Existentialist ideas and three Victorian novels

Abstract

The Delphic maxim, 'Know thyself' contains a fascination which depth psychology, emphasis on self expression and various cults of the individual have done little to subdue. Problems raised about the nature of man and his experience have constantly changed their form, but in the nineteenth century because of new information and the accelerated development of a new vehicle of expression, the novel, the problems received promiscuous and urgent attention. The novels, Sartor Resartus, Middlemarch and The Return of the Native are as representative of their time as they are typical of their authors. Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881), George Eliot (1819-1880) and Thomas Hardy (1840-1928) were widely influential and shared a nostalgia for the past, an understanding of contemporary problems and concern for the future. They tackled philosophical questions while debating the nature of their art and considering a very real demand from their public, not only for propriety but for security. Because many of their difficulties have been buried by modern sophistry rather than solved, and because the Victorian novel may be studied as a mediation between the great intellectual controversies of the century and the general reading public, this thesis attempts to explicate what these three novels contribute to the study of the individual.