Victorian Era: A Landmark in Literature - Essay Example

Victorian Era: A landmark in literature From 1837 to 1901, it was 64 years of glory and prosperity for England. Queen Victoria crowned the nation tobroadening commerce, brightening science and widening Empire. All-round development favored better living conditions. Of course, the material progresses lead to a remarkable cultural efflorescence. Literature enjoyed great advance. The almost blind respect for conventional morality which was a feature of the age is evident in literature also. No supreme masters of literature like Shakespeare or Shelley came up. But the general level was very high and it widened the intellectual horizon. Poetry The most conspicuous champion of new morality which became lively during the Victorian age was Tennyson (Glenn Everett "Tennyson and Victorianism" victorianweb.org). He started writing poems from very early age onwards. He got Chancellor's medal at Cambridge for his 'Timbuctoo'. 'The Lady of Shalott', 'Oenone', 'The Lotos-Eaters', etc. were the poems he wrote initially. In 1842 he completed the notable poems like 'Mort d' Arthur', 'Ulysses' and 'Locksley Hall'. These were followed by longer poems. 'The Princess' is a seriocomic poem that deals with the theme of the new woman wanting to shun male society and ending with a happy marriage. In 1850 appeared the important poem 'In Memoriam' which is a series of short poems on Tennyson's meditations on the death of his close friend. It contains many reflections on life and death which show the influence of the new theories of the day. It is considered to be one among the better works of Tennyson. Robert Browning (1812-1889) is a philosophical poet (Glenn Everett "Robert Browning-Biography" victorianweb.org). He contributed 'dramatic monologue' - a new form of poet, to English literature. These are poems written as an individual's words to others. The listeners don't speak but their mood and reactions are being explained by the speaker of the monologue. Thus it gets a dramatic form. Browning's monologues are of two types. In the first group he tells 'a soul's history in the episode of an hour'. In the second group he turns from the probing into the depths of human nature to assert in ringing terms the doctrines of the nobler life. The first group is far ahead in dramatization. Second are more direct expressions of his robust philosophy of life. Browning has written quite a few love poems. The best among them is 'One word more' which is addressed to his wife. Matthew Arnold's poems may be divided into two groups: narrative and lyrical. He wrote narrative poems taking Greek and Roman epic poems as models. His poetry is not sufficiently spontaneous. His is the poetry of reflection and there is the predominance of the intellectual element in it. There are several descriptions of flowers in his poems. Arthur Hugh Clough is remembered mainly for the poem 'Say not the struggle naught availeth'. Pre-Raphaelitism was an artistic movement of resisting the existing conventions in art and literature through a going back to the art forms in European art before the time of Raphael. D.G.Rossetti is one of the leaders of Pre-Raphaelitism in literature. His most important poem is 'The Blessed Damozel'. Christina Georgina Rossetti, D.G.Rossetti's younger sister also was a poet. Her works include 'Goblin market and other poems' and 'Verses and new poems'. William Morris who wrote so many poems kept enough resemblance to the poems of Rossetti. Thomas Babington Macaulay, Edwin Arnol, Francis Thompson, Emily Bronte, Charlotte Bronte, R.L.Stevenson, Oscar Wilde, etc. are the other famous names of the time in poetry ("Victorian poetry" victorian.fortunecity.com). Drama Tennyson, Browning and Matthew Arnold were the important poet dramatists of Victorian era. There were a few writers of plays in prose ("THE VICTORIAN ERA - Nonfiction, Poetry, The Victorian Novel, 19th-Century Drama" referatele.com). Thomas William Robertson penned enough number of plays which introduced a new more natural type of comedy to English stage. 'Castle' is considered to be his best play. Following the example of Robertson who introduced the drama of ideas, Henry Arthur Jones presented real life and social problems in his plays. Sir Arthur Wing Pinero is another practitioner of the realistic drama. He wrote four social problem plays. His plots are well constructed and his dialogue lively. But there is a criticism that his works lack depth. Anyway he has written large number of plays. Oscar Wilde is best known for his plays. His reputation rests mainly on 'Lady Windermere's Fan, 'A Woman of No Importance', 'An Ideal Husband' and best of all, 'The Importance of being honest'. He portrays upper class society; the characters are mere caricatures with little human warmth. His main concern is dialogue which bristles with wit and neat paradoxes. Prose The Victorian Era is rich in prose in its varied departments like religious and scientific exposition, history, biography, autobiography, literary criticism, fiction, etc. ("English literature: The Victorian Age." The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia). Perhaps the most outstanding figure in the realm of Victorian prose is Thomas Carlyle. He was regarded as a sage of moral and political affairs. He was a man of great honesty and mental power. His denunciations of shams and tyrannies had beneficial results. He followed a fully individual style. Capital letters, broken phrases and ejaculations are characteristics of his writing. His mastery of vivid and telling phrases is unrivalled and he employed sarcasm and irony. Next in importance to Carlyle is John Ruskin. The variety of his work, expert knowledge of art and the beauty of his style are remarkable. In 'Modern Painters' in seven volumes he expounds the true principles of landscape painting. 