Travel+&+the+Victorian+Imagination

[9] Travel is a motif throughout Victorian Literature, as the empire grew and the Victorian reading public developed increasing interest in the world beyond England. In the Victorian works “An Epistle... of Karshish, the Arab Physician,” (Robert Browning) “Locksley Hall,” (Lord Alfred Tennyson), Icelandic Journals (William Morris), and “Goblin Market,” (Christina Rossetti) travel transforms the imaginative worlds of characters, often leading them to envision advancing industrialized culture.

In Christina Rossetti's, “Goblin Market,” Lizzie and Laura encounter “goblins” who are travelling merchants that have come to sell their “novelty” goods. These merchants are unique in that they sell rare, exotic fruits which were difficult to obtain in Victorian England. The physical imagery of how the fruits look [1] represent how travel opportunities were merging between England and its surrounding countries. These opportunities provided for increasing importing and exporting trade with major international markets, including India, the U.S., and Asia [2]. Fruits and other sources of food in the Victorian Age were important, especially those that came from overseas such as spices, which attracted the Victorians [3]. With access to sea and railroad transportation, Victorians increasingly experimented with exotic food and spices [3].

Robert Browning’s character Karshish, an Arab doctor, relies primarily on rationality and science, viewpoints which become conflicted during his travels. Karshish travels to Jerusalem, where he witnesses the miracle of Jesus bringing Lazarus back to life. He struggles to find a logical explanation for this supernatural phenomenon (Browning 248) [4]. In the poem, Browning reverses Orientalist tropes that associate the West, and especially the English, with science and rationality (Browning 246) [4].

In Lord Alfred Tennyson's “Locksley Hall,” a soldier travels back to his childhood home (Locksley Hall) where he thinks back to his younger days. While he is at Locksley Hall, the speaker remembers his lover, Amy. As he looks back at those memories, the speaker talks in a romantic way about the nature setting mentioning beaches, constellations, and the repeated use of “Spring” (Tennyson 140) [6]. However, after Amy rejected the speaker, he enlisted into the army which made him travel both literally and imaginatively. The soldier imagines that he “Saw the Vision of the world...Saw the heavens fill with commerce, argosies of magic sails” (Tennyson 143) [6]. The sayings act as “dream travels” for the soldier, predicting the influences travel will have on industrial production. Soldiers were actually involved in Victorian wars which required them to travel to distant places such as China (Chinese Boxer Rebellion, 1900) and New Zealand (Maori Wars, 1844-1846, 1860-1861, 1863-1865) [7], to mention just a few.

William Morris also wrote travel literature. His narrative, Icelandic Journals, is a series of diaries that he wrote while he journeyed through Iceland. Morris developed a fascination for Northern mythology which served as one of his purposes for doing the expedition (Morris xvi) [8]. In one of his early diaries, Morris shows excitement on seeing the “Diana” vessel ship that prepares to transport him to Iceland (Morris 5) [8]. In another diary entry, Morris finds himself in a town on the Faroes Islands that reminds him of a Dutch town from his childhood days (Morris 13) [8]. The strange childhood “familiarity” continues as he comes across a field of flowers and finds them to be strange in a very different country even though he knows them back at home (Morris 13) [8].

--D.D./ENGL 335/Whittier College/Fall 2012



Notes: [1]. Rossetti, C. “Goblin Market.” The Broadview Anthology of Victorian Poetry. Ed. Thomas J. Collins. Ed. Vivienne J. Rundle. Ed. Wai Ying Lee. Ed. Kirsten Munro. Canada: Broadview Press, Ltd., 2005. 412. Print.

[2]. Atterbury, P. “Victorian Technology.” BBC. 17 Feb. 2011. 18 Nov. 2012 []

[3]. “Victorian Kitchen Technology.” California Academy of Sciences. 18 Nov. 2012. []

[4]. Browning, R. “An Epistle Containing the Strange Medical Experience of Karshish, the Arab Physician.” The Broadview Anthology of Victorian Poetry. Ed. Thomas J. Collins. Ed. Vivienne J. Rundle. Ed. Wai Ying Lee. Ed. Kirsten Munro. Canada: Broadview Press, Ltd., 2005. 246, 248 251. Print.

[5]. Fyfe, A. and Wyhe J. “Victorian Science and Religion.” The Victorian Web. 18 Nov. 2012. []

[6]. Tennyson, A. “Locksley Hall.” The Broadview Anthology of Victorian Poetry. Ed. Thomas J. Collins. Ed. Vivienne J. Rundle. Ed. Wai Ying Lee. Ed. Kirsten Munro. Canada: Broadview Press, Ltd., 2005. 140, 143. Print.

[7]. “Chinese Boxer Rebellion 1900.” “New Zealand Maori Wars.” War Times Index. 18 Nov. 2012. []

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[8]. Morris, W. Icelandic Journals. New York: Praeger Publishers, 1970. Print.

[9]. http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Travel/Pix/pictures/2009/10/30/1256901529168/Victorian-British-tourist-001.jpg