Chapter 4: The Victorian Period
General Introduction
1. Duration: 1836—1901 (Critical Realism)
2. Position: one of the most glorious in the history
3. Social background:
A. Economically, the working classes were striking for the basic right and better living and working conditions. (Economic contradiction—the New Poor Law of 1834)
B. politically, the English working class were organized for their basic right, this movement is the early sign of the awakening of the poor, oppressed people. (Political contradiction—the Chartist Movement of 1836)
C. Ideologically, the Victorians experienced fundamental changes. The rapid development of science and technology, new inventions and discoveries in geology,astronomy, biology and anthropology drastically shook people’s religious convictions. (Religious contradiction—Darwin’s theories)
4. Literature features:
1took on its quality of magnitude and diversity. It was many-sided and complex, and reflected both romantically and realistically the great changes that were going on in people’s life and thought.
2the novel became the most widely read and the most vital and challenging expression of the progressive thought. According to D.H. Lawrence, George Eliot was the first novelist that “start putting all the action inside” and Thomas Hardy is not only continued to expose and criticize all sorts of social iniquities, but finally came to question and attack the Victorian conventions and morals.
3also produced a host of great prose writers
4the poetry of this period was mainly characterized by experiments with new styles and new ways of expression.
5It is truthfully represents the reality and spirit of the age. The high-spirited vitality, the down-to-earth earnestness, the good-natured humor and unbounded imagination are all unprecedented.
5. Main writers:
Novelists:
Charles Dickens
The Bronte Sisters
George Eliot
Thomas Hardy
William Makepeace Thackeray
Mrs. Gaskell
Anthony Trollope
Poets:
Robert Browning-create the verse novel
Alfred Tennyson
Matthew Arnold
Edward Fitzgerald
Dante Gabriel Rossetti and Christina
Gerald Manley Hopkins
Algernon Charles Swinburne
The typical authors during this period
I. Charles Dickens
1. His Life & Literary Career:
Charles Dickens (1812-1870) was born at Portsmouth. His father, a poor clerk in the Navy Pay office, was put into the Marsalsea Prison for debt when young Charles was only 12 years old. The son had to give up schooling to work in an underground cellar at a shoe-blacking factory - a position he considered most humiliating. We find the bitter experiences of that suffering child reflected in many of Dickens’s novels. In 1827, Charles entered a lawyer’s office, & two years later he became a Parliamentary reporter for newspapers. From 1833 Dickens began to write occasional sketches of London life, which were later collected & published under the title Sketches by Boz (1836). Soon The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club (1836-1837) appeared in monthly installments. And since then, his life became one of endless hard work. In his later years, he gave himself to public readings of his works, which brought plaudits & comfort but also exhausted him. In 1870, this man of great heart & vitality died of overwork, leaving his last novel unfinished.
2. His Major Works:
Period of youthful optimist
Sketches by Boz (1836); The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club (1836-1837); Oliver Twist (1837-1838); Nicholas Nickleby (1838-1839); The Old Curiosity Shop (1840-1841); Barnaby Rudge(1841)
Period of excitement & irritation
American Notes (1842); Martin Chuzzlewit (1843-1845); A Christmas Carol (1843); Dombey & Son (1846-1848); David Copperfield (1849-1850)
Period of steadily intensifying pessimism
Bleak House (1852-1853); Hard Times (1854); Little Dorrit (1855-1857); A Tale of Two Cities (1859); Great Expectations (1860-1861); Our Mutual Friend (1864-1865); Edwin Drood (unfinished)(1870)
3. Distinct Features of His Novels:
1Character Sketches & Exaggeration
In his novels are found about 19 hundred figures, some of whom are really such “typical characters under typical circumstances,” that they become proverbial or representative of a whole group of similar persons.
As a master of characterization, Dickens was skillful in drawing vivid caricatured sketches by exaggerating some peculiarities, & in giving them exactly the actions & words that fit them: that is, right words & right actions for the right person.
2 Broad Humor & Penetrating Satire
Dickens is well known as a humorist as well as a satirist. He sometimes employs humor to enliven a scene or lighten a character by making it (him or her) eccentric, whimsical, or laughable. Sometimes he uses satire to ridicule human follies or vices, with the purpose of laughing them out of existence or bring about reform.
