R. L. STEVENSON AND THE CULTURAL AND HISTORICAL CONTRADICTIONS OF THE VICTORIAN ERA

Abstract

In the 19th century the expectations, awakened as a result of the cultural and industrial take-off of Great Britain, vanished quickly because of uninterrupted and in fact unresolved social contradictions. Thinkers clearly saw the reverse side of the capitalistic prosperity, and, as a result, there appeared such literary works that threw down the gauntlet on the bourgeois values of the Victorian era. During this period the brilliant representatives of the neo-romantic movement Oscar Wilde and Robert Louis Stevenson lived and worked. The latter was well aware of the existing flaws and defects of the Victorian era, and he was looking for a way out. Certainly Stevenson noticed insignificance and sinfulness of bourgeois life and since his youthhood rebelled against it. Three historical periods were intermingled in writer's life and had an impact on his fate. Stevenson was ahead of his time and became a prophet of future scientific discoveries.