Victorian Era

1
Victorian Era

• 1837-1901

2
Change and Stability

• Many Victorians thought of themselves as living
  in a time of great
• CHANGE
• But the changes during Queen Victoria's long
  reign occurred in a period of
• RELATIVE POLITICAL AND SOCIAL STABILITY.
• Britain had nearly years 100 of
  peace
• The industrial revolution of the 18th-century
  created
• NEW TOWNS, NEW GOODS, WEALTH, NEW JOBS FOR TENS
  OF THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE
• Even though middle-class and working-class
  politicians achieved political power
• MONOARCHY AND ARISTOCRACY remain in place.
• Macaulay thought history meant
• PROGRESS and PROGRESS meant MATERIAL IMPROVEMENT

3
Problems

• Middle-class Victorians prided themselves on two
  things
• THEIR MATERIAL ADVANCES AND ON THEIR ABILITY TO
  SOLVE SOCIAL PROBLEMS
• The first decade of Victoria's reign was
  troubled--- the period came to be known as
• HUNGRY FORTIES
• A million unemployed workers and their families
  were on
• POOR RELIEF
• Government commissions investigating working
  conditions learned of
• CHILD ABUSES IN WORKING CONDITIONS
• POTATO BLIGHT caused a famine that killed A
  MILLION PEOPLE
• and forced TWO MILLION MORE TO EMIGRATE

4
More Problems

• The rapid growth of the city's made them
• FILTHY AND DISORDERLY
• Explain what happened in the 1840s
• CITIES EXPANDED RAPIDLY,
• THE RIVER WAS POLLUTED BY SEWAGE, INDUSTRIAL
  WASTE, AND DRAINAGE FROM GRAVE YARDS.
• Despite all this, what did most middle-class
  Victorians believe?
• THINGS WERE BETTER THAN IN THE PAST
• AND THEY WERE GOING TO BE BETTER YET IN THE
  FUTURE
• What was their opinion founded on?
• A STEADY IMPROVEMENT THROUGHOUT THE ERA IN THE
  MATERIAL CONDITION OF PEOPLE IN ALL SOCIAL
  CLASSES.
• Trivia What was a Victorian invention?
• MARGARINE

5
Improvements

• What did the second Reform Act in 1867 do?
• GAVE RIGHT TO VOTE TO ALL WORKING CLASS MEN
  EXCEPT AGRICULTURUAL WORKERS
• What did Factory Acts do?
• LIMITED CHILD LABOR
• AND REDUCED USUAL WORKING DAY TO 10 HOURS,
• WITH HALF-HOLIDAY ON SATURDAY
• What happened to literacy during this time
  period?
• MORE THAN 90 OF POPULATION WAS LITERATE

6
Beliefs of the day

• What has made prudery synonym for Victorianism?
• OBSESSION WITH GENTILITY OR DECORUM (GOOD
  MANNERS, MODESTY)
• What did book publishers and magazine editors do?
  
• DELETED ALTERED WORDS OR PHRASES THAT MIGHT
  BRING A BLUSH TO THE CHEEK OF A YOUNG PERSON
• What happened in or in popular fiction?
• SOFTENED BIRTH, DEATH, AND SEX
• Relationship between men women in authority and
  jobs
• WOMEN WERE SUBJECT TO MALE AUTHORITY AND
• EXPECTED TO MARRY AND BE HOUSEWIVES WHILE
  THEIR HUSBANDS WORKED OUTSIDE THE HOME
• Explain what advances in science and technology
  did.
• CONVINCED 19TH CENTURY INTELLECTURALS AND
  REFORMERS THAT HUMAN EFFORTS COULD OVERCOME ALL
  MATERIAL PROBLEMS.

7

• What were some of the questions the Victorians
  asked and why?
• WHETHER MATERIAL COMFORT FULLY SATISFIED HUMAN
  NEEDS AND WISHES
• THE COST OF EXPLOITING THE EARTH AND HUMAN BEINGS
  TO ACHIEVE SUCH COMFORT.
• PROTESTED OR MOCKED CODES OF DECORUM AND
  AUTHORITY.
• Who were the Victorians?
• WORKSHOP OF THE WORLD WITH THEIR MECHANIZED
  FACTORY SYSTEM
• MOVED TO CITIES
• LITERATE WITH EXPANDED EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITIES
  
• ADVANCES IN SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
• INDUSTRIALIZATION HAD A HEAVY COST ON THEM
• MATERIALISM OF THE ERA MADE PEOPLE QUESTION THE
  CHANGES AND DEFINITION OF PROGRESS

8

• When the trust in a transcendental power
  inherited from the Romantics eroded. What did it
  give way to and what did late Victorian writers
  turn to?
• IT GAVE WAY TO UNCERTAINTY AND SPIRITIUAL DOUBT.
  
• LATE-VICTORIAN WRITERS TURNED TO A PESSIMISTIC
  EXPLORATION OF THE HUMAN STRUGGLE AGAINST
  INDIFFERENT NATURAL FORCES
• What does Victorian writing reflect?
• DANGERS AND BENEFITS OF RAPID INDUSTRIALIZATION
  WHILE ENCOURAGING READERS TO EXAMINE CLOSELY
  THEIR OWN UNDERSTANDING OF THE ERAS PROGRESS