Part V The Victorian Age.pptVIP

Part V The Victorian Age 1832---1901 Historical background The Victorian Age covers the greater part of the 19th century. It is usually divided into three periods: The early period ( 1832---1848) is a time of trouble. With the pass of the Reform Bill, which broke up the monopoly of power, the political power was passed from the decaying aristocrats to the middle-class industrial capitalists, representing the beginning of a new age. Yet the bill could hardly be expected to solve all the economic, social and political problems that had been building up while England was developing into a modern democratic and industrialized country. The changeover was a painful one, attended with discord and conflict. The conflicts between the proletariat and the capitalists began to assume the dominant position in the social and political life. The middle Victorian period (1848---1870) was a time of economic prosperity and social stability. The political and social reforms in the first period paved the way for growing prosperity. Britain had passed the time of the worst popular discontents, and having committed itself to industrialism and free trade, became for a time “ the workshop of the world” . The end of the period saw England at her height in wealth, power and influence. The third period (1870---1901) witnessed the decline of the British empire and the decay of Victorian value. It was a period of waning confidence, commercial and industrial rivalries, imperial expansion, and increasing political, economic, social anxieties. Literary development These great changes that were going on in life and thought during the Victorian Age profoundly influenced the Victorian literature. During this period, novels rose as a dominant literary genre and became the most widely read and the most challenging expression of progressive thought. Great novelists abounded. They are generally known as critical realists, for they satirically expose and criticize all the evils pf the existing ins