Victorianism MA 2

Icons and Images

Contradictory notions of Victorianism I

• a time of prosperity, stability, and power — a time of change and disturbance, an age of transition, even in their own concept

• blindly complacent age — torn by doubts, spiritually bewildered, lost in a troubled universe

• crassly materialist — excessively religious• absorbed in the present — idealistic, nostalgic for the

past• conformity — individualism• worshippers of authority — iconoclasts• hard-boiled proponents of free enterprise — sentimental

humanitarians• insular prejudice — imperialistic design

Contradictory notions of Victorianism II

• sexually inhibited — large families, overdeveloped erotic sensibilities

• prudery and the sanctity of the home — a major social issue: prostitution

• hypocrisy — ingenuousness• purposeful, didactic, propagandistic literature — romantic,

aesthetic, escapist art• religious revivals — ardent rationalist and analytic thinkers

and scientists• world fatigue, paralysis of doubts, scepticism — emotional

energy• self-consciousness, a disease of modern life — desire for

cultural synthesis, desire for an established social morality, a remote harmony that can unify diverse themes into a meaningful perspective

Titles

• 24 May 1819 – 20 June 1837:

Her Royal Highness Princess Alexandrina Victoria of Kent

• 20 June 1837 – 22 January 1901:

Her Majesty The Queen

• 1 May 1876 – 22 January 1901:

Her Imperial Majesty The Queen-Empress