The most important characteristics of British home politics and affairs: the modern urban economy of manufacturing industry

and international trade took over the old agricultural economy. The industrial development which came with railroads, steamboats, better means of transport and communication, new machines for manufacturing turned the North of England into the most advanced region of the country. The laissez-faire theory according to which the government did not interfere with economic decisions and the expansion of textile industries and rail transport made available new capitals, ready for investments. Although Britain had become the wealthiest and most powerful nation in the world there was still a considerable poverty problem. !o"erty was generally considered a crime, to be %managed& through repressive measures, rather than solved through ade'uate redistribution of resources. (n fact, among the most un)ust pieces of legislation passed in *ictorian Britain were the Poor Laws. o as to solve the problem of starvation among poor people, children were declared destitute and forced to separate from their families and sent to work in parish$run workhouses, in return for which they received barely enough food to survive.

$ymbolic significance of the Great Exhibition: (t was opened in .ondon in 1!/1 by the 'ueen herself. (t was the first world fair held in (rystal !alace 0.ondon1, and was seen as the triumph of British progress and prosperity, displaying 233,333 ob)ects from all over the world.

Britain+s ,mpire all over the world. This expansion was partly due to the need to protect trade routes to and from Britain+s main imperial property, i.e. #ndia. Trade with (ndia included tea, spices, silk and cotton and it was vital to the British economy that routes across A period of rapid expansion, land and sea be secured. (t both economically and was partly for this reason that Britain %annexed& a territorially. number of territories including $outh %frica, Egypt and Burma& 'alaysia and %fghanistan. Towards the end of *ictorian+s reign, the British believed that, in the racial hierarchy of mankind, they stood supreme- their way of life, their institutions, law, politics. !atriotism was deeply influenced by ideas Queen ictoria ascended to the throne at the age of of racial superiority- the 1! in 1!"#. he was to reign sixty$four years and races of the world were became the symbol of a whole era, which was later divided by fundamental called the Victorian age. physical and intellectual differences, that some were destined led by (n 1!"5 the working$class (hartist 'o"ement drew up a !eoples (harterto in be which others. they asked for- votes for all males, annually elected parliaments, payment of 78s so that working$class men could also become 78s, secret voting, abolition of the property for candidates seeking election, the establishment of electoral districts e'ual in population.

ocial problems such as long working hours, childrens and women s labour, bad housing of the working class gradually started to be faced along with the issue of suffrage.

The most important political and social reforms which were passes by parliament in the second half of the 14th century regarded the "ote- in the 1!5# the $econd )eform %ct gave the vote to urban working$class men and in 1!!6 male agricultural labourers were also given the vote. There were reforms to improve working class conditions for the poor and the 1!#3 Education %ct provided for mass education.1

!hilanthropy was a ictorian phenomenon with a range and diversity of interests- it addressed itself to every kind of poverty, to %stray children, fallen women and drunken men& and absorbed the energies of thousands of *ictorians, above all women. 7any activists believed they could save the dissolute, raise up fallen women and instill self$ help.

The concept of %fallen women& was a fate imposed upon thousands of women by a society with an intense concern for female chastity. ingle women with a child suffered the worst of society+s punishments- they were ostraci<ed and marginali<ed. $exuality was generally repressed in its public and private forms, and morali,ing -prudery. in its most extreme manifestations led to the denunciation of nudity in art, the veiling of sculptured genitals and the re)ection of words with sexual connotation from everyday vocabulary. The word % ictorian& has come to be used, 0like %8uritan&1 to describe a set of moral and sexual "alues. These values were of e'ual application to all strata of society, though they were particularly concerned with the upper or middle class.

The *ictorian idea of a woman+s role in society can be summari<ed by the phrase %%n angel in the home&, as women+s rights were extremely restricted. They could not go to university, nor could they inherit property if there was a male heir in their family. They were educated )ust to become attractive wives. Aevertheless, a lot of outstanding *ictorian artists were women(harlotte and Emily Bronte, 1eorge Eliot, Eli,abeth 1askell.

