The Victorian Period
1. “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way…” – Charles Dickens, from A Tale of Two Cities
2. 1833-1901
3. Two works published in Victoria’s reign proved as powerful as any of the machinery assembled for The Great Exposition. In 1848, as England watched while revolutions convulsed Europe, Karl Marx published The Communist manifesto. This pamphlet warned that there was “a spectre haunting Europe”. That “spectre” was communism, with its prophecy of political revolution. The other book, the work of a gentleman scientist who had seen evidence for biological evolution during his long sea voyage on HMS. Beagle, was On the Origin of Species. Supporters and attackers alike knew that after Charles Darwin’s work, our sense of ourselves and our place in the world would never be the same.
4. Key Historical Theme: Imperial Britain
5. – Under Victoria, Britain’s empire expanded, and Britain celebrated progress, prosperity, and peace.
- Darker stories linked to Britain’s empire included the Irish Potato Famine, widespread poverty at home, and the rise of Germany as a competing imperial power.
6. * An Elegy with Up-to-Dates Themes: Tennyson’s In Memoriam, A.H.H., his elegy for his friend Arthur Hallam, speaks to the problem of belief and doubt that was central to the age. In this poem, Tennyson’s struggles to come to terms with Hallam’s death at the age of twenty-two, asking whether a benevolent God or an indifferent nature directs the universe. About ten years before Darwin, he writes of “nature red in tooth and claw”. One of the most impressive aspects of this elegy is its engagement with the latest scientific discoveries. Be the end of the poem, however, Tennyson has regained his belief and declares his faith in a divine plan for the universe.
• The Sonnet: In Sonnet 43, Elizabeth Barrett Browning states her belief in the power of love, more positively than Matthew Arnold. She adds a distinctively Victorian note of piety, reverence, and religious belief to her love poem. Victorian poets were committed to the sonnet as were the Romantics and none more so than Gerard Manley Hopkins. A Catholic convert and Jesuit priest, he experimented with meter, he proclaims his faith in a divine presence in the world.
• The Dramatic Monologue: Robert Browning, Elizabeth Barrett’s husband, perfected the dramatic monologue. In this poetic form, a character is speaking to a silent listener and in the process revealing more about himself than he realizes. Browning’s strange and chilling speakers are the British cousins of Edgar Allan Poe’s mad narrators in stories like “The Cask of Amontillado” and “The Tell-Tale Heart”.
• The Novel: The dramatic monologue takes readers into the mind of a character, as does the popular Victorian genre, the novel. This genre was as central to the Victorian period as the drama was to the Elizabethan. Usually published serially in magazines, each new installment of a novel was eagerly awaited by all levels of society. The novel’s social commentary and realistic descriptions presented the Victorians to themselves.
The great theme of these novels is education: the depiction of a hero or heroine learning how to secure a proper place in society.
7. Vocabulary: chrysalis- noun. Third stage of development of a moth or butterfly
Diffusive- adj. tending to spread out
Prosper- verb. Thrive
Waning- verb. Gradually dimming or weakening
Prudence- noun. Careful management of resources; economy
Furrows- noun. Grooves, such as those made by a plow
8.
9. ok
10. Reading Check: When Lady Shalott sees Sir Lancelot in the mirror, she looks out the window, even though it is forbidden.
11. Reading Summary: In Part I, the speaker sets the scene and introduces the plot: The Lady, on her remote island, is under a curse. She must keep to her weaving and ignore Camelot. However, she is attracted by the reflections of the active world that she sees in her mirror. At the sight of two lovers, she declares that she is “half sick of shadows”. In Part II, the shining figure of Sir Lancelot pierces the island gloom, and the lonely lady chooses to leave her retreat and follow him. The mirror cracks. She then places her name upon the prow of a boat and flows toward Camelot, singing. By the time she reaches the first house, she is dead. Moved, the lords and ladies stare at her lifeless form, while Lancelot utters a prayer.
12.
13. countenance- noun. Face
Officious- adj. meddlesome
Munificence- noun. Lavish generosity
Eludes- verb. Avoids or escapes
Dowry- noun. Property a woman brings to her husband upon marriage
Sullen- adj. brooding; morose; sulky
14. Ok.
15. Reading Check: The duke and his listener are viewing a painting of his first wife who died after three years of marriage.
16.
17. Ok.
18.
19.Reading Journey: This dramatic monologue opens with a description of the setting; a violently windy and rainy night. Such an opening creates a sense of foreboding and foreshadows an evil deed. The speaker waits for Porphyria; he describes her entrance and her loving embrace. Still, he complains that although she worships him, she is too weak to commit herself to him totally. He then strangles Porphyria with her own hair to make her his forever, imaging that Porphyria welcomes her death as a release from unwanted bonds. At the end of the poem, the speaker notices that God has not reacted to his deed.
20.
21. Ok.
22.
23. A novel is a fictitious prose narrative of considerable length and complexity, portraying characters and usually presenting a sequential organization of action and scenes.
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/novel
24. monotonous- adj. without variation
Obstinate- adj. stubborn; dogged
Deficient- adj. lacking an essential quality
Adversary- noun. Opponent; enemy
Indignant- adj. outraged; filled with righteous anger
Approbation- noun. Official approval
Etymology- noun. The study of word origins
Syntax- noun the study of sentence structure
25.
26. Ok.
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29. Vocabulary- obscure- adj. not easily seen; not generally known
Sundry- adj. various; miscellaneous
Tumult- noun. Noise caused by a crowd
Truculent- adj. cruel, fierce
Comprised- verb. Consisted of; included
30. Ok.
31.
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35. Vocabulary:
tranquil- adj. calm; serene; peaceful
Turbid- adj. muddy or cloudy; not clear
Cadence- noun. Measured movement
Dominion- noun. Rule; control
Awe- mixed feeling of reverence, fear, and wonder
Contrite- adj. willing to repent or atone
36. Ok
37. Reading Journal: The speaker watches the calm waters of the English Channel and compares the tides to the ebb and flow of human misery. In despair, he listens to the melancholy roar of the world’s pain. He asks his sweetheart to stand with him; he is pessimistic about humanity but believes in love and fidelity between individuals. He asks his love to be true, for all they have is each other.
38.
39. Ok
40. Reading Check: The speaker is a woman wondering who is digging on her grave. Is it her loved one, her family, or an enemy? She discovers that it is none of them, that each has forgotten her.
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