Textuality » 5ALS Interacting
This analysis considers the structure and the organization of the text "The Victorian Novel" provided by the teacher.
The text is arranged into three sequences and into thirteen paragraphs.
The first sequence consists of the first two paragraphs. It relates the Victorian novel to the social context of the Industrial Revolution. It has the function to introduce the analysis of the relationship between literature and the economic and politic features of the Revolution. The novels ought to be "opinion-formers" having a great impact on the readers.
The second sequence goes from chapter 3 to chapter 11 and deals with the main features of the Victorian novel. Paragraph 3 focuses on the "most characteristic theme" in Victorian fiction which is "class". This means that the novel reflect the relationship and the conflict between different social classes, dealing with problems like corruption, exploitation of labour (particularly of child labour) and inadequacy of social services.
Paragraphs 4 and 5 explicit the strategies adopted by the novelists in order to convey their messages: Victorian novels were written for a specific social class (the middle class) and were marked by an exaggerated realism connoted with pathetic and grotesque tones.
The sixth and the seventh paragraphs consider the villain in Victorian novel and their characterization. The villain is the personification of Evil and children are often the innocent and persecuted victims. The seventh paragraph provide the reason of such characterization: the rich reader had to feel guilty because of the poor conditions of the little and defenceless protagonists of Victorian novels.
The next three paragraph explain what pathos and grotesque are: pathos is the literal sublimation of philanthropy; grotesque better connotes the condition of the lower classes using exaggeration, humour and irony, providing an alibi and a cleaner conscience to higher class readers.
The last sequence goes from paragraph 11 to 13 and deals with the impact of the Victorian novel. It has the function to conclude the text providing the reader the final information. Paragraph 11 focuses on the city, the setting of the novels. The following chapter explains one of the main characteristics of the Victorian novel: it was and object of mass consumption. As a consequence of its popularity some words coined by the novelist were almost considered real. The last character reminds the complexity of the Victorian novel listing some authors which have slightly differend characteristics than the one exposed so far.