salient feature of the Victorian age

Name               :       Thakar Aneri R.

Roll No.           :       01

Semester        :       02

M.A. Part         :       1

Paper No.        :       6 Victorian literature

Topic Name    :       salient feature of the Victorian age

• Salient features of the Victorian age.

Introduction

The modern period of progress and unrest when Victoria become queen in 1837, English literature seemed to have entered upon a period of lean years, in marked contrast with the poetic fruitfulness of the romantic age which we have just studied. Coleridge, Shelley, Keats Byron and scot had passed away and it seemed as if there were no writers in England to fill their place. Words worth had written in 1835.

“Like clouds that rake the mountain summits or waves that own no Curbing hand, How fast has brother followed brother, from sunshine to the sunless land I”

In these lines is reflected the sorrowful spirit of a literary man of the early nineteenth century who remembered the glory that had passed away from the earth. But the leanness of their first year is more apparent than real. Keats and Shelley were dead, it is true but already there had appeared three disciples of these poets who were destined to be far more widely read then were their masters Tennyson had been publishing poetry since 1827 his first poems appearing almost simultaneously with the list work of Byron Shelley and Keats. Moreover even as romanticism seemed passing away, a group of great prose writers – Dickens, Thackerdy, Carlyle and Ruskin – had already begum to proclaim the literary glory of a new age which now seems to rank only just below the Elizabethan and the romantic periods.

The salient features of the age are mentioned here.

1. Democracy : Amid the multitude of social and political forces of this great age, four things stemd out clearly. First the long struggle of the Anglo-Saxons for personal liberty is definitely settled and democracy becomes the established order of the day. The king who appeared in an age of popular weakness and ignorance, and the peers who came with the Normans in triumph are both stripped of their power and left as figure-heads of a past civilization. The last vestige of personal government and the divine right of rulers disappears; the house of commons becomes the ruling power in England; and a series of new reforms bills rapidly extend the people choose for themselves the men who shall represent them.

2. Social Unrest : Second because it is an age of democracy, it is an age of popular education, of religious tolerance, of growing brotherhood, and of profound social unrest. The slaves had been freed in 1833 but in the middle of the century England a work to the fact that slaves are not necessarily negroes, stolen in Africa to be sold like cattle in the market place, but that multitudes of men, women, and little children in the mines and factories were victims of a more terrible industrial and social slavery. To free this competitive method, has been the growing purpose of the Victorian age until the present day.

3. The ideal of Peace : Third, because it is an age of democracy and education, it is an age of comparative peace. England begins to think less of the pomp and false glitter of fighting and more of its moral evils, as the nation realizes that it is the common people who bear the burden and the sorrow and the poverty of war, while the privilege classes reap most of the financial and political rewards. Moreover, with the growth of trade and of friendly foreign relations, it becomes evident that the social equality for which England was contending at home belongs to the whole race of men that brother hood is universal, not insular that a question of justice is never settled by fighting and that war is generally unmitigated horror and bar barusm. Tennyson, who came of age when the great reform bill occupied attention, expresses the ideas of the liberals of his day who proposed to spread the gospel of peace. Till the war drum throbbed no longer and the battle flags were furled in the parliament of man the federation of the world.

4. Arts and sciences : Fourth, the Victorian age is especially remarkable because of its rapid progress in all the arts and sciences and in mechanical inventions. A glance at any record of the industrial achievements of the nineteenth century will show how vast the are and it is unnecessary to repeat here the list of the inventions, from spinning looms to steamboats, and from matches to electric lights. All these material things, as well as the growth of education have their influence upon the life of a people and it is inevitable that they should react upon its prose and poetry thought as yet we are too much absorbed in our sciences and machines to determine accurately their influence upon literature. When these new things shall by long use have become familiar as country roads or have been replaced by newer and better things, then they also will have their associations and memories and a poem on the rail roads may be as suggestive as words worth’s sonnet on Westminster bridge and the busy, practical working men who today throng our stress and factories may seem to a future and greater age as quaint and poetical as to us seem the slow toilers of the middle ages.

5. An era of peace : The few colonial wars that broke out during the Victorian approach did not seriously disturb the national life. There was one continental war that directly affected Britain the Crimean war and one that affected her indirectly though strongly the Franco german struggle yet neither of these caused any profound changes. In America the great civil struggle left scars that were soon to be obliterated by the wise statesmanship of her rulers. The whole age may be not unfairly described as one of peaceful activity. In the earlier stages the lessening surges of the French revolution were still felt but by the middle of the century they had almost completely died down, and other hopes and ideals largely specific were gradually taking their place.

