1. Historical Context
   1. Time Period
      1. Named after Queen Victoria
         1. ruled for 60 years
      2. Beginning
         1. Either in 1832 with the First Reform Bill
         2. or 1837 with the coronation of Victoria
      3. Ending
         1. 1901 with Victoria's death
         2. definitely by WWI
   2. Other Names
      1. Age of Evangelicals
         1. not concerned with doctrine of worship
         2. prescribing how people should live
         3. lots of charity work
         4. Work = cure for most ills
         5. Poor could not read tracts, Bibles, or sermons
         6. Evangelicals begin to be viewed as unrealistic.
         7. Woodcut
      2. Age of Earnestness, Respectability
         1. Covered piano legs
         2. no chicken breasts
         3. length standards for dresses
         4. rules of modesty
         5. Results:
            1. "other Victorians"
            2. STD's
            3. Secret Lives
            4. Burgeoning Prostitution rates
            5. Topic
      3. Age of Expansion
   3. Issues
      1. Great Change
         1. "[So completely transformed were] the mind and habits of the ordinary Englishman. . . that he would not, could he see him, recognize his own grandfather." - Walter Besant
      2. Political Turmoil
         1. Napoleonic Wars were not over until 1815
         2. Years of Revolution and potantial revoltuion followed
         3. The Crimean War
      3. The Woman Question
         1. The Upper & Middle Class
            1. being refined meant a woman worked hard to do nothing
            2. focus on social visits, needlework, reading, charity work, or no work
            3. education: art and dance
         2. The Lower Class
            1. part of the working force
         3. The "New Woman"
            1. 1880's-1890's
            2. sought equal moral/sexual standards
            3. more sensible clothes
            4. Topic
            5. sought professions
            6. civil service
            7. nursing
            8. shops
            9. offices
      4. Urbanization
         1. Causes
            1. 1800 England still largely agrarian
            2. Enclosure Act
            3. Industrialism
            4. Expansion
            5. Transportation
         2. Con's
            1. crowding
            2. pollution
            3. fog
            4. typhoid
            5. cholera
         3. Pro's
            1. indoor plumbing
            2. telegraph
            3. telephone
   4. The industrial Revolution: Trouble or Pride?
      1. 1851 World's Fair
         1. Seen as a way of advertising London's own greatness
         2. Crystal Palace
         3. Topic
      2. Transportation
         1. Changes drastically
         2. 15mph beginning of 1800s
         3. 40-50mph by close
         4. effected sense of space and time
         5. It's a tree!
         6. Topic
      3. Factory Conditions
         1. incredibly poor industrial class
         2. 7-8 in a bed
         3. Liverpool: 66,000 per sq mi
         4. Fredrick Engles
         5. Benjamin Disreali
            1. "Two nations... The rich and the poor.
   5. Utilitarianism & Benthamism
      1. "Moral Arithmetic"
      2. Beliefs
         1. Socio-economic political theory
         2. Set of values of the Middle Class
         3. "all human conduct motivated by self-interest"
         4. Goal: achievements of pleasure and avoidance of pain
         5. Therefore policies should be adopted to promote "the greatest happiness for the greatest number of people"
         6. measured policies/actions mathematically
      3. Education
         1. idea of efficiency and economy
         2. wanted to create sober, docile, dutiful, respectful citizens
         3. no room for questioning people
         4. not mandatory until 1880s
   6. Imperialism
      1. A world of power
      2. Exports soared
         1. 1850: 90 million pounds
         2. 1872: 315 million pounds
      3. Vast empire
         1. Australia
         2. India
         3. Canada
         4. Africa
      4. "In the Pink"
2. Authors
   1. Tennyson
      1. Poet Laureate
      2. Said to embody the Victorian
      3. Allusions
         1. borrowing from Homer to describe the ideal Victorian gentleman
         2. Uses Greek and English tales to prescribe moral lessons for Victorians
         3. Loved Arthurian Tales
            1. Before I could read I was in the habit on a stormy day of spreading my arms to the wind and crying out, 'I hear a voice that's speaking in the wind,' and the words 'far, far away' had always a strange charm for me.
      4. "In Memorium"
         1. written on the death of best friend, Athur Hallum, who died in his 20s
      5. Lady of Shallott
         1. "new Woman"
         2. Topic