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Myth in Victorian Literature

By using mythical places and names Carlyle is able to attack social reform but he avoids a personal attack on his readers. This also helped Carlyle in his own voice concur with his characters on what transformations going on in regards to the social reforms. Because Carlyle believes that you need one person (hero) to lead society into a promised land, his use of myth and mythical characters helps him relate this. Carlyle uses the myth (past) to help his readers understand his thinking on how England and society can survive during this time period and how he thinks it can only happen if society abides by his way of thinking and vision. Carlyle also showed how the new middle class (industry bosses) and the government should help with all the problems caused by the industrial age and social reform. For Carlyle using myth helped illustrate the religious upheaval happening and how it helps describing the ethical void created by the destruction of religious faith.
             Tennyson's main use of myth is to illustrate how man lost their faith and the consequences of losing it. By using myth, Tennyson is able to illustrate how man is caught between belief and doubt and rationality and irrationality, which can cause a lot of problems for these individuals who feel alone or isolated and not sure how they can handle anything. He also uses the it to show how man can get their faith back being guided to redemption or enlightenment by these mythical characters. I think it also helped Tennyson to illustrate his idea that belief and commitment must provide and is the center for human life if it is to survive. He also illustrates that the fundamental difficulties man has in having and keeping their faith. By using myth, for example King Arthur's Camelot, he is able to illustrate how man has faith and loses it and what the consequences it causes to that individual and everyone around them. His use of myth, like King Arthur, as away to represent the current government in England and what they are doing to society.


Essays Related to Myth in Victorian Literature

1. The Development Of The Sappho-Corinne Myth In Victorian Women's Poetry

The greatness of her work has significantly influenced women's literature: particularly with the rediscovery of her songs during the 19th century, a time when western female literary voices were struggling to be recognized. ... Indeed, "it was only with [this work] that the [Sapphic] myth floated free - the myth of the famous woman talking, writing, [and] performing, to the applause of the world."" If not for de Staël's Corinne, the Sapphic myth would never have found such prominent status in Victorian Poetry. ... Felicia Hemans was the first Victorian poet to devel...

  • Word Count: 3904
  • Approx Pages: 16
  • Grade Level: High School

2. Role Of Women In Relation To Mill On The Floss

The role of women in society is very different today compared to the role of women in Victorian society, in the 19th Century. ... Little by little the myth according to which women had to stay at home to carry out their "natural mission" of raising children, bearing children, and serving as an instrument of pleasure is dying out. ... Where as in the Victorian society it was quite the opposite. ... Maggie's anger can be seen as a symbol of feminist frustration and rage at the oppression of women in Victorian society. ... She forgets her reality by escaping into her imagination, which is ...

  • Word Count: 1369
  • Approx Pages: 5
  • Grade Level: Undergraduate

3. Role Of Women In Mill On The Floss

The role of women in society is very different today compared to the role of women in Victorian society, in the 19th Century. ... Little by little the myth according to which women had to stay at home to carry out their "natural mission" of raising children, bearing children, and serving as an instrument of pleasure is dying out. ... Where as in the Victorian society it was quite the opposite. ... Maggie's anger can be seen as a symbol of feminist frustration and rage at the oppression of women in Victorian society. ... She forgets her reality by escaping into her imagination, which is ...

  • Word Count: 1370
  • Approx Pages: 5
  • Grade Level: Undergraduate

4. Poetry of Victorian Era Poets

How far does Tennyson's "In Memoriam" reflect the spirit of the Victorian Age? In the Victorian era, there was a huge conflict occurred especially because of Darwin's theory between science and religion. ... In fact, the frequent use of myths in many of his poems proves that, Tennyson believed not to stagnate in a melancholic state. Rather through going back to classical myths, he is trying at least to find a sort of solution to some extents. ... First of all, it is necessary to introduce the Victorian four elements in the total situation of a work of art: the artistic product its...

  • Word Count: 5237
  • Approx Pages: 21
  • Grade Level: High School

5. English Literature in the Twentieth century

A strong social ethic, continued from the Victorian times of Dickens and Disraeli, began increasingly to influence the political character of the country and its institutions. ... What went out was narrative, description, rational exposition; what emerged focused on stream of consciousness, images in poetry (rather than description or narration), a new use of universal myth, and a sense of fragmentation both of individuality and of such concepts as space and time. ... Poetry to 1945 Queen Victoria died in 1901, but most of the certainties of the Victorian age had disappeared long before. ... T...

  • Word Count: 10566
  • Approx Pages: 42

6. Athena

We see her used in literature from ancient works all through history up to modern literature. ... According to myth Athena was the favorite daughter of Zeus. ... Hardy was a novelist of the Victorian era, and he used Athena to compare her to a character displaying courage and power. ... The myth of Athena has continued on being used from ancient literature all the way to recent literature, like in Dawkins" book. ... He relates evolution to the myth of Athena, and her "birth" into this world. ...

  • Word Count: 1509
  • Approx Pages: 6
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: High School

7. To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf

Virginia Woolf is one of the well-known writers of the modern literature and until she became a good writer what she lived will be the subject of this paragraph. ... Her vocalization creates the image of a Victorian women and reveals her thoughts. With the help of stream of consciousness technique, there can be made psychoanalysis of a Victorian woman from the example of Mrs. ... Ramsay's attitude as a mother and a Victorian woman. ... According to Victorian codes of behavior, women shouldn't involve the men's world because of this Victorian taboo, Mrs. ...

  • Word Count: 2838
  • Approx Pages: 11
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: High School

8. Vampires - Yesterday and Today

Introduction Nowadays, literature as well as new media offers a wide range of mysterious, supernatural and occult stories dealing with vampires, demons and other forces of darkness. ... The vampire began to appear in English literature after 1800 and it achieved its first real literary importance with the publication of Sheridan Le Fanu's novelette, Carmilla, in 1872. ... Victorian Age's Stereotypes and Standards The Victorian era of British history was the period of Queen Victoria's regency from 20th June, 1837 until 22nd™™ January, 1901, the date of her death. ... Such be...

  • Word Count: 3602
  • Approx Pages: 14
  • Has Bibliography

9. Love and Hatred

Emily Brontes only novel Wuthering Heights was created in the Victorian age. ... It is one of the most famous examples in literature of pure enmeshment, a total loss of boundaries that seems to triumph over death, sustaining the myth that romantic love is a viable form of spirituality(Bump, 347). ...

  • Word Count: 857
  • Approx Pages: 3
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: High School

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