The Victorian Era

1
The Victorian Era

• Part I Overview of an Era

2
"We are of the time of chivalry....We are of the
age of steam." -William Makepeace Thackery
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An Age of Transition

• The Quest for Self-Definition

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Never since the beginning of Time was there, that
we hear or read of, so intensely self-conscious a
Society. Our whole relations to the Universe and
to our fellow-man have become an Inquiry, a
Doubt. Thomas Carlyle, 1831      
5
Rule Britannia?

• Between 1800 1850
• population doubled from nine to eighteen million
• Britain became the richest country on earth
• first urban, industrial society in history
• By 1890
• 1 in 4 people on the earth were under British rule

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General Characteristics

• The Victorian Era was marked by
• Momentous and intimidating social changes
• Mind-blowing inventions
• extraordinary energies

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Industrialization

• Land owning aristocracy lost power
• The insecure, ever expanding urban middle class
  gained power
• Businessmen
• Professionals
• Millions of rural workers forced into poverty

8
Best of Times/Worst of Times

• the rapidity of events produced
• wild prosperity vs. unthinkable poverty
• humane reforms vs. flagrant exploitation
• immense ambitions vs. devastating doubts
• An age of great achievement, deep faith,
  indisputable progress AND destruction, religious
  collapse, vicious profiteering

9
Reform and Revolutionary Fears

• Every social sector fought for privileges and
  feared the unchecked rights of the others
• Campaigns to extend voting rights
• Men
• Middle class
• Working class
• Brought on fears of an armed insurrection
• Feared class warfare
• Arguments for and against trade unions
• Womens equality
• Socialism
• Separation of church and state

10
Multitudinousness"

• The complexity of British culture
• Thwarted all attempts to define a collective
  identity or a clear sense of purpose
• Victorians suffered from both future shock and
  information overload
• steam-powered printing presses
• Railways Telegraphs
• Journalism and junk mail

11
Self-Consciously Modern

• people were sure only of their differences from
  previous generations
• traditional ways of life transforming
• Life was now perilously unstable
• The world was now astonishingly new

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We Are Not Amused

• Victoria and the Victorians

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"Few of us, perhaps, have realized till now how
large a part she had in the life of everyone of
us how the thread of her life bound the warp
of the nation's progress." -A newspaper quote on
the Death of the Queen in 1901
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the head of our morality

• During the tumultuous time, The Queen ultimately
  came to represent
• England Empire
• Stability Continuity
• Duty, Family, Propriety
• A stern, conservative, durable symbol of her
  dynamic, aggressively businesslike realm.

15
Royal Representations

• 1830s - A Decade of New Beginnings
• 1837 Victoria is shown as a fairytale, teenaged
  queen
• Radiated youthful enthusiasm to match the
  decades early years

16
Royal Representations

• 1850s The Matron-Monarch
• Now married to Prince Albert (sans the can)
• Settled into a stable, productive domestic image
  (she gave birth to 9 children!)
• Matched the productivity boom of 1850s industry

As in the famous prank-call joke of the
1950s-60s
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Royal Representations

• 1870s - The Widow of Windsor
• Reclusive after Alberts early death in 1861
• Projected a world-weary gloominess
• Her aging was reflected in Britains own sense of
  maturation as an Imperial world power

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An Exception to Her own Rule

• Victoria herself was study in contradiction a
  publicly projected image that held a privately
  unfulfilled ideal
• Worlds most powerful woman, but did not support
  the mad, wicked folly of Womens Rights.
• Her face was known around the world, but she
  lived in constant seclusion
• Held as an icon of motherhood, but hated
  pregnancy, childbirth and babies

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What is a Victorian?

• The adjective "Victorian" was first used in 1851
  to celebrate the nation's mounting pride in its
  institutions and commercial success.
• This historical/literary period is defined by the
  duration of a monarchs rule, rather than any one
  unifying idea as was the case with the Romantics.

20
Victorian Behavior

• Stereotypically, Victorian social conduct is
  governed by
• Strict rules
• Formal manners
• Rigidly defined gender roles
• Relations hampered by sexual prudery
• Intense obsession with a public appearance of
  propriety (private facts were often the compete
  opposite!)

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Contradictory Behaviors

• Perceived Image
• Energetic
• Phenomenal work ethic
• Sense of duty towards the Public Good
• Self-confident
• A Society of over-achievers

22
Contradictory Behaviors

• Their contemporary literature hints that
• Work obsession deliberate distraction
• Public responsibility an excuse to ease doubts
• Religious faith
• Gender roles
• Class privilege and Imperial rule
• Conservatism FEAR OF CHANGE
• Dominate the moment to keep the future (which was
  uncertain) at bay
• Great discoveries unexpected, often distressing
  repercussions