The Decline of the Victorian Era

Objective
In this lesson, you will analyze the causes of the end of the Victorian era and how writers of the
time reflected societal concerns in their work

England at the Turn of the Twentieth Century

expansion
The Victorian era was marked by global ______________, military success, and a general sense of
progress fade
______________. As the era drew to a close, this positive outlook began to ___________. Many Britons faced
anxiety hopelessness
the new century with a sense of doubt, ______________, and even ____________________.
colonies
One source of anxiety was trouble in the British ______________. During the 1890s, the British continued
expand resistance wars
their efforts to __________ their holdings, but they faced ______________. A series of colonial __________
populations
pitted British soldiers against native ______________ and other European powers. Most notable is the Second
Dutch Afrikaner’s British
Boer War (1899–1902), in which the ___________ ______________and the ______________ fought for
south africa
control of ______________ ______________.
conflict
The British Empire also faced ______________ in other colonies. Many colonists began to protest that
exploitation
colonization was simply ______________.

The Edwardian and Georgian Eras

Queen Victoria's son Edward inherited the throne in 1901 and reigned until
Edwardian
1910. This period is referred to as the ______________age. Edward VII's
reign was marked by a noticeable decline in lavish spending and
overindulgence
__________________by the wealthy class. The term Edwardian is still used
elegance
to describe restrained ______________in art, fashion, and
architecture
______________.

Many Victorian ideas lingered into the Edwardian era. For example, wealthy
Edwardians largely agreed with their Victorian counterparts on issues of
class social
____________ and ______________ hierarchy (ranking).

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change
Despite the retention of conservative views, a sense of ___________ was bubbling under the surface of
Edwardian society.
inspired rights
Perhaps ___________ by these changes, many segments of society began to fight for their ___________.

Poetry
A. E. Housman
Alfred Edward Housman was born in Worcestershire, England. Despite his academic talents, Housman had a
critical solitary
tendency to be very ______________ of himself as well as others. He lived a strict and _____________
lifestyle.
grim
Housman's poems reflect the ___________outlook of the late Victorian era.
death
Recurring themes include ____________ with no religious consolation, the
love
fleeting (temporary) nature of _____________, and the decay of youth. While
Housman's work is notable for its simple, everyday language, his traditional use of
rhyme
_____________ reflects the remaining Victorian influence in his work.
funeral
In "To an Athlete Dying Young," the narrator comments on a _____________ procession for a
champion athlete who died at a young age. The poem opens with a description of a post-victory
fans
celebration. A young athlete is carried home on the shoulders of ____________ . He travels along "the road
journey
all runners come." This is a metaphor for the ____________ of life and death that everyone experiences.
message
This poem has a central ____________________ about life. The speaker feels that the athlete was
lucky fade
____________ to die at the height of his glory, rather than live to see his accomplishments ____________
away.
heights success
In other words, if a young man dies at the __________ of fame, he will be immortalized as a ______________
pessimism
in the memories of admirers. The cynicism of this thought reflects the rising ______________of the late
faded
Victorian period. The British watched as the glorious era crumbled and ______________, much like an
athlete's fame fades with old age.

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The speaker believes that the athlete should be glad he is not alive to
forgotten
see his accomplishments ______________
symbols
Housman uses ______________ to strengthen his theme of the
short lived
_________-_____________ nature of glory. He uses laurel to
wordly victory
symbolize ______________accomplishments and _____________ and
fragility
a rose to symbolize the ______________of life:
positive
There is a ______________ note to the poem, however. Housman's
live fullest
poem encourages readers to ________ life to the ____________
before growing old.
rhythm acceptance
The regular ______________ conveys Housman's ___________________ of eventual death. The monotony of
continuous marching time
the ______________________ rhythm reflects the ________________ on of ______________.

The songlike nature of Housman's poem is enhanced by its regular

meter
_____________ and an aabb rhyme scheme in which the rhyming words are
common words that do not convey lofty ideas.

rhyme scheme: the ordered pattern of

rhymes at the ends of the lines of a
poem or verse.

