To evaluate my Assignment Click here.
As a result of early campaigns by people such as Michael Sadler and the Earl of Shaftesbury, and reports by parliamentary commissions, legislation protecting child and adult workers began to be enacted. Important reforms included legislation on child labor, safety in mines and factories, public health and education (by 1876 education was compulsory for all children up to the age of 10). There was also prison reform and the establishment of the police.
The Victorian age was essentially the age of prose and novel W.J.Long in his book history of English literature says Though the age produced many poets nevertheless this is emphatically an age of prose and novel.
The novels were looking like the bright stars in the sky of England during the Victorian era.
Name:-Nirali
dungrani
SEM:-02
Roll no:-24
Year:-2017-2019
Enrollment
no:-2069108420180012
Paper:-6(Victorian
literature)
Assignment
topic:- history
of the Victorian age
Email
id:-dungraninirali@gmail.com
Submitted:-S.B.Gardi
Department of English
Ø Victorian literature is literature
written in England during the reign of Queen Victoria, or roughly from 1837
-1901. It is largely characterized by the struggle of working people and the
triumph of right over wrong.
Ø Elizabeth Age has unique identity the same way Victorian age has. This
age is the age of doubts, disputes, realism and romance, materialism and
spiritualism, peace and unrest, religion and science.It is marked with material
advancement, mechanical progress, democratic deal, education, expansion,
pessimism, scientific advancement, patriotism etc. The age is also known as the
age of prose especially novel.
Ø The
period was marked by many important social and historical changes that altered
the nation in many ways. The population nearly doubled, the British Empire
expanded exponentially and technological and industrial progress helped Britain
become the most powerful country in the world.
Ø During
this period England changed from a rural, agricultural country to an urban, industrialized
one. This involved massive dislocation and radically altered the nature of
society. It took many years for both government and people to adjust to the new
conditions.
Key themes and developments:-
Over the period there were changes and developments in every
sphere of life. Key themes included the following.
The Industrial Revolution
This was made up of technological, scientific and industrial
innovations (e.g. mass production, steam engines, railways, sewing machines,
gas and electric light, the telegraph, cars) that led to an enormous expansion
of production, particularly through the factory system. There were huge social
costs: the dehumanisation of work, child labour, pollution, and the growth of
cities where poverty, filth and disease flourished. Child labour and poverty
were also a feature of rural life, where farm work involved long hours, very
low pay and exposure to all weathers.
Population growth and migration
Between 1801 and 1871 alone the population of the UK doubled.
Migration in both directions was a feature of Victorian life. Many Britons left
the UK for America or the colonies in search of a better life. The Irish poor
formed a large number of these migrants, especially after the Irish potato
famine: the Irish moved in large numbers to England and Scotland, as well as
abroad. Within the UK as a whole, people moved from the countryside into the
new industrial cities to find work. Migrants from across the world also settled
in Britain, notably Jews from Europe and Russia.
Social reforms
As a result of early campaigns by people such as Michael Sadler and the Earl of Shaftesbury, and reports by parliamentary commissions, legislation protecting child and adult workers began to be enacted. Important reforms included legislation on child labor, safety in mines and factories, public health and education (by 1876 education was compulsory for all children up to the age of 10). There was also prison reform and the establishment of the police.
The rise of the middle classes
Society was hierarchical, yet there was much social and
geographical mobility. Self-made entrepreneurs used their new wealth to rise in
society, building large houses, educating their children and employing domestic
servants (by the 1880s 1.25 million people were employed in domestic service -
more than in any other work category). (For more on the urban middle classes
and their servants see urban spaces)
The growth of democracy
The franchise was gradually extended to the working classes, until
by the end of the period there was universal suffrage for men. The fight for
votes for women was in full swing, but it was not until 1930 that women
achieved the same voting rights as men.
An age of
Prose and Novel:-
The Victorian age was essentially the age of prose and novel W.J.Long in his book history of English literature says Though the age produced many poets nevertheless this is emphatically an age of prose and novel.
The novels were looking like the bright stars in the sky of England during the Victorian era.
The great novelists
like :- Charles Dickens, Thomas Hardy, William Thackeray, George Eliot,
Charlotte Bronte, Emily Bronte and Anne Bronte filled the sky of the Victorian
era with their novels.
Why
was the Victorian era so important?
