Victorian Era

Timeline 1

1832 Parliament reformed and Corn Laws repealed

Timeline 2

1833  Emancipation Act

Timeline 3

1837  Victoria came to throne 

Timeline 4

1850  Tennyson becomes poet laureate

Timeline 5

1851  Great Exhibition

Timeline 6

1859  Darwin Origin of Species

Timeline 7

1901  Victoria dies

General Info About the Time 1

Enormous political and social changes

General Info About the Time 2

The scientific and technical innovations of the Industrial Revolution

General Info About the Time 3

Compulsory education

General Info About the Time 4

Great outpouring of literary production

General Info About the Time 5

Close thy Byron, open thy Goethe

General Info About the Time 6

The early writers of 20^th c viewed them as priggish and stuffy overwrought with energy and smothering profusion

Unregulated expansion and industrialization resulted in social and economic change 1

Period was fast and furious

Unregulated expansion and industrialization resulted in social and economic change 2

Steam power used for trains, ships, looms, presses, and combines; telegraph, cable, photography

Unregulated expansion and industrialization resulted in social and economic change 3

Colonization and Empire

Unregulated expansion and industrialization resulted in social and economic change 4

Growth of modern nationalism

Unregulated expansion and industrialization resulted in social and economic change 5

One in four people on earth were subject of QV.

Unregulated expansion and industrialization resulted in social and economic change 6

Great satisfaction but also great anxiety. People alienated by technology and spirituality imperiled

Queen Victoria (1819-1901) 1

Reign: 1837-1901

Queen Victoria (1819-1901) 2

She had the longest reign in British history (until Elizabeth!)

Queen Victoria (1819-1901) 3

Sense of dignity and decorum

Queen Victoria (1819-1901) 4

1840, Victoria married a German prince, Albert, who became not king, but Prince-consort

Queen Victoria (1819-1901) 5

Earnestness, moral responsibility, domestic propriety

Queen Victoria (1819-1901) 6

Many photos of her thanks to reproduction

The Growth of the British Empire 1

England built a very large navy and merchant fleet (for trade and colonization

The Growth of the British Empire 2

Imported raw materials such as cotton and silk, and exported finished goods

The Growth of the British Empire 3

“White man’s burden”

Social and Political Reform 1

1832: First Reform Act extended the vote to most middle-class men

Social and Political Reform 2

1833: Britain abolished slavery

Social and Political Reform 3

1833: Factory Act regulated child labor

Social and Political Reform 4

1834: Poor Law-Amendment applied a system of workhouses for poor people

Social and Political Reform 5

1871: Trade Union Act: made it legal for laborers to organize

Early Period (1830-48): Time of Troubles and “Hunger Forties” 1

Liverpool and Manchester railway

Early Period (1830-48): Time of Troubles and “Hunger Forties” 2

Slums

Early Period (1830-48): Time of Troubles and “Hunger Forties” 3

Owners of mines and factories prospered due to Laissez faire

Early Period (1830-48): Time of Troubles and “Hunger Forties” 4

Chartists (Jane Eyre)

Early Period (1830-48): Time of Troubles and “Hunger Forties” 5

Condition of England novels, 1840s and 50s

Mid-Victorian Period (1848-70) “Age of Improvement” 1

The monarchy was crushing itt: QV and Albert were models of middle-class domesticity and devotion to duty.

Mid-Victorian Period (1848-70) “Age of Improvement” 2

Crystal Palace.

Mid-Victorian Period (1848-70) “Age of Improvement” 3

Empire flourished

Mid-Victorian Period (1848-70) “Age of Improvement” 4

Missionary project

Mid-Victorian Period (1848-70) “Age of Improvement” 5

Technology and Education

Mid-Victorian Period (1848-70) “Age of Improvement” 6

Utilitarianism: greatest number (but individualism not important)

Mid-Victorian Period (1848-70) “Age of Improvement” 7

Shift to Science (Darwin, geologists, and astronomers)

Mid-Victorian Period (1848-70) “Age of Improvement” 8

Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (1848): anti-conventional, anti-industrial, and return to medieval styles

Decay of Victorian values 1

Proliferation of things

Decay of Victorian values 2

Rebellion and bungled wars: Jamaica, Sudan, Africa, and India

Decay of Victorian values 3

Depression by 1874

Decay of Victorian values 4

Marx

Decay of Victorian values 5

Trade Unions

Decay of Victorian values 6

Walter Pater and “art for art’s sake”

Decay of Victorian values 7

Prince of Wales a disaster

Decay of Victorian values 8

Beginning of modernism Earnestness becoming a joke

“The Woman Question” 1

Though many citizens were getting rights, women still getting wronged.

“The Woman Question” 2

Until the married women’s property acts over course of 1870-1908,  women couldn’t own or handle their own property

“The Woman Question” 3

Universities closed to them until end of period but no degrees

“The Woman Question” 4

Employment for middle class: governess

“The Woman Question” 5

“Angel in the House” (separation of public and private spheres)

Religious Movements in Victorian England 1

Evangelical Movement:  emphasized a Protestant faith in personal salvation with attention to moral lifestyle and also good works

Religious Movements in Victorian England 2

Oxford Movement (Tractarians): sought to bring the official English Anglican Church closer in rituals and beliefs to Roman Catholicism (also called “High Church)

Literacy, publication, and Reading 1

Compulsory education (to ten)

Literacy, publication, and Reading 2

Steam printing press, paper and typesetting

Literacy, publication, and Reading 3

Books, newspapers, periodicals created public taste

Literacy, publication, and Reading 4

Families read novels by fireside and poets like Tennyson Browning appealed to large body of readers.

Literacy, publication, and Reading 5

Literature meant to instruct and delight

Literacy, publication, and Reading 6

In 1870s, Pre-Raphaelites pursued art for art’s sake

Literacy, publication, and Reading 7

Not a unified reading public

Genres and styles 1

Reading available to more people because they were published New ways of telling stories in verse.

Genres and styles 2

Some hearkened back and others were set contemporary.

Genres and styles 3

Browning and “dramatic monologue”

Genres and styles 4

Visual, elaborate, aural

Genres and styles 5

Experiments with narrative and perspective,

Genres and styles 6

Efforts to represent psychology in a different way—poetry of mood and character. Increasingly less didactic and more bohemian.

Genres and styles 7

Novels and poetry used theatrical techniques.

Genres and styles 8

Shaw and Wilde (“problem” plays.