'The seven lamps of architecture' and 'The stones of Venice' bear evidence to his knowledge of architecture. His early works are written in the best ornate style and his later works in easy colloquial prose. Thomas Babington Macaulay was another great master of a powerful, vivid and vivacious style. His essays on Milton, Goldsmith, Byron and Bunyan are examples of highly readable biographical and critical literature, while his essays on Warren Hastings, Clive, etc. are historical. His masterpiece is 'History of England from the accession of James II'. Among other historians of the period we might mention James Anthony Froude, John Richard Green and John Addington Symonds. Walter Pater was a critic of both art and literature. His main works are 'studies in the history of renaissance', 'Marius the Epicurus' etc. His judgment was often vitiated by the search for beauty and aesthetic pleasure. He was, above all, a great stylist, perhaps the greatest of the second half of the 19th century. The best literary critic of Victorian Era is Matthew Arnold. He wrote two volumes of 'Essays in Criticism'. It consists of his lectures as Professor or poetry at Oxford. The essays deal with poetry, criticism, poets, etc. These essays reveal his critical acumen and insight and fineness of taste. Like Carlyle and Ruskin, Arnold was an enemy of the materialism of his age. Another notable critic of the era is Sir Lelie Stephen, father of Virginia Woolf. Swinburne wrote a great deal of literary criticism in books like 'William Blake', 'A study of Shakespeare', etc. The age saw the publication of several scientific works too. Charles Darwin's 'On the origin of the species' was a revolutionary publication which school scientific thoughts to its foundations. Thomas Henry Huxley supported Darwin energetically. His chief works are 'Man's place in nature', 'Lay sermons' etc. The Victorian Era is very prolific in novels. Charles Dickens was deservedly the most popular novelist of the age ("A brief history of English literature Victorian Novels" teachit.co.uk). His first important work is 'The posthumous papers of the Pickwick Club' issued in monthly instalments. It was followed by 'Oliver Twist', 'Nicholas Nickleby', 'Barnaby Rudge', 'A tale of two cities' and the all-important autobiographical 'David Copperfield'. He has to his credit a whole gallery of well-portrayed and well remembered characters. Many of them have become permanent elements of the humorous tradition of England. Dickens was equally the master of pathos as of humor. William Makepiece Thackeray came to writing of novels through journalism. His first novel 'vanity fair' was followed by a series of novel which met with increasing popular favor. The main interest of Thackeray's novels is in character. His style is effortless. Mary Ann Evans, known by her pen-name George Eliot is always philosophical and moral. Her first novel 'Adam Bede' proclaimed her mastery of the art of fiction. Next novel, her best work is 'The mill on the floss'. It is the complex story of Tom and his sister Maggie. The character of Maggie is George Eliot's most profound study of the inner recesses of human personality. Her plots are skillfully managed. Characters are drawn from the lower classes of village life. Her dialogue is excellent and there are beautiful descriptions of nature in her novels. The Bronte sisters Charlotte, Emily and Anne had written a few interesting novels. Charlottes first novel 'The Professor' appeared only posthumously as she could not find out a publisher. Her best work is 'Jane Eyre'. 'Wuthering Heights' by Emily is a unique novel in English literature. It is a story of violent love and merciless revenge. Youngest sister Anne Bronte wrote two novels: 'Agnes Gray and 'The tenant of Wildfell Hall'. Another famous woman novelist of the period is Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell. George Meredith ranks high among the later Victorian novelists. One of the greatest of English novelists, Thomas Hardy started with 'Desperate remedies' which was followed by a series of novels. The later novels of Hardy are tragic. By 1898 Hardy abandoned novel writing and devoted time to poetry along for the rest of his life. The literature of Victorian era was largely influenced by colonialism ("Colonialism in Victorian English Literature: Introduction" eNotes.com). In nineteenth century Britain was trying to expand the size of the empire and this affected the all sectors of the country. Automatically this created similar impact on literature also. Many novels and other fiction writings set the plot of the story in British colonies. References: A brief history of English literature teachit.co.uk 01 January 2009 "Biographies" victorian.fortunecity.com 01 January 2009 "Colonialism in Victorian English Literature: Introduction." Nineteenth-Century Literary Criticism. Ed. Denise Evans and Mary L. Onorato. Vol. 56. Gale Cengage enotes.com. 2006. 5 Jan, 2009 "CHRONOLOGICAL LIST BY DATE OF PUBLICATION OF GEORGE ELIOT'S NOVELS, SHORT STORIES AND POEMS" andromeda.rutgers.edu 24 August 1995. 01 January 2009 "English literature: The Victorian Age." The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia. 1994, 2000-2006, on Infoplease. 2000-2007 Pearson Education, publishing as Infoplease. 06 Jan. 2009 Glenn Everett "Robert Browning-Biography" victorianweb.org 01 January 2009 Glenn Everett "Tennyson and Victorianism" victorianweb.org 01 January 2009 Rakesh Ramubhai Patel "Literature of the Victorian Era - 4 General Characteristics of Victorian Literature" ezinearticles.com 01 January 2009 "The Norton Anthology of English Literature: The Victorian Age: Review: Summary:" wwnorton.com 01 January 2009 "THE VICTORIAN ERA - Nonfiction, Poetry, The Victorian Novel, 19th-Century Drama" referatele.com 01 January 2009 "Victorian: Definition, Synonyms from Answers.com" answers.com 01 January 2009 "Victorian Popular Novels" geocities.com 01 January 2009 Read More