2024年3月8日发(作者：)

Summary 3 of English Literature

Critical Realism:The Victorian Period

Background information:

• Chronologically the Victorian period roughly coincides with the reign of

Queen Victoria who ruled over England from 1836 to 1901. The period has

been generally regarded as one of the most glorious in the English history.

• Victorian literature, as a product of its age, 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. Great writers and great works abounded.

• In this period, the novel became the most widely read and the most vital and

challenging expression of progressive thought.

• Among the famous novelists of the time were the critical realists like Charles

Dickens, William Makepeace Thackeray, Charlotte Bronté, Emily Bronté, and

Mrs. Gaskell.

• While sticking to the principle of faithful representation of the

eighteenth-century realist novel, they 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.

Novels in The Victorian Period

• In the last few decades of the Victorian period, there were also George Eliot,

the pioneering woman who, according to D.H. Lawrence, was the first novelist

that “started putting all the actions inside,” and Thomas Hardy, that Wessex

man, who not only continued to expose and criticize all sorts of social

iniquities, but finally came to question and attack the Victorian conventions

and morals.

Charles Dickens

• the greatest critical realist writers of the Victorian Age

• In his works, Dickens sets out a full map and a large-scale criticism of the

nineteenth century England, particularly London.

• His best-depicted characters are those innocent and helpless child characters

• Representative works:

• Pickwick Papers《匹克威克外传》

• A Tale of Two Cities《双城计》

• Oliver Twist《雾都孤儿》

• Hard Times《艰难时事》

• David Copperfield《大 卫· 科波菲尔》

• Dombey and Son《董贝父子》

• Great Expectations 《远大前程》

• Bleak House《荒凉山庄》

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The Bronté Sisters

• The story of the three Bronté sisters, Charlotte (1816~55), Emily (1818~48)

and Anne (1818~49), all literary, all talented and all dying young, is one of the

saddest pages in the history of English literature.

• Charlotte Bronté:

• The Professor《教授》 Jane Eyre (1847)《简·爱》

Shirley《雪莉》 Villette《维莱特》

• Emily Bronté:

• Wuthering Heights (1847)《呼啸山庄》

• Anne Grey: Agnes Grey (1847)《艾格尼斯·格雷》

Jane Eyre

Jane Eyre, taking the form of autobiographies written by authoritative and reliable

narrators, tells a story of a child’s development and maturation.

Its popularity and success owns much to its exceptional emotional power. Deep inside

Jane we discover Charlotte’s soul.

Striking Characteristics of Jane Eyre (1847)

first English novel to present the free insurgent (revolting, rebellious) woman;

2. Jane a poor but independent woman,

her characterization relentlessly true to reality

details true to life

story told in the first person with terrific intensity;

4. intense feelings;

5. simple but telling language full of emotion;

elements: grim aspect, sardonic/satiric temper of Mr. Rochester.

Writing Style in Jane Eyre

Jane Eyre is written in the first person (“I”) which functions as follows:

1. indicates the characteristic of autobiography.

2. is favorable to reveal intense, fierce and sharp feelings directly and powerfully.

3. provides full and complete thoughts of the whole event and the other characters

from the angle of vision of the narrator.

4. makes the work consistent and tends to give authority and credibility to the

narrative.

The use of verbs, adjectives and adverbs reinforces the strength of emotions. It makes

the sentence more intense and reflects the sharp anguish and inner struggles of the

characters. While reading, we can’t help temporarily identifying ourselves with the

characters. It proves especially in Jane’s declaration.

Wuthering Heights

Significance of the novel

Wuthering Heights is Emily Brontë’s only novel. First published in 1847, the name

comes from the house which is one of the three main settings in the book. A

posthumous second edition was edited by her sister Charlotte.

The novel was not welcomed at that time but was spoken highly of now. Some people

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agreed that Wuthering Heights’s originality and achievement exceeded her sisters

Charlotte and Anne's works.

