SALIENT FEATURES OF THE VICTORIAN AGE AND IT’S POETS TOO.

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SALIENT FEATURES OF THE VICTORIAN AGE AND IT’S POETS TOO.

Prepared by- Divya Choudhary

Course- M.A.

Sem- 2

Paper no. - 6

Paper name- Victorian Age

Enrolment no. - PG15101007

Batch- 2015-17

Email id

choudharydivya400@gmail.com

Submitted to- Smt. S. B. Gardi Department of English

Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University

Introduction

The Victorian age is believed to be from 1850-1900 when Victoria became Queen in 1837; English literature seemed to have entered upon a period of lean years, in marked contrast with the poetic fruitfulness of the romantic age. The Victorian era was a bridge between the romantic era in literature of the 18th century and the industrialized world of the 20th century. In England, the Victorian era was the era of massive empire building.  Writers like Joseph Conrad were inspired by daring adventure found in the quest to take over far-flung areas of the world. A growing English middle class, wanting to gain access into the noble class, produced some appearances of a stuffy, proper culture. Manufacturing was growing and living conditions for the poor were often deplorable. Cultural struggles grew over science v/s religion, the role of women and proper behavior, especially with regard to sexuality. All of these elements showed up in the popular forms of literature. Coleridge, Shelley, Keats, Byron and Scott had passed away. Keats and Shelley were dead but already there had appeared three disciples of those poets who were destined to be far more widely read than were their masters. Tennyson had been publishing poetry since 1827, his first poems appearing in almost simultaneously with the last works of Byron, Shelley and Keats; but it was not until 1842, with the publication of his collected poems, two volumes, that England recognized in him one of her great literary leaders. Elizabeth Barrett Browning had been writing since 1820. Browning had published his Pauline in 1833. But in 1846, when Bells and Pomegranates were published, people began reading his works and started appreciating him. A group of pose writers had emerged in like Dickens, Thackeray, Carlyle and Ruskin. In this age, the long struggle of the Anglo- Saxons for personal liberty was settled and democracy was established. The house of Commons becomes the ruling power in England; and a series of new reform bills rapidly extend the suffrage, until the whole body of English people choose for themselves the men who shall represent them. Because it is an age of democracy, it is an age of popular education, of religious tolerance, of growing brotherhood and of profound social unrest. The slaves had been freed in 1833; but in the middle of the century, England awoke to the fact that slaves are not necessarily Negroes, stolen in Africa to be sold like cattle in the market place, but that multitudes of men, women and little children in the mines and factories were victims of a more terrible industrial slavery. Because it is an age of democracy and education, it is an age of democracy, comparative peace. England begins to think less of the pomp and false glitter of fighting, and more of its moral units, as the nation realizes that it is the common people who bear the burden and the sorrow and the poverty of war, while the privileged classes reap most of the financial and political rewards. With the growth of trade and of friendly foreign relations, it becomes evident that the social equality for which England was contending at home belongs to the whole race of men; that brotherhood is universal, not insular; that a question of justice is never settled by fighting; and that war is generally unmitigated horror and barbarism. The Victorian age is especially marked because of its rapid progress.

 Literary features of the age:

Salient Features- The Victorian age is especially marked because of its rapid progress in all the arts and sciences and in mechanical inventions like spinning looms to steamboats and from matches to electric lights. All these material things as well as the growth of education have their influence upon the life of a people, and it is inevitable that they should react upon its prose and poetry; though as yet we are too much absorbed in our sciences and mechanics to determine accurately their influence upon literature. When these new things shall by long use have become familiar as country roads, or have been replaced by newer and better things, then they also will have their associations and memories, and a poem on the rail road’s maybe as suggestive as Wordsworth’s sonnet on Westminster Bridge. This age can be called as the Age of Compromise (compromise between science and religion; between democracy and autocracy).

Industries had been started emerging in the cities which led to migration. Due to migration, people left villages and agriculture was affected severely.

In other words, we can say, there was death of agriculture. When everyone went to city, it became overpopulated. As people were working in industries, they got money and food but getting shelter was their main problem. There was lack of space and for that; people started quarreling with each other. Intoxication had started, prostitution started taking place and evil things started happening. There was dark and gloomy atmosphere everywhere. Majority of people were poor. The dominant people were money minded and so humans were used as machines. Workhouses were getting full as people were in search of job to earn money.

