Lecture 06 the victorian age, long and glorious

6.1. The Victorian Age (1837 – 1901).

6.1.1. As a result of the in­dustrial revolution, Britain became the workshop of the world. British factories were pro­ducing more than any other country in the world. Having many colonies, Britain controlled large areas of the world. The British had a strong feeling of their importance. Queen Victoria is associated with Britain's great age of industrial expansion, economic progress and, especially, the growth of the colonial empire. At her death, Britain had a worldwide empire on which the sun never set. It was during the mid-1850s that the word “Victorian” began to be employed to express a new self-consciousness, both in relation to the nation and to the period through which it was passing. In 1851 Queen Victoria opened the Great Exhibition of the Industries of All Nations in the Crystal Palace in London. The aim of the Exhibition was to show the world the greatness of Britain's industry. The exhibition was a triumph.

6.1.2. The Victorian Age knows many outstanding personalities who contributed to the development of the nation. They are great engineers like Isambard Brunel, public figures like Florence Nightingale, travelers like David Livingstone, and a great number of world-class artists. For example, the Victorian era produced an amazing number of popular novelists and poets. Perhaps the most famous authors of this time were Charles Dickens, William Makepeace Thackeray, the Bronte sisters — Charlotte, Emily, and Anne, Robert Louis Stevenson, Alfred, Lord Tennyson.

6.1.3. Advances in science were prominent, too. During the Victorian age, Michael Faraday's and James Maxwell's work led to the practical application of the electric power. Biologist Charles Darwin developed the theory of evolution through natural selection, which radically influenced modern science and thought. Indeed, it was a pioneering breakthrough. Surgeon Joseph Lister introduced antiseptic surgery in the 1860s which helped reduce mortality during operations.

6.1.4. During the Victorian Age Britain was at its most powerful and self-confident. Many famous traits of the British mentality, such as snobbery, conservatism and imperial outlook, humbug and hypocrisy appeared. From the early 1850s to the early 1870s, almost all sections of the population seemed to be benefiting from relative prosperity. It was during these years, when great individual creative power was tapped, that Victorianism, perhaps the only “ism” in history attached to the name of a sovereign, came to represent a cluster of restraining moral attributes — “character,” “duty,” “will,” earnestness, hard work, respectable comportment and behavior, and thrift. Yet despite their widespread appeal, all of these Victorian virtues were subjected to contemporary criticism.

6.2. Political movements of the Victorian Age.

6.2.1. At first most textile factories were comparatively small, employing fewer than 100 workers. They were efficient and initially allowed families to remain together, husbands weaving, wives spinning, and children fetching and carrying. Ultimately, however, factories disrupted family life. Women and children easily operated the power-driven machines, and they worked the same 12-hour days as men. Since factory owners could pay women and children lower wages, men were driven out of the industry. In some communities, displaced workers attacked factories and factory owners. In others, rioters known as Luddites attacked the machines themselves. Luddites attempted to defend their communities and their way of life, but they were unable to stop the development of new factories.

6.2.2. Since 1824 workers began joining together to struggle against employers for their rights and better wages. The first workers' unions were small and weak. The introduction of a cheap postage sys­tem greatly helped the unions to organize themselves across the country: for one penny a letter could be sent to anyone, anywhere in Britain. In 1838 the workers' unions worked out a document called a People's Charter. The Charter demanded rights that are now accepted by everyone: the vote for adults, the right for a man without property to be an MP, secret voting, and payment for MPs. The House of Commons re­fused to meet these demands. As result, there was a wave of riots and political meetings.

6.2.3. When Parliament again rejected the charter, the Chartists planned direct action in the form of a general strike. Thus, a political reform movement, Chartism, began. As the strike failed, but an insurrection broke out in 1839, and many Chartist leaders were arrested and imprisoned. Chartism was in a period of decline until 1848, when another petition was sent to Parliament. Despite a large public demonstration, the charter was again rejected. The Chartist movement gradually disintegrated thereafter, but most of its program, except the demand for annual parliamentary elections, eventually became law.

6.2.4. Another prominent feature of British political scene is the woman-suffrage movement. The great pioneer figure of British feminism was the writer Mary Wollstonecraft. During the 1830s and ‘40s British suffragism received notable aid and encouragement from the Chartists, who fought unsuccessfully for a sweeping program of human rights. In subsequent years the woman-suffrage issue was kept before the British public by a succession of liberal legislators, among them the statesmen and social philosophers In 1903 the dissident and more militant faction, led by the feminist Emmeline Pankhurst, established the Women’s Social and Political Union. Pankhurst’s suffragists soon won a reputation for boldness and militancy. Tactics employed by the organization included boycotting, bombing, window breaking, picketing, and harassment of anti-suffragist legislators.