1. Essential Question
What are the impacts of major historical events on literature, language, and lifestyle during the Victorian Era?

2. The Victorian Period

3. A Time of Growth and Change
“The sun never sets on the British empire” captures the attitude of the era: action.
England was at the height of political and economic power.
The Industrial Revolution was in full swing.
Middle class was growing: there was rapid and dramatic change.
The negative side included injustice, the rapid pace, and materialism.

4. The British Empire at its Peak

5. Monarchy in the Modern Style
1838
1882
Monarchy in the Modern Style
The era is named for Queen Victoria: devotion to hard work and duty, proper behavior, and support for British Imperialism.
Queen Victoria gave day-to-day control to the prime minister and accepted her role as giving advice.

6. Progress, Problems, and Reform
Industrial Revolution made England a modern industrial nation by the time Victoria took the throne.
Industrial Revolution lead to wealth for the rapidly growing middle class.
Indoor toilets, telegraphs, electric lights, locomotive
Middle class enjoyed showing off their wealth through clothing and feasts.

7. Progress, Problems, and Reform
Two views: Some saw the middle classes inability to live up to the moral standards they admired as hypocrisy.
Thomas Macaulay defined progress as material advantages (paved/lit streets, clean city, sober police force, numbered houses, literate citizens).
Thomas Carlyle and William Morris saw materialism as destructive.

8. Progress, Problems, and Reform
Conditions for the poor grew worse. Children worked bad jobs with bad conditions for little money (12 hour days, 6 day weeks, dangerous / mangling machines, coal mines).
High unemployment combined with the potato blight led to starving people crowding England’s slums.
London was an unpleasant city during the 1840s. There was mass amounts of growth /overpopulation: unpaved streets, pollution, the Thames full of industrial waste, sewage, run-off from graveyards

9. Progress, Problems, and Reform
Reforms came about slowly, including:
Abolishing slavery and restricting child labor
Free trade (made cheaper grain available)
Public schools and secret ballots
Improved housing and working conditions
Vote to all working men

10. Progress, Problems, and Reform
Progress was painful even for those who most benefited because it contradicted religious beliefs.
The earth was formed millions of years earlier than believed.
Darwin
This lead to the questioning of progress.

11. British Imperialism
The British empire steadily expanded under Victoria’s rule.
Two views: some were opposed to expansion while some (including Victoria) saw it as the key to prosperity.
Most citizens initially support imperialism.
Kipling: England’s duty is to spread civilization.
Shift over time: support decreased (William Morris)
Colonialism expanded the empire in terms of ideas and lifestyle through diversity.

12. The Influence of Romanticism
New poets were raised on and influenced by Romanticism.
Romantic period primarily influenced ideas of what poetry should be, causing poets to ignore grim reality and focus on “poetic” subjects.
Mixed feelings toward poets: revered as higher order of human, but irrelevant, especially for middle class who was turning to novels.

13. Realism in Fiction
Fiction was considered entertainment, not serious.
Middle class wanted realism: life as it’s really lived.
This focused on the effects of the Industrial Revolution.
Some authors combined realism with romanticism (Bronte, Dickens).
Psychological realism (Eliot) focused on inner realities of the mind.

14. Realism in Fiction
Novels were lengthy—three volumes—and families often spent the evenings reading aloud to each other.
Many novels were initially published as magazine serials (Dickens) and were widely popular.

15. Victorian Viewpoints
Victorians were generalists: they enjoyed nonfiction as well as fiction.
Nonfiction conveyed strong opinions, many critical of society.
Readers were struggling with big questions (can science and religion coexist?)
Optimism of the early years became uneasiness.

16. Victorian Viewpoints
Poets now expressed a sense of loss and pain (Matthew Arnold and Thomas Hardy—naturalism).
Naturalism: the universe is an uncaring force, indifferent to human suffering.
There was a shift in attitude toward gender roles, decorum, and materialism and superficiality.

17. Victorian Viewpoints
Readers avoided serious literature, turning to “escapist fare”
Rudyard Kipling, Oscar Wilde, HG Wells, Arthur Conan Doyle, Lewis Carroll, Robert Louis Stevenson
Pessimism came closest to what modernist writers of the next era would deal with.

18. Traits of Victorian Writers and Their Work
Embracing / questioning authority
Seeking new ways of understanding love, grief, nature, God, and human condition
Skepticism of an infinite power (for some)
Criticism of society’s reverence for stability and decorum
Conveyance of the possibility for a pleasing order in a bleak and chaotic world
Disapproval of a materialistic, shallow, and secular society

19. Questions:
1- Gathering “On the page” or “From the book”
Complete
Identify
Recite
Define
List
Select
Describe
Observe
2- Processing “Between the Lines” or “From the book and brain”
Compare
Sort
Infer
Contrast
Distinguish
Analyze
Classify
Explain (why?)
The left side is to process the notes you wrote in the right column. It is to help you remember all the information in the right side. Your goal is to put things in the column that will help you– draw a picture, pull out key ideas, write questions. It’s up to you! Have at least something for each of the main sections of the notes.
3- Applying “Off the page” or “From the brain”
Evaluate
Judge
If/Then
Generalize
Predict
Hypothesize
Imagine
Speculate
Forecast

20. Summary
3-5 things from the Victorian Era that had the biggest impact on the literature, language, and lifestyle.