THE VICTORIAN NOVEL

Sara Decorte

◊Why is fiction so important during the Victorian Age? List at least four reasons.

Fiction is so important during the Victorian age because:

-It is an "alibi" for the middle class, a way of exorcising all the ghosts of the middle classes' bad conscience

-It is used to criticize society and cultural climate of the time

-It was the best way to have an impact on legislators, opinion-formers and those who could vote to change the world

-It is used to underline the problem of relationship between one class and another

◊Who was the ideal reading public of the Victorian novel?

The ideal reading public of the Victorian novel was the middle class.

◊What are the main contents of the Victorian novel?

The main contents of the Victorian novel are the problems between the classes, the contrast between the rich and the poor, philanthropy, especially toward children, and the consequences of the Industrial Revolution.

◊With references to the industrial revolution process explain why class was one of the most important topics of the novel.

Class was one of the most important topics of the novel because the Industrial Revolution led social changes and crisis, that were recorded and analyzed in all the institutions of the new urban culture.

◊Illustrate the most important stylistic choices in Dickens's fiction.

Dickens is the Victorian writer that best embodies the fictional features of the reader's identification in the pathetic subject, using pathos, and the refusal to identify with the grotesque subject, using parody and caricature. Dickens's characters, furthermore, are too good or too bad.

◊The grotesque is one of the main ingredients of Victorian fiction. Explain what it is and how it works.

Grotesque is an effect so caricatured to go against common sense, triggering a comedy shocked. It works with exaggeration and the hyperbolic use of the language to make the reader laugh and acts as a shield against bad luck and social hostilities.

◊Explain how philanthropy worked as an alibi for people.

Philanthropy worked as an alibi for people, that appears charitable to the poor, but in reality it merely criticizes the villains without doing anything concrete.

◊Explain why the Victorian novel played a fundamental role on legislators and opinion-formers.

The Victorian novel found a new vitality and thanks to a new important generation of writers, began to have a real impact on legislators and opinion-formers, for the actual themes and the writer's ability to write about hard themes in a light and funny way.

◊Characterization in Victorian fiction is one of the features intelligent reader cannot forget. Discuss.

In Victorian fiction the characters are not described in their real features, but is used parody and caricature to make the reader understand the personality of the character and at the same time to do an indirect critical. Villains are over villainous caricatures of evil and the virtuous are often too virtuous and innocent to provide a sense of pathos.

◊Explain the role of caricature.

Caricature is used by the Victorian writers to criticize characters and society in a funny and subtly way, touching weighty themes and at the same time making the reader laugh.

◊Try to say what in contemporary culture is very much similar to the Victorian production in the world of media.

The Victorian production is very much similar to today's television series; exaggeration, caricature, parody are all features of our TV programs. The program that best embodies these features is "Stiscia la Notizia", that criticize actual society and politic in a funny way.