The Victorian Age of Literature

Essay by Kimmiann831University, Bachelor'sA+, July 2005

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The Victorian Age lasted from 1837 to 1901. Ironically, Queen Victoria lived from 1837 to 1901. By the beginning of the Victorian period, the Industrial Revolution, as this shift was called, had created profound economic and social changes, including a mass migration of workers to industrial towns, where they lived in new urban slums. But the changes arising out of the Industrial Revolution were just one small group of radical changes taking place in mid- and late-nineteenth-century Britain. Among others were the democratization resulting from extension of the franchise; challenges to religious faith, in part based on the advances of scientific knowledge, particularly of evolution; and changes in the role of women. All of these issues, and the controversies attending them, made up the basis of Victorian literature. In part because of the expansion of newspapers and the periodical press, debate about political and social issues played an important role in the experience of the reading public.

The poetry of this period was a direct reflection of the popular attitudes of the time.

During the Victorian Period, long held and comfortable religious beliefs fell under great scrutiny. An early blow to these beliefs came from the Utilitarian followers of Jeremy Bantam, in the form of a test by reason of many of the long-standing institutions of England, including the church. When seen through the eyes of reason, religion became "merely an outmoded superstition" (Ford & Christ 896). If this were not enough for the faithful to contend with, the torch of doubt was soon passed to the scientists. Geologists were publishing the results of their studies which concluded that the Earth was far older than the biblical accounts would have it (Ford & Christ 897). Astronomers were extending humanity's knowledge of stellar distances, and Natural Historians such as Charles...