The Victorian Era

            The Victorian era, from the coronation of Queen Victoria in 1837 until her death in 1901, was an era of several unsettling social developments that forced writers more than ever before to take positions on the immediate issues animating the rest of society. Thus, although romantic forms of expression in poetry and prose continued to dominate English literature throughout much of the century, the attention of many writers was directed, sometimes passionately, to such issues as the growth of English democracy, the education of the masses, the progress of industrial enterprise and the consequent rise of a materialistic philosophy, and the plight of the newly industrialized worker. In addition, the unsettling of religious belief by new advances in science, particularly the theory of evolution and the historical study of the Bible, drew other writers away from the immemorial subjects of literature into considerations of problems of faith and truth.

Poetry
            The three notable poets of the Victorian Age became similarly absorbed in social issues. Beginning as a poet of pure romantic escapism, Alfred, Lord Tennyson, soon moved on to problems of religious faith, social change, and political power, as in “Locksley Hall,” the elegy In Memoriam (1850), and Idylls of the King (1859-1885). All the characteristic moods of his poetry, from brooding splendor to lyrical sweetness, are expressed with smooth technical mastery. His style, as well as his peculiarly English conservatism, stands in some contrast to the intellectuality and bracing harshness of the poetry of Robert Browning. Browning's most important short poems are collected in Dramatic Romances and Lyrics (1841-1846) and Men and Women (1855). Matthew Arnold, the third of these mid-Victorian poets, stands apart from them as a more subtle and balanced thinker; his literary criticism (Essays in Criticism, 1865, 1888) is the most remarkable written in Victorian times. His poetry displays a sorrowful, disillusioned pessimism over the human plight in rapidly changing times (for example, “Dover Beach,” 1867), a pessimism countered, however, by a strong sense of duty. Among a number of lesser poets, Algernon Charles Swinburne showed an escapist aestheticism in sensuous verse rich in verbal music but somewhat diffuse and pallid in its expression of emotion. The poet Dante Gabriel Rossetti and the poet, artist, and socialist reformer William Morris were associated with the Pre-Raphaelite movement, the adherents of which hoped to inaugurate a new period of honest craft and spiritual truth in property and painting. Despite the otherworldly or archaic character of their romantic poetry, Morris, at least, found a social purpose in his designs for household objects, which profoundly influenced contemporary taste.

The Victorian Novel
            The novel gradually became the dominant form in literature during the Victorian Age. A fairly constant accompaniment of this development was the yielding of romanticism to literary realism, the accurate observation of individual problems and social relationships. The close observation of a restricted social milieu in the novels of Jane Austen early in the century (Pride and Prejudice, 1813; Emma, 1816) had been a harbinger of what was to come. The romantic historical novels of Sir Walter Scott, about the same time (Ivanhoe, 1819), typified, however, the spirit against which the realists later were to react. It was only in the Victorian novelists Charles Dickens and William Makepeace Thackeray that the new spirit of realism came to the fore. Dickens's novels of contemporary life (Oliver Twist, 1838; David Copperfield, 1849-1850; Great Expectations, 1861; Our Mutual Friend, 1865) exhibit an astonishing ability to create living characters; his graphic exposures of social evils and his powers of caricature and humor have won him a vast readership. Thackeray, on the other hand, indulged less in the sentimentality sometimes found in Dickens's works. He was also capable of greater subtlety of characterization, as his Vanity Fair (1847-1848) shows. Nevertheless, the restriction of concern in Thackeray's novels to middle- and upper-class life, and his lesser creative power, render him second to Dickens in many readers' minds.

            Other important figures in the mainstream of the Victorian novel were notable for a variety of reasons. Anthony Trollope was distinguished for his gently ironic surveys of English ecclesiastical and political circles; Emily Brontë, for her penetrating study of passionate character; George Eliot, for her responsible idealism; George Meredith, for a sophisticated, detached, and ironical view of human nature; and Thomas Hardy, for a profoundly pessimistic sense of human subjection to fate and circumstance.