The *ictorians were great moralisers. The values they promoted reflected not the world as they saw it, the harsh social reality around them, but the world as they would have liked it to be.

Bourgeois ideals also dominated *ictorian family life. The family was a patriarchal unit where the position of the husband was dominant. The man was the breadwinner as well as the source of discipline according to a role coming by divine providence.
8robably the most advocated notion was the need to work hard. (n an age which believed in progress, most of people thought that the material progress was the result of hard work . As a conse'uence, the *ictorians insisted on a sense of duty rather than on personal 'ualities. unday schools and later the compulsory elementary schools placed great emphasis on punctuality and application. *iligence& good time+keeping and good beha"ior were rewarded.

The idea of respectability distinguished the middle from the lower class. )espectability was a mixture of both morality and hypocrisy& se"erity and conformity to social standards. (t implied the possession of god manners, the ownership of a comfortable house with servants and a carriage, regular attendance at church, and charitable activity.

Victorian .alues

The phrase %Victorian co#-ro#ise& highlights the paradoxical conditions of life in *ictorian ,ngland where progress and poverty coexistedthe contradictions which lay in every field of human knowledge and human experience, the unwillingness of recogni<ing them. ?hy@ (n order to assert a psychological assurance of the ,nglish people. But everyone knew what was wrong& but they pretended not to see it. >or instance, po"erty was ignored in order to admire the increasing wealth of the country. (olonial power and economic progress made for the optimistic outlook of many *ictorians. (t was an age riddled with contradictions and doubts, notably about religion and about the relationship between science and belief. (t is also for this hypocritical attitude that the ad)ective %*ictorian& is often used with a negative 2 connotation.

The main early ictorian no"elists(harles *ickens and /illiam '. Thackeray

The most significant women no"elists.

The number of women writers increased considerably in the 14th century and some of the most significant *ictorian novelists were women. The most famous ones are (harlotte and Emily Bront0 together with 1eorge Eliot and Eli,abeth 1askell, not forgetting 2ane %usten who was an inspiration to female novelists of all successive epochs. A common thread which connects these novelists is that they explore a world in which female identities and social roles are defined and governed by patriarchal values which wish to restrict the minds and bodies of women. (harlotte Bront0+s -Jane Eyre is a novel of formation, Bildungsroman, influenced by the 9othic tradition in which the central character, :ane, grows up to become the %good wife& of ;ochester, while the mad woman in the attic, Bertha 7ason, dies in a fire. This is a world in which bodily passions are present either in repressed or sublimated form. (n Emily Bront0+s -Wuthering eights the violence of passion is much more open. There is no place in civili<ed society for the destructi"e passions which unite (athy and 3eathcliff and both die as outsiders. 1eorge Eliot in her -!i""le#arch is more interested in the intellectual possibilities open to women in the 14th century. The novel begins with a marriage and recounts the gradual disillusionment felt by the heroine =orothea Brooke regarding her relationship with her husband who is unable to consider her as an intelligent being. Eli,abeth 1askell+s novels such as %$uth and %!ary %arton deal with %fallen women& prostitutes, unmarried mothers, abandoned mistresses as well as the lives of the working classes.

Among the main late ictorian no"elists: Thomas 3ardy

Thomas 3ardy was greatly influenced by *arwin+s theories which also gave rise to a conflict between science and faith. (n 1!/4 the publication of %0n the 0rigin of (-ecies by (harles *arwin came to shock the world as it assumed that man was born out of biological evolution instead of 9od+s hand. The novels published after *arwin became representative of a growing crises in the moral and religious values which formed the base of *ictorian ideas about society. 7oreover, the late *ictorians were pessimistic about the future and sharply critical of the utilitarian and moralist convections which characteri<ed the period in which they lived. "

*ickens& the first truly urban no"elist, sets most of his works in 7ondon, a city full of life and energy of which he also sees and realistically portrays the s'ualor and deprivation that many of its inhabitants were obliged to endure. *ickens celebrates the energy of .ondon, but he also fiercely critici<es some aspects of the so$called %*ictorian compromise&, such as the greed and hypocrisy of the rich and their absolute indifference to the problems of the poor. Thackeray attacks the shallowness of the *ictorian world, all based on the cult of money and appearance.

