2.

The Victorian Age (1831-1901)

2.1 Social and Political Context

It was an age with a strict social code about conduct. It left behind the romantic
ideas of: emphasis on the revolutionary and rebellious (radical reformists). There has been no
big change in society: romantic writers were outcasts and the same ideas remain (no
revolution). It was an age of machinery and inventions (19th century), with an emphasis on
the industrial production. In this century, England was the biggest political potency in the
world due to traits and colonies. Politically, Great Britain was formed by England, Ireland,
Scotland and Wales, but economically was only England. London was the centre of the
economy even if the Industrial Revolution happened more in the north. Another important
development of this century is the railway.

Later on, this age will be severely mocked by modernists in terms of morality, roles of
conduct, health and hypocrisy. There is a hidden aspect of Victorian Age that has a big
importance, but that will be ignored by mainstream society the role of women and
differences in social classes. In general, it was a time of double standards (confusion, e.g.
religion vs. science) and scientific discoveries (Darwin).

1837 will be considered the official date of the start of Victorian Age, since it was the
year in which Queen Victoria took the throne. However, there are some disputes about this
date and some others say it should be in 1830, with the official end of Romanticism or in
1831, the date for a pass of an Act for Democracy (Reform Act). Queen Victoria herself
embodied the Victorian movement, both in her private life and officially. She married her
1st cousin (Albert of Germany) and had 9 children she was called “the grandmother of
Europe”, considering family as the basic unit as stability in society. She had strict standards
of morality. She was a model of respectability for English families and dominated 19th
century bringing stability to Europe. She was immensely popular, like a semi-god, and acted
according to Christian standards of conduct.

Past and Present no. 1 (1858) by Augustus Leopold Egg

1st painting out of 3 and it was very popular. It represents a domestic scene, where a
husband is sitting with a letter in his hand and the wife is lying in the floor weeping.
Probably, he has found about her infidelity and she has to live to leave the house and their
daughters. At that time, men could have lovers but women couldn’t. About the scene, it
shows a high-class Victorian parlour, where such elements like the house of cards and the
apple are symbols of falling.

Past and Present no. 2 (1858) by Augustus Leopold Egg

Now the daughters are older and they are on their own, since their dad is dead and
they are poorer, as can be seen in the painting. Themes: solitude, sadness.

Past and Present no. 3 (1858) by Augustus Leopold Egg

The mother is alone with an illegitimate child in her arms, poor and living in the
streets.

The Awakening Conscience (1853) by Holman Hunt

The author uses a lot of light, bright colours and clothes, with happy and enraptured
faces. The woman in the painting is the mistress of the man. She looks like having a
revelation, but can’t do anything about it. At that time, conventions, hypocrisy and women
and sex were the most important topics.

THE BRITISH EMPIRE (1815)

At that time they had colonies in: America, the Caribbean, India (East India Co. set
off a war between Britain and the Netherlands) and Canada. British government established
colonies to control trade, since it was basic for the Empire to control the strategic points to
set ports. In 1920, they were even bigger, with an expansion to Australia, New Zealand,
whole India, Africa… Greenwich was the centre of the world and was named 0 latitude and
for the 1st time, it started to be a large scale trade, a scenario in which 1/5 of world’s
population was British. Besides, around this date, Commonwealth was established.

Industrialisation started in 18th century, but it was further developed in 19 th century. A

lot of people couldn’t work any longer due to machines, so there was a surplus of farmers in
the countryside and they went to cities or abroad (rural to urban migration). Cities were not
so big to accommodate them all, so there was an expansion of cities too  Manchester,
Leeds, Birmingham. With this expansion, the creation of suburbs and its dirtiness were
unavoidable (Suburban life: for instance, Richmond was a pastoral model of life with trees, a
river and not packed houses; whereas Thornton Heath was an area of semidetached houses,
an immediate consequence of Industrial Revolution, where people lived more packed but still
wasn’t so bad it was for low middle-class workers). Railway was basic for their transport
to get to work from the suburbs to the city itself, so there was an expansion of the railway as
well. The difference of urban environment where you live will set your social class.

