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1
THE VICTORIAN AGE
Queen Victoria came to the throne in but
according to historians The Victorian Age was
1837
from 1832
to 1901
when
when
the First Reform Act was passed
Queen Victoria died.
It gave the right to vote
to a large part of the middle class
2
Queen Victoria was loved
especially by the middle class
Moral behaviour
She reigned constitutionally
She avoided the revolutions that spread in Europe
in 1848
3
The main political parties were
the LIBERALS
the CONSERVATIVES
They managed to have the CORN LAWS repealed
There was also
CHARTISM
An important . class movement
working
which called for social reforms and the
extension of the
right to vote
4
It was a complex and period.
contradictory
Reforms
Industrialism
A symbol
Material progress
Imperial expansion
gas
water
lighting
New services for the towns
places of entertainment
The Great Exhibition
hospitals
museums
police stations
prisons
BUT
5
There was still a lot of poverty.
The misery of industrialisation
Poor people lived in overcrowded ...
slums
disease
crime
high death rate
terrible working conditions
pollution
6
VICTORIAN VALUES
They were mainly
MIDDLE-CLASS values
7
VICTORIAN VALUES
HARD WORK
DUTY
8
VICTORIAN VALUES
good manners
Having a nice house with servants and a carriage
RESPECTABILITY
going to church regularly
charitable activity
A mixture of morality, conformity and ..
hypocrisy
9
VICTORIAN VALUES
PHILANTROPY
CHARITY
addressed to
drunken men
stray children
fallen women
10
VICTORIAN VALUES
FAMILY was
patriarchal.
The husband was
the authority.
The wife looked after.
the house
children
11
VICTORIAN VALUES
WOMEN had to be
CHASTE
CHASTITY
Single women with a child were emarginated
Sexuality was repressed
PRUDERY
No nudity in art
12
VICTORIAN VALUES
PATRIOTISM
idea of racial .
superiority
Oceania
huge empire
Asia
Central America
Africa
India
The sun never sets on the British Empire
The jewel in the crown
the white mans burden
Colonisation was regarded as a ..
mission
13
It was a complex and period.
contradictory
RELIGIOUS AND PHILOSOPHICAL MOVEMENTS
EVANGELICALISM
Sunday observance
Strict code of behaviour
Humanitarian causes
UTILITARIANISM
Jeremy Bentham
A materialistic theory
Only what is .. is important for
useful
the . happiness of society.
material
14
It was a complex and period.
contradictory
RELIGIOUS AND PHILOSOPHICAL MOVEMENTS
EMPIRICISM
UTILITARIANISM
was a reaction against
John Stuart Mill
Law should also help men to develop their talents
and personalities
Progress came from mental energy
THEREFORE
He gave great importance to
ART
SOCIAL REFORMS
EDUCATION
15
It was a complex and period.
contradictory
RELIGIOUS AND PHILOSOPHICAL MOVEMENTS
DARWINISM
Charles Darwin
A scientific theory
It shook moral and religious certainties.
In the fight for life only the fittest survive.
Like other animals, man is the result of a
process of ...
evolution
THEREFORE
He discarded the idea of .. given by the
.
Bible
Creation
16
THE MOST POPULAR LITERARY GENRE IN THE VICTORIAN
AGE WAS
THE NOVEL
WHY?
Because the read a lot of literature.
middle classes
They borrowed books from circulating libraries
and read periodicals.
Many novels were published in instalments in
periodicals.
THEREFORE
Many writers were also women but had to use a
male pseudonym
Readers could influence the writer!
Novels were read aloud in the family.
Many readers were . who spent more time at
home.
women
17
THE VICTORIAN NOVEL
AIMS
The writers felt they had a moral and social
responsibility.
They showed the evils of society
and denounced them.
Their criticism was not .
BUT
radical
They didnt incite the poor to rebel.
They only made readers aware of social injustices.
18
THE VICTORIAN NOVEL
FEATURES
rigid barrier between right and wrong
. narrator
Omniscient
symbol of the evils of industrialism
The setting was usually the..
city
The plot was long and complex.
Writers concentrated on the creation of
characters
In the final chapter there were reward and
punishment
19
CHARLES DICKENS
FEATURES
He was mainly a storyteller.
His plots were well-planned but at times
artificial and sentimental.
The setting was the industrial town, usually
London.
He denounced the spiritual and material
corruption of
1812-1870
industrialism
He became increasingly critical but he never
incited the poor to rebel.
He only made readers aware of social injustices .
to stimulate the common sense of all classes
to relieve suffering.
20
CHARLES DICKENS
CHARACTERS
ONE OF DICKENSS BEST QUALITIES WAS HIS
HUMOUR
He created . of middle and lower class
people.
CARICATURES
He their social characteristics, vanity and
ambition.
mocked
the poor
He was always on the side of
the working class
the outcast
children
Often wiser than adults and moral models for
adults
21
CHARLES DICKENS
HARD TIMES
1854
It is set in an imaginary industrial town called
.
COKETOWN
It denounces the gap between the
factory owners and factory workers

rich and poor
It criticises
MATERIALISM
UTILITARIANISM
INDUSTRIALISM
22
CHARLES DICKENS
HARD TIMES
1854
It criticises
embodied by
UTILITARIANISM
Mr Bounderby
who treats his workers like machines
Mr Gradgrind
who treats his students like machines
teaching them only FACTS
neglecting their imagination and their
personality
23
CHARLES DICKENS
HARD TIMES
1854
A MAN OF REALITIES
This passage criticises
Mr Gradgrinds utilitarian conception of
EDUCATION
24
CHARLES DICKENS
HARD TIMES
1854
A MAN OF REALITIES
The pupils are described as
pitchers,
i.e. empty jugs into which liquid is poured
suggesting that Gradgrind considers them empty
containers
to be filled with..
facts and figures
Gradgrind himself is described as a loaded
with
cannon
facts ready to kill his pupils imagination
Here the metaphor is military suggesting
That childhood and imagination are of
education.
enemies