L'età vittoriana: progresso e povertà, Appunti di Inglese

Scarica L'età vittoriana: progresso e povertà e più Appunti in PDF di Inglese solo su Docsity! Victorian age The Victorian age took its name from Queen Victoria. The Victorian era was the age of progress, stability and great social reforms but in the same time was characterized by poverty, injustice and social unrest. Queen Victoria expanded her domains from England to Africa to Egypt and India where she was called "Queen of the Indies". In this period, the industry was born and people from the countryside moved to cities. THE AGE OF EXPANSION AND REFORMS Queen Victoria’s reign (1837-1901) was the longest in the history of England. The Victorian age began with the First Reform Act (1832), a great social achievement (una grande conquista sociale). It was a period of significant political, social and technological progress and expansion both economic and territorial. The merits of this positive period belonged (veniva) to the Queen, who, in marked contrast with the other European monarchs, reigned constitutionally (regnò in maniera costituzionale). She was a mediator between the two party (Liberals and Conservatives) and never overruled (annullò) Parliament. The Government had to face two major problems such: -A strong campaign for liberal trade (commercio libero) that led to the abolition (che condusse all’abrogazione) of the Corn Laws (tassa sull’importazione del grano); -The Chartist: a working-class movement who called for social reforms and the extension of the right to vote. In the political field, there were important reforms during this period. The first Reform Bill in 1832, though extending this right to vote  to more people, completely excluded the working classes.  This situation gave rise to the Chartist Movement: for example they wanted to obtain the right to vote for all male people, the payment of the parliamentarian, the secret vote, the division of the country into districts equal in population. This movement didn’t have long life for various reasons but its ideas continued to spread and, through a Series of Reform Bills in 1867 (second reform act) and in 1884 (third reform act) the right to vote was gradually extended to the members of the working classes living in the cities and in the country. It was only in 1918 that they obtained the Universal Suffrage : all men from the age of 21, women from the age of 30. In 1928 women could vote from the age of 21. in 1833 the Factory act established rules and limitations in the exploitation of workers of the factories, while  in 1847  the Ten Hours act established that  children couldn’t work more than 48 hours a week. In 1862 the mines act banned women and children under 10 of age from working in the mines. In the years from 1815 to 1846 some “corn laws” had been passed. They had contributed to maintain an high price of corn in order to protect the local production. In 1871, after the third reform act, also the trade unions were legalized and with them the first socialist ideas appeared in the country. Gradually a small part of the liberal party gave rise to a new political party called Labour party,1906. Poverty In the 19th century rapid changes in employment, housing and social welfare brought about a huge change in people’s lives. The period of adjustment led to many workers living in extreme poverty and even dying on city streets of starvation in Victorian times. The population of Great Britain actually trebled during the 19th century. People were living longer, having larger families, infant mortality was down and immigrants escaping from the potato famine in Ireland all added up to a huge population explosion in Victorian times. Most employment was to be found in the newly industrialized cities, so many people abandoned their rural roots and converged on the urbanized areas to seek work. Cholera These movements in the city by many people led to development of disease such as the cholera virus. A study on this virus was done by doctor Snow, he stated that cholera was not contagious from person to-person, but it was spread only through unsanitary water or food supply sources. Poor Victorians would put children to work at an early age, or even turn them out into the streets to fend for themselves. Hideously overcrowded, unsanitary slums developed, particularly in London. As well as disease, these miserable Victorian poor suffered starvation and destitution. In many cases, their only choice was to turn to crime, another major problem in the cities. Poverty was a real problem in these years and in 1834 the Poor law amendment  act was passed. Victorian society considered poverty as a sin , a moral problem  that had to be limited using also repressive measures. The workhouses, created in the Elizabethan age, were now  reformed. The aim of the reform was to discourage  poor people from living there for long periods, so the workhouses were transformed in terrible places where families were separated and  children in particular were starved and exploited. The Victorian compromise The Victorian period was a time of contradiction, often referred to as the Victorian Compromise: on the one hand there was the progress brought about by the Industrial Revolution, the rising wealth of the upper and middle classes and the expanding power of Britain and its empire; on the other hand there was the poverty, disease, deprivation and injustice faced by the working classes. The change brought about by the Industrial Revolution was rapid: towns and cities grew at an incredible. Pace as new factories and industries were started and thousands of people moved to the cities for work. The inventions, developments and new industries showed how advanced the country was and how it was a world power. The upper classes continued to prosper and the middle classes had the possibility to improve themselves and their fortunes. Under Queen Victoria’s reign (1837-1901) the values of the Church, family and home were fundamental. The family unit was based around the authoritarian father, with the mother in a submissive role. Morality and respectability were key, and society became almost puritanical. Monuments and buildings were constructed