3 Complicated & Fascinating Plot
Dickens seems to love complicated novel constructions with minor plots beside the major one, or two parallel major plots within one novel. He is also skillful at creating suspense & mystery to make the story fascinating.
4The Power of Exposure
As the greatest representative of English critical realism, Dickens made his novel the instrument of morality & justice. Each of his novels reveals a specific social problem.
4. His Literary Creation & Writing characteristics:
Charles Dickens is one of the greatest critical realistic writers of the Victorian Age.
In his works, Dickens sets a full map & a large-scale criticism of the 19th-century England, particularly London.
Charles Dickens is a master story-teller.
Dickens also employs exaggeration in his works.
Dickens’s works are also characterized by a mixture of humor & pathos.
Writing characteristics
It is his serious intention to expose & criticize in his works all the poverty, injustice, hypocrisy & corruptness he saw all around him.
In his works, Dickens sets a full map & a large-scale criticism of the 19th-century England, particularly London.
A combination of optimism about people & realism about society is obvious in these works. His representative works in the early period include Oliver Twist, David Copperfield & so on.
His later works show a highly conscious modern artist. The settings are more complicated; the stories are better structured. Most novels of this period present a sharper criticism of social evils & morals of the Victorian England, for example, Bleak House, Hard Times, Great Expectations & so on. The early optimism could no more be found.
His language could, in a way, be compared with Shakespeare’s. His humor & wit seem inexhaustible. Character-portrayal is the most outstanding feature of his works. His characterizations of child (Oliver Twist, etc.), some grotesque people (Fagin, etc.) & some comical people (Mr. Micawber, etc.) are superb.
II. Charlotte Bronte
1. Charlotte’s Literary Creation and her Writing Characteristics:
Charlotte Bronte’s works are all about the struggle of an individual towards self-realization, about some lonely & neglected young women with a fierce longing for love, & understanding & a full, happy life.
All her heroines’ highest joy comes from some sacrifice of self or some human weakness overcome.
Besides, she is a writer of realism combined with romanticism.
On the one hand, she presents a vivid realistic picture of the English society by exposing the cruelty, hypocrisy & other evils of the upper classes & by showing the misery & suffering of the poor.
Her works are famous for the depiction of the life of the middle-class working women, particularly governesses.
On the other hand, her writings are marked throughout by intensity of vision & of passion.
By writing from an individual point of view, by creating characters who are possessed of strong feelings, fiery passions & some extraordinary personalities, by using some elements of horror, mystery & prophesy, she is able to recreate life in a very romantic way.
The vividness of her subjective narration, the intensely achieved characterization, especially those heroines who are totally contrary to the public expectations & the most truthful presentation of the economical, moral, social life of the time-all this earns her works a never dying popularity.
2. Selected Reading-Jane Eyre:
Jane Eyre: “Do you think, because I am poor, obscure, plain, and little, I am soulless and heartless? ——You think wrong! ...And if God had gifted me with some beauty, and much wealth, I should have made it as hard for you to leave me, as it is now for me to leave you...——it is my spirit that addresses your spirit; just as if both had passed through the grave, and we stood at God’s feet, equal-as we are!”
Edward Rochester : “Am I a liar in your eyes?” he asked passionately. “Little sceptic, you shall be convinced. What love have I for Miss Ingram? None: and that you know. What love has she for me? None: as I have taken pains to prove: I caused a rumour to reach her that my fortune was not a third of what was supposed, and after that I presented myself to see the result: it was coldness both from her and her mother. I would not- I could not- marry Miss Ingrain. You- you strange - you almost unearthly thing!- I love as my own flesh. You - poor and obscure, and small and plain as you are- I entreat to accept me as a husband.”
1Summary (plot)
(1) Jane’s childhood at Gateshead, where she is abused by her aunt and cousins;
(2) her education at Lowood School, where she acquires friends and role models but also suffers privations;
(3) her time as governess at Thornfield Manor, where she falls in love with her Byronic employer, Edward Rochester;
(4) her time with the Rivers family at Marsh’s End (or Moor House) and at Morton, where her cold clergyman-cousin St. John Rivers proposes to her; and
(5) her reunion with and marriage to her beloved Rochester at his house of Ferndean.
