The Victorian Era

1. The Victorian Era 1832-1900 Rocío Muñoz Bodá Pilar Pretell García Martha Quevedo Ruiz

2. The Early Victorian Period1830-1848 • Unemployment • Poverty • Rioting • Slums in large cities • Working conditions for women and children were terrible

3. 1830 • In 1830, the Liverpool and Manchester Railway opened, the first public railway line in the world.

4. 1832 • Transformed English class structure • Extended the right to vote to all males owning property • Second Reform Bill passed in 1867 • Extended right to vote to working class

5. 1833 • Britain abolished slavery • Factory Act-regulated child labor in factories

6. 1834 • Poor Law-Amendment applied a system of workhouses for poor people

7. 1837 • Queen Victoria was crowned at the age of eighteen. Many people thought the responsibility was too great for her but she was a determined woman and reigned for64 years.

8. Queen Victoria and the Victorian Temper • Ruled England from 1837-1901 • Exemplifies Victorian qualities: earnestness, moral responsibility, domestic propriety

9. In 1840 the Penny Black stamp was issued. This was the first stamp in the world. People wrote a lot of letters at this time, as this was the only way to communicate over long distances. 1840

10. 1841 • The first railway excursion was organised by Thomas Cook.

11. Impact on Victorian Literature • The novelists of the 1840’s and the 1850’s responded to the industrial and political scene: • Charles Kingsley- The Water Babies • Elizabeth Gaskell – North and South; Life of Charlotte Bronte • Benjamin Disraeli- Sybil

12. The Mid-Victorian Period1848-1870 • A time of prosperity • A time of improvement • A time of stability • A time of optimism

13. 1848 • Women begin attending University of London

14. Educational Opportunities for Women • First women’s college established in 1848 in London. • By the end of Victoria’s reign, women could take degrees at twelve university colleges.

15. 1850 • Life Insurance introduced. • By 1850, railway lines connected England’s major cities • The first cartoon appeared.Cartoons were used to emphasise the importance of industry during the Victorian Age.

16. 1851 • Gold discovered • One of the first buildings constructed according to modern architectural principles “The Crystal Palace”

17. The Crystal Palace • Built to display the exhibits of modern industry and science at the 1851 Great Exhibition • The building symbolized the triumphs of Victorian industry

18. The British Empire • Between 1853 and 1880, large scale immigration to British colonies • In 1857, Parliament took over the government of India and Queen Victoria became empress of India. • Many British people saw the expansion of empire as a moral responsibility. • Missionaries spread Christianity in India, Asia, and Africa.

19. 1854 • Florence Nightingale went to the Crimea to organise nursing during the war. There she saved the lives of many injured soldiers.

20. The famous Victorian artist, Ford Madox Brown, painted the 'Last of England'. It shows a family emigrating, possibly to Australia, to find work, like many people did in Victorian times. 1855

21. 1860 • Florence Nightingale founds school for nurses. • In the 1860's the 'bone shaker' appeared on the roads. This was one of the first bicycles to have pedals, which directly turned the front wheels.

22. 1864 • Boys under the age of 10 were banned from being chimney sweeps.

23. The Late Victorian Period1870-1901 • Decay of Victorian values • British imperialism • Boer War • Bismarck's Germany became a rival power • United States became a rival power • Economic depression led to mass immigration • Socialism

24. 1871 • Trade Union Act-made it legal for laborers to organize to protect their rights

25. 1874 • The '10 hour Factory Act' was introduced. This meant that people could only be made to work for up to 10 hours per day.

26. 1876 • Alexander Graham Bell patents the telephone

27. 1877 • Thomas Alva Edison patents the phonograph

28. 1880 • Children up to the age of 12 were made to go to school.

29. 1884 • In the mid 1880's the 'Safety Bicycle' was built. It was much easier to ride than earlier models, with both wheels the same size and a chain. This finally gave ordinary people the freedom to travel.

30. 1885 • The Prince of Wales opened the Birmingham Museum Round Room and Industrial Gallery. This part of the Museum still looks much the same today. You will notice from the columns and pillars that Victorians liked to copy Greek and Roman architecture.

31. 1886 • Wimbledon opens

32. 1888 • Jack the Ripper stalks London’s East End

33. The 1890’s • Breakdown of Victorian values • Mood of melancholy • Aesthetic movement • The beginning of the modern movement in literature • Aubrey Beardsley’s drawings • Prose of George Moore and Max Beerbohm • Poetry of Ernest Dowson

34. 1890 • By 1900 , England had 15,195 lines of railroad and an underground rail system beneath London. • The train transformed England’s landscape, supported the growth of commerce, and shrank the distance between cities.

35. Queen Victoria died and Edward Vll was made King. She had ruled longer than any other British Monarch. 1901

36. The crisis of epidemics came to a peak in the “Great Stink”. • This expression is used to describe the terrible smell in London, coming from the Thames. • The “Miasmas”, exhalations from decaying matter, poisoned the air.

37. The houses of the rich had water in the kitchen, gas lighting, flushing toilets and were decorated.

38. Poor families, with 4-5 children, lived in houses with 2-3 rooms and without a lavatory.

39. Religious Debate • Evangelical movement emphasized spiritual transformation of the individual by conversion and a moral Christian life. • Their view of life was identical with Dissenters. • The High Church emphasized the importance of tradition, ritual, and authority • The Oxford Movement led by Newman • The Broad Church was open to modern ideas.

40. Utilitarianism • Derived from the ideas of Jeremy Bentham and his disciple James Mill, the father of John Stuart Mill • Rationalist test of value • The greatest good for the greatest number • Utilitarianism failed to recognize people’s spiritual needs

41. Challenges to Religious Belief • Science • Huxley • Darwin- the Origin of Species and The Descent of Man • Higher Criticism • Examination of the Bible as a mere text of history • Source studies • Geology • Astronomy

42. The Role of Women • Changing conditions of women’s work created by the Industrial Revolution • The Factory Acts (1802-78) – regulations of the conditions of labor in mines and factories • The Custody Act (1839) – gave a mother the right to petition the court for access to her minor children and custody of children under seven and later sixteen. • The Divorce and Matrimonial Causes Act – established a civil divorce court

43. Working Conditions for Women Bad working conditions and underemployment drove thousands of women into prostitution. The only occupation at which an unmarried middle-class woman could earn a living and maintain some claim to gentility was that of a governess.

44. Victorian Women and the Home • Victorian society was preoccupied with the very nature of women. • Protected and enshrined within the home, her role was to create a place of peace where man could take refuge from the difficulties of modern life.

45. Victorian household objects Chamber pot Copper kettle Dolly and washtub

46. Sewing machine

47. Literacy, Publication, and Reading • By the end of the century, literacy was almost universal. • Compulsory national education required to the age of ten. • Due to technological advances, an explosion of things to read, including newspapers, periodicals, and books. • Growth of the periodical • Novels and short fiction were published iin serial form. • The reading public expected literature to illuminate social problems.

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49. The Victorian Novel • 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.

50. Victorian Poetry • Victorian poetry developed in the context of the novel. Poets sought new ways of telling stories in verse • All of the Victorian poets show the strong influence of the Romantics, but they cannot sustain the confidence the Romantics felt in the power of the imagination. • Victorian poets often rewrite Romantic poems with a sense of belatedness. • Dramatic monologue – the idea of creating a lyric poem in the voice of a speaker ironically distinct from the poet is the great achievement of Victorian poetry. • Victorian poetry is pictorial; poets use detail to construct visual images that represent the emotion or situation the poem concerns. • Conflict t between private poetic self and public social role.