The Victorian Period 1832-1901



The Victorian Period 1832-1901IntroductionTime of growth, prosperity, and progress in EnglandMajor questions for Victorians: should all things move forward and change? Should tradition be questioned and updated? Should government be open to the input of all?Queen Victoria rules for most of period (1837-1901)Peace and Economic Growth: Britannia RulesNot involved in war during time periodIndustrial Revolution expands creating new towns, goods, wealth, and jobsWorking class politicians and voters achieve power with monarchy and aristocracy in placeThe Idea of Progress: Thomas Babington MacaulayProgress=material improvementWants respectable neighborhoods away from slumsWants streets free of garbage, lighted at night, paved and drained, patrolled by sober police forceWants houses numbered and people literate enough to read signsViews typical of many of his contemporariesThe Hungry Forties1.5 million unemployed workers and families on some form of poverty reliefAtrocities of child labor "discovered"Potato famine kills around a million people in Ireland and causes two million to emigrate; they live in slums (10-12 to a room, two toilets for every 250 people)Rapid growth of cities causes disorderThe Movement for Reform: Food, Factories, and OptimismGovernment policies (Corn Laws) keep food price high: deprives working class of vote and leads to "monster" political rally in 1848 to petition Parliament and the queenPrice of food drops by midcentury because of increased tradeDiets improveFactories and railroads make postage, newspapers, clothing, furniture, travel, and others goods and services cheapReform Bill of 1832 gives vote to all males who owned property worth ten pounds or more in yearly rentPressure leads to second Reform Act of 1867 which gives working class men except for farmers right to voteWomen over the age of 30 won the right to vote in 1918; extends to women over 21 in 1928: occurs because of the suffrage of Victorian womenChild labor is limited to 10 hours daily, half holiday on Saturday, and state supported schools are established and made free in 189190 percent of population is literate by 1900Blushing Cheeks: Decorum and PruderyPrudery and Victorianism is practically synonymous: obsession with gentility and decorumPublishers alter words and episodes that may bring a "blush of the cheek" or cause one to feel uneasy or embarrassedPeople are arrested for distributing information about sexually transmitted diseasesSociety regards adulterous women (but not men) as fallen and are pushed to the outskirts of societyMale dominated/Female suffrage opens doors for later reform (Florence Nightingale makes nursing a respected career through her work during the Crimean war, for instance)by stepping outside the boundaries of "ladylike" behaviorMarried Women's Property Act allows women to keep their own money in 1882Authoritarian ValuesVictorians uneasy about giving all power to central governmentFather is autocratic (voice of authority) in Victorian familiesWomen subject to male authority: expected to marry and make home a comfortable refuge for their husbandsWomen who did not marry had few options: working class women find jobs as servants in wealthy homes and unmarried middle class women as governesses (nannies) or teachersBarriers intended to control immorality and sexual excessesIntellectual Progress: The March of the MindCharles Darwin theorizes about the origin of species---shakes religious faithGeologists work out the history of the earth through fossils and rocksIndustrialization supports science and technology, especially chemistry and engineeringThomas Huxley and the Game of ScienceHuxley and those like him feel the world's problems could be understood by human intelligence and solved by science, government, and other human institutionsHuxley feels however that humans could lose the "chess match" he feels these problems to bePieces=phenomena of universe/ rules of the game=laws of Nature/God omnipotentfeels nature is always fair, just, and patient and does not allow for ignoranceFeels scientists can win if game is played in the material worldQuestions and DoubtsVictorian writers questions whether material comfort fully satisfies human needsWriters question the cost of exploiting the earth and human beings to achieve comfortWriters feel the spirit and soul is overlooked/Question whether history and nature are coherent togetherSee life as struggle against indifferent natural forces/Spiritual doubtJohn Ruskin wrote on social, political, and artistic subjects/Individual responsibility and collective action to combat injusticeTrust in the Transcendental---and SkepticismVictorian writers believe that the purpose of a poet is to make readers aware of the connection between heaven and earth, body and soul, material and idealYoung writers find it difficult to believe in an infinite power and an order that made senseOther writers saddened by the loss of the divine in the worldEarly Victorian writers dramatize human ideal achieved through sympathy and unselfishness:Thomas Carlyle speaks out against materialism and spiritual ignoranceBy the end of the century, Victorian writers make fun of those with a hard surface and no soulTheir heroes and heroines find happiness nurturing marriages in small communitiesSome late Victorian writers tell stories of lovers and friends betrayed/Very skeptical of human natureWriting moves towards realism, or deals with realities of the timeReflections of a CultureVictorians believe one can improve their life here and now/No problem to greatStart of century: problems solved by material progress/End of century: materialism as disruptiveEuphemism (substitution of a less offensive or agreeable statement with one that would less likely offend) a staple of Victorian cultureMiddle class Victorians believe in hard work, moral seriousness (earnestness) and social respectabilityEvangelicals (emphasis on individual religious experience ) instrumental in emancipating all slaves in British Empire in 1833/Strict code of morality, social reform, sober Sunday church/Very influential to VictoriansUtilitarianism founded by Jeremy Bentham: the greatest happiness for the greatest number of peopleJohn Stuart Mill writes On Liberty which argues that people must not only be free from political and religious tyranny, but from the tyranny of the opinion of othersInvestigative Journalism plays major role in reformMiddle class intellectually dull, narrow minded, and ignorant to needs of others/Writers expose this ................
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