Alfred Tennyson, Charles Darwin, Charles Lyell, and "In Memoriam"
Fidelma Lafferty, Kristen Massey, Michelle Morri, Jumana Shehadah
Alfred Lord Tennyson was born August 6, 1809, at Somersby, Lincolnshire. He was the fourth of twelve children. As a boy he led a very miserable and unhappy life. In 1828 Tennyson entered Trinity college, Cambridge. The most important part of his experience there was his friendship with Arthur Henry Hallam, who was the son of a well known historian. Hallam encouraged and inspired Tennyson to write. Hallam died in 1833. Tennyson published poems in 1842 which proved to be a great success and secured his position as the foremost Victorian Poet. The year 1850 was important to Tennyson for two reasons: his marriage to Emily Sellwood and the publication of "In Memoriam" , his great elegy to Arthur Hallam. "In Memoriam’ was merely a verification of some of the books that Tennyson had been reading" (Wiley 160). These books included Lyell and Darwin. Many of the lines in his poem show an interesting compromise between religious attitude and what is quite a different belief, the belief in human perfectibility. "In Memoriam" can be justly called a religious poem. However it is not religious because of its faith, but because of the quality of its doubt. Its Faith is a poor thing, but its doubt is a very intense experience.
The first aspects of science that seem to interest Tennyson were astronomy. However, he seemed to become more interested in geology and Lyell’s work on Geology.
Sir Charles Lyell, is perhaps the most significant figure ever born in Angus, Scotland. On the fourteenth of November 1797 Charles Lyell was born. His father, Charles Lyell, enrolled in 1786 at St. Andrew University where he studied law. When Charles Lyell was less than a year old his father left Scotland for the south of England where Lyell spent his boy hood. (Angus ) At age seven, Lyell was sent to school and became severely ill with pleurisy and began to collect insects and study their habits. "Since boy hood Lyell had been an enthusiastic amateur entomologist, and now his interest has been aroused in Geology." (Boyer 564)
In July 1817 Lyell visited his fathers friend Turner at Yarmouth, Norfolk, where he studied the effects of the interaction of the Yare River with the sea in forming the delta on which Yarmouth stood. In March 1819 Lyell was elected to the geological society of London and in the same year to the linnean Society. He was also entered into Lincoln’s Inn where he began to study law. While Lyell was studying for his degree examinations at Oxford, his eyes began to give him extreme pain. He realized that his eyes could not sustain the intense reading that was needed for his legal studies. (Boyer 546)
In the summer of 1821 Lyell visited his old school at Sussex and became very curious about the geology of Sussex. In 1827 he finally left the legal profession and devoted himself to Geology. At this time he had already began to plan his chief work The principles of Geology. " This gives the keynote of the task to which Lyell devoted his life" (Boyer 568). In this book Lyell discusses his theory that shows that in the course of gradual changes, species after species of living creatures had become extinct through inability to adapt them selves to changed environments. The first volume of the Principles of Geology appeared in 1830, the second in January 1832. The work had a great success, and the two volumes had already reached a second edition in 1833 when the third, Dealing with the successive formations of the earth’s crust was added. Between 1830 and 1872 eleven editions of his work were published , each with new material and each formed a complete history of the progress of Geology during that interval. Only a few days beo0fr his death, Lyell finished revising the first volume of the twelfth edition (Boyer 569).
In August 1838, Lyell published the elements of Geology. This book went through six editions in Lyell’s lifetime. In his third great work, The Antiquity of Man, he gave a general survey of the arguments for mans early appearance on the earth. (Boyer 569)
Lyell was also a professor of Geology at Kings College in London. In 1832 he married Mary, eldest daughter of Leonard Horner, and she became associated with him and all his work. During his journeys Lyell
" estimated the rate of recession of the falls of Niagara, the annual average accumulation of alluvial matter in the delta of the Mississippi, and studied vegetable accumulations in the "Great Dismal Swamp" of Virginia, which afterwards used in illustrating the formation of beds of coal." (Boyer 572)
Lyell also studied the coal – formations in Nova Scotia and discovered the earliest known land shell in the hollow shell of a Sigillaria.
