British Empire and Victorian Era: Literature Analysis
The British Empire in Literature: Kipling and Conrad
LIT 49 Growth & Administration of the British Colonial Empire in the 18th & 19th Centuries: Joseph Conrad & Rudyard Kipling.
1. Introduction
2. The British Empire
2.1. Origins of the British Empire: 16th-17th Centuries
2.2. Development of the British Empire in the 18th Century
2.3. Expansion & Consolidation in the 19th Century
3. Voices of the Empire in Literature
3.1. Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936)
3.2. Joseph Conrad (1857-1924)
4. Didactic Application
5. Conclusion
6. Bibliography
2. The British Empire was a worldwide system of dependencies such as colonies, protectorates & other territories which, over a span of about 3 centuries, remained under the sovereignty of the British Crown & were administered by the British government. The policy of gradually granting colonies different degrees of self-government led to the development of the British Commonwealth in the 20th century, which today remains an international organization made up of most of the former British colonies, now free independent states that share common links.
Let us now analyze the main stages in the formation & development of the British Empire.
2.1. The first British attempts to establish overseas settlements took place in the 16th century, which was an era of great voyages & exploration after the discovery of America in 1492. However, it was in the 17th century that the process of maritime expansion accelerated, mainly due to commercial ambitions. This way, the British started their expansion with the establishment of their first settlements in North America (Jamestown, 1602) & the West Indies.
In India, the East India Company established trading posts since 1600, & places like Penang or Singapore were under the British influx thanks to the company’s activities.
Finally, in Africa the first permanent settlement was James Island; later on other territories like Sierra Leone or the Cape of Good Hope would be annexed.
We must remark that these first settlements emerged from the enterprise of trading companies through an unorganized process based on mercantile interests. Thus, at the time the British government was neither the instigator nor the immediate beneficiary of the colonizing process. This would change in the following centuries, as we’ll see in next sections.
2.2. In the 18th century, the British Crown started to exert a closer control over the colonies, especially in the area of trade & shipping. The mercantilist philosophy of the time regarded colonies as a source of raw materials for England & were granted monopolies for their products, such as tobacco & sugar, in the British market. In return, colonies were expected to conduct all their trade through British ships & serve as markets for the British manufactured products.
The slave trade became very important for the British colonial economy at the time, since it involved both free labor force & an extra source of income. However, slavery was abolished in the British Empire long before it did in a former British possession, the USA.
In the 18th century, the British military & naval superiority enabled them to gain the territories of Canada & India against the French. The British Empire was expanding quickly &, despite the loss of the American colonies 1776-1783, it continued growing amazingly.
There were new settlements in Australia & Upper Canada, while the territories of Trinidad, Tobago & Malta were gained after beating the French at war. Before the beginning of the 19th century, further areas would be annexed: in America, more Canadian territories were taken; in Asia, Malacca & Singapore were acquired; & numerous territories in the Far East, such as Agra & East Bengal, were also colonized.
2.3. The 19th century marked the full power of the British Empire. During this century there was a change in the administration & colonial policy: from the disorganized arrangements in the 17th-18th centuries there was a move towards a sophisticated system of control exerted through the Colonial Office. This organism, created in 1802, became a separate governmental department in charge of exerting discipline & pressure over the colonies & their governments. This complex system of control enabled the British to continue & consolidate their imperialistic expansion worldwide in the 19th century.
This change went together with new economic principles: mercantilism was gradually abandoned to embrace free trade, which defended the state’s non-interference with private enterprise. This view gave rise to an impressive growth of companies in the British territories, a faster rhythm of occupation & a greater exploitation of people & resources in the colonies. Colonies were regarded as occupied territories controlled by the European minority instead of settlements forming a new society.
In the Pacific, the Empire already had the territory of Australia since 1770, but the real extension began with the acquisition of New Zealand in 1840, which inaugurated a process of systematic colonization in the Pacific Islands (Fiji, Tonga, Papua).
The acquisition of India took place in 1857 & led to further expansion over the areas of Burma & Punjab. Moreover, the construction of the Suez Canal in 1869 involved not only a shorter sea route to India but also an excellent opportunity to expand over the area of Somalia & extend the British influence throughout southern Arabia & the Persian Gulf.
