VICTORIAN PERIOD

 

• In the 18th century, the most important city of western civilization was Paris. From a population of two million towards the half of the 19th century, until the death of Queen Victorya, London had reached a population of six and a half million. London's rapid growth is one of the greatest characteristics of the Victorian era; agricultural, dependent on the land, is the indicator of the transition from the rural economy to the modern urban economy, to trade. 
• This transition was painful, as England was one of the first states to industrialize. The coexistence of social and economic problems is an indication of the rapid and irregular industrialization in the Victorian era. The increase of differences between classes: the British middle class getting rich with trade and hitting the bottom of the working class is an example of this irregular industrialization. queen victoria, the word victorian in the meanings she wants her to present to her people; It is a word that has connotations such as moral responsibility, seriousness, and order. That is, responsibility is too much responsibility, a kind of bullying, seriousness; work to death, order is moral responsibility and social duty.
• -----Virginia Woolf did not like this period at all. Lytton Strachey's book eminent victorians is an example. Virginia Woolf's extremely strict Victorian father, Sir Leslie Stephen, had noted that he would never have been a writer had he not died. The reaction against the victorian period, which was shaped in the darkness of these `` victorious shadows '' but somehow wanted to reach another light, and the victorian period in the edward and george periods, today the term `` victorian '' tried to protect the queen's decency, removed from its meaning. has summarized this age that has been dragged into other meanings.

EARLY PERİOD :

• - Liverpool and Manchester rail were opened in 1830.
• The Reform Act of 1832 was adopted in response to the demands of the middle classes who gradually took control of the British economy.
• -1832 Reform bill was the beginning of the new.
• In 1830, economic trouble brought England closer to the revolution.
• The reform bill represents the beginning of a new era in which the middle class has economic interests.
• The economic and social difficulties brought about by industrialization were referred to as the time of problems in the 1830s and 1840s.
• The collapse of 1837 led to bad harvests, unemployment, poverty, and rebellion.
• And the conditions in the new industrial and coal business regions were very difficult in this period because the unhealthy conditions increased during this period, women and children working in mines and very young children cleaning the chimneys.

THE MID-VICTORIAN PERIOD / ECONOMIC PROSPERITY, THE GROWTH OF EMPIRE,  AND RELIGIOUS CONTROVERSY

• Some Victorian writers made critical attacks on the shortcomings of the Victorian social scene.
• There were many problems in this period, but this period was a period of prosperity.
• The monarchy was multiplying its value during this period. the queen and her husband, prince Albert, were putting middle-class marriage forward.
• Agriculture, trade and industry developed during this period. A Factory law was created in Parliament that restricts child labor and limited working hours. In this case, the situation of the working class was also improving.
• Also during this period, in 1851, Prince Albert opened the exhibition by building the Crystal Palace for exhibitions of modern industry and science in Hyde Park.
• This building was one of the first buildings built according to modern architectural principles. It symbolized the success of Victorian technology.
• With the advancement of technology, it has expanded its influence worldwide. Between 1850 and 1870, annual exports of goods increased very high. Most of the citizens went to the colonies, the capitalists invested sterling abroad: that is, a union empire was established with people, money and technology.
• Then the East India company that controlled the country was taken over. Queen Victoria was named the Queen of India.
• They built the British empire for wealth, market, raw material resources, and world power.
• Many British saw the development of the empire as a moral responsibility.
• Queen Victoria said her mission was to "protect poor citizens and advance civilization."
• In the mid-Victorian era, the English church was divided into three parts: Low church, Wide church and high church. Here, they emphasized the spiritual transformation of the person by converting into a moral Christian life.
• The high church was also the catholic part of the church, emphasizing the importance of tradition, ritual, and authority outside.
• The broad church resisted doctrinal and religious controversy. Their groups, open to modern progress, emphasized the inclusive nature of the church.
• Utilitarianism developed during this period. Bentham believed in maximizing people's tastes and minimizing pain. Utilitarianism was highly important for political reform, but it could not meet the spiritual needs of the people.

