victorian age 2

8/8/2019 Victorian Age 2

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1832 - 1901



` Victoria crowned queen in 1837. (18)

` Ruled for more than 60 years.` Married german cousin, Albert.

` Designed Balmoral Castle in Scotland.

` Popular among middle classes.

` Middle classes rose and prospered.



Economic, technological, and political

expansion and dramatic social change.

England peaked in influence as a world

power . Rigid standard and high moral tone of middle

class defined the age.

Exploitation of working class.

Parliament produced strong prime ministers. Beginning of modern age with her death .

Eldest son Edward VII.



People are talking about«.

The Great Exhibition of 1851 lasted 140 days.

Showed economic and industrial supremacy of

Great Britain. Social Reform: laws limiting child labor and the

work day, Salvation Army was organized, raise of

public awareness through magazine articles and

books.

The Middle Class dominated the time. Showed

virtues: character, duty, earnestness, hard work

and respectability ± servant class arouse.



` A lady never called on a man under any

circumstances. It was considered improper and

would likely result in scandal if discovered.

` Older girls and young women addressed each

other as ³Miss´ until they became close friends.

` Between single men and single women, first

names were not used until a couple became

engaged. Cousins, however, could use each

others¶ first names freely, regardless of age andsex.



Food, Fashion, Arts and Entertainment

Tea party important feature of middle class, moreand more food served.

Teashops opened in the 1880´s ± unaccompaniedwomen.

Fashionable Victorian women changed clothesall the time.

Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood of painters andpoets founded in 1848 to protest low standards

Victorians disapproved inactivity ± busy in lawntennis, garden parties, picnics.

Cricket became popular with all classes.



People are reading and writing«.

Books ± Variety of genres: Historical

fiction,myster y novels, science fiction:The Time

Machine by H.G. Wells.

Punch magazine ± satiric commentaries and

clever drawings.

A Histor y of England ± a work of histor y popular

as a novel, 5 volumes by Macaulay.

Rules of Behavior ± social codes of middle class.

Plays ± spectacular farces and melodramas.

Masterpieces by Wilde and Shaw.



` The novel was thedominant form inVictorian literature.

` Victorian novels seek torepresent a large andcomprehensive social

world, with a variety of classes.` Victorian novels are

realistic.` Major theme is the

place of the individualin society, theaspiration of the heroor heroine for love or social position.



` The protagonist¶ssearch for fulfillment isemblematic of thehuman condition.

` For the first time,women were major writers: the Brontes.Elizabeth Gaskell,George Eliot.

` The Victorian novelwas a principal formof entertainment.



` Poets sought new ways

of telling stories inverse

` All of the Victorianpoets show the stronginfluence of the

Romantics.` Dramatic monologue ±

is the greatachievement of Victorian poetr y.

` Poets use detail to

construct visual imagesthat represent theemotion or situation thepoem concerns.



` The theater was aflourishing andpopular institutionduring the Victorianperiod.

` The popularity of theater influencedother genres.

` Bernard Shaw and

Oscar Wildetransformed Britishtheater with their comic masterpieces.



Romanticism continued but writers concerned

with working and living conditions. Charles Dickens, Charlotte Brontë combined

romanticism with realistic descriptions. Robert

Browning character studies in poetic form.

Focus on . . .Dickens ± model Victorian writer ±

combination of realistic social criticism with

comedy and romantic sentiment.

victorian age 2

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