英国文学史及选读第二册

4. Features of Victorian novels In this period，the novel became the most widely read & the most vital & challenging expression of progressive thought. While sticking to the principle of faithful representation of the 18th-century realist novel, novelists in this period carried their duty forward to the criticism of the society & the defense of the mass. Although writing from different points of view & with different techniques, they shared one thing in common, that is, they were all concerned about the fate of the common people. They were angry at the inhuman social institutions, the decaying social morality as represented by the moneyworship & Utilitarianism & the widespread misery, poverty & injustice. Their truthful depiction of people’s life & bitter & strong criticism of the society had done much in awakening the public consciousness to the social problems & in the actual improvement of the society. Victorian literature, in general, truthfully represents the reality & spirit of the age. The high-spirited vitality, the down-to-earth earnestness, the good-natured humor & unbounded imagination are all unprecedented. In almost every genre it paved the way for the coming century, where its spirits, values & experiments are to witness their bumper harvest.
Definitions ofຫໍສະໝຸດ several terms
The Chartist Movement （1836-1848）
The English workers got themselves organized in big cities & brought forth the People’s charter, in which they demanded basic rights & better living & working conditions. They, for three times, made appeals to the government, with hundreds of thousands of people’s signatures. The movement swept over most of the cities in the country. Although the movement declined to an end in 1848, it did bring some improvement to the welfare of the working class. This was the first mass movement of the English working class & the early sign of the awakening of the poor, oppressed people.
Further Reading: After the Reform Bill of 1832 passed the political power from the decaying aristocrats into the hands of the middleclass industrial capitalists, the Industrial Revolution soon geared up. Towards the mid-century, England had reached its highest point of development as a world power. And yet beneath the great prosperity & richness, there existed widespread poverty & wretchedness among the working class. The worsening living & working conditions, the mass unemployment & the new Poor Law of 1834 with its workhouse system finally gave rise to the Chartist Movement (1836-1848).

Critical Realism
The Victorian Age is an age of realism rather than of romanticism-a realism which strives to tell the whole truth showing moral & physical diseases as they are. To be true to life becomes the first requirement for literary writing. As the mirror of truth, literature has come very close to daily life, reflecting its practical problems & interests & is used as a powerful instrument of human progress.
2. Features: Victorian literature, as a product of its age, naturally took on its quality of magnitude & diversity. It was many-sided & complex, & reflected both romantically & realistically the great changes that were going on in people’s life & thought. Great writers & great works abounded. a. introduction of characters from the working class b. strong hatred for vices in the society c. an illusion of bringing about social justice and harmony by reforms d. an interest in woman emancipation (Charlotte Bronte) 3. Representatives: Charles Dickens; William Thackeray etc.
III. Critical Realism 1. definition----English critical realism of the 19th century flourished in the 40s and in the early 50s. It found its expression in the form of novel. The critical realists, most of whom were novelists, described with much vividness and artistic skill the chief traits of the English society and criticized the capitalist system from a democratic viewpoint.
Dramatic
Monologue By dramatic monologue, it is meant that a poet chooses a dramatic moment or a crisis, in which his characters are made to talk about their lives, & about their minds & hearts. In ―listening‖ to those onesided talks, readers can form their own opinions & judgments about the speaker’s personality & about what has really happened. Robert Browning brought this poetic form to its maturity & perfection & his ―My Last Duchess‖ is one of the best-known dramatic monologues.