1. The Victorian Period
“Paradox of Progress”

2. The Victorian Period
Victorians thought of themselves living in a time of great change.
Growth
Prosperity
Progress

3. Peace and Economic Growth: Britannia Rules
Empire grew steadily until 1900
India
North America
Queen Victoria was the ruler of more than million people living OUTSIDE of Great Britain

4. Economic Growth Industrial Revolution expanded
New towns, new goods, new wealth, and new jobs for people maneuvering through levels of the middle class.
Middle class and working class politicians and voters achieved political power while leaving the monarchy and aristocracy in place.

5. The Idea Progress
Thomas Babington Macauley voiced middle class Victorian attitude
History = progress
Progress= material improvement that could be seen and touched, counted and measured
Cleanliness and order
Victorians have confidence that all social and material problems can be solved by “progress.”
By the end of the era, disruption and materialism led to a reevaluation of these values.

6. The Hungry Forties 1st decade of Queen Victoria’s reign was troubled
She came to the throne in the first year of a depression
1.5 million unemployed workers (out of 16 million people)were on some form of relief

7. The Hungry Forties Poor working conditions
Government commissions investigated poor working conditions
Children were mangled at machines when they fell asleep at the end of 12-hour work days.
Children hauled coal in the mines

8. The Hungry Forties Potato Famine
Ireland ( ) – potato blight caused famine that killed a million and forced 2 million to emigrate.
Some went to England – caused severe overcrowding in cities

9. The Hungry Forties Pollution and Filth Rapid growth of the cities
Filthy and disorderly
Major cities were expanding because of industry
Streets were unpaved; Thames River was polluted with sewage, industrial waste, and drainage from graveyards
Bodies were buried six or eight deep

10. The Movement for Reform: Food, Factories, and Optimism
Violence and massive political rallies (1840)
- To protest government policies that kept the price of food high and deprived most working men of the vote and representation in Parliament
Political reformers organized a “monster rally” to protest

11. Movements of Reform Improvements in Diet
Mid-century – Price of food dropped because of increased trade with other countries and the growing empire
Diet improved – meat, fruit, and margarine (Victorian invention) was available to working-class households
Factories and railroads made items and services cheap

12. Movements of Reform Florence Nightingale
Transformed public’s perception of modern nursing
Reformed hospital management
Octavia Hill – became authority on housing reform
Believed that adequate housing could “make individual life noble, homes happy, and family life good.”

13. Movements in Reform Reform Bills
Almost all adult males got to vote by the last decades of the century
First Reform Act – All men who owned property worth 10 pounds or more in yearly rent could vote
Second Reform Act – Right to vote to most working-class men except for farm workers
Women age 30 and over won the right to vote – 1918
Woman age 21 and over – 1921

14. Reform Bills
Factory Acts – Limited child labor and reduced usual working to 10 hours with ½ holiday on Saturday
State supported schools established – 1870
Compulsory education – 1880
Free education – 1891
By 1900 – 90% of population was literate

15. “Blushing Cheeks”: Decorum & Prudery
Middle class obsession with gentility or decorum
Censored books/magazines of things that could bring “a blush to the cheek”
In fiction – sex, birth, and death were softened into tender courtships, joyous motherhoods, and deathbed scenes in which old people were saints and babies were angels
Seduced/adulterous women = “fallen” into the margins of society

16. Authoritarian Values Family
Autocratic father of middle class households (in both fact and fiction)
Women were subject to male authority
Women marry to make comfortable homes as a refuge for their husbands to escape the male domain of business

17. Authoritarian Values Few occupations for unmarried women
Working class – servants in wealthy homes
Middle class – governesses/teachers
Unmarried women had painful, difficult lives

18. Prudery and Social Control
Used to control immorality and sexual excess associated with violent political revolutions of the 18th century and social corruption of regency of George IV

19. Intellectual Progress: The March of the Mind
Humans began to understand more about the earth, its creatures, and natural laws
Charles Darwin – Evolution of the Species
Technology, chemistry, and engineering aided with the industrial movement

20. Questions and Doubts
Victorians questioned the cost of exploiting the earth and human beings to achieve material comfort
Protested or mocked codes of decorum and authority

21. The Popular Mr. Dickens
Most popular and important figure in Victorian literature
Thanks to the high literacy rate
Son of a debt-ridden clerk, but due to his talents and energy rose from poverty to become a wealthy and famous man

22. Mr. Dickens
His books had happy endings, but many characters were neglected, abused, and exploited (esp. children).
Oliver Twist (hungry) “Please sir, may I have some more?”
Tiny Tim (handicapped) “God bless us, everyone!”
David Copperfield (abused by stepfather) “Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether that station will be held by anybody else, these pages must show.”
Attacked hollow, superficial excess of the Victorian Age

23. Trust in the Transcendental & Skepticism
Transcendentalists (Romantics) – Purpose of the poet (or any writer) was to make readers aware of the connection between earth and heaven, body and soul, material and ideal
Mid-century- a withdrawal of God from the world
Matthew Arnold’s “Dover Beach”
No certainty about God

24. Trust in the Transcendental & Skepticism
By the end of the century
Skepticism and denial of God dominated
Thomas Hardy and A. E. Houseman