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Victorian England: Queen Victoria

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Victorian England: Queen Victoria s England 1837-1901 A historical connection to A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens – PowerPoint PPT presentation

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Title: Victorian England: Queen Victoria


1
Victorian England Queen Victorias England
1837-1901
  • A historical connection to
  • A Christmas Carol
  • by Charles Dickens

2
Background on Charles Dickens
  • Born on Feb. 7, 1812, in Portsmouth, England
  • His father, John Dickens, was a minor clerk in
    the navy offices with a large family (Charles was
    the second of eight children) and only a moderate
    income. The family drifted from one poor home in
    London to another, each shabbier than the last.
    John Dickens ended up in the prison for an unpaid
    debt and took his wife and younger children with
    him.
  • To help his family Charles worked in a ramshackle
    warehouse, lived in a garret, and visited his
    family in prison on Sundays, and felt that his
    life was shattered before it had begun. (David
    Copperfield)

3
Charles Dickens
  • Had only two years of secondary education.
  • Never attended college.
  • Did not read any great literature of previous
    ages.
  • Knew little of history.
  • So, how did he become such a great writer?
  • He had a keen eye which he used to observe
    closely the details of peoples daily lives and a
    keen ear which he used to mimic peoples subtle
    speech patterns. His keen awareness of details
    gave him the basis of his great stories that
    recreate the realities of those around him.

4
Fashion and Style for Wealthy Women Dickens
Victorian London
5
Expectations of Proper Victorian Women in
Public
  • A lady walks quietly through the streets, seeing
    and hearing nothing that she ought not to,
    recognizing acquaintances with a courteous bow,
    and friends with words of greeting. She never
    talks loudly or laughs boisterously, or does
    anything to attract the attention of the
    passers-by. She walks along in her own quiet,
    lady-like way, and by her preoccupation is secure
    from any annoyance. A true lady in the street, as
    in the parlor is modest, discreet, kind and
    obliging.
  • It is proper that the lady should first recognize
    the gentleman. A gentleman will never fail to bow
    in return to a lady but a lady may not feel at
    liberty to return a gentlemans bow, which places
    him in a rather unpleasant position. Therefore, a
    lady should give the first smile or bow. She must
    refrain, at all times, from using the gentlemans
    Christian name.

6
Fashion and Style for Wealthy Men
  • A real gentleman never swears or talks
    uproariously. He should never fail to raise his
    hat politely to an acquaintance of either sex. If
    he should bump into someone or step upon a ladys
    dress he must "beg their pardon", and at no time
    should he lose his temper nor attract attention
    by excited conversation.
  • It is proper to offer a lady his arm,
    particularly in the evening and it should always
    be the right arm. People passing should observe
    the law of "turn to the right" and in this way
    the lady would not be jostled. It is always
    proper for a gentleman walking alone to give the
    lady or a gentleman with a lady the inside of the
    walk.

7
Hobbies of the Victorian Wealthy
Camping, cycling, horseback riding, swimming,
roller skating, croquet, golf, tennis, billiards,
ball room dancing, shooting, hunting, yachting
8
What did the wealthy do?
  • The wealthy did not do much besides look good and
    partake in an array of recreational activities.
  • Their income came from inherited lands and
    investments in the progressive industries.
  • Typical earnings30,000 pounds.
  • Lets take a tour of a typical
  • middle-upper class Victorian home!

http//www.logicmgmt.com/1876/house_tour/ourhouse.
htm
9
The Other End of London East End
  • London was overcrowded, and the East End suffered
    the worse conditions possible due to a rise in
    population of London which could not be supported
    with jobs, shelter, and medical treatment.
  • A London reporter in 1849 writes, In big, once
    handsome houses, thirty or more people of all
    ages may inhabit a single room

10
Disease and Malnutrition in East End
  • The Cholera epidemic killed over 6, 000 people in
    London in 1852
  • In an article published on 24th September 1849 a
    London reporter described a London Street with a
    tidal ditch running through it, into which drains
    and sewers emptied. The ditch contained the only
    water the people in the street had to drink, and
    it was the colour of strong green tea, in fact
    it was more like watery mud than muddy water
    Later this dirty water source was said to have
    been the breeding ground and the spread of
    cholera.
  • In 1850 an inquest was held on a 38 year old man
    whose body was reported as being little more than
    a skeleton, his wife was described as being the
    very personification of want and her child as a
    skeleton infant

11
Smog from Industrycreated unhealthy air all over
London
12
Children of East End
  • In 1848 Lord Ashley referred to more than thirty
    thousand 'naked, filthy, roaming lawless and
    deserted children, in and around the metropolis'
  • Many destitute children lived by stealing, and to
    the respectable Victorians they must have seemed
    a very real threat to society. Something had to
    be done about them to preserve law and order.
    Thus, public schools were created.

13
Response to The Poor
  • The well off seemed to ignore the existence of
    such places as East End. They did the same as
    they did in their private lives, brushed it under
    the carpet and hoped it would go away.
  • Quotes from the wealthy of Victorian England
  • -the poor were improvident, they wasted any
    money they had on drink and gambling
  • -God had put people in their place in life and
    this must not be interfered with because the life
    after death was more important
  • a hymn published in 1848 by Cecil Frances
    Alexander demonstrates that even churches were
    reinforcing the negligent attitudes towards the
    poorThe rich man in his castle,The poor man at
    his gate,God made them, high and lowly,And
    orderd their estate

14
The Solution The Poor Law of 1834
  • Introduced some severe order into the poor legal
    system of issuing monies collected from taxes to
    the poor.
  • Declared that poor relief should be granted to
    able-bodied poor and their dependents only in
    well-regulated workhouses.
  • Called for the grouping of independent parishes
    into unions. Each union, under an elected board
    of trustees, decided how much relief each family
    or dependent pauper would receive. (Usually, the
    trustees pocketed much of the money granted to
    the union workhouses and forced the poor into a
    substandard living.)
  • Forced the poor to wear pauper uniforms as a
    symbol of their inferiority in society and forced
    the poor to complete mundane, unproductive tasks
    for up to 18 hours per day
  • Robbed the poor of their civil and political
    rights, including the right to vote.

15
The Workhouses
  • Families who did enter the workhouse were broken
    up, males and females were housed in separate
    sections and not allowed to mix.
  • Bones were crushed by hand to make fertilizer.
    Sometimes the inmates were so hungry that they
    would pick scraps of flesh off the bones and eat
    it. The bones were not all animal bones either!

16
Crime and Prisons
  • Criminal offenses went up from about 5,000 per
    year in 1800 to about 20,000 per year in 1840.
  • 90 prisons were built or added to between 1842
    and 1877
  • Walking a treadwheel or picking oakum (separating
    strands of rope) were the most common forms of
    hard and meaningless labor.
  • Prisoners were not allowed to speak or see any
    other people in some prisons. In fact, many went
    insane from such harsh treatment.
  • Children were punished the same as adults until
    1847 when the courts decided that children under
    the age of 16 were instead to be sent to
    reformatory institutions until adulthood.

17
Joseph Lewis Prisoner 5248 Age 11 Offense
Larceny Sentence 1 month in prison
18
Walking the Treadwheel
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