The Victorian Period

1
The Victorian Period

• Great Britain
• 1837-1901

2
Victorian

• Victorian Literally, the things and events
  during the reign of Queen Victoria (1837-1901)
• Connotations prudish, repressed, old fashioned
• Historically a period of great expansion of
  power, wealth and culture

3
It was . . .

• . . . A period of peace--after the defeat of
  Napoleon 1815, there is not another major war
  in Europe until 1914--World War I perspective
  American Civil War is 1860-1865)
• . . . A period of expansion--the growth of the
  British Empire
• . . . A period of economic growth--Industrial
  Revolution

4
Queen Victoria

• Victoria took the thrown in 1837 at the age of 17
• Three years later, she married Prince Albert
  (marriage lasted until his death in 1861)
• She reigned until 1901

5
Victorias Reign

• 1840s were a period of depression
• There were poor working conditions especially for
  children
• Potato blight in Ireland created the Potato
  Famine
• Growth of the Empire improved conditions as trade
  and technology grew

6
Major Poets of the Period

• Lord Alfred Tennyson
• Robert Browning
• Elizabeth Barret Browning
• Gerard Manley Hopkins

• Matthew Arnold
• Thomas Hardy
• A.E. Houseman

7
Major Novelists of the Period

• Charles Dickens
• Oliver Twist
• Great Expectations
• Emily Bronte
• Wuthering Heights
• Charlotte Bronte
• Jane Eyre
• Thomas Hardy
• Tess of the DUbervilles

• George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans)
• Silas Marner
• Lewis Carroll
• Alices Adventures in Wonderland
• Arthur Conan Doyle
• The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
• Robert Lewis Stevenson
• Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

8
Other Writers of the Period

• Playwrites
• Gilbert and Sullivan
• Pirates of Penzance
• H.M.S. Pinafore
• Oscar Wilde
• The Importance of Being Earnest
• Bernard Shaw
• Pygmalion

• Non-fiction
• Charles Darwin
• The Origin of the Species

9
About Victorian Writers

• They asked the questions can material comfort
  truly satisfy human needs and wishes?
• Complained that materialistic ideas of reality
  completely overlooked the spirit/soul that made
  life beautiful

10
About Victorian Writers

• Some set out to disturb their readers by telling
  that life was not as they perceived it (Dickens)
• Reflected the dangers and benefits of rapid
  industrialization while encouraging readers to
  examine their own understanding of progress