the victorian novel
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THE VICTORIAN NOVEL. THE DOMINANT AND WIDELY-READ LITERARY FORM OF THE 19° CENTURY Elisa Vinicio 5^B . Years of development. The Victorian Age is marked by the reign of Queen Victoria , which covered the nineteenth century. - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
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