1. THE VICTORIAN NOVEL

2. HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
INDUSTRIALISATION
URBANISATION
IMPROVEMENT OF
textile industries
ways of communication (roads, canals, railways)
technology
People moved from the countryside to the industrial areas
THE EFFECT OF INDUSTRIALISATION WERE NEGATIVE FOR THE POORER CLASSES
Men, women and children worked in factories up to 14 or 16 hours a day but factory owners paid very low wages

3. BASIC DOCTRINES IN VICTORIAN NOVELS
aristocracy (large landowners)
SOCIAL CLASSES
middle class (bankers, financiers and merchants )
working class (factory workers and rural labourers)
relationship between classes
MAIN THEME IN VICTORIAN FICTION
desire to rise and fear of falling down the social ladder
OTHER IMPORTANT THEMES
PURITAN ETHIC
“parabola dei talenti”: people should use their qualities and talents to improve in the social ladder
struggle for democracy
exploitation of labourers
growth of towns
PURITANISM
doctrine according to which actions are right if they are useful for the benefit of society
BASIC DOCTRINES IN VICTORIAN NOVELS
UTILITARIANISM
the theory of the evolution of species by natural selection advanced by Charles Darwin (religious crisis)
DARWINISM

4. OLIVER TWIST TITLE STORY-LINE CHARACTERS THE MASTER AND THE SERVANT
the reader expects the story to be about some adventures in the life of Oliver twist, who probably is the main character
Oliver Twist is a young boy, an orphan, who ran away from the workhouse he lived in to escape from starvation and exploitation. He moved to London where he knew the villainous Fagin, who taught him and to other boys how to pick pockets. The book describes some of his adventures and it closes with a happy ending. In particular the extract deals with the require of the protagonist, Oliver Twist, for having more meal after dinner
SETTING:
dining hall of the workhouse where he lived before running away
The first element which characterizes Oliver Twist and his companions is their hungry, addirittura a boy was afraid “he might some night happen to eat the boy who slept next him”. The description of their hungry is emphasized by sad images, alliteration ( for example “suffered...slow starvation”, “voracious wild”) and the image of the cannibal boy.
OLIVER TWIST AND HIS COMPANIONS
CHARACTERS
The master is characterized through categories of: physical apparence and reactions. The narrator focus the attention on his great body mass (stationed), his authoritarian attitude; the narrator also underlines the juxtaposition between him and the children (fat - small) and between him and the servants (“pauper assistants”) to communicate the idea of his superior position.
THE MASTER AND THE SERVANT

5. NARRATIVE TECHNIQUE TECHNICAL DEVICES ANTITHESIS
Third person omniscient and intrusive narrator. He reveals characters' thoughts and filters description with connotative devices, as a consequence the reader is not totally free.
NARRATIVE TECHNIQUE
both convey to the reader a feeling of superiority and provide also a partial identification with the subjects because the characters are exaggerated and as a consequence the reader cannot totally identify himself with them
PATHOS AND GROTESQUE
a quality that evokes pity or sadness
a very ugly or comically distorted figure, creature or image
ANTITHESIS
TECHNICAL DEVICES
the READING PUBLIC were the middle class and the lower middle class
HYPERBOLIC USE OF THE LANGUAGE
ANAPHORA AND REPETITION OF THE SAME WORD ORDER OR STRUCTURE (in order to criticize and ridicule some aspects)
They could identify themselves in the story (moreover thanks to the Education Act which make education compulsory, people were no longer analphabetic )

6. MR BOUNDERBY CHARACTERIZATION
Mr Bounderby is a rich banker who married the daughter of a rich, retired merchant (Thomas Gradgrind)
The title recalls the idea of a period of particular difficulties; as a matter of fact the novel attacks industrialisation and its ills
extract from Hard Times’s fourth chapter, written by C. Dickens
CHARACTERIZATION
5. self made man
1. particular feature
3. social status
4. physical description
2. personality
He was not Mrs Grundy, a character from Thomas Morton’s play Speed to the Plough; the personification of the tyranny of conventional propriety
he was always proclaiming, his old ignorance and his old poverty
big, loud man, stare and metallic laugh, made out of a coarse material, great puffed head and forehead, swelled veins, strained skin
Very important value during the Victorian Age.
The figure of the self-made man was the model for the Middle class.

7. NARRATIVE TECNIQUE Second character: Mr Gradgrind CHARACTERIZATION
physical description
little,thin, white, of surpassing feebleness, mental and bodily
NARRATIVE TECNIQUE
great physical difference between the two characters; Mr Bounderby’s superiority and Mr Grandgrind’s subdued position are highlighted
third person omniscient and intrusive narrator
language devices (used in order to underline some important aspects)
technique of telling
use of the technique of showing (dialogue)
repetitions
hyperbolic use of the language
attention to the iconological aspect
same expressions or words, its function is to focus the attention on particular elements

8. extract from Nicholas Nickleby, written by C. Dickens
Nicholas is a young gentleman from the country,comes to London hoping to get help from his father's brother Ralph.
TITLE: the reader expects the story to be about life and adventures of Nicholas Nickleby who probably is the main character
Nicholas has been employed as a teacher by Mrs squeers who runs Dotheboys Hall
CHARACTERIZATION
Children :Children's characterization is built on pathos and concerns their attitude in the classroom.
Mrs Squeers :His characterization is also made up by the way he teached: he is shown as a ridiculous figure when he sat himself up as a teacher who did not know the correct spelling of words and had a very weak knowledge of Latin.

9. attention to the iconological aspect
NARRATIVE TECNIQUE
Language device
The third person omniscient intrusive narrator emphasizes the children's poverty and miserable condition by describing how they behave
The use of showing and telling
The use of the exaggeration, used by the novelist to describe Mr. Squeers and his educational method, is used to ridicule Mr. Squeers’ arrogance and sense of superiority.
attention to the iconological aspect
the use of simile and metaphor: like diluted pincushions and the metaphor a minute wedge convey the idea of very poor and disgusting meal.