The Victorian Age

• Engels
• Middelbare school
• vwo
• Leerjaar 6

The Victorian Age 

1830-1900

A Survey of English Literature

Victorian Age & Poetry

The Victorian Age 

• Started around 1830 ended in early 20th century
• Named after Queen Victoria (1837 - 1901)
• Britain: great economic and political power
• "The workshop of the world"
• "The empire on which the sun never set"

General introduction

• Enormous changes occured in political and social life in England
• The scientific and technical innovations of the Industrial Revolution, the emergence of modern nationalism, and the European colonization of much of Africa, the Middle East, and the Far East changed most of Europe
• Far-reaching new ideas created the greatest outpouring of literary works the world has ever seen

Queen Victoria (1819-1901)  Reign: 1837-1901

She had the longest reign in British history after Queen Elizabeth II.

Became queen at the age of 18;

Queen Victoria restored people’s faith in the monarchy again after a series of horrible leaders

1840-Victoria married a German prince, Albert, who became Prince-consort

After he died in 1861, she sank into a deep depression and wore black every day for the rest of her life

Young Victoria

Elderly Victoria

The British Empire

where the sun never sets

• England grew to become the greatest nation on earth
  
• Empire included Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Singapore, South Africa, Kenya, and India
  
• England built a very large navy and merchant fleet (for trade and colonization)
  
• Because of England’s success, they felt it was their duty to bring English values, laws, customs, and religion to the “savage” races around the world

Downsides of the uprise of industry

• population increase 
• Search for employment
  
• Child Labour & Child crime
• Housing shortage
  
• Slum housing
  
• Poor sanitary conditions
  
• Destitution
  
• Homeless children
  
• Workhouses
  

Victorian literature - Poetry

• A continuation of the Romantic period
• Themes: nature  / the past / the human spirit

• Important poets:

1. Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809 - 1892)
2. Robert Browning (1812 - 1889)

Victorian literature - the novel

• The age of the novel
• Growing audience for "true stories"
• Greater wealth (rise of the middle classes)
• Better education (rise in literacy)
• Instalment system (novels published in serial form)

Important authors

• Charles Dickens
• The Brontë Sisters
• George Eliot
• Thomas Hardy
• Oscar Wilde

Victorian Literature

In this class you will learn about Charles Dickens and his novel Oliver Twist

Charles Dickens

Charles Dickens: Many of his novels were published in serial form, called instalments. His comic and sentimental descriptions of the lives of people in diverse occupations and social classes made Dickens the most popular Victorian novelist. 

Charles Dickens and realism

The realistic novel was born in the 19th century, and is characterized by  social content, such as the description of the struggle of the bourgeoisie against the aristocratic society, or the description of the world of the poor and unfortunate.

London was the setting of most of his novels; he knew and described it in realistic details.

At first, Dickens created middle class characters, though often satirised. He gradually developed a more radical social view, although he was not a revolutionary thinker.  

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What themes are addressed in Dickens' novels?

To what purpose did Dickens use entertainment in his novels?

Why did Dickens have such a strong sense of the precariousness of life?

In which novel did Dickens write about the blackening factory?

1. Oliver Twist
2. David Copperfield
3. A Christmas carol
4. The Pickwick papers

How did Dickens make readers feel compassionate about the characters?

1. He made the characters question the readers' own judgement about social misstandings
2. The characters in his books were always very poor
3. He wrote articles in a newspaper about it
4. He made sure that we liked them

What other aspect did Dickens address in his novels to keep people on board with his vision of social reform

1. He bluntly wrote down the horrids of Victorian England
2. He suggested people would come in hell if the did not care
3. He paid a lot of attention to the sweet comfort of life
4. He blamed rich people for not looking at poor people

Did Dickens offer possible solutions for the social problens he wrote about?

Ja

Nee

Which of these sum up Dickens' ideal?

Make goodness attractive

Be politically engaged

Broaden our sympathies to people we may not know form the outside but who are similar to us by character

Do not scare people people away by writing too honestly

Make it bearable for people to learn uncomfortable lessons

Oliver Twist

* Poor boy born in the Workhouse

* Sold for 5 pounds to a coffin maker

* Runs away to London

* Where he is "found" by an older boy

*  Brought to Mr Fagin, the leader of a boys' pickpocketing gang

* Lots of (sometimes criminal) activities happen

* Finally there is a happy end...

subtle irony

Subtle irony: not immediately obvious irony. Use of words to convey a meaning that is

      the opposite of the real meaning.

example:

" ...where on a rough, hard bed, he sobbed himself to sleep. Novel illustration of the tender laws of England. They let the paupers go to sleep"

Find examples of subtle irony in the next fragment taken from " Oliver Twist' 

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