Victorian Age

                        Assignment

Name :  Rupa Bambhaniya B

Enrollment no:    2069108420200002

Paper No : 6 

Topic : Victorian Age

Submitted by : Smt S.B. Gardhi Department of English

Email Id : rupabambhniya166@gmail.

 Words : 

Victorian age:

        Introduction : 

         Victorian era, in British history, the period between approximately 1820 and 1914, corresponding roughly but not exactly to the period of Queen Victoria’s reign (1837–1901) and characterized by a class-based society, a growing number of people able to vote, a growing state and economy, and Britain’s status as the most powerful empire in the world.

The Victorian era was a period of dramatic change that brought England to its highest point of development as a world power. The early Victorian period (1830–48) saw the opening of Britain's first railway and its first Reform Parliament, but it was also a time of economic distress.

Although characterized as practical and materialistic, the literature of the Victorian age portrays a completely ideal life. It was an idealistic age where the great ideals like truth, justice, love, brotherhood were emphasized by poets, essayists and novelists of the age.

 Charectristic of the Victorian age…

1.  The progress of democracy.

    While the country saw economic progress, poverty and exploitation were also equally a part of it. The gap between the rich and the poor increased significantly and the drive for material and commercial success was seen to propagate a kind of a moral decay in the society itself. The changing landscape of the country was another concern. While the earlier phase of Romanticism saw a celebration of the country side and the rich landscape of the flora and fauna, the Victorian era saw a changing of the landscape to one of burgeoning industries and factories. While the poor were exploited for their labor, the period witnessed the rise of the bourgeoisie or the middle class due to increasing trade between Britain and its colonies and the Reform Bill of 1832 strengthen their hold. There was also a shift from the Romantic ideals of the previous age towards a more realistic acceptance and depiction of society.

Realism : 

The movement of Realism is

generally a minor movement in

the later 19t century, which

began in France and was later,

followed by England.

Coming down to the history of

English Literature from the

Romantic Age of ldealism to the

Victorian era of Realism, one

experiences the feeling of a

return from solitude to society,

from nature to industry, from

concepts to issues, from

spiritualism to pragmatism, from

optimism to agnosticism, fromn

lyricism to criticism and from

organicism to compromise

A large part of the complex of

change that comes about in

English Literature from early 19

century to the later 19t century

can be measured from the kind of

the change, the images of the

Ocean undergo when we move

from Byron to Arnold.

Agnosticism : 

Agnosticism is defined as the

belief, "that nothing is known or

can be known of immaterial

things, especially of existence or

nature of God. Ihe term

"agnostic" was coined by T.H

Huxley in 1869 A.D.The realisation that God's

existence is neither observable

nor provable drove society into a

state of uncertainty.

The realisation that God's

existence is neither observable

nor provable drove society into a

state of uncertainty.People of the Victorian Era sought

to explore and understand

questions about the metaphysical

world, but ultimately found no

answerS and were left in doubt.

AgnostiCism was a means OT

identifying the scepticism that

stemmed from the inability to

logically support the existence of

spiritual beings.

People of the Victorian Era sought

To explore and understand

questions about the metaphysical

world, but ultimately found no

answers and were left in doubt.AgnosticIsm wasameans oT

identifying the scepticism that

stemmed from the inability to

logically support the existence of

spiritual beings.

Spread and education : 

“Ragged Schools” were set up to provide free basic education to orphans and very poor children. ... These schools spread rapidly and there were 350 ragged schools by the time the 1870 Education Act was passed (The Victorian School). The ragged schools were often run by churches and had a foundation of charity and religion.

Indurstrial  revolution : 

It was the time of the world’s first Industrial Revolution, political reform and social change, Charles Dickens and Charles Darwin, a railway boom and the first telephone and telegraph. But the Victorian Era—the 63-year period from 1837-1901 that marked the reign of England’s Queen Victoria—also saw a demise of rural life as cities rapidly grew and expanded, long and regimented factory hours, the start of the Crimean War and Jack the Ripper.

Humanities approach : 

Humanitas meant the development of human virtue, in all its forms, to its fullest extent. The term thus implied not only such qualities as are associated with the modern word humanity understanding, benevolence, compassion, mercy but also such more assertive characteristics as fortitude, judgment, prudence, eloquence, and even love of honour. Consequently, the possessor of humanitas could not be merely a sedentary and isolated philosopher or man of letters but was of necessity a participant in active life. Just as action without insight was held to be aimless and barbaric, insight without action was rejected as barren and imperfect. Humanitas called for a fine balance of action and contemplation, a balance born not of compromise but of complementarity.

Conclusion: 

Thus, this period has given a great contribution to the English literature in the form ofnovels, essays, critical essays, poetries and plays as well. However, it is the novels of this period

that attracts the reader to read and re-read the works of the great writers of the Age. No doubt

that whenever novel as a literary term is thought about or talked about, four wheels of novelwould come first to our mind that remind the names of great novelist like, Samuel Richardson,

Lawrence Sterne, Tobias Smollett, and Henry Fielding. However, the reader would love more toread the novels of the particular Victorian Period. We find a good chemistry between thereflection of the image of the contemporary Age and the creative faculty of the writers with their

free expression of the imagination and emotion that touch the reader of all Ages and of all age.