Ø For
the most part, nineteenth century families were large and patriarchal. They
encouraged hard work, respectability, social deference and religious
conformity. While this view of nineteenth century life was valid, it was
frequently challenged by contemporaries. Women were often portrayed as either
Madonnas or whores, yet increasing educational and employment opportunities
gave many a role outside the family.
Ø The
progress of scientific thought led to significant changes in medicine during
the nineteenth century, with increased specialisation and developments in
surgery and hospital building. There were notable medical breakthroughs in
anaesthetics - famously publicised by Queen Victoria taking chloroform for the
birth of her son in 1853 - and in antiseptics, pioneered by Joseph Lister
(1827-1912). The public's faith in institutions was evident not only in the
growth of hospitals but was also seen in the erection of specialised workhouses
and asylums for the most vulnerable members of society.
Important
Novelist and theirs Novels:-
Ø Charles Dickens:-
1) Oliver
Twist 2) The tale of two cities
Ø Robert louis Stevenson
1) Treasure
Isaland 2) Dr.Jekyll and Mr.Hyde
Ø Victor Hugo
1) Les Miserabel
Ø Thomas Hardy
1) Jude the
Obscure
Ø George Eliot
1) Middle March
Ø Alexander Dumas
1) The Three Musketeers
2) The Count of Monte Cristo
Victorian
Paintings
The Art and
Culture:-
Ø Victorian age is referred as an age of
realism, in art and literature. By the end of the century, despite of many
disturbing developments, the emergence of abstract art and arrival of
modernisation in the artistic scene is felt. Victorian art is well known for
its distinctive style.
Ø Victorian
era, J. M. W. Turner was the most significant living British artist. He had
gained popularity by exhibiting a series of well-regarded landscape
watercolours in late eighteenth century and exhibited his first oil painting in
1796. He remained loyal, faithful and dependable for the Royal Academy of arts
throughout his life and was elected full Royal Academician at the age of 27 in
1802. However, he resigned from the post of professor in 1837 and met John
Ruskin in 1840. By 1840 Turner was being turned out of fashion because the
young artists were preparing to enter the romantic period with a touch to
modern age.
Mejor events of Victorian age
Ø A huge growth in population.
Ø Improvements in Technology.
Ø Changing world view.
Ø Poor conditions for the working class.
Ø First modern Olympic games.
England during Victorian age:-
The Victorian Era was a period in Great Britain’s history where
the country as a whole moved ever more forward into the country we know today.
Named after the ruling Queen of that period, Alexandrian Victoria, and lasting
from 1837 (the year she was crowned Queen) to 1901 (the year she died), her
reign at 63 years and 7 months made her not only the longest living monarch by
far, but also the longest living queen in human history.
Her legacy and her name became synonymous to the many positive
events that took place at the time – artists, writers and poets flourished,
many social, religious and political movements started, border expansion and
political reforms. It was at that point that many people considered that era as
the “Second Rennaisance Age”.
Life during the Victorian Era was also met with positive change –
fertility rates soared while mortality rates decreased. Indeed, it was a time
where the population exploded into the 30-million mark. And for the first time
in Britain’s history, no major epidemic occurred, thanks to the improvement of
health and environmental standards, and the discoveries and advancements made
in nutrition and medicine also helped in increasing the average lifespan.
Victorian era culture also saw its share of events that would be
known all the way to modern times. From Charles Darwin’s publication of “On The
Origin of Species”, which paved the way for the creation of evolutionary
biology, to the publication of “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland”.
Conclusion:-
Queen Victoria marked Great Britain
history by her personnality and the way she reigned over the country. She was
loved by her people and when she died in 1901, British citizens sacred for the
future of the country, because she remained on the Head of the country for many
years. She had a long reign, precisely of 63 years and 7 months and she let to
her people the image of a strong woman.During her reign, Great Britain knew
glory and power.
Victorian period was the most fertile and creative period for English
novel. It spread the popularity of novel to every corner of the society. We can
classify that Victorian age gifted some leading poets as well as
representatives of novel who possess unique position in the History of English Literature.
It is commented that Dickens’s ‘Pickwick Papers’ was at a time on the second
highest position in selling after the Bible. On the whole the period looked
forwards rather than backwards. Therefore the Victorian period has its own
place in the world of Literature.
Victorian era is linked to the period
of prosperity for Great Britain.
