Victorian Literature Critique

The Search for Happiness and “The Everlasting Yea” in Victorian Literature
The period of Victorian Literature in English history is a time that saw great changes in the industrial structure of the country, and a movement toward more scientific thought. It is for this reason that many came to question the traditionally held views of religion, love and society. It is because of this questioning that people became unhappy with their circumstances. These thoughts are reflected in the literature of the day.
In Thomas Carlyle’s Sartor Resartus, the reader is introduced to a Victorian era concept called “The Everlasting Yea”. This is a triumph over doubt and despair after long trials and tribulations. Carlyle’s’ Diogenes Teufelsdröckh suffered from a sense of confusion about how meaningless the world had become. His name alone represents confusion and the battle for an answer as it is translated “God- begotten, Devils’ Dreck.” He eventually comes to know the “Everlasting Yea”or a renewed faith in God. The loss of faith was Diogenes’ barrier to happiness as he states: “Belief was the loss of everything. Unhappy young man!” (1007). John Henry Newman’s The Idea of A University tells the reader that the barrier to happiness is the inability to think freely and creatively. Newman describes the ability to exercise philosophical thought rather than mechanical knowledge. Newman states: “He has a gift which serves him in public and supports him in retirement” (1041). Newman’s idea is that philosophical knowledge makes a more well rounded citizen and “has resources for his happiness at home, when it cannot go abroad” (1041). In “Autobiography” by John Stuart Mill, the author relates his complete mental breakdown and the question of how he would recover his happiness again. Mill describes his situation when he relates: “the whole foundation on which my life was constructed fell down” (1071). Mill further describes his unhappiness when he laments; “I seemed to have nothing left to live for.” (1071). Mill only realizes that the only way to recover his happiness when he comes to understand that through serving others he is also serving himself.
Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s poem “Mariana” illustrates that the cause of unhappiness of the subject described in the poem is as simple as unrequited love and the loss of a lover. Mariana laments: “I am aweary, aweary, / I would that I were dead!” (1112; line 11-12). In the poem “The Lady of Shalott”, we learn that lady's unhappiness results not from a lost love but from a mysterious curse. She is not allowed to leave her loom to look toward Camelot. She sees knights and ladies but does not have a knight for her own. In the turning point of the poem, the Lady of Shalott abandons the loom in search of happiness in the form of the singing Sir Lancelot. Her search results in her death as illustrated in this line: “The Curse is come upon me, cried the lady of Shalott” (1117; line 116-17). In contrast Alfred Lord Tennyson’s “Ulysses” cannot stay in one place and proclaims that he cannot rest from travel and must continue on for the rest of his days. The cause of the Odysseus character's lack of happiness is being relegated from epic hero to house husband. Ulysses proclaims: “Come my friends / Tis not too late to seek a newer world” (1124; line 56-57). Unlike Ulysses or “The Lady,” Tennyson autobiographically wrote In Memoriam A.H.H. after learning that his friend Arthur Henry Hallam had died suddenly at a young age. This would cause the average person to question all that is addressed in the poem and to be filled with unhappiness at such a loss. Tennyson was filled with questions about the meaning of man’s existence in relation to God. The theme of “In Memoriam” is separation from God and separation from our loved ones after death. Consolation is being sought and only reconciling a belief in a benevolent God will ease the pain. Tennyson comes to this realization as he states: “Then was I as a child that cries, / But crying, knows has father near” (1184; line 19-20).
