Victorian vs. Modern Conventions of Character

George P. Landow, Professor of English and Art History, Brown University

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Works Frequently Cited

Quotations from these editions are identified in the main text by author, title of work, and, following the passage quoted, citation within parentheses of volume and page number:

Thomas Carlyle, The Works "Centenary Edition", ed. H. D. Traill, 30 vols. London, 1896-9 .

Patrick Fairbairn, The Typology of Scripture viewed in connection with the whole series of . . . The Divine Dispensations, 2 vols. Grand Rapids, 1975, reprint of N. Y., 1900 edition .

Thomas Hartwell Horne, An Introduction to the Critical Study and Knowledge of the Holy Scriptures, 7th ed., 4 vols. London, 1834.

John Keble, Sermons for the Christian Year, 7 vols. Oxford, 1879-80 .

John Henry Newman, Parochial and Plain Sermons, 8 vols. London, 1891.

John Ruskin, The Works 'The Library Edition', eds. E. T. Cook and Alexander Wedderburn, 39 vols. London, 1903-12.

John Charles Ryle, Knots Untied. Being Plain Statements on Disputed Points in Religion, from the Standpoint of an Evangelical Churchman , 13th edn. London, 1891.

Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Sermons, 20 vols. London, 1856.

[Adapted from Victorian Types, Victorian Shadows: Biblical Typology in Victorian Literature, Art, and Thought, 1980. Full text]

John R. Reed convincingly argues that both Victorian and modern fiction retains "conventions of character" analogous to earlier ones:

Our stylizations are largely Freudian, as Victorians¹ were moral and physiognomical, and earlier centuries¹ were humorous or canonical.... In Victorian literature what we would call realistic motivation is often incorporate with type fulfillment. Characters do not act according to a system of humors or ruling passions, nor are they moved by the complexes and neuroses of the twentieth-century man; instead, they exhibit predictable combinations of attributes which result in conventional types. (14)

Within this kind of typology (which, incidentally, is not a symbolic mode) a character is said to fulfill a type when he or she completes a recognized pattern; say, the lonely maiden or the orphan child; and such completing of a pre-established pattern bears a minor resemblance to the operations of scriptural typology.

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Last modified 1998