The Victorian age is named after Queen Victoria who reigned over England from 1837 to 1901. It should be noticed that though Queen Victoria came to power in 1837, the Victorian period began in 1832, five years before the accession of Queen Victoria, because the literary feature of the age became obvious after 1832.
The twelve years, from 1848 to 1860, of this age is called the Age of the Pre-Raphaelites because the artists of that time followed the art forms used before the period of Raphael, the Italian artist. D.G. Rossetti, W.H. Hunt, and J. Millais formed this group and later on Christine Rossetti, W. Morris, and A. Swinburne joined them. Originally, it was a movement for the painters but eventually these ideals took the shape of a literary movement. Medievalism, symbolism, sensuousness, truthfulness, and simplicity are the main features of the Pre-Raphaelites. The poetry of the Pre-Raphaelite school is marked with a spirit of revolt, love of the middle age, picture of beauty, love of the supernaturalism, love of the music and melody and so on. Theme of spiritual glory is one of the most important elements in the Pre-Raphaelites. Browning presents the spiritual perfection of art through his poetry whereas Rossetti is an important poet of sensuousness and pictorial reality.
The period from 1880 to 1901 is called the age of Aestheticism and Decadence because there was a fall and decay of the Victorian spirit and standard in those years. In reaction against the Victorian moral obsession it was held that art should have its end in itself which lies in its beauty and formal perfection. The major works of the Victorian Age/Spirit are Tennyson’s “In Memoriam”, Browning’s “Men and Women”, Charles Dickens’ “David Copperfield”, William Thackeray’s “Vanity Fair”, Charles Darwin’s “The Origin of Species”, and so on.
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