Scarica L'Età Vittoriana: colonialismo, sviluppo scientifico e sociale e più Dispense in PDF di Inglese solo su Docsity! VICTORIAN AGE The Victorian age is a period of great development of medical, scientific and technological knowledge. The UK saw a sudden growth of population and urban development. ✦ great colonial expansion in this period: New colonies like India, the Caribbean Islands and many more were claimed by the English empire. England became one of the powerhouses of Europe, alongside with their rival, Germany (and USA in the New World). → Colonialism also brought to Europe lots of new goods that quickly became popular throughout the countries. ✦ The world saw the sudden spread of the English language, and the development of local variations and new words (such as "mocassin" that comes from the tribes of North America). Since the empire's countries were very far from one to another, English was enriched with lots of new accents: the Australian one for example. England saw a quick burst of popularity of the novel, which became the most popular literary genre, expecially among the middle class (Bronte sisters, for example). - The production of novels increased, expecially in 1847, when Charlotte Bronte published "Jane Eyre", one of the first feminist novels. Chapters were published weekly, and sold alongside the daily newspapers. The education of children became a very sensitive topic, and around that time, stories for children started to spread, for boys and girls. → As far as the social issues are concerned lots of those problems were addressed. For example, a new poor law was published in 1834, that helped to deal with the negative consequences that the industrial revolution brought with it. QUEEN VICTORIA Victoria becomes queen in 1837 at the age of 18 → helped by the prime minister → she got married with Albert (1840), who came from Germany → they had 9 children (promote a big family) ✽ she was the first queen with a husband, as a matter of fact Elizabeth wasn’t married (virgin queen). ↓ - they restore the reputation of the monarchy, Victoria gave Albert the title of prince consort, so the husband lived in the shadow, because the queen was Victoria - in 1861 he died at the age of 43; in his memory Victoria had the Albert Memorial built in London social discontent and economic boom: ➔ Britain was becoming the workshop of the world → colonial power brought wealth to the middle and upper middle class ➔ a large lower middle class emerged ➔ urban population exceeded the rural for the first time which led to urban poverty and social injustice ➔ working class conditions were miserable, the discontent was strong ➔ middle class discontent was strong as well as a consequence of the corn law which kept the price of bread artificially high [double: wealth/poverty, progress/injustice, inside UK/ outside UK, appearance/reality] In this contest there is a double face of the period, what seems from outside, a great and powerful country, and in the other hand the poorer people represented the majority, who lived in very bad conditions. WORKHOUSES were place where employment was provided for: - poor - orphans - physically and mentally sick - disabled - elderly - unmarried mothers
