Victorian
Period
1832-1900
Victorian Period
Queen Victoria took throne in 1837 (at 18)
 Long reign, died in 1901 (at 82)
 England became wealthiest nation
 British Empire expansion

– “The sun never sets on England.”
– Queen-empress over 200 million people living
outside Great Britain
– India, North America, South Pacific, etc.
Victorian Period




Time of Turbulent change
Continuation of the Romantic movement in a more
subdued matter.
Other major issues include science, women, poverty,
immigration, labor unrest, reform
Moving from primarily rural, agricultural society with
landed aristocracy to urban industrial society with largescale employers or capitalist
– By mid-nineteenth century, half of the English people lived in
cities, and by the end of the century, the same was true of other
European countries.
– At the beginning of the Nineteenth century there were scarcely
two dozen cities in Europe with a population of 100,000, but by
1900 there were more than 150 cities of this size.
Victorian Period

Social & economic changes expressed in
gradual political reforms
– First Reform Bill in 1832 extended vote
to all men who owned property worth
10 lbs
– Second Reform Act in 1867 gave the
right to vote to working-class men
(except agricultural workers)
Victorian Period
Women for suffrage – did not succeed
until 1918 (30 & over)
 Universal adult suffrage 1928 extended
vote to women at age 21
 Factory Acts – limited child & women labor
 State supported schools est. in 1870;
compulsory in 1880; free in 1891
 Literacy rate increased from 40% to 90%
from 1840-1900.

Victorian Period

Intellectual Progress
– Understanding of earth, its creatures &
natural laws (geology, Darwin – theory of
evolution)
– Industrialization of England depended on and
supported science and technology.
Science


Era of immense growth in scientific knowledge and
technology – the steam engine, the factory, the train,
the telegraph – immense advances in travel and
communication.
Source of immense conflict and differences of opinion
– Some see science leading to a technological utopia of peace and
prosperity for all
– Others see it as leading to the downfall and even the
annihilation of humankind.


Continuing conflict between science and religion
(Darwinism). “The Death of God.”
Creates both opportunity and problems, immense wealth
and unimaginable poverty
Victorian Period
Materialism, secularism, vulgarity, and
sheer waste that accompanied Victorian
progress led some writers to wonder if
their culture was really advancing by any
measure.
 Trust in transcendental power gave way to
uncertainty & spiritual doubt.

– Late Victorian writers turned to a pessimistic
exploration of the human struggle against
indifferent natural forces.
Laissez Faire Economics






French for “Allow to do.”
Policy based of minimum of
governmental interference in
the economic affairs.
An individual, pursuing his/her
own desired ends, would
achieve the best results for
the society.
Free Trade.
Zero regulation on business.
Adam Smith was influential
proponent.
Industrial Revolution



The Industrial Revolution may
be defined as the application
of power-driven machinery to
manufacturing.
Called revolution because the
change was rapid
Destroyed home/small scale
industry, crafts, guilds, and
peasant farmer
– Often skilled artisans found
themselves degraded to
routine process laborers as
machines began to mass
produce the products
formerly made by hand.
Working Conditions

Large supply of labor
– Employers had no incentive
to look out for the
employees' safety or
health.
– If one worker was injured,
he or she was easily
replaced.

Long hours
– Factory laborers endured
sixteen hour work days

Low wages
Child Labor

Children were expected
to contribute to the
family's income because
they had in agricultural
economy.
– Children as young as five
or six were sent to work in
factories and mines.

Children were placed
under the supervision of
an overseer rather than a
parent.
Worker’s Testimony:
Matthew Crabtree was interviewed by Michael Sadler and his House of
Commons Committee on 18th May, 1832.

Question: At what age did you first go to work in a factory?
Answer: Eight.

Question: Will you state the hours of labour?
Answer: From six in the morning to eight at night.

Question: Will you state to this committee whether piecening is a very laborious
employment for children?
Answer: It is very laborious employment; pieceners [One who supplies rolls of
wool to the slubbing machine in woolen mills] are continually running to and fro, and
on their feet the whole day. It is commonly very difficult to keep up with the work.

Question: State the condition of the children towards the latter part of the day.
Answer: Towards the close of the day, when they come to be more fatigued,
they cannot keep up very well and they are beaten to spur them on.

Question: What were you beaten with?
Answer: A strap.
Worker’s Testimony2: Hannah Brown

Question: How early did you begin to work in mills?
Answer: At nine years old.

Question: What hours did you work?
Answer: I began at six o'clock, and worked till nine
at night.

Question: What time was allowed for your meals?
Answer: No, none at all.

