1.

The 19th century British novel as an output of the Victorian Society: The output of literature
is often tightly interweaved with the historical, political and sociological circumstances of the
era in which it occurs. What were some of the major historical and sociopolitical changes in
Victorian Britain that may have impacted upon shaping characteristic aspects of the 19 th
century British novel?

Colonialism and the Victorian British Novel

The Victorian era of British history was the period of Queen Victoria’s reign from 20 June
1837 until her death, on January 1901.Culturally there was a transition from the rationalism
of the Georgian period and toward romanticism and mysticism with regard to religion, social
values and arts. The era is also referred to as Pax Britannica, where the western world enjoyed
nearly 100 years of peace, starting from the Congress of Vienna in 1815, where the Great
Powers attempted to create a new European order, following the defeat of Napoleon and
lasted until the outbreak of the First World War in July 1914. However, the peace that
prevailed from the Congress of Vienna transformed gradually Britain as the leading nation in
the world. The flowering of Western civilization had a leader that could only be compared
with that of France in the High Middle Ages, with Rome at the height of the empire and with
Athens during the classical years.

Furthermore, the Victorian period marks the high point of British Imperialism; the empire,
starting from the moment the Spanish flee was defeated, had expanded across the globe and
had established its role as a world economic superpower, with all the benefits gained from
that role. During the reign of Elizabeth I trading companies have been set in Turkey, Russia
and the East Indies and colonies have been established in North America, St. Lawrence in
Canada and the Caribbean in order to provide the empire with raw materials and
consequently to expand potential markets for British manufacturers “The carpet was of amber
and black, so soft and so thick that the foot sank pleasantly into it, as into a bed of moss,”
(Edginton, Culbard and Doyle, 2010); the loss of the thirteen colonies of the North America
(1763), due to taxation and frontier policy, influenced the foreign policy of the British Empire,
making the so-called swing to the East. This swing involved the acquisition and expansion of
strategic trade routes between India and Far East, so by the end of the century it could be
proudly proclaimed that ‘the sun never sets on the British Empire’.
 In 1857, the East Indian Company, that was established in 1600 by Queen Elizabeth I and
was a joint stock company that traded tea, silk and spices had developed into a colonial force
of 20,000 locally recruited Indian soldiers and had transformed steadily into an aggressive
colonial power. Until today, the East Indian Company still signifies a supreme act of violence
in world history, draining Bengal’s wealth; the treasury was emptied, high taxation was
imposed, jaghires and provinces were purloined and towns were ransacked. Additionally,
reforms, new laws and technology (westernization) have been enforced violently to Indians
driving natives to an edge ‘Jane, I go in six weeks; I have taken my berth in an East Indiaman
which sails on the 20th of June.’ (Brontë, Weisser and Stade, 2004). On May 10 Indian soldiers,
both Muslim and Hindu, who were stationed in the town of Meerut revolted and killed their
British officers and marched on Delhi to offer their services to the Mughal emperor; the first
war of Indian Independence. ‘I wish I were commander-in-chief in India. I should probably
proclaim to them that I considered my holding that appointment by the leave of God, to mean
that I should do my utmost to exterminate the race’ (Charles Dickens). The impact of the
Mutiny was so intense for the British society that was heavily reported by the press and
profoundly shocked the public opinion due to images of extreme violence by both sides. In
the case, the Sign of Four, a literary work written by Arthur Conan Doyle, in the context of the
Indian Mutiny, reveals the attitude of the British society towards the betrayal of the rebels
and even if the British society continued to support endeavors in the colonies and consider
the colonies as attractive possessions, their enthusiasm had shifted to fear of the foreign, as
questions were raised as far as security within the empire. In this novel Sherlock Holmes is
presented as an opium addicted, which Doyle emphasizes, probably making a relevance with
the routes of opium, which resulted in the Opium Wars, and involved Anglo-Chinese disputes
over British trade in China and resulted in a trade imbalance between China and the
Europeans. Sherlock’s drug abuse ‘innumerable puncture marks’ (Edginton, Culbard and
Doyle, 2010, p.7) becomes therefore a metaphor for the dependence of the English empire
on the Indian Trading Company. The Indian Mutiny marks a change of the British society
towards the colonial other, who was until that point perceived as subordinate and complicit
and from that point the eastern culture was linked with criminal behavior. Doyle submitted to
this belief and can be easily seen in the description of Tonga ‘“Never have I seen features so
deeply marked with all bestiality and cruelty” “His small eyes glowed and burned with a
sombre light, and his thick lips were writhed back from his teeth, which grinned and chattered
at us with half animal fury’’ and Tonga’s death acts as a quell to the colonial fears held by the
British society.

Being at its height the British Empire had the urgent need to mobilize symbols in order not
only to comprehend other lands but also propagate itself and most importantly to legitimize
its presence on the colonies; images of biblical treasures, of travelers bearing the torch of
national valor, of building modern cities where all before had been primitive and in chaos.
Charles Dicken’s attitude towards British Imperialism and specifically the Indian Mutiny was
caused by the position of his son Walter (1841-1863), who was appointed as a cadet in East
India Company just two months after the initiation of the Mutiny and as a concerned father
was particular sensitive on the subject and was inspired by the bravery exhibited by the British
women and children, who were taken under captivity by the Indian natives. The stories on the
press influenced him to write the Perils of Certain English Prisoners in collaboration with
Wilkie Collins. The story is set in Latin America and particularly in a British mining colony in
the reign of George II. Dickens even if he draws inspiration from the Indian Mutiny, he
however avoids to place his novel within the context of the Mutiny ‘I wish to avoid India itself;
but I want to shadow out in what I do, the bravery of our ladies in India’ (Letter 8:469). Dickens
attention shift to Latin America was caused by a considerable interest among the business
circles of London and Paris at that time, who wanted to construct a canal across the Isthmus
of Panama and provide a link to their ships between the two oceans reducing the length of
the voyage from Europe to the gold fields of California.