Thomas Hardy
england
Thomas Hardy was born in Dorset, ______________, in 1840. He wrote both
poetry and novels.
breakdown
His poetry captures the ______________ of traditional Victorian culture, emerging
religious skepticism
pessimism, and growing ______________ ______________.
spontaneity
His style is characterized by ______________. Hardy achieves this effect by using
techniques such as colloquial (conversational) speech, awkward syntax (sentence
inconsistent rhyme
structure), and ______________ ______________.

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anxiety
Hardy's "The Darkling Thrush" captures the looming pessimism and ______________of late
Victorian England. The poem was written in 1900. Hardy watches the sun set on one century and dawn
dark
on a new one. The opening stanza is scattered with ___________, ominous imagery and
figurative
______________ language.
host pessimism
The frost of winter is personified as a gray ___________. These metaphors convey the ______________that
Hardy and many other people felt as they watched the sun set on the Victorian era. In the poem, the vitality of
dreary
summer has slowly moved into a dark, _____________ winter.
As Hardy looks at the landscape, he gets the feeling that everything is out of tune. The discordant (harsh)
death song
sound he hears is the wind singing a __________ __________. The landscape looks like the "century's
hopelessness
corpse." The poem attempts to capture the ____________________ that plagues "every spirit upon earth."

Hardy's poetry is characteristically pessimistic in tone. However, he is also

blending hope
known for ______________pessimism with a sense of ___________. In the
joyful
second half of "The Darkling Thrush," the thrush's __________ song breaks
night
through the dark __________.
rhythm
As in many of Hardy's poems, the ______________and rhyme scheme give the
songlike
poem a ______________quality; this poem is essentially a hymn to
dount
____________.
broke
Writers such as Hardy and Housman stood at the threshold of modernism. Both writers ___________ with
tradition experiments
______________in significant ways. We can see the birth of modern poetry in Hardy's ______________ with
spontaneity freedom
colloquial, informal language, ______________of diction (word choice) and syntax, and ______________of
form.

Fiction
Rudyard Kipling
india
Rudyard Kipling was born in Bombay, ____________.
popular
Kipling is regarded as one of the most ______________writers of the Victorian era.
colonization vivid
Much of Kipling's work focuses on the British Empire and ______________. He is known for his ___________
varied
portrayals of characters from ____________ cultures.

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Kipling was a part of a small group of writers that found inspiration in
colonies
nontraditional sources: the ______________of the British Empire. These writers
beauty
focused on the geographic ___________ of the colonies and the
complicated
______________reality of colonialism. The settings, characters, and subject
india africa
matter of places such as ______________and ______________intrigued many
authors and readers.

Kim
successful
Kim, one of Kipling's most ______________novels, was published in 1901 and takes place in India. It's an
adventure
______________ story about a young boy named Kimball O'Hara.
identity
Kim is a children's book, but it still explores serious themes of ______________and the effects of
colonialism
_________________.

Summary
How did literature of the Victorian era reflect the time?

The literature of the Victorian era reflected the time in several ways. It mirrored the social, political, and
economic changes of the period, including industrialization, urbanization, class conflict, and the struggle
for women's rights. It also reflected the era's moral and religious tensions, as well as its fascination with
science and exploration.

Explanation:
The Victorian era, which spanned the reign of Queen Victoria from 1837 to 1901, was a time of dramatic
change in Britain. The Industrial Revolution transformed the economy and society, leading to the growth of
cities, the emergence of a new middle class, and increasing conflict between the classes. These changes
are reflected in Victorian literature, which often explores themes of social inequality and the effects of
industrialization.

For example, Charles Dickens' novels often depict the harsh conditions of the urban poor and criticize
social injustices. Similarly, Elizabeth Gaskell's "North and South" contrasts the rural south of England with
the industrialized north.

The Victorian era was also a time of significant progress in women's rights, and this is reflected in the
literature of the period. For instance, the novels of the Brontë sisters often feature strong, independent
female characters who challenge societal norms.

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