The Victorian Age by giorgia marino

THE NEW POLITICAL PARTIES AND SOCIAL REFORMS

marino_giorgia32 — 2023-11-30 20:49:30 UTC

The political panorama of the Victorian age was dominated by two political parties:

-The Liberal Party led by Gladstone

-The Conservative Party led by Disraeli.

For a short period, Disraeli became Prime Minister. During this period many act were passed:

-a series of Factory Acts, which reduced working hours and regulated child and female labour.

-In 1848 the Public Health Act provided sanitation of water. - He had Victoria crowned Empress of India in 1876. Gladstone was Prime Minister four times. He passed other laws:

- In 1870 the Education Act made elementary education compulsory.

-In 1871 the Trade Unions Act established the legalisation of trade unions.

- The Ballot Act, which established the introduction of the secret vote at elections

-The Third Reform Act of 1884 extended voting to all male householders.

-the most hated law was the Corn Laws, passed in 1804, which established the increase in the price of bread. In 1839 the Anti-Corn Law League was born in Manchester and found the support of the working and middle classes, they fought hard for free trade and cheaper food. The repeal of the Corn Laws marked the transition from an agricultural economy to an industrial economy.

CHARTISM

marino_giorgia32 — 2023-11-30 21:00:04 UTC

It was a working class moviment that began in England in 1836. The movement got its name from the People’s Charter which listed its six main aims:

-universal suffrage for men

-secret ballot

-electoral discrits of equal size

-payment for parliamentarians

-annual parlamentary election

-abrogation of the census to became deputies

The Chartists presented three petitions to Parliament, but each petition was rejetced

EVANGELICALISM, UTILITARIANISM AND DARWINISM

marino_giorgia32 — 2023-11-30 21:07:02 UTC

-Evangelicalism is a religious movement derived from Methodism. Evangelicals were committed to social reform and welfare. One of the great evangelicals was William Wilberfoce. The founder of Utilitarianism, Jeremy Bentham, supported the idea that only what is useful is good.

-Social Darwinism affirmed that the life od humans in society was a struggle for existence>Herbert Spencer

VICTORIAN COMPROMISE

marino_giorgia32 — 2023-11-30 21:14:18 UTC

The kingdom of Queen Victoria became very modern, but the changes, progress, peace, prosperity coexisted with injustice, prostitution, gambling and the use of drugs, but in particular with poverty. The poorer working classes worked in brutal, unisanitary conditions and didn' t have access to clean water and healthy food or to decent clothing and education. Many survived with charity.

The Victorian Age (1837-1901)

francescapetruzzi — 2023-12-02 16:24:23 UTC

Queen Victoria became queen at the age of 18, in 1837 and she ruled the United Kingdom of Great Britain until 1901. During these 63 years, Britain became the biggest empire in the world. In this period there were great changes and developments in science, technology, culture and daily life.

The Age of Invention

francescapetruzzi — 2023-12-02 16:52:38 UTC

-The Industrial Revolution began in the 1700s, when machines were invented to produce products more easily. Thanks to these machines, factories could produce items faster. Britain grew wealthy through international trade. When Vittoria came to the throne, the railway ran only for a few hundreds kilometres. In the 1840s and 1850s, 8,000 miles of railways were built in Great Britain, it gave the opportunity to people to travel cheaply and easily across the country.

-In 1851, a Great Exhibition was held in Hyde Park in London, which was intended to celebrate the development in military, economic and industrial fields.

The Victorian Age is known as the Age of Inventions:

- Robert Trevithick's first steam locomotive of 1803 was followed by George Stephenson's steam locomotives for a coal mine.

-In 1837 telegraph was invented.

-In 1839 photography was invented.

-In 1840 the penny postal system was introduced.

-In 1863 The Metropolitan Railway was opened.

-In 1876, Alexander Graham Bell, invented the telephone.

-In 1872 a bicycle known as the penny farthing was introduced: it had a large wheel at the front and a smaller one at the back.

-In 1879 Joseph Swan invented the electric light bulb.

-In 1870 Joseph Lister introduced a new method of sterilizing surgical instruments so infections caused by bacteria disappeared.

LATE VICTORIAN AGE: THE EMPIRE AND FOREIGN POLICY

francescapetruzzi — 2023-12-02 17:44:12 UTC

The optimism and confidence of the first 40 years of Victoria's reign were confirmed by the economic, political and military success of Britain and the Empire.

-THE OPIUM WARS: In 1840 China decided to put an end to the illegal export of opium and thus a war broke out which Britain won. After the second war China open up their market to commerce.

-1845-1847 Ireland: Despide Gladstone's efforts Ireland was not given "home rule" during Victoria reign. The nation suffered a famine caused by a potato crop failure. Hunger drove many thousands of Irish to emigrate to the Americas and Australia.

-The colonies of settlement: Canada, Australia, and New Zealand attracted immigrants from Britain, who claimed the land and drove out the natives, these country gained self-government.

-THE CRIMEAN WAR (1854-1856): Great Britain and France joined forces to stop the Russian Empire.

-1857 The Indian Mutiny: The destruction of the cotton industry caused major social unrest including the Indian Mutiny in which the government took over from the East Indian Company.

-In 1875 the British government bought the majority of shares of the Suez Canal.

-In 1882 the Britain conquered Egypt.

-1899-1902 The Boer War: Britain was at war with the South African provinces, it had taken complete control after the Congress of Vienna. Many of the Boers had moved north to establish two independent republics, they feared annexation and declared war, which gave Britain the supremacy of the two republics.

LITERARY BACKGROUND

francescapetruzzi — 2023-12-02 18:04:45 UTC

From a literary point of view in this period there is the triumph of the novel characterized by two trends:

-The Victorian Compromise whose authors want to educate readers by making them aware of the contradictions without criticizing;

-The Anti-Victorian reaction whose authors describe the contradictions of the time and are influenced by positivism and realism.

Novel was the most important genre:

-people could read and borrow books;

-circulating libraries;

-novels were portable objects;

-novels were published in instalments in newspapers.

Common features:

-satisfy readers' needs;

-have a clear moral intent;

-represent human conditions in a realistic way;

-adventurous plots and rich in characters;

-the use of the 3rd-person omniscent narrator;

-structure in three volumes.

EARLY VICTORIAN NOVELISTS

Writers who wanted to represent the society in which they lived in a realistic way without judgments.

-Charles Dickens: tragicomic tone and happy ending. Oliver Twist, David Copperfield, Hard Times, Great Expectations.

MID VICTORIAN NOVELISTS

–Brontë sisters: Emily>Wuthering Heights; Charlotte>Jane Eyre. They explored the world of passion and feelings

LATE VICTORIAN NOVELISTS

Criticism became stronger and realism more evident.

–Robert Louis Stevenson>The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde>duality of human nature

–Thomas Hardy>pessimistic point of view

–Oscar Wilde>The Picture of Dorian Gray>Aestheticism

–Lewis Carrol>Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland>nonsense

–Rudyard Kipling>colonian novels

VICTORIAN POETRY

–Alfred Tennyson and Rober Browning>dramatic monologue

VICTORIAN DRAMA

–Oscar Wilde>The Importance of Being Earnest

–George Bernard Shaw