Chapter 4

The Victorian Period

2. What is the Chartist Movement ?

The Chartist Movement (1836-1848 )was organized by the English workers in big cities and brought forth the People’s Charter, in which they demanded basic rights and better living and working conditions. The movement brought some improvement to the welfare of the working class. It was the first mass movement of the English working class and the early sign of the awakening of the poor, oppressed people.

3 . What is utilitarianism ?

Utilitarianism is that almost everything was put to the test by the criterion of utility, that is , the extent to which it could promote the material happiness. It was widely accepted and practiced in the Victorian period.

4. What is critical realism ?

English critical realism of the 19th century flourished in the forties and in the early fifties. The critical realists described with much vividness and great artistic skill the chief traits of the English society and criticized the capitalist system from a democratic viewpoint. They create pictures of bourgeois civilization, describing the misery and sufferings of the common people. They also showed profound sympathy for the common people.

In their best works, the greed and hypocrisy of the upper classes are contrasted with the honesty of the obscure ‘simple people” of the low classes. Through the sketches of various negative characters, critical realism reveals the corrupting influence of the rule of cash upon human nature. Here lies the root of the democratic and humanistic character of the critical realism of the 19th century .

II.. The literary feature in the Victorian Period

Victorian literature naturally took on its quality of magnitude and diversity . It was many-sided and complex , and reflected both romantically and realistically the great changes that were going on in people’s life and thought.

III. the critical realistic ideas among Victorian novelists

While sticking to the principle of faithful representation of the eighteenth-century realist novel, the critical realistic novelists carried their duty forward to the criticism of the society and the defence of the mass. They were all concerned about the fate of the common people. They were angry about the inhuman social institutions , the decaying social morality as represented by the money-worship and Utilitarianism, and the widespread misery, poverty and injustice.

IV. The main writers in Victorian Period

Charles Dickens The Bronte Sisters Alfred Tennyson Robert Browning George Eliot Thomas Hardy

The Bronte Sisters （勃郎特姐妹）

1. the introduction of their lives

Charlotte Bronte (1816-1855 ), Emily Bronte (1818 -1848 ), and Anne Bronte , with Irish origin , were called as The Bronte Sisters. They were known for their novels.

Charlotte’s works

。《简 · 爱》（ Jane Eyre ， 1847 ）是她的成名作和代表作。她所创作的其他作品还有《雪莉》（ Shirley, 1849 ）、《维莱特》（ Villette, 1853 ）、《教师》（ The Professor, 1857 ）以及她与妹妹艾米丽和安妮的诗歌合集《柯勒、埃利斯和阿克顿 · 贝尔诗集》（ Poems by Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell ， 1846 ）。1855 年夏洛蒂 · 勃朗特去世，时年三十九岁。

C. Alfred Tennyson ( 阿弗瑞德 · 丁尼生 )

1. the introduction of his life and his philosophical and religious ideas

Alfred Tennyson (1809-1892 ) is the most representative Victorian poet. His poetry voices the doubt and the faith, the grief and the joy of English people in an age of fast social changes. In 1850, he was appointed the Poet Laureate. Tennyson’s philosophical and religious thoughts are his doubts about the meaning of life the existence of the soul and the afterlife, and his faith in the power of love and the soul’s instinct and immortality .

1. his artistic features in writing poems

Tennyson is a real artist. He has the natural power of linking visual pictures with musical expressions, and these two with the feelings. He has perfect control of the sound of English, and a sensitive ear, an excellent choice and taste of words. His poetr is rich in poetic images and melodious language, and noted for its lyrical beauty and metrical charm. His wonderful works manifest all the qualities of England’s great poet: the dreaminess ( 朦胧 ) of Spenser, the majesty（庄严） of Milton, the natural simplicity （自然清纯） of Wordsworth, the fantasy （美妙） of Blake and Coleridge, the melody （韵律） of Keats and Shelly , and the narrative vigor （气势宏大） of Scott and Byron.

