1. The Victorian Period: the age of paradox
Queen Victoria’s Reign

2. Age of Prosperity British Empire gained profits abroad
Colonization of Africa, India for trade
Industrial Revolution produced affordable goods
Middle class developed
Education increased
Social mores revitalized
Period of peace, known as the Pax Britannica
Population doubled; move to the cities
Advances in science, medicine, engineering

3. Introduction of the factory

4. Age of Buried Suffering
Industrial Rev. caused working class to suffer (child labor and sweat shops)
Colonization caused foreign conflict; xenophobia and racism
Clash of ideals with French Revolution
Social mores oppressed women and “Others” (monstrosities)
Population increase meant more poor and sick
Fear of scientific discoveries and medicinal advancements
Religious strife and moral bias
Life of excess=immoral vs. pragmaticism and asceticism=moral (unreal expectations=failure)

6. Victorian Identity: (upper class) Women
Change in arranged marriage created some stress
Career was “Angel of the House”: wife, mother, daughter
Should be artistically trained, talented, charming, pure, demure, humble, beautiful, classically educated, dutiful, weak, helpless, emotional to compete with other women
Sexism: “hysteria” comes from the root “hyst,” or uterus (Freud)
1887 the Married Woman's Property Act
Until 1887, women could not own property, even if inherited
If/when separated from husband, she forfeited property and had no rights to her children; she would be ostracized

7. The Victorian Woman

8. Victorian Identity: Sexuality
Prudery and repression of animalistic desires
Freud (id, ego, superego)
Marriage and purity
Courtship; dowries; double standards, love vs. class
Euphemisms
“limb” for “leg”; “expecting” for “pregnant”
Rampant prostitution

9. Victorian Identity: Poor
Poor Law (Social Welfare): 1832
Dangerous/difficult working conditions
Workhouses and Unions
“Living wage” (min wage) = 30 shillings a week
Anti-Poor Law Movement
Orphans and Orphanages
Debtor’s prisons
Prostitution
Education
Introduction of “ragged schools” (free schools)

10. Medicine and Science Hypnosis: 1841 Ether: 1846 Anesthetized
surgery: 1840s
Plaster casts: 1852
Cocaine: 1856
Darwin’s “Origin of Species”: 1869
Freud and psychoanalysis: 1880s

11. Industrialism and Innovation
Steam Locomotive:1802
Daguerreotype Photography: 1824
Telegraph: 1838
Electric lights used in public: 1846
Sewing Machine: 1851
Refrigeration: 1859
Motion Pictures: 1890

12. Victorian Art and Aesthetics
Literature/poetry consider impractical “lies”
Victorian industrialist was pragmatic and efficient
The search for objective beauty: “perfect form”
Realism: “truth to nature”
Photography, representationalism, portraits
Rebellious Pre-Raphaelites: art for art’s sake

13. Victorian Religious Conflict
Evangelicals (middle class “ethos”) vs. objective, scientific thought
Happiness earned through hard work and self-denial
Conformity
Darwin crisis

14. Darwinism and Society Survival of the fittest
Originate from ape? Animalistic nature?
Social Darwinism=work harder?
1872 Origin of Species
1886 Robert Louis Stevenson, Strange Case…
1891 Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray

15. Literature Timeline 1813 Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice
1818 Mary Shelley, Frankenstein
1843 Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol
1847 Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights
1865 Lewis CarrolI, Alice in Wonderland
1883 Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island
1891 Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray; Arthur Conan Doyle, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
1895 Oscar Wilde, The Importance…
1886 Robert Louis Stevenson, Strange Case…
1897 Bram Stoker, Dracula
1902 Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness