1 Mentalities, Movements and Institutions Characteristic for the Victorian Age in Historical Succession Summary I.THE ME TA!

ITIES So far "e have studied the follo"ing mentalities# $ the utilitarian mentality, "hich "as the dominant1 one% it "as the a&&anage of the entre&reneurial middle classes and rested u&on the social la"s and institutions related to the creation of "ealth% it "as ins&ired 'y (eremy )entham*s &hiloso&hy turned into a slogan a'out +the greatest ha&&iness of the greatest num'ers, $the old li'eral and humanistic &aradigm, dominant in the first half of the nineteenth century -ins&ired from Thomas Carlyle*s free &reaching of .uritanical values to the mass of man/ind0 and "hich "as transformed 'y (ohn Henry e"man into a system of education ,"ith distinterestedness, /no"ledge and virtue, as its main values $the ne", modern li'eral and &ositivistic &aradigm, dominant in the mid$Victorian &eriod, namely in the 1123s and 1143 and transmitted to modern enlightened and democratic, i.e., li'eral societies -to the ca&italistic democracies0 in the t"entieth century. This mentality "as turned into a civic, ethical conce&tion 'y (ohn Stuart Mill, "ho e5&lained ho" societies can &ractically function in fairness to truth and to their mature mem'ers. Mill 'orro"ed virtue, this im&ortant com&onent of the old li'eral, idealistic &aradigm as an essential modern virtue from the residual culture of the humanistic idealists. Matthe" Arnold also added to the &ositivistic, ne" li'eral conce&tion the old virtues of the classical tradition, of )ildung. He "ished to educate the ma6ority of man/ind so as to develo& &ersons in a &lenary "ay, multilaterally, through the four &o"ers. Es&ecially, Matthe" Arnold used the &o"er of 'eauty, as he "as a &oet, also, to develo& the historical sense of modern &eo&le. otice the com'ination 'et"een the residual

See 7aymond 8illiams*s te5t +9ominant, 7esidual, Emergent,, in Surdulescu, 7 and Stefanescu, ) Reader in Contemporary Critical Theories. )ucharest# the English 9e&artment of the :niversity of )ucharest. 1;;;, &.123se< The com&le5ity of a culture is to 'e found not only in its varia'le &rocesses and their social definitions $ traditions, institutions, and formations $ 'ut also in the dynamic interrelations, at every &oint in the &rocess, of historically varied and varia'le elements.-=0 )y >residual* I mean something different from the >archaic*, though in &ractice these are often very difficult to distinguish. Any culture includes availa'le elements of its &ast, 'ut their &lace in the contem&orary cultural &rocess is &rofoundly varia'le.?? )y >emergent* I mean -=0elements of some ne" &hase of the dominant culture -=0 and those "hich are su'stantially alternative or o&&ositional to it% emergent in the strict sense, rather than merely novel??. The area of effective &enetration of the dominant order into the "hole social and cultural &rocess is thus no" significantly greater. @8 7EAE7S T@ CA.ITA!ISM, I THE I ETEE TH CE T:7B# in advanced ca&italism, 'ecause of changes in the character of la'our, in the social character of communications, and in the social character of decision$ma/ing, the dominant culture reaches much further than ever 'efore in ca&italist society into hitherto >reserved* or >resigned* areas of e5&erience and &ractice and meaning.

C elements of the old li'eral &aradigm and the values of )ildung in the dominant, ne" li'eral conce&tion.

Dover Beach
BY MATTHEW ARNOLD The sea is calm tonight. The tide is full, the moon lies fair Upon the straits; on the French coast the light Gleams and is gone; the cliffs of England stand, Glimmering and vast, out in the tranquil ba . !ome to the "indo", s"eet is the night#air$ %nl , from the long line of spra &here the sea meets the moon#blanched land, 'isten$ ou hear the grating roar %f pebbles "hich the "aves dra" bac(, and fling, )t their return, up the high strand, Begin, and cease, and then again begin, &ith tremulous cadence slo", and bring The eternal note of sadness in. *ophocles long ago +eard it on the ,gean, and it brought -nto his mind the turbid ebb and flo" %f human miser ; "e Find also in the sound a thought, +earing it b this distant northern sea. The *ea of Faith &as once, too, at the full, and round earth.s shore 'a li(e the folds of a bright girdle furled. But no" - onl hear -ts melanchol , long, "ithdra"ing roar, /etreating, to the breath %f the night#"ind, do"n the vast edges drear )nd na(ed shingles of the "orld.