Colonialism; Gender & Slavery

In Jane Austin’s Mansfield Park, the estate of Mansfield it is obvious to the reader that it is
sustained by Sir Thomas Bertrani’s sugar plantations in Antiqua (an island where slavery was
practiced at that time), but for Jane Austin the West Indies are portrayed as little more than
a ‘remote place of business’. In addition, Jane Austin never reveals the source of Mr. Darcy’s
wealth in the novel Pride and Prejudice or that of his friend Mr. Bingley, which is believed to
be trade slave. (Boehmer, 2005) Even if colonial matters appear throughout the Victorian
English novel, there is the tendency to be kept in the background of the novel, showing the
apparent contradiction and irony of the Victorian society that was bent on progress and moral
probity and on the other colonial territories took on the aspect of its unconscious hidden self.

On the contrary to this attitude, Charlotte Bronte presents Bertha Mason, the first wife of
Mr. Rochester, half-English, half-Creole, raised in Jamaica, who is a heiress of West Indian
fortune and she is assumed to be white in the novel. But she is portrayed by Charlotte Bronte
as black, particularly as a Maroon (a black Jamaican anti-slavery rebel) and not to mention
Jane’s first impression of Bertha as a ‘beast’ which is a common word to describe slaves and
natives of colonized countries. ‘Oh Sir, I never saw a face like it! It was a discolored face-it was
a savage face. I wish I could forget the roll of the red eyes and the fearful blackened inflation
of the lineaments!’. Moreover, Mr. Rochester claims that she was drunken and promiscuous
and that her excesses brought on her madness when she was too young. However, as Jean
Rhys interpreted the situation in her novel Wide Saragossa Sea (1966) the figure of Bertha can
be seen in the light of Jane’s own dark hidden self and making the drama in this novel also the
drama of West Indian history through the lenses of the mad wife, she made a connection
between personal history and identity and socio-cultural history and identity, because after
all Bertha is presented in terms of the dominant English ideology of that time, as a colonial,
therefore inferior by imperialist definition. In addition Mr. Rochester’s dominance over Bertha
stems from his patriarchal and colonial ideology, therefore making him a double colonizer. In
terms of Bertha’s racial background, he perceives her as ‘part of the island’ as a colonial other,
someone whose values, principles and morals contradict with his own cultured and civilized
values and principles. Therefore, Bertha is ‘living under the negative effects of both patriarchy
and colonialism’ (McLeod, 2000). According to Susan Meyer during the Victorian period white
women were frequently compared to people of non-white races in order to emphasize the
superiority of men towards both women and slaves. But the character of Bertha Mason, in the
way it is depicted is a figurative metaphor of slavery that ‘takes on such a central status that,
although the novel remains situated in the domestic space, Bronte imports a character from
the territory of colonies to give the metaphor a vivid presence.’ Throughout the novel of Jane
Eyre there is a frequent use of the words ‘slave’ and ‘slavery’; young Jane compares herself to
a slave at Gateshead after she is punished for her actions against John Reed and she uses the
phrase ‘a slave or a victim’ to describe her time spent at Lowood. ((Brontë, Weisser and Stade,
2004,p.78) showing a clear relevance between the oppression she has been subjected to as a
woman and slavery, ‘the figurative use of race relations in Bronte’s major fiction reveals a
conflict between sympathy for the oppressed and a hostile sense of racial supremacy.’
 By thus exploring what formed colonial ideology, postcolonial critics reveal the complexities
of colonialism and its multi-faceted influence on Victorian society and literature. At the same
time, such criticism reveals a contemporary relevance to the literary output of the nineteenth
century. The exploration of the ideological complicities and resistances that characterize
Victorian literature provides an insight into the complex ideological configurations of neo-
colonialism that are an inescapable reality of late-twentieth-century culture and politics.

References:
 Dickens, C. (2015). Perils of certain english prisoners. [S.l.]: The Floating Press.
 Edginton, I., Culbard, I. and Doyle, A. (2010). The sign of the four. New York: Sterling.
 Austen, J. and Strange, J. (1992). Pride and prejudice. London: Penguin.
 Havely, C. (1973). Mansfield Park. Bletchley: Open University.
 Brontë, C., Weisser, S. and Stade, G. (2004). Jane Eyre. New York: Barnes & Noble.
 Shepherd, R. (1991). Wide Sargasso Sea. Callaloo, 14(3), p.607.
 Boehmer, E. (2005). Colonial and postcolonial literature. Oxford: Oxford University
Press.
 McLeod, J. (2000). Beginning postcolonialism. Manchester, U.K.: Manchester
University Press.
 Criticel.wordpress.com. (2013). Obsession with the Orient:Colonialism and Cocaine
in the Sign of Four. [online] Available at:
https://criticel.wordpress.com/2013/02/11/obsession-with-the-orientcolonialism-
and-cocaine-in-the-sign-of-four/ [Accessed 27 May 2016].
 SURG. (2016). Imperial contradictions in Arthur Conan Doyle's The Sign of Four.
[online] Available at:
https://journal.lib.uoguelph.ca/index.php/surg/article/view/1595/2398 [Accessed
27 May 2016].
 Victorianweb.org. (2005). The Imperial Context of Charles Dickens and Wilkie
Collins's "The Perils of Certain EnglishPrisoners" (1857). [online] Available at:
http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/dickens/pva/pva354.html [Accessed 27 May
2016].