 Workhouses looked like prisons. They were very much dirty and stinky. The condition of people was not good. They were given a fixed amount of meal. Women were kept away from men and their husbands too. Children too were kept away from adults. The people in the workhouses had to work for twelve hours whether it is a child or an adult. They had the permission to bath once in a week. Ill people were kept in sick wards. A number orphanages and prostitutes increased as woman many a times didn't get work anywhere. She had to involve in prostitution and then chances of getting pregnant increased.

If this happened, the lady had to deliver the child and then left that child to orphanages. There was severe socio-economic depression people were threatened by the name of God. People had to work in harsh conditions as there was not enough electricity. Each job was hard and everyone had to suffer a lot.

The sixty years commonly included under the name of the Victorian age present many dissimilar features. Yet in several respects we can safely generalize.

1. Its morality: Nearly all observers of the Victorian age are struck by its extreme deference to the conventions. To a later age these seem ludicrous. It was thought indecorous for a man to smoke in public and for a lady to ride a bicycle. To a great extent the new morality was a natural revolt against the grossness of the earlier regency, and the influence of the Victorian court was all in its favor. In literature it is amply reflected. Tennyson is the most conspicuous co placement sir Galahad and King Arthur, dickens, perhaps the most representative of the Victorian novelists took for his model the old picaresque novel. But it is almost laughable to observe his anxiety to be ‘moral’.

2. The Revolt: Many writers protest against the deadening effect of the conventions. Carlyle and Matthew Arnold in their different accents were loud in their denunciations Thackeray never tired of satirizing the snobbishness of the age and bowing’s cobble mannerisms were an indirect challenge to the velvety diction and the smooth self satisfaction of the Tennyson and School. As the age proceeded the reaction
strengthened. In poetry the Pre-Raphaelites, by Swinburne and William Morris proclaimed no morality but that of the artist’s regard for his art.
3. Intellectual developments: The literary product was inevitably affected by the new ideas in science, religion and politics. On the origin of species (1859) of Darwin shook to its foundation scientific thought. We can perceive the influence of such a work in Tennyson’s. In memoriam in Matthew Arnold’s meditative poetry and in the works of Carlyle. In religious and ethical thought the Oxford movement as it was called was the most notes worthy advance.
4. The achievement of the age: With all its immense production, the age produced no supreme writer. It revealed no Shakespeare no Shelley nor a Byron or a Scott. The general literary level was however very high and it was an age moreover of spacious intellectual horizons, noble endeavor and bright aspirations.

Poets

1 Elizabeth Barrett Browning (06 March 1806-29 June 1861) was one of the most prominent English poets of the Victorian era. Her poetry was widely popular in both Britain and the United States during her lifetime. Her first adult collection, The Seraphim and Other Poems was published in 1838. She wrote prolifically between 1841-1844 producing poetry. Elizabeth’s volume Poems (1844) brought her great success. During this time, she met and corresponded with the writer Robert Browning, who admired her work. She is remembered for poems like How Do I Love Thee (Sonnet 43, 1845) and Aurora Leigh (1856). She wrote her own Homeric Epic the Battle of Marathon: A Poem. Her first collection of poems, An Essay on Mind, with other poems, was published in 1826 and reflected her passion for Byron and Greek politics.

    2 Matthew Arnold (24 December 1822-15 April 1888) was an English poet and cultural critic who worked as an inspector of schools. Arnold published his second volume of poems in 1852, Empedocles on Etna, and other poems. In 1853, he published poems: A New Edition, a selection from two earlier volumes famously excluding Empedocles on Etna, but adding new poems, Sohrab and Rustum and The Scholar Gipsy. In 1854, Poems: Second Series appeared; also a selection, it is included the new poem, Balder Dead. Arnold is sometimes called the Third great Victorian poet, along with Alfred Lord Tennyson and Robert Browning. Arnold was keenly aware of his place in poetry.

Conclusion :
To conclude this point we can see that basically in this age the most beneficial things is the cheapening of printing and paper. They increased the demand for books. This age is also known as the age of peace. In these ages there is also one important development of material and during that time there was a revolution happened in commercial enterprise.

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