Darwin, Nature and Man

Abstract

The acceptance of change and the recognition and worship of a God who ‘fulfils himself in many ways constitute Tennyson’s recognition of Darwinism and its concomitant problems, problems that Carlyle chose to ignore. In his own bewildered wrestlings with religious questions—both personal and wider—Tennyson felt it necessary to account for Darwin’s theory; the relation between the natural and the supernatural was as crucial to him as it was to Carlyle, for it ultimately encompassed the relationship of man to God. Carlyle’s response was largely, like Frederick’s, an individualistic one, with an emphasis on stoicism and doing one’s duty; Tennyson chose a more ‘public’ way, and placed his confidence in the ‘larger hope’. He opposed the Darwinian threat with more institutional responses, emphasising the eventual working out of God’s purpose, particularly through church and family.