Victorian
1837 (1832) – 1901 (1910)
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Victorian realism in the novel:
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unique art of observation of society and the individual (how she/he is affected by the
society; how he/she tries to fit into it);
representing the world as it is;
authentic details;
documentary observation;
a “slice of life”
the narrator absent from the novel;
characters from all strata of life;
realism is linked to debates over social justice;
an impulse for social reform, exposing the conditions of industrial society;
developed out of an interest in accuracy reflected in the rise of science and the
social sciences as sources of empirical truth
Charles Dickens
 Charles' childhood was rocky: Charles was living with six siblings and his parents in a fourroom house; bill collectors coming; Dickens sent to work in a rat-infested shoe polish
factory; his family was thrown in a debtor's prison
 most of his books were published serially, in magazines, during his lifetime: Oliver Twist
(1838), A Tale of Two Cities (1859), David Copperfield (1849), Hard Times (1854), and
the ever-popular story of Ebeneezer Scrooge, "A Christmas Carol" (1943)
Great Expectations (1860-1861):
- confessional in nature
- a Bildungsroman: denotes a novel of all-around self-development; a few similar genres: the
Entwicklungsroman, a story of general growth rather than self-culture; the
Erziehungsroman, which focuses on training and formal education; and the
Kunstlerroman, about the development of an artist
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Bildungsroman is the story of a single individual's growth and development within the
context of a defined social order
clashes between the protagonist's needs and desires and the views and judgments
enforced by social order
a desire to search for his or her own identity
preparation for adolescence and adulthood
often his destination is London (seems like some perfect destination, full of opportunity
but also disenchantment)
experience of love
two Pips in Great Expectations: Pip the narrator with perspective and maturity vs the young
Pip: immature, romantic idealism with a deep desire to improve himself and attain any
advancement, whether educational, moral, or social;
older/narrating Pip/ self-consciousness of the novel: judges his own past actions extremely
harshly
Victorian childhood
the city:
 anonymity
 place of possibilities
 place of imprisonment
 city of darkness and mist
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Britain as an empire and colonial economy
gothic elements: setting (the marshes; Satis House), characters (Miss Havisham),
doubles:
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symmetry—two convicts on the marsh (Magwitch and Compeyson),
two invalids (Mrs. Joe and Miss Havisham),
two young women who interest Pip (Biddy and Estella),
two secret benefactors: Magwitch, who gives Pip his fortune, and Pip, who mirrors Magwitch’s
action by secretly buying Herbert’s way into the mercantile business;
two adults who seek to mold children after their own purposes: Magwitch, and Miss Havisham
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crime and criminals
Dickens changed the original ending where Pip meets the remarried Estella in London and
they part forever, to the one where Pip and Estella stay together
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class issues:
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the class system of Victorian England: from the most wretched
criminals to the poor peasants of the marsh country to the middle
class to the very rich
wealth and class are less important than affection, loyalty, and inner
worth; a person's class as a product of their morals and behavior,
not of how much money they possess
one’s social status is in no way connected to one’s real character
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expectations
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educational, moral, or social (Ambition and Self-Improvement);
he longs to be a wealthy gentleman; he longs to be good; desires educational improvement; a
full education is a requirement of being a gentleman
rise in status, with the catalyst of someone else's money/status
"expectations" (his money) have finally done him some good, when he's able to arrange a
business opportunity for Herbert
not just money but also the source of money is important
develops some simple and realistic expectations
life as a gentleman is no more satisfying and no more moral
learns that social and educational improvement are irrelevant to one’s real worth
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Buckley, Jerome Hamilton. 1974. Season of Youth: The Bildungsroman from Dickens to Golding. Cambridge: Harvard UP
Dickens, Charles. 1994. Great Expectations. London: Penguin Books Ltd.
mgr Katarzyna Bronk
for English Literature class
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