The Victorians
(1832-1901)
An Era of Rapid Change
Targets
• Understand the impact of the growing industrialization and increased
population in cities.
• Understand how the reform movement led to changes in the role of
women, working conditions and labor laws, voting rights, and education
and literacy.
• Recognize the paradox of progress, and how advances in science and
technology had both positive and negative results, which caused a
questioning of progress (916).
• Understand how colonization expanded the British empire in terms of
ideas and lifestyle.
• Comprehend the traits of Victorian writers and their work:
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Naturalists: the universe is an uncaring force, indifferent to human suffering
uncertainty
disapproval of a materialistic, shallow, and secular society
technology and science caused questioning of religion
The Victorians
HISTORICAL CONTEXT
A Time of Growth and Change
• England, 1st country to become industrialized
– Became world’s workshop, banker, and foremost imperial
power
• British Empire expands to 25% of the globe
– Britain dominates world politics
– By mid-19th century, London becomes center of influence
of Western civilization
• Economy shifts from landownership to a modern urban
economy based on trade and manufacturing.
• Population of London grows from 2 million to 6 million
The British Empire at its Peak
Queen Victoria
•
•
Queen Victoria – namesake of the
period
– Crowned at 18 in 1837
– Ruled for over 63 years
– Values were the hallmark of the
period
• Devoted to hard work and
duty
• Insisted on proper behavior
• Unapologetic support of
British imperialism
– Accepted idea of constitutional
monarchy (advice rather than
orders)
Withdrew from politics after the
death of her husband Prince Albert,
1861
(1819-1901)
1838
1882
British Imperialism
• Prime Ministers Gladstone (against) and Disraeli
(for) debate over expansion
– Victoria sided with Disraeli
– Expansion included New Zealand, Hong Kong, India,
part of Suez Canal, Cyprus, Transvaal (S.Africa)
• Popular perception changed over the years
– First, British citizens supported imperialism / glorified
by Rudyard Kipling
– Later, support waned /imperialism challenged by
writers like William Morris
Industrial Revolution Continues
“Workshop of the World”
• Technological Developments
• Full exploitation of steam power---railways, iron
ships, looms, printing presses
• Telegraph, intercontinental cable, photography
• Anesthetics
• Universal compulsory education
• Great Exhibition of 1851
Painful Transformation
• Enormous increase in wealth and prosperity
– Early start  captured markets all over the globe
– Gained profit from colonies (25% of the globe)
– The growing middle class prospered, while large
segments of the population still suffered
• Experienced a host of other social and economic
problems
Mixed Reaction to Progress
“anxiety and satisfaction”
Alfred, Lord Tennyson
felt the leadership in commerce and
industry was being paid for at a
terrible price: human happiness
Thomas Babington Macaulay
relished in the delightful
spectacle of English progress

Reform Bill of 1832
 Passed in response to the demands of the
growing middle classes; committed to
technological and industrial change
 Extended voting rights to all males owning
property with £10 or more in annual rent
 Broke up the monopoly of power held by the
Tory party
The Early Period (1832 – 1848)
Early 1840’s – severe economic depression
 Widespread unemployment  led to rioting
 Deplorable living and working conditions
for the working class, especially for women
and children
 Perpetuated by laissez-faire economic policy

The Early Period
A Time of Troubles

Remedies
 Advocating for extending voting rights and secret
balloting - FAILED
 Abolishing high tariffs on imported grains; repealing
Corn Laws
 Corn Laws were established to protect English
farmers from competing with low-priced foreign
imports
 Led to high profits for English
farmers/landowners, BUT the consumers suffered
under high prices and scarcity of food
 Serious crop failures and Irish potato blight led to
the repeal of the Corn Laws opens Free Trade
The Early Period
A Time of Troubles
Mid-Victorian Period (1848-1870)
Political and economic institutions were working
well  prosperity and a sense of satisfaction
 Free Trade was prosperous
 Agriculture, as well as trade and industry,
flourished
 Series of legislation led to better conditions for the
working class (i.e. child labor;
limited working hours)
 The Great Exhibition of 1851

Utilitarians (a.k.a. Benthamites)
 Tested, through reason, all established institutions to
determine their usefulness to humankind
 Anti-Utilitarians (Coleridge, Carlyle, and Newman)
 Believed “people needed faith, just as they needed
water”
 Scientific Discoveries
 “Higher Criticism” –examined Bible as history
 Geology
 Astronomy
 Biology (Darwin’s Origin of Species)

The Mid-Victorian Period
Conflict between Religion and Science
For many, period of serenity
and security
 “The Irish Question”
 Military and Economic Threats
from Bismarck’s Germany
 Competition from Post-Civil War United States
 1873-1874, economic depression  mass emigration
 Growth of labor as a political force (shades of
socialism)
 Second Reform Bill, extended voting rights to
working class

The Late Period (1870-1901)
Decay of Victorian Values
The Victorians
VICTORIAN LITERATURE
Early Victorian Poetry
The Influence of Romanticism
Early Victorian poets (i.e. Tennyson and Browning) raised on the
Romantics.
1. Definition of poetry, not the style of writing, was influenced by
Romantics
2. Ignored the grim reality
3. Focused on more “poetic” subjects: ancient legends, exotic foreign
lands, romantic love, and awe-inspiring view of nature
4. Inherited the escapism, perhaps optimism – hindered social reforms
5. Did not redefine poetry for their own time
Readers had mixed feelings about the role of poetry.
– Victorian readers revered their poets as the higher order of human
beings.
– Many readers, especially the middle-class, saw poetry as irrelevant to
their lives.
– The growing reading public turned to novels.
Novels: Realism in Fiction
• Considered light entertainment, not serious literature
• Captured the everyday lives of the reader
– Focused on effects of industrialism on society
– exposed problems and pretensions in society
– campaigned for reform
– combined elements of both Romanticism and realism
• example: Gothicism and realism in Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte)
• example: Realistic detail and sentimental endings and engaging
characters (Charles Dickens)
– Addressed upper middle-class issues: (Thackeray and Trollope)
– Psychological realism focused on internal realities [George Eliot (pen
name of Mary Ann Evans) and George Meredith]
• Many early novels published in serial form (installments) in magazines
and newspapers. (Dickens)
Nonfiction: Victorian Viewpoints
• Periodicals offered nonfiction articles on a
variety of subjects that appealed to the
Victorian readers’ interests
• In nonfiction writing, English thinkers clashed
over the issues of the day
Some attacked the major mid-Victorian writers,
including Tennyson and Darwin.
 Many believed that life’s problems were insoluble,
and the role of the writer is to seek beauty where
they could find it.
 The Nineties
 Melancholy spirit
 Aestheticism
 “Fin-de-siecle” attitude - a search for new ways
to of exciting tired tastes
 Art for art sake (vs. social/political change)

The Late Period
Reaction in the Literature
• Uncertainty permeated the writing of the Late Victorian Period
– Poets expressed loss and pain about living in the world of chaos and
confusion (Matthew Arnold)
– Naturalism – saw the universe as an uncaring force, indifferent to
human suffering (Thomas Hardy)
• Readers “escaped” the pessimism by turning to escapist literature:
– adventure tales (Kipling)
– witty drawing-room comedies (Wilde)
– science fiction (Wells)
– detective stories (Conan Doyle)
– children’s literature (Carroll and Stevenson)
• Modernist writers of the next century would take up the pessimism of the
late Victorian age to wrestle with the issue of a world at war (WWI)
The Late Period
Reaction in the Literature