The later years of Queen
Victoria’s reign
(1861-1901)
After Albert’s death
Victoria sank into depression after her husband died, aged 42, in 1861.
For the rest of her reign, she wore black.
Until the late 1860s, she rarely appeared in public.
The Liberal Party
The Liberal Party included:
the former Whig aristocracy;
some radicals;
Liberal Anglicans;
provincial manufacturers and businessmen;
middle class.
They all looked for reforms.
The party was led by William
Gladstone.
The Conservative Party
Included:
the former Tories;
landowners;
nobles.
They did not want major changes.
The party was led by
Benjamin Disraeli.
Disraeli and Gladstone
Between 1868 and 1880, Disraeli and Gladstone alternated as Prime Minister.
Both men passed reforms that increased
the size of the electorate.
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Conservatives passed the Reform Act of 1867, giving working-class men the vote.
Liberals passed the Third Reform Act of 1884, giving all male householders, miners, farm labourers the right to vote.
By 1900, most men could vote, and the secret ballot was passed.
The British Empire
During the reign of Queen Victoria, Great Britain
ruled over a wide and powerful empire.
The Labour party
Founded in 1900
The first Labour government in 1924
Not communist nor socialist
But policy in line with working class aspirations
Victorian urban society
Victorian cities had
gas lighting and rubbish collection;
several public buildings, such as town halls, railway stations, libraries and museums, music halls, boarding schools and hospitals, police stations and prisons.
Victorians often revived previous styles.
Classical forms were preferred for civic and public buildings, like government offices, town halls.
Gothic ones for ecclesiastical and domestic constructions.
After 1855 the Gothic revival prevailed over the classical faction.
The role of women
Changing conditions of women’s work created by the Industrial Revolution.
The Infant Custody Bill (1839) gave a mother the right to petition the court for access to her under-age children and custody of children under seven and later sixteen.
The Marriage and Divorce Act established the Court for Divorce and Matrimonial causes.
The 1882 Married Women’s Property Act gave married women the right to own and manage their own property.
Social Darwinism
In 1871 Herbert Spencer coined the
phrase Social Darwinism.
Individuals compete naturally.
The incompetent lose and the strong Win -> survival of the fittest.
Late Victorian thinkers
In 1867 Karl Max’s expressed his theories in the treatise Das Kapital, based upon research done in England.
He protested against the harm caused by industrialism in man’s life and in the environment.
The spread of socialist
ideas
British socialist, non-Marxist most influential group was the Fabian Society founded in 1884.
It favoured gradual, peaceful approach to social reforms. George Bernard Shaw was one of its early members.
Patriotism
The Victorians
believed that
the ‘races’ of the world were divided by physical and intellectual differences;
some were destined to be led by others;
it was an obligation imposed by God on the British to spread their superior way of life, their institutions, law and politics on native peoples.
This attitude came to be known as Jingoism.
The 1890s
This decade was
characterised by
the breakdown of Victorian values;
a mood of melancholy;
Aubrey Beardsley’s drawings;
the Aesthetic Movement.
Aestheticism
Developed in France with Théophile Gautier (1811-72)
It reflected:
the sense of frustration and uncertainty of the artist;
his reaction against the materialism and the restrictive moral code of the bourgeoisie;
his need to redefine the role of art;
the French artists withdrew from the political and social scene
and ‘escaped’ into aesthetic isolation.
The bohemian’s protest against the monotony and vulgarity of bourgeois life led to an unconventional existence, pursuing sensation and excess, and cultivating art and beauty.
Walter Pater (1839-94), the main
theorist of the Aesthetic Movement
in England,
rejected religious faith;
said that art was the only means to stop time;
thought life should be lived ‘as a work of art’ feeling all kinds of sensations’.
Art
Art for Art’s Sake
Eternal
No reference to life, morality
The task of the artist: to feel sensations, to be attentive to
the ‘attractive’, the ‘gracious’.
A number of features can be
distinguished in the works of
Aesthetic artists:
evocative use of the language of the senses;
excessive attention to the self;
hedonistic attitude;
perversity in subject matter;
disenchantment with contemporary society;
absence of any didactic aim.