The Victorian Age

1. 12/10/2021 PRESENTATION TITLE 1
Prepared By : Nirav Amreliya
Batch : 2021-2023 (M.A. Sem. 1)
Enrollment Number : 4069206420210002
Ro. N/o. : 30
Submitted To : Smt. S. B. Gardi Department of English,
Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University,
Vidhyanagar, Bhavnagar – 364001
(Dated On : 9th Dec., 2021)
 Paper N/o., Subject Code, Name : 105A :
22396 : History of English Literature –
From 1350 to 1900
~: General Features of Victorian Age (1837-1901) :~

2. GENERAL FEATURES OF
VICTORIAN AGE (1837-
1901)
“Like clouds that rake, the mountain summits,
Or waves that own no curbing hand,
How fast has brother followed brother,
From sunshine to the sunless land!”
(Wordsworth, 1835)

3. POINTS TO BE DISCUSSED :
The Period
of Progress
& Upheaval
1
Arrival of
Suffrage &
Democracy
2
Advent of
Industries
3
Developme
nt in Arts &
Science
4
Extreme
Deference
to
Convention
s
5
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4. THE PERIOD OF
PROGRESS &
UPHEAVAL
• It was an age alive with new
activities. There was a revolution in
commercial enterprise, due to the
great increase of available markets.
• The new commercial energy was
reflected in the Great Exhibition of
1851, which was greeted as the
inauguration of a new era of
prosperity.
• Richard Trevithick, an English
inventor and mining engineer,
invented the first operational steam
locomotive in 1802 which assisted
the growth of trade with foreign
countries in Victorian England.
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5. ARRIVAL OF
SUFFRAGE &
DEMOCRACY
• The long struggle of the Anglo-Saxons
for personal liberty is definitely
settled, and democracy becomes the
established order of the day.
• The Reform Act of 1832, a historic
threshold in the development of
parliamentary democracy, abolishes
tiny districts, gave representations to
cities, gave the vote to small land
owners, and farmers.
• Women were still exempted from
voting; which, later in 1918, women
over 30 were given the right to vote
through The Representation of People
Act.
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6. ADVENT OF
INDUSTRIES
• The term ‘Industrial Revolution’ was
first popularized by the English
economic historian Arnold Toynbee
(1852-’83) to describe Britain’s
economic development from 1760
to 18470.
• Marks the change from an agrarian
and handicraft economy to one
dominated by industry and machine
manufacturing.
• The evils of Industrial Revolution
were vividly painted by the writers
like Dickens and MrsGaskell.
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7. DEVELOPMENT IN
ARTS & SCIENCE
• The rapid progress in all the arts
and sciences and in mechanical
inventions ranging from spinning
looms to steamboats, and from
matches to electric lights.
• Charles Darwin, an English
naturalist, came up with the
revolutionary and radical Theory of
Evolution in his book ‘On the Origin
of Species’ (1859), drastically
shattered down the global religious
beliefs and concoctions regarding
origin and existence of species on
the earth.
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8. EXTREME DEFERENCE
TO CONVENTIONS
• The cult of ‘True Womanhood’
dictated that submissiveness, purity
and piety were the traits of lady. The
only woman deemed worthy of
marriage were those that abstained
from sexual activity.
• Though men, too, were pushed to
control their natural instincts, they
were considered too weak to control
them, this led to flourishing
prostitution business.
• All such superficial moral conducts
were ironically criticized in literary
works of the age such as in ‘Jude the
Obscure,’ ‘Tess of d’Urbervilles’ etc.
by Thomas Hardy.
• “I have sometimes thought – that
under the affectation of independent
views you are as enslaved to the
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9. 12/10/2021 PRESENTATION TITLE 9
REFERENCES :
• https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/10609/pg10609-images.html#chap11
• https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Gp6tFgssC_PioM0ZHBZhIJH_8WOxl8Yw/view?usp=drivesdk
• https://www.britannica.com/event/Industrial-Revolution
• http://victorian-era.org/sexual-repression-in-the-victorian-era.html