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The Victorian Spirit of Uncertainty
The Victorian Spirit of Uncertainty
People were in favour of individualism yet at the same time were afraid of all the changes taking
place in the society.
The Victorians tried to rework at their religious faith by positing a religion that was more
personal than doctrine. The Evangelical faith was nonconformist and it tried to tell the story of
the fall of man through a historical-theological recounting his need for redemption and Christ's
sacrifice. It created a human-divine Christ who was constructed as a historical rather than
theological figure from a critical study of the bible. The one way that religion could be
assimilated in the Victorian social theory was by projecting Christ as a teacher of mortality rather
than a figure of divinity.
No doubt quarrel between science and religion was incessant and difficult to reconcile.
The lady has no clear view of Camelot, or the new Industrial Age. She knows only what she is
shown second hand through other sources in this case represented by the mirror she watches as
she weaves. She delights in what she sees, knowing all the while that she cannot take part in it
because it is simply a reflection. Soon, however, restlessness creeps in: "I am half sick of
shadows," she says. The key line, "I am half-sick of shadows", says the Lady's mind, and
probably the poet's mind, is divided about the right choice.
A reference to Arnold's essay where he says that only people with high class and money could
concern themselves and their decisions did not work in favour of the general public who at this
point of time were growing day by day. There was restlessness among the general public. There
was a need to find an established set of views that could govern power relations.
The Victorians were conscious of living in an age of unrest and paradox. Almost all writers spoke
about the prevailing atmosphere of doubt, especially in matters of religion. In doing so, they
were giving expression to a 'fear' they experienced collectively. Paradoxically enough, what they
feared was that very change and progress they otherwise celebrated.
With the widening of economic opportunities, more and more people could climb the social
scale. At the same time, such a breakdown of class structures created a peculiar sense of
insecurity amongst those very people who had advantage of social mobility. They now felt the
need to protect their status and privileges against encroachment of the class they had left behind.
This fear translated itself into a powerful desire for social stability and security.
Sir Lancelot, an embodiment of the brightness and light of the new age, strikes her like a "bowshot." When she sees his reflection in the mirror, she is moved to break tradition. Lancelot is all
glitter, daring, and boldness, with his silver bugle and shining armour. In an instant, he brings
the Lady of Shalott a flash of enlightenment. He is "some bearded meteor, trailing light." She
moves from her loom to see the view from the window with her own eyes.
The web of her weaving is broken, as is history. The mirror is crackedshe no longer needs
information from a secondary source. The lady is doomed; the woman she has been cannot exist
with the new knowledge she has received.
( This reflects the growing conflicts inside the mind of people. They felt as if their world was
going to implode with all the new information coming in.)
As she leaves her tower, the Lady of Shalott passes the effects of the industrial age in the natural
surroundings, a wind that is "straining," woods that are "waning," and a river that is
"complaining." Enlightenment was seductive, but fatal. She cannot return, but must realize how
she has been kept.
She loses the chain from her boat and moves toward the city, as many women of the time were
forced to do. Her last song is a farewell to life and the traditional roles of women. She dies as
she reaches the city.
The aristocracy in the castle is afraid of the corpse in the boat. Only Sir Lancelot is unworried.
He comments, "She has a lovely face; God in his mercy lend her grace." He is at once realizing
her commercial potential and dissolving his own responsibility for her, just as he would the
working class. As the personification of the industrial age, he is unafraid of letting go of the past
in order to realize the future. (the depiction of an aristocrat's mindset- a type)
We also here notice the lack of social cohesion that was a direct result of the effects of
industrialism and the vacuum created by the loss of religious faith.
The Lady looking at the world in a mirror and depicting it in a work of art is some kind of
allegory for the life of the artist-writer. "The Lady of Shalott" is partly about how being an artist
(writer, poet, scholar, etc.) can make you feel isolated from ordinary life. The old questionwhether an artist or writer must be isolated from the ordinary world. Many philosophers of that
age like Mathhew Arnold being an aesthetic was important and it was something that could only
be instilled by a work of art or literature as it was lost due to the extreme radical vision that
science gave.
