The Victorian Age: A Time of Dramatic Adjustments and Reforms, Schemi e mappe concettuali di Inglese

Scarica The Victorian Age: A Time of Dramatic Adjustments and Reforms e più Schemi e mappe concettuali in PDF di Inglese solo su Docsity! VICTORIAN AGE EARLY VICTORIAN AGE → 1837-1851 ● The Victorian Era covered most of the 19th century in Britain and that was considered a time of DRAMATIC ADJUSTMENTS (industrial revolution, the growth of wide and powerful empires in medicine transport, education and commerce) ● The consumer revolution was also driven by a SOCIAL EMULATION ● Huge growth in population (with an increasing demand by the middle class for material goods such as clothes, toys, fine cutlery and silverware, pottery and glass), a lot of people left the countryside to work in the cities (the working conditions were inadequate, families were divided in workhouses and had to share a communal bathrooms, child and female labour were very common) ● Canal, rivers, roads, and sea transport were all greatly improved ● Ideals of gender and ethnicities had altered the lives of women, children and men ● Industrialization had affected consumption and commerce as much as industry, leisure and work → It involved shifts in MOTIVATIONS, ASPIRATIONS, IDEOLOGIES AND AESTHETICS ● An age of REVOLUTIONS → INDUSTRIAL AND FRENCH REVOLUTION (deep influence on great britain ● Between industrial and French revolution workers protested against the unbearable conditions (RADICALS, LUDDITE RIOTS, SWING RIOTS) and, since the government was scared that the French Revolution ideals would spread, some REPRESSIVE MEASURES were adopted until 1820s (in 1819 → Peterloo Massacre) ● Then they soon realize that, in order to avoid other riots and protests, they had to grant more social recognition and better working condition in the industrialized centers → beginning of the VICTORIAN AGE ● Named after the reign of QUEEN VICTORIA (1837-1901) → an age of RESPECTABILITY, POLITICAL REFORMS and FAITH ON PROGRESS ● An age of REFORMS → more political and social recognitions was granted to the middle class with numerous reforms: 1. 1832 → the FIRST REFORM ACT = in which voting privileges were extended to middle classes in large industrial towns (working classes were still excluded) 2. 1833 → the FACTORY ACT = which prevented children from working more than 48 hours a week 3. 1834 → the POOR LAW AMENDMENT ACT = workhouses became a deterrent against poverty ● An age of FAITH IN PROGRESS → the reforms produced a feeling of faith in institutions and faith in progress, celebrated by the GREAT EXHIBITION in 1851 in which a wide range of british products were displayed for foreign and domestic visitors in the monumental visionary architectural achievement of the Crystal Palace in Hyde Park (period of optimism for middle classes while working classes were still living in overcrowded and unhealthy slums) ● An age of RESPECTABILITY → MID CLASSES: they wanted to help the working classes but also distinguish themselves from them = they developed STRICT CODES OF BEHAVIOUR, RIGID STANDARDS OF ETHICS and STRICT MORAL CODES (men → sense of beauty, hardwork and self control vs. women → they to be perfect mothers and look after their children) ● In order to be respectable middle classes had to be CHARITABLE and PHILANTHROPIC (this idea though was just a pose since they only wanted to keep up their appearance, avoid to see poverty and pretend that certain problems of the society, such as prostitution and alcoholism, didn’t exist) ● INDUSTRIALIZATION & UTILITARIANISM → Industrialization brought about ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT (but had also social costs) / The philosophy underlying industrialization and faith in progress was Betham’s UTILITARIANISM, which promoted a materialistic view of life (everything that is useful is also good and right for human beings, so material welfare brings happiness since it is considered useful) THE VICTORIAN NOVEL ● For the first time there was a COMMUNICATION OF INTEREST between readers and writers (since both readers and writers were from the middle class) ● A great deal of Victorian literature was first published in a SERIAL FORM → Essays, verse and even novels made their first appearance in INSTALMENTS in the pages of periodicals (a particular aspect that increased their selling and the popularity of the publishing field) ● NOVEL was more popular than poetry ● THEMES → description of the society after the industrial revolutions , the struggle for democracy and the growth of towns and cities (they described the society as they saw it) ● THE NARRATIVE TECHNIQUE → omniscient narrator (which provides a comment on the plot and a rigid barrier between right and wrong) ● SETTING IN PLACE → cities (symbol of the industrial revolution) CHARLES DICKENS (1812-1870) ● Sad childhood → his father was imprisoned for debts and he was forced to work in a factory at age of 12 ● He was also on the side of the POOR, THE OUTCAST and the WORKING / CLASSES (characters from the lower classes from the point of view of the upper classes) / Believer of universal, non-sectarian education that must be extended to all citizens ● CHILDREN were often the most important characters in his novels → like wise children opposed to worthless adults (ex. Oliver Twist) ● He usually exaggerates the habits as well as the language of his characters to creates caricature, a perfect way to show the vanities and peculiarities of the social classes → SATIRE ● DIDACTIC AIM → he wanted to educate the upper classes about the social problems and horrible conditions the lower classes were forced to live in ● He used an effective language and accomplished the most graphic and powerful description of life and character ever attempted by a novelist ● Critical of his age → he believes in progress and and social improvement, he exposed what he considered abuses and deficiencies, and praised what he believed