16 - RELEVANT FACTS REGARDING THE VICTIOIAN AGE and Culture 1. The Victorian age (1830-1901) 2. The Victorian age… · The pivotal city of western civilization shifted from Paris in the 18th century to London in the 2nd half of 19th century. · London expanded from about 2 millions inhabitants when Victoria came to the throne to 6.5 millions at the time she died (in 1901). · There was a shift of life based on the ownership of land to a modern economy based on trade and manufacturing: Minds and habits of ordinary English people were all transformed. · England was the first industrialized country, its transformation was painful: social and economic crises as a consequence of rapid and unregulated industrialization 3. The Victorian age… · •Industrialization brought wealth and influence to England: It captured markets all over the globe, developed colonies & by 1890 it owned a quarter of all the territory on the surface of the earth-1 out of 4 people in the world was a subject of Queen Victoria. · •The perception of writers on the fast-paced expansion of England varied: Expansion came at the expense of human happiness; it caused the abandonment of the traditional rhythms of life and traditional patterns of human relationship. 4. The queen Victoria & the Victorian temper… · •Some qualities associated with the period are personal identification of the Queen: earnestness, moral responsibility, domestic propriety. · •As a wife, mother of 9 children and widow, she represented the domestic fidelities her citizens cherished, embraced. · •Like writers of the early 20th century (Georgian period 1911-1936), who took pains to separate themselves from the Victorians (whom they view as absurd), Victorian writers wanted to break away from the Romantics as well. 5. The queen Victoria & the Victorian temper…Cont The Victorian period, which is about 70 years in length is often divided into three parts: · 1.The Early Period (1830-1848: A time of troubles · 2.The Mid-Victorian Period (1848-1870): Economic prosperity, the growth of empire and religious controversies · 3.The Late Period (1870-1901): Decay of Victorian values 6. The early period(1830-1848:a time of troubles… · •By 1830 economic distress brought England close to revolution · •Manufacturing groups wanted to be involved in the political process. They led workers in agitating for reform · •Because of fears of revolutions already seen in Europe, the English parliament passed The Reform Bill of 1832 that transformed England’s class structure and extended voting rights to all males owning property worth 10 pounds or more in annual rent: Therefore, only the lower middle classes and not the working classes were allowed to vote until 1867 when the 2nd Reform Bill gave working classes voting rights. 7. The early period(1830-1848:a time of troubles… · •As a consequence of industrialization, economic and social issues were so severe that the 1830s and 40s were known as Time of Troubles: unemployment, abject poverty.

1. 16 - RELEVANT FACTS REGARDING THE VICTIOIAN
AGE and Culture
1. The Victorian age (1830-1901)
2. The Victorian age…
·
The pivotal city of western civilization shifted from Paris in the
18th century to London in the 2nd half of 19th century.
·
London expanded from about 2 millions inhabitants when Victor
ia came to the throne to 6.5 millions at the time she died (in 190
1).
·
There was a shift of life based on the ownership of land to a mo
dern economy based on trade and manufacturing: Minds and hab
its of ordinary English people were all transformed.
·
England was the first industrialized country, its transformation
was painful: social and economic crises as a consequence of rap
id and unregulated industrialization
3. The Victorian age…
·
•Industrialization brought wealth and influence to England: It ca
ptured markets all over the globe, developed colonies & by 189
0 it owned a quarter of all the territory on the surface of the eart
h-
1 out of 4 people in the world was a subject of Queen Victoria.
· •The perception of writers on the fast-
paced expansion of England varied: Expansion came at the expe
nse of human happiness; it caused the abandonment of the tradit
ional rhythms of life and traditional patterns of human relations
hip.
4. The queen Victoria & the Victorian temper…
·
•Some qualities associated with the period are personal identific

2. ation of the Queen: earnestness, moral responsibility, domestic
propriety.
·
•As a wife, mother of 9 children and widow, she represented the
domestic fidelities her citizens cherished, embraced.
· •Like writers of the early 20th century (Georgian period 1911-
1936), who took pains to separate themselves from the Victorian
s (whom they view as absurd), Victorian writers wanted to brea
k away from the Romantics as well.
5. The queen Victoria & the Victorian temper…Cont
The Victorian period, which is about 70 years in length is often
divided into three parts:
· 1.The Early Period (1830-1848: A time of troubles
· 2.The Mid-Victorian Period (1848-
1870): Economic prosperity, the growth of empire and religious
controversies
· 3.The Late Period (1870-1901): Decay of Victorian values
6. The early period(1830-1848:a time of troubles…
·
•By 1830 economic distress brought England close to revolution
·
•Manufacturing groups wanted to be involved in the political pr
ocess. They led workers in agitating for reform
·
•Because of fears of revolutions already seen in Europe, the Eng
lish parliament passed The Reform Bill of 1832 that transforme
d England’s class structure and extended voting rights to all mal
es owning property worth 10 pounds or more in annual rent: The
refore, only the lower middle classes and not the working classe
s were allowed to vote until 1867 when the 2nd Reform Bill gav
e working classes voting rights.
7. The early period(1830-1848:a time of troubles…
·
•As a consequence of industrialization, economic and social issu
es were so severe that the 1830s and 40s were known as Time of
Troubles: unemployment, abject poverty, high prices of bread,

