Victorian Prose

The Victorian period was in the late 19th century spanning the years of 1830 to 1901, the years
that Queen Victoria ruled over England. This was the time when industrial cities thrived and the
basis of life shifted from land ownership to an urban economy of manufacturing. A mixing of
social classes resulted through factory owner/worker relationships and social standing became
more malleable than it was in previous periods. Monetarily the country thrived but socially
problems arose. The conditions of factories were horrendous and workers, including children,
were forced to work up to 20 hour shifts. Women struggled to find a place in Victorian society
outside of the role of wife and mother. “The Woman Question,” as it was called, engaged
Victorians of both sexes, and led later to women’s acceptability in scholarly and literary
institutions. A conscious effort to improve education in children resulted in greater literacy,
which in turn spread a wide array of ideas to the masses. The term “Victorian” has become an
adjective that the Norton Anthology defines as referring to qualities of “earnestness, moral
responsibility, [and] domestic propriety” (1044).

The literature of the Victorian can be split into two categories; the novel and other non-fiction
writings.
The novel is represented by works written by Charles Dickens, Wilkie Collins, George Elliot,
and Charlotte Bronte. The books are usually very long with intense physical descriptions of
characters and places. A typical sentence of description is long and filled with both semicolons
and commas. In The Woman in White, a mystery thriller of the time, Wilkie Collins describes
the main character, Hartright’s first encounter with his pupil Marian:
Her figure was tall, yet not too tall; comely and well-developed, yet not fat; her
head set on her shoulders with an easy, pliant firmness; her waist, perfection in
the eyes of a man, for it occupied its natural place, it filled out its natural circle, it
was visibly and delightfully undeformed by stays. (34)
Wilkie Collins and other Victorian writers are part of what is called “Sensational Literature,” in
which the author evokes the senses of his readers through writing with rich perceptual
descriptions. Although there was mixing of social status most Victorian fiction deals with upper
class or upper middleclass characters and plights. Charles Dickens’ Hard Times has an ironic
title, given the main characters are rich factory owners and it is their workers who suffer the
“hard times.” The novels present themselves as realistic with emphasis on the social structure as
it actually stood in Victorian England. The Norton Anthology introduction to the Victorian
period states that the novel was usually focused on “a protagonist whose effort to define his or
her place in society is the main concern of the plot” 1059). The novel creates tension between
thee hero/heroine and the surround social conditions, usually dealing with “the Woman
Question” or Industrialization. Another interesting note that may help is the predominance of the
color red or scarlet within texts.
Other Victorian Prose:
The growth of periodical literature made way for other more instructional ‘non-fictional prose.’
These pieces by writers such as Thomas Carlyle, John Stuart Mill, John Ruskin, and Sarah
Stickney Ellis reflect social struggle and often propose alternative options to current situations.
The Main topics of these works are The Woman Question, Industrialization, and the debate
between Science and Religion.
Thomas Carlyle in “Captains of Industry” discusses problems of industrialization and the need or
factory workers to stand up to factory owners and demand better working conditions. John
Ruskin in “Stones of Venice” questions the single menial tasks that are repeated all day by a
single factory worker. He claims that a whole thing built from a single builder is better and more
meaningful than many things built in pieces by many workers.
“The Woman Question” arises often in Victorian Literature as shown in the fiction works of the
Bronte sisters and George Elliot, but the social stance of women also held a place in non-fiction
writings of the time. The Subjection of Women by John Stuart Mill was held in high regard by
suffragists in both America and England. Victorian fiction often depicted women as “the Angel
of the House,” whose sole role was to help her husband forget the tribulations of the reality that
existed outside of the home. Non-fiction works, however, strove to unleash women from this
role and create a place for them outside of the house. John Stuart Mill states in chapter one of
his treatise, “Ever since there have been women able to make their sentiments known by their
writings (the only mode of publicity which society permits to them), an increasing number of
them have recorded protests against their present social condition” (1157). John Stuart Mill uses
his influence to conquer the Victorian role of woman as simply wife and mother while Sarah
Ellis uses her social influence to instill in her readers that women are to remain in the role of
“Angel in the House” because that is how it was willed by god to be, in her essay “The Women
of England: Their Social Duties and Domestic Habits.”
Another huge debate circulating through Victorian texts is the battle between Science and
Religion which can also be linked to the argument of Fact vs. Fancy. Charles Darwin’s The
Origin of Species led to a questioning of Religion against Science that is unprecedented in times
before. Victorian society became obsessed with Facts and began dismissing musings of the
imagination as hindrances. Although a piece from The Origin of Species is unlikely to show up
on the exam it is important to connect questions of evolution, scientific approaches to religion,
and facts versus imaginative creativity to the Victorian period because this is when those
discussions began.
So here is a list to study by because I love lists:
Themes:
The Woman Question
Industrialization
Movement in social class
Science vs. Religion
Fact vs. Fancy
Possible novels that may show up on the exam are:
Charles Dickens; Hard Times, A Tale of two Cities
Charlotte Bronte; Jane Eyre
Wilkie Collins; The Woman in White, The Moonstone
George Elliot; Adam Bede

Other possible works:

Thomas Carlyle; “The Captains of Industry”
John Ruskin; The Stones of Venice
Henry Mayhew; “London Labor and the London Poor”
John Stuart Mill; The Subjection of Women
Sarah Stickney Ellis; The Women of England: Their Social Duties and Domestic Habits

Abrams, M.H., et al, eds The Norton Anthology of English Literature: The Victorian Age.. 7th ed.,
Vol. 2B. New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 2000.
Collins, Wilkie. The Woman in White. New York: Penguin Books, 2003.
Dickens, Charles. Hard Times. New York: Penguin Books, 2003.
The Victorian Web. http://www.victorianweb.org/. 2007.