)h, love, let us be true To one another$ for the "orld, "hich seems To lie before us li(e a land of dreams, *o various, so beautiful, so ne", +ath reall neither 0o , nor love, nor light, 1or certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain; )nd "e are here as on a dar(ling plain *"ept "ith confused alarms of struggle and flight, &here ignorant armies clash b night.
As can 'e seen in +9over )each,, he circumscri'ed modernity as an age "ith only fee'le faith, and conse<uently suffering from a state of confusion. He "ished to raise the cultural a"areness of the moderns and to enrich their lives through the contact "ith tradition. Aor Arnold, the literature of older civiliEations and earlier im&ortant or canonical stages of civiliEation could e<ui& the &resent as a "hole "ith inter&retive &o"er and deliverance% they could alleviate modern unha&&iness. Interpretive power "as +the &o"er of so dealing "ith things as to a"a/en in us a "onderfully full, ne", intimate sense of them F of things F and of our relations "ith them, -Maurice de Guerin, in Essays in Criticism, the Airst Series F 11420. In addition, culture offers deliverance to man. 9eliverance is +the com&rehension of the &resent and the &ast, and &uts man +in &ossession of general ideas, -On the Modern Element in Literature, 112H0. After studying the cultural cam&aigns and movements for correcting the contours of the mainstream or dominant mentality, "hich meant to enlarge it "ith the &oint of vie" of o&&osing mentalities -as for e5am&le enlarging the ne" li'eral &aradigm "ith the old li'eral &aradigm in modern education0, it "ill 'e &ossi'le to tal/ a'out the emergent mentality of agnosticism and of aestheticism. Agnosticism, as &resented 'y Thomas Henry Hu5ley in +Agnosticism and Christianity, -11;;0 "as a mentality "hich insinuated itself in the "a/e of science, as su&erior on the scale of man/ind*s intellectual evolution. Aeshteticism im&osed itself u&on the late Victorian contem&oraries as a decadent, underground, su'versive movement -'ut it 'ecame the dominant cultural movement of the first half of the t"entieth century, in modernism0. 8hereas agnosticism addressed "hat Arnold had called +the &o"er of intellect and /no"ledge,, 'y se&arating it for ever from theology -to "hich the intellect had 'een considered organically lin/ed in the old li'eral &aradigm0, aestheticism "as one of the late Victorian emergent mentalities and movements "hich criticiEed the dominant materialism and utilitarianism of the day. Aestheticism had this in common "ith socialism, the uto&ian 'rand, as "ill 'e seen 'elo".

The &eo&le "ho call themselves IAgnosticsI have 'een charged "ith doing so 'ecause they have not the courage to declare themselves IInfidels.I It has 'een insinuated that they have ado&ted a ne" name in order to esca&e the un&leasantness "hich attaches to their &ro&er denomination. To this "holly erroneous im&utation, I have re&lied 'y sho"ing that the term IAgnosticI did, as a matter of fact, arise in a manner "hich negatives it% and my statement

has not 'een, and cannot 'e, refuted. Moreover, KD13L s&ea/ing for myself, and "ithout im&ugning the right of any other &erson to use the term in another sense, I further say that Agnosticism is not &ro&erly descri'ed as a InegativeI creed, nor indeed as a creed of any /ind, e5ce&t in so far as it e5&resses a'solute faith in the validity of a &rinci&le, "hich is as much ethical as intellectual. This &rinci&le may 'e stated in various "ays, 'ut they all amount to this# that it is "rong for a man to say that he is certain of the o'6ective truth of any &ro&osition unless he can &roduce evidence "hich logically 6ustifies that certainty. This is "hat Agnosticism asserts% and, in my o&inion, it is all that is essential to Agnosticism. That "hich Agnostics deny and re&udiate, as immoral, is the contrary doctrine, that there are &ro&ositions "hich men ought to 'elieve, "ithout logically satisfactory evidence% and that re&ro'ation ought to attach to the &rofession of dis'elief in such inade<uately su&&orted &ro&ositions. The 6ustification of the Agnostic &rinci&le lies in the success "hich follo"s u&on its a&&lication, "hether in the field of natural, or in that of civil, history% and in the fact that, so far as these to&ics are concerned, no sane man thin/s of denying its validity.

