The Victorian Age

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a monotonous diet. The poor had to wear uniforms and their families were split. This hard line was due in part to an optimistic faith in progress and to the Puritan virtues of hard work and duty. The idea behind the workhouses was that awareness of such a dreadful life would inspire the poor to try to improve their own conditions. Workhouses were mainly run by the Church. Religion was a strong force and churches promoted study and abstinence from alcohol. prire Chartism In 1838 a group of working-class drew up a People's Charter demanding equal electoral districts, universal male suffrage, a secret ballot and abolition of the property qualifications for membership in Parliament. No one in power was ready for such democracy and the Chartist movement failed. However, their influence was later felt. The Irish Potato Famine Bad weather and an unknown plant disease from America caused the destruction of potato crops in 1845. Ireland experienced a terrible famine, in fact its agriculture was based on potatoes, and a lot of people died and many emigrated (mostly in America) in search of a better life. The Irish crisis forced the Prime Minister to abolish the Corn Laws in 1846. These laws imposed tariffs on imported corn, keeping the price of bread high to protect the landed interests. Technological progress In the 19th century, England experienced a second wave of industrialisation which brought economic, cultural and architectural change. In 1851 a Great Exhibition, organised by the Prince Albert, showed the world Britain's industrial and economic power. The exhibition was housed at the Crystal Palace, a huge structure of glass erected in Hyde Park. More than 15,000 exhibitors from all over the world displayed their goods to millions of visitors. People became very fond of exhibitions, so money was invested in several museums, including the Natural History Museum and the Science Museum, in which the entrance was free. The building of the London Underground began in 1860 and railways started to transform the landscape and people's lives. They transported large quantities of raw materials quickly and cheaply. People were able to travel for work and pleasure, and the middle classes could live in the suburbs instead of the crowded town centres. Foreign policy Steel steamships expanded the Victorians' world even further. In the 19th century, England was involved in the two Opium Wars against China. The most lucrative colony of the British Empire was India. Britain also supported some liberal causes like Italian independence from the Austrians. When Russia became too powerful against the Turkish Empire, the Crimean War (1853-1856) was fought. It began as a dispute between Russia and the Ottoman Turks, but soon France and Britain got involved since they wanted to limit Russia's power in the area. The Crimean War was the first conflict reported in newspapers and people where shocked by the reports. THE VICTORIAN COMPROMISE A complex age The Victorian Age was marked by complexity: it was a time of unprecedented change but also great contradictions, often referred to as the 'Victorian Compromise'. It was an age in which progress and political stability coexisted with poverty and injustice. Modernity was praised but there was a revival of Gothic and Classicism in art. Religion played an important role: Evangelicalism, in particular, encouraged public and political action and created a lot of charities. The Victorians believed in God but also in progress and science. Freedom was linked with religion as regarded freedom of conscience, with optimism over economic and political progress, and with national identity. Respectability Hygiene was encouraged to improve health care; self-restraint, good manners and self-help came to be linked with respectability, a concept shared by the middle and working classes. There was a general agreement on the virtues of asserting a social status, keeping up appearances and looking after a family. These things were 'respectable'. However, respectability was a mixture of morality and hypocrisy, since the unpleasant aspects of society were hidden. There was growing emphasis on the duty of men to protect women, seen as inspirers of men. Women controlled the family budget and brought up the children. General attitudes to sex were a crucial aspect of respectability, with an intense concern for female chastity, and single women with a child were considered 'fallen women'. Sexuality was generally repressed and moralising 'prudery' gradually led to the denunciation of nudity in art and words with a sexual connotation. EARLY VICTORIAN THINKERS Evangelicalism Victorian values found their basis in some of the movements of thought of the age. The religious movements called 'Evangelicalism' influenced Victorian emphasis upon moral conduct as the test of the good Christian. The founder of Methodism, John Wesley, and his brother influenced the Evangelicals. They believed in: the literal truth of the Bible + obedience