The Victorian Age came after the Romantic Age and took place between the years of 1832 and 1901. Throughout the Romantic Age many authors/poets concentrated and focused on the rights of the people, as well as the idea of individualism. We are going to see how those beliefs helped spring into the Victorian Age. There are three main things concerning the Victorians during this specific time period: evolution, industrialism, and women. Along with these three comes doubt. These changes were confusing to many and began to make them wonder if what they had believed in all these years wasnt true after all.
The evolution doubt came into effect when two men began to question nature and disturb the originality of the way things are suppose to be. These two men were Marx and Darwin. Although Marx isnt mentioned as much as Darwin, we know that he was a very radical person who began to question the economic injustice of things, as well as the class system. Darwin on the other hand, was questioning the Bible and how things got to be the way they are. He brought about the idea of natural selection and that lead to biblical/religious doubts in people. Before Darwin came out with his idea on natural selection and evolution, scientists had exhibited doubt when the Neanderthal skeletons were discovered. This was the beginning of religious doubt. It wasnt until Darwin came out with his explanation that people really began to take into consideration and believe something other than the Bible and its explanation of how the world came to be.
Another thing that concerned the people of this time was industrialization. Sir Henry Holland once said, we are living in an age of transition.
This statement proves to very true. Throughout the Victorian Age many inventions and ideas came into place. Society was becoming more civilized and industrialized. The Romantics and their ideas on individualism brought this about. It is said that that self-definition is what characterizes the Victorian society and the thought of individualism if what conveyed it. Once you begin to think about yourself and what you want, is when you start to think about your self-definition and what you are.
The last concern that the Victorians went through dealt with the role women played. The woman was supposed to be pure and only concerned with the desire to please others and serve them rather than to fulfill her own needs. However, this was not the real deal that took place. Victorians were quick to acknowledge that their era was the first to have women writers achieve prominence. Finally, the works of women were looked on an equal level as those written by men. Mary W. Shelley, who was a writer of the Romantic Era, is a great example of this idea.
She was the first to bring about this idea and helped it evolve into what we could call The New Woman. Her novel Frankenstein, showed her massive amount of creativity and how great a writer a woman can be. Although she was a little afraid at first to publish her story under her name, she eventually came out to let the world know that a woman wrote this magnificent story. The only reason she had originally published Frankenstein under a males name was because women writers werent as well accepted as men writers were, and the content of the story never seemed believable that a woman could have written it. Towards the end of the Victorian Age is when we began to see women in society more. In The Lady of Shallot, we see how women are supposed to be at this time period. Locked up, not going out, and when she finally breaks away from it all in the name of Love, she dies. The love she felt took her spirit away and corrupted her life. Some consider falling in love, losing a piece of yourself because you cant truly be yourself in the presence of the one you love, or at least thats how it was thought of back then.
Doubt was the main feeling felt during the Victorian Age due to all the changes that were taking place, which sprung from the Romantic Age. Having ideas and beliefs change on you can be frightening, but having it change gradually can help how you deal with it. Perhaps some didnt see the early signs of change taking place during the Romantic Age, but those who did, might have found the changes not too complicated or disturbing.
