The Victorian Age: a complex and contradictory era

The Victorian Age was a complex and contradictory era: it was the age of progress, stability, great social reforms but it was also characterized by poverty, injustice and social unrest.

There are important topics that are around the Victorian Age :

1. Political and Social Reforms

2. Progress in Science and Technology

3. Faith in Progress but also Social Cost of Progress (

4. Utilitarian Philosophy

5. Victorian moralists/ Victorian Morality/ Victorian Hypocrisy

6. The Victorian Compromise

7. Victorian education

8. The Victorian Novel

The term Victorian comes from Queen Victoria whose reign lasted from 1837 to 1901. It was (after Queen Elizabeth II) the longest reign in the history of England( more than half a century). Queen Victoria became the symbol of the Nation! English people loved her for her strict code of behaviour, her moral and religious code, her sense of respectability, her strong character and personality. In 1840 she married Prince Albert. They had 9 children.

Political and Social Reforms

Important Reforms included legislation on child labour, safety in mines and factories, public health, the end of slavery in the British Empire, and Education (by 1880 Education was compulsory for all children up to the age of 10). There was also prison Reform and the establishment of the Police.

The first political Reform was: The Parliamentary Reform which extended the right to vote to the Middle Class and to the Working Class in towns. Later it was extended to the working class in the rural Districts.

The second Reform was: Factory and Mines Act that forbade children under 9 to work. It also forbade women and children to work underground. Furthermore, it reduced the working hours to 10 and gave meal breaks to everyone.

The Primary Education Act was about Compulsory Primary Education. It set the framework for schooling of all children between the ages of 5 and 13 in England and Wales. It was drafted by William Forster, a Liberal MP, and it was introduced on 17 February 1870 after campaigning by the National Education League. All these Reforms were the flagship of the country but how many sufferings before that.

The Whig Party became the Liberal Party. The Tory Party became the Conservative Party. There were 2 leading political figures, the Prime Ministers: William Gladstone( Liberal) and Benjamin Disraeli ( Conservative). They were rivals in politics but both passed the important Primary Education Act.

Industrial Revolution and Progress

In this period there was the PEAK of the Industrial Revolution. It meant: Full development in progress. It brought the Doctrine of free trade, it made London the world Centre of Industry, Finance, Shipping, Banking, Insurance. Daily life became easier for rich people because they could have better quality of food, of clothing, of furniture.

Victorians loved progress! They were really proud of the technological improvements and proud of their modern Nation! Prince Albert , Queen Victoria’s husband, was, really proud of his country as well, for that, in order to show the world the magic of his Nation, he wanted the construction of a huge, metal/glass/iron structure in Hyde Park. The structure was called

“Crystal Palace” and it was the place for the “ “Great Exhibition” in 1851. The official name of the show was The Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations. The stunning display of inventions, works of art, and objects collected in distant lands was something of a precursor of a World's Fair. Britain was leading the race into the future!

Social Issues and Victorian Compromise

The Industrial Revolution brought together with progress also a lot of social problems in the industrialized and coal-mine towns.

• Living conditions of workers and their families were terrible! They were forced to live in unhealthy, overcrowded houses called “Slum Dwellings”, “Slum Dwellers” were the poor people and “ Slums” the dirty filthy areas.

• Working Conditions were really horrible! Women and children were exploited . Factories were dirty and filthy. A lot of children died and the mortality rate was high!

There had always been exploitation of children and overcrowding, but this time something had changed about the public attention. This time, this phenomenon was so widespread that consciousness of it was unavoidable! But what did the Victorians think about it? They were really proud of their Nation’s progress , at the same they were ( for the first time)conscious of the EVIL of Industrialization. Poor people, squalor , disease , all around there was a strong sense of poverty and desperation but at the same time all around there was also a magic country master of Progress ,Science ,Engineering and Technology!!! This was the High social cost of Progress....for that....they thought that Evil brought by Industrialization was a necessary condition , people had to accept all this for the future of their country!! ..( VICTORIAN COMPROMISE).

Who cared if lots of children died? Who cared if the poor workers got drunk to escape a life that looked like a nightmare? Who cared if women were forced to work underground to survive ? In the name of the future of the country it was necessary to accept all this!! Rich Victorian people surely accepted all this easily ...but the poor ones???

The Victorian Compromise describes very well the DOUBLE CONCEPT of the Victorian Age .Why Double? It was an age of progress but also of great poverty. It was the age full of rich families and rich houses but also full of slums. It was the age of elegant men and women who looked from their beautiful houses at the working people. These workers got usually drunk to forget and escape their daily life that was a nightmare!

NEW KEY -WORDS: Depression, Sense of Frustration, Anguish, Anxiety, Alienation

Victorian Morality and Hypocrisy

Before talking about this topic, it is necessary to focus on some important keywords: Decency, Virtue, Sobriety, Prudery, Morality, Hypocrisy, Sense of respectability. These values were the symbol of the typical Victorian Family. The Victorian family meant all that!

The Victorians were great moralists and moralizers. They promoted a code of values based on personal duty, respectability and charity.

These values were of equal application to all strata of society, but were given their essential Victorian form by the upper or middle classes.

The idea of respectability distinguished the middle from the lower class.

Respectability was a mixture of morality, hypocrisy and conformity to social standards. It meant: the possession of a comfortable house with servants and carriages, the possession of good manners, a regular attendance at church, ( Listening to sermons was a popular pastime, yet vices were openly indulged!!!), and Charity activity. At home it implied the father as the authority and mother as just the educator of children ( she was always a charitable and respectable woman!!!). All these things were “ respectable”.

There was growing emphasis on the duty of men to respect and protect women , seen at the same as physically weaker but morally superior , divine guides and inspirers of men. But...what about the category of “fallen women”, unmarried mothers or prostitutes? They were surely condemned and emarginated by those men who had to protect and respect women!!

As for sexuality, it was generally repressed in both its public and private forms and prudery in its most extreme manifestations led to the denunciation of nudity in art, the nudity of sculptured genitals and the rejection of words with sexual connotation from everyday vocabulary.

Utilitarianism and Education

The 19th century social thinking was influenced also by the philosophical Movement of utilitarianism that spread all over the country. The pioneer was the philosopher Jeremy Bentham. The Victorian utilitarian philosophers thought that everything, every kind of problem could be solved through the use of reason. The outcome was a materialistic and rationalistic view of man and life.

The second point of their doctrine was that everything had to be judged according to standards of utility and usefulness and how much this utility provided happiness for the largest number of people.

Keywords: Selfishness, Utility, Usefulness, Happiness at all costs, no space for Emotions, for Feelings, total avoidance of pain.

As for education it had to be a kind of education based on facts, it meant (practical experience, Numbers, Measurements of any sort, no emotional space but just facts, no personal opinions and ideas which were considered dangerous for the reaching of Happiness.

Rich children were usually educated in private houses with good teachers. For poor children there were the “ ragged schools” without qualified teaching staff and horrible educational methods. It was an education based on facts: numbers, calculations, lists of things to learn by heart, practical experience without any emotional space, no ideas or personal opinions. The methods of punishment were a lot and very hard for children (Caning). The white hat called Dunce was often used for children slow at learning.