to a strict code of morality which opposed many forms of entrainment + dedication to humanitarian causes and social reform Bentham's Utilitarianism Utilitarianism was another movement which exerted an important influence on 19th-century social thinking and was based on Jeremy Bentham's principles. The origins of this movement can be traced back to the Greek philosopher Epicurus. According to Utilitarianism, an action is morally right if it has consequences that lead to happiness, and wrong if it brings pain and sadness. All institutions should be tested in the light of reason and provide for the material happiness of the greatest number of people. Utilitarianism suited the interests of the middle class and convinced that any problem could be overcome through reason. ✩ Mill and the empiricist tradition The utilitarian indifference to human values was firmly attacked by many intellectuals of the time, including Charles Dickens and John Stuart Mill, who was a major figure in the British empiricist tradition. He was educated according to the principles of Benthamite philosophy and found them inadequate. John Mill principles: happiness is a state of the mind and the spirit and not a search for selfish pleasure + legislation should have a more positive function in trying to help men + a good society is where there is variety + progress comes from mental energy + importance to education and art + he promoted several reforms Challenges from the scientific field During the Victorian Age new challenges came from the fields of geology, biology and astronomy. Geologists found fossils in rocks and began to question the Book of Genesis. The question was brought to the wide public by Sir Charles Lyell's Principles of Geology and then taken up by Charles Darwin in his work On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, in which he presented his theory of evolution and natural selection. According to Darwin's theory: all living creatures have developed their forms through a slow process of change + favourable physical conditions determine the survival of a species + men evolved from a less highly organised form, namely a monkey. Darwin's theory discarded the version of creation given by the Bible and seemed to show that the universe was developing. The Oxford Movement British Catholics replied to the challenges of science by returning to the ancient doctrines and rituals. Religion found its expression in the movement headed by John Newman, an English cardinal, named 'Oxford Movement' because it began at Oxford University. THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR The difference between the North and the South industrialisation North the white population increased (immigrants from Europe) South economy based on plantations (cotton and tobacco) and slavery 4 million black slaves divided class system still slave labour 1830: several States adopted emancipation The first half of the 19th century in America was characterised by economic expansion, social change, inventions and literary expression. The political situation was tense because of the economic differences between the northern and southern regions. The Civil War Northern abolitionists (writers, intellectuals) began to organise themselves into a political movement. They demanded slavery to be excluded from all territories of the Union. In 1860 the Republican Abraham Lincoln won the presidential election. Soon after, 11 southern States formed the Confederate States of America, under the presidency of Jefferson Davis. War followed because Lincoln refused to concede that any American State had the constitutional right to withdraw from the Union. The Civil War broke out in 1861 and lasted four years, ending in 1865. President Lincoln was assassinated by a southern fanatic five days after the ending of the war. The Civil War determined what kind of nation the United States would be: an indivisible nation with a sovereign national government and it ended the institution of slavery. However, these achievements cost about 625,000 lives. It was the most destructive conflict in the Western world between the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815 and the onset of the World War I in 1914. →→The abolition of slavery The abolition of slavery sanctioned by the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, didn't grant the blacks equality and economic security: they were free but without money and a home. Some migrated to the industrial cities in the North, others remained with their old masters in the South. A wave of resentment and violence, embodied by the racist 'Ku Klux Klan' movement, terrorised the blacks. The so-called 'black codes' were created, which segregated the blacks in schools, hospitals and means of transport. A new version of the American dream While the economy of the South had collapsed during the war, the northern factories had increased their output to supply military needs. Big fortunes were made, and financial empires were created by men who rose from nothing. These men embodied a