Nineteenth
Century: Fiction
The
following work will examine and analyze the nineteenth century, or
more precisely, the Victorian era, in regard to history and its
authors. The Victorian
era of the
British history was the period of Queen Victoria's reign from 1837
until her death in 1901. It was a long period of peace, progress and
according to the industrial revolution a time of prosperity.
The
situation became more complex as the century progressed. That was a
time of great changes when the country was altering very rapidly in
infrastructures and technology, new industrial age of steam engines,
locomotives, railroads, and factories. The effect on people was
tremendous.
One
of the central issues of the nineteenth century was the Industrial
Revolution. Major changes took place in agriculture, manufacturing,
transportation, and technology. The effect was a growing middle-class
and a population which almost doubled from 16.8 million in 1851 to
30.5 million in 1901. It began in the United Kingdom, and then
subsequently spread throughout Europe, North America, and eventually
the world. However the conditions of the working classes were still
bad. Those improved with political reforms which allowed most males
to vote. Even so, child labor with very bad conditions was
widespread. The workhouses forced poor people to work in order to get
food and accommodation. Thus the workhouses allowed surviving but
little else. They can be rather described as really cruel prisons for
people whose crime was poverty. The middle class society of that time
claimed that poverty came from laziness, immorality, and weakness of
character. Not even the children were given any indulgence in this
regard either. Factory owners were always on the look for cheap labor
and so the children at the age of eight were trained to work 16 hours
a day for little money.
There
was a transition of the literature form of writing from the favored
romantic poetry which dominated the English literature in the
previous century to the Novel which was characterized by realism. The
style of the Victorian Novel can be described as a portrait of
difficult lives and hard work. But at the end love and luck will win.
Some of the best-known authors of this period are Charlotte Brontë
(Jane Eyre),
Emily Bronte (Wuthering
Heights), and
Charles Dickens (Great
Expectations).
First
of all the life and works by the pre-Victorian writer Jane Austen
will be analyzed.
Jane
Austen, born in 1775, is a valuable life coach, as her writings and
letters teach important life lessons that are as relevant today as
they were in the nineteenth century.
Although Jane Austen died
unmarried at the very young age of 42 in 1817 and created only six
novels she became an esteemed legend. Her letters consist of a number
of advices on understanding human nature, bettering oneself, and
managing one’s life. Her wisdom extends to all important elements
of life. She closely observed and learned about human nature and
consequently made out the best way of living. Still today her
observations are relevant and fit in for present-day life. With the
release of Sense
and Sensibility
(1811), Pride
and Prejudice
(1813), Mansfield
Park (1814)
and Emma
(1816), she gained success as a notable writer. The enormous
popularity of Jane Austen's novels has led to many movies and
television adaptations of her novels. In her works Austen criticizes
the novels of sensibility of the second half of the 18th century
whereas her novels were part of the transition to 19th-century
realism. She highlighted especially the dependence of women on
marriage to secure social standing and economic security. She also
understood the hopes and fears of the women of her time.
Sense
and Sensibility was
Jane Austen’s first published novel. It examines the position of
women of limited means in the early nineteenth century. There are two
sisters whose father died and so have no other choice than marriage.
Because when a man died, his money was actually passed on to the
closest living male heir and the women were left without any money.
Nevertheless the sisters always wanted to choose their husband in
their own decision and marry for love, as most of Austen's characters
did want to, but which is something that was outrageous during
Austen's lifetime. As
Austen experienced herself in life
she stresses in her novel that on one hand Marianne must learn
restraint and a deeper concern for the welfare of those around her
and on the other hand Elinor realizes there is a place in life for
passion and spontaneity.
Equally
in Austen’s second novel Pride
and Prejudice
the ideas of marriage, fortune and are main issues. The protagonist
is Mr. Bennet, a man of modest income. As he has no son to be his
heir, his ownership will pass to the clergyman on his death. Thus
does Austen present the instability of the Bennet sisters’
situation because they need to find a husband in order to secure
their financial future. Again the desire for marriage as a matter of
financial necessity more than for romantic ideals can be noticed.
Jane
Austen’s successful novel Emma
was related to the social order of women of the nineteenth century.
Emma Woodhouse is a sympathy young lady who enchants to intervene in
other people's affairs. She is perpetually trying to unite men and
women who are utterly wrong for each other. Emma finds out that she
doesn't know as much as she thinks she does; while she discovers she
misread quite a few of her acquaintances. She discovers that she
didn't even know herself as well as she thought. Despite her interest
in romance, Emma is helpless about her own feelings, and her
relationship with gentle Mr. Knightly. In that work she showed her
understanding of the roles of women in a social context. The society
in Austen's novel judged women by their wealth and good connections.
