Features of Victorian Criticism and their prominent writers

1. Features of Victorian Literary Criticism
Literary Theory and
Criticism
Jyoti Meghwani
M.A English Part One
Roll no: 414

2. Historical Background
Changes in the socio-political structure and increasing influence of scientific
attitude and rational thinking in English society.
The Victorian period , technically, is the period of Queen Victoria’s reign.
Her accession to the throne marked the beginning of the period(1837) and her
death ,the end of the period (1901).
Period of wealth and stability.
This period/criticism was not a reaction/revolution against any dogmas but it
was a transition period between Romanticism and Modernism.
Economic shift created a more democratic society and giving rise of the
English middle class.
England moved towards an industrial, urban-society from an agrarian one.
Rigid adherence to convention, practicality, utility and reason.
Widespread poverty, squalid urban slums, child labor and prostitution
(another side of Victorian society) .

3. The Victorian Age (1832-1901)
•Aestheticism and Decadence (1880-1901)
•The Pre-Raphaelities (1848-1860)
Salient Features of Victorian Literary Criticism
•Victorian literary criticism is not a uniform literary/critical movement or
school and it does not make a substantial body of critical work. It is not
spontaneous but derivative in nature. The Victorian critics did not have
a revolutionary agenda like the Romantics but believed that art and
literature should cease to be just a source of beauty, happiness and
freedom, and should turn to social and moral issues to correct and
elevate people from meanness and materiality.

4. •Victorian Criticism is divided into three phases
Idealism (Thomas Carlyle)
Moral and Objectivity(Matthew Arnold)
Aestheticism (Walter Pater)

5. •Victorian criticism (especially that of Arnold) tries to follow
the Classical tradition- realizing the beauty of life and
literature through intellect/reason. It tries to remove all signs
of excess in both ancient and modern writing and strike a
balance between them. The desire for truth and moral
discipline characterize Victorian criticism which contrast with
the passion and individualism of the Romantic period. The
rise of the puritanical middle class and England’s shift to an
industrial urban society from a rural agrarian one revived
moral strictness and rational thinking in Victorian society and
by extension, in the critics of the age, causing influence of
Romanticism to dwindle.
•One of the important features of Victorian criticism is its
didactic and prescriptive nature. The Victorians looked upon
literature as a vehicle for the advancement of society and
criticism as a mediator of knowledge and truth. They thus
stressed that both literature and criticism are moral in

6. •Victorian criticism provided certain
standards and set in motion the process of
canon formation in English literature. Moral
strictness (codes of conduct), search for
truth, objectivity, universality, and
intellectual pursuit informed the process of
canon formation. There was another
important aspect to this process- idealized
notion of what was typically ‘English’. The
notion of ‘Englishness’ was interpreted as
a model that could provide a set of
standards and codes of conduct not only to
the English people but also the native
people of colonized countries. The critics
drew on this idealized notion of
‘Englishness’ and tried to consolidate it in

7. Follows Classical tradition (especially Arnold) realising the be the
beauty of life and literature through intellect/reason.
Balance between ancient and modern writing.
Desire for truth and moral discipline.
Didactic and Prescriptive nature.
The Victorians looked upon literature as a vehicle for the advancement
of society and criticism as a mediator of knowledge and truth.
Provided certain standards and set in motion the process of canon
formation
Moral strictness, search for truth, objectivity, universality, and
intellectual pursuit informed the process of canon formation.
-
In Short

8. Writers, Critics and Poets of Victorian Era
•Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881)
He was a social critic, historian and biographer. He was not a critic per in the sense
that he did not propose a critical theory or write a sustained critical work. He expected
literature to play the role of a teacher of morality and idealism. He was deeply
influenced by German philosophy and literature and he brought much of the German
idealism into English literature and criticism.
•John Stuart Mill (1806- 1875)
He presented his views on poetry and proposed the subjectivist theory of poetry,
similar in theme to William Wordsworth’s theory
•John Keble (1792-1866)
He was a professor of Poetry at Oxford argued that the art of poetry is a kind of
medicine divinely bestowed upon man.
• Matthew Arnold (1822-1883)
He is a poet cum critic. His famous poems are Rugby Chapel, Thyrsis, Scholar Gypsy,
Dover Beach, Soharab and Rustam, Shakespeare (it is a sonnet), etc. Thyrsis is a
great pastoral elegy and in this poem he mourns the death of his friend, Arthur
Clough.
•Walter Pater (1839-1894)
He was another prominent critic who rose prominence to the end of Victorian
period. His Studies in the History of the Renaissance (1873) outlined his
aesthetics ideas and subjective model of analysis.9

9. Thank You