The Victorian Age

Children’s literature in the Victorian Age

Mme Ryan-Sautour – MRGT 214
michelle.ryan-sautour@univ-angers.fr
 The Victorian Age
The Victorian Age: the period of
Queen Victoria's reign from 20
June 1837 until her death on 22
January 1901
Victorian Attributes and
Stereotypes
There was a change from the rationalist character of the Georgian
period and a greater emphasis on romanticism and mysticism

The Victorian age is generally associated with an extreme

conservatism as regards social interaction and sexuality

They were typically described as living boring lives and as being

very repressed in regards to sexuality, family values, humor etc.

They were generally intolerant of social deviants (criminals,

homosexuals etc), and it was a society in which the middle class
dominated

They were generally industrious, hard-working

The Rise of Britain
 In 1897 Mark Twain was visiting London during the
Diamond Jubilee celebrations honoring the sixtieth
anniversary of Queen Victoria's coming to the throne.
 “British history is two thousand years old,” he said “and yet
in a good many ways the world has moved farther ahead
since the Queen was born than it moved in all the rest of the
two thousand put together.”
 This was indeed a period of great expansion in British
history as England was brought to its highest point as world
power
London As a Center of Influence
 Because of the industrial revolution, London had grown rapidly
 Developments such as steam power, iron ships, printing presses,
farmers' combines, telegraph, intercontinental cable, photography,
anesthetics, and universal compulsory education pointed to the rapid
change in English society
 Because England was one of the first countries to become
industrialized, it could take advantage of its position to make a place
for itself in the world
Dynamic Change
 This rapid change had effects on Victorian Life. One historian
describes it as follows: “The period is one of strenuous
activity and dynamic change, of ferment of ideas and recurrent
social unrest, of great inventiveness and expansion.”
 Consider that such rapid change had a profound impact on the
people of the time. Although many Victorians were pleased
with the worldwide success of England, they also suffered
from a sense of loss, and felt a sense of displacement in a
world made strange by new technologies and structures
 Victorians are often described as experiencing a mix of
anxiety and satisfaction. The period is full of contradictions.
The Three Victorian Periods
 The Victorian age is generally divided into three periods:
 The Early Period: (1832-1848)
 The Middle Period: (1848-70)
 The Late Victorian Period: (1870-1901)
The Time of Troubles:

 This period was often called “The Time of

Troubles” because it corresponds to the passing of
a Reform Bill in 1832 which satisfied the demands
of the middle classes.
 Forexample, only men who owned property worth
more than ten pounds in annual rent could vote
 The voting population didn't include the working
classes until 1867
 While the bill proposed a profound change in
English political structure
 There were some economic problems, and the
working classes were suffering from a lack of
work regulations
 There was also opposition at this time to “Corn
Laws” that is legislation that taxed imported
grains. This made food too expensive for the
working classes.
 These laws were repealed in 1846. Free trade
helped the situation of the working classes
The Industrial Revolution
 The Industrial Revolution was the period in which
machines and factories were increasingly being
used for production.
 This involved a shift from an agrarian society to an
industrial society, and many people moved to the
cities for work.
 Class conflicts and the prosperity of the middle
class evident in early Victorian society came from
the time of the Industrial revolution. (a period that
spans 1750-1850)
 A brief reminder of the salient points of the Industrial
Revolution

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLhNP0qp38Q
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ut0rX2MngL8
Karl Marx and Frederich
Engels
 The industrial revolution, with its massive factories and
systems of mass production also gave rise to theories about
class.
 Friedrich Engels had observed the poverty and difficult
working conditions in textile factories in Manchester, and
he published Condition of the Working Classes in England
(1844) in which he criticizes capitalism
 Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels published The Communist
Manifesto in 1848, partially in reaction to industrialization
and its results
Religious Controversy in Mid-Victorian
times
A major concern in Mid-Victorian times was the
conflict between religion and science.
 Recent discoveries by geologists about the age of
the earth. Robert Lyell's Principles of Geology
along with the Robert Chambers book Vestiges of
Creation (1843-46) brought Victorians to
challenge their idea of the origins of the human
race.
Vestiges of Creation
●

 Vestiges of Creation dealt with the ideas of the

progressive transmutation of species. The book was
very accessible and proposed a synthesis of many
scientific ideas of the time. It was popular with
middle-class Victorian society, but it contradicted
many theological ideas at the time. Prince Albert
even read it aloud to Queen Victoria in 1845.
 It is said that Vestiges of Creation paved the way for
the reception of Darwin's theories (His Origin of
Species in 1859 introduced theories about evolution)
●
An Increase in Rationalist
Thought
 There was a general increase in rationalist
thought that challenged traditional
religious values.

 There was a general movement away from

religion to an emphasis on dream and
spiritualism.
Women in the Victorian Age
Women in the Victorian age did not have
the right to vote, (You could be queen
(Queen Victoria, who was an anti-feminist)
but you could not vote or hold property
*Women did not earn the right to vote
until 1918 in Great Britain (France = 1944)
Women could not pursue a person in law
and married women could not own or
inherit property until the Married Women’s
Property Acts were passed (1870-1908)
Women….
Victorian, middle-class women were supposed to be virtuous,
cultivated, modest and could only have sex with one man: their husband
The perfect woman was a good wife, mother and homemaker. We often
hear the expression the “Angel in the House” (from a poem by Coventry
Patmore in which he idealizes his wife--1854)
The man was the head of the household and made all decisions
Current social theories of the time contributed to this idea: For example,
Darwinism, and the “survival of the fittest” along with the idea that
biology determines our competencies, make women appear biologically
unfit to assume the same tasks as men.
The “Woman Question”
Women from middle-class families could seek respectable work as a
school teacher or governess
Otherwise there were few opportunities for a woman to earn her own
living
However there were more and more women participating in industry
because of the Industrial Revolution
Feminist notions began to be communicated in circles of middle-class
women
The women’s suffrage movement made progress during this time in
British history
Women’s fashion
The Subjection of Women –
John Stuart Mill (1869)
In 1869 John Stuart Mill published
The Subjection of Women, an essay
that challenged the current status of
women in society
He argued for reforms in the
privileges of men, suggesting the
same privileges be accorded to
women
Mill was convinced that humanity
would be more sophisticated and
advanced if every member of society
was given access to education (thus
including women)
He felt all people should be able to
vote and be autonomous in society,
both morally and intellectually
Mill’s position as member of
parliament helped him fight for
women’s suffrage
Mill said the contemporary views of women had no place
in modern British society, and saw women’s imprisonment in
the home as preventing humans from properly developing.

