The Victorian Period
Characteristics of Victorian Period
- Literature of this age tends to portray a daily life that reflects practical problems and interests.
- Literature becomes a powerful instrument for human progress.
- Moral Purpose: The Victorian literature seems to deviate from "art for art's sake" and asserts its moral purpose.
- Idealism: It is often considered as an age of doubt and pessimism.
- The influence of science is felt here.
- The whole age seems to be caught in the conception of man in relation to the universe with the idea of evolution.
- Though, the age is characterized as practical and materialistic, most of the writers exalt a purely ideal life. It is an idealistic age where the great ideals like truth, justice, love, brotherhood are emphasized by poets, essayists and novelists of the age.
Values:
- earnestness
- respectability
- progress
- everything in its proper place
- work ethic
- restraint
- duty
- punctuality
Major Ideas:
- expansion of the empire
- glorification of war
- industrialism
- economic prosperity
- reform