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