to celebrate civic identity and pride. Philanthropy and charity were important, so libraries, wash houses and swimming baths were also built to allow members of the working classes to improve themselves. However, in reality, EMPIRICISM Utilitarian indifference to human and cultural values was attacked by many intellectuals including Charles Dickens and John Stuart Mill, a major figure of empiricism. He thought: -Legislation could help men develop their natural talents and personalities; -Progress came from mental energy and therefore (perciò) he accorded great importance to education and art. -He promoted a series of reforms: popular education, trade union organization, emancipation of women, the development of cooperatives, etc. Darwinism The scientific discovery began to disturb the belief in a universe stable (la credenza di un universo stabile). There was a new view of the universe, perceived as being incessantly changing (in cambiamento continuo). Charles Darwin in his famous work “On the origin of species” argued that man is the result of a process of evolution and that in the fight for life only the strongest species survived. Darwin’s theory discarded (scardina) the version of creation given by the Bible. The corona virus has affected the most fragile and the most vulnerable people already weakened bu other disease, but, above all, our elderly. The virus seems to have cynically applied the darwinian norm of the natural selection of the species. The great exhibition The great exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations was the first international exhibition of manufactured goods, and it had an incalculable effect on the course of art and design throughout the Victorian Age. It held (tenutasi) in Crystal Palace in London, celebrated British advances (progressi) in science, technology and the Empire. The main supporter was prince Albert. The profit from the exhibition was used to purchase land in Kensington, where several museums were built, including the forerunner of the Victoria and Albert Museum, which carries on the spirit of the exhibition in its displays devoted to art and design. In fact, the road where several of these museums were built was called Exhibition Road. As for the Crystal Palace itself, it was dismantled at the end of the exhibition and reassembled in Sydenham, South London. There it stayed as a tourist attraction until it burned down in 1936. In the meantime (nel frattempo) workers had begun to come together (hanno iniziato ad unirsi) in Trade Unions (in Sindacati). After strong opposition from the Government, the Trade Unions are legalized in 1882 and in 1906 the Labour Party (Partito Laburista) was born. The figure of the women Victorian Britain is associated with an idealized, prudish and unrealistic view of women. This was the age in which even piano legs were covered, when doctors warned that sexual intercourse more than twice a week could lead to cancer and early death. In this period, the figure of the women was considered both an angel and a pioneer. Angel because, in school, women were educated to take care of the family and to be good mothers. A pioneer because women became excellent writers as in the case of the Bronte sisters. Furthermore, thanks to the intervention of women, the suffragette movement was born, which lead to the request and realization of the right to vote for women. Many Victorians believed that the differences between men and women were  determined by nature. “If they were born animals as men are, instead of  angels as women are” then we could forgive immorality in a woman as easily as in a man, argued one late Victorian journalist. The novelist Thackeray wrote that “women are pure, but not men”. Women were thought to be more innocent and generous than men: naturally more disposed to sacrifice. William Gladstone, Prime Minister four times in the late 19th century, believed that giving women the vote would endanger “their delicacy, their purity, their refinement, the elevation of their whole nature”. Often, young girls were not allowed even to read the newspapers, for fear of the evil effects of contact with the real world. In a previous age, women had simply seemed inferior to men; now they were said to be equal but different: less active and less intelligent, it is true, but also superior in morality, in taste, and in strength of feeling. The Victorians derived from these beliefs a double standard, this was most evident in married life. A woman's property passed automatically into her husband's hands. If a woman tried to escape from a violent husband, he could kidnap and imprison her with the support of the law. If she succeeded in leaving home, her children remained in the custody of her husband. Before the Matrimonial Causes Act of 1857, divorce was practically impossible. This act, however, was not impartial: a husband could divorce his wife if she committed adultery, but the woman who wanted a divorce had to prove her husband guilty not only of adultery, but also of incest, bigamy, bestiality, cruelty or desertion. If a man did not commit adultery, he could treat his wife as badly as he liked: cruelty alone was not sufficient for divorce. For many women, the only chance of survival was prostitution. The category of “fallen women”, adulteresses (adultere) or unmarried mothers (ragazze madri) or prostitutes, was condemned and marginated. Sexuality was generally repressed and prudery in its most extreme manifestations (nella sua estrema manifestazione) led (ha portato) to the denunciation of nudity in art and the rejection (rifiuto) of words with sexual connotation from everyday vocabulary (vocabolario quotidiano). The end of the century saw a reaction against these ideas. This is the period of the 'new woman', the campaign for women's rights, for votes and education for women, for rational dress and equal standards in sexual matters. Idealistic or emancipated experiments by believers in free love became common. Much of the literature of the 80s and 90s focuses on the 'woman problem' and the marriage laws, though almost all of these novels end with the death of the free-loving heroine, as if the writers recognized that free love needed an apolog