Study of the Victorian Society with the reference of Oliver Twist and Middlemarch.

M. K. BHAVNAGAR UNIVERSITY

Department Of English

Joshi Bhumi Vinodbhai

Roll no : 2

PG Enrollment No : 10141420

Paper Name : The Victorian Literature

Assignment Topic:

 Study of Victorian Society with the reference of Oliver Twist and Middlemarch

Preface :

 The Victorian period, the year between 1837 to 1901 and named after the great queen Victoria was a time of great changed. In Victorian era, movements for justice, freedom and other strong moral values opposed greed, exploitation and cynicism.The writings of Charles Dickens , in particular , observed and recorded these conditions.

            There was a time of various Classes , occupations and different ways of living life. The important aspect of this period is the large scale expansion of British imperial power . It is quite long period and lasted over 63 years longer than any other British Monarch.

The common perception of the period is the Victorian was “ prudish , hypocritical, stuffy and narrow –minded.”

            First, we discuss the background of the Victorian age and then its characteristics with the reference of its society.

            The Victorian age was especially remarkable because of its rapid progress in all the arts and sciences and in mechanical inventions. In short, we can say that, there was,

1.     Conflict between rich and poor

2.     Industrialization

3.     Compromises between science and religion

4.     Conflict between good v/s evil

5.     darker aspect of mankind

6.     lack of morality

7.      Greedy & Money minded people

8.     Social unrest

9.     Death of agriculture

10    Orphan houses

11.    Work houses

12.     Prostitution

Literature of the Victorian Age :

The romantic revival had done its work , and England entered upon a new free period , in which every form of literature, from pure romance to gross realism , struggled for expression.

“The novel in this age fills a place which drama held in the days of Elizabeth.”

Whether we read the fun and sentiment of Dickens , the social miniatures of Thackeray or the psychological studies of George Eliot , we find in almost every case a definite purpose to sweep away error and to reveal the underlying truth of human life.

“Victorian age is emphatically an age of realism rather than of realism.”

“Victorian Morality” can describe any set of values that espouse sexual restraint, law tolerance of crime and a strict social code of conduct. An age of prose, moral purpose , realism , and idealism , people were educated but mentally traced. Later Victorian writing saw the seeds of rebellion against such idealized notions and stereotypical code of conduct.

The society of Victorian Age :

Because of class discrimination, Elite intended to stay on top and wealthy. Men and women searched for an ideal relationship based on the expectations of demanding society.

    “ Patriarchal society did not allow women to have the same privileges as men.”

Elite people believe that…

                        “ They are born to rule through divine right  continue.”

one of the most important thing to know in Victorian society had good etiquette.

both man and women had their own set of rules of etiquette. society was influenced by deprivation of an ideal love affair.

here we discuss the Victorian society with the reference of Oliver twist and Middle march.

Oliver Twist:

                              

Dickens was primarily concern with the external behavior of people and little occupied with the exploration of psychological depth. he was a marvelously keen observer with an active imagination which made stories out of incidents and characters that ordinary man would have hardly noticed. we learnt to understand both the enemies and victims of the societies between whom the harsh law of that day frequently made no distinction.

lets discuss the society of Victorian with the reference of Oliver Twist.

Oliver Twist had the serious purpose of mitigating the evils under which poor were suffering. it’s hero was a poor child, the unfortunate victim of society. Dickens concern to depict the declining social conditions. In that society we find the world had a crime just like a rampant and criminals who are active under the very nose of the police. This criminal world which is the dominant part of the novel.

“They are either paragons of innocence, virtue and piety or monster of evil and wickedness.”

atmosphere of fear and desperation that we find in the major part of Oliver Twist. Dickens used both aspects pathos and comedy into one.

Characters of Oliver Twist:

we find most of Dicken's novels  three or four widely differently types of character.

