VICTORIANISM AND THE GOTHIC TRADTION IN LITERATURE

1. VICTORIANISM AND THE GOTHIC TRADTION IN LITERATURE

2. Victorianism • Victorianism is the name given to the attitudes, art, and culture of the latter two-thirds of the 19th century, especially with reference to English-speaking peoples and the British Empire. Victorianists are people who study Victorianism or the Victorian era.

3. Characteristics 1.Literature of this age tends to come closer to daily life which reflects its practical problems and interests. It becomes a powerful instrument for human progress. 2. Moral Purpose: The Victorian literature seems to deviate from "art for art's sake" and asserts its moral purpose. Tennyson, Browning, Carlyle, Ruskin - all were the teachers of England with the faith in their moral message to instruct the world. 3. Idealism: It is often considered as an age of doubt and pessimism. The influence of science is felt here. The whole age seems to be caught in the conception of man in relation to the universe with the idea of evolution. Tennyson's some immature works seem holding doubtful and despairing stains but his In Memoriam comes out as a hope after despair. 4. Though, the age is characterized as practical and materialistic, most of the writers exalt a purely ideal life. It is an idealistic age where the great ideals like truth, justice, love, brotherhood are emphasized by poets, essayists and novelists of the age.

4. Themes and anxieties explored in Victorian literature • Nostalgia • Nostalgia and consequently nostalgic literature are frequently critiqued as affected, sentimental, and a way to falsify the past through strategies of forgetting rather than recollecting.

5. Science and Religion • 19th century: science and religion both underwent dramatic changes. The relationship has varied across time and geography, and from one individual to another. The way in which science and religion have been perceived in the twentieth century was heavily influenced by the writings of late 19th-century historians of science and religion. • Beginning of the 19th century: Britian: religious faith and the sciences were generally seen to be in beautiful accordance. The study of God's Word, in the Bible, and His Works, in nature, were assumed to be twin facets of the same truth. One version of this belief had been manifested in William Paley's Natural Theology (1802), which repeated the argument that natural objects show evidences of design, thus showing the existence of a designing God. The Bridgewater Treatises (1833-36) showed how natural theology could be reconfigured in various ways to meet new discoveries. sales figures also showed that there was a substantial market for non-technical works of science.

6. Science and Religion • 1820s and 1830s: some working-class radicals saw a chance of using certain versions of the sciences for political ends. Some forms of the sciences, especially those emanating from France, seemed to suggest a restricted (or even non-existent) role for God in the universe, and thus to undermine the Anglican politico-religious establishment. • British men of science, particularly geologists, were also making discoveries which threatened the literal meaning of Genesis. The effect of these discoveries on faith has often been exaggerated. Clerical geologists were quite able to find ways to reinterpret Genesis in the light of their discoveries, with no harm done to their faith. Even the majority of evangelicals were, by the 1840s, willing to accept non-literal interpretations of Genesis which could be fitted with the latest accepted discoveries in geology or astronomy. The few people who stressed the threat to faith of these discoveries tended to be the working-class radicals, while the extreme evangelicals who promoted Scriptural Geology to retain a literal reading of Genesis were an equally vocal minority. The reaction to Darwin's Origin of the Species (1859) should also be seen in this light: while some people played up its radicalism, others were quite able to fit it into their religious worldview. It depended as much on the reader's existing beliefs and agenda as on anything intrinsic to the work itself.

7. Others • Social classes • Poverty • Marriage • Supernatural

8. The gothic mode • that which contains something unknown or unbelievable in its story. The conventions associated with this mode are the use of light and dark, architectural surroundings, and “haunted spaces.” Many examples of the Gothic can be found from unimaginable, elaborate stories to morbid settings to simple illusions of light and dark.

9. Carribean Gothic • “Zombies” commonly seen in some form. Elements of the carribean often used to create the gothic atmosphere, e.g Obeah in WSS

10. The victorian conception of madness • Women during this time were deemed to be highly susceptible to becoming mentally ill as they did not have the mental capacity of men, and this risk grew greatly if the woman attempted to better herself through education or too many activities. In fact, women were seen as most likely having a mental breakdown sometime during their life as "the maintenance of [female] sanity was seen as the preservation of brain stability in the face of overwhelming physical odds" (Ussher 74). Thus, women often suppressed their feelings, as to not appear mad and reassumed the passive, housewife role.

11. Hysteria and the Wondering Womb • The idea of the Wondering Womb developed during this time, as madness was associated with menstruation, pregnancy, and the menopause. The womb itself was deemed to wander throughout the body, acting as an enormous sponge which sucked the life-energy or intellect from vulnerable women. Thus, women became synonymous with madness, as they were deemed to be emotional and unstable. If a woman of the Victorian era were subject to an outburst (due to discontentment or repression), she would be deemed mad. The word Hysteria became the general term for women with mental illness and cures included bed rest, seclusion, bland food, refrain from mental activities (such as reading), daily massage, and sensory depravation. Though these treatments do not seem too appalling, they were comparable to solitary confinement and would often drive a woman to further insanity.

12. Discussion • Pg 63 ln 34 to Pg 65 ln 22 • Identify Gothic elements in the passage. • How is the walk in the woods analogous to Rochester’s experience at the Caribbean? • What is the significance of Rochester’s walk in the woods?

13. Gothic elements • Setting: Forest and ruins of a stone house • ‘Green light’ – ghostly atmosphere • ‘Storming with white ants’ • Repetitions of the word ‘ruins’ • Girl running away from him – as if something ominous is going to happen • ‘Undergrowth and creepers caught at my legs and the trees closed over my head.’ – attack of inanimate objects • Denial that there is a road – creates a sense of mystery • Allusion to ghost and zombi

14. Analogous to Rochester’s experience? • Does not recognize or understand the path that he stumbled on and feels suspicious: ‘so sure that I was being watched’ • Initially found the ruins ‘beautiful’ and ‘calm’ • Sudden change in perception: ‘The light had changed’ • Fear and panic – ‘lost and afraid among these enemy trees’

15. Significance of Rochester’s walk • Echoes Antoinette's recurring nightmare. • Symbol of internal turmoil • Ruined house in the woods - an image of his English estate that will be burnt down by Antoinette • The girl’s fear of him foreshadows the ‘evil’ that he is going to impose on Antoinette.