3. scarcity of food, rioting, terrible working conditions, workers a
nd families crowded in slumps, unsanitary housing, women and
children toiled in mines and factories for long unbearable hours.
Elizabeth Barrett’s poem “The Cry of the Children” (1843) deal
s with her response to an official report on child labor, describi
ng five-year-old dragging heavy tubs of coal thru low-
ceiling mine passages for 16 hours a day.
· •* These hard times left their marks on literature.
8. The Mid-Victorian Period (1848-
1870): Economic prosperity, the growth of empire and religious
controversies Comment by User:
·
•In decades after the Times of Trouble, writers such as Charles
Dickens continued attack the failures of the Victorian social sce
ne, the evils of Victorian industry.
·
•It had harassing problems, but was also a period of prosperity.
· •Agriculture, trade and industry flourished.
·
•Factory Acts in parliament restricted child labor, limited hours
of employment and relatively improved working conditions.
·
•Victorian complacency or stability or optimism usually refers t
o this mid-Victorian phase: “The Age of Improvement”
9. The Mid-Victorian Period (1848-
1870): Economic prosperity, the growth of empire and religious
controversies
·
•England’s technological progress and its prosperity led to the e
normous expansion of its influence throughout the world: In 187
6, Queen Victoria was named empress of India.
·
•England established a framework of education and government
that preserves British influence in former colonies even today
·
•English people so the expansion of British empire as a moral re

4. sponsibility or what is often referred to as “the Whiteman’s bur
den.” To Queen Victoria herself, the imperial mission was “to p
rotect the poor natives and advance civilization.
10. The Mid-Victorian Period (1848- 1870) cont.
Economic prosperity, the growth of empire and religious contro
versies
·
•Increasing debate about religious beliefs: Jeremy Bentham’s (1
748-1832) Utilitarianism or Benthamism-
all human beings seek to maximize pleasure and minimize pain.
Morally right things are those that provide the greatest pleasure
to the greatest number. On this basis, he saw religion as an out
moded superstition. Charles Darwin’s theory on the origin of sp
ecies and the descent of man-
The Origin of Species (1859), The Descent of Man (1871).
11. The Late Period (1870-1901): Decay of Victorian values…
·
•Many Victorians saw this phase as the time of serenity and sec
urity, the age of house parties and long weekends in the country
.
·
•The apex of British imperialism was reached in this last decade
.
·
•It also saw rebellions, massacres, bungled wars in various colo
nies.
12. The Role of Women…
·
•Women could not vote or hold political office: although petitio
ns in parliament advocating women’s suffrage were introduced a
s early as 1840, they did not vote until 1918.
·
•Although men could divorce their wives for adultery, wives co
uld divorce their husbands only if adultery is combined with cru
elty, bigamy, incest, or bestiality.
· •Divorce was too expensive for ordinary people.

5. ·
•Educational and employment opportunities for women were lim
ited. This led to the “Woman Question.” Writers like Mary Woll
stonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Women” challenged
long established assumptions about women’s role in society.
13. The Role of Women…
·
•Horrific working conditions and unemployment drove thousand
s of women into prostitution, which became increasingly profess
ionalized in the 19th century.
· •The only occupation at which unmarried middle-
class citizens could earn a living was that of governess, which h
ad no security of employment, had only minimal wages and is is
olated her within the household. Jane Eyre demonstrates this co
ndition
·
•By the end of Victoria’s reign, women could take degrees at 12
universities or colleges, and could study but not earn a degree a
t Oxford and Cambridge.
14. The novel…
· •The novel was the dominant form of Literature.
·
•Novelists seek to address a large social world that comprises v
ariety of classes and social settings.
·
•They presented a world where material conditions indicate soci
al position, where money defines opportunity, where social clas
s enforces strong sense of stratification, yet where chances of cl
ass mobility exist.
·
•The main plot of novelists focuses on a protagonist who struggl
es to determine his/her place in society: tension is between the
protagonist and society as he/she aspires for love, social positio
n etc. Women struggle for self-
realization in the context of social restraints imposed on her. e.g
Jane Eyre, Isabel Archer, Tess of the d’Urbervilles.

6. ·
•Some of the novelists are Charlotte Bronte, Jane Austen, Georg
e Eliot, Charles Dickens etc.
15. Poetry…
·
•Victorian poetry developed in the context of the novel. Poets s
ought new ways of telling stories in verse.
· •Victorian poets developed in the shadow of Romanticism.
·
•By1837 when Victoria ascended the throne, all major Romantic
poets had died, save Wordsworth.
·
•All Victorian poets show the strong influence of Romantics, bu
t did not measure up in terms of imagination.
·
•Victorian most distinctive achievement is poetry of mood and c
haracter.
* Some Victorian poets are: Alfred Tennyson, Christiana Rosset
ti
16. Victorian drama & theatre…
·
•Unlike other main genres, plays were written mostly in the last
decade of the period.
·
•Bernard Shaw began writing plays that addressed social issues.
·
•In the 1890s, Shaw and Oscar Wilde transformed British theatr
e with their comic plays
· •Their plays attacked Victorian pretence and hypocrisy.
·
•Some Victorian playwrights are George Bernard Shaw, Oscar
WildeYOUTUBE - The Right to Rule and the Rights of Women
in Victorian Britain
·

7. FOUR Questions ASSIGNMENT requiring answers in scholarly
professionally written content
in 4 – 7 paragraphs each. Must not need editing or revisions, be
articulate in college content and make sense consistently. Please
title each question separately and must use in text citations and
quotes to verify familiarity with the readings?
1. After reading Mrs. Warren's Profession, can one rightly
conclude that sex is a tool for empowerment and survival? 4-7
paragraphs
2. Read - George Eliot's piece, “From Silly Novels by Lady
Novelist” and discuss women writers as victims of a
minimization in society or as handiworks of their own
minimization. 4-7 paragraphs
3. In Ibsen's A Doll's House, the hunter becomes the hunted.
Discuss this claim. 4 -7 paragraphs
4. What is your overall impression about Victorian literature? 4-
7 paragraphs