2Main characters
Jane Eyre: The protagonist and title character, a plain-featured and reserved but talented, empathetic, hard-working, honest (not to say blunt), and passionate girl. Skilled at studying, drawing, and teaching, she works as a governess at Thornfield Manor and falls in love with her wealthy employer, Edward Rochester. But her strong sense of conscience does not permit her to become his mistress, and she does not return to him until his insane wife is dead and she herself has come into an inheritance. Then their marriage is blissful because it is between equals.
Edward Rochester: The owner of Thornfield Manor, and Jane’s lover and eventual husband. He possesses a strong physique and great wealth, but his face is ugly and his moods mutable. Impetuous and sensual, he falls in love with Jane because her simplicity, bluntness, and plainness contrast so much with those of the shallow society women he is accustomed to. But his unfortunate marriage to the maniacal Bertha Mason postpones his union with Jane, and he loses a hand and his eyesight while trying to rescue his mad wife after she sets a fire that burns down Thornfield. He is what is referred to as a Byronic hero.
3Theme
The criticism of the bourgeois system of education, the aim of bourgeois principles of education is to bring up obedient slaves for the rich.
The English country squires---uncultivated and narrow-minded ( Rochester is an exception)
The position of woman in society ( the heroine maintains women should have equal rights with men.)
4Position
The work is one of the most popular & important novels of the Victorian age.
It is noted for its sharp criticism of the existing society, e.g. the religious hypocrisy of charity institutions, the social discrimination & the false social convention as concerning love & marriage.
At the same time, it is an intense moral fable. Jane, like Mr. Rochester, has to undergo a series of physical & moral tests to grow up & achieve her final happiness.
The success of the novel is also due to its introduction to the English novel the first governess heroine.
Jane Eyre is a completely new woman image. She represents those middle-class workingwomen who are struggling for recognition of their rights & equality as a human being. The vivid description of her intense feelings & her thought & inner conflicts brings her to the heart of the audience
5Typical lines
If God had gifted me with some beauty and much wealth, I should have made it as hard for you to leave me, as it is now for me to leave you.
6Jane’s characters
Jane Eyre, an orphan child with a fiery spirit & a longing to love & be loved, a poor, plain, little governess who dares to love her master, a man superior to her in many ways, & even is brave enough to declare to the man her love for him, cuts a completely new woman image.
In this novel Charlotte characterizes Jane Eyre as a naive, kind-hearted, noble-minded woman who pursues a genuine kind of love.
Jane Eyre represents those middle-class working women who are struggling for recognition of their basic rights & equality as a human being.
III. Thomas Hardy
1. His Life & Literary Career:
Thomas Hardy (1840-1928) was born near Dorchester, the area that later became the famous “Wessex” in many of his novels.
Hardy is often regarded as a transitional writer.
His novels are all Victorian in date. Most of them are set in Wessex.
2. His Major Works:
Poetry: the most famous is The Dynasts, a long epic-drama about the Napoleonic Wars.
Hardy himself divided his novels into three groups:
1) Romances & Fantasies
A Pair of Blue Eyes (1873); The Trumpet Major (1880)
2) Novels of Ingenuity
Desperate Remedies(1871)--his first novel; The Hand of Ethelberta
3) Novels of Character & Environment
Under the Greenwood Tree(1872) – the most and idyllic
The Return of the Native (1878)– the tragic sense becomes a keynote
The Mayor of Casterbridge (1886) – reveals the conflict in a deeper and fuller sense Tess of the D’Urbervilles(1891) – conflict between old and modern becomes more intense
Jude the Obscure(1896) – the tragic sense turns into despair
3. Features of His Writings:
1Past & Modern
Living at the turn of the century, Hardy is often regarded as a transitional writer. In him we see the influence from both the past &the modern. As some people put it, he is intellectually advanced& emotionally traditional. In his Wessex novels, there is an apparent nostalgic touch in his description of the simple & beautiful though primitive rural life, which was gradually declining & disappearing as England marched into an industrial country. And with these traditional characters he is always sympathetic. On the other hand, the immense impact of scientific discoveries & modern philosophic thoughts upon the man is quite obvious, too.