6. Material Developments : It was an age alive with new activity. There was a revolution in commercial enterprise, due to the great increase of available markets and as a result of this an immense advance in the use of mechanical devices. The new commercial energy was reflected in the great exhibition of 1851. Which was greeted as the inauguration of a new era of prosperity on the other side of this picture of commercial expansion we see the appalling social conditions of the new industrial cities, the squalid slums and the exploitation of cheap labor (often of children), the painful flight by the enlightened few to introduce social legislation and the slow extension of the franchise. The evils of the industrial revolution were vividly painted by such writers as dickens and Mrs. Gaskell and they called forth the missionary efforts of men like Kingsley.

7. Intellectual developments : There can be little doubt that in many cases material wealth produced a hardness of temper and an impatience of projects and ideas that brought no return in hard case yet it is to the credit of this age that intellectual activities were so numerous. There was quite a revolution in scientific thought following upon the works of Darwin and his school, and an immense outburst of social and political throrizing which was represented in this country by the writings of men like Herbert Spencer and john Stuart mill. In addition, popular education became a practical thing. This in its turn produced a new hunger for intellectual food and resulted in a great increase in the production of the press and of other more durable species of literature.

Literary features of the age:

The sixty years commonly included under the name of the Victorian age present many dissimilar features. Yet in several respects we can safely generalize.

1. Its morality : Nearly all observers of the Victorian age are struck by its extreme deference to the conventions. To a later age these seem ludicrous. It was thought indecorous for a man to smoke in public and for a lady to ride a bicycle. To a great extent the new morality was a natural revolt against the grossness of the earlier regency, and the influence of the Victorian court was all in its favor. In literature it is amply reflected. Tennyson is the most conspicuous co placement sir Galahad and King Arthur, dickens, perhaps the most representative of the Victorian novelists took for his model the old picaresque novel. But it is almost laughable to observe his anxiety to be ‘moral’. This type of writing is quite blameless but it produced the king of public that denounced the innocuous jane eyre as wicked because it dealt with the harmless affection of a girl for a married man.


2. The Revolt : Many writers protest against the deadening effect of the conventions. Carlyle and Matthew Arnold in their different accents were loud in their denunciations thackerary never tired of satirizing the snobbishness of the age and bowing’s cobbly mannerisms were an indirect challenge to the velvety diction and the smooth self  satisfaction of the Tennysonian School. As the age proceeded the reaction
strengthened. In poetry the Pre-Raphaelites, by Swinburne and William Morris proclaimed no morality but that of the crtist’s regard for his art. By the vigour of his method Swinburne horrified the timorous and made himself rather ridiculous in the eyes of sensible people. It remained for Thomas hardy to pull a side. The Victorian veils and shutters and with the large tolerances of the master to regards men’s actions
with open gaze.

2. Intellectual developments : The literary product was inevitably affected by the new ideas in science, religion and politics. On the origin of species (1859) of Darwin shook to its foundation scientific thought. We can perceive the influence of such a work in Tennyson’s. in memoriam in Matthew Arnold’s meditative poetry and in the works of Carlyle. In religious and ethical thought the Oxford movement as it was called was the most note warthy advance. This movement had its source among the young and eager thinkers of the old university and was headed by the great Newman who ultimately (1854) joined the church of Rome, as a religious portent it marked the widespread discontent with the existing belief of the church of England as a literary influence it affected many writers of note, including Newman himself, roude, Maurice kingsley and glad stone.

3. The new education : The new education acts, making a cetian measure of education compulsory, rapidly produced and enormous reading public. The cheapening of printing and paper increased the demand for books so that the production was multiplied. The most popular form of literature was the novel and the novelists responded with a will. Much of their work was of a high standard so much so that it has been asserted by competent critics that the middle years of the nineteenth century were the richest in the whole history of the novel.

4. International influences : During the nineteenth century the interaction among American and European writers was remarkably fresh and strong. In Britain the influences of the great german writers was continuous and it was championed by Carlyle and Mathew Arnold. Subject nations in particular the Italians, were a sympathetic theme for prose and verse. The browning Swinburne, morris and Meredith were deeply absorbed in the long struggle of the followers of garibaldi and Cavour and when Italian freedom was gained the rejoicings were genuine.

5. The achievement of the age : With all its immense production, the age produced no supreme writer. It revealed no Shakespeare no Shelley nor a Byron or a Scott. The general literary level was however very high and it was an age moreover of spacious intellectual horizons, noble endeavor and bright aspirations.

Conclusion :
To conclude this point we can see that basically in this age the most beneficial things is the cheapening of printing and paper. They increased the demand for books. This age is also known as the age of peace. In these ages there is also one important development of material and during that time there was a revolution happened in commercial enterprise.