The Victorian Novel

1
The Victorian Novel

• VA
• Nicolò Zentilin
• Claudia Tomasello

2
The Victorian Age

• The Industrial Revolution Industrialization
• The reign of Queen Victoria ( 1837 1901 )
• Urbanization
• Conflicts between classes birth of a working
  class
• Working classs rights birth of Trade Unions
• More education
• Development of communication trades, Colonialism
  and Imperialism
• The doctrine of laissez-faire
• Utilitarian philosophy, Darwinism, Puritan ethic
• Scientific investigation improvement of lifes
  conditions
• The age of the novels Richardson, Dickens,
  Fielding and Defoe

3
The Main Themes of the Victorian Novel

• The struggle of democracy
• The growth of towns
• Poverty
• Education and children
• The clash between classes
• The industrial system of production

4
The Main Aspects

• The reader feels partly identified thanks to
• The setting is generally the city
  ALIENATION
• Human beings are described like masses
• the lass of identity

PATHOS Readers pity and sadness for characters
creates an educative function.
GROTTESQUE Exaggeration deforms the reality and
entertains the reader.
5
Oliver Twist

• Author Charles Dickens wrote it from 1837 to
  1838.
• Extract it is taken from Chapter 2, at the
  beginning of the book.
• Story-line the Victorian Novel describes the
  ill-treatment of children in the workhouses. The
  plot has lots of adventures and surprises.
• Setting it is the dinning hall of the
  workhouse.
• Characters Oliver, an orphan brought up in the
  workhouse, and his master. They express the
  relationship between poor and rich.
• Narrator there is a third person omniscient
  narrator.
• Techniques used the Pathos, the Grottesque and
  irony.
• Aim Dickens wants to criticize the Victorian
  society.

6
Nicholas Nickelby

• Author Charles Dickens wrote it from 1838 to
  1839.
• Extract it is taken from one of the early
  chapters in the novel.
• Story-line the realistic novel discloses the
  living condition and teaching methods in the
  appalling educational institutions of the
  Victorian Age for the poor.
• Setting it is the classroom where Nicholas is
  going to work.
• Characters Nicholas who has employed as a
  teacher by Mr. Squeers (the teacher of the
  school). The last one feels superior to the
  children.
• Narrator there is a third person omniscient
  intrusive narrator.
• Techniques used the Pathos and exaggeration in
  order to ridicule Mr. Squeers.

7
Hard Time

• Author Charles Dickens wrote it in 1854.
• Extract Mr Bounderby is taken from Chapter 4
  of the first book.
• Story-line the realistic novel criticizes the
  social and economical conditions of the
  Victorian Age. Dickens attacks industrialization
  and its ills.
• Setting it is the fictional industrial city of
  Coketown.
• Characters Mr Bounderby, a man born in the
  dehumanizing industrial system of the period,
  and Mrs Gradgrind who got married with him (he
  is more than twice her age).
• Narrator there is a third person omniscient
  intrusive narrator.

8
Jude the Obscure

• Author Thomas Hardy wrote it some years before
  1895.
• Extract it is taken from "Part Sixth Chapter II"
  of Jude the Obscure. The novel is organised into
  scenes like modernist works.
• Story-line the extract deals with Judes actions
  at home and the death of Jude and Sue's son.
• Setting events are sat in Jude and Sues home on
  an early morning.
• Characters Jude Fawley who had some children
  with Sue in an extramarital relationship a
  doctor and two helpless women who came to try to
  restore the children the dead son who wrote a
  piece of paper.
• Narrator there is an omniscient external
  narrator that is impersonal (no judgements, no
  comments).
• Aim it is an Anti-Victorian novel that wants to
  show the extramarital relationships of the
  Victorian society in this case it has generated
  too many children.