The Victorian Criticism

Before going through Victorian Criticism, we must be sure about The Victorian Age. This Age is known worldwide after the reign of Queen Victoria, the first woman ruler for  the vast political, social, technological and ethical changes during the period from 1837 to 1901.Victorian Criticism reflected the ideological upheaval which was presented within society as a whole. There were new advances in empirical sciences such as biology and geology gave questions about the nature of reality and previous ideas about religion and truth. Increased overcrowding, poverty and disease, in addition to a climate of materialism and mechanization, resulted in a generalized cultural feeling of anxiety and necessity. Given this idea to the proper function of literature and of criticism became a subject of wide range  of debate. Critics of the day examined literature in relationship to other modes of discourse such as science, religion, and art. According to Alba, the post-Romantic critics “recognized few common aims.” Terry Eagleton explained that Victorian literary critics were conflicted to the respect to their roles in the culture of that time, stating that “either criticism strives to justify itself at the bar of public opinion by maintaining a general humanistic responsibility for the culture as a whole, the amateurism of which will prove increasingly incapacitating as bourgeois society develops; or it converts itself into a species of technological expertise, thereby establishing its professional legitimacy at the cost of renouncing any wider social relevance ".

Matthew Arnold,(British Poet and Critic),perhaps the most influential critic of the Victorian Age, saw cultural expressions such as art and literature as having an important impact on the overall well-being of society. He felt  after self analysis that great literature conveyed deep and everlasting truths about the human condition. His works, combined with detached objective criticism, would naturally move towards culture, intellectual, moral and spiritual perfection in the society. Arnold also attempted to address societal anxieties regarding new science and the threat to religion by proposing that people look to poetry for inspiration and as a buffer of sorts from bleak reality. His career as a literary critic started in the late  sixties. His critical lectures touched the bottom of social surface "Essays on Criticism, published in 1865, and before his last phase of life "Culture and Anarchy",published in 1869.In the view of Patrick Parrinder; it was Arnold who “bore the brunt of propagandizing for literary culture in the Victorian age. He saw literature as embodying the spiritual life of modern society and taking over the edifying and consoling functions of religion.”  However, Eliot claimed that Arnold's work as a critic is weakened by his “conjuring trick” though,he considered poetry as substitutes for both the Religion and the Philosophy. Eliot says that Arnold's reputation as a literary critic is overblown and unsubstantial, his viewpoint is challenged  by Lionel Trilling in his essay, “The Spirit of Criticism.” Arnold's cultivation of thoughts "sheer desire to see things as they are " Through his literary viewpoint, human society devided into three parts, Barbarians, Philistines and The Populace. Here Barbarians represent the aristocracy, Philistines represent the middle class and the Populace represent working class. Again, world stood up with his critical view, "Sweetness and Light" first coined by Jonathan Swift in The Battle of The Books. This critical view stands for beauty and wisdom that culture adds to human life. 
In the century, in contrast to previous concerns with science, culture, and religion, came to the development of the Aesthetic Movement with its term of “Art for Art's Sake.” The movement centered on Walter Pater’s Preface to Studies in the History of the Renaissance (1873),, which was written after a trip to Italy where Pater became quite impressed with the vitality and sensuality of Italian culture and art. The Aesthetic Movement pivoted on the faith that, since the absolutes of religion and morality were rendered relatively and mutabley, the purpose of life had necessarily changed as well. Pater wrote, since life was so short, it was imperative to seek, “not the fruit of experience but experience itself.” According to the Aesthetes, to be truly alive was to be immersed in “ecstatic experience,” with free enjoyment being the supreme priority and “beauty”, is a central focus. Aesthetic critics became concerned with seeking and identifying beauty, not as an absolute but as a “relative, ever-changing” quality. Albert J. Farmer claimed that “the aim of the aesthetic critic should be, therefore, to find, not some inadequate universal formula, but the formula which expresses beauty in this or that individual case, under these or those particular circumstances.” Mostly through Victorian critics, many literary movements could be dealt such as Oxford Movement, Aesthetic Movement and Pre-Rephaelite Movement in which most of them focused social, political and philosophical faiths in the English society.