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TWO NATIONS: THE RICH AND THE POOR The Victorian Era was an age of optimism, peace, prosperity and technological and industrial progress. The growing middle class reaped the benefits of this growth and displayed their status both in the material aspects of their family life and in moral aspects, with ostentatious displays of religious observance and strict (public) morality. The poorer working classes paid the price of this development. They worked in brutal, unsanitary conditions and did not have access to clean water and healthy food or to decent clothing and education. Many had to rely on charity to survive. Inmates of the Victorian workhouses were separated from their families, forced to perform long hours of hard manual work with no pay, no freedom and no dignity. The years of optimism While Britain prospered in the first four decades of Victoria's reign, the Victorians were aware of the social costs of industrialisation. They were, however, firmly convinced that the nation's problems could be solved. Proud of their achievements in the fields of science and technology, they believed that their values would benefit all the people in the British Empire. Wealth and poverty The upper and middle classes enjoyed this century as a period of wealth, status and comfort. Wealth and poverty were considered indicators of moral value. The wealthier classes sought to distinguish themselves by conforming to rigid standards of respectability, virtue, ethics and religion. SOCIAL REFORM With the Industrial Revolution well underway, Britain was becoming the 'workshop of the world. Its abundant supply of cheap coal and iron and growing domestic and colonial markets helped Britain race ahead of its European competitors. In 1851 the urban population exceeded the rural for the first time in British history. The nations growing prosperity, however, was accompanied by increasing urban poverty and social injustice. The Reform Bill of 1832 had given the vote to the male middle class but done little for the working class. In 1839 the Chartist Movement presented parliament with a six-point petition - The People's Charter - demanding universal male suffrage and parliamentary reform. It was not until 1867 that these demands were met with the Reform Bill extending suffrage to workers in towns, followed in 1884 by another Reform Bill which gave votes to agricultural workers and miners. A series of Factory Acts, following the first Factory Act of 1833, progressively reduced working hours and regulated child and female labour. Finally the Education Act of 1870 made elementary education compulsory. Free trade The Corn Laws, passed in 1804, had led to high bread prices and suffering for the poorer urban population. The Anti-Corn Law League, founded in Manchester in 1839, found the support of the working and middle classes fighting for free trade and cheaper food. The repeal of the Corn Laws in 1846 signalled the nation's shift from an agricultural to an industrial economy. Free trade formed the basis of a long economic boom, which ended only in the 1870s. The optimism and confidence of the first 40 years of Victoria's reign were confirmed by the economic, political and military success of Britain and the Empire. The Victorians were (rather arrogantly) convinced of their superiority and of their moral duty to export their language, culture and traditions to the 'uncivilised' lands of the Empire, often failing to realise that they were exploiting peoples, their lands and resources. 1851 The Great Exhibition of Works and Industry Pride in the nation's industrial and technological progress prompted Prince Albert to promote a great international exhibition. Held in 1851 in a revolutionary glass and iron structure known as the 'Crystal Palace, the Great Exhibition of Works and Industry displayed some 100,000 exhibits from 15,000 contributors and it was an immense success. The expanding Empire The Victorian Age saw the greatest splendour and extension of the British Empire. Imperial expansion responded to commercial interests, gaining access to raw materials and new markets for its products. The Empire also attracted British people seeking to escape from poverty in Britain. Between 1800 and 1914 millions of British people emigrated to Canada and Australia to seek their fortunes in an Empire 'on which the sun never sets. The celebrations for the 50* anniversary of Victoria's reign in 1887 included a gathering of representatives from all the Queen's overseas possessions. The wars waged during this period were connected with the need to protect Britain's imperial interests.