            A second and younger group of novelists, many of whom continued their important work into the 20th century, displayed two new tendencies. Robert Louis Stevenson, Rudyard Kipling, and Joseph tried in various ways to restore the spirit of romance to the novel, in part by a choice of exotic locale, in part by articulating their themes through plots of adventure and action. Kipling attained fame also for his verse and for his mastery of the single, concentrated effect in the short story. Another tendency, in a sense an intensification of realism, was common to Arnold Bennett, John Galsworthy, and H. G. Wells. These novelists attempted to represent the life of their time with great accuracy and in a critical, partly propagandistic spirit. Wells's novels, for example, often seem to be sociological investigations of the ills of modern civilization rather than self-contained stories.

Three Characteristics of Victorian Literature

During the days of Queen Victoria, poets wrote about bohemian ideas and further the imaginings of the romantic poets. According to Professors Carol Christ and Catherine Robson in “The Victorian Age”, “…Victorian poetry shares a number of characteristics…It tends to be pictorial, using detail to construct visual images that represent the emotion or situation the poem concerns.” (p. 997, par 2)  While most writers use imagery and the senses to convey scenes, the Victorian writers went further using this imagery and other common elements. The poems, through sensory images, reveal the struggle between religion and science, and sentimentality creates a journey for readers into the minds and hearts of the people of the Victorian age.

Of these themes, perhaps the most obvious is the use of sensory elements. Lord Alfred Tennyson lives up to this expected characteristic in his works. One notable example is the poem “Mariana”, in which Tennyson writes, “The doors upon their hinges creaked; / The blue fly sung in the pane; the mouse / Behind the moldering wainscot shrieked.” (p. 1113, ln 62-64) This image of the creaking door, the blue fly singing in the window, and the mouse with the moldy wood paneling all work together to create a very defined image of an active, yet lonely farmhouse in which Shakespeare’s lady waits.

Although the entire poem is lengthy, “In Memoriam” contains Tennyson’s exploration of his feelings of the emerging scientific notions of his day.(p 1138-1188) In stanza fifty-five, Tennyson makes his concerns clear. He writes, “Are God and Nature then at strife, / That Nature lends such evil dreams?”(ln 5-6) Tennyson seems disheartened by the clash of religion and science, and wonders to himself why nature is offering up such strange and seemingly evil ideas through science. This idea that God and nature are at odds epitomizes the struggle.

Another of these common Victorian characteristics in poetry is sentimentality. For Tennyson, this element is readily available. In “Tears, Idle Tears” from “The Princess”, he writes that the tears “Rise in the heart, and gather to the eyes, / In looking on the happy autumn-fields, / And thinking of the days that are no more.” (p. 1135, ln 3-5) What reader hasn’t seen autumnal fields or some other happy landscape where childhood and innocence were spent, then looked back with longing hearts to times that will never come again?

This use of sensory stimulating terms, sentimentality, and the exposition of the struggle between God and science are typical. There are several other common themes, such as concerns over education, as well. However, to understand the thoughts of the Victorian people, one can look simply at the styles and the largest concerns of their poets.

http://angelacameron.wordpress.com/2009/05/13/three-characteristics-of-victorian-literature/

John Buchan and The Thirty Nine Steps

John Buchan wrote The Thirty Nine Steps while he was sick in bed.  This short novel combines a personal story with some political intrigue.  Buchan called in a "shocker," a story that's barely believable.

Some interesting resources:
Wikipedia article on the book
A review of the novel
The text of the book online
Another book review
Filming the movie in Scotland
Full audio book of The Thirty Nine Steps

Some Question to Use in Analyzing Novels

Some Questions to Use in Analyzing Novels


Questions relating to the analysis of PLOT
1. Who is the protagonist of this novel? Identify him/her quickly by name, age, era, locale, social class, family, and occupation.
2. Summarize as briefly as possible the single change which occurs to the protagonist during the course of this novel, taking care to specify whether this change is mainly one of fortune, moral character, or knowledge.

3. Trace the progress of this change through these detailed stages:
      a. the original situation of the protagonist (include the initial possibilities of later disequilibrium)
      b. the precipitating event (or series of events) which begins to involve the protagonist in a central tension
      c. the alternative types of action which are available to the protagonist as her/his involvement intensifies
      d. the major steps that intensify the involvement.Show how each step advances the involvement, and how it changes the relative strength of the alternatives.
      e. the crisis. Show what event precipitates the crisis and how.
      f. the resolution. Show what event breaks the crisis and how.
4. What questions of probability arise in this novel? (Suggestion: select the two or three events which would be most unlikely in ordinary life; show how the likelihood of these events is established in the novel, or how their occurrence may be artistically justified.) In general, are the events of this novel made sufficiently probable to support its total design?

