1. Historical context Social context Literary context
VICTORIAN AGE
Historical context
Social context
Literary context

2. Historical Context Queen Victoria’s reign (1837-1901)
Longest reign in English history
Period of unprecedented material progress
imperial expansion
political and constitutional development
HOME POLICY: Political and Social Reforms
FOREIGN POLICY: colonialism + imperialism

3. Queen Victoria worked for the peace and prosperity of her country
was able to keep at bay any conflict over constitutional matters
reigned constitutionally avoiding the storm of revolutions
played a more active role
became a mediator above political parties
model for her people: exemplary family life, strictly respectable and decent code of behaviour (Victorianism)
beloved especially by the middle class who shared her moral and religious views

4. Historical Context - Home policy
1832 – First Reform Act
1833 – Factory Act
1834 – Poor Law Amendment Act
1838 – the People’s Charter
(Chartism)
1842 – Mines’ Act
1847 – Ten Hours’ Act
1867 – Secon Reform Act
1872 – Ballot Act
1870 – Elementary Education Act
1875 – Public Health Act
1884 – Third Reform Act
– Fabian Society
Women’s Social and Political Union
(Suffragettes)
POLITICAL and SOCIAL REFORMS

5. Historical Context – Home Policy
Britain was a model of industrial success, individual freedom and constitutional government
Upper and industrial middle-classes believed in a policy of “laissez-faire” ie. non-interference with industry or with national economy in order to promote free trade and free competition (=Liberalism)
triumph of industry (steam engine, steamboats, shipbuilding, trains, iron industry)
scientific progress (electricity, telegraph, gas-lighting, stamp+postal system, medicine)

6. Historical Context – Foreign Policy
THE BRITISH EMPIRE
Imperialism = territorial expansion, colonies abroad
During the Victorian Age the British Empire reached its largest extension: it was called “the Empire where the sun never sets”
British Imperial power was sustained by:
willingness to protect British trade routes and interests
against other nations; to gain new terrotories
firm belief in the excellence of English culture and
institutions

7. Historical Context – Foreign Policy
Opium War against China
Crimean War
1857 Indian Mutiny
1877 Queen Victoria was named “Empress of India”
1882 occupation of Egypt
1884 invasion of Sudan
Boers’ War

8. Historical Context – Foreign Policy
During the Victorian age most British citizens believed in their right to an empire and thought that imperial expansion would absorb excess goods, capital and population
they were also extremely proud of their empire and of spreading their civilisation and culture to every corner of the globe (Jingoism=aggressive patriotism)
colonial expansion was seen as a mission
this was “the white man’s burden”

9. Historical Context – Foreign Policy
But at the moment of its greatest power Britain also discovered that every conquered area or land had new dangers to be controlled or stopped
Britain found itself involved in a contradiction between its imperial ambition and its liberal ideas
This contradiction would lead to the collapse of the British Empire in the 20th century.

10. Socio-cultural Context
Urbanization
Britain became a nation of town dwellers
Extraordinary industrial development
Overcrowding
Poverty – appalling living conditions in slums (squalor, disease, bad sanitation, crime, high death rate)
Terrible working conditions
(polluted atmosphere, disatrous effects on health especially on children)

11. Socio-cultural Context
VICTORIAN COMPROMISE
A set code of moral values that explained the general tendency to be excessively puritanical and to avoid taking definite positions

12. Socio-cultural Context
Material progress + wealth emerge from hard work
Appearance is very important
Respectability = a mixture of both morality and hypocrisy, severity and conformity to social standards
Philanthropy = charitable activity addressed to every kind of poverty
Victorian family = a patriarchal unit where the husband was dominant and the wife was the angel in the home
(tha fallen woman)
Patriotism
Private life was separated from public behaviour

13. Socio-cultural Context
It was a particular situation which saw two opposing
aspects of life:
on one side PROSPERITY and MATERIAL SCIENTIFIC
PROGRESS, ETHICAL CONFORMISM, MORALISM and
PHILANTHROPY
which opposed
on the other side POVERTY, UGLINESS, CORRUPTION,
MONEY and CAPITALISTIC GREEDINESS

14. Socio-cultural Context
VICTORIAN FRAME OF MIND
contained a lot of contradictions caused among other things
by the influence of new philosophical trends, religious
movements, economic theories and scientific discoveries
of the period:
Evangelicalism = good moral Christian conduct
Utilitarianism = only what is useful is good, any problem could be overcome through reason
Evolutionism = theory of evolution of species governed by natural selection and struggle for survival
Determinism = theory which denies human freedom of action, everything is strictly governed by cause and effect

15. Literary Background – VICTORIAN NOVEL
During the Victorian Age for the first time there was a
communion of interests and opinions between writers
and readers enormous growth of the middle classes
who were avid consumers of literature, they borrowed
books from circulating libraries and read various periodicals.
A great deal of Victorian Literature was first published in
instalments in the pages of periodicals, which allowed the
writer to feel he was in constant contact with his readers.

16. Literary Background – VICTORIAN NOVEL
The NOVEL became the most popular form of literature and also the main form of entertainment since thery were read aloud within the family.
NOVELISTS felt they had a moral and social responsibility to fulfil:
they depicted society as they saw it (realism) and denounced its evils (criticism)
they aimed at making readers realise social injustices

17. Literary Background – VICTORIAN NOVEL
WOMEN WRITERS:
a great number of novels were written by women.
This is surprising if we consider the state of subjection of
Victorian women but at the same time they were the
majority of novel-buyers and of readers.
However, it was not easy to publish so some women
writers decided to use male pseudonyms in order to see
their novels in print.

18. VICTORIAN NOVEL – main features
The narrator is obtrusive and omniscient:
he provides his comments on the plot and he establishes
a rigid barrier between what is right or wrong (judge);
retribution and punishment usually appear in the final
chapter where all the events, adventures, incidents are explained and justified.
Didactic aim
Linearity (stories have a beginning, a middle, an end)
Long complicated plots and sub-plots

19. VICTORIAN NOVEL – main features
Urban setting: the city was the most common setting the main symbol of industrial civilisation as well the expression of anonymous lives and lost identities
Precise creation of characters and deep analysis of characters’ inner lives (psychology)
Most popular genre = Bildulgsroman (novel of formation)
Main themes: money, wealth, realistic portrait of society denouncing its injustices and iniquities

20. VICTORIAN NOVEL
From a structural point of view we can divide Victorian Novels mainly into three groups:
1) EARLY-VICTORIAN NOVEL (or social-problem novel) dealing with social and humanitarian themes
realism, criticism of social evils but faith in progress, general optimism
The main representative was CHARLES DICKENS

21. VICTORIAN NOVEL
2) MID-VICTORIAN NOVEL (novel of purpose) showing Romantic and Gothic elements and a psychological interest. The main representative writers were the BRONTË sisters and R.L.STEVENSON
3) LATE- VICTORIAN NOVEL (naturalistic novel near to European Naturalism) showing a scientific look at human life, objectivity of observation, dissatisfaction with Victorian values. The main representative writers were T.HARDY and O.WILDE.

22. VICTORIAN NOVEL Other minor forms of novel developed in this period:
4) Novel of Manners
focusing on economic problems of a particular class (W.Thackeray)
5) Colonialist Fiction
presenting an exaltation of British imperialistic power (R.Kipling)
6) Nonsense literature
dealing with fantastic adventures (L.Carroll)