The Victorian Age 1832-1900

Historical Context 1832-1900England => world’s wealthiest nation, most

influential colonial powerLarge scale attempts to solve the problems of

the industrial and democratic revolutions of Romantic Age

First Reform Bill of 1832 => rise of middle class in English politics

Progress, Prosperity, Problems (and Reform)

The Crystal Palace, 1851.

Victorian AttitudesEarnestness, Self-Satisfaction, AnxietyMiddle Class progressivism / conservatismEvangelicalism

John Wesley Puritanical moral code, Sabbatarians

Utilitarianism Jeremy Bentham Progressive- reason and science

“future shock”- psychological distress due to rapid social or technological change

New Ideas and Intellectual Controversy1830: Sir Charles Lyell’s Principles of Geology

1859: Charles Darwin’s Origin of Species

1867: Karl Marx’s Das Kapital

Ophelia, John Everett Millais, 1852.

The Lady of Shalott, John William Waterhouse, 1888