A Study Of Manors In The English Victorian Novel

With the unique charm and influence, "Victorian Novel" has established its status in thehistory of English literature and world literature. The magnificent and mysterious old manors inVictorian Novel also have formed a series of symbolistic images, and a colorful literary sight. TheVictorian Age in the 19th century is the age in which industrialization, democratization andurbanization has accomplished in Britain. As the symbolistic entity of traditional geoponiccivilization, manors in the novel have received powerful impact coming from the period of socialtransformation. This thesis attempts to analyze the far-reaching meaning of manors, and point outthat they have not only incarnated the luxury and jollification of the resplendent period, but alsoconveyed the ambience of evanescence and sadness in that time. Thus the manors have become asymbolistic image, and constructed the endless imaginary space. Chapter I of the thesis discusses the manorial history and literary tradition. Manors are thehangovers of the Occident feudatory system. They incarnate the identity and fortune of the nobleand the squire, and also incarnate the "nobility complex" of the plebs. In the Victorian Age, themanors have become a special fashion in architecture. Manors in Victorian Novel also have kinwith Gothic tradition and Jane Austen's novels. Both the plot model of Gothic novels and thepassion of describing the life style in manors in Austen's novels have directly influenced VictorianNovel. Chapter II goes into the luxury and jollification what has made the manors like Eden inVictorian Novel, and analyzes the background and connotation of this vision. The unparalleledswelling consciousness of family has made the shift of literary focus from the public domain to thefamily one. The flying development of local industrialization and the plentiful fortune of colonyabroad have made the consciousness of the great empire upswing. And the abundant manorial lifealso embodies the glory as members of the empire. In the metaphor system of manor/Eden, themetaphorical meaning of gentleman/Adam and gentlewoman/Eve becomes quite prominent andimportant. On the base of Chapter II, Chapter III opens out the disillusionment and sadness like in EdenLost hidden behind the Eden vision in Victorian Novel. Along with the collapsing of the carrionsystem, the manors have fallen into the confusion before disorganization. The calculation offortune and status , and the plots and secrets brought by it, virtually injure the pureness of love andthe holiness of marriage. The Victorian English people have endured multipuzzling of identities ofsex, class and culture. The striking of all these contradictories has made the apparently peacefulmanors be complected by multiple anxieties of identity. The metaphor manor/Eden brings anothermetaphor manor/Paradise Lost, as a ramification. Chapter IV points out the symbolic relation between the manor image and the consciousnessof the Victorian Age, and takes the manors in the 20th century English literature as a reflection.The manor image has been the typical embodiment of Victorian Age, which has both addicteditself to self-satisfaction and fictitious moral, and dip-dyes the sadness and doomsdayconsciousness of social transformation. It has ulteriorly expressed the hesitation and even rejectionto the modernity. At the same time, owing to the scarcity of the description of the deep-seatedhumanity and time spirit, Victorian Novel has left wide space for imagination. Manors in thenovels of Fowles and some other novelists of the 20th century envisage such scarcity, and thengive voice to the puzzledom under orderliness and the rebellion against social norms in theVictorian Age. Manors in Victorian Novel have been the last silhouette of "Merrie England". They are theproper signs of the social transformation from the agricultural civilization to the industrial andcomm. The analyses of them in the context of today's globalization, will bring people to thinkabout the social transformation which is underway right now, equally...