Also check the Victorian Morality slide in my profile. This is the report of the Victorian Morality slide

1. Victorian Morality
By Remzi Başkent
(03.29.2018)
Anadolu University

2. Introduction:
In Victorian period people had really strict morality in every aspect of
their life.Probably, we will find their morality weird because the restriction in
some cases like social and sexual life can be extreme for now.However, in
those times most of the people obeyed this rules and restrictions in order to
get a reputation or not being criticized.And mostly the women had to obey
those rules because they were the victims of this period.
In my presentation, I'm going to deal with social and sexual restraints,
Victorian etiquette rules, their religious morality, code of conduct and lastly the
contradictions in this period.
Social and Sexual Restraints:
-First of all, you can't speak directly about sexual life in those times.That was
the taboo.For example, they used "white or dark meat" to refer breasts and
legs.Basically, they used the language of flowers.
-Also, they say that Victorians used to cover the chair legs with cloth and used
candle snuffers for fear that they may evoke feelings.Pursing of one's lips was
unacceptable.Instead of saying going to bed, they used "retiring".
-They also had restraint in homosexuality.It was dirty and gross and very
illegal.In some cases, punishment can be the death penalty.
-In order to create a "proper" society, they believed in purity.However, this
purity was only in the outside.In real, actually, people were not pure as they
showed themselves.They fantasized and sometimes wrote fantasy books,
texts.My secret life and the pearl are the examples of this kind of books.
-Even Queen herself collected nude man drawings and gave them to her
husband.
Chastity(Abstinence):
-Abstinence means you avoid any activity. They tried to avoid sexual relations
until the marriage.
-They think like if a person is chaste s/he will be a faithful partner but this
chaste term mostly used for women, not man.
-This abstinence can be long term because of the religious asceticism.The
orthodox church always preached for abstinence.

3. -Abstinence from sex was also considered important for person's health.
Courtship rules
Again they had some strict rules about courting like:
-You can't speak in an impure way in front of a single woman.
-A woman can't spend time with a man at home if she was alone.There must
be another family member.
-Until marriage, there was no physical contact.
-An unmarried girl couldn't date a man in the middle of the night.Also, man
can't stay for long in girl's home.They saw it as impoliteness.
In marriage step, if you spend so much time with your partner, society
dictates you to marry.Even if after the marriage, there are still rules for the
woman.For example, if a man gives an expensive marriage gift to the woman,
she can't take it at the hands of him.Because they consider it as bribing her
affections.
Victorian Etiquette Rules:
Basically, they had rules for everything.Those rules can be seen
functional or arbitrary.They had rules from how to say hello in the street to how
to enter the dining room.The purpose of those rules was to show respect for
everyone.Let's look at some of the interesting etiquette rules:
1-Street Etiquette:
-Young ladies can't stop to chat in a crowded street.
If a young woman and gentleman come across and if the lady feels that
she can't ignore him, she has to offer her hand.During this time gentleman
have to wait until the lady recognizes him.Then, the gentleman can lift his
hat.If the lady offered her hand, they shouldn't stop to chat, they need to
walk.They speak while walking.This speech also has its own rules.They had to
avoid animated speech or loud talking.
2-Dinner Party Etiquette:

4. They had to come to the party before 15 minutes.They gather in the
drawing room.Then servant announces the dinner and they start to enter the
room.However, entering is not a simple process.Hostess had to organize the
order of the procession and The process begins with the most honored guests.
If she fails the organization, people can easily be offended.
Religious Morality:
Even though people started to question the religion because of the
industrialism and science, the effect of the religion on people continued.It had
a word on every aspect of people's lives like politics, marriage, social and
sexual life.
-Bible was considered as the foundation of the moral behaviors.The only guide
to the moral life.The reading of the bible was common.For example, in railway
stations, you could see chained bibles. Most of the people attended the church
regularly.
-Effect of the puritanism was seen in early of the Victorian period.Ascetism can
be an example for this.
Code of Conduct:
There were set of principles for a proper society.
1-Duty 4-No hypocrisy
2-Hard work 5-Charity
3-Giving respect to people 6-Philanthropy
Progress, reforms, stability affected those principles of the code of conduct.
-Restrictive gender roles:
Men
Breadwinners
Family protectors
They were superior in body and mind
Better educated and head of the family.
Women:

