The Victorions covers from the death of Sir Walter in 1815 to 1914. In those years, Queen Victoria was not loved by people because she ruled her country with monarchy. During the Victorian period, there was a lot of migration from village to the city for work. Britain was now the rich and the emperor of the colonies. They started to colonize the other countries.
They used the colonies for materials such as koton and kakao. They had to work till evenings. There was child labor as well as the social problems of country and rebellions against the monarchy system. Democracy had lost its meaning in the victorian age. While the middle class was rich, the working class was poor. There was no equality between them.
The Romantics involves from the French revolution in 1789 to the Reform in 1832. There was industrial revolution in this age. As the cities developed, the middle class became more important. People almost forgot the agriculture and they kept up with the industrial revolution. Democracy also strengthened while mobilizimg reform. However, democracy was just a word as there were many social and political problems in the country. The changes in these two periods were reflected to the literature. When we compare both periods, there are many similarities and differences between them.
Their main similar features in literature were the uprisings against the government. There is unhappiness and the intensity of emotion in which people move away from their essence in both periods. One of the main themes is the solitariness. Both of them critizes the problems that were derived from industrial revolution. Both the Victorians and Romantics thought people lost their feelings. They were worried about the development of the cities.
The management problem of the government and disorders in the society were affected the poems and novels. Freedom from rules were important in both of them. The topics were about morality and economic liberty. They tried to show realities and problems of the society. Peasants were important. They tried to tell difficulty of being peasants in these periods. We can see the symbolism in novels. There was criticism like metaphor in poetries. We can see also naturalism in their writings.
Realism was at the forefront of their works. In both periods, children were popular in literature. They were innocent. The sensation was also famous. Innocent children were the main characters in their works. Knights, Lords and Kings were not in the topics of both. Simplicity dominated rather than complexity.Art was significant as well as the other issues like problems of society in these periods. The poets and authors of the Romantic and Victorian periods used common, clear, and ordinary language mostly.
One of the main differences was the way of management. The Romantic age was not governed by a king or queen, but the Victorian age had a queen. The individualism was important in the Romantic period. While nature was more important in the romantic age, the fantastic issues were more popular in the Victorian age. The other main difference was that novel was more dominant to the Victorions and poetry was more dominant to the Romantics. Emotion was intense in Romantic poetry.
However, the Victorian poetry contained realism and imagination a lot. Whereas the poets and authors of the Romantic period were pessimistic, the poets and authors of the Victorian period were optimistic. The Victorian people were in dilemma what should be choose technology and mechanism or rural and ordinary, yet the Romantics hated technology wholly.
These two periods were not different from the each other. They were carrying the marks of each other. They were impressed with each other. They reflected social problems and issues of people. Rebellions were not only in colonies, but also they were in the public. Poets and authors tried to tell their trouble in their works.
References:
Carter. R. And McRae. J. (1995).The Penguin guide to English literature : Britain and Ireland.(PP.103- 125-126) London. England: Penguins books.
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