The Great Exhibition of Works and Industry Pride in the nation's industrial and technological progress prompted Prince Albert to promote a great international exhibition. Held in 1851 in a revolutionary glass and iron structure known as the 'Crystal Palace, the Great Exhibition of Works and Industry displayed some 100,000 exhibits from 15,000 contributors and it was an immense success. THE 'VICTORIAN COMPROMISE Victorian society outwardly respected a strict, puritanical moral code. This show of respectability, however, hid a darker side: prostitution, gambling and the use of drugs like opium were common in Victorian London but hidden under a veil of discretion and hypocrisy. The Civil War 1861- Slavery became a dominant issue and created growing tension between the abolitionist Northern States and the Southern States. When Abraham Lincoln, candidate of the anti-slavery Republican Party was elected president in 1860, delegates of the Southern States (South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana and Texas) 'seceded, leaving the Union they created an independent government of the 'Confederate States of America' with Jefferson Davis as President. Lincoln's government declared the Confederacy illegitimate, and a Confederate attack on Fort Sumter in South Carolina in April 1861 marked the start of a bloody Civil War, which continued until 1865. 囚 1861 1863 North and South northem states modenised rapidly, with small farms based on free labour and Crewine naustr Ine soutn, on tne ouner nand. was based on large plantations, producing sugar, cotton, tobacco and rice and relving on slave labour. As slaverv began to expand westwards, many Northerners came to believe that slavery should be abolished. A network, known as the 'underground railroad' emerged, helping slaves to find their freedom by escaping to the northern states or to Canada. The Emancipation Proclamation 1863 After the terrible battle of Antietam, on 22 September 1862, Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which freed all slaves in enemy territory as of lanuary
- General Ulysses Grant took over command of the Union forces in 1864 and the war finally came to an end in 1865 with the surrender of the Confederate forces. Lincoln was assassinated in 1865 and the new president, Andrew Johnson, had to attempt to reconcile former enemies. Under the Reconstruction Acts of 106/ the Southern States were readmitted to the Union. The 14th Amendment of 1868 gave American citizenship to former slaves and in 1870 black men were given the right to vote under the 15th Amendment. After the war 1866 Newly freed slaves found themselves in a hostile environment and many emigrated to the North. Many Southerners joined organisations like the Ku Klux Klan (founded in 1866) to resist equality for the blacks and to restore white control over the southern states' governments. While slaves were being freed in the South, the Native Americans were being dispossessed of their ancestral lands in the West. Moving West After the Civil War ended in 1865, thousands of settlers moved West to the Great Plains of grassland lying between the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains. Many who had rushed to California for gold and had been unsuccessful, settled down and became farmers. Thousands of freed slaves fled the South to begin a new life in the Great Plains. However, it was not a desert area. It was inhabited by the native Americans who had lived there long before the arrival of the Europeans. The American West was settled in the years between 1840 and 1895.
ATERATUREXPANSIONS| 5.
In an era hugely dominated by prose writing as the Victorian Age was, only two important figures emerged in the panorama of early Victorian poetry: Alfred Tennyson (1809-92) and Robert Browning (1812-89). Both authors were masters in the use of dramatic monologue, a long poetic composition in which a single character speaks about his own life. The last phase of Victorian poetic production was characterised by the works of the members of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, who drew inspiration from the pure style of medieval art and wrote poems that celebrated mysticism, sensuality and nostalgia. The poetic panorama of 19th-century literature was dominated by two of the most interesting and highly original voices of American literature of all times: Walt Whitman (1819-92) > p. 349, the 'father of American poetry, and Emily Dickinson (1830-86) > p. 353, whose poems explored the world of small things giving them universal value. Victorian Drama LTERATURE EXPANSIONS | 5. The Victorian Age saw the birth of modern British drama thanks to the efforts of two Irish authors: Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) and George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950). Wilde's comedies, such as The Importance of Being Earnest (1895) or An Ideal Husband (1895), were characterised by sparkling and witty dialogues. Under a layer of brilliant jokes and apparently superficial ironic comments, Wilde's comedies tackled universal themes such as marriage, identity, social position and money, and expressed strong criticism of the absurd social conventions of the English upper class. Social criticism and moral awareness were two of the major aims of George Bernard Shaw's plays. Under the influence of the Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen (1828-1906), Shaw conceived memorable plays such as Pygmalion (1912) and Mrs Warren's Profession (1893), in which he unfolded the hypocrisy and superficiality of late-Victorian society.
A Life like a Novel The biography of Charles Dickens reads like one of his own rags-to-riches stories. Dickens was born on 7 February 1812 in Portsmouth, the second of eight siblings. When he was nine years old he was sent to school but his formal education proved to be short. Three years later his father was imprisoned for outstanding debts and was joined by most of the family in Marshalsea Prison. Charles himself was forced to work ten-hour days in a 'blacking' factory (making shoe polish). The young Charles suffered three years of terrible loneliness and hardship but, as with all the events in his life, the experiences he had, the places he went to and the people he met would all serve as material for him in his future work. He began his writing career as a journalist and in 1833 became the parliamentary reporter for The Morning Chronicle. He published a series of sketches using the pseudonym 'Boz', Sketches by Boz (1833-36) and in 1836 married Catherine Hogarth. They were soon followed by the very successful Pickwick Papers (1836), his first novel and the start of his brilliant, prolific