new version of the 'American dream': the myth of the self-made who went from 'rags to riches'. The other side of the coin was that the majority of workers were exploited. They soon founded the America Federation of Labor, which became the strongest group of trade unions. → The expansion and settlement in the West Expansion and settlement in the West were encouraged above all by the discovery of gold in California in 1848-49, which resulted in the 'gold rush'. Then the Homestead Act (1862) granted free soil to the first occupants. This migration had two main consequences: 1) it led to the disappearance of the frontier 2) it led to the extermination of buffaloes, with the consequent starvation of the American Indians, who were brutally exterminated. THE LATER YEARS OF QUEEN VICTORIA'S REIGN The Liberal and the Conservative Parties When Prince Albert tragically died in 1861, Queen Victoria withdrew from society and spent the next ten years in mourning. The political panorama was changing with the regrouping of the parties. The Liberal Party (some radicals and a minority of businessmen) led by William Gladstone and The Conservative Party led by Benjamin Disraeli. Benjamin Disraeli He became Prime Minister in 1868. He provided sanitation, housing for the poor, limited the working hours per week. His foreign policy was dominated by the Eastern Question, that is, the decay of the Ottoman Empire and the attempt by Russia to gain power there. William Gladstone He was Prime Minister four times, starting in 1868. He was focused on education and introduced 'board schools', mainly in the poorer areas of the tows. He introduced a secret ballot at elections, extended voting to all male householders (including farm labourers and mill-workers). The Anglo-Boer Wars The struggle with France had led to Britain's global hegemony: with its naval power and its economic strength, Britain seemed invulnerable. However, since Waterloo, its foreign policy had been defensive. Many areas of the world were characterised by problems and fragmentation and it was there that Britain began to gain control. By the 1870s, the British controlled two colonies: Cape Colony and Natal. When Britain took over Transvaal in 1877, the Boers rebelled and war broke out. The Boer Wars (1880-1902) ended with a British victory. Empress of India In 1876 Queen Victoria was given a new title: Empress of India. The British Empire occupied an area of 4 million square miles and more than 400 million people were ruled by the British. However, the empire was becoming difficult to control. India was economically important as a market for British goods and strategically necessary to British control of Asia from the Persian Gulf to Shanghai. In the late Victorian period the new imperial government became more ambitious and caused the deindustrialisation of India. The end of an era The Victorian Age came to an end with the death of Queen Victoria in 1901. For her funeral London streets were packed with mourners. She was buried beside her husband in the Frogmore mausoleum at Windsor Castle. THE LATE VICTORIANS * Victorian urban society and women In the later years of Victoria's reign, Britain was an urban society. Victorian cities had gas lighting and there were many public buildings. Middle-class women became increasingly involved in public life (as teachers, volunteers). Education opportunities for women became available with the opening of women's colleges in the 1870s. the 1822 Married Women's Property Act gave married women the right to own and manage their own property independently of their husbands for the first time. * Social Darwinism Darwin's theory of evolution became the foundation for various social systems, such as Social Darwinism. The philosopher Herbert Spencer applied Darwin's theory to human society: he argued that races, nations and social classes were subject to the principle of the 'survival of the fittest' and that the poor and oppressed didn't deserve compassion. *Late Victorian thinkers Changes regarded scientific achievements, industrialisation, sexuality and religion and a growing pessimism began to affect intellectuals and artists, who expressed in different ways their sense of doubt about the stability of Victorian society. Among the thinkers of the late Victorian period, those who protested against the harm caused by industrialisation played an important role. An example is Karl Marx, who then influenced the art critic John Ruskin. They were looking for a different form of progress, in which the future resembled the past. * The spread of socialist ideas The 1880s saw the rise of an organised political left after the foundation of the Fabian Society in 1884. It was a middle-class socialist group that wanted to transform Britain into a socialist State not through revolution but by progressive reforms, as Marx advised. The Independent Labour Party was set up in 1893 and was a non-Marxist socialist party which attracted both female and male intellectuals. *Patriotism Britain in the 19th century was characterised by