Lyell was knighted in 1848 and was created a baronet in 1864, in which year he was president of the British association at Bath. (Boyer 572) In 1864, Lyell was elected president of the British association for the advancement of science. (Boyer574)
As he Grew older his sight, which was always weak, failed him. He died on February 22, 1875 and was buried in Westminster Abbey. " Among his characteristics were his great thirst for knowledge, his perfect fairness and sound Judgement; while the extreme freshness of his mind enabled him to accept and appreciate the work of younger men. (Boyer 574)
Geology is important to human life today. Most of the material we use are geological and are derived from Earth Materials. Geology became more popular during the 19th century, but it also created huge problems because its discoveries contradicted accepted religious views and beliefs. (Palmer 516) Geology is a secondary science. It relies mostly on the principles of Physics, Chemistry and mathematics. One of the most important developments of geology was the attempt to measure time. Lyell used indirect methods such as measuring the rates of sedimentation to measure the age of the earth. (Palmer 516)
Geology is also linked to many other science subjects such as biography and geography and many sub-sciences. Astrolo-geology places the early evolution of the earth in the context of evolution of the solar system. The growing observation of the geological structure and surface processes of the planets that have been reached by space helps us to understand about the formation of the earth. Geophysicists measure the behavior of earth materials under particular conditions . Data gives useful clues about the structure of rocks in the earth’s crust. Geochemistry looks at the distribution of chemical elements and their isotopes with in the earth and how this relates to the origin and formation of the earth. (palmer 517)
Like all other scientific studies, the history of the study of the earth has developed since the early observations by the ancient Greeks. Lyell dates the ages of Rocks by using fossils embedded in the stone as time indicators. Charles Darwin made use of Lyell's data on fossils for his theory of evolution. Lyell believed that various plants and animals remain unchanged since they were created. When confronted with Darwin’s findings, he admitted " I know realize I have been looking down the wrong road" (Palmer 517). Lyell became one of Darwin’s strongest supporters.
"In Memoriam" brings up the question of religious faith and the light of new scientific discoveries. In Canto 118, stanza six, Tennyson is comparing life to ore, the raw state of metal. He talks about how life is full of emotion and how emotions give humans character and make people better like the sadness he feels towards Hallam’s death. (Christ 1127)
Canto 123 is related to the to the study of Geology. It is talking about the changing of the earth and about Rock formations. He is writing about how Cities and buildings are taking over, " there rolls the deep where grew the tree. O Earth, what changes has thou seen! There were the long street roars hath been the stillness of the central sea." The "central Sea" is related to geology and the Principles of Geology. In the last stanza he is saying that even though his friend Hallam is dead, his spirit will live on forever. He believes in eternity. (Christ 1128)
One of the most controversial issues of the Victorian age concerned the theory of evolution. This new and controversial issue is seen and discussed in Tennyson’s " In Memoriam". The success and influence of "In Memoriam" illustrates its truly representative quality. The Victorians loved it and were moved by it because it dealt seriously and beautifully with the very problems that most concerned them; problems arising from the gradual fading out of the older spiritual lights in the harsh Dawn of a new and more positive age. "In Memoriam" mediated on mans place in nature and the impact of science upon religious faith. (Christ 1571) By discovering that we were not created but evolved, he left a big impact on religion, science and everyday life.
Wiley stated,
The problems confronted in "In Memoriam", though forced by Tennyson by his personal experience and by the spirit of the age, are neither local nor ephemeral; they are universal. In that they are those which are apt to be set a sensitive and medative mind in any age. Is there any meaning in life? Any purpose of design in the world process? Any evidence in nature, in philosophy or the human heart? These issues are dealt with by Tennyson not as a philosopher or scientist, but by a well informed modern poet. (154)
Yet also according to Wiley, There is another way in which Tennyson faces experiences in his poem
He faces it virtually as a soul unprovided with Christian supports. "In Memoriam" is not distinctively Christian poem. The doubts, misgivings, discouragement’s, probing and conjectures which make it humanly moving could not have existed in a mind equipped with the Christian solutions. "In Memoriam" is not concerned with its place upon Christian doctrine. It goes beyond Christian doctrine by confronting the preliminary question which besets the natural man, the question whether there can be any religious interpretation of man at all, or can it lead us to the theory of evolution? (154)
Charles Darwin was born in Shrewsbury, England in 1809. His grandfather was the great physician and naturalist, Erasmus Darwin. In the 1790’s Erasmus had produced an early theory of evolution. Darwin studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh and theology at Cambridge University where he received his Bachelors in 1831. After he graduated in 1831 he went on a scientific expedition until 1836. On his expedition he visited various places in the world where he studied plants and animals. Many of the fossil he collected he used for later studies. In south America, Darwin found extinct animal fossils that closely resemble species of today. Then on the Galapagos Islands he notices many variations among plants and animals as the same type as the plants and animals in south America.
When he returned to England in 1836 he lived in London. He spent his time in London studying fossils, doing different types of experiments, comparing his findings with other scientists, and writing about his discoveries. In 1842 he published a book on his findings called The structure and Distribution of coral reefs and also a Journal he wrote while he was on his expedition. In 1839 Darwin married one of his cousins named Emma Wedgewood and the couple moved to Downe, England in 1842. Darwin lived in Downe until his death in 1882. Darwin is buried along with Lyell in WestminsterAbbey in London.
Darwin’s main theory was evolution. Evolution is a process of change over a long period of time. It refers to the formation and development of life on earth. All of Darwin’s theories are related by several Ideas. Some of these relations were that Evolution had occurred, the evolution that did occur was gradual, evolution was done by natural selection, and that all the species on this earth came from one single original life through speciation. Speciation is the process by which one species can give rise to other species. By being on the expedition in 1831, Darwin was convinced that modern species had evolved through evolution. In 1858, He documented and presented this information to other scientists.