Many philosophers like Arnold believed that an artist should rule the city as they were best
elements of any society. By claiming that a state should be ruled by the best elements in a class,
(a sort of intellectual minority) they wished to replace real state with its power politics and class
interest with an ideal state that largely operated with an abstract idea. Society which wished for
democracy and during the rising power of middle class he was allowing "intellectual aristocracy"
to make a back door entry.
Yet at the same time he was against the total power control by any singular class. We obviously
notice a clash in his views between the other-worldly and temporal as well as between traditional
virtues and democratic questioning.
Though the Victorians acknowledged the term "intellectual anarchy" (John Stuart Mill), they
always looked forward to a period of firm convictions and established beliefs. To them all
changes were a necessary stage in the process of our growth.
What differentiates the Victorians from our Modern time is this faith in existence of ultimate
truths in both religion and ethics and they also held onto faith in man's capacity to discover these
truths.
The occasion
The speaker
The hearer
Occasion : The occasion of the poem can be understood considering the purpose of the poem. It
was the most suitable occasion to present the popular fickleness which had produced such a
sudden and distressing change. The occasion of this poem would be the portrayal of the doubts
prevalent in that era concerning the nature of God and humanity's relationship with this all
powerful, omnipresent power/deity. We'll talk more about the details of this in a bit.
Speaker : The main and only speaker of the poem is Caliban who is a character of Shakespeare's
play "The Tempest". He is the slave of Prospero. Browning chooses to use Caliban in his poem
for certain reasons. One, he is defined by his misery. Not only this, Caliban considers himself as
a lesser creature in comparison to humans and is quite unhappy to be under Prospero's direct
control. The usage of Caliban is an advantage as the poet can easily explore our own relationship
to a divine power and this creates a higher drama and as a result permeates all the considerations
with a characteristic of cynicism. Caliban is seen talking about his concepts of religion.
Hearer : There is no apparent hearer in this poem as Caliban is talking to himself and we can as a
result bracket this poem under the category of a soliloquy to some extent.
Let us get back to the occasion which is portrayed through the speaker of the poem. It was a
time when people were coming to terms with the fact that the reason for human suffering was not
merely about character building. Browning put forth his view of the concept of the same and also
talked about what role would God have in it. The arbitrary nature of suffering and reward in the
world were notions that were just manifesting in the society and were something that were only
being considered to be even thought of. An immediate historical influence on the poem was the
then-recent publication of Darwin's "Origins of the Species". Browning was responding to
several naturalist theories that came up with the advance of scientific realisation that man might
not be a direct and divine creation. This is seen in two ways in the poem. One, God could be
understood by natural, empirical evidence. Two, God must not exist in the image of man if we
evolved from animals and hence are not directly His image. The evidences to this can be seen as
well. First, one seen in the epigraph of the poem : "Thou thoughtest that I was altogether such a
one as thyself" - a phrase taken from Psalm 50 in the Bible, spoken by God to sinners who
thought the deity to be wicked as themselves. Second, the poem's subtitle : "Natural Theology in
the Island". This is related to the then relevant theological debates related to the studies of
Darwin. The poem demonstrates a problem that the Victorian era was having with Christianity.
Theology had to be twisted more and more in a violent manner in order to explain both the facts
of the modern world and the modern science. The speaker, Caliban's consideration of evolution is
different. His mother (Sycorax in the actual play) had told him that nature had been created by
the "Quiet" and that God/Setebos is doing whatever He can with what is already there. There
exists a force other than the omnipresent power (defined as God) which operates neutrally and
disinterestingly - The Theory of Evolution would fit within this system of thought. Caliban had a
different point of view from that of his mother and he believed that Setebos made creatures in
order to use their weaknesses against themselves. Caliban finds no answer to his misery in either
of the perspectives just like the Victorians then - does a God exist, whose qualities are up to
debate ? Or is science right and questions of the like. Like the Victorian naturalists, Caliban also
gained the idea of Setebos not from an inner feeling but from empirical evidence.
