The Victorian Novel

Queen Victoria (1837-1901) nine children, widow for forty years Victorian values duty, convention, earnestness, family life, prudence narrow-mindedness, hypocrisy women: no independence Victorian Issues The poor and their living and working conditions The crisis of faith (religion vs. science); evolution The Woman Question boredom of the upper- and middle-class women vs. hard jobs of the lower classes Technological Developments Increase in literacy Technology - cheaper books The periodical serial form of novels Middle-class genre Form flexible and adaptable to Victorian life Offered escape from harsh reality Semblance of reality Moral instruction Characteristics Good rewarded; evil punished Adjustment of individual to society General acceptance of middle-class values major characters recognisable as Victorian types typical aspirations Poor treated patronisingly Rich envied and scorned

Human nature basically good Heroes and heroines persons of virtue, albeit sometimes weak!! Genres: Historical Gothic Social romances

The Bronts a womans passion and emotional depth can equal or exceed a mans Charlotte Jane Eyre, Shirley, The Professor Emily Wuthering Heights Anne Agnes Grey, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall Charles Dickens: (1812-1870) Earlier novels - social criticism interlaced with humour (Pickwick Papers, Oliver Twist, David Copperfield) Later novels are darker, indicting Victorian society and humanity in general: Bleak House (1852-53) the effect of a cruel Court of Chancery on English good is not victorious Hard Times (1854) attacks industrialism and its ills Great Expectations (1860-61) satirizes Dickens own desperate lower-middle class passion to rise to a gentlemans status Our Mutual Friend (1864-65) satirizes Victorian materialism and the flaunting of wealth.

Hard Times Book I - The Sowing Point of View third person - limited omniscient He knows what is going on in all places and at all times Sometimes speculates about characters feelings and thoughts moral authority - by making moral judgments, the narrator shapes our interpretations of the novel Satire Exposing folly or vice to ridicule in order to correct it Arouses contempt or amusement Targets: Gradgrind, M'Choakumchild, Bounderby, and Mrs. Sparsit "Ah, rather overdone, M'Choakumchild. If he had only learnt a little less, how infinitely better he might have taught much more!" (I,2) Thomas Gradgrind, sir. A man of realities. A man of facts and calculations. A man who proceeds upon the principle that two and two are four, and nothing over, and who is not to be talked into allowing for anything over. - Eminently practical? Not!!! Themes: Fact v Fancy Utilitarian philosophy: only facts and figures are important Fancy embodiment of childs sense of wonder nursery rhymes, poetry, toys and amusement Gradgrind home ologies hard facts exclude values of heart

Facts deprive people of their humanity Lousia: emotionally stifled life; trapped in loveless marriage Tom: blow up all facts and figures and people who taught them Evils of Industrialism descriptions of Coketown and relations between owners and workers (I, 5) Coketown: built on utilitarian principles designed to maximize industrial output Uniform, black, polluted by smoke People also drab conformity

The employers (Bounderby) - contemptuous opinion of the workers ungrateful and restless, forever dissatisfied with their lot factory hands are all lazy "a coach and six, and to be fed on turtle soup and venison, with a gold spoon. The One Thing Needful classroom a plain, bare, monotonous vault the speaker: hard, dry square conveys the hardness and unfeeling nature of Gradgrinds philosophy Children: little vessels, little pitchers to be filled with factual knowledge Numbers: dehumanising Murdering the Innocents Gradgrind - a loaded cannon: prepared to blow *the children+ clean out of the regions of childhood at one discharge. capable of doing much harm Dickens is accusing Gradgrind of killing the imagination of his pupils A Loophole Stone Lodge Gradgrinds homelife Wife: a little, thin, white, pink-eyed bundle of shawls, of surpassing feebleness, mental and bodily who whenever she showed a symptom of coming to life, was invariably stunned by some weighty piece of fact tumbling on her. never hear the last of it 5 children: never known wonder Gradgrind: an affectionate father, after his manner a prisoner to his system unable to understand his own children (cf. Circus incident) Louisa

