Comparison HIGH VICTORIAN FICTION 1837 - 1880 LATE VICTORIAN FICTION 1880 -1901 MODERN FICTION = 1900s

The authors want to break away from Realism and rejected

Faith in progress and an optimistic outlook on Critical attitude and pessimism → the Aesthetic
KEY POINTS the established rules
life (realistic novel) Movement
Patriotism and the disillusionment of the First World War.

The authors denounce the social injustices

It is criticized the "Victorian Compromise” and The focus is on the characters thoughts rather than their
and the middle class often could recognize
the Victorian society through the actions, so on the inner lives and the subjective reality
what they themselves thought. 
CONTENT “Doppelgänger" (“The picture of Dorian Gray”) and Einstein → to decide about what to write (what is significant
There is often a happy ending, so the wealthy
paradoxes in the characters’ actions and dialogue in people’s life?)
people had the hope of having the same
(“The Importance of Being Earnest”) Freud → there isn’t only a conscious part
happy life

The shared view on life collapses→ if the view is subjective

There is a shared view between novelists and
POINT OF VIEW The shared view ended there isn’t an only answer
readers.
The point of view is shifting → there is not one point of view

3rd person and omniscient Non-omniscient

NARRATOR 3rd person and omniscient
Expresses the moral views of the time Shifting from external to inner perspective

Stream of consciousness
NARRATIVE
Interior monologue (the consciousness is the one of the
TECHNIQUES
characters and it is consistent with them)

Reduced to a minimum (for example “Ulysses” = one day or

PLOT “Jane Eyre” = from childhood Long and often complicated by sub-plots
“Mrs. Dalloway”) → the past is underlined

The city (Dublin and London) and its effects on human life
The city because it is the main symbol of the The gothic novel is regenerated → interest in science
SETTINGS and communication → it produces a heightened
industrial civilization and mystery
consciousness of relationships between individuals

Experimentation → “Molly’s monologue”

Rich in detail and with many repetitions in
Lexis and punctuation could be manipulated to reflect the
LANGUAGE descriptive passages (Dickens uses a sensitive
workings of the mind and to create particular sound effects
language: words that appear to the senses)
→ lack of punctuation.

There is no introduction → the stories begin in medias res

CHARACTERIZATION
(= “Eveline” → She ….) → by showing

Past, present and future coexist within the human

consciousness (there isn’t a clear separation)
TREATMENT OF TIME
Bergson → duration
William James → stream of consciousness

Charles Dickens, the Bronte Sisters (still

AUTHORS Oscar Wilde James Joyce, Virginia Woolf, Eliot → Short Stories
influenced by the romantic age)

Fiction is the main form of entertainment of

“Art for art’s sake” → the aim of art is the creation of
PURPOSE the middle classes The writers want to portray the complexity of life.
beautiful things
Literature is a means to give moral teaching