In the Far East, the British influence expanded to the Malay states, the protectorate of Brunei was founded & Hong Kong became British too. In China, the imperialistic policy was exerted through the numerous British treaty ports & the trading city of Shanghai.
However, the greatest expansion of the British Empire in the 19th century took place in Africa. Britain was the ruling force in Egypt & Sudan at the end of the century, & their colonization would soon reach the interior of the continent too.
By means of diverse companies, the British extended their influence over Nigeria, Ghana & Gambia at first, & later on over Kenya, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Zambia & Malawi. Finally, the British victory in the South African war gave them power to exert their control over South Africa too.
The result of all these conquests & colonization is that by the end of the 19th century the British Empire extended over around one quarter of the world’s land surface. The growth & consolidation of the British Empire was a political, economic & social reality that had numerous consequences in several fields. In the next section we’ll analyze how this reality was portrayed in English literature through the works of two authors: Kipling & Conrad.
3. Kipling & Conrad
Kipling & Conrad were highly influenced by the expansion of the British Empire, as it is clearly reflected in their works. Their views, though, were very different: while Kipling saw the Empire as a kind of crusade to civilize the world, Conrad regarded Western imperialism as a sign of spiritual emptiness. Thus, whereas Kipling defended Victorian values to save the world of its miseries in a rather simplistic outlook on life, Conrad developed more complex themes & also a more pessimistic view of life as a constant struggle against evil.
3.1. Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936)
Born in Bombay, India, in 1865, Kipling spent an unhappy childhood in English boarding schools. As a young man, he returned to India & worked as a journalist, which permitted him to have a first-hand knowledge of life in the British colonies.
Kipling’s works appeared at a time when Britain was becoming increasingly conscious of its imperial position, & they somehow expressed what many British people wanted to hear. This way, Kipling presents a vision in which Britain has the duty to civilize “backward” races, the mission to bring European civilization to uncivilized colonies. That is what he called “the white man’s burden”. This view has given rise to much criticism not only of Kipling’s ideas but also of his quality as a writer. While he is generally considered a great short story writer, there is much disagreement about his gift as a poet or as a novelist. Opinions range from seeing Kipling as a chronicler of the British expansion to considering him as a vulgar imperialist.
Among his works, we must stand out his collection of verse Departmental Ditties (1886) & his folk legends & animal myths in The Jungle Books (1894-95). The latter is the story of the child Mowgli, brought up by wolves & the panther Bagheera. Kim (1901), his major novel, is a dramatic picture of the complex life of Indian people, told through the eyes of Kim, a poor boy.
The setting of his most popular works are the colonies, not England itself. We must admit that Kipling introduced new themes into English literature: the psychological & moral problems of living among people who are subjects of the British Empire but have a different culture. Kipling’s focus is on the white man’s responsibility to create a single rich civilization with diverse races, cultures & creeds.
Kipling was a very successful writer in his time, & in 1907 he became the first Englishman to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. Today, Kipling is deemed more as a Victorian figure than as a modern writer. His short stories & novels are read as children’s books more than as serious literature. His works are marked by a colonial sentimentality, & partly due to his political involvement, he was dismissed as an imperialist after WWI.
3.2. Joseph Conrad (1857-1924)
Born in Poland, Conrad became a naturalized English subject later in his life. He joined the British Navy & travelled extensively throughout the colonies, which gave him plenty of material for his novels.
Conrad was one of the most original writers of his time & one of the greatest novelists in English literature. He shared with Kipling his fascination with other cultures, especially those of the Far West & Africa, but, as we’ll see, his views on colonization were very different.
His novels are set in a variety of locations, which we can consider an influence of his own journeys & life at sea. However, his settings are normally isolated places, such as the jungle, the sea or remote areas, since Conrad was concerned with portraying the tragedy of life & isolation. The basis for his fiction is the adventure story, yet his works are full of psychological interest. In his later novels he would focus on human moral dilemmas (man vs. himself). This way, life is a constant struggle against evil.