THE LATE PERIOD (1870-1901):  DECAY OF VICTORIAN VALUES

• In this third phase of the Victorian era, for many victorians, peace and security in the country was the age of the party. Frank Harris, even a harsh critic of the English scene, recorded his memories of London's joy in the 1880s.
• In this age, there have been some products that have changed the fabric of modern life: Commodities, inventions, products. that is, it has become a country that constantly produces products for culture and sales.
• During this period, the pinnacle of British imperialism appeared: the massacres, the Indian revolt, stays like this multiplied.
• Britain faced threats to its supremacy in the sea, military, trade, industry. The recovery of the USA after the civil war created new and serious competition not only in industry but also in agriculture. In 1973 and 1874, severe economic crises occurred and the rate of immigration increased.
• Another change is; it was political and economic. In 1867 the second reform bill was passed, extending the right to vote to parts of the working class. Socialism, in which it is involved, has become a powerful political force.
• The first painter to embrace Marxism was William Morris. He believed that utopia with Marx could only be achieved after the working class gained control of government and industry through revolution.

THE ROLE OF WOMEN

• During this period, women were not given any political rights. Observing Friedrich Engels; England is the freest - least free country in the world. he said. Because ingilitere had done a lot to expand the freedom of its citizens, but women could not benefit from them. they could not vote or hold a political office. Men could also divorce their women immediately for adultery, but women could only divorce their husbands by bigotry, adultery, persecution, or merging with animals. Education for women was limited.
• Inequality prevailed in the country. This inequality triggered the debate as the "women's issue". There were some writers protecting women's rights: Hardy and Mary wollstoneworth.
• This change created by the industrial revolution posed a strong challenge to traditional views of women's working conditions and women's roles. With the development of the textile industry, lower class women were taken to factories with tough working conditions. Feeding the industrial development of England, the need for coal, women had to go to the mines.
• The 1839 custody law was introduced to a mother to access her underage children, and to petition the court for custody of children under 7.
• 1857 Divorce and Marriage Reasons Act, a divorce court was established. and at the same time granted an abandoned woman the right to apply for a protection order.
• While divorce is only a job that requires wealth, these changes in marriage and divorce laws, along with the Property Laws of Married Women, laid a foundation for women's rights.
• During this period, universities were accepting only male students. An example suggested by Thomas Henry Huxley, a powerful advocate for women, gives the idea that he opened the first women's college in London in 1848.
• By the end of Viktoria's reign, women could earn degrees at universities or colleges.
• Writers like Charlotte Brontë, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, and Florence Nightingale complained to middle-class women that they learn trivial success just to fill the days if you don't have anything important to do.
• During this period, single women seemed useless, unnecessary. Because he did not give birth to children, did not serve her husband, did not do food and household chores. During this period, the woman appeared to be a housemaid kept at home. The only thing unmarried women in this period could do for work was governesses.Man for the field and women for the hearth:
      Man for the sword and for the needle she:
      Man with the head and woman with the heart:
      Man to command and woman to obey.
• It can be understood from these words: We can understand that the women whom men work to earn money are responsible for cleaning and cooking at home while they are at work and taking care of their husbands. Men only think, but women feel through their emotions. women put all their labor to work. The woman has no right to give against her husband. She will always obey her husband and meet her request.

LITERACY, PUBLICATION, AND READING

• In the Victorian era, literacy increased significantly. Steam printing machines were also developed in this period, they were made of rags and now they were made of pulp. Later typesetting machines were invented, publishing houses were printing more material for less. Thus, the number of newspapers and books is increasing. Later, because the books were expensive, people borrowed from the library to read.
• The biggest development in the field of literature is the continuous growth of publications. there were magazines and books suitable for everyone. In addition, the poems of the most important writers and poets of the period were published in magazines. The novels of Dickens, Thackeray, Eliot, Trollope and Gaskell; The essays of Carlyle, Mill, Arnold and Ruskin; Tennyson and Brownings.
• romanlar ve kurgusal olmayan düz yazılar seri olarak yayımlandı. 
• Orta sınıf okur halkı bir okuma kültürüne sahipti.

THE NOVEL

• Novelists in the victoryan era represented a wider world, with the class and social settings that made up a community. The novels of this period reflect realism. The novelists of this period depict the social relations that occur in middle-class society and focus on a hero whose completion in society is an area of main interest. There is often tension in the novels, this tension; The restrained woman in the novel portrays the struggle for self-realization.

POETRY

• In the Victorian era, poetry emerged in the context of the novel. Poets of this period experimented with character and perspective. further, Victorian poetry flourished with the shadow of Romanticism. When Victoria ascended the throne, all the poets of romance were dead, except Wordsworth. Victorians often rewrote romantic poems.