THE VICTORIAN COMPROMISE
Age of CONTRADICTIONS
ON THE ONE HAND:
ON THE OTHER HAND:
Progress, reforms, political stability
Poverty, injustice
ON THE ONE HAND:
ON THE OTHER HAND:
People loved listening to sermons
Vices were openly indulged
ON THE ONE HAND:
ON THE OTHER HAND:
Modernity was praised
There was a revival of Gothic and Classicism in art
THE ROLE OF RELIGION
important, particularly the Evangelicalism inspired by John Wesley,the founder of METHODISM
Creation of many philantropic societies for every kind of poverty (especially sustained by middle-class women)
Victorians believed in God as well as in progress and science
THE ROLE OF RESPECTABILITY
importance of education, hygiene, self-restraint, good manners
keeping up appearances and looking after a family was considered RESPECTABLE (both for middle and working classes)
a mixture of MORALITY and HYPOCRISY
dissolution, poverty, social unrest were hidden under outward respectability
Duty of the men to respect women
ATTITUDES TO SEX: concern for female chastity, repression of sexuality in general
Women duty to control the family budget and bring up the children
leading to a moralising PRUDERY:
veiling of sculptured genitals
rejection of words with a sexual connotation
denunciation of nudity in art
advances in medicine, transport, education and commerce
Industrial Revolution
growth of the British Empire
unhealthy factory and mines
overcrowded housings with little hygiene and a high mortality rate
children were employed in various jobs or turned to crime
chimney sweeping
flower/match sellers
coal mines
shoeblacks
The Queen and her husband were a model