Among his works, we can mention Almayer’s Folly (1895), The Nigger of the Narcissus or Youth, but two works stand out in his written production: Heart of Darkness (1902), his most famous novel, & Nostromo (1904), his best novel.
As for his style, Conrad used a very elaborate language to create a perfectionist prose while introducing technical innovations such as the use of flashbacks, exuberant verbosity & a careful choice of words.
Heart of Darkness narrates the journey to a remote place inside the Belgian Congo. This work focuses on the contrast between Western civilization & what it has done to Africa, symbolizing material exploitation & moral emptiness with a clearly pessimistic view.
Nostromo is set in an imaginary country in South America & its characters aren’t detached from society, they are near a silver mine which is seen as the perverter of humans & their ideals. Hence, the forces shaping the modern world are present: nationalism, capital, colonization, & so on.
The technique of multiple viewpoints must be highlighted, as it’s the most important Conrad’s contribution to the English novel, along with his complex narrative technique, elaborated prose & profound vision of humanity.
6. Bibliography
- Abrams, M et al. (2018). The Norton Anthology of English Literature. London: Norton.
- Carter, R et al. (2017). The Routledge History of English Literature. London: Routledge.
- Ford, B et al. (1983). The New Pelican Guide to English Literature. London: Penguin.
- Encyclopaedia Britannica. Entry on “British Empire”.
The Victorian Novel
LIT 50 The Victorian Novel
1. Introduction
2. The Victorian Period
3. Victorian Literature: The Novel
3.1. Early Victorian Novelists
3.1.1. Charles Dickens
3.1.2. The Brontë Sisters: Charlotte & Emily
3.1.3. William Thackeray
3.1.4. Elizabeth Gaskell
3.1.5. Anthony Trollope
3.1.6. Wilkie Collins
3.2. Late Victorian Novelists
3.2.1. George Eliot
3.2.2. George Meredith
3.2.3. Thomas Hardy
4. Didactic Application
5. Conclusion
6. Bibliography
2. From 1837 to 1901, Queen Victoria was the English monarch since her arrival to the throne when she was only 18. She witnessed a period of complex changes in different fields, such as the great expansion of the British Empire together with its power overseas at peak performance. Her consort, Prince Albert, was the main backer of The Great Exhibition that took place in 1851. This was the first “world’s fair” & was held in Hyde Park.
Regarding politics, the Chartist movement began in 1839 with demands for electoral reform & universal male suffrage, & it was carried out by radical reformers. In this period, England was also involved in different conflicts overseas: in 1854 England took part in the Crimean War where they fought together with France, the Ottoman Empire & Sardinia against Russia & achieved a victory. A few years later, 1857, the Indian Mutiny took place, which was a rebellion against the rule of the British East India Company.
During the 2nd part of Queen Victoria’s reign, 2 politicians acquired the utmost importance: Gladstone & Disraeli. On one hand, Gladstone was liberal, humanitarian & devout. On the other hand, Disraeli was imperialist, nationalistic & charming. Queen Victoria preferred the company of Disraeli over Gladstone’s, who she found stuffy. The latter supported the cause of the so-called Irish Question. In the meantime, attention was placed outside Britain, since Victoria’s Empire expanded & she was declared Empress of India.
Legal reforms of the time were happening at a slow pace. Education was being made more accessible for the lower classes, & the Ballot Act of 1872 made voting a private affair for the 1st time.
Concerning leisure, the most common form of entertainment was reading aloud. Moreover, as the number of working hours decreased & Bank Holidays were introduced, workers had time to travel.
In science & technology, inventions such as the telephone, the telegraph, the steam engine & the Spinning Jenny appeared.
One of the aspects that is often associated with the period is that of earnestness, what meant that the socially most appropriate values included moral responsibility, domestic decorum & proper behavior.
3.
This literary period is characterized by its morality & the literary productions are affected by the intellectual developments in science, religion & politics. Also, the new education acts of the period made education compulsory, which produced an enormous reading public. Also, the cheapening of printing & paper increased the demand for books among which the most popular form was the novel.
Victorian literature is characterized by the telling of every detail by means of clarity, precision & certainty.