At that time, Britain has become a powerful nation, where England is the most
important region and in it, London is the metropolisthe centre of politics, science and
power and considered the most important city in the world. By the beginning of the 20 th
century, Britain and London too will have suffered from a huge increase in population:
1831(B): 24 million  1901(B): 38 million; 1837(L): 2 million  1901(L): 6,5 million. To
show this increasing power, they build huge constructions like the Houses of Parliament,
Westminster Abbey, Big Ben…just to onsite admiration and awe to visitors. Other impressive
buildings built as a sign of massive wealth in London were:

 Eaton Hall: the country house of the Duke of Westminster, a private house symbol of
an outrageous health.

 The Bank of England: the very architecture emphasises its wealth, it was something
almost religious. However, it made it clear that business takes over religion, that
business is what really motivates people. It was the biggest bank of the world along
with The Bank of Scotland.

 The Great Exhibition (1851): the Crystal Palace in Hyde Park was Prince Albert’s
idea to concentrate the world’s best innovations (more than 5 km long) this building
highlights a new era in design: steel and glass were signs of the time (engineering
and factories) and there was no looking back to tradition but to the future. Technology
was seen as a key to a better future and happiness. The trees inside this building were
a symbol of the triumph of modernity over nature. The money they made was to
create museums in London to make people’s knowledge bigger  The British
Museum became the treasure of every English man to get people involved in
England’s greatness.

 The City was now called to the financial area of London.

POLITICS IN THE VICTORIAN AGE

In 1829, the 1st significant law was passed to give civil rights to Catholics in England
(Catholic Emancipation Act) and with it the old fierce resistance to Catholicism was elided.
In 1831, the Reform Act was passed to reform the suffragist system looking as a
revolutionary humanitarian law, but it wasn’t true since only males with income could vote (1
out of 30). In 1867 and 1884, New Reform Acts were passed giving votes to 3 million
members of the working class (although still women couldn’t vote).

Karl Marx was living in London at the time and he was an example of the fetishist
capitalistic ideas. He established communism to fight against the dirty reality of workers
being treated as animals, poorly paid, sick and dying soon. There was a growing of the
middle classes and scientific discoveries like Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution in his On
the Origins of the Species (1859) and Charles Lyell’s study of tectonic plates in geology
appeared to be the order of the day. Darwin’s ideas established a contradiction for The Bible’s
main ideas and it legitimated the separation of science and religion. Social Darwinism
was, then, a justification for the survival of the fittest in society: ‘more organized social
groups are stronger than less organized ones, and through natural selection more likely to
survive through wars or disasters’ those who were the best adapted would be the ones in
power. This ideology was very revolutionary and it was used by high classes to justify
themselves and their role in society. Religion was questioned by some theories such as
utilitarianism (created by Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill), whose main maxim was:
what is useful for society is good and therefore doubted the usefulness of religion. There
were 2 main reactions to these ideas:

1. Anti-utilitarians: rejected or abandoned any institutionalised religion, e.g.

Christianity (like Carlyle). In England, there were many different theological feelings,
because it was a Protestant country and there was a certain degree of liberty in
choosing your creed. Dissenters were very common among the low classes and people
didn’t look down on you if you didn’t go to mass, although the official English
Church was Anglican Church.

2. Ultra-conservative religion: there was an ultra-conservative Catholic revival led by

Cardinal John Henry Newman, a member of the Oxford Movement.
 2.2 John Stuart Mill (1806-1873)

He was one of the most important philosophers, politicians and spokesmen. He was
also a brilliant writer of essays along with Stevenson, John Ruskin… His father’s friend,
Jeremy Bentham, was the founder of utilitarianism and he and his father put John S. Mill into
an experiment to make him a genius  he had a breakdown and recovered after reading
Wordsworth. He embodies the mix between the romantic mind and the enlightenment mind.
He was rector of St Andrews and emphasised both rationalism and emotion.

On Liberty (1859)

He highlights the individual-state relationship based on (this is a key text, one of the
most influential texts ever written):

 Freedom of speech.
 Freedom of thought and emotion.
 Different tastes: an standard should not exist.
 Political freedom: new parties or associations.
 Sexual freedom.

