Colegiul Național „Andrei Mureșanu” Bistrița

Certificate Paper For Intensive Class

2021

The Victorian Age

Guiding Teacher Student

Monica Strungar Zinveliu Firuca - Maria
 Table Of Contents
Foreword...............................................................................................................................................3
Historical Background...........................................................................................................................4
 Queen Victoria...........................................................................................................................4
 Pax Britannica, the British peace...............................................................................................5
 Crimean War.............................................................................................................................6
Victorian Fashion and Clothing.............................................................................................................6
 Women's Fashions.....................................................................................................................7
 Men’s Fashion.........................................................................................................................10
Lifestyle...............................................................................................................................................11
 Etiquette and Manners.............................................................................................................11
 Ball......................................................................................................................................11
 Visiting Etiquette.................................................................................................................12
Literature.............................................................................................................................................12
Messed Things That Acutually Happended.........................................................................................14
 Death photography...................................................................................................................14
 Hell on Earth for Children.......................................................................................................14
 Standards of beauty..................................................................................................................15
 London Fog.............................................................................................................................15
 Dining in the Dark...................................................................................................................16
Bibliography........................................................................................................................................16

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 Foreword

Unlike any other ages, the extraordinary Victorian period of the British history, has
always given me mixed emotions. I cannot view it with a positive point of view nor with a
negative one. It is always difficult to post comments and judge on values, morals and
achievements of a society when so many years had passed, especially on the history of
another’s nation
One of my motivations for writing this work is to understand and learn more about this
enigmatic area. It was a time filled with sadness, poverty and sorrow, yet at the same time
with joy, wealth, and compelling improvements.
A period which brought major changes in the history of British people, on the fields of
science, culture, art and society. There were great and monumental advances in engineering,
technology and medicine and there were few attempts to tackle with the causes and effects of
indigence. This era had been a period of prosperity as well as poverty and development
within the British Empire allowing the Victorian Britain to become the world’s richest nation.
In my work I will present the Victorian area in its all might as well as the cost of the gained
power, fame and wealth.

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Historical Background

The “Victorian Era” of British history was the period of Queen Victoria’s reign, from 1837
until her death, in 1901. During those ages, Britain was the world’s most powerful nation. By
the end of Victoria’s reign, the British empire extended over about one-fifth of the earth
surface. But as Victorian England was a time of great ambition and grandeur, it was also a
time of misery and urban ugliness.
During this period, the development of a bigger, stronger and more educated middle class
took place. Education had been reorganized, although many children were forced to choose
work over school in order to earn a modest, low wage to ensure their everyday needs.
Despite its dark and sorrowful side, it was a truly remarkable age, with the longest reign in
British history and with a proud, fearsome and powerful ruler, Queen Victoria. During her
domination, as her name forecasts, the Victorian Britain was truly a victorious nation, with
tremendous achievements.

 Queen Victoria
Alexandrina Victoria was a monarch who ruled the United Kingdom of Great Britain and
Ireland until her death (24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901). Due to her achievements, Victoria
became the iconic symbol of the entire British nation and empire.
Victoria was the daughter of Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Princess Victoria of Saxe-
Coburg-Saalfeld. She inherited the throne at the age of 18 after her father's three elder
brothers died.
Her childhood, as Victoria, herself described was “rather melancholy”. Due to her mother
over protective behaviour she was isolated from other children and was raised under the so
called “Kensington System”. The system prevented the princess from meeting people whom
her mother considered undesirable (including most of her father’s family).
Her coronation took place on 28 June 1838. At her own will, on the first day as a queen she
withdrawn her first name (Alexandrina) and was never used again. At this time, the
government was led by the Whig Prime Minister Lord Melbourne, who became a powerful
influence on the politically inexperienced Queen, whom Victoria relied on for advice very
often.
Though she was a queen, as an unmarried young woman Victoria was required, by social
convention, to live with her mother, who she deeply despised. Her mother was sent to a
remote apartment in Buckingham Palace after Victoria ascended the throne, and she often
refused to meet or visit her. In order to avoid her mother’s proximity, Victoria was suggested
to get married. The idea came as a shock to the young queen and resisted the attempts which
tried to rush her into wedlock, but eventually she married her first cousin, Prince Albert, who
replaced Lord Melbourne as an influential political figure.
Due to Albert’s help, relation between mother and daughter slowly improved. Their 9
children and 42 grandchildren married into royal families across the continent, earning her
the nickname "the grandmother of Europe".

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The Queen hated being pregnant, viewed breast- feeding with disgust, and thought newborn
babies were ugly. She was often identified as a harsh and cold woman with strict personal
morality standards.
With 63 years and 7 months, her reign as Queen lasted longer than of any other British
monarch. Victoria's death brought an end to the rule of the House of Hanover in the United
Kingdom.

 Pax Britannica, the British peace

The term, Pax Britannica, refers to a period of British imperialism after the battle of
Waterloo. During this time Europe was enjoying relative peace (1815–1914), with fewer wars
and political feuds. The British Empire became a key figure in political life. It controlled
most of the naval trade routes and enjoyed unchallenged sea power. It was thought that the
only adversary of the British naval force was Germany.

