{ Great Expectations of the Victorian Period Money, imperialism, & technology.

  Queen Victoria ascended the throne in 1837 at the age of 18. She would reign for 63 years and 7 months.   The era began with the dominating cultural principles of “earnestness, moral responsibility, and domestic propriety.”   The population of London exploded from around 2 million when Victoria ascended the throne to 6.5 million by the time of her death.   By 1890, England controlled or occupied a quarter of the world. 1 in 4 people on earth were the subject of the Queen. Queen Victoria ( )

Queen Victoria Photograph of the Queen taken in 1882 by Alexander Basso.

  The Industrial Revolution codified class stratification in England. At the beginning of the period, not even all men could vote.   In 1832 and again in 1867, men of all classes (landowning and not) were granted the right to vote, which allowed for the formation of a middle class.   Divorce was not handled in a civil court (only in ecclesiastical courts) until Women could not sue for divorce unless claims of adultery against the husband were combined with extreme cruelty, bigamy, incest, or bestiality.   Men could more readily divorce women for adultery. Married women could not own or handle their own property until the 1870s.   Bad working conditions and lack of employment drove thousands of women into prostitution. There were half a million unmarried women in Victorian England. Social Issues of the Era

Illustration of Bradford, Yorkshire, England, in (BBC ).

  Imperialism: A policy when a country seeks to increase its power by gaining control of other areas of the world. Think: Colonialism.   English saw the expansion of empire as a moral responsibility—Kipling’s quote “the White Man’s burden.”   Part of this expansion led England to become an economic superpower basically until the World Wars and the advent of American global prominence. Imperialism

  Literacy rates dramatically increased, and 170 periodicals (newspapers, magazines) began in London alone.   Many major novels were published serially. A serial publication is a story which appears in successive parts rather than one single volume published at a time.   The Victorian novel is so immense in part because of these serial publication—which sometimes would last over a year—and also because they sought to capture the entire social scope, including a variety of classes and social settings. Numerous subplots and characters “setting in motion the kinds of patterns that reveal the author’s vision of the deep structures of the social world.”   Case in point, Middlemarch, the great masterpiece of George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans) encompassed the points of view, and plotlines of an entire town.   “Most Victorian novels focus on a protagonist whose effort to define his or her places in society is the main concern of the plot.” Increase of Literacy

There were many significant innovations in Science, History, Social Theory & Philosophy:   Thomas Carlyle (1837) – Historian, discussed the significance of the French Revolution   Charles Darwin (1859, 1871) – Scientist, popularized the theory of evolution   Karl Marx & Friedrich Engels (1847, 1867, 1885) – Political philosophers, founders of Socialism; theories would later become the basis for Communism   John Stuart Mill (1859, 1869, 1873) – Progressive social philosopher, author of The Subjection of Women, a proto-feminist treatise   Technological advances began in this period, as well. The Beginning of Modern Era

  From a middle-class family.   Formally educated only a few years.   Father’s debt landed the family in debtor’s prison, the Marshalsea.   At 12, Dickens was forced to take a job in a factory labeling plots of “blacking,” a substance used to clean fireplaces.   He later began working as an office boy, and then a reporter. He published “sketches” in newspapers under a pseudonym, finally earning success with The Pickwick Papers. Dickens’ own experience with loss of innocence or ruined youth would become a recurring theme in his fiction.   Great Expectations was published in 1860 and is largely considered his masterwork. Charles Dickens ( )

Charles Dickens (biography.com)

  Philip “Pip” Pirrip: protagonist and narrator—perspective is adult Pip looking back on child Pip   Joe Gargery and Mrs. Joe: Pip’s older sister who has become his caregiver. Shrill and unforgiving with desire for social recognition, while her husband Joe is patient, uneducated, simple, and kind.   Miss Havisham: eccentric wealthy woman in town who enlists Pip to play with her niece   Estella: Miss Havisham’s adopted niece, childhood playmate of Pip, and largely the bane of Pip’s existence. She represents class ascendancy and is Pip’s romantic ideal   Magwitch: The escaped convict Pip is frightened into assisting early on in the novel   Jaggers: A brilliant, intimidating, and secretive lawyer   Wemmick: Jaggers’ well-meaning clerk   Herbert Pocket: Childhood rival of Pip’s who later becomes his closest friend Great Expectations Characters

  Opens in a small, unnamed town on the North Kent marshes. Working-class, market town.   The Forge: Where Pip lives with his older sister Mrs. Joe and her husband Joe Gargery, a blacksmith.   Satis House: The run-down mansion of Miss Havisham. She lives there with Estella. There is an abandoned brewery and a garden.   London: Pip eventually moves to London and spends time in various neighborhoods like Little Britain (where Jaggers’ office is), Walworth (where Wemmick lives). Great Expectations Setting

  Criminality of misunderstood or lower-class people   Debt/money and its impact on social standing   Human cruelty v. Human kindness   Sympathy for children & childhood innocence   Marrying for love v. Marrying for money and security   Children forced to accept the reality of circumstance / loss of innocence Great Expectations Themes

  realism: true-to-life representation of the mundane or everyday, non-idealized, gritty, soot and all   verisimilitude: events and portrayals in the novel must be realistic and faithful to the plausibility of the reality of the work   foreshadowing   foils & doubles: characters that serve as contrasts for each other   irony & satire   name symbolism: the phonic or imagistic quality of characters’ names typically hints to their quality of character Literary Techniques

WORKS CITED   "Great Expectations: SETTING / CHARACTER DESCRIPTIONS / LIST OF CHARACTERS by Charles Dickens." Great Expectations: SETTING / CHARACTER DESCRIPTIONS / LIST OF CHARACTERS by Charles Dickens. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Feb   Greenblatt, Stephen, M. H. Abrams, Alfred David, James Simpson, George Logan, Lawrence Lipking, James Noggle, Jon Stallworthy, and Jahan Ramazani. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. The Victorian Age. New York: W.W. Norton, Print.   "Queen Victoria." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 08 Feb   “Victorian Britain.” BBC News. BBC, n.d. Web. 08 Feb   "Serial." Merriam-Webster's Dictionary. N.p., n.d. Web.