THE VICTORIAN AGE: A GOLDEN AGE OR AN AGE OF MISERY?

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THE VICTORIAN AGE A GOLDEN AGE OR AN AGE OF
MISERY?

• THE VICTORIAN TOWNS

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Vicotorian compromise

• Stability
• Progress
• Social Reforms

• Poverty
• Injustice
• Social unrest

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Rigid code of values based on

• duty and hard work
• respectability a mixture of both morality and
  hypocrisy, severity and conformity to social
  standards
• charity and philanthropy an activity that
  involved many people, expecially women.

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Queen Victoria (1819-1901)Reign 1837-1901

• She had the longest reign in British history
• Became queen at the age of 18 she was graceful
  and self-assured. She also had a gift for
  drawing and painting
• Throughout her reign, she maintained a sense of
  dignity and decorum that restored the average
  persons high opinion of the monarchy after a
  series of horrible, ineffective leaders
• 1840-Victoria married a German prince, Albert,
  who became not king, but Prince-consort
• After he died in 1861, she sank into a deep
  depression and wore black every day for the rest
  of her life

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The Growth of the British Empire

• England grew to become the greatest nation on
  earth
• Empire included Canada, Australia, New Zealand,
  Hong Kong, Singapore, South Africa, Kenya, and
  India
• England built a very large navy and merchant
  fleet (for trade and colonization)

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The Growth of the British Empire (continued)

• Imported raw materials such as cotton and silk
  and exported finished goods to countries around
  the world
• By the mid-1800s, England was the largest
  exporter and importer of goods in the world. It
  was the primary manufacturer of goods and the
  wealthiest country in the world
• Because of Englands success, they felt it was
  their duty to bring English values, laws,
  customs, and religion to the savage races
  around the world

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The Industrial Revolution

• Factory systems emerged
• The shift in the English economy moved away from
  agriculture and toward the production of
  manufactured goods
• Great Exhibition of 1851-Prince Albert-housed in
  the Crystal Palace (made of glass and iron)
  exhibited hydraulic presses, locomotives, machine
  tools, power looms, power reapers, and steamboat
  engines

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Social and Political Reform

• 1832-First Reform Act-extended the vote to most
  middle-class men
• 1833-Britain abolished slavery/Factory
  Act-regulated child labor in factories
• 1834-Poor Law-Amendment applied a system of
  workhouses for poor people
• 1871-Trade Union Act-made it legal for laborers
  to organize to protect their rights

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Naturalism

• Based on the philosophical theory that actions
  and events are the results not of human
  intentions, but of largely uncontrollable
  external forces
• Authors chose subjects and themes common to the
  lower and middle classes
• Attentive to details, striving for accuracy and
  authenticity in their descriptions

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POSITIVE ASPECTS OF THE VICTORIAN AGE

• Industrial revolution the industrial revolution
  started with the introduction of capitalism.
• Technological advances introduction of steam
  hammers, locomotives
• Economical progress Britain was the first
  economical power in the world till 1901, as the
  Usa became the leader, but it remained the first
  in manifacturing.

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Drawing of a crushing mill
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Representation of a cotton factory
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Crystal Palace

• Crystal Palace was a construction of iron and
  glass. It contained a great exhibition of
  technological advances (steam hammers,
  locomotive.). This exhibition had a political
  purpose it was useful to show the supremacy of
  Britain in the world - economy.

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1820 Writers spoke about the machine age with a
positive tone

• BUT ON THE OTHER HAND it implied a high social
  and environmental cost.

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The heroes of the age

• Scientists, in particular engineers, were
  described like heroes by many writers like Samuel
  Sniles.
• From this point of view, technological progress
  and mechanical inventions were the result of
  inspired, intuitive leaps made by heroic figures.

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The cartoons

• Cartoons were used to emphasise the importance of
  industry during the Victorian Age.

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Benjamin Franklin, The Colonies Reduced, 1767
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The Boston Tea Rape, London Magazine, 1774
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The Horse America Throwing his Master, 1779
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Negative aspects of the Victorian Age

• Pollution in the towns due to factory activity
  in fact life in the countryside was much
  healthier.
• Hygienic conditions (cities were too densely
  populated, most people lived in miserable
  conditions most houses shared water supplies)
• Epidemics (cholera,thyphoid), with a consistant
  increase of death in the cities.

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• In 1851 half of Britains population lived in
  towns, which offered a better chance of work and
  higher wages than the countryside

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But life expectation in the towns was of only 26
years

• Large towns were unhealthy. New epidemics were
  stalking the cities.
• Such a high mortality, hadnt been seen since the
  Black Death

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The crisis of epidemics came to a peak in the
Great Stink.
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The Great Stink

• This expression is used to describe the terrible
  smell in London, coming from the Thames.
• The Miasmas, exhalations from decaying matter,
  poisoned the air.

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The houses

• Poor families, with 4-5 children, lived in houses
  with 2-3 rooms and without a lavatory.

• The houses of the rich had water in the kitchen,
  gas lighting, flushing toilets and were
  decorated.

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The clubs

• The clubs had their origin in the coffee houses,
  but they contributed to increase the difference
  between social classes. In fact only people
  belonging to high classes could be members of a
  club.

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Municipal corporations

• In the early 19th century many towns were
  governed by municipal corporations, usually of
  self-electing members. Parliament reformed
  municipal administration in 1835, but even if
  corporations were elected, voters were
  self-interested owners of small property. Many
  towns voted for cheap governments, with a policy
  of low spending on drains or water supplies.

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• The Victorian Age was an age of misery, because
  the process of industrialization had a high
  social cost

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Thanks for your attention