1) The Victorian society as mirrored in the novel

This period was one of unprecedented development in all the fields of England’s
economic, social and political life. Referred to from the standpoint of the twentieth century,
Queen Victoria’s age is undoubtedly perceived as a period of stability and equilibrium
underlain by a solid and reliable value system, with the idea of God looming large at its
centre. Far from being a period of perfect harmony, free of any conflicting states,
Victorianism still enjoys the benefits of some strongholds on whose unquestionable stability
one is invited to rely. The most important one is the figure of Queen Victoria herself and the
institution the queen represented - the monarchy.
The monarchy represented the timeless quality of what was taken to be a pre-industrial
order. In an increasingly urbanised society, it balanced the Industrial revolution: the more
urban Britain became, the more stylised, ritualised, and popular became its monarchy, for the
values which it claimed to personify stood outside the competitive egalitarianism of capitalist
society.
Dictated by a tough competition with other European nations, the British Empire
expanded with a view to establishing new spheres of influence and gaining control over
previously unexplored areas that represented fresh opportunities for trade and new sources of
wealth. A feeling of national pride was also associated with Britain’s expansionistic
tendencies in the nineteenth century, which undoubtedly accounts for part of the apparent
stability of the Victorian society. The Empire was, thus, another stronghold of the Victorian
age, on whose strength much of the spirit of the period depended. The boom in wealth
generated a boom in birth rate. In the public opinion, the traditional picture of the family
reigned supreme. The large family was the rule in the Victorian society. Many children,
gathered under the protective wing of a caring mother, materially depended on the effort, and
consequent success, of the father, who could be seen as a dignified epitome of God on earth.
Much of the stability and solidity of the Victorian age were given by people’s
perceiving the family, the monarchy and the empire as solid, incontestable and wealth
providing institutions. Although the Victorian prosperity was only one side of the coin, the
other being the victims, the multitude of the crushed and the oppressed, few Victorian people
ever seriously thought of contesting the beneficial role of these institutions in the Victorian
society. Dissatisfaction may have been formulated with any other social, economic or political
aspects. The monarch and the institution she led, the imperialist expansionism and the family
as the basic social unit of the society were never questioned.
Literature, and especially fiction, reflects the reality in a certain period of time. The
Victorian novel, constructed according to the conventions of realism is, thus, expected to be in
various ways a reflection, or better said, a representation of the Victorian society, with all its
underlying values.
Starting from the historical delimitation of the Victorian period, it is
interesting to see how different Victorian writers, or writers creating in the Victorian age,
formulated their own standpoint and related themselves to the Victorian values and
conventions. This paper will try to demonstrate that there is a clear relationship between the
particular standpoint that a writer chooses to express and the technique that he opts for in
order to carry into effect the intended representation. To this end, I have chosen for
exemplification two novels by two novelists whose work displays a fairly wide range of
references to the Victorian period, but which, by a different option in point of technique,
produced a different representation of reality. The specific moment of time when the two
novels I selected were published is also relevant. Charles Dickens’ Bleak House came out in
1852-1853, i.e. about the same time the Great Exhibition took place in London. The Great
Exhibition marked a turning point in the history of the nineteenth century, delimiting the
“Hungry Forties” from the “Fabulous Fifties”. Dickens confronts his reader with an image of
the Victorian society rendered in the conventions of the realist novel. Without claiming that
he would reform manners and morals, or that he would repair social injustice, Dickens
constitutes himself, however, into a spokesperson of the realities of his time. He has a view of
both sides of the Victorian coin, but he chooses to emphasise more the bad side of it, focusing
on the deficiencies of the legal, social and political system. Dickens is a keen observer of
reality and he decides to present it as truthfully and as accurately as possible. He chooses thus
the narrative technique that could provide the proper bird’s-eye view of the Victorian
panorama. The point of view that Dickens uses is the omniscient, which means that, no matter
how sceptical about the values underlying the Victorian system he may be, he is not ready to
essentially question these values. The omniscient narrator is a God-like presence in the
narrative that parallels God’s central position to the Victorian man’s system of values.
