Victorian Novel: Reflections of Social Changes

1. Victorian Novel Vincenzo D’Angelo Gabriele Rabino Classe 5^ A Anno Scolastico 2010/2011

2. Hystorical Background The reign of Queen Victoria from 1837 to 1901. The Victorian Age Industrial Revolution • 1837 Victoria ascended to the throne • 1846Repeal of the Corn Laws • 1851 The Great Exhibition at Crystal Palace in London • 1854 Crimean War • 1857 The East India Company’s authority was replaced on India • 1867 The Reform Bills • 1870 The Education Act • 1871 The Trade Union Act • 1886 and 1893 The proposals for Irish Home Rule were rejected. Rise to Sinn Fèin • 1899 Colonial conflicts with Boers • 1901 Queen Victoria died and was succeeded by Edward Prince of Wales

3. Victorian Values Utilitarianism All thing have to be useful Puritan Talents Parabola People have to improve theirself condition. Darwinism Survival of the fittest

4. Theme of Victorian Novel The Victorian novel reflects social changes • Theme: • Class: rise of the working class • Industrial System • Contrast between rich and poor • Education and children condition • Family life (middle class) • The struggle for democracy

5. Narrative Technique The Victorian novel featured several developments in narrative technique: • Full description and exposition • Authorial essays • Multi-plotting featuring several central characters • Use of pathos and grotesque • Setting: • The City It is where the factory develop

6. DickensOliver Twist Now consider the extract from Oliver Twist written by Charles Dickens in 1837-38. The extract is taken from Chapter 2 • The novel was written in 1837-38 during the Social Unrest. • Differences between social classes. • Description of Everyday World. • The novel ends with an happy ending. • The setting is in London City and in a workhouse. • Third Person intrusive omniscient narrator Oliver Twist presents some aspect of Victorian novel.

7. Nicholas Nickleby Now I am going to analyze is taken from an other Dickens’ novel. The extract describe the first school day of the teacher Nickleby. • Differences between social classes. (Master Squeers behaviors) • Description of Everyday World. • Use of the grotesque (characterization of Mr Squeers) • Condemn of education system • Third person intrusive omniscient narrator

8. Hard Times It’s an other novel by Dickens. it is showed a difficult time in the imaginary city of Coketown . • It attacks industrialisation • Mr Bounderby is the typical self-made man • Utilitarianism • Third person intrusive omniscient narrator • Use of the grotesque and phatos

9. Why did novel have so success? • Accepted middle class values • Treated the problem of the individual's adjustment to his society • Emphasized well-rounded middle-class characters • Portrayed the hero as a rational man of virtue • Believed that human nature is fundamentally good and lapses are errors of judgment Novel appealed to readers because of its: The novelists of the Victorian Age: • Realism (semi – realism) • Impulse to describe the everyday world the reader could recognize • Introduction of characters who were blends of virtue and vice • Attempts to display the natural growth of personality • Expressions of emotion: love, humor, suspense, melodrama, pathos (deathbed scenes) • Moral earnestness and wholesomeness, including crusades against social evils and self-censorship • Improvement of the standard morality of the times

10. Anti-Victorian Novel Jude The Obscure by Thomas Hardy He uses a third person omniscient external narrator. No judgment only description Cinematic effect It is the first novel with a a working class hero