D. Robert Browning

1 .introduction of his life

Robert Browning (1812 -1889 ) is a great Victorian poet and is acknowledged by many as the most original poet of the time. The success of the dramatic monologue led to the publication of his great many works.

2 . his artistic features in writing poems

Browning often applies an ingenious means of the dramatic monologue. His rhythms are too fast, too rough and unmusical . The syntax is usually clipped and highly compressed . The similes and implications are sometimes odd and far-fetched. His poetic style is that the appearance is rough, grotesque and disproportionate , the diction is non-poetic and jarring and the rhythms are clumsy.

Browning’s main works

他的诗剧主要有《巴拉塞尔士》 (Paracelsus, 1835) 、《斯特拉福德》 (Strafford, 1837) 和《皮帕走过了》 (Pippa Passes, 1841) 。他的诗歌主要收集在《戏剧抒情诗》 (Dramatic Lyrics, 1842) 、《戏剧传奇及抒情诗》 (Dramatic Romances and Lyrics, 1845) 、《男男女女》 (Men and Women, 1855) 、《剧中人物》 (Dramatic Personae, 1855) 和《指环与书》 (The Ring and the Book, 1868) 等诗集中。

Chapter 4 The Victorian Period

I . the introduction of the background

1. the time for the period

The Victorian period , from 1836 to 1901, has been generally regarded as one of the most glorious in the English history.

E. George Eliot

The introduction of her life George Eliot (1819 – 1880 ) is her pseudonym of

Mary Ann Evans. Being a woman of intelligence and versatility, she quickly found herself ranking high among the great writers. As a woman of exceptional intelligence and life experience, George Eliot shows a particular concern for the destiny of women, especially those with great intelligence, potential and social aspirations. In her mind, the pathetic tragedy of women lies in their very birth. Their inferior education and limited social life determine that they must depend on men for sustenance and realization of their goals , and they have only to fulfill the domestic duties.

F. Thomas Hardy

1.the introduction of his life and his writing tendency or direction

Thomas Hardy ( 11840 -1928 ) is last important novelist and poet of the 19th century. Living at the turn of the century, Hardy is often regarded as a transitional writer. In him we see the influence from both the past and the modern. Hardy is a meditative story – teller or romancer.

2. the idea of fate and the critical realistic thoughts in his works

Thomas Hardy has the belief that man’s fate is predeterminedly tragic, driven by a combined force of “nature” , both inside and outside. However, in Hardy’s works , there is also bitter and sharp criticism and even open challenge of the irrational , hypocritical and unfair Victorian institutions, conventions and morals which strangle the individual will and destroy natural human emotions and relationships.

3. his artistic features

Hardy is a great painter of nature. In his hand, nature assumes the form of life and becomes a most powerful , forbidding force with its own life and will. And all the works of Hardy are noted for the rustic dialect and a poetic flavor, which fits well into their perfectly designed architectural structures.

HARDY’S MAIN WORKS

早期作品有《绿林荫下》（ Under the Greenwood Tree ， 1872 ）、《一双湛蓝的眼睛》（ A Pair of Blue Eyes, 1873 ）和《远离尘嚣》（ Far from the Madding Crowd, 1874 ）等，描写英国农村的恬静景象和明朗的田园生活。 1878 年，《还乡》（ The Return of the Native ）的出版确立了哈代作为重要作家的地位，也标志着作者开始转向悲剧题材。《卡斯特桥市长》（ Major of the Casterbridge, 1886 ）展示了一场性格悲剧。

19 世纪 90 年代，哈代完成了他最深刻、最著名、也是最后两部小说：《德伯家的苔丝》（ Tess of the D'Urbervilles, 1891 ）和《无名的裘德》（ Jude the Obscure, 1895 ）。《无名的裘德》出版后，受到社会上各种各样的批评责难，哈代转而全力从事诗歌创作。哈代创作的诗歌中，除了近千首短小的抒情诗外，还有以拿破仑战争为题材的三卷本诗剧《列王》（ The Dynasts ， 1904-1908 ）。