The victorian novel Bonetto Giorgia Jacopo Maria Tuti Marangon Andrea

Victorian period( Victorianism) Was introduced in England from about 1837(the crowning of Queen Victoria) to the end of the century. In the same period there was the development of the Industrial Revolution. Social Changes: –birth of a new class :the working class –new relationship between social classes –relationship between masters and workers.

Working Class vs Middle Class New technology is used in factories Man power is required Country sides are abandoned Increas of the population in the cities. Puritanism (Talent Parabola: if you don’t improve your social status you are sinned) Willing to upgrade in social ladder. The maggiority of the middle class are business man or factory owners. Puritanism (Talent Parabola: if you don’t improve your social status you are sinned) Willing to upgrade in social ladder Self made man. Fear of competition from the East Land( fear of becoming pour).

The novelist figure The publishing industry was born Reification of the novel The artist must satisfy the market request (ex. Novel must have a happy ending). Novels were published in episodes so that the novelist had to keep the reader attention up.

Novel characteristics Puritanism educational intent: to teach right and wrong. Use of pathos and grottesque to describe characters and to create alibis for the business man. Characters: –VIRTUOUS: extreamly good good ending (obtain an upgrading in the social ladder) –VILLANS: extreamly bad bad ending (tragic death)

Narrative tecniques Hyperbolic use of the language permitt the novelist to convey the sense of: –PATHOS: provides feelings of superiority and a partial identification with the pathetic subject of the virtuous. –GROTTESQUE: through laughter, implies reader’s refusal to identify himself and acts as a shield against bad luck and social ostility of the villains. Create alibis for the businessman

“Oliver Twist” by C. Dickens Storyline: Orphan brought up in a workhouse, escapes to London where he is forced to pickpocket by the villainous Faggin. He is than arrested but at the end he is saved by a rich gentleman friend of his family and becomes a rich inheritant. The novel closes with a happy ending. Theme: the ill-treatment of children in the workhouse of the victorian age. Oliver Twist is a virtuous, his social position in upgraded at the end. Oliver attracts the readers emotional appeal by the pathos tecnique.

“Nicholas Nickleby” by C. Dickens Storyline: After his father’s death Nicholas goes to London with his mother and sister hoping for his Uncle Ralph’s help. Ralph is uncrupulous and greedy money lander and immediatly hates his nephew. Nicholas work at many jobs and finally obtains a position in a company in London ruining his uncle’s wicked plans. The novel ends happily with both marriages of Nicholas and his sister while there uncle defeated and humiliated hangs himself. Theme: Living conditions and teaching methods for the poor section of society, critic of the entire school system. N. Nickleby virtuous pathos Uncle Ralph villain grottesque

Anti-victorian reaction: going to modernist fiction Victorian values of Puritanism are duscussed. Pessimism: no more happy ending. No more didactic intent: the narrator doesn’t influence the reader by guiding to see what is right or wrong (objective view). Third person narrator. There is a defined division of the scenes that create a multiplicity of immages.

“Jude the obscure” by T. Hardy Storyline: The protagonist is married but he fall in love with a married woman. The start to live togheter and they give birth to a lot of children. But they aren’t able to provide for them. The extract we have analyzed deals with the children’s tragedy in which they all hang up themselves because they were too many. The character is not the typical of the victorian behaviour. There is no happy ending. Third person narrator.