Chapter Nine
The Victorian Age
1. Historical background
* The comparison between Queen Victoria and
Queen Elizabeth I
* Being on the throne for a long period of time
Elizabeth
More than 40 years
Victoria
More than 60 years
*During their long reigns England developed rapidly
both politically and commercially.
Capitalism first
took its shape.
Defeated the
strong naval power
Spain in 1588.
agricultural country
industrialized country
workshop
financial center
political center
* Literature flourished during their reigns.
Elizabeth
Victoria
drama
novel
Shakespeare
Dickens
* The Victorian age can be roughly divided into
three periods.
The first period: 1832 --- 1848
The middle period: 1848 --- 1870
The last period: 1870 --- 1901
British Empire : the empire on which the sun never sets
The reform bill in 1832
stream engine
Laissez faire
Utilitarianism
Industrial capitalists
gained power in
Parliament
The capitalists hired
unskilled workers
Based on the
Utilitarian philosophy
Founded by Jeremy Bentham
Continued by John Stuart Mill
The mid-Victorian period was heyday of the Victorian age.
economy: peace and prosperity
workshop of the world and the world’s banker
a period of complacency, stability, optimism
Dickens
Gaskell
Eliot
exposed the darker side of
novelists
seemingly prosperous society
The debate between the supporters of
Utilitarianism and their opponents existed for a
long time.
Two groups of the opponents
Represented by Carlyle
Cardinal Newman
Not like Christian
Oxford Movement
Believed spiritual belief
A powerful church
2. The Victorian novelists
the year of 1832
Scott died
the end of romantic movement
Continued to be found in the works of the writers
and poets of the Victorian age.
factors explained the rise of novels as
dominant literary genre:
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the growth of urban population resulted in the
appearance of a new reading public
with the development of the method of
printing and paper making, the price of books
dropped
writing had become a profession, which made
it possible for the writers to make a living by
writing

with ascendancy of the industrial capitalists, the
majority of whom lived an idle life and need
entertainment and novels met with their desires

the conditions of the time the dire poverty on the
one hand and the enormous wealth needed a
secular form to explore human relations rather than
sermons given in the church.

the feminist movement had much to do with the
growth of the novels
Common features shared by Victorian novels

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the plot is unfolded against a social background
which is broader than previous novels
the cause-effect sequence is much more striking
than before
the most of the Victorian novels were first published
in serial form before fully developed in a single book
be tainted by the spirit of Puritanism of the Victorian
age
be characterized by moral purpose
Charles Dickens
(1812 – 1870)
Born --- at Portsmouth in 1812
Family --- father was a clerk in a Navy Pay Office
Experiences ---
His father was put into the prison for debt.
The family were living in the prison.
Dickens worked in a shoe blacking factory.
Dickens worked in a lawyer’s office
Learned shorthand
Parliament reporter
His works
Sketches by Boz (1836)
his first book
The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club
brought him fame and wealth
Oliver Twist
(1838)
Nicholas Nickleby
(1839)
The Old Curiosity Shop
Martin Chuzzlewit
(1844)
(1841)
(1837)
Christmas stories
A Christmas Carol
 The Chimes
 The cricket on the Hearth

Dickens showed his profound sympathy for the poor.
Dombey and Son
(1848)
Bleak House
(1853)
Hard Times
(1854)
Little Dorrit
(1857)
Our Mutual Friend
(1865)
Dickens’ artistic techniques
Dickens has a tendency to depict the grosteque
characters or events.
 Dickens loves to instil life into inanimate things
and to compare animate beings to inanimate
things.
 Dickens is noted for his description of pathetic
scenes that aim to arouse people’s sympathy.

William Makepeace Thackeray
(1811 –1863)

Born --- in a well – to –do family

Family --- His father was an officer.

Education --- at Cambridge, but without degree

Achievements --- a comic illustrator and journalist

Works --- Vanity Fair
(1848)
first major novel
The School of Snobs (1847)
The Newcomes (1855)
Henry Esmond (1852)
Similarities between Thackeray and Dickens
both humourists
criticized the Victorian society satirically
Differences between Thackeray and Dickens
* The world described by them differently.
Thackeray
Dickens
the lives of aristocrats
the lives of rich businessmen
middle and
upper classes
the underdogs
the unpriviledged
lower class
Dickens
sentimentalist
advocate
reforms
He liked to avail himself of every opportunity to
arouse the emotions of his readers.
Thackeray
cynic
not
crusader
He saw no good in anything and doubted the
goodness of human nature.
Dickens
romantist
let loose his imagination
Thackeray
against affectation
He is tempered by humor.
3. The Victorian Poets
Alfred Tennyson
 Robert Browning
 Matthew Arnold

the Victorian poets
reasons
wrote highly lyrical poems
reflected the spiritual search
living in a time of spiritual unrest
the increasingly sharpening of the class struggle between the
wealthy and the poor
the rapid progress of science and technology
the discovery of new theories of social science
The features of Victorian poetry
* The prominence of the spirit of inquiry and criticism
*scepticism and religious uncertainty
*spiritual struggle and unrest
Lord Alfred Tennyson
the leading poet
the Age of Tennyson
Born --- in a clergyman’s family
poet laureate
Education --- at Cambridge, but left for financial need
Works:
Poems by Two Brothers (1827)
Poems (1833, 1842)
The Lady of Shalott
Ulysses
Morte d’Arthur
Robert Browning
(1812 --- 1889)
family --- the son of a clerk in the Bank of England
education --- never attended school
was privately educated by his parents
marriage --- Elizabeth Barrett in 1846
lived in Italy until his wife died
works ---
Pauline
his first poem
My Last Duchess
the most representative
Dramatic monologue
戏剧独白诗
A poem in which there is one imaginary
speaker addressing an imaginary audience.
He penetrates to depth the psychology of his
characters and through their own speeches, he
analyzes and dissects his characters and reveals the
innermost secret of their lives.
Similarities
Preached God and Immortality
Differences
Tennyson
felt melancholy
Browning
optimistic
Matthew Arnold
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(1822 --- 1888)
Born --- a clergyman’s family
Family --- his father：a headmaster
Education --- Oxford
Work --- professor of poetry at Oxford
Achievement --- a poet and a literary critic
Writing aim --- reflects on the doubt of his age
conflict between science and religion
His works:
Essays in Criticism
(1865 and 1888)
Culture and Anarchy
(1889)
《文化与无政府状态》
《批评文集》
Jane Austin

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Sense and Sensibility
Pride and Prejudice
Northanger Abbey
(1775– 1817)
(1811)
(1813)
(1818)
《诺桑觉寺》

Mansfield Park
(1814)
《曼斯菲尔德庄园》

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Emma
Persuasion
(1816)
(1818)
Mr. and Mrs. Bennet
Jane
Elizabeth
Bingley
Darcy