AN OVERVIEW ON VICTORIAN AGE

 Introduction 

age started with the arrival of the queen on the throne. Queen came on the throne in 1837.the years of this age were  developing  years.this period is known as "modern period of english literature ".

Progress of science Arts

In this period there is development of science Arts. So  it became an important point of the Victorian age. 

Death of romantic poet:

In this age romantic  Poets died  , Wordsworth was the only survivor. So he feels deep pain that his work was influenced by the death of Poets.

Material development:

It was the age of material  development. The sorrow of wordsworth  demands upon prosaic  elements.

Age of democracy 

This  age was also known as the age of  democracy.  Long battle of angelo sexon was now settled,people got freedom. Common people were free to choose their representative.

 Because The freedom of this age people started writing, painting  and that's  why the spread of education became more important. It can also be seen that education was known as the most important democratic moment.

It was a notable age for  social unrest, because before this age people were not free to get education, but in this age education for all. There are two movements  which take place in this era.

 Two major movements

Oxford movement:

This movement  began in the 19th-century . It was led  by John Henry newman. He was against scientific  development.  The Oxford movement  was known as  the tractarian movement. The centre of this movement was Oxford,so it is known  as the Oxford movement. 

The pre raphaelite school of poetry

The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood was a group of English painters, poets, and art critics. It was founded in John Millais’s parents’ house on Gower Street in 1848.  John Everett Millais (painters), Dante Gabriell Rossetti and William Holman Hunt were the first who took their steps and started the movement. Later William Michael Rossetti, James Collinson, Frederic George Stephens and Thomas Woolner  joined this school of poetry.

The Pre- Raphaelite movement, in fact, was the movement for the regeneration of painting on the models of the early Italian painters. These painters were dissatisfied with the loftiness of conception and perfection of technique of Raphael. They believed in simplicity, natural grace, originality of conception and freshness. These painters broke away from the stale traditions in painting set up by Raphael and returned to the earlier freshness and freedom. They identified themselves to the painters before Raphael, the early Florentine e.g. Giotto and Bellini. They called themselves “Pre Raphaelite” simply because they associated themselves with the individualities of the Italian painters before Raphael.

The Pre-Raphaelite movement soon extended its bounds to include the revival of poetry. In the year 1848, a group of high-souled artists formed  a group which was known as “The Pre-Raphaelite Group '' or “The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood '' (P.R.B.). The original members of this group were D.G. Rossetti and his sister Christina Georgina Rossetti , Holman Hunt and J.E. Millais. Others such as William Morris and A.C. Swinburne joined the group later.

Literary works of the  age:

In this age there are many literary  works written like novels, poetry, essays are majorly written in  this age.there are many famous novelists  like Charles  Dickens, William makepeace Thackeray,  Bronte George Eliot was famous in this age. In this age there were many Poets also but major figures of this age were Alfred Tennyson and Robert browning. In this age essayists like  Macaulay, carley,  Ruskin, Arnold.by the contribution  of this scholar Victorian age became more  rich in literary contribution.

Novelist of age:

There are many major novelists in this age .But I took only one novelist. The name of this novelist was Charles Dickens.

Charles dickens as a novelist of victorian age:

among Victorian novelists. After his Preliminary sketches by Boz, he published Pickwick Papers in 1856: This is the Supreme comic novel in English language. The comedy is never superimposed, for it is an effortless expression of a comic view of life: The character of Pickwick is as interesting as that of Don Quixote in Cervantes's novel. The Pickwick Papers is a parody of an eighteenth century picaresque adventure. This was followed by Oliver Twist, Nicholas Nickelby, The Old Curiosity Shop, Barnaby Rudge, Martin Chuzzlewit, A Christmas Carol, Dombeyand Son, David Copperfield, Bleak House, Hard Times, Little Dorrit, A Tale of Two Cities, Great Expectations, Our Mutual Friend.

      In Oliver Twist, Nicholas Nickelby, A Christmas Carol, Little Dorrit and Hard Times, Dickens devoted himself to the social conditions with a reforming zeal. David Copperfield is an autobiographical novel, but the main stress is on the social conditions of the period. Bleak House is the most conscious and deeply planned novel in Dickens' whole work. Great Expectations shows his artistic capacity. Hard Times is a social tract, but in its compactness and symbolism, Dickens' art is evident. It has been called 'a flawed classic'. Barnaby Rudge and A Tale of Two Cities are historical novels.

Poets of victorian age:

There are only two Poets in the Victorian age; they both are the most notable Poets of the Victorian age.

Alfred  Tennyson  and Robert browning.

Alfred tennyson:

Alfred Lord Tennyson was one of the greatest Victorian poets. He is called the most representative poet of his age. His poetry shows the whole image of the age. Religious doubts and disbelief, social vice and problem, political problem, industrial revolution and impact of capitalism, the revolt of the cultured Against the corrupt society, adventurous minds, heroic spirits were the main characteristics of the Victorian age, which are portrayed in his poetry.

Robert browning:

Robert Browning stood singularly aloof from the movements and thought-currents of his age. The discoveries of the material sciences, the theory of Darwin's evolution, the industrial revolution leading to the growth of England's prosperity, the feminine movement, the Oxford Movement did not affect and influence his works. Herein Browning differs from Tennyson who was profoundly influenced by the ethos of the age and gave expression in his poetry to the complexities of his time. This explains why Browning's poetry suffered from the lack of appreciation by his own contemporaries while Tennyson was at the height of his popularity. It was in the later ages that the fame of Browning grew steadily with the readers, while Tennyson's fame suffered a gradual eclipse.

Essayist  of the age

 In this age  there are many Essayists  but I have taken only  one essayist. The name of this essayist was John ruskin.

John Ruskin as an essayist :

John Ruskin was a prolific essayist  of the Victorian era. who, like his intellectual and stylistic mentor Thomas Carlyle, railed against many of the advances of modern society. Many of his major works were epistolary or delivered as lectures, making generic classification problematic; nevertheless, the wide range of Ruskin’s interests may be viewed as a series of interrelated essays. As an art critic and social economist Ruskin defined the relationship between art and society and between the worker and society in novel ways, influencing figures as diverse as Proust and Gandhi. In a rapidly changing world, in which workers were becoming alienated from the works they produced and science was competing with art and literature as a source of knowledge and spiritual sustenance, Ruskin championed art as both ethical teacher and moral yardstick against which society could be measured.

Conclusion

So to sum up the overview on Victorian  age, it can be considered  that this age is compromising age with religion , science and many other topics. Most themes of the Victorian age were the historical past, divided self, interior  state  of mind , and mythological past. Thus, the Victorian era is a very challenging  era in all things.