Historians distinguish early, mid & late Victorian England: the early period from 1830 to 50, in which rural England was deeply transformed due to the emergence of the Industrial Revolution; the mid period from 1850 to 73, which saw the highest point of the British imperial expansion, & economic & political prosperity; & the late period from 1873 to 1901, since 73 is the year of the Great Depression which marks the end of British economic supremacy & the decline of the British Empire.
3.1. Early Victorian Novelists
3.1.1. Charles Dickens
Born on February 7, 1812, his happiest childhood years were spent in Chatham. From 1822 he lived in London. His father, a clerk, was well paid but brought the family to financial disaster. Charles was withdrawn from school & set to manual work in a factory. Finally, he became a parliamentary & newspaper reporter.
Dickens nearly became a professional actor in 1832, & in 1833 he began contributing stories & essays to magazines & newspapers. Later, the 1st installment of Pickwick Papers appeared. During 1836 he also wrote 2 plays & undertook to edit a monthly magazine, Bentley’s Miscellany, in which he serialized Oliver Twist (1837-39).
His work is usually divided into early novels & mature novels. The novels of the 1st period include Oliver Twist, Nicholas Nickleby & The Old Curiosity Shop. The latter works are Dombey and Son, David Copperfield, Bleak House, Hard Times, Little Dorrit, A Tale of Two Cities, Great Expectations, & Our Mutual Friend.
His early works had overflowed with improvisations, but his latter works are more tightly controlled. The main characteristics of Dickens’ style are:
- His description of cities & relationship between people
- The naming of characters to evoke basic features of their character
- The use of shops of business to characterize people who live in them
- The themes of his novels are denunciatory
3.1.2. The Brontë Sisters: Charlotte & Emily
Charlotte was born in Yorkshire. Being raised in a strict Anglican home, she is said to be the most ambitious of the sisters. In February 1842 she & her sister Emily went to Brussels to learn foreign languages & school management.
She was a devout writer, getting to publish her 1st novel, Jane Eyre, in 1847 under the pseudonym Currer Bell. The book criticized society’s treatment of impoverished women. It became a hit & her success extended to Shirley & Villette.
Emily Brontë, English novelist & poet, produced only 1 novel, Wuthering Heights (1847), an imaginative novel of passion & hate set on the Yorkshire moors. Emily was perhaps the greatest of the 3 Brontë sisters. In 1846 they published jointly a volume of verse, Poems by Currer, Ellis, & Acton Bell; it contained 21 of Emily’s poems that reveal true poetic genius.
By midsummer of 1847, Emily’s Wuthering Heights & Anne’s Agnes Grey had been accepted for joint publication, though publication of the 3 volumes was delayed until the appearance of their sister Charlotte’s Jane Eyre.
3.1.3. William Thackeray
He was born in Calcutta, India. After his father’s death, he was sent to England. He became a prolific writer for periodicals, using a variety of pen names.
His early writings appeared in volumes as The Book of Snobs, a collection of his articles from Punch; & Miscellanies, which included the historical novel Barry Lyndon. His fame came with the novel Vanity Fair (1847-48).
Set at the time of the Napoleonic wars, Thackeray created one of the most fascinating immoral female characters, Becky Sharp. His other work Pendennis is partly an autobiography. In his time he was regarded as the only possible rival of Dickens for his description of contemporary life as he could show life’s cruelties & people’s weaknesses. He also portrayed the evils of self-interest, of parasitism & of snobbery. His weapon is satire, & his main aim is moral reform.
3.1.4. Elizabeth Gaskell
She was a novelist, a short-story writer & the first biographer of Charlotte Brontë. Gaskell was the daughter of a Unitarian minister & she married the Unitarian minister William Gaskell. Her literary career started at the middle of her life, when the death of her son intensified her sense of community with the poor.
She was less politically engaged than Disraeli, but she was more involved with the actual life of people. Her aim was to bring Christian principles as a mediating force within class antagonisms. Her 2 most famous pieces of work are Mary Barton & North and South.
