THE VICTORIAN NOVEL: structural analysis.

The text is made up by three sequences:

-          Form the first to the third paragraph: introduction of the text’s theme (the English novel during the Victorian Age);

-          Paragraphs 4-11: development and explanation of all the theme’s features;

-          Last three paragraphs: conclusion (with reference to some particular Victorian Age’s writers).

I PARAGRAPH

-          Function: introduction of the Industrial Revolution major consequences and of the link between the Victorian novel and it.

-          Content: the novel in Victorian age analyses the major social changes such as the growth of cities and the general crisis to which the first great civilization brought.

II PARAGRAPH

-          Function: highlightthe social impactandrole of Victorian novel.

-          Content: thanks to a particular generation of writers, the novel began to mix documentary and romance and to have repercussions on social life.

III PARAGRAPH

-          Function: exposure of the Victorian novel’s main areas of interest.

-          Content: the Victorian novel is mainly about industry, agriculture, health, prison conditions and criminality.

IV PARAGRAPH

-          Function: explanation of the novel’s main theme in the Victorian age (class).

-          Content: the Victorian novel was a photograph of social reality. Its main themes were: the relationship between two social classes, desire to rise, fear of falling down, children exploitation, relationship between an individual and a group/society.

V PARAGRAPH

-          Function: underline the novel’s purpose and its main argument.

-          Content: purpose of publications, and thus also of the novels, was to inform. The most frequent topic was the family life of the lower middle classes, as the novel’s reading was widespread among these reading and as major writers came from these.

VI PARAGRAPH

-          Function: introduction of the novel’s realism in the Victorian age.

-          Content: realism was characterized by a precarious balance between grotesque and pathos and was always accompanied by exaggeration of tones and emotions.

VII PARAGRAPH

-          Function: explanation of what exaggeration means and of where it performed.

-          Content: the villain was always made the emblem of evil, was always too negative; while the virtuoso was presented as innocent and defenseless, he was seen as the personification of good undefended in front of the total evil cruelty.

VIII PARAGRAPH

-          Function: exposure of the effect that a particular character had to have on the reader (the character of the child).

-          Content: the living conditions in which the character of the child was forced to live were intended to make rich people feel guilty for this situation and to bring him to philanthropy. On the other hand, members of the lower class saw in the vicissitudes of the child the mirror of their fears (the worst conditions in which they could fall).

IX PARAGRAPH

-          Function: explanation of what pathos and grotesque were in the Victorian novel.

-          Content: while the pathos evoked feelings of guilt and philanthropy in the upper classes, the element of the grotesque reflected the world of sin. In this way, it portrayed the downsides of both the upper classes and the lower ones, while providing alibis for such behaviors to both.

X PARAGRAPH

-          Function: explanation of how grotesque and pathos were expressed through the characters and their bound with the Victorian society.

-          Content: feelings highlighted in the previous paragraphs are repeated making explicit the figures that allow the reader to experience pathos (women, children, animals). Both the pathos and the grotesque imply reading the novel by members of the lower middle class as they reflect the situations in which they lived.

XI PARAGRAPH

-          Function: underlining of what was pathos and grotesque effect on the readers of the various social classes.

-          Content: the reader is forced by the narrative to identify himself with the character that causes pathos and not with the one exalted by the grotesque. In this way, the reader of the middle classes try a will to resolve problems identified by the novel and due to industrialization.

XII PARAGRAPH

-          Function: explanation of the effects that the novel has on the reader in the Victorian age in relation to the setting.

-          Content: industrialized cities are each similar to the other and industrialization makes people one identical to the other in a single mass. The novel allows the reconstruction of individual faces and becomes a family’s object and a center of discussion.

XIII PARAGRAPH

-          Function: enhancement of the role of literary characters, their consideration in the Victorian Age and the consequent changing role of literature in the daily life.

-          Content: the characters were considered almost real and novels that came out in episodes covered the same role of the current TV series. In this way, literature became an integral part of industrial production.

XIV PARAGRAPH

-          Function: conclusion of the text with reference to some important writers of the Victorian Age.

-          Content: the elements of pathos and exaggeration are put in relation with the major writers of the period highlighting their presence or their absence in the written production of each one.