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features of Victorian novel

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The Victorian Novel: main features
First of all in the Victorian Age the dominating literary form was the novel.
It was in fact easier to be read and understood by simple people, its plot was more interesting than any other literary forms, the main protagonists of the novel were the same people who read it so that they felt deeply involved in the adventure told, the writer and his readers shared the same opinions, values and ideals because they belonged to the same middle class, the setting was mainly that of the same city where readers lived. In conclusion the novel was a kind of mirror which reflected society and where a self-identification of the readers was possible.
Of course the middle class readers were the most avid …show more content…

In this sense “didacticism” was the dominating aim of most of the novels of these years. As a consequence the narrator is generally omniscient: he operates a marked division between good and evil characters, he judges people and actions, he makes its stories finish with a wise distribution of “punishment” for the evil characters, “retribution” for the good ones.

The plot of the novels was generally very long and complicated by many sub-plots: the writer also wanted to give a marked impression of reality so that he presented not only the adventures of the main characters, but also those of the secondary ones.

Victorian novel features

1) Omniscient narrator provided a comment on the plot and erect a rigid barrier between right and wrong (didactic aim)
2) The setting s the city (symbol of industrial civilization, anonymous lives and lost identity)
3) Long and complicated plot
4) Creation of character and deep analysis of their lives
5) Retribution or punishment in the final chapter
Dickens - a town of red bricks
The description of the modern city is depressing and repetitive. The city is rational, based on fact but the quality of the life is not good. Ten hospitals but no instrument for happiness. The life is boring, always the same, the life in the city swallow with lives in it. Irony in the description.
A part of the society lives in a different way from the Victorian’s canons:
Miserable, emarginated. Didactic aim: he creates characters,

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