Key attributes of the time

1. The Victorian Period
1830-1901

2. “British History is 2,000 years old, and yet in a
good many ways the world has moved farther
ahead since the Queen was born that it moved in
all the rest of the 2,000 put together.” –Mark
Twain in London for the Diamond Jubilee
celebrating 60th anniversary of Queen Victoria’s
coming to the throne

3. London
Center of influence by second half of 19th century
Rapid growth from 2 to 6.5 million inhabitants during
Queen’s reign
Growth due to shift to modern economy based on
trade and manufacturing
Some of the developments besides steam engine:
railways, printing presses, telegraph, photography,
anesthetics, and universal compulsory education
Could be considered a 2nd Renaissance

4. England
Market share all over globe
Export of cotton and manufactured goods by fleet of
ships unparalleled by any other country
World’s workshop and world’s banker
By 1890, a quarter of all territory on earth part of
British empire; 1 out of 4 people were subjects of
Queen
Reactions to this rapid expansion ranged from
celebratory to lamenting the abandonment of
traditional rhythms of life and relationship

5. Victorian Temperament
Connoted “prudish”, “repressed”, “old fashioned”
Some key characteristics: earnestness, moral
responsibility, domestic propriety, self-conscious of
historical context
Embodied in the Queen
Belief that people can find solutions to problems
and create new ways to better themselves and
their environment; strong sense of social
responsibility

6. Early Period (1830-48):
A Time of Troubles
1830 Reform Parliament created more fair
distribution of parliamentary representation;
middle-age interests gained power
Reform Bill of 1832 gave middle class men right
to vote
Reform Bill of 1867 gave working class men the
vote
However, issues of unemployment, desperate
poverty, rioting, terrible working and living
conditions, child laborers were rife

7. “There is an immense and continually increasing
population, no adequate demand for labor…no
confidence, but a universal alarm, disquietude,
and discontent. Nobody can sell
anything….Certainly I have never seen…so
serious a state of things at that which now stares
us in the face”—Charles Greville, statesman in his
diary in 1842
One solution, in 1838, “People’s Charter”, to
extend voting rights to workers organized by a
group of workers called “Chartarists”
1846 Repeal of Corn Laws, tariffs on imported
flour, thus lowering price of flour and bread laying
way for free trade

8. Mid-Victorian Period (1848-
70):
The Age of Improvement
Economic prosperity
Growth of Empire
Religious Controversy

9. Economic Prosperity
Monarchs models of middle-class domesticity
and devotion to duty
Free trade was making aristocrats rich
Agriculture flourished along with trade and
industry
Child labor restricted, limited time allowed for
work, general improvements in working
conditions for working class
“It is a privilege to live in this age of rapid and
brilliant events. What an error to consider it a
utilitarian age. It is one of infinite romance.”—PM
Benjamin Disraeli

10. Growth of Empire
Tripling of goods, people, and capital abroad
between 1850-1870, resulting in creation of
British Empire
1850s-60s, large scale immigration to Australia
1857 Parliament begin to govern India and 1876,
Queen was named empress of India
Britain built railways, strung telegraph wires,
created framework for education and
government, influences still felt today

11. White Man’s Burden
The moral responsibility to “protect the poor
natives and advance civilization”—Queen
Victoria
Missionaries spread Christianity in India, Asia,
and Africa

12. Religious Controversy
Increase debate about religious belief
Church of England had 3 major divisions: Evangelical
(Low Church); Broad Church; High Church
Evangelicals emphasized spiritual transformation of
individual by conversion and strictly moral life;
associated with non-Conformists (Baptists, Methodists,
etc.)
High Church emphasized importance of tradition, ritual,
and authority; associated with Catholic church
Broad Church resisted controversies that separated the
other two, emphasizing broadly inclusive nature of
Church and modern advances in thought

13. Rationalism
Utilitarianism or Benthanism or Philosophical
Radicalism
Named after ideas of Jeremy Bentham who
believed all humans sought to maximize pleasure
and minimize pain
Therefore, the criterion by which we should judge a
morally correct action is the extent to which it gives
the most pleasure to the most people.
Religion did not meet the rationalist test of value
and was considered an outmoded superstition by
Benthanists

14. Scientific Advancement
Scientific attitude applied toward study of Bible,
seen as a mere text of history with evidence
about its compositions, rather than sacredly
infallible text
Discoveries of geology and astronomy, which put
the age of the earth much older than the literal
interpretation of the Bible did
Darwin’s theory of natural selection also
conflicted with Biblical concept of creation but
also beliefs of human’s special role in the world
Reduced stature of human species in time and
space, made people feel “infinitely isolated.”