Overall through his poem, Browning attempts to make order of his world. He studies behaviour
(including his own) in order to create a stable system which would then dictate his behaviour. He
does not out rightly deem any world view to be superior, or even how he perceives God is not
made clear. Browning does not answer any of the questions put forth with certainty.
themes that give a new meaning altogether, every time we read it with some or the other
perspective in mind. The focus of our presentation is to see the poem as a Christian allegory and
spot the religious uncertainties embedded inside it.
It seems very obvious that this poem straightforwardly alludes to the discourse of the Forbidden
fruit and the Biblical account of the fall. But, just like when Milton tried to justify the ways of
God to men and in doing so unknowingly included certain aspects that justified ways of Satan to
men, Rossettis poem too, brings an underlying meaning in the poem that is uncertain and
challenges the Christian Theology.
Simon Humphries says that Rossettis work pivots upon contradiction and obscurity and its
intellectual rigor is nowhere more evident than in this determination to probe the uncertainties of
Christian Theology.To understand this uncertainty, lets begin with the most significant imagery
that is used in the poem, the image of the Fruit.
THE DOUBLE IMPLICATIONS OF THE FRUIT IN GOBLIN MARKET AND ITS
UNCERTAIN DEPICTION:
It is very interesting to note that the fruits that had once poisoned Laura, cures her in the end.
The fiery antidote that she refers to was more of the same fruit, i.e., it was the antidote to itself.
The source of origin for both, the poison as well as the cure becomes the same which is the fruit
sold by the Goblin men. So, if the fruit in Goblin Market depicts the forbidden fruit from the
tree of knowledge of good and evil, then in making such depiction, Rossetti blurs the distinction
between the tree of knowledge and the tree of life. In the Genesis account of the fall, after
Adam and Eve eat the forbidden fruit, as part of their punishment, they are not allowed access to
the tree of life. But in the poem, Lauras Salvation is found in tasting the same fruit again.
This image is very different from the Biblical view for Christ said that, A good tree cannot bring
forth evil fruit and neither can a corrupt tree bring forth a good fruit.
Simon Humphries says that it is therefore important to know that the consumption of
substances which could either become poisons or cures was by no means inconceivable in 19th
century England:, important too, to know that Christina Rossetti herself consumed such
substances. By saying this she refers to the Common Book of Prayer that provides liturgy for
the Church of England that say that the Bread and Wine can have the power to sometimes bring
life, sometimes bring death. The Exhortations in the liturgy for Holy Communion warns that
those who wish to receive the Sacrament should be correctly prepared, for it is so divine and
comfortable a thing to them who receive it worthily and so dangerous to them that will pursue it
unworthily.
That is the danger- one may think that they are spiritually being mingled with Christ but they
might end up with the devil inside them. Therefore, the Bread and Wine of the Communion
service- brings life, brings death. And brings the problem of knowing whether it is death or life
that is coming ones way. This is the same question that is asked in the poem when Laura has
tasted the fruits again: Pleasure past and Anguish past, is it death or is it life? and in the next
line we see- Life out of Death, which can be called as a Christian Paradox.
If we further extend this argument, we might say that Christina Rossetti thought of the world as
having the double power of being destructive and beneficial which would imply that everything
in the world had double power. For example, we can talk about the doubleness of the Goblins.
The poem never gives us the origin of the fruit, when demon-like goblins sell it, it becomes
poisonous and when Christ like redeemer, Lizzie serves it, it becomes a cure. So, if seen in this
light, one can say that the fruits are not inherently evil but are used by the Goblins for wrong
purposes because it is never explained why Goblins are so insistent that young women should eat
the fruit. As merchants they should just sell the fruit in exchange for money. They fling back the
coin that Lizzie gives them. In this way, the tile itself becomes an irony. Is the Goblin market
really a market? Are these Goblin really merchants? They dont mean Come buy, then mean
Come Eat. It is not only the produce of the market that becomes the suspect, but the very
procedures of the market.