And he tries to apply them in different issues:

 Economy: according to him the state shouldn’t deal with economy. He was for
communism and reject capitalism to start state interventions.
 Crime: “if you hurt yourself is not a crime” so something that it is immoral shouldn’t
be a crime.
 Social issues: he is pro divorce if both husband and wife have an agreement for it.
However, he doesn’t agree with suicide, since he considers it not useful and that goes
against individual liberty.
 Education: it should be private to show the best minds or to be able to compete. He
maintains the importance of teaching different views or contradicting ideas to provoke
excellent ideas
 Tolerance of different religions: he is in favour of a multiplicity of religious groups
point of view and was heavily criticised for it. According to Mill, religion goes against
of freedom of speech, since in some religious creeds there is absolute control over its
believers.
  Morality and society: morality is important for society and this is important for the
individual.

1. How does Mill justify the need for originality and individuality?
For him originality is a valuable element, because it helps society to progress and to
be freer. Human nature is to exercise your own free will, not to copy, since you need your
originality for society to advance and to grow. He complains about traditions, since they are
wrong and unsuitable for these new times: there can’t be regulations for everyone because
each of us is different. Besides, we have to be energetic, we have to be dynamic, not inert or
static (controlled), in order to progress (reference to a wheel spinning) Victorian
hallmark. The state can’t control citizenship in every movement; they just should look for
them not to be harmed.

2. What are his views on Calvinism and religion?

Mill rejects religion because he thinks that it chains the individual and kills originality
and freedom of expression. He criticises Calvinism, because according to that, we are
predestined (we can’t avoid sin, we are all sinners): we can’t do anything about our own
destiny until our human nature is killed (‘the one great offense of man is self-will’).
Calvinism defends restraining our own impulses. Then, according to Mill, Religion harms
people not allowing them to express themselves. If God were a good being, he would give
you the opportunity to express yourself.

3. Is Mill’s vision elitist?

Yes. Because he promotes the best minds, but to have a good level of knowledge you
need resources to afford it. He wanted to open the minds of a few gifted people in order to
improve society; make sure that they develop their minds too, in order to show the masses.
He wants to avoid the tyranny of middle classes or masses, since they are the ones setting
the standards of behaviour (they are mediocre, not reaching the levels of ‘originality’).
Press is what gets masses informed and, in Mill’s point of view, journalists are not the best
minds to educate people. Therefore, this is the reason why middle classes should not establish
any standard. According to him, geniuses deserve more than the rest of the people and we
should follow their way  contradiction with the idea of ‘individuality’.

4. Does it in any way justify colonialism?

 Yes, because a way of knowing other cultures is to be in contact with them. According
to him, colonisers are considered as geniuses, a justification for their actions. Another excuse
for them is that they are acting for the sake of progress.

The idea that British citizens are superior to any other is clearly implied in Mill’s text
and the reason he gives is because they are more energetic than others. Surprisingly, the idea
that we need to be instructed by geniuses has remained until nowadays and it is very present,
especially in America.

5. Why could Mill’s essay be labelled utilitarian?

Because originality and individual freedom are useful for society and therefore, basic
for him. In fact, his ideas about the importance of progress are still with us. On the other
hand, he also considered religion as something useless for human kind, since its ruling system
is based on controlling and manipulating citizens to avoid creativity and ideas different from
the standard ones.

Progress, energy, earnestness (we should not be deceived by any false doctrines or
moralities, we have to face reality as it is, using our common sense) three key terms for the
theory of utilitarianism.

6. In what ways have Mill’s ideas been relevant in the 20th and 21st centuries?
In Steve Job’s speech he was mentioning what we should do after finishing university
 telling society some ideas that enable us to develop, to progress. These ideas are already
formulated in Mill’s essay, they were very prominent in Victorian society.
 2.3 Victorian Poetry

- It is a continuation from romantic tradition plus some deviations.