Wuthering Heights has given rise to many adaptations, including several films, radio

and television dramatizations, as well as a hit song by Kate Bush.

Emily Brontë's novel tells the tale of Catherine and Heathcliff, their haunting love

for one another, and how this unresolved passion eventually destroys them both.

The story of revenge and love helps reveal the weaknesses in human nature: hatred,

jealousness and selfishness. When confronting with maltreatment and oppression,

human beings will struggle so fiercely and bravely for freedom and dignity. Under

the influence of the outer environmental factors, material wealth, social status, love

and hatred, human nature is likely to be twisted and distorted. Although love and

hatred were settled down with death of the three main characters in Wuthering

Heights, the sense and sensibility of human nature never rest, contradicting human’s

thinking and decision making, and revealing the weaknesses of every single detriment

of human nature.

The theme of the novel

The novel is a riddle which means different things to different people.

From the social point of view，it is a story about a poor man abused，betrayed &

distorted by his social betters because he is a poor nobody.

As a love story, this is one of the most moving：the passion between Heathcliff and

Catherine proves the most intense，the most beautiful & at the same time the most

horrible passion ever to be found possible in human beings.

The structure of the novel

The novel has a unique structure： the story is told through independent narrators

unidentical with the author， whose personality is therefore completely absent from

the book. The story is told mainly by Nelly，Catherine's old nurse， to Mr. Lockwood，a temporary tenant at Grange. The latter too gives an account of what he sees at

Wuthering Heights. And part of the story is told through Isabella's letters to Nelly.

While the central interest is maintained，the sequence of its development is constantly

disordered by flashbacks. This makes the story all the more enticing and genuine.

George Eliot 乔治·艾略特(1819~1880)

• Eliot initiates a new type of realism and sets into motion a variety of

developments, leading in the direction of both the naturalistic and

psychological novel.

• Her novels mostly describing rural life dealt with moral problems and

contained psychological studies of character.

• Representative works:

• Adam Bede《亚当·贝德》

• Middlemarch《弥都玛契镇》

• Silas Marner《织工马南传》

• The Mill on the Floss《弗洛斯河上的磨坊》

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Thomas Hardy 托马斯· 哈代

• Novelist and poet, one of the representatives of English critical realism at the

turn of the 19th century.

• As a transitional writer, he is intellectually advanced and emotionally

traditional. In him we see the influence from both the past and the modern.

• Hardy’s novels are all Victorian in date. Most of them are set in Wessex, the

fictional primitive and crude rural region.

• They are known for the vivid description of the vicissitudes of people who live

in an agricultural setting menaced by the forces of invading capitalism.

• Representative works:

• Desperate Remedies《计出无奈》

• Far From the Madding Crowd《远离尘嚣》

• Jude the Obscure《无名的裘德》

• Tess of the D’Urbervilles《德伯家的苔丝》

• The Return of the Native《还乡》

• Under the Greenwood Tree《绿荫下》

Key words

critical realism

naturalism

fatalism

tragedy

Wessex novels

Jude the Obscure

Tess of the d'Urbervilles

Writing Style of Hardy

Language Feature

Hardy is noted for the rustic dialect and a poetic flavor, so he is also called

local-colorist. Tess of the D’Urbervilles and Jude the Obscure are the most

representative of him as both a naturalistic and a critical realistic writer.

Fatalism is the idea that things will happen the way it comes out, regardless of what

we intend to happen.

Fatalism is a philosophical doctrine stressing the subjugation of all events or actions

to fate.

As a genre, naturalism emphasized heredity and environment as important

deterministic forces shaping individualized characters who were presented in special

and detailed circumstances. At bottom, life was shown to be ironic, even tragic.