2 Determinism
In his works, man is shown inevitably bound by his own inherent nature & hereditary traits which prompt him to go & search for some specific happiness or success & set him in conflict with the environment. The outside nature-the natural environment or Nature herself-is shown as some mysterious supernatural force, very powerful but half-blind, impulsive & uncaring to the individual’s will, hope, passion or suffering. It likes to play practical jokes upon human beings by producing a series of mistimed actions & unfortunate coincidences. Man proves impotent before Fate, however he tries, & he seldom-escapes his ordained destiny.
3Critical realism
Though Naturalism seems to have an important part in Hardy’s works, there is also bitter & sharp criticism & even open challenge of the irrational, hypocritical unfair Victorian institutions, conventions & morals which strangle the individual will & destroy natural human emotions & relationships. The conflicts between the traditional & the modern, between the old rural value of respectability & honesty & the new utilitarian commercialism, between the old, false social moral & the natural human passion, etc. are all closely set in a realistic background true to the very time & the very place.
1. criticism ['krɪtɪsɪz(ə)m] n. 批评;考证;苛求 E.g. Most of Dickens’ later works present a criticism of the more complicated and yet most fundamental social Institutions and morals of Victorian England.大部分狄更斯后期的作品更加严厉的批判了更为复杂但最根基的社会机构和英国维多利亚时代的道德。
2. humor ['hju:mə] n. 幽默，诙谐;心情 E.g. Charles Dickens’ works are characterized by a mingling of humor and pathos. 狄 更斯的作品还有一个特点，是将幽默与哀伤的泪水交汇起来。
3. humorous ['hjuːm(ə)rəs] adj. 诙谐的，幽默的;滑稽的，可笑的 E.g. Dickens’ best depicted characters are those innocent, virtuous, persecuted and helpless child characters, horrible and grotesque characters, broadly humorous or comical characters. 狄更斯最善于描绘的人物有天真，善良，迫害和无助的孩子;恐怖 和怪诞的人物;还有幽默或滑稽人物。
4. realism ['rɪəlɪz(ə)m] n. 现实主义 E.g. As the greatest representative of English critical realism, Dickens made his novel the instrument of morality & justice. 作为英国批判现实主义的伟大代表，狄更斯的小 说是宣扬美德和正义的工具。
5. twist [twɪst] vt. 捻;拧;扭伤;编织;使苦恼 n. 扭曲;拧;扭伤 E.g. Oliver Twist 奥利弗·特维斯特《雾都孤儿》(书名) twists and turns 迂回曲折 tongue twister 绕口令
6.bleak [bliːk] adj. 阴冷的;荒凉的，无遮蔽的;黯淡的，无希望的;冷酷的;单调的 E.g. Bleak house 《荒凉山庄》(英国作家狄更斯名著) E.g. The world was not always so bleak. 这个世界不是生来就如此凄冷的。
7. critical ['krɪtɪk(ə)l] adj. 鉴定的;批评的，爱挑剔的 E.g. Charles Dickens is one of the greatest critical realist writers of the Victorian Age. 查理斯·狄更斯是维多利亚时期伟大的批判现实主义作家之一。
8. education [edjʊ'keɪʃ(ə)n] n. 教育;培养;教育学 E.g. In Charles Dickens’ work Hard Times, the Utilitarian principle rules over the English education system and destroys young hearts and minds. 在狄更斯的作品《艰难时世》中，功利主义原则主导了英国教育体系并且摧毁了年轻人的心灵。
