University Setif 2

Department of English
2nd year ITL Module
Lecturer: Hafsi Mira

Victorian Period in British Literature 1837-1901

Historical Background

The Victorian age in British history is named after the reign of Queen
Victoria. Her conduct in life which reflects her earnestness, moral responsibility,
and domestic propriety became the blueprint of Victorian values. The period
witnessed significant economic, political and social changes ; the rise of the new
middle class due to the changing economic system, the granting of the right to
vote to this new class, and the growing consciousness of the systematic
oppression when considering race, class, and gender. The impact of
industrialism and urbanization led to the increase of British wealth, and
subsequently the growth of the Empire to become the world’s foremost power.
Moreover, many social and political reforms were implemented during
Victoria’s reign. In addition to abolishing slavery and relatively improving the
labor conditions of the newly emergent classes, the nation granted custody,
divorce and matrimonial causes, as well as the married women’s property acts
for British women. On the psychological level, Victorian people suffered from
anxiety and alienation in a rapidly changing age of technological and scientific
advances. Henceforth, this period in British history is considered as a
transitional period that separates between tradition and modernity.

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Victorian literature, the ‘women question’ and issues of literacy and
publication

By the end of Victoria’s reign, educational opportunities for women

improved, and they could take degrees at twelve university colleges.
Nevertheless, women were perceived as subordinate, docile, and submissive to
the system of patriarchy. Despite having the opportunity for education and work,
women activities were confined at the domestic sphere as the society limited
their role to wifedom and motherhood, leaving the public sphere which ensures
economic, social, and political power and recognition to men. The role of
women was framed around the notion of ‘The Angel in the House’, which
informs us that the idealistic Victorian woman is expected to be pure, self-
sacrificing, pious, in addition to providing a peaceful home for man who takes in
it refuge from the difficulties of life.

Concerning literacy and readership, the advent of technological

advances, printing machines, and improved economics of distribution led to an
explosion in the availability of books, periodicals, and newspapers to be read.
Moreover, the British policy which made national education compulsory to the
age of ten had significantly affected the level of literacy. Novels and short
fiction was published in serial form (every week or month, a few pages or a
chapter appears), and it was the novel which was the dominat fictional genre in
Victorian literature. The reading public expected novels to reflect their difficult
living conditions and highlight their social concerns in order to find solutions.
The setting is urban, reflecting the industrial civilisation. Victorian characters
were expected to be realistic so that the readers could identify with them. The
Victorian novel fuses between literary Romanticism and Realism with the
central theme of the protagonist’s individual search of fulfillment. Major prose
writers of this era include Charles Dickens, Thomas Hardy, the Brontë sisters,
Elizabeth Gaskell, and George Eliot, among many. Victorian poetry developed
in parallel with prose and sought to represent life visually through images. For

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Victorian Drama, the theater flourished and even influenced the other genres;
the leading dramatist Oscar Wilde contributed significantly with his comic
masterpieces.

Types of the Victorian Novel

• Novel of manners : It expressed economic and social issues, and focused on class or a
particular situation. Thackeray’s literary work reflects this type ;

• The social-problem novel : It refers to the novels published in the 1830’s and 1840’s
depicting the events that pertain to this period. Elizabeth Gaskell is a proponent of this
type ;

• The humanitarian novel : it points out to the purposeful novels such as Charles
Dickens’ which are about the lower classes ;

• The Novel of Formation : it depicts that character formation of the protagonist, it can
also be referred to as the buildungsroman or coming of age novel, a good example of
this type is Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre and Charles Dickens’ David Copperfield ;

• The psychological novel : it revolves around the psychological aspect of the subject,
highlighting the complexity of human psyche. The books of Eliot provide a good
example of this type ;

• The realistic novel : the books of Thomas Hardy reflect this type which expresses the
alienation and anxiety people experience in their environment ;

• The nonsensical novel : which creates a nonsensical version of the world without the
social norms and rules of conduct. This world is reflected in Alice’s Adventures in
Wonderland by Lewis Caroll.
References
https://prezi.com/to3ixcq3ph2z/victorian-era/
https://www.slideshare.net/dhaneshsebastian1/the-victorian-period-english-literature
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1rnEuZuWQILRS3ThPwQJZE0yjlD4M4pU3AN1_ar
hMerk/htmlpresent