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The Victorian EraUnidad Didáctica 3 – Complementos para la formación disciplinar en lengua
inglesaa.a. 2014/2015
Arianna Marconi
The Victorian Era (1837-1901)
Victoria’s reign began in 1837 and ended in 1901 with her death: this lapse
of time is generally agreeded to be the Victorian Era
The name of the Queen was given to this historical period when she was still
living
It was characterized by an incredibly rapid transformation that led Britain to
a cultural, scientific and economic boom
The population and the cities grew, producing a noteworthy change in
people’s lives
It is considered the beginning of Modern Times
“
”
[…] prudish, hypocritical, stuffy,
[and] narrow-minded
Murfin, The Bedford Glossary of Critical and Literary Terms, New York:
Bedford/St. Martin's, 2003
This is the most common perception given by the Victorian Era, but it is not
accurate at all: members of the middle-class acted that way in order to join
noble ranks.
The British Empire
Queen Victoria expanded her
colonial Empire all over Asia, Africa
and India, ruling a quarter of the
world’s population
The English language increased its
popularity outside overseas for
commercial reasons
Victorian were excited by these
important geographical
explorations
They were still troubled by the Irish
situation
Cultural and scientific development
Darwin’s Theory of Evolution
Medicine: increasing of specializations and development of surgery
Medical progress: anaesthetics and antiseptics
Growth of hospitals, workhouses and nursery schools.
Authors: Emily, Anne and Charlotte Bronte, Anthony Trollope, George Eliot, Oscar Wilde, Charles Dickens, Lord Tennyson, Lewis Carroll and Rudyard Kipling
Artists: William Holman Hunt, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Christina Rossetti, John Everett Millais
Transports: railways to travel
Communication: telegraph, printing presses
Politics: socialism
Population growth
Families were usually big and patriarchal and their virtues were:
hard work, respectability and religious conformity
Children survived more infancy
Immigration from Ireland because of unemployment
Increase of education and employment for women too
Cities’ growth and
search for employment
People usually went to seek their fortune in cities where jobs were more
likely to be found
The huge industrialization made people move towards cities in order to live
next to the place they worked in
Jobs were hard and underpaid
Sometimes people shared space into their room with others in order to
afford the rent, and these lodges were called rookeries
In this context there were great wealth and huge poverty at the same time
The working-class situation was bad, but the Reform Bills gave to vote to
most men over 21
Children
The situation for children was anything but happy
Families were large (usually each couple had almost six kids) because the
children were expected to support their families economically
They were employed as chimney-sweeps, they could easily creep under
machinery to get the cotton bobbins and slip through the coal mines
Some of them were matches, flowers or cheap goods’ sellers
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87eVOpbcoVo&index=2&list=PLwqH6
4PJb_qw48SuWuSfUEDu0lBdiPNZb&spfreload=10
“
”
[…] It is difficult to form an accurate estimate; but
from all the inquiries that I have been able to make—
and I can assure the House that no trouble has been
spared—I should say that the naked, filthy, roaming,
lawless, and deserted children, in and about the
metropolis, exceeded, rather than fell short of,
30,000.
Lord Ashley, Juvenile Population, speech of 1848.
Crime and prostitution
The gap between rich and poor was huge
Poor people died of starvation: to survive they committed crime
Victorians thought that crime came by no-education, but as Henry
Mayhew wrote:
“[…] since crime was not caused by illiteracy, it could not be cured by
education […]”
When girls lost their father or their husband, there was a little choice
between being a governess or a prostitute
Middle-class
The Reform Bill in 1832 consolidated the middle-class political power,
strenghtening their economic position
Gentleman was a man who had received education
Lady was a woman married to a gentleman
Usually men’s status came from his family, while women’s by the man they
were married with
Their values were: hard work, sexual morality and individual responsibility
They were widely churchgoing
Middle-class
There was such a diversity within the Middle-class that it is very difficult to
elaborate a specific and precise definition
Middle-class is represented by large-scale merchants, manufacturers and
bankers who had achieved class mobility, becoming able to provide their
children's with education, but also by small shopkeepers and clerical
workers, who also needed education to work
Only men provided family’s incomes
Upper class
They came from wealthy families
They did not work
They focused their attention on material things such as clothing, clubs,
women and gambling
Their lives were self-centred
The popular dandy image reflected their lifestyle
Upper class: Women and Men
Men used to court women with poems, sonnets, music, dance, gifts or
simply spending time with the woman
Women could not introduce themselves, but they were to be introduced
by one friend
Men usually wore dark and plain colours
Women could not show legs or arms since it was not suitable for a lady
“
”
In this world there are only two
tragedies; one is not getting what
one wants, the other is getting it.
O. Wilde
Bibliography
https://faculty.unlv.edu/kirschen/handouts/victorian.html
http://www.victoriaspast.com/FrontPorch/victorianera.htm
http://www.history.ac.uk/ihr/Focus/Victorians/article.html
http://www.hiddenlives.org.uk/articles/poverty.html
http://www.infoplease.com/encyclopedia/entertainment/english-
literature-the-victorian-age.html
http://www.eng.fju.edu.tw/intro98/ray_student_page/group_2/class-M.htm
http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1848/jun/06/juvenile-
population#S3V0099P0_18480606_HOC_4
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/victorians/middle_classes_01.shtml
Bibliography
http://community.artofmanliness.com/profiles/blogs/victorian-upper-class-
men-and-their-daily-lifestyle
http://www.english.uwosh.edu/roth/VictorianEngland.htm
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87eVOpbcoVo&index=2&list=PLwqH6
4PJb_qw48SuWuSfUEDu0lBdiPNZb&spfreload=10
Images
http://www.scottish-country-dancing-dictionary.com/images/queen-
victoria.jpg
http://takimag.com/images/uploads/victorianage.jpeg
http://izquotes.com/quotes-pictures/quote-a-man-who-moralises-is-usually-
a-hypocrite-and-a-woman-who-moralises-is-invariably-plain-oscar-wilde-
335190.jpg
http://ndla.no/sites/default/files/images/42-29438669_0.jpg
http://www.victorianweb.org/science/vicscience.jpg
http://www.victorian-era.org/victorian-family-2.jpg
http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/48794000/jpg/_48794694_pro30-
69-1663(74)womendustmen(inayardoffvauzhall)1900-1909.jpg
http://www.primaryhomeworkhelp.co.uk/victorians/children/work.jpg
Images
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a2/Anthony_Ashley-Cooper,_7th_Earl_of_Shaftesbury_by_John_Collier.jpg
http://rodriguez9-2.pbworks.com/f/PROSTITUTION.JPG
https://femlitcake.files.wordpress.com/2014/02/27d42-home-sweet-home.png?w=512&h=387
http://www.blacktieguide.com/Supplemental/Clerical/Victorian_era_High_Anglican_edit.jpg
http://www.bookdrum.com/images/books/182697_o.jpg
http://photo.blogpressapp.com/photos/13/02/11/s_2603.jpg
http://a4.files.biography.com/image/upload/c_fit,dpr_1.0,h_1200,q_80,w_1200/MTI1MjM3OTAwMDM1MDA0ODk0.jpg