Literary Features of the Age

The sixty years (1830 - 1890) commonly included under the name of the Victorian Age present many dissimilar features; yet in several respects we can safely generalise.

General View of the Literature

Victorian literature was written in the main for the people, and reflected the pressing social problems and philosophies of a complex era. The age was prevailingly one of social restraints and taboos, reminiscent in this respect of the Puritan period. The writers, whether poets or novelists or essayists, are didactic and moral and purposeful, although that statement is not valid for the members of the Pre-Raphaelite brotherhood. Possibly the dominant literary form was the novel; possibly the least notable form was the drama. Undoubtedly the Victorian age ranks second only to the Elizabethan period.

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 indecorous. It was thought indecorous for a man to smoke in public and much later in the century 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 favour. In literature it is amply reflected.

Tennyson is the most conspicuous example in poetry, creating the priggishly complacent 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". This type of writing is quite blameless, but it produced the kind of public that denounced the innocuous Jane Eyre, as wicked, because it dealt with the harmless affection of a girl for a married man.

The Revolt

Many writers protested against the deadening protests of the conventions. Carlyle and Matthew Arnold in their different accents were loud in their clemenciations; Thackeray never tired of satirising the snobbishness of the age; and Browning's mannerisms were an indirect challenge to the velvety diction and the smooth self - satisfaction of the Tennysonian School. As the age proceeded the reaction strengthened. In poetry, the Pre - Raphaelites, led by Swinburne and William Morris, proclaimed no morality but that of the artist's regard for his art. By the vigour of his methods, Swinburne horrified the timorous, and made himself rather ridiculous in the eyes of sensible people. It remained for Thomas Hardy to pull aside the Victorian veils and shutter and with the large tolerance of the master to regard men's actions with open gaze.

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3. Intellectual Developments

The literary product was inevitably affected by the new ideas in sciences, religion, and politics. On the Origin of Species (1859) of Darwin shook to its foundations 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 noteworthy advance. This movement has its source among the young and eager thinkers of the old university, and was headed by the great Newman, who ultimately (1845) joined the Church of Rome. As a religious portent it marked the widespread discontent with the existing beliefs of the Church of England; as a literary influence it affected many writers of note, including Newman himself, Kingsley, and Gladstone.

4. The New Education

The Education Acts making a certain measure of education compulsory, rapidly produced an enormous reading public. The cheapening of printing and paper increased the demand for books so that the production was multiplied. The most popular form of literature was the novel, and the novelists responded with a will. Much of their work was of high standard, so much so that competent critics had asserted that the middle years of the 19^th century were the richest in the whole history of the novel.

5. International Influences

During the 19^th century, the interaction among American and European writers was remarkably fresh and strong. In Britain the influence of the Great German writers was continuous and Carlyle and Matthew Arnold championed it. Subject relations, in particular the Italians were a sympathetic theme for prose and verse. The Brownings, Swinburne, Morris and Meredith were deeply absorbed in the long struggle of the followers of Garibaldi and Cavour; and when Italian freedom was gained the rejoicing was genuine.

6. 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 endeavour, and bright aspirations.

7 The Development of Literary Forms

The Victorian epoch was exceedingly productive of literary work of a high quality, but except in the novel, the amount of actual innovation is by no means great. Writers were as a rule content to work upon former models, and the improvements they did achieve were often dubious and unimportant.