1.     The innocent little child.

Ex – Oliver, Joe, Paul, Tiny, Tim , Nell

2.     The horrible or grotesque foil

ex – squeers, Fagin, quilp, Bill sykes

3.     The grandiloquent or broadly humorous fellow, the fun maker

Ex – macabre, slam weller

4.     A tenderly or powerfully Drawn figure

“His characters we flat that is, they do not reveal varied facets of personality.”

character we not to be looked upon as representative types of actual humanity.

Criminal Society:

   Bill sikes is a monster of evil. The monstrosity of his character is the most evident in his relationship with Nancy. he is more brutal and inhuman his entire existence is one of unrelieved darkness.

Fagin is evil but seems to be fully enjoying this evil. his monstrosity is different from Bill sikes.

“Fagin ‘s world comes through with more vitality and credibility than the world of the Brownlous and Maylies.”

Monk is another evil character. another demonstration of the evil pernicious effect of a tainted environment. he is a product of dissension and ill – will

“Evil is self-destruction”

There are numbers of evil character and murder also Dickens introduces subtle variations in his wicked character in order to make them interesting, but does not give them any inner conflict.

 “Evil character do not have any goodness in them, the good ones have no traces of evil to taint their virtue”.

As these is so many evil characters, the same way these is so less characters who belongs to goodness.

“Oliver is a monster of goodness”

Oliver is innocent child, and is a novice in the crime world. he is delicate and handsome while in his nature. he is essentially polite.

Mr. Brownlow is a respectable kind absentminded old gentle man.

Artful Dodger is “ One of the queerest looking boys”.

so knowing about some characters we say the these is two representive distinct worlds….

1.     world of cruelty & treachery

2.     world of love & pity

 Treatment of Women :

women in Victorian society had one main role in life. But Women are treated as ‘animal’ . They have  noequal rights and enough space or freedom for living their own life.

      For women, there were rules about what kind of jewellery one should wear as well as when and where , who to talk with who to dance with , how and when to speak to stranger, were all very critical knowledge.

      Nancy became the victim of Bill Sikes. Her own position is hopeless.

                  “ She is a lamentable example of human waste.”

Nancy lifts her character from round to flat.

                  Rose Maylie is a glowing example of emblemised 

Dickensian womanhood. She is correspondingly uninteresting. A less humble and humane female in Rose’s position would probably have repelled Nancy’s approach with indignation, precluding the decisive engagement between the opposing parties.

The monstrosity of Sikes character is the most evident in his relationship with Nancy. He commands the complete devotion of Nancy but is equally rough in his treatment of her. He habitually addresses her with ‘ a growl ‘ like that he is accustomed to use when addressing his dog .Bill of course trust her and when he is told that he has been betrayed by her, he brutally murders her.

            In the novel, the phrase used ‘ Angel in the House’ . There was we found more violence who suffers women characters.so, We can say that,

“ It is the domestication of women.”

      Because of  domestication, and the treatment of women as ‘thing’,  there we found lots of ‘prostitution’.

      Nancy – Prostitute fallen woman

      Rose   - Symbol of purity because she belongs to upper class

                  Dickens was fully aware of the victimisation of women in Victorian society.Nancy is  forced into prostitution by poverty, hunger and life in a corrupt environment.

                  Nancy’s living is the living of England, a Nightmare society in which drudgery is endless and stupefying , in which the natural affections are warped , and the dignity of man appears only in resolution and violence. It is a more disquieting picture than the carefully and methodically symbolized social panoramas of Black House, little Dorrit.

Class – division :

In Oliver Twist , we find different Classes. Because of these class –divisions, there is the authority of upper class people. People who belong to upper class, they believed that they had right to cultivate or authorized on them.

There were lots of Workhouses and Orphan houses.

Oliver Twist, the unnecessary degradation and suffering of poor in English workhouses. Oliver Twist  - the novel explores many social burning issues are predominant.

1.     Poor law system

2.      The evils of the criminal world

3.     The victimization of children.

Workhouses:

                           
                                 

Dickens gives the most uncompromising critique of the Victorian workhouse, which was run according to a regime of prolonged hunger, physical punishment, humiliation and hypocrisy, kids live in an orphan where they are used as slaves.