a girl of 15 or 16 - pretty, with an air of jaded sullenness Her searching look[s] missed by father appears to be active dislike on Louisas part for Bounderby Mr Bounderby great puffed head and forehead, swelled veins in his temples and the pervading appearance of being inflated like a balloon, and ready to start - like a monstrous cartoon He boasts constantly a self-made man bully of humility uses his past to put other people down (as if he were claiming exalted birth and high connections) The Keynote Description of Coketown nightmarish realities of the industrial city: interminable serpents of smoke, the steam engines whose pistons drive up and down like the head of an elephant in a state of melancholy madness Slearys Horsemanship Circus people contrast to Coketown Purpose: to entertain Outsiders: talk and look different a loving, cooperative community an untiring readiness to help and pity one another Gradgrind offers to take Sissy in; Bounderby tries to talk him out of it Mrs Sparsit Minor character Bounderbys prize possession Just as it belonged to his boastfulness to depreciate his own extraction, so it belonged to it to exalt Mrs. Sparsits. Never Wonder grown-up babies are to take everything on trust, to take everything on political economy Library statistics: people do wonder (romances, etc.) Louisa-Tom: affection, but he is self-centred (cf. the fire) Sissys Progress Background information on Sissy Jupe her story Her mistakes show a humanitarian point of view Louisa brings up love and marriage: loveless marriage of her parents; her foreshadowed loveless marriage to Bounderby Stephen Blackpool Dickens first attempt at writing about factory workers Blackpool serves as a mouthpiece for Dickens (Mr Sleary & Sissy) No Way Out

Stephens desire to get rid of his drunken wife (parallel: Mr Sparsits ditching of wife after honeymoon Mrs. Sparsits enquiry about age difference?) Divorce: o Luxury for rich people o All options regulated by law: Grievous bodily harm; abandonment; remarriage; children out of wedlock The Old Woman Mysterious Makes one trip each year to see the gentleman Rachael 2 Victorian stereotypes: o The ministering Angel to be worshipped o The wanton woman with degraded appetites Wife: barely human, a monstrous, deformed thing who must be kept hidden behind a sheet Christian imagery and role of faith The Great Manufacturer Transitional chapter To mark the passing of time Louisa and Tom have grown a young lady and man Implication: time to get married Father and Daughter Gradgrind unable to perceive Louisas feelings Nineteenth-century mythology: authority and wisdom of the father sacred Here: every word of advice and counsel could not be more grievously mistaken and harmful Marriage regarded by the Victorians as a uniquely joyous and significant event Louisa: what does it matter Husband and Wife Satire on views of matrimony Among them love took a manufacturing aspect. Dresses were made, jewelry was made, cakes and gloves were made, settlements were made, and an extensive assortment of Facts did appropriate honor to the contract. The business was all Facts, from first to last. Bounderby & Sparsit Need each other to complement their own image of self B needs Mrs. S - a man with no connections who is yet successful enough to retain a lady of great social distinction Mrs. S needs B to reinforce the idea of her own gentility, which as the years pass recedes further and further into the past Behave like old married couple!!! (unhappily)

Hard Times -Books II and III Reaping Mr Bounderby: seeds of unkindness unhappy marriage and the loss of his wife Mr Gradgrind: seeds of logic and fact disillusionment and destruction of his philosophy Louisa: sowed with the seeds of fact - unhappiness Tom: seeds of dishonesty, harvest of loneliness and destruction Stephen Blackpool: seeds of discontent ostracism Each character reaps a harvest of his own making. James (Jem) Harthouse Fading aristocracy bored with life In service of Gradgrinds political party Louisa detached and enigmatic only responds to the whelp Harthouse: seeds to win Louisas confidence The Whelp Easily flattered and led on Reveals the circumstances of Louisas marriage Bounderby, Sparsit Harthouse: enchanted with the chase Ignorant of the damage he has done!! Stephen, Men and Masters Stephens relationship to fellow workers, his meeting with Bounderby and his dismissal Cannot agree with Slackbridges ideas promise to Rachael Used as an example and ostracised by workers walks alone Slackbridge Slackbridge: labour-union agitator; saviour of the workers gives voice to problems Dickens: leaders may be as corrupt as employers the labourers clutch at straws but led by Judas Humanity must win through and the employers must decisively change the conditions Meeting with Bounderby Stephen honest refused to join, not out of loyalty to Bounderby, but Rachael Gives reasons for reform which infuriates Bounderby Bounderby dismisses him from the factory Heaven help us in this world. Fading Away Many threads of the plot appear: old woman, Mrs Pegler Louisa and Tom visit Louisa has all the facts about economy, but never been close to a worker

