1. Historical context Social context Literary context
VICTORIAN AGE
Historical context
Social context
Literary context

2. Historical Context The VICTORIAN AGE (1832-1901)
was a period of dramatic change that brought England to its highest point of development as a world power
was a complex era: vs
progress, wealth, order, stability
poverty, injustice, social unrest

3. Historical Context Queen Victoria’s reign (1837-1901)
Longest reign in English history
Period of unprecedented material progress
imperial expansion
political and constitutional development
HOME POLICY: Political and Social Reforms
FOREIGN POLICY: colonialism + imperialism

4. Queen Victoria - worked for the peace and prosperity of her country
- was able to keep at bay any conflict over constitutional matters
- reigned constitutionally avoiding the storm of revolutions
- played a more active role
- became a mediator above political parties

5. Queen Victoria
- model for her people: exemplary family life, strictly respectable and decent code of behaviour (Victorianism)
- beloved especially by the middle class who shared her moral and religious views

6. Historical Context - Home policy
POLITICAL and SOCIAL REFORMS
1842 – Mines’ Act
1847 – Ten Hours’ Act
1867 – Secon Reform Act
1832 – First Reform Act
1833 – Factory Act
1834 – Poor Law Amendment Act
1838 – the People’s Charter
(Chartism)

7. Historical Context - Home policy
POLITICAL and SOCIAL REFORMS
1872 – Ballot Act
1870 – Elementary Education Act
1875 – Public Health Act
1884 – Third Reform Act
– Fabian Society
Women’s Social and Political Union (Suffragettes)

8. Historical Context – Home Policy
Britain was a model of industrial success, individual freedom and constitutional government
Upper and industrial middle-classes believed in a policy of “laissez-faire” ie. non-interference with industry or with national economy in order to promote free trade and free competition (=Liberalism)

9. Historical Context – Home Policy
triumph of industry (steam engine, steamboats, shipbuilding, trains, iron industry)
eg GREAT EXHIBITION at Crystal Palace in Hyde Park
scientific progress (electricity, telegraph, gas-lighting, stamp+postal system, medicine)
eg. first railway

10. Historical Context – Home Policy
but also
a time of troubles
unemployment, poverty, (slums, workhouses)
appalling working and living conditions
bad sanitation
social unrest, rioting, violence

11. Historical Context – Foreign Policy
THE BRITISH EMPIRE
Imperialism = territorial expansion, colonies abroad
During the Victorian Age the British Empire reached its largest extension: it was called “the Empire where the sun never sets”

12. Historical Context – Foreign Policy
THE BRITISH EMPIRE
British Imperial power was sustained by:
willingness to protect British trade routes and interests against other nations; to gain new territories
firm belief in the excellence of English culture and
institutions
nationalistic spirit, excessive patriotism influenced by ideas of racial superiority

13. Historical Context – Foreign Policy
Opium War against China
Crimean War
1857 Indian Mutiny
1877 Queen Victoria was named “Empress of India”
1882 occupation of Egypt
1884 invasion of Sudan
Boers’ War

14. Historical Context – Foreign Policy
During the Victorian age most British citizens believed in their right to an empire and thought that imperial expansion would absorb excess goods, capital and population
they were also extremely proud of their empire and of spreading their civilisation and culture to every corner of the globe (Jingoism = aggressive patriotism)
colonial expansion was seen as a mission

15. Historical Context – Foreign Policy
this was “the white man’s burden” ▼
ie. the distinctly, moral responsibility of the British to colonize the world and educate its people

16. Historical Context – Foreign Policy
But at the moment of its greatest power Britain also discovered that every conquered area or land had new dangers to be controlled or stopped
The British became aware of the immense human, economic and political costs of running an empire
Britain found itself involved in a contradiction between its imperial ambition and its liberal ideas
This contradiction would lead to the collapse of the British Empire in the 20th century.

17. Socio-cultural Context
Urbanization
Britain became a nation of town dwellers
Extraordinary industrial development
Overcrowding

18. Socio-cultural Context
Poverty – appalling living conditions in slums + workhouses squalor, disease, bad sanitation, crime, high death rate
Terrible working conditions
polluted atmosphere, lack of food and hygiene, disatrous effects on health especially on children

19. Socio-cultural Context
VICTORIAN COMPROMISE
a set code of moral values that explained the general tendency to be excessively puritanical and to avoid taking definite positions

20. Socio-cultural Context
VICTORIAN COMPROMISE
a rigid code of values that reflected the world that the Victorians wanted it to be, a world based on:

21. Socio-cultural Context
VICTORIAN COMPROMISE
Duty + hard work
Material progress + wealth emerge from hard work
Appearance was very important (formal clothes)

22. Socio-cultural Context
VICTORIAN COMPROMISE
Respectability = a mixture of both morality and hypocrisy, severity and conformity to social standards
(good manners, regular church attendance, charitable
activity, comfortable house)
middle classes ≠ lower classes
Philanthropy = charitable activity addressed to every kind of poverty, involving many people especially women

23. Socio-cultural Context
VICTORIAN COMPROMISE
Victorian family = a patriarchal unit where the husband was dominant, authoritarian and the wife was submissive and fruitful, the angel in the home
but «the fallen woman»…
Patriotism
Private life was separated from public behaviour

24. Socio-cultural Context
It was a particular situation which saw two opposing
aspects of life:
on one side PROSPERITY and MATERIAL SCIENTIFIC
PROGRESS, ETHICAL CONFORMISM, MORALISM and
PHILANTHROPY
which opposed
on the other side POVERTY, UGLINESS, CORRUPTION,
MONEY and CAPITALISTIC GREEDINESS

25. Socio-cultural Context
VICTORIAN FRAME OF MIND
contained a lot of contradictions caused among other things by the influence of new philosophical trends (Utilitarianism, Determinism), religious movements (Evangelicalism), economic theories and scientific discoveries (biology, geology, Darwin) of the period:

26. Socio-cultural Context
VICTORIAN FRAME OF MIND
Evangelicalism = good moral Christian conduct
Utilitarianism = only what is useful is good, any problem could be overcome through reason

27. Socio-cultural Context
VICTORIAN FRAME OF MIND
Evolutionism = theory of evolution of species governed by natural selection and struggle for survival
Determinism = theory which denies human freedom of action, everything is strictly governed by cause and effect