Question: Has Mr. Ackroyd ever chastised you in any
way?
Answer: Yes; he has taken hold of my hair and my
ear, and pulled me, and just given me a bit of a shock,
more than once.
Living Conditions

In factory towns, workers
lived in hastily built
tenements.
– lack of good brick
– no building codes
– the lack of machinery for
public sanitation.
– factory owners' tendency
to regard laborers as
commodities and not as a
group of human beings.
Labor Movement




Poor living and working
conditions lead to labor
unrest, strikes and
unions.
1869 Knights of Labor,
first major labor
movement.
Police, the national guard
and occasionally, the
army support owners and
work to break strikes.
Often lead to violence.
The Suffrage Movement



Questions addressed by
Wollstonecraft become a
major issue of public
debate.
Suffrage is only one of
main issues discussed.
Unequal rights for women
argued on both religious
and increasingly scientific
grounds. This movement
was paralleled in the
United States.
Woman’s Movement Timeline






1821: Troy Female Seminary founded by Emma Willardfirst school for girls to learn college level science and
classical studies.
1833: Oberlin College-first coeducational school of
higher learning.
1837: Mary Lyon founds first college for women.
1848: (July 19 and 20) First Women's Rights Convention
held in Seneca Falls. Passage of the Married Woman’s
Property Act in NY State.
1849: Elizabeth Blackwell receives the first medical
degree for a woman.
1853: Antoinette Brown Blackwell-first woman ordained
minister in a Protestant denomination.
Woman’s Movement Timeline, cont.









1855: Lucy Stone sets a trend among women by becoming the first
women to keep her maiden name after marriage. The University of
Iowa accepts women, becoming the first state school to do so.
1870: In March, for the first time, women serve jury duty in
Wyoming Territory.
1879: Belva Lockwood is 1st woman lawyer allowed to practice
before the U.S. Supreme Court.
1882: Married Woman's Property Act in Britain
1887: Married Woman's Property Act in US
1893: Colorado becomes first state to enfranchise women through
a state amendment.
1916: On October 16, Margaret Sanger and Ethel Byrne open the
first U.S. birth control clinic in New York, but it was shut down ten
days later and the women were imprisoned.
1920: (August 26) 19th Amendment adopted!!!
1928: British women receive the right vote.
Victorian Period

Paradox of progress
– Victorian – synonym for prude; extreme
repression; even furniture legs had to be
concealed under heavy cloth not to be
“suggestive”

New ideas discussed & debated by large
segment of society
– Voracious readers
– Intellectual growth, change and adjustment
Victorian Period
Decorum & Authority – Victorians saw
themselves progressing morally & intellectually
 Powerful middle-class obsessed with “gentility,
decorum” = prudery/Victorianism
 Censorship of writers: no mention of “sex, birth,
or death”
 Women were not called “pregnant,” but said to
be in “a delicate condition.” Women did not give
birth; they had “blessed events.” Euphemisms
softened the reality of “unpleasant” ideas.

Victorian Period

Decorum – powerful ideas about authority
– Victorian private lives – autocratic father
figure
– Women – subject to male authority
– Middle-class women expected to marry &
make home a “refuge” for husband
– Women had few occupations open to them
– Unmarried women often portrayed with
comedy by male writers
Gentleman’s CodeRules of Decorum for Victorian Men




"Do not press before a lady at a theater or a concert. Always yield
to her, if practicable, your seat and place. Do no sit when she is
standing, without offering her your place. Consult not only your own
ease, but also the comfort of those around you.“-Martine's
Handbook, 1866
"It is not deemed polite and respectful to smoke in the presence of
ladies, even though they are amiable enough to permit it." Martine's Handbook, 1866
"If you meet a lady of your acquaintance in the street, it is her part
to notice you first, unless, indeed you are very intimate. The reason
is, if you bow to a lady first, she may not choose to acknowledge
you, and there is no remedy; but if she bow to you--you as a
gentleman cannot cut her." -Hints on Etiquette, 1836
"A gentleman removes his hat when entering a room where there
are ladies. When he meets a lady friend, he should raise his hat
gracefully...“-Polite Society at Home and Abroad
Expected Table Manners











Eat Cheese with a fork, not a knife
Ask a servant in a low tone for what you want
Break your bread, do not cut it.
Eat fruit with silver knives and forks
If you prefer, take up asparagus with the fingers. Olives and artichokes are always so
eaten
If a course is set before you that you do not wish, do not touch it.
It is not your business to reprove the waiter for improper conduct; that belongs to
your host.
A gentleman must help a lady whom he has escorted to the table, to all she wishes;
but it is improper for him to offer to help other ladies who have escorts
Use a napkin only for your mouth. Never use it for your nose, face or forehead.
It is very rude to pick your teeth at the table. If it becomes necessary to do so, hold
your napkin over your mouth. -Rules of Etiquette and Home Culture, 1886
"At a sign from the hostess, the ladies all rise from the table, and repairing to the
drawing-room, leave the gentlemen to their own devices. But it is a healthy sign that
the gentlemen soon follow them. In France the gentlemen and ladies all leave the
dinner table together, as indeed they do here, at an informal or family dinner.“-Polite
Society at Home and Abroad, 1891
Victorian Period

Victorian writing reflects the dangers and
benefits to rapid industrialization, while
encouraging readers to examine closely
their own understanding of the era’s
progress.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle





1959 Born in Edinburgh
Educated in a Jesuit school,
later rejects Christianity and
becomes agnostic.
Always defended the underdog
Attended the University of
Edinburgh and in 1885 became
a doctor.
He made two trips as a ship's
surgeon, one to the Arctic and
one to Africa—material for his
adventure stories.
A Man of Science?

