ASSIGNMENT ON

The three important facts which influence the

literature of Victorian Age

SUBMITTED BY: SUBMITTED TO:

Name: Sourav Islam Chowdhury Israt Jahan

Batch: 44(B) Lecturer, Department of English

Roll: 1405 World University of Bangladesh

Reg: WUB 05/19/44/1405

The three important facts which influence the
literature of Victorian Age:
Economy, Industry & Trade:
Historians have characterized the mid-Victorian era (1850–1870) as Britain's "Golden
Years". There was prosperity, as the national income per person grew by half. Much of the
prosperity was due to the increasing industrialization, especially in textiles and machinery, as
well as to the worldwide network of trade and engineering that produced profits for British
merchants, and exports from across the globe. There was peace abroad (apart from the short
Crimean War, 1854–56), and social peace at home. Opposition to the new order melted away,
says Porter. The Chartist movement peaked as a democratic movement among the working class
in 1848; its leaders moved to other pursuits, such as trade unions and cooperative societies. The
working class ignored foreign agitators like Karl Marx in their midst, and joined in celebrating
the new prosperity. Employers typically were paternalistic and generally recognized the trade
unions. Companies provided their employees with welfare services ranging from housing,
schools and churches, to libraries, baths, and gymnasia. Middle-class reformers did their best to
assist the working classes' aspirations to middle-class norms of "respectability.

There was a spirit of libertarianism, says Porter, as people felt they were free. Taxes were very
low, and government restrictions were minimal. There were still problem areas, such as
occasional riots, especially those motivated by anti-Catholicism. Society was still ruled by the
aristocracy and the gentry, who controlled high government offices, both houses of Parliament,
the church, and the military. Becoming a rich businessman was not as prestigious as inheriting a
title and owning a landed estate. Literature was doing well, but the fine arts languished as the
Great Exhibition of 1851 showcased Britain's industrial prowess rather than its sculpture,
painting or music. The educational system was mediocre; the main universities (outside
Scotland) were likewise mediocre. Historian Llewellyn Woodward has concluded:

“For leisure or work, for getting or for spending, England was a better country in 1879
than in 1815. The scales were less weighted against the weak, against women and
children, and against the poor. There was greater movement, and less of the fatalism of an
earlier age. The public conscience was more instructed, and the content of liberty was
being widened to include something more than freedom from political constraint ... Yet
England in 1871 was by no means an earthly paradise. The housing and conditions of life
of the working class in town & country were still a disgrace to an age of plenty.”
 In December 1844, Rockdale Society of Equitable Pioneers founded what is considered the
first cooperative in the world. The founding members were a group of 28, around half of
which were weavers, who decided to band together to open a store owned and managed
democratically by the members, selling food items they could not otherwise afford. Ten
years later, the British co-operative movement had grown to nearly 1,000 co-operatives. The
movement also spread across the world, with the first cooperative financial
institution founded in 1850 in Germany.

T HE V ICTORIAN NOV EL & P OETRY :

The novel could be considered one facet of the Victorians’ literary exploration. It continued to
develop and eventually became the prominent medium for written expression. In the framework
of the novel, realism emerged as a notable literary characteristic of the period and showcased this
combination of Romantic subjectivity and Augustan objectivity. In her work Adam Bede, George
Eliot writes, “let us have men ready to give the loving pains of a life to the faithful representing
of commonplace things.” As exemplified in this quotation, Eliot, and other realist writers like
Dickens, held the belief that the purpose of literature should be to accurately mirror the world
and portray realistic scenes with complex, life-like characters. This movement illustrates the
return to Augustan objectivity through the use of empiricism and observation of the surrounding
world. (Landow) Yet, the influence of the Romantic Movement on Victorian writers is seen
though the style in which they present these observations.

While the novel was the dominant form of literature during the Victorian era, poets continued to
experiment with style and methods of story-telling in their poems. Examples of this
experimentation include long narrative poems (epic poems) and the dramatic monologue as seen
primarily in the writing of Robert Browning. Alfred Lord Tennyson, England’s poet laureate for
a majority of the Victorian age, exemplified poetry of this era with his use of the dramatic
monologue, a more lyrical style and a poetic voice that can be described as “picturesque” due to
his use of description and mood-creating imagery. Two other minor movements, the Pre-
Raphaelites (1848-1860) and the Aestheticism and Decadence movement (1880-1900),
developed in relation to one another during the Victorian era. The first developed when the Pre-
Raphaelite Brotherhood wanted to create art for the modern age by practicing techniques of
precision and simplicity in their written work. The movement of Aestheticism and Decadence
began as a reaction to the Pre-Raphaelites. The members of this second movement believe,
unlike the Pre-Raphaelites, that literature and poetry should be more reflective. This movement
influenced poets such as Yeats and Hopkins. (Landow).

Technology, Science & engineering:

The Victorians were impressed by science and progress and felt that they could improve society
in the same way as they were improving technology. Britain was the leading world centre for
advanced engineering and technology. Its engineering firms were in worldwide demand for
designing and constructing railways.

A central development during the Victorian era was the improvement of communication. The
new railways all allowed goods, raw materials, and people to be moved about, rapidly facilitating
trade and industry. The financing of railways became an important specialty of London's
financiers. The railway system led to a reorganization of society more generally, with "railway
time" being the standard by which clocks were set throughout Britain; the complex railway
system setting the standard for technological advances and efficiency. Steam ships such as
the SS Great Britain and SS Great Western made international travel more common but also
advanced trade, so that in Britain it was not just the luxury goods of earlier times that were
imported into the country but essentials and raw materials such as corn and cotton from the
United States and meat and wool from Australia. One more important innovation in
communications was the Penny Black, the first postage stamp, which standardized postage to a
flat price regardless of distance, sent.
Even later communication methods such as electric power, telegraph, and telephones, had an
impact. Photography was realized in 1839 by Louis Daguerre in France and William Fox
Talbot in Britain. By 1889, hand-held cameras were available.
Similar sanitation reforms, prompted by the Public Health Acts 1848 and 1869, were made in the
crowded, dirty streets of the existing cities, and soap was the main product shown in the
relatively new phenomenon of advertising. A great engineering feat in the Victorian Era was
the sewage system in London. It was designed by Joseph Bazalgette in 1858. He proposed to
build 82 mi (132 km) of sewer system linked with over 1,000 mi (1,600 km) of street sewers.
Many problems were encountered but the sewers were completed. After this, Bazalgette
designed the Thames Embankment which housed sewers, water pipes and the London
Underground. During the same period, London's water supply network was expanded and
improved, and a gas network for lighting and heating was introduced in the 1880s.

The model town of Saltier was founded, along with others, as a planned environment with good
sanitation and many civic, educational and recreational facilities, although it lacked a pub, which
was regarded as a focus of dissent. During the Victorian era, science grew into the discipline it is
today. In addition to the increasing professionalism of university science, many Victorian
gentlemen devoted their time to the study of natural history. This study of natural history was
most powerfully advanced by Charles Darwin and his theory of evolution first published in his
book On the Origin of Species in 1859.
lighting became widespread during the Victorian era in industry, homes, public buildings and
the streets. The invention of the incandescent gas mantle in the 1890s greatly improved light
output and ensured its survival as late as the 1960s. Hundreds of gasworks were constructed in
cities and towns across the country. In 1882, incandescent electric lights were introduced to
London streets, although it took many years before they were installed everywhere.