The 19th Century

As an English Major, I have to say that the British literature of the 19th Century is my favorite.  So I'll probably focus this post on Britain, and maybe we'll revisit the rest of Europe at a later time.

When we talk about the 19th Century, we usually start at the French Revolution.  This was the beginning of the Romantic Period, which differed from the Enlightenment because it focused more on emotion than on reason.  When we say Romantic, we don't mean romance between a man and a woman.  We mean feelings.  That can include love, it's true, but it can also be fear.  Frankenstein was written during this period, one of many books written in the Gothic tradition.  Nature poetry also came about.  The famous English poet Wordsworth said that poetry rises from "emotion recollected in tranquility" and then should be composed spontaneously, impulsively, and free from rules.  That's basically what Romance is: free and lawless, like the human heart.

This "spirit of the age" arose from the feelings generated from the French Revolution.  Even after Robespierre's Reign of Terror, there was an excitement, a shared sentiment of rebirth.

The Romance Period lasted from about 1785-1830.  Then Britain entered the Victorian Age.  There are three parts to this period.  The Early Victorian was from about 1830-1848.  This was the dark side of the industrial revolution.  In the years leading up to this time frame, there was a population boom.  In addition, the steam engine and mercantile system were developed, leading to mass production.  The large population shifted into coal-mining areas and industrialized cities like Manchester, and the living conditions for the lower-class were awful.  In Charles Dickens' book, Hard Times (1854), he describes some of the unbearable conditions of the working class, and the Chartist movement that protested and called for change.  The threat of another bloody revolution finally led to some reform, and the Corn Laws (which put large tariff duties on traded goods) were repealed in 1846.  This opened the way for free trade, decreased prices, and a lifted burden on the lower class.

Meanwhile, the middle class enjoyed new freedoms after the Reform Bill of 1832 extended voting rights; any man that owned property worth at least 10 pounds in annual rent could vote.  This also meant the middle class had increased power in the government.

Next, the Mid-Victorian Period from about 1848-1870 was a time of prosperity.  Most of the Victorians felt satisfied that the troubles of the Early Period had been solved as child labor was restricted and employment hours were limited.  Free trade boosted the economy.  The British Empire continued to expand.  British influence was found in Canada, India, Africa, and Australia, to name a few.  Missionaries traveled to the natives of these countries, spreading Christianity.  However, it was also a period of religious controversy.  Darwin's theory of evolution raised many questions, and science, which had always been religiously-based, started to question the Bible.  This, and geological and astronomical discoveries also led mankind to view his existence as unimportant and accidental.  At the same time, the "woman question" arose.  Coventry Patmore's poem "The Angel in the House" portrayed the house-wife as a the perfect woman.  As complimentary as that seems, it effectively condemned woman-kind (especially the middle-class) to the home, where she was subject in all forms to her husband.  Feminism took root in this century.

Still, the Britains, especially the upper-class, kept up a positive, placid attitude.  Materialism abounded, and the Victorian man sought to learn something about everything.  Life moved at breakneck speeds, and when we think of Victorian superficiality, we usually mean the Mid-Victorian Period.

During the Late Period (1870-1901), the Victorians, who had been so complacent and so satisfied with their accomplishments in the last period, started to criticize their two-faced natures.  Victorian values shut down, and writers criticized the family unit (in which the father was like a slaver), Empiricism, and Capitalism (many finally embraced Marx's Communist Manifesto of 1847).  In my opinion, Oscar Wilde's play, "The Importance of Being Earnest," is the epitome of the Late Period.  Jack, the main protagonist, says, "My name is Ernest in town and Jack in the country."  Subtly, Oscar Wilde satirically points out Britain's hypocrisy.  While professing to bring Christianity to the heathen nations, Britain was forcefully subjecting the people of Africa.  In addition, while Britain continued to struggle to maintain colonies, many rebellions and bad wars occurred.  The Anglo-Boer war is particularly famous for being a long, pointless fight for areas in the south of Africa.

The depression of the Late Victorian Period intensified in the upcoming Modern period (which we'll talk about next time, of course!).

Whoo, that was a little long, but there's a ton that I didn't even bring up.  Basically, I love 19th Century Britain because of its complexities.  On the one hand, it was a time of prosperity and technological accomplishments and expansion, and on the other it was a time of confusion, change, social and personal struggles, all of which led to rich literature.

As far as getting digital goes, I want to briefly talk about the digital divide and class structures.  The 19th Century is a classic example of how classes were distinct and became more and more separated all the time.  The middle class rose above in the Reform Bill of 1832 while the lower class suffered terribly in the Early Victorian Period.  Until this period of time, the middle and lower classes hadn't been very different, and in the 19th Century they became very individual in nature.

Today, we have a whole new class system in our digital world.  On my mission, I taught Spanish- and English-speakers.  We often handed out cards for mormon.org to English-speakers, but we soon discovered that most Spanish-speakers did not have internet access.  The kids could go to the library to check it out if they didn't have internet at home, but most of the adults not only didn't have internet access, they didn't have a computer.  In fact, very few Spanish-speaking adults even knew how to access a website.

There's a growing divide between people who know how to get along in our computerized world and people who don't.  Kids seem better able to use internet and digital devices better than adults, but also English-speaking Americans seem to have more knowledge than most non-English-speakers.  I'm not sure if that's because many immigrants (especially illegal) are often uneducated or because they are usually working-class, and therefore don't have the money to buy a computer.  Or, maybe it's simply because not speaking the official language makes it hard to browse the internet in a uni-lingual country. 

Whatever the reason, those who know how to navigate the digital culture are getting more and more savoy while those who are a little behind are falling farther and farther back.  How can someone without internet access hope to survive in our increasingly computerized world?  Obviously, there some reforms that need to be made.  But how do we bridge the digital divide?  There are a lot of factors going on here, and it's going to take a lot more than just one idea to find a solution.