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  Crimean War
This long period of peace was temporarily interrupted by the Crimean War, fought between
October 1853 and February 1856. This war involved Europe’s largest states, including the
British and French Empire against the Russian Empire. The war took place mostly on the
Crimean peninsula. This war was actually a contest between the major European powers for
influence over territories of the Ottoman Empire which was falling apart.
The Crimean War is sometimes regarded as one of the first "modern" wars. This war saw the
first tactical use of railways and other modern inventions such as the electric telegraph, with
the first 'live' war reporting to ”The Times” by William Howard Russel. This war was also
notorious for the military and logistical errors of the British army.
The war also led to the establishment of the Victoria Cross (the highest military decoration).

Victorian Fashion and Clothing

In fashion, the Victorian era is an elaborate display of class, wealth, beauty, and
purpose for women and men. The layers of dress and suiting required for poor and rich
alike were impractical, sometimes even uncomfortable, but always beautifully
fashionable. Victorian fashion began with large dresses, poke bonnets, and modest
coverings for the ladies, all while men displayed colour, pattern, and rigidity in their
attire. By the end of the era, a simpler silhouette was making waves, leading the next
Edwardian generation to new freedoms in life and fashion.
Mass production of sewing machines in the 1850s as well as the advent of synthetic
dyes introduced major changes in fashion. Clothing could be made more quickly and
cheaply.

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  Women's Fashions
Victorian period created an often exaggerated, inordinate look for women. Tight corsets,
gigantic hoop-skirts, and outrageous bustles.

Clothing styles were dictated by propriety, and stylish garments were a sign of respectability.

By 1860, the skirts were flat at the front as compared

to the bell-shaped skirts worn by the early Victorian women. The day dresses had pagoda
sleeves and a high neckline. These necklines either had a lace or tatted collar on them.
However, for the evening wear, the gowns had low neckline and short sleeves along with
appropriate gloves. Somewhere in 1870, tea-gowns were introduced for casual get-togethers
at home.

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 Cage Crinoline

By 1867,crinoline was replaced by bustles to hold the skirts up. Jacket and skirts which
matched the hunting outfit were worn in 1880s. The shirt was high collared and the top-hat
had a veil.The women’s gowns during the 1880s were primarily made in two colors material
namely, deep red, peacock blue, royal blue, purple.

Cage crinoline

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By 1887, the sleeves of the dresses had become slimmer and close fitting. During the 1890s
the women’s fashion was simple as compared to the earlier years.Women did not use bustles
and crinoline and the dresses were no longer tight fitted. Corsets were longer giving the
women a slight S-curve silhouette.

 Men’s Fashion
Unlike the women’s clothings, men’s fashion did not undergo any radical change. Men wore
Stove-pipe pants during the initial years of the century. The men’s costumes were to be
formal, sober and elegant during the work hours and otherwise. The basic feature of the
Victorian men’s clothing was clean and basic lines, use of dark colour and a detailed work of
the costume.

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Men also wore corsets and with time, tightening of waist was replaced by easy breathing
loose jackets. Around 1840 the general trend followed by men as far as clothes were
concerned was to wear frock coats which fitted tightly and were up to the calf length. Along
with the coat, men also wore waist-coats or vests. By the end of 1880s, men had started
wearing the newly introduced blazers for outdoor activities like sports, sailing, etc. The shoes
of the Victorian men had high heels and were narrower at the toes.

Lifestyle
 Etiquette and Manners
The Victorian era is renowned for its rigid social codes and buttoned-up etiquette rules.
Propriety was of utmost importance and Victorian etiquette went much deeper than knowing
the correct handshake or which fork to use. Manners dictated every facet of life, from social
interactions and romantic relations to dress codes and how much champagne one should
drink.

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  Ball
A ball was a highlight of social life for young people during the Victorian Age. Compared to
a country dance, a ball was more formal and had a larger attendance and an orchestra.
Ladies generally had dance cards on which to write the names of their partners. A
promise to dance, once made, was sacred and should not, on any account be broken. Also, a
lady was never to dance more than three times with one gentleman. During the dance, a lady
always carried herself, always had to be perfectly and seamlessly elegant, never so much as
letting anyone see her adjusting her hair or outfit.
Strangers, of course, couldn't dance without an introduction, so a gentleman who took
interest in a lady had to ask a mutual acquaintance for one. But this introduction counted only
in the ballroom — if he saw her again, he could not presume an acquaintance unless she took
the initiative.

While a lady couldn't walk around a ballroom without a gentleman or escort at her side, the
practice of promenading a lady around the room after a dance fell out of fashion in the middle
of the Victorian Era. Instead, a gentleman escorted the lady to her seat, bowed and retired.
The choice of a dance partner on the last dance before the meal was especially important, as
the gentleman would escort his dance partner to dinner.
 Visiting Etiquette
Every day, if a lady happened to be home, she was expected to be properly dressed and ready
for visitors between 3 and 5 p.m. In fact, the time visitors arrived depended on how intimate
an acquaintance they were: the closer you were, the later you could visit. According to
etiquette, gentlemen would bring their hat and riding whip with them to indicate that they
didn't intend to stay long. The gentleman would keep his hat in his hand, unless it was
necessary to put it down on a piece of furniture — but never something as vulgar as on the
floor or under his chair.

