Scarica Età vittoriana letteratura inglese e più Appunti in PDF di Inglese solo su Docsity! Queen Victoria came to the throne in 1837, when she was only 18 years old. She was to rule for almost 64 years and gave her name at an age characterized by economic and scientific progress and social reforms. She was the ideal leader of a constitutional monarchy, so she remained apart from politics but she still managed to provide stability. She married Prince Albert, with whom she had nine children and their family life became a model of respectability. He helped the queen to rule so she gave him the title of prince consort, in recognition of his importance for the country. The Victorian period was also called an "age of reform". • The first reform act, also called the Great reform act, was passed in 1832 and it was very important because with this act the voting privileges were transferred from the small boroughs, controlled by nobility and gentry, to the large industrial towns ( that means power for people). • The factory act was passed in 1833, had prevented children between the ages of 9 and 13 from being employed for more than 48 hours a week, and no person between the ages of 13 and 18 could work more than 72 hours a week. • The Poor law Amendment act, had reformed the old Poor Laws, with the creation of workhouses, institutions where the poor went in order to receive lodging and board in exchange for work. ↪↪️️THE COST OF LIVING WAS KEPT ARTFICIALLY high by the corn laws which mainteneid the price of corn in Britain at an unrealistically high level by taxing imported corn. As a result there was a big starvation among both textile and agricultural workers, so these laws turned out to be to the detriment of the poor Workhouses and religion The poor led a hard and ugly life, because they had to follow very strict rules, they were subjected to hard work and also had a monotonous diet because they were forced to always eat the same things. they also had to wear uniforms in workhouses and their families were divided. So the poor lived in terrible and difficult conditions even if they were given room and board. -This hard line, that is, this severe way of handling things, was due in part to the fact that there was an optimistic faith in progress and the Puritan virtues of hard work, duty and frugality. it was believed that the awareness of this terrible life would spur the poor to try to improve their conditions. the workhouses were mainly run by the church. Chartism In 1838 a group of working-class radicals drew up a People's Charter demanding equal electoral districts, universal male suffrage, a secret ballot, paid MPs, annually elected Parliaments and abolition of the property qualifications for membership. But no one in power was ready for such democracy and this movement failed. However, their influence was later felt when, in 1867, the Second Reform Act enfranchised part of the urban male working class in England and Wales for the first time and, in 1872, the secret ballot was introduced with the Ballot Act. The irish potato Famine
