God and Religion in Victorian Literature
Hilary Fraser believes that one of the most prominent and characteristic features of Victorian thought was "a proliferation of religio-aesthetic theories designed to reconcile the claims of Christianity and beauty, morality and art" (Fraser 1). She argues that this tendency to relate religious experience to aesthetic experience was particularly pronounced in the nineteenth century. For example, she notes that in the visual arts, painters used biblical scenes for their subject-matter. She believes that this resulted in a "peculiarly Victorian religious mysticism," which many people came to accept as the particular domain of Victorian poetry (Fraser 2). Thus, she argues, Victorian poetry became a way of expressing religious truths and interpreting Scriptural meaning. She notes that the Bible was for the first time criticized as a work of literature during the nineteenth century (Fraser 2).
The Victorian Period, however, was also a time of great religious turmoil. The Roman Catholic Church went into decline following the Reformation due to the monarchy's turning away from it. However, the church established in its place, the Church of England, was no less subject to dissension than had the Catholic Church been. By the time of the Victorians, the Church of England was subject to as many dissenters and as much corruption as the Catholic Church was at the time of the Reformation. For Robert Browning, the single most influential sect of dissenters was the Evangelicals. His parental background grew out of such dissenters and his poetry reflects the questioning of God and religion and how one practices related beliefs. The poetry of Alfred, Lord Tennyson on the other hand, reflects his more ruminative approach to the question of religious belief. Nonetheless, both poets reflect the questioning of the nature and role of humanity and religious belief that characterized the Victorian Pe...