What are the themes of the Victorian age we see in The Warden?

The Warden, published in 1855 at the height of the Victorian age, reflects the Victorian theme of exploring social injustice, which was popularized by Dickens as well as contemporary novelists from other countries, such as Harriet Beecher Stowe in Uncle Tom's Cabin. In Trollope's novel, John Bold challenges the income disparity between the warden, the gentle Reverend Harding, and the twelve elderly inmates, called bedesmen, of Hiram hospital, a religious establishment that Harding runs. This...

The Warden, published in 1855 at the height of the Victorian age, reflects the Victorian theme of exploring social injustice, which was popularized by Dickens as well as contemporary novelists from other countries, such as Harriet Beecher Stowe in Uncle Tom's Cabin. In Trollope's novel, John Bold challenges the income disparity between the warden, the gentle Reverend Harding, and the twelve elderly inmates, called bedesmen, of Hiram hospital, a religious establishment that Harding runs. This novel, albeit in a mild way, explores the growing concern of the times about the income disparities between the rich and the poor. Social privilege and the poverty it causes is coming to be seen less as inevitable act of God and more as a social problem that can be engineered away. Trollope shows the newspapers attacking the gentle Harding as greedy.

Typical of the mainstream Victorians, however, Trollope's concept of reform is not political as much as personal. The story hinges not on reforming the clergy in the Church of England in a systemic way, say through legislative reforms, but on the benevolent and moral stance of Mr. Harding, who, when he realizes the injustice, refuses to stay in a position that he believes pays too much at the expense of the inmates. The bishop decides the warden position will remain vacant once Harding resigns but does not give the money to the bedesmen. The novel shows that doing the right thing carries its own reward, as Mr. Harding lives comfortably in his new—if greatly reduced—circumstances, and his daughter is able to marry without a dowry.