Victorianism

Question 1

Comparison

Answer 1

• Pride on the presence → “Progress, expansion, mobility”
• Industrialisation and advancing sciences
• Realism instead of fantasy
• Public prudery, hypocrisy, women as ‘angel in the house’

= code of conduct → set of rules outlining the social norms = strict religious rules and responsibilities of, and or proper practices, for the individual

Question 2

Timeline

Answer 2

Start: Reign Queen Victoria 1837 / Reform Bill: 1832
End: 1901 Reign Queen Victoria; 1901: Edwardian Era

Question 3

Early Victorianism (1830-50):

Answer 3

• rigid code of religious norms; clear distinction between male and female attributes; belief in progress
• Charles Dickens: Oliver Twist

Question 4

Mid Victorianism

Answer 4

• begin: 1859 Charles Darwin: On the origin of the Species → promoted Victorian crisis of faith

Question 5

Late Victorianism

Answer 5

• reshaping prevailing ideas about morality, religion, gender and artistic conventions → discussions, ideas and criticism came up
• Arthur Conan Doyle: Sherlock Holmes

Question 6

Society & Politics

Answer 6

• Many Changes to Social and Political Life: bad living conditions → industrial revolution brought massive changes
• 1834: New Poor Law: arm houses turned into workhouses → country divided between the increasingly wealthy and the poor
• Ireland: Irish potato famine
• industrial revolution: railway (1830); Great Exhibition, London; telephone (1876)
• Colonialism and Imperialism: economic expansion and political power
• Age of Morals and Values: nuclear family; “Victorian morality”: strict social code of conduct
• Population: England & Wales doubled; Ireland’s decreased; democratic & socialist movements in the working class

Question 7

Novel

Answer 7

• leading literary genre
• serial publishing in periodicals
• forms: Bildungsroman; political, detective, serialised, historical and gothic novels
• approach to social reality: different characters, great number of plots
• Oliver Twist; Dorian Gray

Question 8

Poetry

Answer 8

• easier to understand, focus on form and language rather than content
• themes involve religious scepticism and the conflict between science and humanity
• forms: lyrical, heroic, tender and passionate poetry

Question 9

Drama

Answer 9

comedies of manners (e.g. Wilde)
themes: romantic triangles, strained coincidences, heroines in physical danger, aristocratic villains, country vs. city life, sexual discretion or lack of it etc.

Question 10

Magazines and Newspapers

Answer 10

• offered stories to the masses
• journalism grew further: The Times, The Daily Telegraph
• political cartoons, entertaining stories, advertisement, letters to the editor, police report