Forms of Closure: The First Law of Thermodynamics and Victorian Narrative

According to the first law of thermodynamics, formulated in the 1830s and 1840s, energy could neither be created nor destroyed but could only circulate and transform within a closed system. This principle was especially well-received in Victorian England, where it suggested the possibility of a redemptive social or national self-sufficiency. While this ideal could not be achieved in the laboratory, both popular and scientific authors realized it through narratives that linked cause and effect, revealed hidden transformations, and enforced closure. Through their own narratives, many of the period's novels also negotiated this tension between entropy's inevitability and an ideal closure.