VICTORIAN NOVEL Crosato Gianpaolo cl VB

THEME 1 Differences and clash between lower and middle class, between rich and poor He was a rich man: banker, merchant, manufacturer, and what not. (…) “I hadn’t shoe to my foot. As a stocking. I didn’t know such a thing by name. I passed the day in a ditch, and the night in a pigsty. That’s the way I spend my tenth birthday.” (Hard Times) Differences between social classes The only pupil who evinced the slightest tendency towards locomotion or playfulness was Master Squeers, and as his chief amusement was to tread upon the other boys’ toes in his new boots. (Nicholas Nickleby) Fear of people to fall in a lower class He could not but observe how silent and sad the boys all seemed to be. (…) “That’s the way we do it, Nickleby,” he said, after a pause. Nicholas shrugged his shoulders. (Nicholas Nickleby)

THEME 2 Children and their exploitation Education The master aimed a blow at Oliver’s head with the leddle. (Oliver Twist) “Third boy, what’s horse?”. “A beast, sir,” replied the boy. (…) “As you’re perfect in that,” resumed Squeers, turning to the boy, “go and look after my horse, and rub him down well, or I’ll rub you down. The rest of the class go and draw water up”. (Nicholas Nickleby) Education Obedient to this summons there ranged themselves in front of the schoolmaster’s desk, half-a-dozen scarecrows (Nicholas Nickleby) Woman and their exploitation The middle class family life In the formal drawing-room of Stone Lodge, standing on the heart-rug, warming himself before the fire (Hard Times)

SETTING In general the novels are setting in writer’s contemporary cities. In particular the novels are set in: Factories It was a town of machinery and tall chimney. (Hard Times) Schools Having further disposed of a slice of bread and butter, allotted to him in virtue of his office, he sat himself down, to wait for school-time. (Nicholas Nickleby) Workhouses Oliver Twist and his companions suffered the tortures od flow starvation for three month. (Oliver Twist)

NARRATIVE TECNIQUE 1 In reality: Use of repetition At the same hours, with the same sound upon the same pavements, to do the same work, and to whom every day was the same as yesterday and tomorrow. (Hard Times) Pathos (exaggeration of sentiments and emotions) The children sat crouching and shivering together (Nicholas Nickleby) Use of direct speech “hush!” cried Miss Sedley. (Vanity Fair) …

NARRATIVE TECHNIQUE 2 In humor Grotesque (exaggeration, creation of caricatures that produces laughs and melodrama effects ) He gazed in stupefied astonishment on the small rebel for some seconds, and then clung for support to the copper. (Oliver Twist) Irony Obedient to this summons there ranged themselves in front of the schoolmaster’s desk, half-a-dozen scarecrows (Nicholas Nickleby) Parody The board were setting in solemn conclave (Oliver Twist) Hyperbole Oliver Twist and his companions suffered the tortures od flow starvation for three month. (Oliver Twist)

NARRATOR PURPOSE Third person omniscient intrusive narrator To criticize industrial and Victorian way of life

CHARACTERS Classes Children Woman Unsuited man Oliver Twist Rebecca Sharp, Amela Sedley Unsuited man Nicholas Nicjleby, Thomas Gradgrind

Anti-Victorian novel (Jude The Obscure) Themes: Middle class family life Setting City Narrator technique Pathos Narrator Third person omniscient narrator Characters Middle class family Purpose To criticize values and institution of every day life