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THE VICTORIAN AGE: An era of change



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THE VICTORIAN AGE: An era of change


It covers roughly the period between 1832 and 1892, so called from the name of Queen Victoria (1832 - 1901). This period is after refferred to as the age of England's "splendid isolation" since the country preffered to look after its own probems and its colonial empire.

The century is marked by change is society, in politics, in religion, in art. For England this change had begun back in the 18th century but by Hardy's teme the rapidity of the change  was violent almost chaotic. The effect of this change are well known: England was transformed from a rural and agricoltural country into an industrial and urban nation, with a population tending to gather in large cities.

Britain was the first modern country to be seriously concerned with a population explosion, locked as it was on two small island.



This population explosion, serious itself was aggravated by the collection of these names of people in the new urban centers resulting from the factory system. Infact farming was abordared in favour of factory work and many cities such as Birmingham, London, Liverpool became huge dumping spots for million of agricultural worker driven from the land.


POLITICS


The change in society naturally resulted in changes in political structure. A new middle - class of industrialist and merchant arose and they became very important. In politics, as in society, change became a way of life.


RELIGION


Such large external changes were paralleled by changes in ways of thinking, in attitudes, ultimately in the very character of the English people. "The romantic revolution" of the first part of the century had been an attempt to retain a "religion" or "illusioned" wiew of life. The progress of the rest of the century is in the direction of "dis - illusionment or a casting - off of religion interpretation of man and his place in the universe.

For example some Christians called into question the traditional belief that the Bible was the "word of God" and was thus to be followed implicitly by the good Christians. During the Victorian period, then, men were examining testing and criticizing the Bible; for many men this testing had shattering effects on their personal faith.

A NEW WIEW OF NATURE


The other traditional proof of God's goodness, Nature, was destroyed by the advance of science.

The laws of Nature seemed to work capriciously, even malevolestly Darwin's theory of evolution made clear that species were mutable and tha they changed through accident. To many it seemed that God did not enter into this order of affairs in the 1880's Nietzsche was to summarize the bleak situation with his agonized cry "God is dead".


DISILLUSIONMENT


Hardy reflects this agony of the 19th century in his novels. One might say, that the key to his thinking is a "disillusioned wiew of life". Since there is no God to give meaning to life, Man is alone in the Universe, no better no worse than other creatures who live or have lived for a brief moment on this speck called Earth. The Universe is neither malevolent nor benevolent; it is simply indifferent to Man, whose suffering temporarily ruffle the enviroment.

He is a less creature of Reason able to control his fate, to choose between Good and Evil, than a victim of forces within himself and outside himself. For this reason Man's life is marked by unhappiness and appearent chaos; rewards are given to the undeserving and those who are good seem all the more tormented. It is difficult to find a measure of happiness in this unpredictable world.


THOMAS HARDY (1840- 1928)


He was an interpreter of nature, of character and of life.

The nature he describes is the ancient kingdom of Wessex which is as important in his novels as the characters themselves. The men and women of his novels are simply country - folk: farmers, dairy - maids, village school - masters and person who are driven to their fate by a force they are unable to understand.



As for life, he represent it as a cruel and ainless power through his pessimism does not exclude a deep feeling of pity for the miserable puppets of destiny.

As a general rule, Hardy held that if man lived patiently and did not try to force his own will upon events, destruction could be avoided. The country folk presented in his works adapt and survive by accepting gain and loss, birth and death, luck and misfortune, with passive fatalism. They feel they can change nothing and they accept responsability for nothing, not even for the result of their own actions. In Tess, the Durberfields cannot provide decently for their children but that does not stop them from having them, nor does it drive them to grenter efforts once the cildren are in need.

Tess accept responsability for things beyond her control, and that is what destroyes her. Though Tess does not want to go to the "d'Urbervilles" at the Slopes, her sense of responsability for her family eventually makes her go, thus setting the mechanism that will bring about her tragedy.

In Tess, Hardy attacks the churches and the clergy for making promises of redemption that he believes cannot be fulfilled. In Hardy's wiew, God is an undifferent and inconscious force: mankind is at the mery of a "blind Churce" which seems to be the will of the universe.

Though the operation of chance is random and purporeless, man is totally powerless in the fate of it. In his works, the writer fluctuates between Fatalism and Determinism

Fatalism mantains that all actions is controlled by the nature of things of by Fate which is a great, impersonal primitive force absolutely independent of human wills and superior to any god created by man.

Determinism recognizes that the laws of cause and effects are in operation. The human will is not free and man has non control over his own destiny. Fate appears in the form of Nature.

Those who are most in harmony with their environment are usually the most contented, and those who can appropriate the joys of Nature can take on sinister aspects, becoming more of an actor than just a setting for the action. Time is also used as a motif of fate. The joys of life are Fransisfory and the moment of joy may be turned to bitterness by time. Woman is Fate's most potent instrument for opposing man's happiness. Closer to primitive feelings than man, woman is helpless in the hands of Fate and carries out Fate's work. In her search for love, woman becomes an agent in her own destiny.






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