 "... [T]he legal subordination of one sex to another — is

wrong in itself, and now one of the chief hindrances to human
improvement; and that it ought to be replaced by a system of
perfect equality, admitting no power and privilege on the one
side, nor disability on the other."
Women’s Education
Women’s education was one of the subjects Mill also concentrated on.
There were no women’s colleges (university level education) until 1848
when the first women’s college in London was established
Women were limited to studying at special Academies that taught them
how to be cultivated wives and mothers
By the end of Victoria’s reign, women could take degrees at twelve
universities or university colleges and could study, although not earn a
degree, at Oxford and Cambridge
 Gender in 19th  But consider also the
century Britain roles of lower class
women in the
 (focus on middle
Victorian Era who
class women)
worked in
 https://www.youtube. factories….
com/watch?v=vkJJF
X8Qn90
Childhood in Victorian Times

 Another important change

in Victorian times was
W.E. Forster’s Education
Act of 1870. This law
allowed for the creation of
a compulsory educational
system open to all.
 It was a key element in
introducing working class
children to education
 Being a child in Victorian
times was a violent
experience for working
class children who were
submitted to various forms
of hardship and cruelty
 Many children
from the working
classes were
forced to work in
factories
 They would work in mills,
mines, and in agriculture.
They would work as
domestic servants, street
vendors, and chimney
sweeps, and would often
work in very dangerous
and unsanitary conditions
 We often see images
of such children in
writing by Charles
Dickens
 Child labor was very
profitable for
industrialists
 Laws were passed,
such as the Ten
Hours Act (1847)
that limited the
number of hours
worked by children
and women to 10
hours a day
 Compulsory school,
as mentioned before,
also helped take these
children out of the
working world
 In the late 1800s street
children were taken into
homes, religious
schools, voluntary
schools and charity
schools.
 Some children were
sent to other countries
to work.
 In 1884, the London
Society for the
Prevention of Cruelty to
Children was
established
 The Chidren Who Built Victorian Britain
 A video describing how children played a central
role in helping Britain develop its industrial
power
 Youtube
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87eVOpbco
Vo
Middle Class Children

 Of course, some children

came from middle-class
homes, and were not
subjected to the hardships of
lower class children.
“The invention of childhood”

 Statistically,just the number of children

was so high that it gave them an important
position in the Victorian Consciousness
 Some critics say that the Victorian age
“invented” the idea of childhood as we
understand it today.
“The idealization of childhood”
Others say that the Victorians mythologized, or even
sentimentalized, childhood
For some writers, childhood represented humanity in its
most natural and innocent state (consider the
Victorian attitude towards sexuality – children,
because they were seen as not being sexual beings,
were perceived as representing a “pure” state of
humanity)
Thomas Cole’s “The Arcadian or Pastoral State” (1834)
Children appeared as a
prelapsarian (unfallen)
ideal, and signified a
nostalgia for a more
natural and purer past
(consider Peter Pan)
Much Victorian literature
about or for children in
some way refers to
such representations
 Other critics say that
the notion of
childhood helped
Victorians imagine a
more ‘naturalistic’
view of Britain and
had romantic visions
of a preindustrial,
pastoral idyll.
 Thus there was much
literature for children
developed during this
time period, and there
were also many child
characters in novels
by Charles Dickens,
for example.
 Dickens was very
interested in working
class childhood.
 There was also a rise in the Bildungsroman
(education novel) in which the reader follows a
main character from his childhood to his
adulthood
 Dickens is know for his sentimental portrayal of
childhood in works such as Oliver Twist (1837)
and Pip in Great Expectations (1861)
 Critics say that the nostalgia Dickens
demonstrates about childhood actually represents
a critique of Victorian adulthood
Children and Colonialism

 Many critics have also

commented on the
parallel between the
concept of childhood and
the colonialist idea of the
“noble savage,” that is
indigenous people of
colonized territories who
are represented as being
a purer form of humanity
because of their lack of
industrialization
 Because of British
Imperialism, this
parallel has led to
recurrent images of
“savages” in
literature for
children. And
Rudyard Kipling’s
stories often
emphasize
imperialism
Family
 The notion of “family
values” is also often
attributed to the Victorian
times
 Even Queen Victoria
promoted a family ideal
with her marriage to
Albert in 1840
 Her royal family (9
children) was shown as
an English domestic idyll.
 The new means of
communication allowed
for images of Queen
Victoria and her family to
be widely visible
 The census of 1851 showed that Victorian Britain
had become a nation whose most popular and
ideal family pattern was of individual families
living in separate homes (although this was not
always the reality of poorer families)
 The ideal family unit became a middle-class
image with women playing a domestic role as
“angels in the house”
 The private realm of the family is very visible in
Victorian literature
 End of Part I