Download Victorian Period

Victorian Period
1832-1900
Victorian Period
Queen Victoria took throne in 1837 (at 18)
 Long reign, died in 1901 (at 82)
 England became wealthiest nation
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Victorian Period
Industrial Revolution
 Created new towns, goods, wealth, jobs for
people climbing through middle class
 Social & economic changes expressed in gradual
political reforms
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Focus:
– Economics/Social Class
– Victorian Thought
– Science and Religion
The Time of Troubles
1830’s and 1840’s
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Unemployment
Poverty
Rioting
Slums in large cities
Working conditions
for women and
children were terrible
The Mid-Victorian Period
1848-1870
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time
time
time
time
of
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prosperity
improvement
stability
optimism
The Late Victorian Period
1870-1901
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Decay of Victorian values
British imperialism
Boer War
Irish question
Bismarck's Germany became a rival power
United States became a rival power
Economic depression led to mass immigration
Socialism
Victorian Period
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Paradox of progress
– Victorian – synonym for prude; extreme
repression;
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New ideas discussed & debated by large
segment of society
– Voracious readers
– Intellectual growth, change and adjustment
– Literacy rate increased from 40% to 90%
from 1840-1900.
Victorian Period
Decorum & Authority – Victorians saw
themselves progressing morally &
intellectually
 Powerful middle-class obsessed with
“gentility, decorum” =
prudery/Victorianism
 Censorship of writers: no mention of “sex,
birth, or death”
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Victorian Period
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Decorum – powerful ideas about authority
– Victorian private lives – autocratic father
figure
– Women – subject to male authority
– Middle-class women expected to marry &
make home a “refuge” for husband
– Women had few occupations open to them
– Unmarried women often portrayed by comedy
by male writers
The Victorian Novel
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The novel was the dominant form
in Victorian literature.
Victorian novels seek to represent
a large and comprehensive social
world, with a variety of classes.
Victorian novels are realistic.
Major theme is the place of the
individual in society, the aspiration
of the hero or heroine for love or
social position.
The protagonist’s search for
fulfillment is emblematic of the
human condition.
For the first time, women were
major writers: the Brontes.
Elizabeth Gaskell, George Eliot.
The Victorian novel was a principal
form of entertainment.
Victorian Period
Materialism, secularism, vulgarity, and
sheer waste that accompanied Victorian
progress led some writers to wonder if
their culture was really advancing by any
measure.
 Trust in transcendental power gave way to
uncertainty & spiritual doubt.
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– Late Victorian writers turned to a pessimistic
exploration of the human struggle against
indifferent natural forces.
Victorian Period
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Intellectual Progress
– Understanding of earth, its creatures &
natural laws (geology, Darwin – theory of
evolution)
– Industrialization of England depended on and
supported science and technology.
Victorian Period
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Victorian writing reflects the dangers and
benefits to rapid industrialization, while
encouraging readers to examine closely
their own understanding of the era’s
progress.
Challenges to Religious Belief
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Science
– Darwin- the Origin of Species and The Descent of
Man
– Psychology – Freud
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Higher Criticism
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Examination of the Bible as a mere text of history
Source studies
Geology
Astronomy
Anthropology
Other Thoughts…
Herbert Spencer (1820-1903): Applied
Darwinism to human society: as in nature,
survival properly belongs to the fittest, those
most able to survive. Social Darwinism was
used by many Victorians to justify social
inequalities based on race, social or economic
class, or gender
 Adam Smith-18th century economist, held that
the best government economic policy was to
leave the market alone—to follow a laissez faire
or “let it be” policy of little or no gov’t
intervention
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