expressions of civic pride and national fervour. Patriotism was deeply influenced by ideas of racial superiority: the British considered themselves the leaders of European civilisation. There was a believe that the 'races' of the world were divided by physical and intellectual differences and some were destined to be led by others. It was God who commanded the British to spread their superior way of life, their law and political system on native peoples throughout the world. This attitude was known as 'Jingoism'. VICTORIAN POETRY Two kinds of poetry During Victoria's reign, poetry became more concerned with social reality and was expected to express the moral debate of the age. This led to the creation of majestic poetry linked to the myth of the greatness of England and the creation of poetry inclined to the disbelief which had to solve the ethical problems raised by science and progress. The new image of the poet Now the poet was seen as a 'prophet' and a 'philosopher'. He was expected to reconcile faith and progress. Optimists believed that the benefits of progress could be reached without altering the traditional social organisation; they wanted to find a corresponding attitude in poets and to be told that modern life was as susceptible to romantic behaviour as the remote legends. ღ Outstanding poets The major poets of the age were: o Alfred Tennyson o Robert Browning (dramatic monologues) o Elizabeth Barrett Browning (love sonnets) o Gerard Manley Hopkins (broke the conventional rules) o Matthew Arnold (poetry to express his dissatisfaction with his time) The dramatic monologue The dramatic monologue is a narrative poem in which a single character may address one or more listeners. It is related to the soliloquy used in Elizabethan plays (for example Hamlet's soliloquy). In a dramatic monologue the speaking character is different from the poet himself and is caught in a moment of crisis; a non-speaking listener is present and conditions the development of the monologue. There isn't a unique truth and this brings verse closely in touch with the unpredictable movements of the human mind. In the dramatic monologue, the tone of the language is argumentative, aiming at revealing the main character's thoughts. THE VICTORIAN NOVEL Reader and writers During the Victorian Age, for the first time, there was a communion of interests between writers and their readers. One reason was the enormous growth of the middle classes. Although its members belonged to many different levels, they were avid consumers of literature. They borrowed books from libraries and read periodicals. Moreover, Victorian writers themselves belonged to the middle class. ✩ The publishing world A great deal of Victorian literature was first published in a serial form. Novels, verse and essays made their first appearance in the pages of periodicals. This allowed the writer to feel he was in contact with his public. He was obliged to maintain the interest of his story gripping because one boring instalment would cause the public not to buy that periodical anymore. There was another advantage: an author could always alter the story according to its success or failure. The Victorian's interest in prose The Victorians showed interest in prose, and the greatest literary achievement of the age is to be found in the novel, which became the most popular form of literature. The spread of scientific knowledge made the novel realistic and analytic, the spread of democracy and social problems made it humanitarian and the spirit of moral unrest made it inquisitive and critical. The novelist's aim During the 18th century, novels dealt with the adventures of a social outcast or a more virtuous hero, but their episodic structure remained the same. The idea of a thematic unity was brought in by Jane Austen and the Gothic writers. In the 1840s novelists wanted to reflect the social changes that had been in progress for a long time (ex. the industrial revolution). The novelist of the first part of the Victorian period described society as they saw it, except for those sentiments which offended current morals (ex. sex). They were aware of the evils of their society, such as the terrible conditions of manual workers and the exploitation of children. However, their criticism was much less radical than that of contemporary European writers (Balzac, Flaubert, Turgenev) because the historical conditions of Britain were different from those of France or Russia. Didacticism was one of the main features of Victorian novels, because novelist saw literature as a vehicle to correct the weaknesses of the age. The narrative technique Victorian novelist used the omniscient narrator because it provided a comment on the plot and erected a rigid barrier between 'right' and 'wrong' behaviours. Retribution and punishment were to be found in the final chapter of the novel, where the whole texture of events had to be explained and justified. Setting and characters The most chosen setting was the city, which was the main symbol of the industrial civilisation and the