5. Inferior to men and weaker innocent.
The main role was to marry a man and take part in his life.
Learn homely skills
Look after the house and children
Contradictions:
Alcoholism:
Because of the working and living conditions, people tended to drink
alcohol.In order to run away from their restrictions and economic problems,
they drunk hard liquor.In Charles Dicken's writings, we can see the theme of
the drinking alcohol.(Our mutual friend, Sketches by Boz)
Prostitution:
Prostitution unfortunately was the major concern during those times.They say
prostitution was legal and 1/3 women was a prostitute.This problem can be
seen in Charles Dicken's writings.He created characters like Nancy in Oliver
Twist and Martha Endell in David Copperfield.
-Because of the economic, social, sexual restrictions to women, they preferred
prostitution in order to run away from restrictions.
Child Labour:
They started to abolish slavery but that abolishing created the child
laboring.Children were forced to work in factories, workhouses.They worked
16 hours in a day like elders did.It was totally corruption for society. Parents
couldn't resist this corruption because the income of the family was so low and
the children also had to work instead of getting an education.
Again we can see child characters in Charles Dicken's novels.
Pip(Great Expectation) David(David Copperfield)
Esther(Bleak House) Estella(Great Expectation)
Oliver(Oliver Twist) Sissy Jup(Hard Times)

6. References
Dutta Anindita (2018, March 29). Children in Dickens's Novels. Retrieved
from: https://www.arcjournals.org/pdfs/ijsell/v2-i2/1.pdf
Victorian Morality (2018, March 29).Retrieved from: http://www.wiki-
zero.com/index.php?q=aHR0cHM6Ly9lbi53aWtpcGVkaWEub3JnL3dpa2kvVm
ljdG9yaWFuX21vcmFsaXR5
Victorian era courtship rules and marriage facts (2018, March 29).Retrieved
from: http://www.victorian-era.org/victorian-era-courtship-rules-and-
marriage.html
Victorian Era Morality Facts: Moral Behavior, Values, Ideals, Ethics(2018,
March 28).Retrieved from: http://www.victorian-era.org/victorian-era-
morality.html
Victorian Era Code of Conduct (2018, March 28). Retrieved from:
http://www.victorian-era.org/victorian-era-code-of-conduct.html
Victorian morality Facts: Moral views on chastity, crimes, code of conduct,
church influence (2018, March 27). Retrieved from: http://www.victorian-
era.org/victorian-morality.html
Victorian Era Abstinence: How related to ethics and morality (2018, March 29).
Retrieved from: http://www.victorian-era.org/victorian-era-abstinence.html
Mcgrath Jane (2018, March 29). 10 Ridiculous Victorian Etiquette
Rules.Retrieved from:
https://people.howstuffworks.com/10-ridiculous-victorian-etiquette-rules.htm
Mckellen Sabine (2018, March 29). Social Restrictions in the Victorian Era.
Retrieved from: https://classroom.synonym.com/social-restrictions-victorian-
era-17695.html
Victorian Era (2018,March 29) Retrieved from:
http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Victorian_era
Victorian Religion of Christianity (2018, March 29) Retrieved from:
http://www.victorian-era.org/victorian-religion-of-christianity.html
Alcohol and Alcoholism in Victorian England (2018, March 29)Retrieved from:
http://www.victorianweb.org/science/health/alcoholism.html

7. London Gin Shops (2018, March 29)Retrieved from:
http://www.victorianweb.org/history/london/gin.html
Prostitution in Victorian England (2018, March 29)Retrieved from:
https://revisitingdickens.wordpress.com/prostitution-victorian/