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Shaking hands is an inappropriate term implicating a vigorous move. Instead, one must apply
only gentle pressure and slight movement from the wrist. And of course, a gentleman never
initiated taking a lady's hand.

Literature
Charles Dickens is the most famous Victorian novelist. With a focus on strong
characterization, Dickens became extraordinarily popular in his day and remains one of the
most popular and read authors of the world. His first novel, ”The Pickwick Papers” (1836–
1837) written when he was twenty-five, was an overnight success, and all his subsequent
works sold extremely well. The comedy of his first novel has a satirical edge and this
pervades his writing.
William Thackeray was Dickens' great rival in the first half of Queen Victoria's reign.
With a similar style but a slightly more detached, acerbic and satirical view of his characters,
he also tended to present a more middle class society than Dickens did. He is best known for
his novel ”Vanity Fair” (1848), subtitled ”A Novel without a Hero”, which is an example of a
form popular in Victorian literature: a historical novel in which recent history is mirrored.
Anne, Charlotte and Emily Brontë produced notable works of the period, although
these were not immediately appreciated by Victorian critics. ”Wuthering Heights” (1847),
Emily's only work, is an example of Gothic Romanticism from a woman's point of view,
which examines class, myth, and gender. ”Jane Eyre” (1847), by her sister Charlotte, is
another major nineteenth century novel that has gothic themes. Anne's second novel ”The
Tenant of Wildfell Hall” (1848), written in realistic rather than romantic style, is mainly
considered to be the first sustained feminist novel.

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 Later in this period George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans), published ”The Mill on the Floss”
in 1860, and in 1872 her most famous work ”Middlemarch”. Like the Brontës she published
under a masculine pseudonym.
The reclaiming of the past was a major part of Victorian literature with an interest in
both classical literature but also the medieval literature of England. The Victorians loved the
heroic, chivalrous stories of knights of old and they hoped to regain some of that noble,
courtly behaviour and impress it upon the people both at home and in the wider empire. The
best example of this is Alfred ”Tennyson's Idylls of the King”, which blended the stories of
King Arthur, particularly those by Sir Thomas Malory.

King Arthur The Round Table

Messed Things That Actually Happened

 Death photography
Death bodies were often kept at home for the mourning period, and photographs were staged
with not just the deceased, but their parents or siblings, sometimes posing as if everyone were

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still alive. Some photos even show faces with open eyes that were painted right on the photo.
They're eerie, creepy, and incredibly heartbreaking, especially when you consider these
photos capture the one and only chance that many grieving families had to get a photo of
their loved ones.

 Hell on Earth for Children

Children often worked long hours in dangerous jobs and in difficult situations for very little
wages. For example, there were the climbing boys employed by the chimney sweeps, the
little children who could scramble under the moving machinery to retrieve the cotton fluff,
boys and girls working down the coal mines, crawling through tunnels too narrow and low to
take an adult.

 Standards of beauty
White skin was all the rage, and women achieved that by washing their faces with ammonia,
then covering them with lead-based paint. More to that, the column suggested rubbing some
opium on before bed. For those who were really committed, Sears & Roebuck sold a product

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called Dr. Campbell's Safe Arsenic Complexion Wafers. Yes, it was arsenic, and yes, women
were instructed to eat them. If you were unlucky enough to have thin eyebrows and
eyelashes, a nightly smear of mercury could help with that. And speaking of eyes, watery
eyes were all the rage, too...for some reason. To achieve that look, women could use lemon
juice, perfume, or belladonna as eyedrops. The latter did, of course, cause blindness, but
people have been suffering for beauty for ages.

 London Fog
Due to a lack of regulations on industrial pollution, smoke from the factories, coal pollution,
and moisture from the Thames river combined to create a thick, toxic smog which spread
over the city. Anyone and anything would spend any time out and about in London would
inevitably be covered with the sooty by-product of the city’s fog. Buildings were often
stained, and black became the color of choice for clothing. By 1860, the Thames River was
full of the raw fecal matter and sewage that was dumped into the water on a daily basis.

Since the river was also the main source of drinking water for the city, people died by the
thousands from dysentery, cholera, and typhoid. Once again, for people in the Victorian era,
this was a great excuse to drink beer.

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  Dining in the Dark
Victorians believed that digestion could be aided by sitting in the dark, and so, dining rooms
were built in the basement, close to the kitchen. In later years, the room was moved to the
first floor, but it is believed that servants still took their meals in the basement.

Bibliography
https://people.howstuffworks.com
https://sites.udel.edu/britlitwiki
https://www.britannica.com
https://en.wikipedia.org
http://victorian-era.org
https://bellatory.com
https://www.easternct.edu
Cassell's household guide

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