ISLE: L12: Victorian Age I

Alfred Tennyson - Charles Dickens

What years define the Victorian era and what are the three periods?

From 1830 to 1901, ending with the death of Queen Victoria.

• Early: 1830-1848

• Mid: 1848-1870

• Late: 1870-1901

The three periods are partly divided because of economic reasons and social reforms

What characterizes the three victorian periods

• Early: Social problems, tensions, laissez-faire

• Mid: Optimism, wealth, consumerism, feeling of progress, political superiority

• Late: Feeling of decay, melancholy, disillusionment with feeling of optimism from the mid-victorian period

How did the economy change during the Victorian era?

It shifted from rural to urban due to industrialization. London per example expanded rapidly.

New developments in science in Victorian society

• Questioning the centrality of mankind because of new developments

• Darwinism undermining Humanism, humans are not special contrary to what the Bible says

• Discoveries in geology, astronomy, …

• New inventions and rapid development of steam engines, trains, clocks

What social divide existed in Victorian society?

A gap between rich and poor, called “Two Nations” as said by Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli. Poor people wanted more political rights and started unions and riots. Trade unions, chartists, suffragettes fought for more right during this period.

What values were important in Victorian society?

Moral responsibility, earnestness, and domesticity as represented by Queen Victoria and Prince Albert

What is Marxism associated with in the Victorian period?

Alienation and loss of faith in society.

What was happening to literacy by the end of the 19th centur

There was almost an universal level of people being able to read on a basic level. Reading became one of the most important ways to pass time, resulting in more books. Books were still expensive, especially novels.

How did people access literature cheaply in the Victorian period?

• People went to libraries (they were often still private, public libraries were developped at the end of the 9th century)

• Serialized magazines

• Cheap print forms like cliffhangers to make sure that new issues would be bought

• Periodicals, newspapers, reviews

What is the main literary genre of the Victorian era?

The novel, the three-decker novel is a long novel in three volumes meant to delight and instruct

What did Charles Dickens Early life look like?

They lived in the middle class but his father was imprisoned for debt, which caused the family to fall into poverty. His childhood gave him a lifelong concern for social injustice and poverty.

What did charles dickens’ career look like?

He worked as a clerk, then became a journalist, and later a writer. His first major succes was the Pickwick papers

How were Dickens’ novels often published?

They were serialized in magazines. He often used cliffhangers. His audience reached a wide readership across different social classes

Charles Dickens and social criticism

He exposed urban poverty and class divisions. He critiqued institutions like warehouses, schools and courts.

Why was Dickens’ style memorable

• He used memorable caricatured characters

• He used grotesque and gothic elements

• He had a strong moral vision paying attention to redemption, sympathy and responsibilty

Which Victorian values are reflected in Dickens’ work

The emphasis on domesticity and compassions. The belief in moral reform

What is A Christmas Carol?

A short not-serialized novel by Dickens publised on 19 december 1843. It had a lasting impact which led to the invention of ‘modern’ christmas. It was very successfull

What is a “stave” in A Christmas Carol?

A section of the story, like a stanza in a song.

What is sentimentalism in Victorian literature?

sympathetic identification with the suffering object produces a gush of feeling that affirms and strengthens the reader’s capacity for good

What values are central to sentimentalism?

Sympathy, kindness, innocence, and moral goodness.

Who was Alfred Lord Tennyson

He was a major Victorian poet and the official Poet Laureate of Britain. (official poet of the nation invited to comment on big events through poetry)

He wrote the charge of the light brigade in 1854

Which famous elegy did Tennyson write?

In Memoriam, written for Arthur Henry Hallam.

What is The Charge of the Light Brigade

A poem by Tennyson published as news paper poetry about the battle of Balaclava, a war between Russia and France

What happened during the battle of Balaclava

Superiors made a strategic mistake by giving confusing orders leading to 607 soldiers of their cavalry dying.

What are the central themes of the charge of the light brigade?

• Battle and war

• bravery, heroism

• obedience

• All leading to the death of the soldiers

• Questions these ideals.

What is Tennyson’s take on the battle of Balaclava in the charge of the light brigade

He criticizes prosperity because not everyone profits from it and he questions progress.

What is “newspaper poetry”?

Poetry written in response to recent news events.

Striking formal features of the charge of the light brigade

Lots of repetition and use of Anaphora (sentences starting with the same word)

How does repetition affect the poem: the charge of the light brigade

It creates rhythm and emphasizes the soldiers’ movement. Tennyson’s rhytm mimics the sound of galloping horses.

What metrical pattern appears in “Half a league, half a league” + “Half a league, onward” (the charge of the light brigade)

2 dactyls, stressed syllable followed by two unstressed

1 dactyl + 1 trochee (stressed syllable + unstressed syllable)

How does form connect to content in the charge of the light brigade

The rhythm and repetition reflect the charge and chaos of war.