EARLY VICTORIAN AGE
QUEEN VICTORIA
Attitude
near to the common man in the street
at first she was inexperienced, supported by the prime minister
1837-1901
one of the longest reins in the history of British monarchy
Reign
restored the reputation of monarchy
shaped a new role for the royal family
POLITICAL TRENDS
Expansion of colonial empire
New political parties
liberal parties - Glandstone
conservative parties - Distraeli
REVOLUTION
Problems
Positive aspects (optimism)
overcrowded (slums)
contrast between rich and poor
urban poverty
pleasunt/unpleasunt, ("the bays water omnibus")
poor sanitation, four smelling, rise to crime, prostitution
children exploitation
inequality between woman and men
right to vote
industrial and technological advance
Charles Darwing - "the origins of species"
Great Exhibition
railway boom
new row materials (coal, cheap iron)
telegraph, water in town, penny postal system
SOCIAL REFORM
Reform Bill/Act
Education act
cristal palace (glass and iron structure) - international
two museum: the Victorian and Albert museum
1884
1867
1832
workers in town - Second reform act
workers in mine and agricultural workers
1870
elementary education compulsory
vote to the male middle class - Great reform act
1860 - London underground
in the centre of London: Hyde Park
Factory Act
1833
improve conditions for children working in factories
transport in and out the country
Corn Laws
Anti-Corn Laws
1804
1839
keep corn prices at high level to protect farmer from the import of foreign cheap grain
abolition of corn laws that protected landwoners' interests
1845
tragic potato famine
caused emigration from Britain to America
imperial power
War vs China
helped Italy to get free from Austria
VICTORIAN COMPROMISE
Family
Strict moral values
patriotically unit
man: was dominant, the bread winner
woman
adulteress
"fallen woman"
working class woman
middle class woman (angel of the house)
she didn't have to go work, only to look at the children go to the church and stay at home
prostitute
femme fatale
caused man distraction
new woman
who questioned her way of live and fought for emancipation
Respectability
Appereance
morality, hypocrisy, severity, sense of duty, decency, education
possession of good manners, confortable house
Prudery
repression of sexuality in its private and public forms
puritanism
regular attendance at church
with charity actions
working hard
improvment of reading skills, a lot of people became literate
a lot of books were print because it became cheap
vs
poverty
workhouses
places were in change of food and ah house you had to work
provided for: poor, orphans, physically and mentally sick, disable, elderly, unmarried mothers
VICTORIAN FRAME OF MIND
Utilitarims
Evangelicalism
Charles Dickens
a strict code of morality