In canto 115, Tennyson describes the start of spring which is a sign of a new beginning which is associated with evolution. He begins to describe the sights and sounds of spring, " Now rings the woodland loud and long, the distance takes a lovelier hue…"( line 5-6) "Now dance the lights on lawn and lea…the happy birds that change their sky."(line 9 & 15) Tennyson seems to be overcoming his mourning and is comparing his feeling to the changes of the season. He tends to feel re-born again, like in early spring.
Canto 131 can be refereed to evolution, it can be compared to the myth of the Phoenix bird. This is a bird that lives for 500 years and when it dies it goes up in flames. After it burns it is believed that it is re-born and changed into a new thing and that it rises from the ashes, and "that we may lift from out of dust."(line 5) He decides that he know why Hallam died, he feels that he was a higher person than others and that he was put on earth before his time as a mistake, this is why he had to go.
Darwin came up with the theory of natural selection or also known as survival of the fittest. "Evolution by natural selection was a quintessential Victorian theory" (young 2) Darwin said that, " no two members of a species are exactly alike. Each organism has an individual combination of traits, and many of these traits are inherited." (encyclopedia). The process of Natural selection is that nature selects and breeds certain animals to have certain traits. He showed his theory by saying that living things produce more than enough offspring to replace themselves than really needed. This is where survival of the fittest comes in by organisms competing for food and shelter and only the strong survive. Also other conditions that may have an effect on there is the weather conditions, being prey for other animals, and the environmental conditions. Darwin wrote several books that discussed his theory of evolution. They were called The descent of Man and selection in reaction to sex in 1871 and The expression of the emotions of man and animals in 1872.
The theory of natural selection has two conditions that must be met. The first is that the individuals must be different in their hereditary characteristics. The second condition that must be met is that some of the inherited differences must affect changes for survival and reproduction. Natural selection is done as a group, not just one individual in a species can be changed. It is either all or none in a species.
In Tennyson’s poem, "In Memoriam" he noted the fact of natural selection, and a few years following that Darwin supplied the explanation. The truth is that the idea of continuous unfolding, development or "evolution" has been in the air since the latter part of the eighteenth century. What Darwin did was to collect evidence, not for the fact of evolution, but for the mode of its operation (Wiley 159).
Darwin’s theories of evolution were not accepted at first. There was much controversy over his issues. He was criticized because people thought that he was saying that we were descended from apes and they didn’t like it. Also religious leaders were angered because it opposed what the bible says about creationism. Many scientists at first didn’t believe his theories, but after well known scientists such as Thomas H. Huxley and Alfred Russell Wallace supported his ideas most of the other scientists followed in accepting Darwin’s theories too. Darwinism(As it was sometimes called) was felt as a blow to peoples self esteem, no one wanted to hear that they were descended from apes. Robert M. Young said, " his (Darwin) theory of evolution is the linchpin of the human and the biological and the earth sciences. It is the single most general Idea for understanding how we came to be. It makes us natural and unites humanity with nature." (2)
In canto 108, Tennyson decided that he was not going to shut himself out from the rest of the world due to the tragedy of Hallam dying. He is upset that Hallam has passed away, but he is not going to share the grief with everyone. He then begins to start questioning little faith, " what profit lies in barren faith." (line 5) Both Tennyson and Hallam had little faith with is associated with Darwinism.
Canto 118 can be compared to evolution and the bible because they both dealt with the creation of man. In the third stanza, he is describing how human are evolving upwards. We are moving away from the ape and looking better as we evolve. The last stanza of this canto can be compared to the food chain and the circle of life which deals with evolution. Tennyson believes that people are going to be better than what we are now and that we will keep evolving upwards. Also in the epilogue Tennyson describes the same belief of evolving upwards and that all the suffering in the world is preparation for something better.
There was a lot of religious controversy on Darwin’s ideas. Many opposed the theory of evolution and the teaching of it, because of the conflict it had on their religious beliefs. Religious people believe it disagrees with the bibles theory of creationism. In Robert M. Young’s Article he was comparing Gods Word ( which is the bible) to Gods Works ( which is science). Young said that the two compliment each other instead of conflict each other.
In canto 96 of "In Memoriam," Tennyson is describing a woman of simple faith who believes in God unconditionally and has no reason for it. He describes her "light blue eyes" (line 2) which is a sign of innocents. Then he goes on to speak about Hallam. Hallam seemed to be confused about his faith but Tennyson still believed he was a good man, "perplexed in faith, but pure in deeds." (line 9) He seems to be agnostic, where there may or may not be a supreme being. They believer that the bible was not true because they do not know for a fact if the things in the bible happened or not.
In Canto 120, Tennyson is describing how humans are not machines. In the second stanza he is completely rejecting science, evolution and Geology. This shows a complete turnaround from what he believed before. In the third stanza he is telling us that no matter what people say or do like the theories of Charles Darwin and Charles Lyell, he is going to follow what he believes in.
Charles Darwin was an important part of the Victorian era. His theories are still taught in schools and are part of our evolving lives. If Charles Darwin did not discover the fossils on his early expedition and put all the missing pieces together, then people would still be thinking that one Supreme Being created us all, when in fact we really weren’t.
