children, women and classes in Victorian Times

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• Middelbare school
• vwo
• Leerjaar 6

Victorian Times 

Victorian Era

Position of women in Victorian Times

*Poor women had to work

*Bad living conditions

* no rights to vote, husband was the boss

Difference between the classes:

*Rich women were supposed to be "the Angel of the House"

*Well-furnished houses & enough food, servants

* no rights to vote, husband decided on everything

What about children?

What was the position of children during the Victorian Era?

In the different classes?

Girls/boys

Health-wise?

rich children

raised by a nanny & spoiled 

hardly any contact with their parents

not allowed to eat at the same table

educated

needed to marry a person from the same class

 Victorian Times

19th century society

Optimism, for the middle & upper classes

Pessimism for the lower classes & poor people

Industrial + economic growth Economic recession: surplus of labour

- Bad living conditions lower classes/poor

- Reform bills to improve situation labourers (child labour)

Max. 48 hours if 9 years old

Chimney sweepers

 Emancipation: women's rights

Sufragettes: women's & votes

1918 :allowed to vote if 30 years old

1928: 21 years old

Right to vote for women & lower classes

World Power: the British Empire

Queen of Britain

Empress of India

Imperialism: GB doubled its size

The Sun never sets on the British Empire!

Anglican Church, very religious + high morals Religious doubts, Darwin "Origin of Species", no longer only Adam and Eve story, but evolutionary ideas

Lower classes 

- Bad living conditions lower classes/poor 

- Reform bills to improve situation labourers (child labour)

Max. 48 hours if 9 years old

Bit of education...

Bad health circumstances

Sufragettes: women's & votes

1918 :allowed to vote if 30 years old

1928: 21 years old

Right to vote for women & lower classes

Women's rights

Emancipation: women's rights

in GB called Sufragettes: rights & votes for women 

1918 :allowed to vote if 30 years old

1928: vote at 21 years old

Rights to vote for women & lower classes

Types of jobs for poor women

servants

nanny's

governesses

prostitutes

Female writers in the 19th century 

The Brontë sisters:

Charlotte, Emily and Anne

A quick guide to the Brontë sisters 

What type of girls were these Brontë sisters:

little contact/shy

Emily sharp characters

Did not opt for marriage, governesses

wrote under a pseudonym
s

Charles Dickens' ideas

criminals are made not born

closely concerned with every day life (poverty etc.)

father had debts, was send to prison

rest of the family to the workhouse

Charles had to work in factory as a 12 -year-old

Special for Dickens' novels (I)

serialised stories in journals (= installments)

cliffhangers

literature available for a wider audience 

(cheap + information for people from middle/higher classes )

ironical/satirical

absurd characters and absurd names

Special for Dickens's novels (II)

flat and vivid characters

most of the novels took place in the busy city

workhouse, childlabour

mostly male characters

Oliver Twist

* Poor boy born in the Workhouse

* Sold for 5 pounds to a coffin maker

* Runs away to London

* Where he is "found" by an older boy

*  Brought to Mr Fagin, the leader of a boys' pickpocketing gang

* Lots of (sometimes criminal) activities happen

* Finally there is a happy end...

Charles Dickens 

* Read exerpt of Oliver Twist in your reader

* Find a summary on "Oliver Twist" and read it

* Read the PP about Dickens in your reader

* Finish the questions on Charles Dickens in your reader