Equally marriage became a way for society to estimate a person's
social status.
Further major authors of the nineteenth
century were the Brontë Sisters, especially Emily and Charlotte
Brontë, are legendary literary figures due to both their works and
their lives, which influenced their books. The sisters are among the
writers of their epoch heavily affected by their surroundings and
experiences, which is mostly visible in their best known works,
Wuthering
Heights (1847)
by Emily Brontë and Jane
Eyre (1847) by
Charlotte Brontë.
The two oldest children, Maria (1814-1825) and
Elizabeth (1815-1825) Brontë died in childhood. By writing down this
incident with the death of Helen in Jane
Eyre the
sister Charlotte could handle the experience of the loss of her older
sisters.
Charlotte was educated at Roe Head from where she later
taught from 1833 to 1838. In 1841 she left to teach in Brussels and
returned home in 1844. She is thought responsible for getting the
works of herself and her sisters published. She outlived all of her
younger siblings married in 1854. Shortly afterward she became
pregnant. But her health declined rapidly during this time with the
result that within a year of her marriage she died with her unborn
child.
Emily was sent to school and as well as her elder sister
she became a governess in 1838. Later she went to Brussels with her
sister Charlotte. However, homesickness made her return back to the
family home, where she preferred to stay throughout her life. During
the funeral of her brother she got a cold and true to her weepy
temperament, she refused medical treatment. She died three months
after her brother of tuberculosis.
In
the following the two principal works of the Brontë sisters will be
analyzed.
Although Emily’s only published novel
Wuthering Heights
was not well received at first, it is now considered a classic of
English literature. After Emily’s death, Charlotte, the only
surviving sibling, edited Wuthering
Heights and
had it republished under Emily’s full name, yet it had previously
been released under the pseudonym Ellis Bell. Emily Brontë’s
innovative writing style conveys energy, emotion, and even violence,
which gives rise to a great effect in her famous novel Wuthering
Heights. On
one side she uses natural elements, then again mystical elements
which draw the readers into the world she has created. Unfortunately
these opposite literary characteristics were not well received during
her lifetime. Perhaps her father’s liberated teaching style and his
permission to read whatever they want to, lent weight to Emily’s
preference for poetry and fiction. Although much of the author’s
life remains a mystery, it is certain that Emily Brontë did not live
long enough to show the world her full potential.
The
protagonist of Charlotte Bronte’s novel Jane
Eyre
is the girl Jane. Charlotte uses many similarities in the character
Jane Eyre that could be well comparised to illustrate her own
experiences. Jane’s school Lowood is based on one of the schools
attended by Charlotte and her sisters. As well as Jane Charlotte
became a governess. Therefore Jane can be seen as a figure who
representes Charlotte’s own experience of a middle class working
woman fighting to integrate in Victorian society. Jane is like
Charlotte, an orphan, yet the Brontë sisters were left motherless
from early childhood. The inspiration of the death of Helen Burns,
the childhood friend of Jane in the novel, is based on the death of
Maria and Elizabeth, Charlotte’s two older sisters.
Next
up Charles Dickens and his works will be characterized and related to
the nineteenth century as he is generally considered the greatest
author of the Victorian period. Dickens was an English novelist who
enjoyed a huge popularity and fame, which no other author had reached
during his lifetime. He made an important contribution to the novels
and characters of English literature. Dickens' works have been highly
praised for its realism, unique personalities and concern for social
reforms. To get to know the purposes and contents of his works his
autobiography will be outlined. Charles Dickens was born in 1812 and
died at the age of 58 in 1870. He published over a dozen major
novels, the best known Oliver Twist (1839), Great Expectations
(1861). As his father being financially ruined with many debts and
had to go to prison, Charles Dickens at the age of 12 years was
forced to child labor. Ten hour shifts in terrible conditions was no
abnormity in these times. After his father being released from
prison, Charles attended a run-down school where brutality was
dominating. He then became a junior clerk in a law office, a court
reporter and a political journalist. He had two tours of America, ten
children with his wife, a long term affair with a younger woman and
was also involved in a horrific rail crash.
One
of Dickens greatest works is Great Expectations. The following
analysis explores some of the literary devices in the novel. Charles
Dickens's novel Great
Expectations
(1860-61) is regarded as an example of the realist genre. Realism in
literature attempts to represent the real world from an objective
perspective. Great
Expectations can
be partly seen as an
autobiography, as in many parts Dickens refers to aspects and
experiences of his own life. The major themes of his novel are crime,
social class and ambition. At that time the difference between
country and city was very big. In Victorian times especially the
Industrial Revolution resulted in a growing population, while in the
country started depopulation. People went to the city to work and
obtain money and social status. The novel reflects the problems
between these two places. It is written in the first person from the
point of view of Pip, who lived peacefully in the village and started
to work and obtain money in London. However, at the end his
expectations of a lovely life were not fulfilled. Because in the
novel London was a city of horrors and disgusts, where child labor,
bad working conditions and corruption exists and catches everybody
who starts living there. Probably, in reality London was not as bad
as Dickens showed in Great
Expectations,
but his life and memories as we saw in his biography, especially in
the time when he worked 10 hours a day as child were horrible. Maybe,
that is why Dickens had bad associations with London.