Man is a "victim of forces over which he has no control," according to Hardy, life is

"so sad, so strange, so mysterious and so inexplicable."

characteristics of naturalistic writing

firm belief in heredity and social environment

nature indifferent to human struggle

uncouth or sordid subject matter

pervasive pessimism /determinism

a surprising twist at the end of the story

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detachment from the story

stark exposure of the dark harshness of life （including poverty, racism, violence,

prejudice, disease, corruption, prostitution, and filth）

focus on human vice and misery

Wessex novels

Because most of Hardy's novels took place in the "partly-real, partly-dream" county

Wessex, his novels were called Wessex novels.

Fatalism in Tess of the D’Urbervilles

Tragic coincidences

Tess’s identification with the d’Urbervilles clan

The death of the horse

Tess’s wedding with Angel

The missed letter

Return of Angel

Too late

Analysis of Tess:

Attack on the hypocritical morality of the bourgeois society and the capitalist invasion

into the country and destruction of the English peasantry towards the end of the

century.

A most bitter cry of protest and denunciation of the society.

Naturalistic tendency

Fatalism

Interpretation of the last paragraph:

“Justice” was done, and the President of the Immortals, in Aeschylean phrase, had

ended his sport with Tess. And the d’Urberville knights and dames slept on in their

tombs unknowing. The two speechless gazers bent themselves down to the earth, as

if in prayer, and remained thus a long time, absolutely motionless: the flag

continued to wave silently. As soon as they had strength they arose, joined hands

again, and went on.

Put in the quotation marks, Hardy’s justice is quite ironic, just as the Greek tragedian

Aeschylus’s view of the divine justice done to Prometheus who stole fire for the

benefit of the people. Although it is quite controversial whether Tess has done benefit

for the public, there no doubt that her story is a tragic one. Firstly, her fate is

determined from the very beginning of the story; it is a sport or game of the president

of gods. Indeed, Tess’ story is a long series of accidents. Had she not killed the horse

by accident or she was not so responsible and loyal to her family, Tess could not have

listened to her mother so obediently and set her foot on a doomed path. Secondly,

Tess’ story is tragic in that she lives in a corrupted and corrupting society. People,

like the rich nobleman Alec, can easily get away with his crime of impregnating and

abandoning a lower-class girl while the victim is left laughed at and despised for

something that is not her fault. Such a gentleman as Angel Clare, though he claims to

serve the good and will of man, he can not accept his poor wife. He says one thing

and does the other. As a matter of fact, both of them represent the unfair and

hypocritical Victorian society, one way or the other.

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Poetry in the Victorian Period

• The poetry of this period was mainly characterized by experiments with new

styles and new ways of expression. Among those famous experimental poets

was Robert Browning, who is acknowledged by many as the most original

poet of the time.

• Browning’s name is often associated with the term “dramatic monologue.”

Although it is not his invention, it is in his hands that this poetic form reaches

its maturity and perfection. “Pippa Passes” (“皮帕经过”), “My Last Duchess”

(“我的前公爵夫人”) and The Ring and the Book (《指环与书》) are some of

his best-known monologues.

• Other poets like Alfred Tennyson, Matthew Arnold, Gerald Manley Hopkins,

Dante Gabriel Rossetti and his talented sister Christina Rossetti all made their

respective attempts at poetic innovations and helped open up new ways for the

twentieth-century modern poetry.

Alfred Tennyson

阿尔弗雷德·丁尼生 (1809~1892)

• the most representative poet of the

Victorian period

• His poetry is rich in poetic images and melodious language, and noted for its

lyrical beauty and metrical charm.

• Tennyson’s poems voice the doubt and the faith, the grief and the joy of the

English people in an age of fast social change.

• In Memoriam《悼念》: Tennyson’s greatest work, one of the best elegies in

English literature.

Victorian literature, in general, truthfully represents the reality and spirit of the age.

The high-spirited vitality, the down-to-earth earnestness, the good-natured humor and

unbounded imagination are all unprecedented. In almost every genre it paved the way

for the coming new century.

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