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

Victorian Period • Industrial Revolution • Created new towns, goods, wealth, jobs for people climbing through middle class • Social & economic changes expressed in gradual political reforms • Focus: • Economics/Social Class • Victorian Thought • Science and Religion

The Time of Troubles1830’s and 1840’s • Unemployment • Poverty • Rioting • Slums in large cities • Working conditions for women and children were terrible

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

The Late Victorian Period1870-1901 • 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 • Paradox of progress • Victorian – synonym for prude; extreme repression; • 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”

Victorian Period • 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 • 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. • Late Victorian writers turned to a pessimistic exploration of the human struggle against indifferent natural forces.

Victorian Period • 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 • 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 • Science • Darwin- the Origin of Species and The Descent of Man • Psychology – Freud • Higher Criticism • 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

Victorian Period