VICTORIAN BRITAIN, Apuntes de Idioma Inglés

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Unit 8: Victorian Britain I (1837-

Language and culture

Who was Queen Victoria?

• George III’s four sons: Prince of Wales  George IV, the Duke of York, the Duke of Clarence  William IV and the Duke of Kent and Strathearn  Queen Victoria’s father.
• Mother: Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg- Saalfeld
• The eldest son, the Prince of Wales had a daughter, Princess Charlotte Augusta of Wales  she dies in 1817
• At the age of fifty the Duke of Kent and Strathearn marries Princess Viktoria of Saxe- Coburg-Saalfeld, the sister of Princess Charlotte's widower Prince Leopold of Saxe- Coburg-Saalfeld and widow of Karl, Prince of Leiningen.
• Victoria was born in Kensington Palace, London on 24 May 1819. She was FIFTH in succession to the throne
• She was named Alexandrina Victoria

As a child, Victoria ate a simple diet, retired

early, and was given plenty of opportunity to

exercise in the fresh air.

Princess Victoria was very fond of her many

pets), of playing dressing-up, and riding horses.

As a child, Victoria ate a simple diet, retired

early, and was given plenty of opportunity to

exercise in the fresh air.

Princess Victoria was very fond of her many

pets), of playing dressing-up, and riding horses.

From 1830, Lehzen (her

companion) began to monitor

Victoria's conduct through a

series of 'Behaviour Books'.

She was 'naughty and vulgar'

on 1st November, 1831 and

(each word is underlined four

times) 'VERY VERY VERY

VERY HORRIBLY

NAUGHTY!!!!!‘

Princess Victoria became a

dedicated journal-writer at the

age of 13, and maintained her

journal throughout her long life.

Victoria also wrote a variety of

‘compositions’: ‘Sophia and

Adolphus: in the Style of Miss

Edgeworth's Harry and Lucy’

From 1830, Lehzen (her

companion) began to monitor

Victoria's conduct through a

series of 'Behaviour Books'.

She was 'naughty and vulgar'

on 1st November, 1831 and

(each word is underlined four

times) 'VERY VERY VERY

VERY HORRIBLY

NAUGHTY!!!!!‘

Princess Victoria became a

dedicated journal-writer at the

age of 13, and maintained her

journal throughout her long life.

Victoria also wrote a variety of

‘compositions’: ‘Sophia and

Adolphus: in the Style of Miss

Edgeworth's Harry and Lucy’

Imperial culture was, we are often reminded, exploitative and

fundamentally racist. At home Britain was far from being the multi-

cultural nation it would become after the collapse of empire, and

such attitudes are therefore perhaps hardly surprising. (Gardiner

Industrial Revolution

The Industrial Revolution can be defined as a period from the 18th to the 19th century where major changes in agriculture, manufacturing, mining, transport, and technology had a profound effect on the socioeconomic and cultural conditions of the United Kingdom. The changes spread throughout Europe, North America, and eventually the world.

Charles Dickens

Concerned with social reform Novels:

• The Adventures of Oliver Twist ( to 1839)
• A Christmas Carol (1843)
• David Copperfield (1849 to 1850)
• Bleak House (Monthly serial, March 1852 to September 1853)
• Hard Times: For These Times (1854)
• Little Dorrit (1855 to June 1857)
• A Tale of Two Cities (1859)
• Great Expectations (1860 to 1861)

Oliver Twist (1839)

Oliver Twist is an orphan. In London he meets the Artful Dodger and Fagin. Oliver Twist as social novel Contemporary problems: Poor Law , child labour and the recruitment of children as criminals. Dickens mocks the hypocrisies of his time by surrounding the novel’s serious themes with sarcasm and dark humour.

British India: British Raj

British Raj: 1857-1947. Indian Rebellion (1857) Area covered: India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Burma. 1876: Indian Empire  Queen Victoria becomes Empress of India and the British Raj. British Raj: 1857-1947. Indian Rebellion (1857) Area covered: India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Burma. 1876: Indian Empire  Queen Victoria becomes Empress of India and the British Raj.

Indian Rebellion 1857

• (^) Outset: In May 1857 soldiers of the Bengal army shot

their British officers, and marched on Delhi.

• (^) Their mutiny encouraged rebellion by considerable

numbers of Indian civilians

• (^) Considerable loss of human lives on both sides: rebels

and British

• (^) Indians’ traditions and ways of life had been

disregarded by their British rulers. Reforms, new laws,

new technology, even Christianity, had been forced

upon them.

• (^) The lesson that the British drew from 1857 was that

caution must prevail

Causes of the Irish famine

• (^) The original gross deficiency of food was real. In 1846 blight destroyed the crop. Disastrous management on the part of the English government.
• (^) Ideological background: what could the British government have done?

1. First, the government might have prohibited the export of grain from Ireland
2. Second, the government could have continued its so-called soup-kitchen scheme for a much longer time.
3. Third, the wages that the government paid needed to be much higher.
4. Fourth, the poor-law system of providing relief needed to be much less restrictive.
5. Fifth, the government should have restrained the mass eviction of families from their homes.
6. Last, and above all, the British government should have been willing to treat the famine crisis in Ireland as an imperial responsibility and to bear the costs of relief after the summer of

Background to Irish famine

1. The economic doctrines of laissez-faire: Laissez-faire, the reigning economic orthodoxy of the day, held that there should be as little government interference with the economy as possible.

2. The Protestant evangelical belief in divine Providence : Widespread belief among members of the British upper and middle classes that the famine was a divine judgment, an act of Providence, against the kind of Irish agrarian regime that was believed to have given rise to the famine. 3. Ethnic prejudice against the Catholic Irish: ‘moralism’. The notion that the fundamental defects from which the Irish suffered were moral rather than financial. This amounted to a kind of racial or cultural stereotyping

Treatment of the poor

• (^) Since the Elizabethan Poor Law of 1601 relief had been available for the poor within their parish, financed by the poor rate (a tax based on land and buildings), with ‘outdoor relief’ and the workhouse.
• (^) From 1780 and into the first quarter of the 19th century the poor relief system was under strain, with an increasing population and agricultural depressions.
• (^) The changes in manufacturing, begun in the textile industry, provided another area of employment for families and an apparent escape from the difficulties of the countryside.
• The practice of giving child allowances under the old Poor Law was seen as encouraging large families
• (^) The alleged generosity of outdoor relief was seen as benefiting the incompetent and reducing the resources available to the deserving poor.
• (^) It was the combination of these ideas and developments, which became the basis of the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834 in England and Wales.

Workhouse

Many workhouses had a significant transient

population, being under obligation to provide for

anyone who applied. These wards appear to have

provided shelter for many others, including those

‘tramping poor’ searching for seasonal work,

although it is difficult to know exactly how the casual

wards were used, or when and how often an

individual or family entered a workhouse.

A high proportion of women were forced to resort to

the workhouse: not only the ‘fallen women’ but also

deserted wives, widows with young children and

unemployed servants. By the end of the Victorian

period the largest group of inmates was elderly men

along with the infirm and young orphans.

Many workhouses had a significant transient

population, being under obligation to provide for

anyone who applied. These wards appear to have

provided shelter for many others, including those

‘tramping poor’ searching for seasonal work,

although it is difficult to know exactly how the casual

wards were used, or when and how often an

individual or family entered a workhouse.

A high proportion of women were forced to resort to

the workhouse: not only the ‘fallen women’ but also

deserted wives, widows with young children and

unemployed servants. By the end of the Victorian

period the largest group of inmates was elderly men

along with the infirm and young orphans.