If this argument is connected with the level of the World, this could lead us to consider the world
as two forces, one that is Gods pristine world and the other is the one created by the society. One
may say that Rossetti questions this very doubleness. The question is whether Lauras
Temptation and Salvation mean the same thing in both the worlds? Are the demands made by
both of the both worlds same? This might get concerned with the perception of women in the
Victorian Age.
This brings us to another point that can be found in Rossettis poem which is how she,
CHALLENGES THE PATRIARCHAL PERCEPTION OF WOMEN WITHIN CULTURE
IN TERMS OF SEXUALITY, EDUCATION AND MARKETPLACE:
Rossetti includes the issues of female sexuality and education that were paradoxically linked
Rossettis time. The forbidden fruit could refer to female sexuality and could also relate to
female education and knowledge. It could also mean all forms of female desire.
Diane D Amico pointed out that Eve ate the forbidden fruit in order to become like God, that is,
prideful and not lustful. The same goes for Laura. She is not an evil and seductive figure. One
whole, Rossetti steers away from equating female sexuality with sinfulness, which in itself is a
radical move. Sexual pleasure was denied to Victorian women for as the passionless angels in the
house, they were seen as too pure and sacred to share in the disgusting lust that afflicted men. At
the same time, they were not given the same education as men because it was believed that too
much intellectual activity would cause their reproductive organs to malfunction, securing the
double bondage of sexuality and intellect on the women.Women were allowed a portion of
knowledge, whether it relates to their sexuality or intelligence, but with that revelation they must
realize that regardless of their innate abilities and gifts, society will not allow them to reach their
true potential.
Brad Sullivan says that Rossettis hope for meaning and completeness must be deffered until
she can escape from the self-destructive cycles of worldly existence. May be this is why the idea
of female solidarity is brought out in the end of the poem.
Lauras need for Salvation is not a result of her sinfulness, but of dissatisfaction with her society.
This establishes the link between Spiritual Redemption and Social Reformation. Rossetti must be
thinking that redemption was not about dying and going to heaven but actually about living with
dignity and freedom. An example for this could be the St. Mary Magdalene house of charity in
Highgate. It was a refuge for fallen women and Rossetti was a volunteer there. Its purpose
was twofold: one to reform penitent women into reliable domestic servants and second, to
make them active member in the Church of England. These could be the several young women
like Laura who wanted redemption to re-integrate in the society. They were not social outcasts.
Through this, Rossetti reconstructs the idea of Christian Redemption. (Lack of acceptability is
defined by culture, not by a divine being).
MULTIPLE MEANINGS IN THE POEM AND THEIR INTERCONNECTEDNESS:
The poem can be read using various approaches and all of them are interconnected with each
other and with religion of course. This very interconnectedness represents the sense of insecurity,
uncertainty and divided self that the Victorian age went through. Critics can never really study
this poem usng one theoretical framework. Even Simon Humphries says that it seems that there
does come a point at which not every explanation of what happens in Goblin Market can be
defensible. But it is not fully possible to believe that it was just a fairy tale written for kids
because whatever was happening in the 19 th century was a constant war between change and
stability and every living individual was a part of it. One can agree with Caroline Nortons
statement about the ambiguity of the poem that It is a fable- or a mere fairy story- or an allegory
against the pleasure of sinful love- or what is it? Let us not too rigorously inquire, but accept in
all its quaint and pleasant mystery, and quick and musical rhythm- a ballad which children will
con with delight. And which richer minds may ponder over, as we do with poems written in a
foreign language which we only half understand.
REFERENCES
Mathew Arnold : Culture and Anarchy
Andy Hamilton : J S Mill and Democracy
Charles Darwin : The Descent of Man
Simon Humphries: The Uncertainty of Goblin Market
Gowan Dawson and Sally Shuttleworth- Introduction: Science and Victorian Poetry
Jamie Vigue: Victorian Beliefs
Sabine Earnest: Analysis Caliban Upon Setebos
Dr.Foss- Caliban Upon Setebos: Robert Browning Pondering Religion and Science
Victorian Poets: Edited by Suroopa Mukherjee