Progress in Victorian Literature
Victorians loved them some progress, whether it was one person bootstrapping their way up into the middle class, or the entire nation growing bigger and stronger. And the British didn't stop at their borders, either. This was the age of imperialism, and the British colonies stretched as far away as India and Jamaica. But things were always liable to fall apart.
Part of Victorian progress was figuring out what to do with all the stuff Britain had inherited. Imagine learning that you now own a big rickety fixer-upper—where every few days a different leak springs and another fuse blows out.
Not only was London outgrowing the old systems, but new cities were also cropping up in the industrial north. And the political situation? Think of a big tug-of-war—with the prize being the vote. The middle class suddenly wanted more control (i.e., the vote), and the working class even started its own movement for more rights (a movement known as Chartism). To give Parliament its due, it did pass enough bills to topple a small elephant in the 19th century. Everything was getting regulated—the number of hours you could work a week, how much control women had over money and property, and, of course, voting rights (thanks, Reform Acts).
Along with more people, there were also more, well, logistics. In the wake of cholera epidemics and "The Great Stink" of 1858 (or: Waste Water Meets Hot Summer), sanitation was suddenly front and center. Politicians and concerned citizens alike were eager to regulate London's health.
Novelists were just as eager to get involved with the cause. Whenever you read a Victorian novel that takes place in London, watch for all the descriptions of the city—from the mazy streets, to the mud and fog, to the most down-and-out of slums. Dickens is famous for his descriptions of the urban scene. So all the city fog in Bleak House seems just as much a description as a symbol—it's hard to see where you're going, whether you're in the streets or in the court case at the center of the novel. And the slums aren't just there for a plot twist: they're also part of Dickens's plea that society do something about the dirtiest parts of the dirty city.
Chew on This:
Okay, we know that we're always recommending Middlemarch. But it really is the go-to for thinking about tradition and reform. It's no coincidence that Eliot wrote it in the wake of the Second Reform Act (1867), and set the action in the age of the First (1832). How could you interpret the plot through the lens of reform?
Dickens just can't pass up a good jab at the things he's mad at—whether it's a loopy legal system or the hopeless state of London slums. But he's usually got a purpose behind it all. If you've got a favorite Dickens novel, where do you see him attacking the status quo? (And you can seriously start anywhere with this one: Hard Times? Oliver Twist? Bleak House?)