A reaction to the

ictorian materialistic and utilitarian approach.

The most important characteristics ome authors of the second half of the 14th century maintained that art was to be self+ /ilde+s masterpiece, %The #icture of sufficient and need serve no moral or $orian %ray has remained in ,nglish political purpose. literature as the most significant example 4scar /ilde in ,ngland established himself of ,nglish Aestheticism and the !reface to as a spokesman of the school of %&rt for the novel has always been regarded as the &rt's (a)e&, a movement whose supporters manifesto of this literary movement. considered art to be an autonomous realm. (n /ilde+s view, this school also included >rench poets, such as Baudelaire (n the !reface to -*he Picture of +orian and )imbaud, the !re+)aphaelites and Gray, 4scar /ilde says that -all art is the ;omantic poet, 2ohn 5eats. 6uite useless.. 4scar /ilde, as an %estheticism maintained that the artist aesthete , believed art and hadin no moral or (n 4scar /ilde+sthat theatre particular in %The Importance of Being %the creator of beautiful things& had to didactic purpose. (n this sense we could say that Earnest&, comic effects are generated by different types of humour. transform life into a %work of art. and that art has realplay use.is%rt for on /ilde and for The no whole based a number of the misunderstandings art wasderiving to be completely free from any &estheticists in general, created identity and existed from disguised or mistaken , a typical comic device which %there is no such thing as moral )udgement in its own realm whose only morality was has been around since the days of !lautus and which a $hakespeare moral or an immoral book&, %an ethical beauty. artist , said /ilde& is of the creator usedThe in plays like %The Comedy Errors and %As You Like It&. sympathy in an artist is an unpardonable of beautiful things whose is %to reveal art 7inguistic puns and aim paradoxes are another source mannerism of humour. of The style&. and misunderstandings conceal the artist&. Thus not only was art of %The Importance of Being Earnest& are useless, it was also useless to look for meaning generated by the paradoxical pun on the word Ernest which is both in art, theofartist+s intentions were of no others and also $ when the as name 2ack /orthing uses to deceive account. (f art had a purpose it was to produce spelt %earnest $ a word meaning sincere. pleasure. /ilde+s plays are full of paradoxical statements. An example is when 1wendolyn says % nce a man begins to neglect his domestic duty he becomes painfully effeminate&. Another source of comedy in /ilde+s plays is absurdity, both linguistic and structural. /ilde

Pre-$a-haelitis# is an artistic movement established in ,ngland in the mid$14th century, its first concerns of painting were later extended to literature. The artists known as Pre$a-haelites proposed new models both in painting and in literature, turning towards a genuine representation of nature and the human spirit. (n 1!6! the Pre$a-haelite %rotherhoo" was formed by a group of poets including *ante 1abriel )ossetti, /illiam 'orris and Edward Burne+2ones. (n literature, the principal sub)ects were ethic and religious matters, useful to critici<e contemporary in)ustices, or to evoke the genuine, natural life of the past, disgusted as they were by materialism and social abuses of their time.

novels to resolve the plot, pushing these to absurd extremes, while characters often say absurd things. 1wendolyn, a few seconds after meeting (ecily, says to her %( am !ery fond of you Cecily" I ha!e liked you e!er since I met you % as though she has known her for years.

The typical comic situations of 4scar /ildes theatre and his use of comic de"ices.

The famous play 1*he /#-ortance of %eing Earnest

(n the play %*he /#-ortance of %eing Earnest& /ilde implicitly critici<es two aspects of ictorian society which are intrinsically linked- the first is the conser"atism of ictorian moral "alues from whose censure he has to conceal his homosexuality, the second is hypocrisy, the double standard which permitted immoral behavior to go on behind the scenes as long as it maintained an impeccably respectable public face. The play foregrounds both these aspects through the main character 2ack /orthing+s double life as Ernest& a word which ironically means %honest&.