children, women and classes in Victorian Times

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• Middelbare school
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• Leerjaar 6

The Victorian Age 

1830-1900

Victorian Times 

Who is this person?

Young Victoria

Elderly Victoria

Queen Victoria (1819-1901)  Reign: 1837-1901

She had the longest reign in British history after Queen Elizabeth II.

Became queen at the age of 18;

Queen Victoria restored people’s faith in the monarchy again after a series of horrible leaders

1840-Victoria married a German prince, Albert, who became Prince-consort

After he died in 1861, she sank into a deep depression and wore black every day for the rest of her life

General introduction

• Enormous changes occured in political and social life in England
• The scientific and technical innovations of the Industrial Revolution, the emergence of modern nationalism, and the European colonization of much of Africa, the Middle East, and the Far East changed most of Europe
• Far-reaching new ideas created the greatest outpouring of literary works the world has ever seen

The Victorian Age 

• Started around 1830 ended in early 20th century
• Named after Queen Victoria (1837 - 1901)
• Britain: great economic and political power
• "The workshop of the world"
• "The empire on which the sun never set"

The British Empire

where the sun never sets

• England grew to become the greatest nation on earth
  
• Empire included Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Singapore, South Africa, Kenya, and India
  
• England built a very large navy and merchant fleet (for trade and colonization)
  
• Because of England’s success, they felt it was their duty to bring English values, laws, customs, and religion to the “savage” races around the world

Downsides of the uprise of industry

• population increase 
• Search for employment
  
• Child Labour & Child crime
• Housing shortage
  
• Slum housing
  
• Poor sanitary conditions
  
• Destitution
  
• Homeless children
  
• Workhouses
  

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

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

What was Great Britain named in the 19th century

1. The Empire where the sun never sets
2. Old America
3. The Indian Empire
4. The Commonwealth Empire

Charles Dickens' ideas

criminals are made not born

he was closely concerned with every day life (poverty etc.)

his father had debts, was send to debters prison

the rest of the family to the workhouse

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

The Workhouse

Orphans, the elderly, sick, disabled or unemployed in Victorian London, then you may have found yourself in the workhouse. Until the Poor Law Amendment Act 1834, the treatment of the poor had not changed since the 1601 Poor Law.

Types of jobs for poor women

servants

nanny's

governesses

prostitutes

Charles Dickens and realism

The realistic novel was born in the 19th century, and is characterized by  social content, such as the description of the struggle of the bourgeoisie against the aristocratic society, or the description of the world of the poor and unfortunate.

London was the setting of most of his novels; he knew and described it in realistic details.

At first, Dickens created middle class characters, though often satirised. He gradually developed a more radical social view, although he was not a revolutionary thinker.  

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 (subtle irony)

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

0

Is Dickens representative of the period ( Victorian era) he lived in?

    He is a clear representative of the Victorian period. His father spent too much money

    had large debts and was sent to prison for that. The rest of the family was sent to

    The WORKHOUSE. BAD LIVING CIRCUMSTANCES. Charles(12) had to work in a shoe

    blackening factory for three years CHILD LABOUR

. DICKENS EXPERIENCED THESE TERRIBLE CIRCUMSTANCES HIMSELF 

    He wrote for his own class (identification) and to make sure richer people

    also learned about bad circumstances of the poor classes.

Charles Dickens

Charles Dickens: Many of his novels were published in serial form, called instalments. His comic and sentimental descriptions of the lives of people in diverse occupations and social classes made Dickens the most popular Victorian novelist. 

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...

subtle irony

Subtle irony: not immediately obvious irony. Use of words to convey a meaning that is

      the opposite of the real meaning.

example:

...where on a rough, hard bed, he sobbed himself to sleep. Novel illustration of the tender laws of England. They let the paupers go to sleep.

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