AbstractsLanguage, Literature & Linguistics

The literature of any age is an expression of certain characteristics of the life of that period. Such literature may depict one particular phase or a combination of phases. For example, Byron stressed in his work the revolt against tyranny, Shelley the dream of universal brotherhood, and Keats, the passionate love of pure beauty. Tennyson, however, contributed a broad and clear representation of many phases of the history and spirit of the Victorian Age. Tennyson followed closely his country's progress. He discussed its developments freely with his fellow men, sometimes presenting opposite opinions on the same subject in order to gain the fairest interpretation of the situation. He took an active interest in the state of agitation arising from the Reform Act of 1832 and firmly believed that greater ends could be accomplished through a more widespread education, a greater display of patriotism, and a more sympathetic attitude among the supporters of the various forms of Christianity than through imprisonment and repression. In the Victorian period, science had made great strides, bringing about a struggle between materialism and idealism in the theological and practical worlds. There were intervals of doubt, struggle, enthusiasm and despair, unbelief, strong faith, and idealism; and these, since they composed the general spirit of that age, directly or indirectly appear in Tennyson's works. Although a number of Tennyson's poems express his philosophical outlook, "In Memoriam" is probably the best chronicle of his progress from scepticism to certainty. In this and other poems, we shall see that Tennyson was not seeking to evolve a new faith, but that he was seeking to defend himself against misgivings and struggling to hold firmly to what he already believed. In numerous other selections, Tennyson has illustrate such phases as love of country, the condition of the poor, the attitude toward war, and the advancements of science. Since the Eighteenth Century had been chiefly an age of quiet optimism, the church of that era was hardly adapted to the needs of the more stirring age to follow. The ideal formerly attached to the clerical life and the popular attitude towards this life had both deteriorated. The clergyman of that day was very important to the society about him, serving as ruler, doctor, lawyer, magistrate, and teacher, in such a way that the idea of the priest was not forgotten, even though there was much to obscure it. It may be said truthfully that the clergy in many instances were pious, but the fortunes of the church are not safe in the hands of a clergy most of whom take their obligations easily. During the first third of the Nineteenth Century, this spirit of unconcern toward the mission of the church was still evident. The ordinary parish priest left no particular mark on the church history of this time. This does not imply that there were not truly religious men in the Church of England, but it does imply that they were not the official church leaders. The Romanticists had been dreamers, and…