Example : 

 “in ch-3 Oliver’s future darkness , when Mr.Gamfield . a chimney sweep, applies to take the boy, Mr.Gamfield cares so little about Oliver, that he does nit care if the chimney catches on fire , as long as Oliver does his job.”

Macabre of Child- labor :
                            
                                   "I want some more...."
                                          

                                               

The orphans are underfed , and for a meal they  are given a single scoop of gruel. Oliver , one of the oppressed children , dares to ask for more gruel and is severely punished.

Oliver Twist can be read as a textbook of Victorian Child abuse and a Social document about early Victorian slum life.

“ Children were paid less than adults, but did similar.”

Through this we can say that, he succeeded in making Victorian public opinion more aware of the conditions of the poor.Although the initial condition of Englan discourse changes into sentimental moral fable on the subsequent.Oliver Twist is an important manifestation of Victorian social conscience.

Industrialization :

It deals with a number of social issues :Industrial relations, education for poor, class division and the right of common people to amusement.

       Oliver Twist and the industrial revolution child labor played an vital role in it. During the industrial revolutions, kinds were used as possessions.

Hypocrisy :

 The Victorian higher class were proud of their status, but Dickens showed them that they were hypocrites who lacked the virtues of compassion, justice and kindness.

                       

Darker aspect of Mankind :

Once Oliver reaches London and is committed to Fagin, he finds himself in total darkness. Fagin is out and out an embodiment of darkness. His den is always dark , dim and suffocating.

       The same way, the darkness we find eternally also. Not only there is the darkness materially but it is symbolically represented darker side of mankind.

      Even the passage that leads to this place was perfectly dark. so dark that it was impossible to distinguish even the form of speaker.

                  “ Public house of underworld is as dark as grave.”

Novelist seems to be concerned with portraying the darker aspect of mankind and has quiet appropriately portrayed this world with the help of images of darkness.

                 

“ Nothing can corrupt them, nothing can contaminate them.”     

Middlemarch :
                               
                             
                                

Mary Anne Evans , known to us by her pen name of George Eliot. In nearly all the writers of the Victorian age, we may note , on the one hand , a strong intellectual tendency to analyse the problems of life , and on the other hand a tendency to teach , that is explain to men method by which these problems may be solved.In George Eliot, both these tendencies reach a climax.

      In George Eliot’s novels the characters develop gradually as we come to know them. They go from weakness to strength , or from strength to weakness, according to the works that they do and the thoughts that they cherish.

      In the novel , we find three major love- story .Middlemarch is a classic novel and its seems like…” Cobweb”. There were political, social and religious turmoil. It is novel about the serious discussion of Morality , there is also failed idealism.

People of upper class –greedy and only money- minded. In Middlemarch , we find different feathers of subjects of Victorian age than Oliver Twist. Like…..

1.     Artificial class distinction

2.     Gender discrimination

3.     Women suppose to be weak.

4.      

“ Beautiful wife but not ideal and moral.”

5.     Lack of morality

6.     Goodness is futile

7.     Lacking of flexibility

8.     Discourse of money

9.     Marriage is used as too

10.   The harshness of social expectations

11.    Self-determinations v/s chance

12.      Remarriage

 Middlemarch about the process of understanding the experiences and perceptions of others, and of suffering through self- deception and disillusionment, social positioning , class- consciousness and the aimbition for self –improvement with its concomitants, education and money.

Women of Middlemarch :

The women in Eliot’s novel, through fictional are faced with the same life decisions and responsibilities as the women in Victorian age.

Example :

Dorothea becomes a true heroine because despite all she suffers and her humiliations and heartache . She still tries to be good person and to do right thing.

      In Middlemarch education and money “ Greatly determine” the characters lives and opportunities and Eliot as her central topic the unfit preparation of women for life.

