Darwinian Proofs
Charles Darwin is one of the most recognizable names from the Victorian period. His works caused a major flux in culture including religion, science and human nature. Darwin showed that scientific observations collect facts and through these facts we can learn things about how the past was, and therefore learn more about what is to come. Darwin was originally sent to study medicine, which he did not like, and was then a clergyman, which had the same fate. Darwin was much more interested in collecting animals and recording their habits than academics. Darwin got to work on a ship that “surveyed” South America (Damrosch 1244), and this is when he did most of his studies. Within Galapagos he reached his theory of evolution. Darwin’s grandfather also had an interest in evolution. Charles Darwin was very set in his creationist ideas however and only became convinced of the opposite by his own notes. He did not publish however until other ideas were published about natural selection. His most important work On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection was published in 1859. In this work he explains that there is a great quantity of every species so that the strongest and healthiest survive, leaving a
Dante Rossetti was after Victorian times in literature but brought some ideas of the new aestheticism to Darwinian ideas. Rossetti was “both a poet and painter” (Damrosch 1599) and was famous for a few themes in both arts. He liked to show the “claustrophobic exploration of love in its most spiritual and sensuous manifestations.” (Damrosch 1600). Perhaps his mixed love stories were an example of his personal relationships. He loved to balance the “spiritual and sensuous” (Damrosch 1600). After Darwin’s ideas were more accepted in society, sex and religion was still an issue because sex is supposed to be put aside for a good Christian marriage. The Bible and other Christian ideals had been ripped apart for the lies underneath however, so sex and marriage were not necessarily always paired together anymore in the mind set of Pre-Raphaelites and modernists. “The Burden of Nineveh” directly relates to Darwinian ideas quite regularly. The concept of the poem is about archeologists digging up statues and relics of Greek religion. The poem questions why their religion is inferior to Christianity and how Christianity will someday only be an impact from history and not the belief of the people any longer. Christians took on an assumption at the time that their religion was superior, so Rossetti shows that religion is only in our minds and that we can make anything holy. The Greeks prayed to a god in the likeness of a Minotaur, and they spent all their lives believing that praying to these gods would solve the problems of their society. “What songs has the strange image heard?” (Rossetti line 27) To one another! for the world, which seems
Some topics in this essay:
Memoriam” Tennyson,
Robert Browning,
Matthew Arnold,
God God,
Genesis Bible,
Victorian Age,
Empire Rossetti,
Burden Nineveh”,
Rossetti London,
Charles Darwin,
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natural selection,
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human nature,
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“the burden nineveh”,
nature darwin,
rebirth spring,
damrosch 1600,
“the burden,
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Approximate Word count = 2549
Approximate Pages = 10 (250 words per page double spaced)
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