Realises they have pride; they struggle to exist The Master Plan Toms primary concern: self Selfishly manipulates Stephen to plan the bank robbery and pin it on him Dickens warning: give the poor some consideration or they will rise up and destroy their oppressors Gunpowder Louisa, Tom and Jem sitting on gunpowder kegs Harthouse wants to make Louisa love him Bounderby bought country estate from bankrupt aristocrat beautiful paintings and cabbage in garden Toms Vice Gambling Owes a lot of money; Louisa has refused him 100 Tom shows his gratitude to Louisa refuses Harthouses money: too late Explosion Louisas growing fondness for Harthouse Realisation: something is missing from her life Harthouse has not dwelled on the consequences of the chase analogy with the devil Bank robbery : missing 150 from Toms safe Louisa faints readers know why Sparsit returns Grovelling to Bounderby playing up to his whims and watching Louisa and Harthouse Louisa sleepless: waiting for Tom asks him to confide in her Keep visit to Stephen a secret lies to his sister Weeps when she leaves - lonely Hearing the Last of It Triple meaning: o the last of Louisas attempts to remain aloof from Harthouse o The last of Mrs Sparsits scheme to reinstate self in Bounderby home o Mrs Gradgrinds death no more ologies and no more torment from Mr Gradgrinds facts Sissys influence and Jane Complete Harvest 1) Unhappiness for Louisa 2) destruction of the Gradgrind philosophy 3) destruction of Bounderbys pride Mrs Sparsits Staircase... Lower and Lower... Down Symbolic descent from heights to the darkness of despair Staircase is symbolic of Louisa, Bounderby and Mr Gradgrinds philosophy

Mr Gradgrinds philosophy crumbles as Louisa (the symbol) lies insensible at his feet Louisas Despair Curses the day she was born Unable to come to terms with the emotions shes feeling Asks her fathers philosophy to save her now!! Gradgrind reacts as a father, taking her into his arms but not knowing how to offer comfort Book 3: The Garnering Biblical Ruth: picking up wheat dropped by reapers Characters pick up or garner what has been left behind by their experiences Gradgrind tries to help children pick up the pieces Bounderby, the bachelor, exposed as a fraud, garners loneliness Louisas Battle for Self-Understanding A concern of the heart is needed now understanding and compassion Janes life: facts mixed with fancy, statistics mixed with compassion, love and understanding Will become a better-educated Sissy Sissy in Charge Takes Louisas life into her own hands Sends Harthouse away promising never to see Louisa again o Why does Harthouse promise this? Mrs Sparsit the P.I. Loses Louisa when following her Rushes off to London to Bounderby to tell of his wifes elopement Rush to Stone Lodge to confront Gradgrind with his daughters disgrace Bounderby fires Louisa!! Loss and Finding Bounderby loses his miserable childhood, the town finds his mother Louisa loses a husband and belief in Facts, finds a loving friend and understanding of others Gradgrinds loss of faith in his system, finds love and understanding for his family Mrs Pegler Bounderby shown up as a fraud Secure childhood Forsook his mother Pensioned her off on 30 a year if she stays away from him!! The Search for Stephen Stephens hat implication of foul play Fell into Old Hell Shaft (abandoned mine shaft) Rescue men and machinery working as one Asks Gradgrind to clear his name of robbery and dies implicating Tom as the thief

Toms Escape Sissy sends him to the circus Gradgrind is devastated decides to help his son Tom masquerading as black-lace comic Tom is surly and ungrateful to father and sister all their fault Bitzer Product of Fact School Only self-interest: the reward and Toms position "The circulation, sir, couldn't be carried on without one. No man, sir, acquainted with the facts established by Harvey relating to the circulation of the blood can doubt that I have a heart." "People mutht be amuthed. They can't be alwayth a-learning, nor yet they can't be alwayth aworking, they an't made for it. You mutht have uth, Thquire. Do the withe thing and the kind thing too, and make the betht of uth, not the wurtht!" Final The future Mrs Sparsit with LadY Scadgers Mr Bounderbys death in the streets of CT Bitzers rise in position Sissys happy marriage with children Gradgrind learning Hope, Faith and Charity and the scorn of his colleagues Toms penitence and death Louisa loved by Sissys children, seeking to understand and help others Dickens envisages a brighter future for children and the working classes Possible Topics 1. Critics have called Hard Times an allegory. Prove your response by making direct reference to passages in the novel. 2. Characterize Mrs. Gradgrind; in what ways does she show that, being incapable of comprehending her husband's philosophy, she has withdrawn from the world? Possible Topics 3. Louisa was descending the allegorical staircase of shame. Were there others descending with her? Support your answer. 4. What analogy is drawn between Coketown and the Gradgrindian philosophy? 5. Dickens, as we all know, is utilizing satire to agitate for better conditions in England. To what advantage does Kidderminster serve Dickens' purpose? 6. Education system: Fact v. Fancy 7. Role of women in Hard Times 8. Depiction of the Industrial Revolution the effects 9. Social Class System

10. Why is it significant for the novel to open in the classroom of Facts and conclude in the circus of Fancy?