VICTORIAN AGE
Historical context
Social context
Literary context
Historical Context
Queen Victoria’s reign (1837-1901)
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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
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
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
Historical Context - Home policy
POLITICAL and SOCIAL REFORMS
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1832 – First Reform Act
1833 – Factory Act
1834 – Poor Law
Amendment Act
1838 – the People’s Charter
(Chartism)
1842 – Mines’ Act
1847 – Ten Hours’ Act
1867 – Secon Reform Act
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1872 – Ballot Act
1870 – Elementary
Education Act
1875 – Public Health Act
1884 – Third Reform Act
1880-1900 – Fabian Society
Women’s Social and
Political Union
(Suffragettes)
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)
triumph of industry (steam engine, steamboats,
shipbuilding, trains, iron industry)
scientific progress (electricity, telegraph, gas-lighting,
stamp+postal system, medicine)
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”
British Imperial power was sustained by:
• willingness to protect British trade routes and interests
against other nations; to gain new terrotories
• firm belief in the excellence of English culture and
institutions
Historical Context – Foreign Policy
1839-1842 Opium War against China
1853-1856 Crimean War
1857 Indian Mutiny
1877 Queen Victoria was named “Empress of India”
1882 occupation of Egypt
1884 invasion of Sudan
1899-1902 Boers’ War
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
this was “the white man’s burden”
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
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.
Socio-cultural Context
Urbanization
Britain became a nation of town dwellers
Extraordinary industrial development
Overcrowding
Poverty – appalling living conditions in slums
(squalor, disease, bad sanitation, crime, high
death rate)
Terrible working conditions
(polluted atmosphere, disatrous effects on health
especially on children)
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
Socio-cultural Context
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Material progress + wealth emerge from hard work
Appearance is very important
Respectability = a mixture of both morality and hypocrisy,
severity and conformity to social standards
Philanthropy = charitable activity addressed to every kind of
poverty
Victorian family = a patriarchal unit where the husband was
dominant and the wife was the angel in the home
(tha fallen woman)
Patriotism
Private life was separated from public behaviour
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
Socio-cultural Context
VICTORIAN FRAME OF MIND
contained a lot of contradictions caused among other things
by the influence of new philosophical trends, religious
movements, economic theories and scientific discoveries
of the period:
Evangelicalism = good moral Christian conduct
Utilitarianism = only what is useful is good, any problem could
be overcome through reason
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
Literary Background – VICTORIAN NOVEL
During the Victorian Age for the first time there was a
communion of interests and opinions between writers
and readers
enormous growth of the middle classes
who were avid consumers of literature, they borrowed
books from circulating libraries and read various periodicals.
A great deal of Victorian Literature was first published in
instalments in the pages of periodicals, which allowed the
writer to feel he was in constant contact with his readers.
Literary Background – VICTORIAN NOVEL
The NOVEL became the most popular form of literature
and also the main form of entertainment since thery were
read aloud within the family.
NOVELISTS felt they had a moral and social
responsibility to fulfil:
 they depicted society as they saw it (realism) and
denounced its evils (criticism)
 they aimed at making readers realise social injustices
Literary Background – VICTORIAN NOVEL
WOMEN WRITERS:
a great number of novels were written by women.
This is surprising if we consider the state of subjection of
Victorian women but at the same time they were the
majority of novel-buyers and of readers.
However, it was not easy to publish so some women
writers decided to use male pseudonyms in order to see
their novels in print.
VICTORIAN NOVEL – main features
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The narrator is obtrusive and omniscient:
he provides his comments on the plot and he establishes
a rigid barrier between what is right or wrong (judge);
retribution and punishment usually appear in the final
chapter where all the events, adventures, incidents are
explained and justified.
Didactic aim
Linearity (stories have a beginning, a middle, an end)
Long complicated plots and sub-plots
VICTORIAN NOVEL – main features
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Urban setting: the city was the most common setting the
main symbol of industrial civilisation as well the
expression of anonymous lives and lost identities
Precise creation of characters and deep analysis of
characters’ inner lives (psychology)
Most popular genre = Bildulgsroman (novel of formation)
Main themes: money, wealth, realistic portrait of society
denouncing its injustices and iniquities
VICTORIAN NOVEL
From a structural point of view we can divide Victorian
Novels mainly into three groups:
1) EARLY-VICTORIAN NOVEL (or social-problem novel)
dealing with social and humanitarian themes
realism, criticism of social evils but faith in progress,
general optimism
The main representative was CHARLES DICKENS
VICTORIAN NOVEL
2) MID-VICTORIAN NOVEL (novel of purpose) showing
Romantic and Gothic elements and a psychological
interest. The main representative writers were the
BRONTË sisters and R.L.STEVENSON
3) LATE- VICTORIAN NOVEL (naturalistic novel near to
European Naturalism) showing a scientific look at human
life, objectivity of observation, dissatisfaction with
Victorian values. The main representative writers were
T.HARDY and O.WILDE.
VICTORIAN NOVEL
Other minor forms of novel developed in this period:
4) Novel of Manners
focusing on economic problems of a particular class
(W.Thackeray)
5) Colonialist Fiction
presenting an exaltation of British imperialistic power
(R.Kipling)
6) Nonsense literature
dealing with fantastic adventures (L.Carroll)