Professional Documents
Culture Documents
General Beliefs
By: Jacqui Landmesser, Annie Lawn, and Stephanie Joseph
Opposing Philosophical Classes
The Victorians and those who have studied them have
categorized several opposing trends, movements, and
loosely structured schools of Victorian thought.
Progressives
Also known as Liberals or Rationalists
Composed mainly of middle class, they feared government
intervention and stressed the importance of freedom of
action.
Tory Radicals
Also known as Christian Socialists or Marxists
This anti-aristocratic class emphasized the need for a
strong central government and welfare of the
interventionist state. They had an ambivalent attitude
toward middle class
Radical Progressive vs. Tory Radical vs.
Conservative (cont’d)
Conservatives
Also known as
Tories or
Reactionaries
Conservatives
supported
aristocracy,
medieval revival,
social hierarchy,
and an official state
religion
Hebrews
This mostly middle-class group was distinguished by its
prophetic modes, social protest, autobiographies,
emphasizing conversion, dense & grotesque images an
analogy, & contemporary attitude.
Hellenes
Hellenes emphasized on clarity, greater use of classical
myth, and a secular version of Tractarian notion of reserve
Bentham and Coleridge: Seminal Minds
After Queen Victoria came into power, Victorian writing
soon divided into two classes, established by the beliefs
of Jeremy Bentham and Samuel Taylor Coleridge. They
are said to be each other’s “completing counterpart.”
The strong convictions of the one are compatible with
the weak points of the other.
Bentham
This progressive
thinker was known as
a great asker of
socially and
politically alarming
questions.
He challenged people
to consider the
validity of popular
notions accepted by
society.