Charles
Dickens’ story of Oliver
Twist came
from the author’s own childhood experience with poverty factory
work and child labour. The protagonist is Oliver, an orphan child,
who lives in a workhouse under horrific conditions, yet there is no
money and aliment available. When Twist politely asks for more food
they consider him as a menace and treat him even more cruelly. When
he is sent to work for an undertaker who had beaten him he flies to
London where pickpockets accept him in order to learn him
professional stealing. He becomes involved in a life of crime. As he
was accused of crime the witness Mr. B. disburdens him and afterwards
admits him to live in his house. Oliver’s innate goodness and an
inheritance saved him in the end. Before the publication of the
novel, the Poor Law of 1834 which called poverty a crime had
established the workhouses. But afterwards the dilemma of hungry,
misery and working children could no longer be ignored. Still it took
decades before the workhouses had disappeared completely and the way
society viewed poverty.
Marry
Anne Evans, better known as George Eliot used a male pen name in
order to assure she will be taken seriously because at that time
writing was considered to be a male profession. For women writers the
stereotype existed that they only write romances.
The young girl
was obviously intelligent and eager for knowledge. Because Evan’s
lack of beauty, even rather ugly aspect, she had only a minor chance
of marriage. But because of her intelligence, her father invested in
an education which was not often afforded to women. Eliot was
educated at good schools. After her father died, she travelled around
Europe before she remained in London. There, she worked as an
assistant editor of a magazine. She had been a journalist and a
translator and later began to write novels. She presented cases of
social outsiders and persecutions in works such as A
Mill on the Floss
and Middlemarch.
Contrary to many writers before her, she was interested not so much
in what her characters did but how they thought and felt.
In
Middlemarch,
released in 1874, Eliot uses the relationships between characters to
illustrate life which can be compared very well with people’s life
of the nineteenth century. This interconnection of individuals is
changed by marriage and death as well as political and economic
change. The main character is Dorothea Brooke, a young woman who
avoids making faults. She marries the rancorous Mr. Casaubon, who
almost immediately dies. Eliot takes the reader through a labyrinth
of nineteenth-century morals and conventions as Dorothea searches for
satisfaction and happiness.
The Mill
on the Floss,
published in 1860, is based in many parts on Eliot's own experiences
with her family and her brother Isaac, who was three years older than
Eliot. Eliot's father, complied with Mr. Tulliver in the novel, was a
businessman who had married a woman from a higher social class. The
sisters of that woman provided the character models for the aunts in
the novel. Like Maggie, Eliot was undiciplined and evivid and did not
fit traditional models of feminine beauty or behavior which caused
her family a great deal of concernment. The moment that Eliot
published The
Mill on the Floss,
she had gained considerable bad reputation as an immoral woman,
because she was living with the writer George Henry Lewes, who was
married, although yet lived separated from his wife. Social
disapproval of her actions and style of life spread on the novel.
Probably the most offended reader was Eliot's brother Isaac, who was
very close to her in childhood. But as he found out about his
sister’s life with George Henry Lewes they had become disunited.
Since then, he only communicated with her through his lawyer. In the
book, Eliot wrote down her own experiences with a once beloved but
inflexible and controlling brother to illustrate the relationship
between Maggie and her brother Tom.
To
summarize the latter acquired Victorian novels seek to represent a
large and comprehensive social world, constructing a tension between
social and work conditions and the attempt of the hero or heroine.
Jane Austen, Emily and Charlotte Bronte, Charles Dickens and George
Eliot have contributed decisively to that era.
Literacy increased
significantly in the period, and publishers could bring out more
material more cheaply than ever before. Novels and long works of
non-fiction were published in serial form, promoting a distinctive
sense of a community of readers.
Bibliography:
Cole, Natalie B.
2009. Dickens and Gender.
New York: AMS Press.
Moss,
Joyce. 2001. World
literature and its times.
Vol. 4. Detroit: Gale.
Werlin,
Robert J.
1990. The
English novel and the Industrial revolution.
New York: Garland.
Date of access: 04.07.2012
Date of access: 04.07.2012
Date of access: 04.07.2012