- Romantic poets are concerned with revolution and changes.
- As the 19th century moved on there were new attitudes:

o New scientific discoveries.

o Losing religious faith.
o Colonialism.
o Individual liberty, originality and subjectivity.
o Paradox in poetry: they are inheritors of the romantics but there is a new reality
(without breaking with them).

2.3.1 Alfred Lord Tennyson (1809-1892)

He was influenced by romantic tradition. Very eccentric and went to Cambridge to

study. He belonged to the upper middle-class and at university he came in touch with some
influential people The Apostles. In his works he shows melancholy, a feeling about
committing suicide. He had some ideas criticising romantic poetry.

He became a bohemian poet (not really elegant, not caring about his own image or
social conventions); he wasn’t a lord by birthright, he was given the title later for his
achievements in literature. In Cambridge, he made a great friend: Arthur Hallam.
Afterwards, he continued this bohemian and eccentric life in London, where later on he will
become an eminent Victorian stereotype: conservative, a family man, poet laureate and a
gentleman.

He was very fan of gardening and building and he did so in the Isle of Wright, where
he had a manor. He was very much influenced by:

- The sea.

- 2nd generation of romantics, especially Shelley and Keats (not so much by Byron).

He was often depressed and melancholic, preoccupied by the world and this attitude
was very present in his early poetry (like “Mariana”). His friend Arthur Hallam died when he
was still 22 years old, but he was already admired and respected and his ideas were already
read (he wrote the poem In Memoriam). Hallam was going to marry Tennyson’s sister when
he died of a heart attack and Tennyson never recovered from this blow, influencing his life
and poetry. As Mariana was a representative of the previous romanticism, Ulysses will be
the new kind of poem after Hallam’s death, when he started to write poems for more general
purposes or terms that were useful for society. In Ulysses, Tennyson wanted to show the
Victorian energy and spirit and was restless in seeking a drive in life.

He also wrote short lyrics like:

1. Break, Break, Break.
2. Idle Tears.
3. The Charge of the Light Brigade (a celebratory poem dealing with political issues
about the English, French and Turkish against Russia).
4. Crossing the Bar (attitude towards death).

Now Sleeps the Crimson Petal is an example of erotic literature in the Victorian Age.
He was named Poet Laureate for the rest of his life from 1850 to 1892 and took the
opportunity to write about some English affairs:

 Long lyrics (epics) like:

o The Lady of Shallot.
o The Idylls of The King (part of the Arthurian Cycle).
o Maud.
o In Memoriam (an elegy in Hallam’s memory, which Queen Victoria will take as her
favourite when Prince Albert died.

Elegies in Shelley or Tennyson usually address one person, but larger issues too
such as descriptions of the state of nations, or worries about what technologies have brought
to society. They also mention spiritual ideas too—a switch from orthodox Christianity to a
more general spirituality—and the need for a guiding hope, but not in conventional terms.

Break, break, break

This poem has become emblematic because it emphasizes the idea that times have
changed and we need to start again. The idea that we are immersed in a time of chaos, and
things that seem stable, may not be stable anymore, everything changes ( Shelly’s
idea of mutability).
 1. Rhythm: the poem is four stanzas of four lines each, each quatrain in irregular iambic
tetrameter. The irregularity in the number of syllables in each line might convey the
instability of the sea or the broken, jagged edges of the speaker’s grief. Meanwhile, the
ABCB rhyme scheme in each stanza may reflect the regularity of the waves.

2. Symbols of sea, ships and communication:

- Sea: the sea is life, it can move, it can make noise, but the speaker cannot. Life will
go on in spite of the waves coming back and forth, and breaking and again going
back endlessly. The speaker cannot speak up his memories and feelings about the
lost person. He cannot carry on with his life as the sea does. People related with the
sea (sailor and fisherman) can speak, even shout and sing. He feels sad, nostalgic
about the loss of his best friend. The speaker asks the sea to break, in order to break
free with the past and be able to start again.
- Ship: the ship can move, it has a destination.
- Communication: the speaker wants to communicate his feelings, his memories.
- Loss: the loss of somebody is like the loss of a day, people/time cannot be
recovered.

