being left behind. Age of Earnestness (eagerness) partly rooted in response to challenging situation and partly in an active religious movement Age of Respectability -- Sunday Observance Bill (Sober Sunday) -- newly powerful looking for a code of conduct; highly superficial and hypocritical; Takes its name from Queen Victoria -- seen as unifying presence of morality and nationalism Seen as a land of freedom Advancement of women's rights (slowly 1840-1918) -- labor, marriage, education Governess novels -- Jane Eyre, Vanity Fair -- Angel in the House -- women seen as pure and selfless, job to provide haven for husband -- The Woman Question Divided into three time periods -- Early Victorian ( 1830-1848) Mid-Victorian (1848-1870) Late Victorian (1870-1901) Writer/poet expected to both teach and entertain: strict puritan code in Early Victorian period Themes/topics: love; humanity's relationship with God; awareness of time Period of great novelists: not as concerned with relationship between God and humanity as the relationship between people (manners, morals, money); protagonist search for him/herself in work, love, friendship: realistic familiar settings (Hardy, Dickens) Early Victorian Period -- 1830's Time of Troubles; Hungry 1840's (Lord Melbourne) Rise to power of middle class; Chartists - extend the right to vote, secret balloting Call to practicality: there is work to be done and let's get on with it From Jane Eyre -- "We are born to strive and endure" Evangelical movement -- both religious and social - enthusiastic concern for reform Poetry moved back to more structured form The Mid-Victorian Period -- 1850's -- Age of Improvement Economic prosperity and religious controversy; (William Gladstone) Working conditions improve; general satisfaction with economy and politics; institutions worked well; Great Exhibition (Crystal Palace); Religion Vs Science Utilitarians -- apply test of reasonableness to all institutions to determine whether they were

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"useful" (contributed to greatest happiness of greatest numbers) (Jeremy Benthem) Scientists -- "Higher Criticism": treated Bible as text of history Geologists, astronomers, paleontologists, biologists -- extended scope and length of history and world Three works initiated/furthered the debate: Vestiges of Creation, Principles of Geology, On the Origin of Species The Late Victorian Period -- Gay Nineties -- Decay of Victorian Values (Benjamin Disraeli) The "Irish Question" - Rise to power of Germany Economic hardship -- compete with American and Canadian farm prices Socialism -- Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels The Gay Nineties -- Prince Edward The Aesthetic Movement -- melancholy, living at the end of a great century Beginning of the modernist movement Oscar Wilde -- The Importance of Being Earnest Elizabeth Barrett Browning -- 1806-1861 England's most famous female poet during her lifetime; published first volume of poetry at age 13; father forbade all of his 11children to marry; lived in semi- seclusion as an invalid; Robert Browning writes her -- they elope; characterized (as many Victorians) with a fervent moral Sensibility (tried to teach with their poetry); used contemporary issues to write her verse/novel epic poem Aurora Leigh; (Sonnets From the Portuguese, Aurora Leigh) Alfred, Lord Tennyson -- 1809-1892 Most popular (greatest?) of Victorian poets; the Poet of the People (Whitman called him "the Boss"; troubled youth (drunk father, insane brother, opium addicted brother, troublemaking brother); early poetry imitated Milton, Byron, Shakespeare; devastated by death of best friend in 1833; postpones marriage from 1836-1850; colorful character physically; In Memoriam (tribute/elegy to Arthur Hallam -- confronts many of the religious issues of his and later generations; relationship between humanity and God), Maud (woman's role in modern society), Idylls of the King (epic -- 12 books, rise and fall of civilization: women inspire and then sow seeds of destruction); worked diligently at his poetry (did not have "ear"); drawn to melancholy isolation (portrayed through the consciousness of an abandoned woman); interested in the past (first poet to examine the new concepts of time proposed by Victorian scientists); The Lady of Shalott, Ulysses, The Eagle: A Fragment, In Memoriam (intro, 1, 2, 7, 27, 54, 55, 56, 96, 106,107, 108, 118), Charge of the Light Brigade, Maud, Intro to Idylls of the King; Robert Browning -- 1812-1889 Early on was referred to as "Mrs. Browning's husband; seen as one of two ways: showed life as a joyful battle, overseen by all-loving God -- tried to solve problems of how poetry should be written (dramatic monologue); experimented with syntax and language; criticized early, fearful of revealing himself in his poetry, so developed the style of making the readers "red between the lines"; failure at writing plays, prepared him for dramatic monologue; influenced by Shelley (dedicated to ideals, strove toward goals); sought to expose the devious ways in which our minds work and the complexity of our motives; examine what is unsaid, left out; Porphyria's Lover, Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister, My Last Duchess; The Bishop Orders His Tomb at St. Praxeds Church; Andrea Del Sarto

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Mathew Arnold 1822-1888 How is a full and enjoyable life to be lived in a modern industrial society? Uses symbol of clearflowing streams as a symbol of serenity; criticized dullness of middle-class life; worked as an inspector of schools (took it very seriously); as a poet recorded own feelings (loneliness and isolation, longing for serenity, melancholy feeling of passing of youth, despair about humanity's place in the universe); as a poet he saw himself as a sick individual in a sick society; as a prose writer, he was a healer of this society (dealt with ideas/ideals); saw the future world as one dominated by the middle-class, which he saw as inadequately equipped for leadership and the enjoyment of civilized living (they were ignorant, narrow-minded, and suffering from the dullness of their lives); Dover Beach Christina Rossetti 1830 1894 Family very "literate": Father -- Gabriele Rossetti poet/political exile; Mother -- Frances Polidori sister of Byron's Dr.; two brothers: Dante poet and artist; William - writer; sister - Maria, writer; dictated her first story to her mother before she herself could write rejects two suitors -- not religious enough -- or of the "wrong" faith Goblin Market"; "No, Thank You, John"; "Promises Like Pie Crust"