9. environment [ɪn'vaɪrənm(ə)nt] n. 环境，外界 E.g. Thomas Hardy’ s local-colored works include The Trumpet Major, The Return of the Native, The Woodlanders; also known as “novels of character and environment”. 托马斯.哈代晚年的作品最富地方色彩，如《还乡》，《号兵长》，《卡斯特桥市长》，《林地居民》，《德伯家的苔丝》与《无名的裘德》这些作品便是著名的“角色与环境 为纲的小说”。
10. reveal [rɪ'viːl] vt. 显示;透露;揭露;泄露 n. 揭露;暴露;门侧，窗侧 E.g. Thomas Hardy reveal the conflict between the traditional and the modern in The Mayor of Casterbridge, Tess of the D' Urbervilles and Jude the Obscure. 哈代的小说中揭露了传统与现代冲突的作品有《卡斯特桥市长》，《德伯家的苔丝》与 《无名的裘德》。
11. expectation [ekspek'teɪʃ(ə)n] n. 期待;预期;指望 E.g. Great Expectations《远大前程》(狄更斯的经典名著) E.g. I’m sorry to disappoint your expectation. 很遗憾，我辜负了你的期望。
12. governess ['gʌv(ə)nɪs] n. 女家庭教师 E.g. The success of Jane Eyre is also due to its introduction to the English novel the first governess heroine.《简爱》的成功在于它首次把家庭女教师作为主角引入英国小说。
13. hypocrisy [hɪ'pɒkrɪsɪ] n. 虚伪;伪善 E.g. Charlotte Brontё’s Jane Eyre is noted for its sharp criticism of the existing society, e. g. the religious hypocrisy of charity institutions. 夏洛蒂·勃朗特《简爱》以对当时社会尖锐的批评而闻名于世，比如:慈善机构的宗教虚伪性。
14. moral ['mɒr(ə)l] adj. 道德的;精神上的;品性端正的 n. 道德;寓意 E.g. In Dickens’ later works: there are fewer jokes and the comedy becomes harsher; the novels are of great compactness and concentration; most of the works present a criticism of the more complicated and yet most fundamental social Institutions and morals of Victorian England. 狄更斯后期的作品背景比较复杂;故事结构更紧凑。这一时期的大部分小说更加严厉的批判了更为复杂但最根基的社会机构和英国维多利亚时代的道德。
15. sense [sens] n. 感觉，功能;观念;道理;理智 vt. 感觉到;检测 E.g. Jane Austen’s first novel Sense and Sensibility tells a story about two sisters and their love affairs. 简奥斯汀的第一部小说是《理智与情感》讲述了一对姐妹的恋爱经历。
16. complicated ['kɒmplɪkeɪtɪd] adj. 难懂的，复杂的 E.g. Most of Dickens’ later works present a criticism of the more complicated and yet most fundamental social Institutions and morals of Victorian England.大部分狄更斯后 期的作品更加严厉的批判了更为复杂但最根基的社会机构和英国维多利亚时代的道德。
17. conflict ['kɒnflɪkt] n. 冲突，矛盾;斗争;争执 vi. 冲突，抵触;争执;战斗 E.g. From The Return of the Native on, the tragic sense becomes the keynote of Thomas Hardy’s novels, the conflict between the traditional and the modern is brought to the center of the stage. 从《还乡》开始，悲剧意识成为托马斯·哈代小说的 主旨，传统与现代之间的冲突成为焦点。
18. feature ['fiːtʃə] n. 特色，特征;容貌;特写或专题节目 vi. 起重要作用 vt. 特写;以...为特色;由...主演 E.g. The most distinguishing feature of Charles Dickens’ works is character-portrayal. 狄更斯的作品最显著的特点是人物描写。
19. heroine ['herəʊɪn] n. 女主角;女英雄;女杰出人物 E.g. The success of Jane Eyre is also due to its introduction to the English novel the first governess heroine.《简爱》的成功在于它首次把家庭女教师作为主角引入英国小说。
20. intense [ɪn'tens] adj. 强烈的;紧张的;非常的;热情的 E.g. The vivid description of her intense feelings & her thought & inner conflicts brings her to the heart of the audience. 《简爱》中对她感情、思想、内心矛盾的描述 让简爱的形象深入人心。