The Kraken

How are the anxieties about the Victorian age reflected in this poem? The idea of
progress, scientific discoveries, religious doubts…
- The poem tells that there is much more in the world to be discovered than what we
actually know or see (like the Kraken hidden under the sea).
- He emphasizes something enormous, something scary and unknown that we are not even
aware of it  scientific discoveries. After being discovered, it dies.
- The Kraken is a reference to a pagan legend from the Norse mythology. It is a symbol of
the human being doing some scientific discoveries. First, it is hidden at the bottom of the
ocean, and once it is discovered by humans, it is brought at the surface and it dies
(revolution).
- The death of the Kraken: good or bad? Maybe the message is that it is better not to
explore certain matters because it can be dangerous (=Frankenstein). Tennyson portrays
certain anxiety by portraying pagan symbols. Christianity was a dogma at that times, but
now it coexists with pagan myths  Victorian confusion.
- Certain symbols to Christian religion: e.g. angels.
 2.3.2 Matthew Arnold (1822-1888)

He was a serious character, brought up into a Victorian system where his father was an
influential figure in education (headmaster) and in his family. He himself became an
inspector of schools and designed an educational system for 35 years. Arnold was a very
critic scholar who thought that “national school should be peremptory and classical
knowledge seriously implemented” and wrote a lot to improve the educational system. In his
book Culture and Anarchy, he makes a critique of English society and institutions, echoing
John Stuart Mill, where there is according to Arnold:

- An unlettered populous (involving bourgeoisie and aristocracy).

- A tyranny of the masses.

He claims that none of the classes will be a guarantee for the future of the country. He
wanted to start a revolution through education. His relationship with Christianity was
complicated; he claims that Christianity cannot be abusive, and that it cannot be dogmatic. He
wants to deal with religion sincerely  earnestness.

In The Function of Criticism at the Present Time, he reasons:

- There is no good poetry written at that time.

- He offers an explanation for theories about good writing, however they do not affect his
own poetry (cynism).
- Spirituality as a personal concern now, religion cannot be used massively any longer.

Finally, he studied the European poetic tradition, but doubted as any other poet
when creating it.

Dover Beach

1. Different moods in the poem: how do they change?

At the beginning the view is pleasant situation and at the end it is just the opposite.
There is a movement from the pleasant situation to the unpleasant one. Why? The shift is in
line number 9 (Listen! you hear the grating roar). The author stops the reader. Pebbles are
rocks that we find in the sea. Then there is intertextuality. The author makes references to
Sophocles (writer of tragedies). Back in the days, Christianity was everywhere, everybody
believed it. But now the author makes a violent process. There are references to a pagan past,
but also to Christianity. There is a melancholic feeling.

The last stanza is dramatic. He is referring to something that is not real. He’s referring
to hell on earth. There is a kind of confusion.

SYMBOLS: sea, night, pebbles/shingles.

THE SPEAKER:
We don’t know the speaker. The references we have is that there are two people
involved, lovers. No references to the genre. They could be anyone. He describes a universal
experience; the subjectivity is not such important anymore.

SETTING:
The Romans came to this place, this is the English Channel. This poem is set at the
beach in Dover, on the south-eastern coast of England. It represent the English nation.
Through this channel people will go to the rest of the world, a place of transit, it is transitory;
nobody stays, to go to the colonies too. It is implicitly asking “which direction shall we go
now? Where can we go?” but he’s talking about a confusion, he doesn’t know the answer.

You cannot rely on the image of Victorian age, there is a lack of clarity.
 2.3.3 Robert Browning (1812-1899)
He was a different kind of poet there was no more moaning, but a more energetic
type of poetry, addressing the reader. He was married to Elizabeth Barrett Browning, who
died young, and he spent the great part of his life outside England, mainly in Italy. He shared
Arnold’s worries and was an admirer of Romantics. His works are basically composed of:

1. Dramatic monologues: where a speaker addressing the reader enforces him to

answer (prompting a response). His main project was to create both a subjective and
objective truth and achieves it considering the poem unfinished until the reader
answers the poem question. Porphyria’s Lover, My Last Duchess.