expression of anonymous lives ad lost identities. Victorian writers concentrated on the creation of realistic characters, so the public could easily identify with (especially Dicken's characters, who settled his novels mainly in London, or the Brontë sisters' heroines). Types of novels o The novel of manners: linked to Jane Austen, it dealt with economic and social problems and described a particular class or situation. A master of this genre was William Thackeray. o The humanitarian novel: Charles Dickens' novels constitute the humanitarian novel (or novel of purpose), which could be divided into novels of a 'realistic', 'fantastic' or 'moral' nature according to their tone or issue dealt with. They combine humour with a sentimental request for reform for the less fortunate. o The novel of formation: (or education/ Bildungsroman) became popular after the publication of Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre and Dickens's David Copperfield. These novels dealt with one character's development from early youth to some sort of maturity. They focus on intense subjective experiences rather than on a world of social interaction (like the Romantic and Gothic traditions). o Literary nonsense: created by Edward Lear and Lewis Carroll. In his famous novel Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Carroll created a nonsensical universe where the social rules are disintegrated, the cause-effect relationship doesn't exist, and time and space have no function. Women writers A great number of novels published during the mid-Victorian period were written by women such as Charlotte and Emily Brontë and George Eliot. This output is surprising considering the state of subjection of Victorian women. It is less surprising that most readers were women. Middle-class women had more time to spend at home than men and could devote part of the day to reading. However, it was not easy to get published, and some women used a male pseudonym in order to see their work in print. Creative writing was considered 'masculine'. From Jane Austen to George Eliot, the woman's novel had moved in the direction of a realistic exploration of the daily vives and values of women within the family and the community. AMERICAN RENAISSANCE The New England Renaissance The centre of American cultural life in the 19th century was New England, where the influence of Puritanism was still very strong. The New England Renaissance was the period from the 1830s to the end of the American Civil War. The term indicated the beginning of a truly American literature, with the themes and a style of its own. The Puritan heritage The great literary of the period constituted a sort of reaction against the Puritan doctrine. However, the Puritan heritage could still be traced in the symbols and emblems used by some writers (Herman Melville). Transcendentalism The most influential figure during the American Renaissance was Ralph Waldo Emerson, who led the Transcendental Club and expressed his philosophy, called 'Transcendentalism'. His ideas developed under various influences, including English Romanticism, German Idealism, and political liberalism. The key ideas of Transcendentalism were: o all reality was seen as a single unity (people from all over the world formed a national unity) o contact with nature was the best means to reach the truth of the unity of all things. Emerson saw nature according to its 'uses' (as a commodity, as a source of beauty, as discipline in educating man) o the 'over-soul' was the spiritual principle linking everything together man was the emanation of the over-soul, and the emphasis lay on his individuality, on his self-education O The power of human consciousness Transcendentalism encouraged an optimistic point of view, which found expression in the poems of Walt Whitman. This philosophy praised mankind's ability to transcend the mortal world through reflection and intuition. This belief in the power of human consciousness to discover eternal truths in the natural world became the dominant theme in Emily Dickinson's poetry. The most faithful follower of Emerson's theories was his friend Henry David Thoreau, who in his work 'Life in the Woods' described that an individual can lead a rich life in solitude, living only on what he grows. THE LATE VICTORIAN NOVEL The realistic novel The late Victorian novel mirrored a society liked to a growing crisis in the moral and religious fields. Darwin's evolution theory influenced the structure of the realistic novel, which started to follow an evolutionist pattern. Coincidences solved the intricacies of the plot and chance played an important role. The best representatives of the realistic novel were Thomas Hardy and George Eliot. Eliot focused on the physiological complexity of human beings, while Hardy presented strong individuals. Hardy's protagonists are also defined by their native regions and, at the same time, painfully alienated by them. The psychological novel Robert Louis Stevenson's The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde tried