English Literature: Its History And Its Significance For The Life Of The English-Speaking World

by William J. Long (adapted excerpt)

The Victorian Age (1850-1900)

When Victoria became queen, in 1837, English literature seemed to have entered upon a period of lean years, in marked contrast with the poetic fruitfulness of the Romantic Age. Because the Victorian age was an age of democracy and education, it was an age of comparative peace. England began to think less of the pomp and false glitter of fighting, and more of its moral evils, as the nation realized that it is the common people who bear the burden and the sorrow of poverty, while the privileged classes reap most of the financial and political rewards. Moreover, with the growth of trade and of friendly foreign relations, it became evident that the social equality for which England was contending at home belonged to the whole race of men; that brotherhood is universal, not insular; that a question of justice is never settled by fighting wars.

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. First, though the age produced many poets, this was emphatically an age of prose. And since the number of readers had increased a thousandfold with the spread of popular education, it was the age of the newspaper, the magazine, and the modern novel—the first two being the story of the world's daily life. The novel was a pleasant form of literary entertainment, as well as our most successful method of presenting modern problems and modern ideals. The novel, in this age, filled a place which the drama held in the days of Elizabeth, and never before had the novel appeared in such numbers and in such perfection.

The second marked characteristic of the age is that literature seemed to depart from the purely artistic standard and to be actuated by a definite moral purpose. The Victorian Age was an age of realism rather than of romance. It strived to tell the whole truth, showing moral and physical diseases as they were, but at the same time holding up health and hope as the normal conditions of humanity.

Jane Eyre

by Charlotte Brontë (excerpt)

In the following excerpt, the narrator, Jane Eyre, describes an interaction with her nursemaid, Bessie.

Bessie asked if I would have a book: the word book acted as a transient stimulus, and I begged her to fetch Gulliver's Travels from the library. This book I had again and again perused with delight. I considered it a narrative of facts, and discovered in it a vein of interest deeper than what I found in fairy tales: for as to the elves, having sought them in vain among foxglove leaves and bells, under mushrooms and beneath the ground-ivy mantling old wall-nooks, I had at length made up my mind to the sad truth, that they were all gone out of England to some savage country where the woods were wilder and thicker, and the population more scant; whereas, Lilliput and Brobdignag being, in my creed, solid parts of the earth's surface, I doubted not that I might one day, by taking a long voyage, see with my own eyes the little fields, houses, and trees, the diminutive people, the tiny cows, sheep, and birds of the one realm; and the corn-fields forest-high, the mighty mastiffs, the monster cats, the tower-like men and women, of the other. Yet, when this cherished volume was now placed in my hand—when I turned over its leaves, and sought in its marvellous pictures the charm I had, till now, never failed to find—all was eerie and dreary; the giants were gaunt goblins, the pigmies malevolent and fearful imps, Gulliver a most desolate wanderer in most dread and dangerous regions. I closed the book, which I dared no longer peruse, and put it on the table, beside the untasted tart.

Bessie had now finished dusting and tidying the room, and having washed her hands, she opened a certain little drawer, full of splendid shreds of silk and satin, and began making a new bonnet for Georgiana's doll. Meantime she sang: her song was—

"In the days when we went gipsying,
A long time ago."

I had often heard the song before, and always with lively delight; for Bessie had a sweet voice,—at least, I thought so. But now, though her voice was still sweet, I found in its melody an indescribable sadness. Sometimes, preoccupied with her work, she sang the refrain very low, very lingeringly.
25
Select the correct answer from the drop-down menu.
Read the excerpt. Then complete the paragraph.

The author develops the narrator’s character through historical context by portraying the narrator as

, a detail consistent with this historical period.