15. Late Period (1870-1901):
Decay of Victorian Values
Jubilee years of 1887 and 1897 (Queen’s 50th
and 60th celebrations of ascension)
For affluent Victorians, still a time of serenity and
security
England committed to continuing technological
change and also culture of consumerism,
generating new products for sale

16. Wealth of England based on its economic power
as an Empire
Cost of empire increasingly apparent as
rebellions, massacres, bungled wars, etc, took a
toll in terms of human and economic capital
Germany and US also becoming competitors in
terms of trade, industry, and agriculture
1873-5, severe economic depressions caused
the rate of emigration to rise alarmingly

17. Growth of Labor
1867, second Reform Bill, that gave working
class men right to vote
Trade unions developed, becoming political
force,
Variety of beliefs, including socialism, Marxism,
etc., developed

18. 1890s
Shifts in attitudes of late-Victorians to earnestness
of middle-Victorians
Attacks by writers of the major mid-Victorian idols
and values, seeing strivings as “ultimately pointless”
Prince Edward, who was easy-going and pleasure-
seeking, was antithesis of father, Prince Albert, an
earnest-minded intellectual who devoted life to hard
work and administrative responsibilities
Writing was melancholic rather than happy, with a
weary sophistication; an awareness of living at end
of great century, the fin de siecle. Shifting into
Modernist movement

19. The Woman Question
Refers to the issue of the woman’s place in
English society
Conflict between the need for women to have
greater economic, educational, and political
opportunities versus the idea that women
properly belonged in the home as caretaker to
family

20. Legal Rights
Women did not have right to vote until 1918
Women could not own or handle their own
property until Married Women’s Property Acts
was passed 1882
Men could divorce women for adultery but not
vice versa unless situation also included abuse,
incest, bigamy, etc.
Women did not have right to petition court to
access minor children or have custody of kids
until 1839

21. Education
1837, none of England’s 3 universities was open
to women
1848, first women’s college opened
1859, first woman physician
By 1900, women could take degrees at 12
universities and could study, though not earn a
degree, at Oxford and Cambridge

22. Employment Opportunities
Industrialization brought work opportunities,
challenging notion of “the angel in the house”
However, woman often could be employed for
less money and worked under harsh conditions
in factories, sometimes for as long as 16
hours/day
A series of Factory Acts (1802-78) gradually
regulated working conditions in mines and
factories, reducing 16 hour day and banning
women from mine work
Bad working conditions and underemployment
drove thousands into prostitution as well as the
development of pornography

23. Concern for “surplus” or “redundant” women—
unmarried, middle-class women unable to marry
due to imbalance of numbers in sexes
One solution proposed was emigration but few
enough left to make a difference
Only “gentile” profession available was
governess but there was no security of wages,
minimal wages, and ambiguous status

24. Nature of Woman
Virgin/Madonna versus Whore dichotomy;
reinforced idea that female sexuality was
immoral. One was either pure and virginal or a
sex object
Doctrine of “separate spheres” with:
Man for the field and woman for the hearth:
Man for the sword and for the needle she:
Man with the head and woman with the heart:
Man to command and woman to obey.
Claim that women by nature particularly suited for
domesticity “Cult of Womanhood”

25. Women portrayed as particularly suited for
domesticity, the “angel in the house” whose role was
to provide a place of refuge for her husband.
“This is the true nature of home—it is the place of
Peace; the shelter, not only from all injury, but from all
terror, doubt, and division. In so far as it is not this, it
is not home; so far as the anxieties of the outer life
penetrate into it, and the inconsistently-minded,
unknown, unloved, or hostile society of the outer
world is allowed either by husband or wife to cross
the threshold, it ceases to be home; it is then only a
part of that outer world which you have roofed over,
and lighted fire in. But so far as it is a sacred place, a
vestal temple, a temple of the hearth watched over by
household Gods…so far it vindicates the name, and
fulfills the praise, of home.”--John Ruskin, “Of

26. Women pressured to be “enduringly, incorruptibly
good; instinctively, infallibly wise—wise, not for
self-development, but for self-renunciation”
(Ruskin)
By 1890s, the “New Woman”, an emerging form
of emancipated womanhood, was endlessly
debated