to capture the monstrous aspects of life and described the double nature of Victorian society, where aristocracy was only superficially kind but hid dark secrets. Most of the action in the novel takes place at night, in the poorer districts of London. Most significantly, Mr Hyde enters and leaves Dr Jekyll's house through the back door, which seems a metaphor for the evil that lies behind the beautiful façade of civilisation. Colonial literature The Victorian period marked the highest point of British imperialism. The most obvious influence of colonialism on Victorian literature can be founded with Rudyard Kipling. His novels and short stories are set in the distant lands colonised by Britain: the reality of colonialism makes up the background. Kipling exalted the British imperial power as a sacred duty in the poem The White Man's Burden, where he legitimised the belief that it was the task of the white man to carry civilisation and progress to the savages. AESTHETICISM AND DECADENCE > The birth of the Aesthetic Movement The Aesthetic Movement developed in the universities and intellectual circles in the last decades of the 19th century. It began in France with Théophile Gautier and reflected the sense of frustration of the artist and his need to redefine the role of art. As a result, French artists withdrew from the political and social scene and escaped into aesthetic isolation, into what Gautier defined 'Art for Art's Sake' (importance of art: Gautier refuses the romantic vision of art because art doesn't have to teach anything, it is for itself). He protested against the monotony and vulgarity of bourgeois life, pursuing sensation and excess, and cultivating art and beauty. The aesthetic movement is also linked to the name of Oscar Wilde: an outcast against social conventions who made scandal because he was married with a woman, wrote about children and then declared his homosexuality (he went to jail for this). > The English Aesthetic Movement This doctrine was imported into England by James McNeill Whistler, an American painter who worked in England. However, the English Aesthetic Movement can be traced back to the Romantic poet John Keats, as well as to Dante Gabriel Rossetti. Rossetti was an artist dedicated wholly to his art. John Ruskin too, in his search for beauty in life and ar. Walter Pater is regarded as the main theorist of the Aesthetic Movement in England. > The theorist of English Aestheticism Walter Pater's Studies in the History of the Renaissance and his masterpiece Marius the Epicurean were immediately successful because of their message. He rejected religious faith and said that art was the only certainty. He thought life should be lived in the spirit of art, filling each passing moment with intense experience. The task of the artist was to feel sensations. Art had no reference to life, and therefore it had nothing to do with morality and didn't need to be didactic. > Walter Pater's influence Pater's works had a deep influence on the poets and writers of the 1890s, especially Oscar Wilde and The Yellow Book, a periodical written by a group of artists. This periodical reflected 'decadent' taste in its sensational subjects. The term 'decadent' implied a process of decline of recognised values. By the end of the century it was used as an aesthetic term across Europe. > The features of Aesthetic works o excessive attention to the self o hedonistic and sensuous attitude o perversity in subject matter o disenchantment with contemporary society o evocative use of language > The European Decadent Movement Decadence must be seen as a European movement. In the late 1880s a group of French writers created the journal Le Décadent, influenced by Baudelaire's Les Fleurs du mal. Joris-Karl Huysmans wrote a novel whose hero tries to create an entirely artificial life in his search for unusual sensations. This character became the model for Wilde's dandy. The main representatives of Decadence in Italy were Gabriele D'Annunzio (Il Piacere) and the poets Giovanni Pascoli and Guido Gozzano. In Germany the most remarkable expression of the Decadent sensibility was the poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke. > The Dandy The term 'dandy', probably derived from the Scottish nickname for 'Andrew', was first used in a song 'Yankee Doodle Dandy' sung by the British during the American Revolution. The words of the song mocked the colourful uniform of the American soldiers. So the term 'dandy' referred to a man boasted about his appearance even though he was wearing odd and ordinary clothes. Vanity and extravagance were linked to the more positive idea of the dandy which developed thanks to George Bryan Brummell. He became the leader of fashion for the exquisiteness of his dress and manners. Brummell created dandyism as a lifestyle. From England this trend spread to France, where it was connected to artistic movements (Symbolism and Aestheticism). Reinforced by the French influence, dandyism reappeared in England at the end of the 19th century thanks to Oscar Wilde.