5. To what extent may the plot of this novel be called tight or loose? Can its loose features (if any) be artistically justified?

6. At what one or two points in this novel is tension highest? Lowest? How is that degree of tension produced, and how is it appropriate? Does this novel as a whole seem to be high-tension or low-tension? How is the degree of tension appropriate to the design of the novel as a whole?

Questions relating to the analysis of CHARACTERIZATION
1. Discuss the protagonist in this novel In terms of flatness or roundness. What purposes are served by her/his flat traits, if any? Discuss any two minor characters in similar terms. For each, justify the degree of flatness or roundness in terms of the character's contribution to this novel.
2. Evaluate the moral structure of the protagonist:
      a. To what degree is her/his moral stature defined by contrasting minor characters, by the testimony of characters who are readily acceptable as witnesses?
      b. Discuss the protagonist's inclinations to specific virtues and vices, her/his powers or handicaps with relation to those virtues and vices.
      c. Discuss one or two important actions in which her/his moral stature is apparent.

3. Describe the psychology of the protagonist:
      a. What are her/his dominant traits or desires? How did these traits or desires apparently originate? Do they support or oppose one another? Explain.
      b. Through what modes of awareness is the protagonist most responsive to life and experience: rational, instinctual, sensory, emotional, intuitive? Explain and illustrate.
      c. Discuss the way in which the protagonist takes hold of an emergency. In what terms does she/he see her/his problem? What does she/he maximize or minimize, try to prove or disprove? Do her/his reactions proceed through definite phases? If so, what are they? How may one explain the protagonist's effectiveness or inadequacy in taking hold of this emergency?

4. In view of all the matters above, what does the author apparently wish us to think and feel about what happens to the protagonist?

5. Is the personality of the protagonist worked out with probability and consistency? Why or why not?

Questions relating to the analysis of NARRATIVE MANNER

1. What is the predominant point of view in this novel, and who seems to be the focal character? Illustrate by citing a very brief passage from the novel and showing how it confirms your opinion.
2. Does this novel have any significant shift in FOCUS? What principles of focus seem to govern the novel?


Questions relevant to the analysis of IDEA or THEME

1. To what extent does this novel stress idea through the use of generalizing devices. Illustrate the more obvious uses.

2. According to this novel, what kind of behavior makes for lasting human worth or for human waste? If a heroic ideal is implied by this novel, describe it.

3. What specific social problems does the author seem to regard as unsolved? What causes seem to be mainly responsible, and why? From where is one led to believe that a solution may come? Explain.

4. Evaluate the relative importance in influencing the outcome of the novel of the following: physical nature, biological make-up, intimate personal relationships, society. Generalize, to show what the novelist seems to regard as the chief area in which human destiny is formed.

Plot & Themes of Great Expectations

PLOT STRUCTURE ANALYSIS

                Charles Dickens is said to have explored a new ground in his novel, Great Expectations. The theme of self-knowledge explored in the novel expresses in part Dickens’ own search for a sense of self. May readers and historians have suggested that Pip has a touch of Dickens in him, making the fictional book feel almost autobiographical.

                Structurally, the novel is a narration by a mature and retrospective Pip. It is divided into three distinct “stages,” each labeled as a specific “stage of Pip’s expectations.” In chronological fashion, these chapters trace Pip’s progress from industrious obscurity as a child through willful idleness as an adolescent and young adult, to a resigned and modest acceptance of his true place in society. This is an obvious variation on the picaresque theme and carries with it many of the significant overtones of earlier picaresque novels.

                The first stage introduces all the major characters and sets the plot in motion. Pip’s situation is developed fully, including the first seeds of his desire to be “uncommon.” It leads to the revelation by Mr. Jaggers, the lawyer, that Pip is to inherit a huge fortune and become a gentleman. It is something Pip considers as miraculous, though mysterious, as his patron’s identity is not to be revealed for the time being. Mr. Jaggers only imparts to him that his benefactor has great expectations from him and so with the support of his anonymous provider, Pip’s expectations of himself also rise, and the action shifts to London.

