The Victorian Period Paradox of Progress The Victorian

The Victorian Period “Paradox of Progress”

The Victorian Period • Victorians thought of themselves living in a time of great change. – Growth – Prosperity – Progress

Peace and Economic Growth: Britannia Rules • Empire grew steadily until 1900 – India – North America • Queen Victoria was the ruler of more than 200 million people OUTSIDE Great Britain living of

Economic Growth • Industrial Revolution expanded – New towns, new goods, new wealth, and new jobs for people maneuvering through levels of the middle class. – Middle class and working class politicians and voters achieved political power while leaving the monarchy and aristocracy in place.

The Idea Progress • Thomas Babington Macauley voiced middle class Victorian attitude – History = progress • Progress= material improvement that could be seen and touched, counted and measured • Cleanliness and order • Victorians have confidence that all social and material problems can be solved by “progress. ” – By the end of the era, disruption and materialism led to a reevaluation of these values.

The Hungry Forties • 1 st decade of Queen Victoria’s reign was troubled – She came to the throne in the first year of a depression – 1. 5 million unemployed workers (out of 16 million people)were on some form of relief

The Hungry Forties • Poor working conditions – Government commissions investigated poor working conditions • Children were mangled at machines when they fell asleep at the end of 12 -hour work days. • Children hauled coal in the mines

The Hungry Forties • Potato Famine – Ireland (1845 -1849) – potato blight caused famine that killed a million and forced 2 million to emigrate. – Some went to England – caused severe overcrowding in cities

The Hungry Forties • Pollution and Filth – Rapid growth of the cities • Filthy and disorderly • Major cities were expanding because of industry – Streets were unpaved; Thames River was polluted with sewage, industrial waste, and drainage from graveyards – Bodies were buried six or eight deep

The Movement for Reform: Food, Factories, and Optimism • Violence and massive political rallies (1840) - To protest government policies that kept the price of food high and deprived most working men of the vote and representation in Parliament • Political reformers organized a “monster rally” to protest

Movements of Reform • Improvements in Diet – Mid-century – Price of food dropped because of increased trade with other countries and the growing empire • Diet improved – meat, fruit, and margarine (Victorian invention) was available to working-class households – Factories and railroads made items and services cheap

Movements of Reform • Florence Nightingale – Transformed public’s perception of modern nursing – Reformed hospital management • Octavia Hill – became authority on housing reform – Believed that adequate housing could “make individual life noble, homes happy, and family life good. ”

Movements in Reform • Reform Bills – Almost all adult males got to vote by the last decades of the century • First Reform Act – All men who owned property worth 10 pounds or more in yearly rent could vote • Second Reform Act – Right to vote to most working-class men except for farm workers • Women age 30 and over won the right to vote – 1918 • Woman age 21 and over – 1921

Reform Bills • Factory Acts – Limited child labor and reduced usual working to 10 hours with ½ holiday on Saturday • State supported schools established – 1870 – Compulsory education – 1880 – Free education – 1891 • By 1900 – 90% of population was literate

“Blushing Cheeks”: Decorum & Prudery • Middle class obsession with gentility or decorum – Censored books/magazines of things that could bring “a blush to the cheek” – In fiction – sex, birth, and death were softened into tender courtships, joyous motherhoods, and deathbed scenes in which old people were saints and babies were angels – Seduced/adulterous women = “fallen” into the margins of society

Authoritarian Values • Family – Autocratic father of middle class households (in both fact and fiction) – Women were subject to male authority • Women marry to make comfortable homes as a refuge for their husbands to escape the male domain of business

Authoritarian Values • Few occupations for unmarried women – Working class – servants in wealthy homes – Middle class – governesses/teachers • Unmarried women had painful, difficult lives

Prudery and Social Control • Used to control immorality and sexual excess associated with violent political revolutions of the 18 th century and social corruption of regency of George IV

Intellectual Progress: The March of the Mind • Humans began to understand more about the earth, its creatures, and natural laws – Charles Darwin – Evolution of the Species – Technology, chemistry, and engineering aided with the industrial movement

Questions and Doubts • Victorians questioned the cost of exploiting the earth and human beings to achieve material comfort • Protested or mocked codes of decorum and authority

The Popular Mr. Dickens • Most popular and important figure in Victorian literature – Thanks to the high literacy rate – Son of a debt-ridden clerk, but due to his talents and energy rose from poverty to become a wealthy and famous man

Mr. Dickens • His books had happy endings, but many characters were neglected, abused, and exploited (esp. children). – Oliver Twist (hungry) “Please sir, may I have some more? ” – Tiny Tim (handicapped) “God bless us, everyone!” – David Copperfield (abused by stepfather) “Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether that station will be held by anybody else, these pages must show. ” • Attacked hollow, superficial excess of the Victorian Age

Trust in the Transcendental & Skepticism • Transcendentalists (Romantics) – Purpose of the poet (or any writer) was to make readers aware of the connection between earth and heaven, body and soul, material and ideal • Mid-century- a withdrawal of God from the world – Matthew Arnold’s “Dover Beach” – No certainty about God

Trust in the Transcendental & Skepticism • By the end of the century – Skepticism and denial of God dominated – Thomas Hardy and A. E. Houseman