The Victorian age was an age where many
changes occurred
socially,
economically, and industrially. People
began to explore
into areas such
as the earth, the human body, and how to benefit
the daily lives
of individuals. English literature was
also
something that
was beginning to be developed.
Historically, it began when Queen Victoria
was anointed to the
thrown in 1837
and brought a new prosperity to England.
She held
the throne for 63
years which is the longest monarch to hold the
thrown ever in
English history. To many people, she was
a symbol
of stability and
prosperity as evidenced by the following feeling
from her
people. The Victorian age has been said
to be a very
diverse
time. Historian T.B. Macaulay in 1838
said that the
English had
become "the greatest and most highly civilized people
that ever the
world saw." Yet, another man by the
name of Benjamin
Disraeli, who was
a writer and a politician, disagreed with this
statement and
pointed out that the existence of an England of "two
nations who are
as ignorant of each other's habits, thoughts, and
feelings, as if
they were ... of different planets; who are
formed by a
different breeding, are fed by a different food, are
ordered by
different manners, and are not governed by the same
laws." He further says that "these two nations
were the richest
and
poorest." It was a time when the
rich were rich, and the poor
people were
poor. The poor or lower class of people
went hungry
and half naked
throughout most of their lives. Life and
death went
hand in hand;
wealth and poverty stood side by side; repletion and
starvation laid
them down together.
Such rapid change in industry destroyed
jobs as it provided
new ones. The population shifted and left thousands
housed in
urban slums with
bad water, no sanitation, and little food.
The
depression left
whole factories unemployed, and with no means of
producing
goods. Yet, some people believed that
the only way to
control
population growth was through starvation or self-control.
Men, women, and
children accustomed to the community life of rural
towns and farms
to the varied and independent work habits of the
farm, and the
small shop, found themselves laboring up to sixteen
hours a day, six
days a week, in factories without any government
safety
regulations, and with very low pay.
People were not known
as individuals
only as "hands" with no control over their lives,
hired, and fired
at the whim of the owner or the fluctuation of the
market. There was no way to make a better life for
oneself because
you were born
into a certain social status, or you lived a life of
poverty for the
rest of your life or you were one of the privileged
classes and were
guaranteed the status of the royalty.
The Victorian years also brought with them
the increasing
efforts to
achieve political, social, and economic reforms that
would change the
structure of the country to meet the changes
created by industry. The Reform Bill was passed in 1832 which
increased the
electorate by fifty percent. The bill
made it
impossible for
workers and women to vote, therefore, only one in
five Englishmen
could vote. These men were generally
from the
upper class and
they controlled everything. To many
people, this
was a light of
hope that England would improve, but during the
1840's England
saw the worst years of the century for unemployment,
hunger, and
disease. It brought radical working
class agitation
for the People's
Chapter, which demanded universal male suffrage
and a Parliament
in which any man could serve. The
effects of
these problems
prompted a series of bills to be passed.
Parliament
repealed some of
the more unjust laws, and began to legislate
shorter working
hours, industrial safety, and urban sanitary
reform. Due to the economic prosperity, it reduced
radical
agitation and in
1867 a second Reform Bill, which meant that most
working men were
allowed to vote. It brought a more
liberal view
of what was
needed in life.
People's thoughts and ideas also changed
with the development
of the
country. The peoples' ideas became more
free and they
accepted change
more easily, yet not everybody wanted to admit to
change. People began to ask more questions about
life, which
prompted the
development of science and many people began to
question the
bible. Lyell's Principles of Geology and
Chamber's
Vestiges of
creation brought out the view publically that the earth
was older than
the bible said it to be. People's
beliefs were
suddenly being
shattered and the quest for answers was in need.
The change caused
a great deal of confusion and alarm, which
prompted English
writers to accept responsibility and write about
new thoughts, beliefs,
and feelings.
Alfred Tennyson, who is a very famous
poet, is often regarded
as the chief
representative of the Victorian age in poetry.