career. Dickens produced an immense number of novels, which were published initially as instalments in magazines and then as complete books, as well as an autobiography and regular contributions to periodicals. He appears to have been a man of inexhaustible energy, who found time to travel to America for a lecture tour campaigning against slavery, and to Italy. He also wrote for the theatre and performed in front of Queen Victoria in 1851. He and his wife had ten children. He left his wife in 1858 for his mistress, the actress Ellen Ternan. He died on 9 June 1870 and was buried in Westminster Abbey. Major Works and Themes Charles Dickens' novels range from the lively and entertaining humour of the Pickwick Papers (published in instalments from 1836 to 1837) to the flowing tears of Little Nell's death in The Old Curiosity Shop (1840-41). His great gift was inventiveness. He created whole worlds of characters, exaggerated but unforgettable. His sympathy with the oppressed, his indignation against social injustice, made him one of the most significant voices in the Victorian Age. Pickwick Papers is a series of tales loosely connected by featuring the same character, Mr Pickwick. It was a huge success. Everybody waited breathlessly for the next monthly instalment which would relate the adventures of the kindly, innocent Mr Pickwick and his three friends who formed the Pickwick Club. These three gentlemen accompanied their leader on a tour of 'scientific investigation and discovery through England. The novel was a typical example of Dickens' humour, which was based on the creation of characters with some distinctive peculiarity of speech, physical appearance or gesture, and on the creation of a variety of comic situations these characters were made to go through in the course of the narrative. His next novel, Oliver Twist, published between 1837 and 1839, is perhaps his most famous and most popular and marks the beginning of social criticism. Through the story of an orphaned boy, the novelist touched upon the exploitation of children and the cruelty of the workhouses; A Christmas Carol (1843) is a ghost story featuring the conversion of a miser to the spirit of Christmas; Dombey and Son (1846) attacks the greed for money and power, and marks a more sombre mood in Dickens' work; then followed David Copperfield (1849-50), a coming-of-age novel and the most LITERARY NOTEBOOK explicitly autobiographical; Bleak House (1852-53), a satire on the English administration of justice and Hard Times (1854), bearing on education and on the hardships of the working class during the Industrial Revolution. Great Expectations (1860), one of Dickens' great masterpieces, was another coming-of-age novel about the influence that sudden wealth can have on a young man's moral growth.
POOR LAW AND WORKHOUSES
Charles Dickens himself had had personal experience of poverty and child labour and through Oliver Twist expressed his anger at the living conditions of the poor and the iniquity of the Poor Law of 1834, which dictated that public charity was to be administered through workhouses. In Victorian England the wealthy aristocratic class did not have to work for a living while the growing middle class saw hard work as a moral virtue. Poverty was seen as a sin and under the terms of the Poor Law, poor people could only receive assistance if they lived and worked in workhouses. Conditions were as harsh as possible in order to discourage the poor from relying on public charity. Families were divided and children forced to do hard physical work and severely undernourished. The only alternative to the suffering and humiliation of life in the workhouse, where the hypocritical middle class saw themselves as paragons of Christian virtue as they gave charity to the poor, was a life of crime or prostitution. VICTORIAN MORALITY AND A HAPPY ENDING Against this background young Oliver stands out as a child with a pure heart and a determined spirit. His ags-to-riches story finally leads him to his proper place in society and a comfortable life in a country house. This is not the transformation of a young criminal into a gentleman, and no similar redemption is offered to the other poor characters in the novel, all of whom meet death violently or through civil justice. Oliver's happy ending comes as a result of the discovery of his true identity. Dickens' merciless description of the cruelty and hypocrisy of Victorian England does not lead to any reform or change in the Victorian mindset. Oliver simply returns to his rightful status. The misery that surrounds Oliver stands in stark contrast to the examples of individual love and true charity that lead to his salvation. His involvement in crime with Fagin's gang brings him into contact first with Mr Brownlow, who takes him home and looks after him, and then with Mrs Maylie and Rose, who likewise nurse him back to health after he is wounded attempting to burgle their house. Coincidence is stretched to the limits of credibility as both objects of Oliver's criminal activity turn out to be close to him: Mr Brownlow had been Oliver's father's best friend, while Rose, we discover, was Oliver's mother's sister. Writing copiously and rapidly as his work appeared in monthly instalments, Dickens bitterly criticised the conditions of Victorian England but offered his readers a fairy tale happy ending to this story of evil, wickedness, poverty, misery and hypocrisy. CAN WEALTH BE MORE DANGEROUS THAN POVERTY? Not only does Dickens Oliver Twist provide a vivid portrait of the life of English society in times dominated by uncontrolled economic growth and expansion: the novel also explores the impact economic growth and money had on both the rich and the poor. Dickens' novel shows that greed and the desire for wealth and possessions can be even more dangerous than poverty itself as they can dehumanise people to such an extent that they lose what makes them truly human, i.e. their ability to be sympathetic towards the others and their needs. Oliver's ability to handle wealth is emblematic: splitting his inheritance with his half-brother, he shows that his humanity is not lost and that the desire of having money has not corrupted him. The novel also shows that poverty does not preclude the possibility of having a decent life: poverty, in other words, is not necessarily a dangerous condition in itself, it is extreme poverty, characterised by the absolute lack of means and the absence of any money, that forces people to obtain money in illicit and often dangerous ways. By pointing this out, Dickens clearly highlights that the eradication of extreme poverty is one of the most urgent responsibilities of modern societies.
