The Victorians

The Victorian Era• The Victorian era began

when Victoria ascended the throne in 1837 after the death of her uncle, King William

• William did not have any legitimate children (all of his offspring were illegitimate), so Victoria was his closest living relative and consequently, she inherited the throne

The Victorian Era• Victoria married Albert,

her true love. When he died in 1861, Victoria mourned him for the rest of her life

• She reigned from 1837 until her death in 1901

• Victoria had nine children, all of whom married into royalty (Victoria’s granddaughter, Alexandra, was the last tsarina of Russia)

The Victorian Era• The period in time saw great

imperialistic expansion into Australia, New Zealand, Cyprus and the occupation of Egypt (Suez Canal)

• This was a result of companies such as the East India Company, and through the aid of inventions, such as the steamship and the locomotive

• Britain is an island kingdom, so Britons were always on the lookout for places where the raw materials they needed could be exploited

The Victorian Influences

•Victorians had many influences that differed from the Romantics or Renaissance poets before them

•The Victorians were experiencing drastic shifts in culture, technology, distribution of wealth and a shifting political scene

•There were new ideas such as feminism, unions, Marxism that changed the way people thought about ideas

The Victorian Ideology• Major thinkers of the

Victorian Age include Charles Darwin, Karl Marx, Sigmund Freud

• These people changed the landscape of education, of politics, of science, and of psychology forever

• Victorians were experiencing great flux in their patterns of thinking

Victorian Religion

•Victorians experienced an upswing in religiosity• Not everyone was involved in this revival:

Darwin challenged the veracity of the first chapters of Genesis

•This renewal created a moral code by which the Victorians lived• Strict adherence to morality is sometimes

called “Victorian” behaviour

Victorian Religion

•During this period, there was a change in views of Protestantism, similar to that of the rise of Puritanism

•This new branch was called Evangelicals▫They believe in the total depravity of

humans▫They focus on an “inner life” – on the

spiritual aspects of life, particularly missionary work

▫Evangelicals were responsible for social reform during this time (abolition of slavery)

Victorian Religion• England remained a Protestant country, though there began

to be pockets of religious revolution• The restrictions on Catholics were severe: Catholics could

not sit in Parliament, hold titles etc• In 1829, the Catholic Emancipation Act allowed Catholics to

sit in Parliament, though they still could not hold a title• Many nobles and clergy viewed the act as a major blow to

not only the Protestant church, but to the authority of the monarchy▫ Clergy believed that now that Catholics were in Parliament,

they could have say over the future of the Protestant church▫ Henry VIII established the right of the monarchy over the

clergy and this was now being disputed as Catholic belief holds the Pope in Rome is the highest power on earth, not the monarch

Victorian Culture• Also considered “The

Second Renaissance”• Contributing factors

included the popularization of the “magic lantern shows”

• Famous playwrights of the time included Oscar Wilde and George Bernard Shaw

• Theatre was often melodramatic (overly dramatic)

Victorian Culture

•Art galleries were becoming increasingly popular as the middle class gained more wealth

•The art of the time was decadent (Pre-Raphaelites), evoking images of literature and chivalry

•There were also scenes of industrialization and new technologies in contrast with nature

Dante Rossetti

John William Waterhouse

Sir John Everett Millais

Victorian Culture• Novels were becoming

more popular (Charles Dickens), with themes around propriety

• Detective stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Edgar Allan Poe were popular as well

• Many novels written by females were written under a pseudonym in order to get published (Acton Bell, Currer Bell, and Ellis Bell, George Eliot)

Victorian Culture• Victorian poets were

dominated by a few names: ▫ Alfred, Lord Tennyson

(considered the King of Victorian poetry, he was Poet Laureate for Queen Victoria)

▫ Robert Browning▫ Elizabeth Barrett

Browning▫ Gerard Manley Hopkins▫ Christina Rossetti

Victorian Factories

•Conditions were dangerous (safety equipment had not been invented yet) and causalities were frequent and deadly

•Children and women were the most exploited because of their non-status as people in the eyes of the government

•Children were often given the task of fixing the machines because of their small hands

•The Factory Act of 1847 restricted women and children to 10 ½ hour work days

Victorian Politics• 1852 – an act passes

through British Parliament indicating that a man may not force his wife to live with him

• 1857 – Matrimonial Causes Act (legally separated wife given right to keep what she earns; man may divorce wife for adultery, whereas wife must prove adultery aggravated by cruelty or desertion). 

• 1870 – Married Women’s Property Act allowed women to keep any money they earned and to inherit property

• The Victorian era is also known for its enfranchisement of the population: men over 21 and women over 30 were allowed to vote when the Voting Act passed in 1918 (before only gentry could vote)