The Victorian Age marked a period of great transition in many aspects of human life. The onset of the industrial revolution changed the way people made and sold goods, which in turn changed the way people lived. Industry and agriculture flourished, creating economic prosperity. Laws were passed to improve the working conditions of the laborers in the mills and factories. Literature written during this period was changing as a result of the events that were happening. Religious beliefs were being challenged by many different viewpoints. The idea of utilitarianism was introduced which believed that people’s actions should be judged by their moral good, the greatest pleasure for the greatest number. The ideas of historians were also considered where they viewed the Bible as a record of historical events rather than a spiritual handbook. Lastly, the geologic and astronomic discoveries made by scientists introduced a new, non-spiritual belief. By the end of the Victorian period the values that were characteristic of this time were fading away.

In 1859 (mid-way through the Victorian Age), Charles Darwin published a work that opposed the conventional way of thinking about religion. The Origin of Species proposed the theory that man actually evolved from a lower species rather than having been created by a higher power. The idea of this notion was devastating to many Victorians. Darwin’s work was responsible for a huge cultural debate between the old way of thinking and the new. A conflict arose because Darwin eliminated the possibility of a designing God (Landow).

His work began by proposing the theory of a struggle for existence. He used this term to describe how each living creature had to compete within its own limitations to survive. If there were not any limitations on growth and reproduction then the world would have become overpopulated. The details of this theory went on to include variation and mutation as part of the battle to exist. Over time, the traits that helped an organism to survive became dominant and the less beneficial traits were eventually lost. These ideas conflicted with the teachings of the Bible. The Victorian God was ever powerful, the creator of all things and was responsible for the fate of the world. Darwin stated that he was not ruling out a God, but that he was less immanent than previously believed (Hart, paragraph 10). God is in the position of a clock-maker who starts things up, but rather than interfering periodically, he is in the background with nothing much to do (Hart, paragraph 10). The idea that organisms were able to change at all challenged the previous belief of a fixed unchanging order. The ideas of Darwin were very biological and non-selective as far as the role of humans in nature; humans are just another species on the earth. Some of the literature written during this time directly reflected the writer’s attitude toward the revolutionary ideas that were being presented. In Memoriam, by Alfred, Lord Tennyson depicted one man’s stuggle with Darwin’s ideas of existence.

Tennyson wrote an elegy to a dear friend who had passed on. In sections 54 through 56 of the elegy the author is questioning what really happens to the deceased. He started by proposing that we believe good eventually comes out of dying because the person is thought to have gone on to heaven. He began to describe how nothing in the world is without blessing from God, that even when a moth dies it goes on to be with God. As the poem goes on the author’s view begins to change, as he seemed to look at the death from nature’s point of view. He realized that it does not matter what happens, the seasons will still change and nature will still produce an overabundance of seeds to make sure that at least one seed will go one to survive. This is where he questioned the larger hope. The biological aspect of death came into view in lines 5-9 of section 56. Tennyson realized that in nature it did not matter that his friend had died. Humans had no significant place in the universe as a whole. The spirit is merely only to give breath and when life is gone it is no longer needed. This greatly contrasted any religious belief of a spirit. The latter part of the section described how man thought of himself as nature’s best creation that somehow he should not take part in this common fate of all creatures. Lines 19 and 20 described how man eventually turns back to dust and merely blows about the desert wind, or perhaps becomes an image in fossilized rock. He ended this section by questioning what to do now that all hope is gone. Apparently the ideas of Darwinism have some truth to them because there are findings that these events have occurred. How is one suppose to feel when it is evident there is no importance to your existence in the universe as a whole?

Works Referenced

Abrams, M.H. Norton Anthology of English Literature. New York, 2000.

Hart, Thoams E. The Victorian Web. Brown University, 1985. March 19, 2000. http://landow.stg.brown.edu/victorian/darwin/darwinth1.html

Landow, George P. The Victorian Web. Brown University, 1985. March 19, 2000.

http://landow.stg.brown.edu/victorian/darwin/darwin2.html

Paradis, James and Postlewait, Thomas. Victorian Science and Victorian Values: Literacy Perspectives. Annals of The NewYork Academy of Sciences. Vol. 360. New York, 1981.