John Ruskin in writing “The Stones of Venice,” saw that craftsmen and artisans were being treated as nothing more than hired hands or slaves in the creation of architecture. He saw Gothic architecture as in “The Stones of Venice to be a free expression of art and a freedom of the artisan from slavery and unhappiness. He felt that the happy laborer would produce superior and original artwork. Ruskin explains: “You must either make a tool of the creature or a man of him. You cannot make both” (1328). Robert Browning’s “Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister,” shows the narrator planning the destruction of another innocent man. The fact that Brother Lawrence exists is actually the narrator’s barrier to happiness. The narrator states: “If hate killed men, Brother Lawrence,/ God's blood, would not mine kill you!”(1253; line3-4). The author is trying to show that the narrator of this poem is unhappy with himself and trying to elevate his moral standing by lowering another’s. Likewise, in another poem, Robert Browning is suggesting that the character in “The Bishop Orders His Tomb at Saint Praxed’s Church” is trying to elevate himself by planning an elaborate tomb for himself. He is unhappy that he will not be remembered and possibly another Bishop has gotten the better of him by obtaining a choice place in the churchyard for his tomb. The Bishop states: “Old Gandolf cozened me, despite my care” (1259; line 17). He feels cheated and sorrowful for the fruitlessness of his efforts when he exclaims: “Vanity, Vanity” (1259; line 1). The cause of his unhappiness is that he will not be remembered so therefore rather than relying on any kindness he may have performed, he relies on pomp and circumstance. In “Andrea Del Sarto” by Browning, the cause of unhappiness is that the painter purchased a home for him and his wife and did not use the money for art. He had traded his artistic life for a life of domesticity. He realizes his skill as an artist would even rival or excel the great masters, but he laments: “In heaven, perhaps, new chances, one more chance” (1285; line 260). He hopes to have another chance after death. In Matthew Arnold’s “The Scholar Gypsy,” Arnold is discussing the lack of faith in his times. He is unhappy that people of his time period did not have simple childlike faith and that modern life is rushed. The Gypsy subject develops a creative way of thinking that is untouched by modern constraints. The narrator explains his cause of unhappiness when he states that: “Before this strange disease of modern life, / With its sick hurry” (1366: line 203-04).
In Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest Miss Prism feels guilty for what she has done and seems to unload a lifetime of burden in telling her story. She accidentally lost Jack as a baby in the railway station and has had to live with the burden of this all of her life. In Act 3, she feels free for finally telling her secret. She is a harsh person with hard set rules for everyone, but after she tells her story she allows herself to be happy by uniting with Dr. Chasuble. In the play by George Bernard Shaw, Mrs. Warren’s Profession ,Vivie, is unhappy to find out that her mother's life savings and livelihood were earned managing houses of ill repute or brothels. Pride is the cause of. Vivie’s unhappiness as she cannot bring herself to forgive her mother especially because the businesses are still in operation. In the final scene between Vivie and Mrs., Warren, Vivie tells her mother: “What have we two in common that would make either of us happy together?” (1789). In Christina Rossetti’s poem, “Song”, the subject of the poem laments her past while watching another person singing: “She sang for hope that is so fair” (1460; line9-10). Her unhappiness stems from a past that is missed or something sad in her past. She is looking backward and the singer she watches looks ahead. Gerard Manley Hopkins discusses the narrator’s unhappiness with God’s treatment of him in his poem,” Thou art indeed just, Lord” He asks the age old question as we all have: “Why do sinner’s ways prosper?” (1524; line 3). The cause of his unhappiness is what he feels to be a separation from God and why His presence is not felt more keenly.
The reasons for unhappiness in Victorian literature are as varied as the works themselves, but there are common themes woven throughout. The concept of Man’s belief or trust in God and faith in other people are spread throughout the discussed works. The changing of society and scientific discoveries lead to questioning and sometimes confusion and unhappiness. Through much introspection and reflection many people arrived at “The Everlasting Yea.”


1). Arnold, Matthew
a. “The Scholar Gypsy”
2. Browning, Robert
a. “Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister”
b.” The Bishop Orders His Tomb at Saint Praxed’s Church”
c. “Andrea Del Sarto”
3. Carlyle, Thomas
a. Sartor Resartus
4. Hopkins, Gerard Manley
a. “Thou art indeed just, Lord”
5. Stuart Mill, John
a. Autobiography
6. Newman, John Henry Cardinal
a. The Idea of a University
7. Rossetti, Christina
a. “Song,”
8. Ruskin, John
a. The Stones of Venice
9. Shaw, Bernard
a. Mrs. Warren’s Profession
10. Tennyson, Alfred, Lord
a. “Mariana”
b. “The Lady of Shalott”
c. “Ulysses”
d. In Memoriam A. H. H
11. Wilde, Oscar
a. The Importance of Being Earnest