The Victorian Era in Britain saw massive social, economic, and technological transformations. Advancements in science, technology, medicine, engineering, and industry fueled unprecedented industrialization and urbanization. New transportation networks like railroads revolutionized travel and trade. The middle class grew in power and influence. Reforms extended voting rights, though poverty and poor living conditions remained problems. Literature explored social issues through poetry and novels. The British Empire expanded to its largest extent during this period of progress and change.

1. The
Victorian Era

3. Victoria's reign seem markedly different from earlier
periods in British history. It is often described by
historians and politicians as the time that the world
changed forever and the age that shaped the globe
more then all the previous centuries the world had ever
seen.

4. Victorian society witnessed a
massive transformation due to the
“progress” in a variety of fields,
Advancements in science, technology,
medicine and engineering coupled with
social and religious progress gave birth
to a new concept of modernity

5. The advancement of the steam engine through
the period brought in a whole new method of
travel, the railways. Train travel revolutionized
the concept of travel and trade and thousands
of miles of tracks were laid across the
empire, for example by 1875 there was an
amazing 9000 miles of track that had been laid!

6. The Industrial Revolution
The extraordinary industrial development brought
huge changes in terms of working and daily life.
One of the main changes that revolution brought
was machines. Business people established
places named factories. There, they had these
machines and they needed some people to work
with them.

7. “The Great Exhibition” in the
Chrystal Palace, London. Erected
to display the exhibits of modern
industry and science. It shows the
new inventions and
congratulations of English empire.

8. The power of the middle class increased with
the expansion of industry and trade
The Reform Bill: it was a response to the
demands of middle classes, who were
taking control of England's economy. It
extended the right to vote to all males
owning property worth £ 10 or more in
annual rent.

9. The developments of the electrical
telegraph, postal services and the
improvement in ship building and
travel gave way to a new concept of
faster communication.

10. Economical progress:
The British economy was strong. Britain became the
greatest economical power in the world

11. Colonialism was an important phenomenon
For better or worse the British Empire had a massive impact on
the history of the world. It was the largest formal empire that
the world had ever known. As such, its power and influence
stretched all over the globe; shaping it in all manner of ways.

12. Queen’s College for Women was established

13. Negative aspects of the age
Working conditions for women
and children were terrible
Pollution in towns due to factory
activity
Lack of hygienic conditions:
Houses were over
crowded, most people lived in
miserable conditions; poor
housess shared hared water
supplies
Poverty
epidemics

14. The Victorians were great moralisers they
supported: personal duty, hard work, decorum,
respectability, chastity

17. The leading poets during the Victorian period were:
Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809-1892),
Robert Browning (1812–89),
Elizabeth Barrett Browning(1806–61),
Matthew Arnold (1822–88).
and
Emily Dickinson (American Romantic)

18. the poetry of this period was heavily influenced by
the Romantics, but also went off in its own directions.
Particularly notable was the development of
the dramatic monologue, a form used by many poets in
this period, but perfected by Browning.
Dramatic monologue – the idea of Dramatic
monologue – is creating a lyric poem in the voice of a
speaker ironically distinct from the poet.

19. GENERAL CHARASTERISTICS OF VICTORIAN LITERATURE
Poetry: It was considered superior than prose, novel theatre.
They said that the writing of a genius must be poetry. There
were two main romantic inheritances in poetry:
1.- the use of retrospective forms: archaic language. They
revived many old forms (particularly the mixture of lyric and
elegy which influenced others forms like epigram).
2.- experimentation with genres. Some poets continued the
movement of colloquial diction into poetry (Robert Browning)
* The Victorians loved the heroic, chivalrous stories of knights and
they hoped to regain some of that noble, courtly behavior and
impress it upon the people both at home and in the wider empire.

20. Themes
Notable poets were absorbed in social issues
Tennyson’s poetry: problems of religious faith, social
change and political power.
Browning’s poetry: intellectually and bracing
harshness
Arnold’s poetry: sorrowful, disillusioned pessimism
over the human plight in rapidly changing times

21. Victorian poetry is pictorial; poets use detail to construct visual
images that represent the emotion or situation the poem concerns
“Throughout this era poetry addressed
issues such as patriotism, religious faith,
science, sexuality, and social reform that
often aroused polemical debate. At the
same time, the poets whom we classify as
Victorian frequently devised experiments
that expanded the possibilities of the
genre, creating innovative forms and
types of prosody that enabled new kinds
of poetic voices to emerge in print.”
(Bristow).

22. http://www.getaukjob.com/victorian-age.php
http://www.atuttascuola.it/risorse/inglese/the_victorian_age.htm

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