II.Movements, Institutions
The social and cultural movements of the Victorian age are, all of them, e5&ressions of the <uarrel 'et"een dominant ca&italism, its &ractices and institutions, residual idealism, and emergent socialism. Socialism "as a mentality that "ished to e5tend the 'enefits of modern life to the under&rivileged la'ourers, "hom Marl Mar5 considered to 'e the e5&loited creators of the modern material "ealthC. Marl Mar/ and Ariedrich Engels called them &roletarians. 7adical, revolutionary Mar5ism and uto&ian socialism ended u& advocating the com&lete a'olition of &ro&erty and the ca&italist mode of &roduction, and its re&lacement 'y a more 6ust form of communist o"nershi& over the &roduction means. This cause "as enthusiastically em'raced 'y artists, 8illiam Morris, the leader of the Arts and Crafts movement and s&onsor of the "or/sho&s of this movement and @scar 8ilde. 8iliam Morris "rote +Ho" I 'ecame a Socialist, and @scar 8ilde +The Soul of Man :nder Socialism,. )ut there e5isted another, more moderate form of socialism, Aa'ianism F from the name of the Aa'ian Society set u& in !ondon in 111J 'y the Anglo$Irish artist George )ernard Sha" and his friends, the cou&le of )eatrice and Sidney 8e''. This 'rand of socialism advocated the slo" reformation A7@M 8ITHI of 'lind ca&italism. Aa'ianism "as a 'rand of socialism that sought to reform the laisseE$faire state 'y im&roving the social structure of the ca&italistic state slo"ly -the name of this 'rand of socialism
C

!oo/ing 'ac/ from Mar5, 8ilde and Sha", it is o'vious that Thomas Carlyle "as a &roto$socialist. In Past and Present -11JD0he criticiEed the cruelties of laisseE$faire ca&italism and its "orshi& of the God Mammona, or Mammonism, as Thomas Carlyle called the modern cult for money.

2 derives from a 7oman general, Aa'ius Cunctator, "ho strategically delayed action in order to "in 'attles0. Aa'ian socialism "as see/ing to achieve a fairer distri'ution of "ealth as a means of securing fairer living conditions for the mass of society in a more interventionist state than the original laisseE$faire one. It is along Aa'ian &rinci&les that the C3th century )ritish state develo&ed, "or/ing to"ards a mi5ed economy, organiEed along 'oth ca&italistic, trade lines "hile it also gave &lanning?interventionist?centraliEed authority to the state. The 'est literary e5&lanation of Aa'ianism as a social cause is to 'e found in the &lay +Ma6or )ar'ara,, 'y George )ernard Sha" -&u'lished in 1;320, "hich confronts the effects of the Christian institution of charity called The Salvation Army "ith the effects of reforming along utilitarian lines the life of the &oor social orders. Ma6or )ar'ara and her fiancN tried to discover a 'etter 'rand of maturity than that of their middle$class &arents. They "ere out to offer food, shelter and s&iritual consolation 'y Christian conversion to &eo&le "hose maturity and "isdom "as coined in anger. )y the conversion of contrite souls, the Salvation Army sought to a&&ease the social anger of the do"n$to$earth, rough maturity of laid$off "or/ers, a ty&ically staunch maturity of the lo"er orders of society. Sha"*s &lay is related to the confrontation 'et"een the social lin/ &rovided 'y charity -in the esta'lishment of the charita'le organiEation of the Salvation Army0 and the social lin/ &rovided 'y &ragmatic efficiency -as em'odied in the arms factory "hich creates "or/$ &laces for &eo&le0. EOCE7.TS A7@M @SCA7 8I!9E*S THE SOUL OF M ! U!"ER SOC# L#SM -11;10

The chief advantage that would result from the establishment of Socialism is, undoubtedly, the fact that Socialism would relieve us from that sordid necessity of living for others which, in the present condition of things, presses so hardly upon almost everybody. In fact, scarcely anyone at all escapes.()
8ilde considered that there "ere &eo&le "ho, 6ust li/e the Salvation Army or the sou& canteens , with admirable, though misdirected intentions (.) very seriously and very

sentimentally set themselves to the task of remedying the evils that they see. ut their remedies do not cure the disease! they merely prolong it. Indeed, their remedies are part of the disease. They try to solve the problem of poverty, for instance, by keeping the poor alive" or, in the case of a very advanced school, by amusing the poor. ut this is not a solution! it is an aggravation of the difficulty. The proper aim is to try and reconstruct society on such a basis that poverty will be impossible.
Socialism advocated the a'olition of &ro&erty 'ecause, as 8ilde stated# Socialism, #ommunism, or whatever one chooses to call it, by converting private property into public wealth, and substituting co$ operation for competition, will restore society to its proper condition of a thoroughly healthy organism, and insure the material well$being of each member of the community. It will, in fact, give %ife its proper

4 basis and its proper environment. ut for the full development of %ife to its highest mode of perfection, something more is needed. &hat is needed is Individualism.