2. Soliloquies: narrative poems using 1st person singular speaking, where speakers are
concerned about the role of creativity, energy and passing of time. Fra Lippo
Lippi, The Bishop Orders His Tomb.

Parting at Morning is a deceitfully simple; a banality in an unconventional way

bringing inspiration from Ezra Pound. Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came is a vaguely
medieval poem (not like Keats’), in which the protagonist is in a nightmarish dream. There is
a lot of T.S. Elliot’s Wasteland and rings a bell of Coleridge’s The Rhyme of the Ancient
Mariner.

Prospice

DEBATE between Tennyson’s Break, Break, Break and The Kraken, Arnold’s Dover
Beach and Browning’s Prospice.

1. By what means does Tennyson combine personal experience with universal issues
in this poem? (Break, Break, Break)
It is an elegy to Hallam’s death and shows how to deal with life by using a carpe
diem motto. Through the poem, the reader can see the relationship between the characters in
the poem and the poet himself within a feeling of loss, of sadness and of passing of time (as
in a life cycle). The sea, an important ingredient in the poem, is portrayed as an indifferent
element to your feelings, whereas the ship is the craft for coffins, indicating passing of time
and even end of life and also portrayed as a haven or safe place.

The speaker indicates his insecurity too, being thoughtful, pondering, trying to
express his emotions and lonely. There is a clear lack of communication, because he can’t
express himself or hear others either due to the pain provoked by the death of his friend, so he
projects his own emotions to his environment (depressed, blocked).

The title itself may be an indication of various things: an exclamation or a plea (“give
me a break!”), a new type of poetry (moving on to something new) or a new behaviour
(stopping being sad). We cannot cling to the past, since it is not useful. The energy of life or
of the poem has to be positive and moving on could be a way of achieving it.

Tennyson was very good to convey musicality and feelings.

2. Discuss how the ideas of progress, scientific discoveries and utilitarianism of the
Victorian Age affect the poets’ religious outlook and how these poems reflect the issue of
spiritual anxieties of the Victorian Age (Tennyson’s The Kraken and Arnold’s Dover
Beach)
There was a loss of faith or a swift into a far more general feeling of faith that was
not limited by a specific creed. People were fearful because still they could not solve their
inner doubts about universal issues or events. Therefore, this poem is a representation of
those fears through and Old Scandinavian legend, which was partially real. This giant
creature with an immense destructive force, which brings confusion and instability, is related
to the Biblical leviathan.

Nobody knows about this creature and at the very end of the poem, it is discovered
due to light (real or metaphoric). Therefore, there is a clash of dualities in this story, where
myths are being rejected when confronted to scientific knowledge as a manner of unveiling
secrets. However, the idea of progress as both a dangerous and destructive force is also
present in the poem and the insistence of getting rid of both pagan and Christian creeds plays
a role too.

3. How does Browning tackle the issue of death in this poem? Comment on the
feelings of despair, hope, and his attitude towards religion (Browning’s Prospice)
This poem basically reflects all the changes in reality taking place at that time by
using an irregular rhyme and a change of rhythm (irregularities in poetry). There is a kind of
hypnosis at the beginning of the poem that suddenly is stopped by the “listen!” exclamation
to make the reader wake up. The sea helps with that hypnotism, since it is sweet and makes
the reader feel sleepy, like a spell. However, the sea is a symbol of change too, and in this
poem it represents a loss of spirituality, a loss of beliefs present in the general mentality of the
time. Shingles represent people or humans and naked means that we are vulnerable or
uncomfortable with this new situation. The sea is not embracing us any longer; it is not the
complacency of Victorian Age about life, but the doubts of progress. There is a couple
speaking and looking at the sea at night, where darkness is a symbol for the unknown, the
new, spirituality or faith and the moon, with its cold and pale light a possible death.

The strait of Calais can be both a place of arrival and of departure, and it is this last
one the represented meaning in the poem as a point of universality. There is no clear point in
the gender of the speaker, because it doesn’t matter due to this universal point of view and
since love (between friends, brothers or a couple) is a universal principle to find the truth.