Mary Barton is considered her masterpiece, it depicts a humane picture of working-class life in a large industrial town in the 40s. The quality of desperation is conveyed through the character of John Barton & the bitterness of his hatred owners. It’s a dramatization that captures the pressures of poverty & is impregnated with the idea of the two nations.
In North and South she presents a picture of English life from the point of view of the middle class, representing a contrast between rural & industrial England.
3.1.5. Anthony Trollope
Trollope led a dull almost unhappy life until his youth. When he was transferred as a postal surveyor to Ireland, he began to enjoy social life. He became a successful English novelist & his most famous work was a series of books set in the imaginary English county of Barsetshire. He also wrote The Warden, Barchester Towers, Doctor Thorne, Framley Parsonage, The Small House at Allington & The Last Chronicle of Barset.
Around 1869, Trollope’s most interesting period as a writer began, when he wrote He Knew He Was Right, a story dealing with a jealous wealthy man & his innocent wife. Trollope, though spent his final years secluded in a Sussex village, was in London when he died.
3.1.6. Wilkie Collins
Collins became an early master of the mystery story, & pioneer of detective fiction. His 1st published work was Memoirs of the Life of William Collins, a memoir to his father, the landscape painter. His fiction followed shortly after: Antonina; or the Fall of Rome and Basil. In 1851 he began an association with Dickens, under his influence, Collins developed a talent for characterization & humor. His 1st major work, The Woman in White, appeared in Dickens’ All the Year Round.
3.2. Late Victorian Novelists
3.2.1. George Eliot
George Eliot, or Mary Ann Evans, was inculcated a strong evangelical piety at a boarding school. However, a book written by his brother-in-law precipitated Evans’ break with orthodoxy.
She settled in London as a free-lance writer & she developed the method of psychological analysis characteristic of modern fiction. Her major works include Adam Bede, The Mill on the Floss, Silas Marner, Middlemarch, & Daniel Deronda.
Middlemarch is her masterpiece. Under her hand the novel had developed from a mere entertainment into a highly intellectual form of art.
3.2.2. George Meredith
When Meredith was only 5 years old, his mother died. He had a sad childhood. As his father declared himself bankrupt, George came to live with some relatives in the country. The school served to stimulate his intellect & taught him to respect rationality, self-respect, sincerity & courage.
At the age of 18, he concentrated on writing poems & articles & making translations. Because they brought in little money, he turned to writing prose.
In his novels he more than once portrayed sympathetically the witty woman trapped in a relationship with a self-centered man. The novel The Ordeal of Richard Feverel is one of his finest works, being rich in allusions, metaphors, lyrical prose, clever dialogue, & psychological insights. Afterward, he produced a comedy, Evan Harrington, & a volume of poems, Modern Love. He finally won critical acclaim with the novels The Egoist & Diana of the Crossways.
3.2.3. Thomas Hardy
Hardy was a novelist & a poet who set much of his work in Wessex. He experienced a decline in religious faith which forced him to quit his early ambition of a university education & eventual ordination as an Anglican priest. He devoted himself to reading poetry & the methodical development of his own poetic skills. He even wrote verses in the 1860s, but they didn’t achieve massive popularity. Hence, he turned to prose.
He wrote The Poor Man and the Lady, a novel which was never published. In his next novel, Under the Greenwood Tree, he used humor to describe an episode of social change. After that, Hardy was offered to contribute with the prestigious Cornhill Magazine, & the resulting novel, Far from the Madding Crowd, introduced Wessex for the first time & made Hardy famous by its agricultural settings & its distinctive blend of humorous, melodramatic, pastoral & tragic elements.
Hardy’s final works Tess of the d’Urbervilles & Jude the Obscure are considered his finest novels, which are thought to anticipate the 20th century’s most recurrent themes such as the society’s sexual mores.
4. Didactic Application
5. Conclusion
6. Bibliography
- Abrams, M. H. (2012). The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Norton: London.
- Novak, M. E. (1983). MacMillan History of Literature. Eighteenth-Century English Literature. MacMillan: London.
- Sanders, A. (2000). The Short Oxford History of English Literature. Oxford University Press: Oxford.
- Encyclopaedia Britannica (2022). Encyclopaedia Britannica Online.