The dawn of the Victorian Age 1837 1861

The dawn of the Victorian Age (1837 -1861) Performer Heritage Marina Spiazzi, Marina Tavella, Margaret Layton © 2017

The dawn of the Victorian Age 1837 Queen Victoria comes to the throne 1838 Publication of Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens 1838 People’s Charter calls for social reforms Performer Heritage 1840 Marriage of Queen Victoria to Prince Albert 1847 Publication of Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë 1847 Publication of Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë 1851 The Great Exhibition opens at Crystal Palace 1853 -56 Crimean War 1861 Prince Albert dies 1861 Civil War begins in America

The dawn of the Victorian Age 1. Queen Victoria • Victoria became queen at the age of eighteen in 1837. • She ruled for almost 64 years. • Her sense of duty made her the ideal head of a constitutional monarchy. • She provided her country with stability. Performer Heritage

The dawn of the Victorian Age 2. Victoria and Albert • Victoria and Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha married in 1840. They had nine children and their family life provided a model of respectability. • In 1857 Victoria gave Albert the title of Prince Consort, in recognition of his importance to the country. • • Albert supported reform but in December 1861 he died suddenly at the age of 42. Performer Heritage In memory of her beloved husband she had the Albert Memorial (1876) built in London.

The dawn of the Victorian Age 3. An age of reforms 1832 The First Reform Act = voting privileges extended to the large industrial towns. 1833 The Factory Act = prevented children from being employed more than 48 hours a week. 1834 The Poor Law Amendment Act = workhouses became a deterrent against poverty. 1846 Abolition of the Corn Laws 1867 The Second Reform Act = voting privileges extended to part of the urban male workers. 1872 Ballot Act = introduction of the secret ballot. Performer Heritage

The dawn of the Victorian Age 4. Workhouses were places where, often in return for board and lodging, employment was provided for • the poor; • the orphans; • the physically and mentally sick; • the disabled; • the elderly; • unmarried mothers. The government, in the fear of encouraging laziness, made sure that people feared the workhouse and would do anything to keep out of it. Performer Heritage

The dawn of the Victorian Age 4. Workhouses Cruciform Hexagonal Performer Heritage

The dawn of the Victorian Age 4. Workhouses were designed to separate groups: • families were split up; • people in the same family could meet during meals or in the chapel but they were not allowed to speak to each other; • all meals were taken in silence; • the official diets were so meager that they were described as a slow process of starvation. Performer Heritage

The dawn of the Victorian Age 5. Chartism In 1838 a group of working-class radicals drew up a People’s Charter demanding: • universal male suffrage • equal electoral districts • voting by secret ballot • pay for Members of Parliament • annual elections of Parliament The Chartist movement failed, although their influence was later felt in the Second Reform Act in 1867. Performer Heritage

The dawn of the Victorian Age 5. Chartism Performer Heritage

The dawn of the Victorian Age 6. The Irish Potato Famine Causes • Rise in population in 1845. • Dependence on potato crops. • Destruction of crops because of bad weather and unknown plant disease. What was done? 1846: Prime Minister Peel abolished the Corn Laws, which imposed tariffs on imported corn, keeping the price of bread high. Performer Heritage

The dawn of the Victorian Age 6. The Irish Potato Famine Results • 1 million died of disease and starvation. • 2 million emigrated by 1851. • Decline of Irish language. • New Catholic landlords. • Hatred for Britain. Performer Heritage

The dawn of the Victorian Age 7. The Great Exhibition Housed at the Crystal Palace, in Hyde Park, 1851 What? It showed the increasing power of the middle classes. Performer Heritage Why? It was built so other countries could show off their scientific and technological developments. Who? Everyone from all over the British Empire gathered there to see the pride of the nations.

The dawn of the Victorian Age 7. The Great Exhibition Inside there were many exhibits from several countries, including China, America, Canada and many more. On each industrial country’s exhibit they showcased their biggest designs, fabrics and their latest creations to show that their home nation was better than any other. China’s section. Performer Heritage America’s section. Canada’s section.

The dawn of the Victorian Age 8. Foreign policy In the mid-19 th century England was involved in two Opium Wars Indian Mutiny Crimean War • England gained access to five Chinese ports and the control of Hong Kong after the Second Opium War. • British rule acquired greater responsibility after the Indian Mutiny. • Florence Nightingale led a team of 38 nurses at Scutari base hospital during the Crimean War. Once back to England, she formed an institution for the development of the nursing profession. Performer Heritage

The dawn of the Victorian Age 9. The Victorian compromise • The Victorians were great moralisers they supported personal duty, hard work, decorum, respectability, chastity. • Respectability a mixture of morality and hypocrisy. The unpleasant aspects of society – dissolution, poverty, social unrest – were hidden under outward respectability. • ‘Victorian’, synonymous with prude, stood for extreme repression; even furniture legs had to be concealed under heavy cloth not to be ‘suggestive’. Performer Heritage

The dawn of the Victorian Age 9. The Victorian compromise • The powerful middle-class was obsessed with gentility and decorum. Decorum strict ideas about authority a. Victorian private lives dominated by an authoritarian father. b. Women were subject to male authority; they were expected to marry and make home a ‘refuge’ for their husbands. c. Single women with a child were marginalised as ‘fallen’ women. Performer Heritage

The dawn of the Victorian Age 10. Early Victorian thinkers Evangelicalism • • • John Wesley (1703 -1791), the founder of Methodism. Strict code of behaviour. Dedication to humanitarian causes and social reform. Base of Victorian emphasis upon moral conduct. Utilitarianism • • • Neglected human and cultural values. Any problem could be overcome by reason. Usefulness, happiness, avoidance of pain. Jeremy Bentham (1748 -1832), theorist. Empiricism John Stuart Mill (1806 -1873), philosopher. Performer Heritage • Legislation should try to help men develop their natural talents. • Progress came from mental energy. • Supported popular education, trade union organisation, extension of representation to all citizens, and the emancipation of women.

The dawn of the Victorian Age 10. Early Victorian thinkers Darwin and theory of evolution • All living creatures have developed their forms through a slow process of change. • Favourable physical conditions determine the survival of a species, unfavourable ones its extinction. • Man evolved from a monkey. Charles Darwin (1809 -1882). Darwin’s theory discarded the version of creation given by the Bible. The Oxford Movement • • A reaction to the challenges of science. Revival of religion. John Henry Newman (1801 -1890). Performer Heritage