Victorian Age Literature in the Light of Industrialization Essay Example for Free

Victorian Age Literature in the Light of industrialization EssayWriters during the Victorian age wrote about the detrimental effects of the Industrial Revolution, traditional gender roles, and a failing adherence to morality. In their works, Victorian writers convey hearty unrest, which was aggravated by unyielding industry. Female authors were often more(prenominal) popular than their male counterparts, and often had to hide their authorship. For instance, poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning gave a harsh critique of the Industrial Revolution, gender roles, and the decaying sense of morality during the Victorian period in her poem The Cry of the Children. The subject of her poem is the plight of young children, who were forced to labor in appalling conditions of industrialization. They are weeping in the playtime of the others / In the country of the free (11-12). This poetry by Browning typifies the way in which cognitive dissonance for child labor, as well as other social ills, was utilized by Victorian writers to admonish the wrong doings of society.Browning draws a close comparison between the control of men over the utensil of industrialization in society and Gods plenary powers over humanity He is speechless as a stone / And they tell us, of His discover the master / Who commands us to work on (126-129). Furthermore, the poem focused on this paradox by contrasting the fact that, while Britain purports to be moral and free, the true lives of those who should be the most protected and liberated, the children, are absolutely deplorable.Brownings poetry also strongly exemplifies the way in which many Victorian authors incorporated, along with the criticism of industrialization, the subject of societys faulty preconceptions of gender roles.Works CitedBrowning, Elizabeth Barrett. The Cry of the Children. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. 7th ed. Vol. 2. Ed. M. H Abrams. New York W. W. Norton Company, 2000. 1174-1178. Riley, Brendan. Character istics of Victorianism and the Departing Thereof. University Journal, Association of Young Journalists and Writers, http//ayjw. org/articles. php? id=725681, 2006.