The Victorian Difference: Tennyson, Dickens, & Wilde

The Victorian age was a time of great change in England. The rural dwellers were moving into newly developed cities housing new industries and decrepit mill towns. The "Victorian period [is] a richly complex example of a society struggling with issues and problems we identify with modernism" (Abrams 893). The literature of the time deals with the human strive associated with this modernization. Because it was such a transitional time, the literature of the period is divided into several periods. The attitudes of the writers during these different phases are expressed through their works dealing with social issues. A reminiscent poet, Alfred, Lord Tennyson and an anti-Utilitarianism, Charles Dickens are included in the Mid-Victorian period. The Mid-Victorian period has been described as "The Age of Improvement" by Asa Briggs, a historian, but the writers focused on its shortcomings. The Late Victorian period distinguishes itself from the rest of the period. The nineties gave way to the decadence of Oscar Wilde whose attitude was a deliberate different than that of Tennyson or Dickens. 

Alfred, Lord Tennyson wrote poetry during the turbuletion of the Mid-Victorian age. A great English Critic, George Eliot said that Tennyson "while belonging emphatically to his own age, while giving a voice to the struggles and the far-reaching thoughts of this nineteenth century, has those supreme artistic qualities which must make him a poet for all ages" (Kalasky 354). The poetry of Tennyson usually centers about the theme, like Mariana, of love, strong human emotions and melancholy isolation. For example, Marina's life is lonely and jaded as she endlessly repeats "The night is dreary,/ He cometh not," and "I an aweary, aweary,/ I would that I were dead!" (Abrams 1057-1058).