Science vs. Religion in Victorian Literature
The Victorians were the first to confront Darwin's theory of evolution. Yep, we're talking before the bumper stickers. When his Origin of Species came out in 1859, it sparked a lot of debate. Sure, some people had questioned whether the Bible was literally accurate (especially when it came to the age of the earth—geologists had some ideas of their own). But Darwin was also proposing a new theory for how the earth came to be populated with so many different species. (Hint: Darwin said it didn't just take one week.)
Victorian theories about nature often work their way into the lit when things take a turn for the bleak—from Tennyson's famous description of nature as "red in tooth and claw," to George Gissing's depressing novels about being poor in London. Things are pretty wretched in Gissing's New Grub Street: it's like taking Darwin's theories and applying them to the London literary scene. All the characters seem to be in a real struggle for survival. They're trying to make it as writers, but only the strong (or just lucky) survive. It doesn't seem to matter how hard people try, or how much faith they have—sometimes the world (i.e., nature) is against them.
And of course the debates didn't end with the Victorians. The Scopes Trial really forced religion and science to face off. If you've heard the more recent debates about teaching evolution in schools (or teaching it along with creationism or intelligent design), then you've already got a sense of how big this issue must have been for the Victorians, who were the first on the scene.
Chew on This:
So, yes, every Thomas Hardy novel is about survival—it seems like his characters have a really hard time staying alive. But Return of the Native is especially interested in how people are affected by their environment. How could you use the "survival of the fittest" to analyze the novel's Egdon Heath?
Middlemarch is full of scientific allusions and comparisons with religious purpose. What do you make of Lydgate's belief in scientific progress and Dorothea's almost saintly aspirations?