21. middle-class [mɪdl'klæ s] adj. 中产阶级的;中层社会的 E.g. Jane Austen’s main literary concern is about the day-to-day country life of the upper-middle-class English. 简·奥斯丁文学作品的主要关注点是英国乡村中上层的生活全貌。
22. obscure [əb'skjʊə] adj. 昏暗的，朦胧的;晦涩的，不清楚的 E.g. Thomas Hardy reveal the conflict between the traditional and the modern in The Mayor of Casterbridge, Tess of the D' Urbervilles and Jude the Obscure. 哈代的小说中揭露了传统与现代冲突的作品有《卡斯特桥市长》，《德伯家的苔丝》与《无名的裘德》。
23. orphan ['ɔːf(ə)n] adj. 孤儿的;无双亲的 n. 孤儿 E.g. Jane Eyre is an orphan child with a fiery spirit & a longing for love. 简爱从小是个孤儿，但她对爱充满激情并且对爱情有着强烈渴望。
24. particularly [pə'tɪkjʊləlɪ] adv. 特别地，独特地;详细地，具体地;明确地，细致地 E.g. The works of Charlotte Bronte are famous for the depiction of the life of the middle-class working women, particularly governesses. 夏洛特.勃朗特的小说以塑造中产阶级职业女性，尤其是家庭女教师形象而著称。
25. passion ['pæ ʃ(ə)n] n. 激情;热情;酷爱;盛怒 E.g. The tragic sense turns into despair in Thomas Hardy’s Jude the Obscure, where cornered by the traditional social morality, the hero and the heroine have to kill their own will and passion and return to their former destructive way of life. 在托马斯·哈代的《无名的裘德》中，悲剧性变成绝望，由于被传统的社会道德逼得走投无路，男主人公和女主人公不得不灭掉自己的意志和激情，回到他们以前毁灭性的生活方式。
26. plain [pleɪn] adj. 平的;简单的;朴素的;清晰的 n. 平原;无格式;朴实无华的 东西 E.g. “Do you think, because I am poor, obscure, plain, and little, I am soulless and heartless? ... And if God had gifted me with some beauty, and much wealth, I should have made it as hard for you to leave me, as it is now for me to leave you. ” The quoted lines are most probably taken from Jane Eyre. “难道你认为，因为我一贫如洗， 默默无闻，长相平平，矮小，我就没有灵魂没有心吗? ...如果上帝赐予我一点姿色和充足的财富，我会让你难以离开我，就像现在我难以离开你一样。”以上引语出自《简 爱》。
27. tragic ['trædʒɪk] adj. 悲剧的;悲痛的，不幸的 E.g. From The Return of the Native on, the tragic sense becomes the keynote of Thomas Hardy’s novels, the conflict between the traditional and the modern is brought to the center of the stage. 从《还乡》开始，悲剧意识成为托马斯·哈代小说的主旨，传统与现代之间的冲突成为焦点。
28. traditional [trə'dɪʃ(ə)n(ə)l] adj. 传统的;惯例的 E.g. Thomas Hardy reveal the conflict between the traditional and the modern in The Mayor of Casterbridge, Tess of the D' Urbervilles and Jude the Obscure. 哈代的小说中揭露了传统与现代冲突的作品有《卡斯特桥市长》，《德伯家的苔丝》与《无名的裘德》。
29. wealthy ['welθɪ] adj. 富有的;充分的;丰裕的 n. 富人 E.g. Jane Eyre works as a governess at Thornfield Manor and falls in love with her wealthy employer, Edward Rochester. 简爱在桑菲尔德庄园当家庭教师，她爱上了他那个富有的雇主爱德华·罗彻斯特。
30. workhouse ['wɜːkhaʊs] n. (英)济贫院; E.g. Dickens attacks the dehumanizing workhouse system and the dark, criminal underworld life in Oliver Twist. 狄更斯的《雾都孤儿》反映当时丧失人性的济贫院体系和黑社会犯罪。
31. principle ['prɪnsɪp(ə)l] n. 原理，原则;本质 E.g. In Charles Dickens’ work Hard Times, the Utilitarian principle rules over the English education system and destroys young hearts and minds. 在狄更斯的作品《艰 难时世》中，功利主义原则主导了英国教育体系并且摧毁了年轻人的心灵。
