THE VICTORIAN AGE NOVEL THEMES SETTINGS NARRATIVE TECHNIQUES

THE VICTORIAN AGE NOVEL • • • THEMES SETTINGS NARRATIVE TECHNIQUES ANTIVICTORIAN REACTION SOURCES

THEMES • CLASS: One of the main themes is class, through the opposition between different social classes. (ex: Oliver twist, the difference between the children and the masters. ) • MIDDLE CLASS FAMILY: an example of this theme is in Vanity Fair’s chapter II, with Amelia Sedley’s personality. • EDUCATION: education of children is important in many novels, in Dickens’s Nicholas Nickleby this theme is central.

SETTING • Victorian novels are set in the city. The new born industrial towns are often described by Victorian novellists. The main novel set in factories is of course Hard Times by Dickens. • Schools and Workhouses: another important setting deal with the world of children. Oliver Twist and Nickolas Nickelby are some examples.

NARRATIVE TECHNIQUES • PATHOS: Exageration of situation and emotion, it’s conveied through the use of children or through extreme poverty. • GROTESQUE: Make a tragic situation funny. It uses hyperbolic language to convey this feeling. • IRONY • CARICATURE: Characters are a parody of true people. Novellists used this kind of characterization so that their readers could not identify with them. The high class readers wouldn’t feel guilty.

THE ANTIVICTORIAN NOVEL • Thomas Hardy’s Jude the Obscure is an example of the antivictorian reaction. • The difference between this new kind of novel and the traditional victorian novel is evident just considering the plot. • Another important difference is based on the characterization of the protagonist, wich is not an hero anymore, but a more modern and complex character. • Society is still cristicized but in a less hidden way.

SOURCES Charles Dickens: - Hard times - Oliver Twist - Nickolas Nickelby William Makepeace Thackeray: - Vanity Fair Thomas Hardy: - Jude the Obscure