The morality and values of the period can be classed to  religion , morality, elitism, industrialism  and     improvement.These Victorian morality, creating an over all change in the British Empire.

Imperfection of Marriage :
                                               
                                        

Marriages are used as tool in the novel – Middlemarch .Characters marry for love rather than obligation yet marriage still appears negative and unromantic. Marriage and pursuit of it are central concerns in Middlemarch , but Marriage is not ultimate source of happiness.

Examples:

                        Dorothea’s marriage  fails because of her youth and of her disillusions about marrying a much older.Dorothea  is submissive.

                        Lydgate’s marriage fails because of irreconcilable personalities.

                        Mr. and Mrs. Bulstrode also face a marital crisis due to his inability to tell her about the past , and Fred Vincy and Mary Garth also face a great deal of hardship in making their union.

            there we find other elements of Victorian Society in Middlemarch…

-         Individuality v/s Society

-         Social pressure

-         Appearance v/s reality

-         Emotional and materialistic need

“Dorothea choose love and for that she rejected will of property.”

-         Rebellious nature

-         Revolt against self, other people, emotions and relationship..etc

-         Double marginalisation of women

“ Middlemarch appears as warning against Marriage.”

            AS a individual human being , each and every one fail because they have no flexibility.

“ Remarriage gives the happiness and  expectation of good life.”

Here, we find that….

“ Religious becomes the business of making money.”

Class and Marriage : 

Upper and Middle class Victorian women were expected to “marry money” stay home to raise the family , and be responsible for the management of domestic affairs. As a result , women who lacked the opportunity for the kind of education men had praised chiefly for their ability to act properly towards their husbands.

      Dorothea Brooke is an intelligent and independent young woman , who differs from the conventional woman of the Victorian age.

“ Dorothea concerns herself with issues of philosophy , spirituality, and service.”

This righteousness transcends a simple “ being- in –the world” by suggestion the spiritual component of every human relationship.When that spiritual component fails, not only does the relationship break down but the very fabric of society is torn.

 Love – Affairs :

Eliot conveys these concepts through the strategy of depicting the asymmetrical relationships within couples. While these relationships also have negative sides , the process of pairing individuals provides the impetus and power for forming an ethical awareness. In doing so, Eliot, mounts a Dramatic critique of enlightenment individualism. Victorian gender ideology of the “ Angel in the house.”

“ The couple either improves or diminishes society.”

Lack of Ethics:

 The difficulty their relationship encounters I its genesis comments on the complex theoretical constructions of the Levinasian ethical relation.

As we follow Dorothea as she moves from Casaubon to Ladislaw of her about the ethical predisposition of her nature.

George Eliot , in her fiction ,repeatedly represents alternative ethical models that attempt to revise the foundation of human relationship. Eliot demonstrate how the power of human relationships must be understood ethically.

 Loneliness of  disappointed failure. DR. Lydgate – the frustrations of his discontented wife; the humiliation of a good woman.

“ Few of Eliot’s characters achieve what they really want and all have to learn to compromise.”

Example

Fred Vincy must ask several people fir loans , Lydgate incurs serious debt due to his failure to manage money and wife.

So, As above discussion , we can say that in Middlemarch ,we find the whole feathers of The Victorian age which described the Victorian society .Eliot’s characters were so powerful , these are real people,

                              “ Whom having once met we can never forget.”

Epilogue :

Thus, we define the Victorian society with the reference of both novel – Oliver Twist and Middlemarch.

It is difficult to assert whether the predominant strain Dicken’s novel is that of disgust and bitterness at social and Moral injustice leading to the censure of contemporary society or that amusement at the frailties, incongruities and idiosyncrasies of human nature producing great comedies.

           

These was criticize economic, social and moral abuses in the Victorian era. And such way, we may conclude that it was the time of social reform adult time of developed a social conscience. an ability to emphasize with the victim of social and economic injustices.

No doubt, Victorian era was the age of great invention and industrialization but the same way, there was poverty, child labour and so many other things which represented through the both novel Oliver twist and middle march.