                The second stage of Pip’s expectations, therefore, has a change of setting. In this section, Pip’s development into a “gentleman” is explored. It describes the spendthrift and idle way Pip squanders wealth and what kind of person he has become. On the surface of things, Pip believes that he is living up to his great expectations. He also expects to have Estella’s hand in marriage. But this stage of his expectations is brutally shattered when Magwitch discloses his identity to Pip.

                The third stage of Pip’s expectations explores the complete collapse of Pip’s great expectations, which are replaced by a more mature sense of life and respectability. This section primarily constitutes his transformation, which has been at the heart of the novel. Such a pattern of growth, development and re-education reflects the Bildungsroman tradition of Great Expectations.

                The novel, though divided into these three stages, is further divided into episodic chapters due to the publication of the novel serially. Each chapter must necessarily have a complete movement as well as some sort of trigger that will induce the reader to buy the magazine the following week in order to see what will happen next.

THEMES - THEME ANALYSIS

                Pip’s great expectations are a dramatized exploration of human growth and the pressures that distort the potential of an ordinary individual, especially in the process of growing up. Pip is a simple blacksmith’s boy who aspires to cross social boundaries when he realizes his own upbringing is common; however, he has no means to change. Mysteriously, he is given the means, but wealth only brings with it idleness. He learns that happiness in life can be achieved only by hard work and that great expectations not grounded in reality can only lead to tragedy and heartache.

                Part of this theme is an exploration of the dignity of labor. Pip initially feels ashamed to associate himself with Joe but later realizes that hard work brings honor to a man. As for honor, Pip realizes the importance of traits like loyalty and kindness, and eventually understands that no amount of money can make up for the lack of those traits. Supplementary to this theme is the sharp juxtaposition of appearance and reality, as well as the traditional notion that pride comes before a fall. Pip learns valuable lessons from his misguided assumptions. And his pride causes him to do things he is later ashamed of. A final thematic consideration is the belief that goodness is always able to supplant evil, even in characters like Miss Havisham. Mrs. Joe, Magwitch, Estella, and Pip are further examples of characters whose inherent goodness is apparent despite their wrongdoings.

                Essentially, it is a novel about contentment and humility, as well as honor. The thematic notion of great expectations touches on every aspect of common emotions like pride, ambition, envy, greed, and arrogance. The lesson Pip learns is that one should never presume he is better than another. As Joe tells him, it is far better to be uncommon on the inside than the outside. A person’s possessions do not matter as much as a person’s actions.

AUTHOR'S STYLE

                Dickens has shaped Great Expectations on the lines of the Bildungsroman genre, which closely follows the inner growth of a protagonist from his childhood to middle age. In many respects, it contains themes and emotions directly related to the author’s experience. However, the fictional nature of the story allows Pip to relate incidents and events that are similar to sensitive spots in Dickens’ own life without becoming too deeply involved in the narration himself. For instance, the description of Pip’s childhood has some affinity with Dickens own life. Also, Estella seems directly inspired from Maria Beadwell, a lady whom Dickens loved; Beadwell snubbed him coldly because of his low social status.

                Great Expectations boasts a carefully designed structure in three emergent stages. The simplicity of childhood memories in stage one is reflected in the generally direct narrative style. In contrast, the texture of stage three is much more complex, because as the action accelerates, substantial information about the histories of Magwitch, Compeyson, Miss Havisham and Estella are revealed.

                Great Expectations is a rich text illustrative of Dickens’ gift for realistic and dramatic speech. The author carefully studied the mannerisms of people and reported them in the depictions of his characters. Joe is a good example. The speech patterns he uses characterize him well and endear him to the reader much more than mere incidents or descriptions that describe him to be soft hearted.

                A novel with a vast range of subject and incident like that in Great Expectations has to be written carefully, paying great attention to unity and detail. Of all Dickens’ works, this one is generally thought to be the best. The fine tapestry of the novel is woven with vivid scenes of London as well as misty recollections of the marshlands. The haunted stagnancy of Satis House is an ever-present character in and of itself. In the midst of all this graphic description and palpable action, there is also an internal transformation taking place, one in which Pip learns to appreciate his true self and position in society. The varied texture of the novel in all these aspects sustains and maintains the interest of the reader, highlighting the completely balanced style of Dickens as a master craftsman.