THE DOMINANT AND WIDELY-READ LITERARY FORM OF THE

19° CENTURY

Elisa Vinicio 5^B

The Victorian Age is marked by the reign of Queen Victoria , which covered the nineteenth century.

Important social changes happened during the Victorian Age:

Industrial Revolution Growth of towns Revolution in the class system

The Victorian novel treats about social changes which happened at the time like:

Clash between the middle class and the working class;

People’s desire to rise up and the fear of falling down the social ladder;

Exploitation of children; Inadequacy in the social services; Education system.

The reading public was appealed by the Victorian novel because of:

-The realism of setting: suitable to create debates in the readers’ mind

-Every-day situations: readers identify with what they read

Third person intrusive omniscient narrator: the writer was considered an authority

Subliminal use of the language: writers were compelled to criticize in an undirected way

Exaggeration of the tones, characters and emotions

Charles Dickens-Use of the grotesque, caricature and

pathos to create a tragic comical effect-Use of sense impressions

William Makepeace Thackeray-Digressions used to teach to the reader-The pathetic is combined with caricature

and satire

Hard Times by DickensSetting: the novel is set in “Coketown”. Imagine of the town creates thanks the use of sense impressions:

sight: “a town of unnatural red and black” smell: “ill-smelling dye” hearing: “rattling and trembling” Oliver Twist by Dickens Setting: the story is set in a workhouse.Themes: exploitation of children. Use of the grotesque to criticize social

evils the narrator creates a gap between the real situation and the language used to describe it.

Nicholas Nickleby by DickensUse of rhetorical features: irony Nickleby is not able

to express his

thoughts, he has to conform

to convention.

Vanity Fair by ThackerayUse of high register of language: theatrical language

used to make a parodyIntrusive and omniscient narrator: he acts as a filter and

creates a dialogue with the reader

Thomas Hardy focuses the attention on human behaviour

He criticized the contemporary institutions like marriage and Christianity in a directly way, which was not approved by the Victorian public

Creation of realistic and detailed situations