Tennyson was a
man who had seen pain and sorrow in his life.
After
the death of his
best friend, Arthur Hallam, Tennyson found relief
from his pain in
writing. Many of his writings were
indeed about
his dead
friend. For example in "The Passing
of Arthur, the hero
has the same name
as Tennyson's friend and also many lyrical poems,
that later were
to become In Memorian A.H.H. These
writing were
full of emotions,
pain, fear, caring, and the desire to remember
his friend. Almost throughout all of Tennyson's work
there were
pain, sadness,
fear, love, and hidden messages to be found, and he
was very
romantic. He opened himself up to the
world in a very
private way, and
also to severe criticism by many people.
In "The
Lady of
Shalott,"there is pain, frustration, and that of life as a
journey that
leads to death. The poem is a way of
showing how
people are
destined to certain fates in life and that they cannot
escape their
fate. Tennyson made people's feelings
real and more
vocal. His writings, later in his life, were
publicly admired and
sought out. In 1842 he published another of his works
called Poems
which had two
volumes, one containing a revised selection from the
volumes of 1830
and 1832, the other, new poems. The new
poems
included
"Morte d' Arthur," and "The Two Voices of Sin" and other
poems that
revealed a strange naive quality such as "The May
Queen,"
"Lady Clara Vere de Vere," and "The Lord of Burleigh." The
new volume was
not received well publically. But the
grant to him
at this time, by
the prime minister, Sir Robert Peel, helped stop
his worries in
financial matters. In 1847 he published
his first
long poem, The
Princess, a poem about anti-feminist fantasia.
A man by the name of Edward Moxon offered
to publish the
elegies on Hallam
that Tennyson had been composing over the years.
To Tennyson this
was a dream that he thought would never come true.
At first they
appeared anonymously, which helped with the success
with both
reviewers and the public readers won him the friendship
of Queen
Victoria, and helped bring about, in the same year, his
appointment as
poet laureate.
Tennyson's ascendancy among Victorian
poets began to be
questioned even
during his lifetime. Many writers became
jealous
and rivals of
Tennyson. And 20th-century criticism,
influenced by
the rise of a new
poetry headed by T.S. Eliot has proposed some
drastic new
concepts of his work. Much of Tennyson
that appealed
to his readers
has ceased to appeal many readers today.
He can be
pompous,
arrogant, offering little more than shallow or confused
thoughts caused by
a lot of pain. A more balanced estimate
of
Tennyson has
begun to prevail, however, with the recognition of the
enduring
greatness of "Ulysses," some of Tennyson's best lyrics and
above all the
stature of In Memoriam as the great representative
poem of the
Victorian Age. It is now also recognized
that the
realistic and
comic aspects of Tennyson's work are more important
than they were
thought to be during the period of the reaction
against him.
Lord Alfred Tennyson also tried to be very
dramatic in such
poems as Queen
Mary, but his success was only moderate.
He only
showed signs of
growing more frustrated and resentment at the
religious, moral,
and political tendencies of the age. He
had
already caused a
sensation by publishing a poem called "Despair."
It evoked a rush
of pamphlets being published, and lectures and
sermons. He shocked many people.
Finally the perception of the poet's
awkward sense of the
mystery of life,
which lies at the heart of his greatness, as in
"Crossing
the Bar' or "Flower in the Cranied Wall," unites his
admirers in this
century with those in the last. Though
less of
Tennyson's work
may survive than appeared likely during his
Victorian heyday,
what does remain and it is by no means small in
quality seems
likely to vanish.
In conclusion, the Victorian century was a
era of change and
confusion. England improved itself for the people and
it's
government. The writers of the time were supposed to be
indicative
for answering
questions and for guidance. Lord Alfred
Tennyson was
a man who changed
the way people thought about literature and
poets. He has also influenced many writers of books,
TV shows, and
movies in the
plots of stories.
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