As well as medicine, studied
–
Anthropology, the study of humankind and
culture.
–
Paleontology, the study of things long dead.
–
Phrenology, the study of people's heads!
–
Zoology, the study of animal life.

Ardent spiritualist, and sought to bring
spiritualism into the realm of the main stream
sciences—often mocked for this.
Sherlock Holmes


A prolific writer, who wrote in
virtually every prose form;
never quite happy with the
fact that his fame rested
primarily on his creation of
Sherlock Holmes. Holmes's
popularity took hold in 1891
with the appearance of the
short story series "The
Adventures of Sherlock
Holmes"
Sherlock Holmes often seen as
an illustration of the scientific
method of: observation,
hypotheses, tests, conclusion.
Oscar Wilde (1854-1900)
Born in Dublin; father physician; mother
writer (poetry/prominent figure in Dublin
literary society)
 Excelled in classical literature (Trinity
College)
 Scholarship to Magdalen College (Oxford)
 Famous for brilliant conversation &
flamboyant manner of dress & behavior

– “Dandy” figure
Oscar Wilde (1854-1900)
Student of “aesthetic movement” – which
rejected older Victorian insistence on
moral purposed of art
 Celebrated value of “art for art’s sake
 Settled in London
 Mocked Victorian notions about moral
seriousness of great art
 Treated art as the “supreme reality” and
treated life as “fiction”

Oscar Wilde (1854-1900)

The Importance of Being Earnest
(produced 1895) most famous comedy
 Complicated plot turns upon fortunes and
misfortunes of two young upper-class
Englishmen:
– John Worthing and Algernon Moncrieff
– Each lives double life; creates another
personality to escape tedious social/family
obligations
Oscar Wilde (1854-1900)
Plot composed of events of the most
improbable & trivial significance
 Real substance of play witty dialogue

– According to Wilde, trivial things should be
treated seriously and serious things should be
treated trivially.
-Title based on satirical double meaning:
“Ernest” is the name of fictitious character,
also designates sincere aspiration
Oscar Wilde (1854-1900)
Making the “earnestness” of his Ernest the
key to outrageous comedy, Wilde pokes
fun at conventional seriousness
 Uses solemn moral language to frivolous
and ridiculous action

Oscar Wilde (1854-1900)

The Importance of Being Earnest uses the
following literary devices:
– Paradox: seems contradictory but presents
truth
– Inverted logic: words/phrases turned upside
down reversing our expectations
– Pun: play on words using word or phrase that
has two meanings
Oscar Wilde (1854-1900)

Literary Devices continued
– Epigram: brief, witty, cleverly-expressed
statement
– Parody: humorous mocking imitation of
literary work
– Satire: ridicules through humor
– Irony: something you don’t expect to happen
– Foreshadowing: creates suspense through
hints to the ending
Oscar Wilde (1854-1900)

The Comedic Ladder
– Comedy of Ideas (high comedy)
 Characters argue about ideas like politics, religion,
sex, marriage.
 They use wit, their clever language to mock their
opponent in an argument.
 This is a subtle way to satirize people and
institutions like political parties, governments,
churches, war, and marriage.
Oscar Wilde (1854-1900)

Comedy of Manners (high comedy)
– The plot focuses on amorous intrigues among the
upper classes.
– The dialogue focuses on witty language. Clever
speech, insults and “put-downs” are traded between
characters.
– Society is often made up of cliques that are exclusive
with certain groups as the in-crowd, other groups
(the would-be-wits, desiring to be part of the witty
crowd) and some (the witless) on the outside.
Oscar Wilde (1854-1900)

Farce (can be combination of high/low)
– The plot is full of coincidences, mistimings,
mistaken identities.
– Characters are puppets of fate – they are
twins, born to the wrong class, unable to
marry, too poor, too rich, have loss of identity
because of birth or fate or accident, or are
(sometimes) twins separated, unaware of
their double.
Oscar Wilde (1854-1900)

Low Comedy
– Subjects of the humor consists of dirty jokes, dirty
gestures, sex, and elimination
– The extremes of humor range from exaggeration to
understatement with a focus on the physical like long
noses, cross eyes, humped back and deformities.
– The physical actions revolve around slapstick,
pratfalls, loud noises, physical mishaps, collisions – all
part of the humor of man encountering and
uncooperative universe.