The Victorian Age (1837-1901)

Queen Victoria
1. 1. Became queen at 18 y/o (64 years of reign)
  1. 2. Was the ideal head of a CONSTITUTIONAL MONARCHY (peaceful and stable reign).
    1. 3. In 1840 married her cousin, the PRINCE ALBERT OF SAXE-COBURG-GOTHA (good advisor)
      1. In 1857 he became Prince Consort
      2. 4. Had 9 children
        Respectable family
        5. In 1861 her husband died. She retired from society and spent the following 10 years in mourning.
Literature
1. Poetry
  1. ROBERT BROWNING
    1. Porphyria's Lover
      1. It's a dramatic monologue
        Imaginary speaker (persona)
        =Porphyria's lover (insane)
        an Imaginary audience/ the reader/ an interlocutor
        =audience (he is alone)
      2. Porphyria can't love her lover freely because of social restraints
        Victorian element (respectability)
2. It's the Age of FICTION
  1. THE ViCTORIAN NOVEL
    1. Function: to entratain and to instruct
    2. Had a great expantion because of the growth of literacy
      1. elementary education became compulsory
    3. Main source of entertainment of the middle class (women)
    4. At first novels were published in instalments into magazines
      1. Writers could modify their stories if the readers didn't like something
        Writer's compromise
    5. 2 phases
      1. 1. REALISM
        CHARLES DICKENS
        Charles Dickens's novels
        David Copperfield
        It's a Bildungsrroman
        Literary genre loved by the Victorians because it had a moral
        It contains autobiographical elements
        Hard Times
        The title comes from the expression: "I'm fallen on hard times
        Set in the imaginary city of Coketown
        Dystopic representation of an industrial town in the north of England
        Critical of the school system, utilitarianism, industrialisation
        Oliver Twist
        Critical of the hypocrisy of the institutions (the Church)
        have always an happy ending
        set in cities
        contain great characters ("larger than life")
        usually described in a funny way
        their names reveal something about them
        Also called SOCIAL NOVELS
        =Dickens criticizes society
        but usually resorting to irony
        or CONDITION OF ENGLAND NOVELS
        have compelx plots
        great dialogues
        Writers described society as they saw it
        Faith in progress
        Awareness of evils
        Authors did not question the system
      2. 2. DECADENTiSM
        ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON
        The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
        Long-short story
        Gothic elements + elements of a detective story
        3 narrators
        Who should we trust?
        End of all the certainties about reality
        Theme of the double
        THE VICTORIAN COMPROMISE
        Based on a double standard
        What was shown
        What had to be hidden
        Good and evil can not be separated, but they coexist in human soul
        OSCAR WILDE
        The Picture of Dorian Gray
        Reaction vs victorian morality (prudery)
        Theme of the double
        Key concepts:
        Immorality
        Pleasure
        Hedonism
        Beauty
        Aestethicism
        Had a double life
        Was a dandy
        Life as a work of art
        Open criticism of victorian values
3. Plays
  1. The Importance of being Earnest (OSCAR WILDE)
    1. New comedy of manners
    2. Main themes:
      1. The double
      2. Marriage (=social contract)
      3. Exaggerated seriousness of the victorian society
        Creates comic effects
    3. Play based on the brilliance of language (paradoxes, puns, misunderstandings)
    4. Complex plot
Economic and scientific progress (2nd wave of industrialization)
1. The Great Exhibition (1851)
2. Building of London Underground (1860)
3. Great advancements in industrial processes
4. Huge improvements in transports/railway system
5. Investments in new museums
  1. Natural History Museum
  2. Science Museum
  3. Victoria and Albert Museum
6. New discoveries and theories from geology, biology, archeology and astronomy.
  1. Charles Darwin's "On the Origins of the Species" (1859)
  2. Undermined religious beliefs
New currents of thought
1. Evangelicanism (religious movement)
  1. obedience to a strict code of morality
  2. dedication to humanitarian causes and social reforms
2. Utilitarianism (Jeremy Bentham)
  1. = an action is morally right if it has consequences that lead to happiness
  2. Materialistic age
English Empire
1. Canada, some parts of Africa, India; Australia
2. The White Man's burden
  1. Idea supported by many writers (eg, KIPLING)
3. Many wars were fought
  1. Opium Wars VS China
  2. Crimean War VS Russia
  3. Indian mutiny
  4. Anglo-Boer War VS the Dutch

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The Victorian Age (1837-1901)

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