Scarica L'Età Vittoriana e più Appunti in PDF di Inglese solo su Docsity! THE VICTORIAN AGE The Victorian age is the period of the reign of queen Victoria. This is also the age of dualism because is an age dominated by immense SOCIAL CONTRASTS where there are two different aspects in the same era: - age of peace, prosperity, optimism and progress in science, industry and technology. - age of poverty because 2/3 of population were workers that lived in poor condition, in overcrowded cities where there was no running water, a lot of raw materials transported by the railways that brought also diseases (like cholera). During this time, England acquired more colonies (important because of raw materials). This fact brought industrial prosperity, but at the end of the Victorian time Germany and America stole Britain's position in the market, in fact by developing their own technical skills they made British products less competitive. This period is also characterised by a double standard that means: "what the others think of you is more important than you are". It's important for the PRUDERY and also for women's position in society, because the idea of a woman at that time was that of the perfect mother/wife, who could only join charities institutions. They knew that their husbands used to have access to prostitution but they could not talk about it openly because of prudery. Queen Victoria - 1837-1901
Victoria was born in 1819 and ascended to the throne at the age of 18 on the death of her uncle William IV. At first sue has the support of Prime Minister, Lord Melbourne. In 1840 she married her cousin, Albert of Saxe-Coburg- Gotha and she gave him the title of Prince Consort. Victoria was devoted to her husband and they had nine children. Albert was behind the queen's policy and both of them introduced a lot of bills and acts to avoid social contrasts to maintain their stability. ACT AND BILL Victorian age is the time of bills and laws, everything is regulated by rules ✺Industrial and technological advance – 1829, 1840, 1863:
In 1803 was born first steam locomotive but in 1829 was opened the FIRST PERMANENT RAIL PASSENGER SERVICE. The great railway boom was both a consequence and a cause of industrial prosperity. In 1863 was opened the FIRST METROPOLITAN RAILWAY and in 1840 there was the introduction of PENNY POSTAL SYSTEM (postal systems in which normal letters could be sent for one penny letters were important, even literature used letters for express ideas). All these innovations brought an important CONTRIBUTION TO COMMUNICATIONS, because it allowed the TRANSPORT OF IDEAS. Reform bill – 1831: was wanted by common people but the richer aristocratic didn't want it because they didn't want middle class to have the political vote First Factory Act – 1833: is about children work in factories. It established that no child could work under the age of 9 and limited working hours for older children (no more than 8 hours a day for children from 9 to 13 and no more than 13,5 hours a day for children between 13 and 18). Abolition of slavery and – 1833: but not in the colonies Poor law amendment – 1834: parish are no longer responsible for giving food to the poor because they should go to the workhouses. Anti-corn law league and Darwin – 1839: he started being known and wrote the pamphlet "voyage of the beagle” Peel becomes prime minister – 1841 Poor law – 1842: it was renewed and all this led to the WELFARE STATE Factory act – 1844: including women and children Beginning of the Irish potato famine – 1845: Irish people were starving and that made the rebellious more angry Public libraries act – 1850 Peek of the Victorian age – 1851: because of the Great Exhibition at the crystal palace that gave more attention to London. Albert (Victoria's husband) designed the area around the palace and the parks surrounding it+cholera epidemic Indian mutiny – 1857: living stone wrote: "missionary travels" (we can also found it where Jane's cousin wanted to marry her and live as a missionary with her). CHARLES DARWIN (1809-1882) He was born in 1809 into a wealthy family in Shrewsbury, England, he went to Edinburgh University, where he intended to study medicine but he discovered that he didn't like medicine and became interested in natural history