Consequently, critical as Dickens is of England’s situation, the values underlying his thinking
coincide to a certain extent with those underlying the thinking of any Victorian individual.
Dickens may criticise the organisation of his contemporary England, but he will seldom, if
ever, question the validity of this organisation, in a subversive way. Dickens’ criticism can be
effected in tones ranging from mild irony, through satire to bitter sarcasm, but ultimately he
will acknowledge the system as system, and thus his novel will be an artistic representation of
a society which is, after all, stable and solid.
Although England and the English political system are not too often the subject matter
of Dickens’ novels in explicit terms, the chapter ‘National and Domestic’ in Bleak House
offers the reader an almost straightforward representation of the country’s political
deficiencies. There is one ingredient that is purposefully avoided in the constitution of
England – the Queen. One may easily refer the two fictional characters in the fragment to the
historical personages Benjamin Disraeli and William Gladstone, both Prime Ministers having
played a significant part during Queen Victoria’s reign. Yet the monarch does not appear,
although Dickens openly satirises the performance of the two politicians, the former a
Conservative, the latter a Liberal. Dickens’ message is that all political alternatives are
reduced to mere irrelevance when the judicial system is so ineffective and so negatively
reflected in the people’s life. Yet, the taboo subject of the queen, and implicitly of the
monarchy, is not tackled, which is clearly indicative of Dickens’ essential standpoint.
Jane Eyre is a milestone in the history of English literature.Charlotte Bronte,
and her contemporary writers had revealed the truth of politics and society to the world,
which were more than what statesmen, political commentators, and moralists had contributed.
This work has deeply exposed the vile reality of Capitalist Britain and praised the hope and
struggle of those women who stood up for equality.It portraits a woman who is brave enough
to revolt, fight for freedom and equal position successfully. This paper attempts to analyze
Jane’s spirit of revolt through three aspects: background, activity and significance.The
heroine, Jane, is described as a rebelling character against convention and out-dated traditions
Jane Eyre was published in 1847 when the struggle between the classes became increasingly
fierce. In 1836 arose the working-class movement known as Chartism, which was, according
to Lenin, ‘the first broad, really mass, politically formed proletarian revolutionary
movement’.The movement raised the problem of women’s rights and social position with
other important social issues, and put forward the slogan of freedom and individual rights.
The portrait of Jane Eyre is the reflection of this era, she strives for independence and in the
novelist expresses her humanistic and democratic protest against the suppression of
personality in Victorian society. From the analysis of Jane Eyre’s various periods of life, we
can find that Jane’s spirit of revolt goes through the whole book alongside with the intense cry
for equality and freedom of human rights. It is a kind of rebellion against the old social
system which has been oppressing the lower classes for hundreds of years. Jane Eyre is a
typical woman who is unwilling to endure the capitalist oppression and who raises the flag of
revolt. She is a symbol of a new awakening of the sense of freedom and equality in the hearts
of women in the 19th century. To some extent, the struggle of Jane reflects the woman
problems of the time, chiefly concerning women’s position in the society. Jane Eyre’s poverty
and misfortune are the real pictures of English women in the 19th century, especially those
unlucky ones. In this realistic novel, Charlotte Bronte reveals her own miseries, pursuits and
happiness through the portrait of Jane Eyre. What she pursues are the independent human
dignity, freedom and equal power as a human being and the coming back of the restrained
human rights. By highly praising Jane Eyre’s indomitable struggles for the improvement of
the women’s social status and women’s living standard, she indicates that women’s liberation
includes not only the independent human dignity and freedom of equality of love, but also the
staunch and self-depending labor. Furthermore, she points out that the women’s fate is rooted
in the fact that they are poor and oppressed. It is suggested that if women want to break away
from the humiliation completely, they must be lifted out of poverty and backwardness and
change the position of being oppressed. Only depending on the constant struggles, they can
obtain complete independence and freedom. Therefore, the image of Jane Eyre and her spirit
of fighting touch people’s heartstrings strongly. At the same time, Jane Eyre is considered as
an outstanding woman who is far beyond the vulgar surroundings.