Victorian literature

1. NAME :- SHEIKH NUSRATJAHA R.
SEM:- 2
ROLL NO. :- 26
ENROLLMENT NO. :- 2069108420180047
EMAIL ID :- NUSUSHEIKH1@GMAIL.COM
SUBJECT :- PAPER NO:- 6 VICTORIAN LITERATURE
BATCH :- 2017-2019
SUBMITTED TO :- DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH , MAHARAJA
KRISHNAKUMARSINHJI , BHAVNAGAR.
Victorian literature

2. What is Victorian literature?
 VICTORIAN LITERATURE REFERS TO THE LITERARY WORKS
WRITTEN DURING THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA (1837-
1901).
 IT WAS THE TRANSITION BETWEEN THE ROMANTIC PERIOD
AND 20TH CENTURY LITERATURE.

3. It can be divided into two periods:
 High Victorian literature (1830-1870)
 Late Victorin literature (1870-1901)

4. Common themes
 Critique of Industrialization
 Critique of the deterioration of the rural lifestyle
 Celebration of the past (including chivalry)
 Conflicts between classes
 Women's rights

5. Morality
 Most works were written to teach moral lessons to readers.
 Hard work and strong virtue are always romanticized and
rewarded, and poor behaviour is punished at the end.
 Literary works are full of passion and characters are often
tempted by evil, but they show restraint against wild
emotions. ( age opposed as during the romantic literature )

6. Genres
 Poetry
 Novel
 Theatre
 Nonfiction
 Gothic and supernatural literature
 Children’s literature

7. Novels
 Novel was the dominant genre during the Victorian period.
 High Victorian novels tended to be edifying moral stories that
portraited difficult lives, and where hard work, love and
perseverance were always rewarded.
 Late Victorian novels were more complex, as they reflected an
inner struggle to conquer the flaws of human nature through
effort and virtue.

8. Some novelists
 Charles Dickens is probably the most widely read author from
this time.
 His novels achieved immense popularity during his lifetime
and there were even spin-offs and merchandise made of
them.
 Most novels criticized society and represented its poorest, but
in line with the literature of the era, there was a very strong
moral element to the tales.

9.  Charlotte, Emily and Anne Bronte are the most original
novelists of this period.
 The sisters published their works under the male pseudonyms
Curer, Ellis and Ashton Bell, as it was common practice for
female writers that wanted to be taken more seriously.
 Their novels include some unconventional themes for this era,
such as violence, a deep desire for freedom, a wilderness of
spirit, feminism and even the supernatural.
 Some of their works:
 Charlotte: Jane Eyre
 Emily: Wuthering Heights
 Anne: The Tennant of Wildfell Hall

10.  William Makepeace Thackeray began as a parodist and
satirist but later started to write novels with a very strong
satiric component.
 He enjoyed great success during his lifetime but today his
best known work is Vanity Fair.
 In it he satirizes British society of the 19th century, although
it is set during the Napoleonic Wars.
 There have been several film adaptations of this novel and it
still one of the best loved .

11. Poetry
 The most famous poet of the Victorian period was Alfred,
Lord Tennyson.
 His poetry mostly retailed classical myths, although it also
covers religious dilemmas and scientific discoveries.
 Although he experimented with metric, he mostly followed a
strict pattern, a reflection of the formality of the era.

12.  Husband and wife Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning
enjoyed great popularity because of their love poems to each
other.
 Elizabeth Barrett was already a successful author before she
met her husband, and was also an involved activist in social
issues.
 Her prolific work made her a rival to Tennyson as a candidate
for poet laureate in 1850 after the death of Wordsworth.

13.  There was also a group of writers and artists, the Pre-
Raphaelite Brotherhood, of which Dante Gabriel Rossetti and
his sister Christina were part.
 Their aim was to replace the academic approach to art with
the more natural approach taken before the Italian
Renaissance
 Several writers joined this movement, echoing a simpler, less
formal approach to literature.

14. Theatre
 Theatre became an extremely popular form of
entertainment for all social Gasses during this era
and Queen Victoria promoted it.
 Plays usually had a strong comedic element, both
high and low, and the plots were full of mistaken
identities, coincidences and mistiming's.
 Oscar Wade was the leading dramatist of the late
Victorian period and his comic masterpiece The
Importance of Being Earnest is a satiric reflection
of the time.

15. Nonfiction
 The Victorian era was a period of great scientific discovery
and the Victorians tried to describe and classify the world they
lived in.
 Among others, Charles Darwin with On the Origin of Species,
Friedrich Engels with his Condition of the Working Classes in
England and John Stuart Mill with his philosophical works,
changed the way the Victorians thought about themselves
and about the world.

16. Supernatural and gothic literature
 Gothic literature combines romance and horror in attempt to
thrill and terrify the reader.
 Possible features in a gothic novel are monsters, ghosts,
curses, hidden rooms, mad women in the attic and witchcraft.
 The plot usually takes place in monasteries, castles and
cemeteries.
 They were hugely popular but panned by critics.

17. Children’s literature
 The Victorian period was the first one in
history where children were targeted as
readers.
 This was a consequence of the evolution of
social attitudes towards childhood.
 Literature became a popular way to teach
children lesson and morals . They were only
rarely enjoyable works.
 Later, when reading for pleasure became
socially accepted , folk and fairy – tale
compilations became very popular.

18. Victorian literature today
 Many view it with skepticism because of the stereotypes of the
era . Current readers may see it as prudish , rigid and
excessively formal.
 However, many contemporary authors criticized these same
trends, and there were many brilliant works that were
considered unconventional even then.
 Those works have passed the test of time and are today
considered masterpieces of classic literature.