VICTORIAN PERIOD HISTORICAL CONTEXTS

General historical background

It belongs to Victorian Period(1832-1901), whose name is given because of the Queen Victoria. She
was 63 year the queen and then was succeeded by her son Edward VII. In politics we have
libertinism, and the empire was a Christian monarchy with racial supremacy.
About the foreign policy; the queen became empress of India, since they conquered many places
and Britain had relations with other colonial power, but also rivals and wars. British Empire was a
big empire with a lot of colonies, such as Canada, Australia and some of them in Africa.

We should also take into account the effects of the Industrial Revolution. The high-class people
started getting more rich while the low-class people were living in extraordinary poverty and
exploitation. The cities were overpopulated and protest movements were born; like Luddism or
Chartism. Both wanted to express the agitation of working class due to the changes delivered from
the Industrial Revolution. Social movements as communism or philanthropy started to unite
workers.

The Victorian values caused much stress due to the virtues of the family life. High-class were able
to follow them but the low class couldn’t. There are also challenging views, the emerging women´s
movements view the family as a form of oppression and there were a lot of hypocrisy practices; the
prostitution in the cities.
In this period many variations of Christianity appeared and there were new options like Christian
Socialism. Christianity was also challenged by Science and Darwin's theory The Origins of
Species.
Education became extended to the middle-class and there were new universities & polytechnic
schools, public lectures and the rise of scientific societies for the popularization of knowledge.

The philanthropy and reforms gave emphasis of the idea of duty. The Victorian philanthropy was
full of hypocrisy, as the reforming class is also the exploiting class. There were attempts at reform
class against established morality or “Christian principles”. J.S Mill tries to find solution for the
population problem pointed by Malthus by advocating birth control. But he is arrested for
immorality when distributing pamphlets.

The Victorian order was challenged, the socialism and the religion led to a feminism and suffragist,
finally to an evolutionism.

Regarding the literary features in poetry of the period, there are different alternatives; some authors
follow an optimistic view, English things as the best; other adopt a preaching tone, advocating
older, "truer" ideals or presenting an optimistic belief in reform and there ere also Victorian
fantasist, who ignore present society; resort to imaginative writing, inventing situations that were
not real or true. In poetry the most important aspect is the dramatic monologue/ persona poem, in
which the author is not the speaker, there is more people around him in silence and although he does
not tell us how is feeling, we know it./

In novel some of the most famous authors are Dickens, Elizabeth Gaskell, Oscar Wilde. They are
characterized by realism and social denounce. There is a rise of the popular genres like the detective
and mystery novel that can be found in Arthur Conan Doyle´s novels, and the sentimental fiction.
The publishing formats in this era were the serial publication, one chapter a week in weekly/
monthly magazines, which were pretty affordable; the publication by installments, the cliffhangers,
and the three-volume novel, which is a format demanded by the circulating libraries.
THE WOMAN QUESTION (2 primeros textos)
Women are defined by men and there is a propaganda of the domestic feminity, perfect home=
perfect woman and the feminine body was a sexual object. There was an ideal of the fragile woman:
languish and linger with consumption, nervous disorder o general malaise. Women´s bodies are
erotic in their paleness and weakness. There are differences between woman:
-The high-class women had the family as the central axis and home as the idyllic place to grow up,
they were as racehorses, their race was to marriage, so their relationships were artificial
-The femme fatale is attractive but dangerous, it´s product of masculine fantasies. They are the
opposite of the angel of the house, not maternal, it´s the symbol of evil and danger for men and is
often described as a vampire.
-The low-class women were “ The great Social Evil”, there were not enough men so some women
could not marry, and to get money, they had to prostitute themselves, the common form was
“streetwalking” and high-class women were against helping them.

THE IRISH QUESTION (“Easter,1916”)

Ireland was invaded by England in 12th century, but it was very difficult to manage and Irish could
start a war of Guerrillas on the forest, so they were constantly fighting against English.
In the modern era Irish Rebellion of 1798 happened: insurrection promoted by the radical
republican group, ‘The United Irishmen’, helped by the French, it was cruelly repressed by the
British and its leaders executed. Late 18th century, conflicts between Catholics majority and
Protestants minority started. Then, in 1801 there was the Act of Union: Ireland status as inner
colony in the British Isles. 19th century: never-ending minor conflicts between the ruling British
elite and the opposing Catholic majority. 1880s: Irish nationalists in the Irish Parliamentary Party
(IPP) demand Home Rule. Radical organizations like the ‘Sinn Féin’ (Ourselves Alone) started to
demand an Irish Republic.
Finally, 24th April 1916, there was the Easter Rising in Dublin, they wanted to stablish the Iris
Republic, they attacked the British government police in Ireland. The revolution failed but between
the participants there were women since they were not considered dangerous. In the 1918 general
election the Sinn Féin won so in 1919 the is the Irish Free Republic and the Irish War of
independence in 1919-1921. The IRA became the Irish National Revolutionary Army and in 1922-
23 there was the Civil War between Protestants and Catholics. There is an Irish Literary Revival
called the Celtic Twilight. It has a lot of Irish nationalism feeling, especially with mythology and
folklore tradition, there is a renaissance of Gaelic language and the writers were the revolutionaries.

JANE AUSTEN (Northanger Abbey)

She does not belong to Victorian Era, because she is a genre on her own ( the novel of manners) and
because chronologically she is part of Romantic period . She critiques and comments on British
literature and her novels are full of irony and realism. She is interested in love stories and the
psicological development of the characters, like in Pride and Prejudice.
Northanger Abbey was published posthumously….