The most outstanding cultural movement "as that of the first avant$garde, the Pre-Raphaelite artists movement -see the .o"er .oint &resentation0. This movement "as su&&orted from inside the esta'lishment institution of the 7oyal Academy of Arts, 'y (ohn 7us/in, "ho "as also one of the &roto$socialists, together "ith Carlyle, and had turned his 'ac/ on the &resent, returning in &ainting to the .re$7a&haelite &eriod of Giotto and Giovanni )ellini and in architecture to the Gothic style. He "as the cultural father of the Gothic revival in architecture, "hich &roduced the Houses of .arliament and the red$'ric/ universities designed and constructed in the same style all over the )ritish Em&ire. The Oxford Movement F a religious revival movement "ithin the Anglican High Church, "hose 'rilliant leader "as, in the 11D3s, (ohn Henry e"man. They &u'lished several Tracts for the Times, and e"man*s Tract ;3 demonstrated ho" Victorian religiousness "as te&id. At the time, there also e5isted a grou& of rationalist Christians, called the oetics, "ho had a more &ositivistic vie" of faith.Also, there e5isted !o" Church revivals, for e5am&le the Methodist revival, "hich can 'e understood in George Eliot*s novel dam $ede, one of "hose &rotagonists is 9inah Morris, a Methodist &reacher. As far as the Victorian institutions are concerned, after the movements enumerated, it 'ecomes o'vious that the 7oyal Academy of Arts "as one of the institutions "hich defended the dominant mentality and therefore conservative, "hile the Arts and Crafts movement and its "or/sho&s re&resented the emergent mentality together "ith the avant$garde movement of the .re$7a&haelites. Similarly, the @5ford Movement "or/ed against the dominant mentality in the esta'lished High Church F and as &roof of that, (ohn Henry e"man eventually o&ted for another, non$English religious esta'lishment# the Catholic or 7ome Church. )ut the Tractarian movement led to the a&&earance of Anglo$Catholicism as a ne" religious denomination. Also, notice the s&read of ne"er .rotestant, !o" Church Movements, "hich led to the a&&earance of the Aree Church Aederation in )ritain at the end of the nineteenth century. Appendix, texts to translate in the seminars, before the exam Arom the Cam'ridge 9ictionary of Illustrated Heritage F THE A7TS A 9 C7AATS M@VEME T entry Arom Thomas Carlyle# Past and Present, .art III -The Modern 8or/er0, +The Gos&el of Mammonism,

=."e for the &resent, "ith our Mammon$Gos&el, have come to strange conclusions. 8e call it a Society% and go a'out &rofessing o&enly the totalest se&aration, isolation. @ur life is not a mutual hel&fulness% 'ut rather, cloa/ed under due la"s$of$"ar, named Pfair com&etitionP and so forth, it is a mutual hostility. 8e have &rofoundly forgotten every"here that Cash%payment is not

the sole relation of human 'eings% "e thin/, nothing dou'ting, that it a'solves and li<uidates all engagements of man. IMy starving "or/ersQI ans"ers the rich mill$o"ner# I9id not I hire them fairly in the mar/etQ 9id I not &ay them, to the last si5&ence, the sum covenanted forQ 8hat have I to do "ith them moreQIRVerily Mammon$"orshi& is a melancholy creed. 8hen Cain, for his o"n 'ehoof, had /illed A'el, and "as <uestioned, I8here is thy 'rotherQI he too made ans"er, IAm I my 'rotherPs /ee&erQI 9id I not &ay my 'rother his "ages, the thing he had merited from meQ

Carlyle*s &roto$socialist criti<ue of laisseE faire from )oo/ I of Past and Present

The "orld, "ith its 8ealth of ations, Su&&ly$and$demand and suchli/e, has of late days 'een terri'ly inattentive to that <uestion of "or/ and "ages. 8e "ill not say, the &oor "orld has retrograded even here# "e "ill say rather, the "orld has 'een rushing on "ith such fiery animation to get "or/ and ever more "or/ done, it has had no time to thin/ of dividing the "ages% and has merely left them to 'e scram'led for 'y the !a" of the Stronger, la" of Su&&ly$and$demand, la" of !aisseE$faire, and other idle !a"s and :n$la"s,R saying, in its dire haste to get the "or/ done, That is "ell enoughS P!aisseE$faire,P PSu&&ly$and$demand,P PCash$&ayment for the sole ne5us,P and so forth, "ere not, are not and "ill never 'e, a &ractica'le !a" of :nion for a Society of Men. That .oor and 7ich, that Governed and Governing, cannot long live together on any such !a" of :nion. Alas, he thin/s that man has a soul in him, di&&erent from the stomach in any sense of this "ord% that if said soul 'e as&hy5ied, and lie <uietly forgotten, the man and his affairs are in a 'ad "ay.