Victorian England: Queen Victoria

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Victorian England Queen Victorias England
1837-1901

• A historical connection to
• A Christmas Carol
• by Charles Dickens

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Background on Charles Dickens

• Born on Feb. 7, 1812, in Portsmouth, England
• His father, John Dickens, was a minor clerk in
  the navy offices with a large family (Charles was
  the second of eight children) and only a moderate
  income. The family drifted from one poor home in
  London to another, each shabbier than the last.
  John Dickens ended up in the prison for an unpaid
  debt and took his wife and younger children with
  him.
• To help his family Charles worked in a ramshackle
  warehouse, lived in a garret, and visited his
  family in prison on Sundays, and felt that his
  life was shattered before it had begun. (David
  Copperfield)

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Charles Dickens

• Had only two years of secondary education.
• Never attended college.
• Did not read any great literature of previous
  ages.
• Knew little of history.
• So, how did he become such a great writer?
• He had a keen eye which he used to observe
  closely the details of peoples daily lives and a
  keen ear which he used to mimic peoples subtle
  speech patterns. His keen awareness of details
  gave him the basis of his great stories that
  recreate the realities of those around him.

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Fashion and Style for Wealthy Women Dickens
Victorian London
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Expectations of Proper Victorian Women in
Public

• A lady walks quietly through the streets, seeing
  and hearing nothing that she ought not to,
  recognizing acquaintances with a courteous bow,
  and friends with words of greeting. She never
  talks loudly or laughs boisterously, or does
  anything to attract the attention of the
  passers-by. She walks along in her own quiet,
  lady-like way, and by her preoccupation is secure
  from any annoyance. A true lady in the street, as
  in the parlor is modest, discreet, kind and
  obliging.
• It is proper that the lady should first recognize
  the gentleman. A gentleman will never fail to bow
  in return to a lady but a lady may not feel at
  liberty to return a gentlemans bow, which places
  him in a rather unpleasant position. Therefore, a
  lady should give the first smile or bow. She must
  refrain, at all times, from using the gentlemans
  Christian name.

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Fashion and Style for Wealthy Men

• A real gentleman never swears or talks
  uproariously. He should never fail to raise his
  hat politely to an acquaintance of either sex. If
  he should bump into someone or step upon a ladys
  dress he must "beg their pardon", and at no time
  should he lose his temper nor attract attention
  by excited conversation.
• It is proper to offer a lady his arm,
  particularly in the evening and it should always
  be the right arm. People passing should observe
  the law of "turn to the right" and in this way
  the lady would not be jostled. It is always
  proper for a gentleman walking alone to give the
  lady or a gentleman with a lady the inside of the
  walk.

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Hobbies of the Victorian Wealthy
Camping, cycling, horseback riding, swimming,
roller skating, croquet, golf, tennis, billiards,
ball room dancing, shooting, hunting, yachting
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What did the wealthy do?

• The wealthy did not do much besides look good and
  partake in an array of recreational activities.
• Their income came from inherited lands and
  investments in the progressive industries.
• Typical earnings30,000 pounds.
• Lets take a tour of a typical
• middle-upper class Victorian home!

http//www.logicmgmt.com/1876/house_tour/ourhouse.
htm
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The Other End of London East End

• London was overcrowded, and the East End suffered
  the worse conditions possible due to a rise in
  population of London which could not be supported
  with jobs, shelter, and medical treatment.
• A London reporter in 1849 writes, In big, once
  handsome houses, thirty or more people of all
  ages may inhabit a single room

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Disease and Malnutrition in East End

• The Cholera epidemic killed over 6, 000 people in
  London in 1852
• In an article published on 24th September 1849 a
  London reporter described a London Street with a
  tidal ditch running through it, into which drains
  and sewers emptied. The ditch contained the only
  water the people in the street had to drink, and
  it was the colour of strong green tea, in fact
  it was more like watery mud than muddy water
  Later this dirty water source was said to have
  been the breeding ground and the spread of
  cholera.
• In 1850 an inquest was held on a 38 year old man
  whose body was reported as being little more than
  a skeleton, his wife was described as being the
  very personification of want and her child as a
  skeleton infant

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Smog from Industrycreated unhealthy air all over
London
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Children of East End

• In 1848 Lord Ashley referred to more than thirty
  thousand 'naked, filthy, roaming lawless and
  deserted children, in and around the metropolis'
• Many destitute children lived by stealing, and to
  the respectable Victorians they must have seemed
  a very real threat to society. Something had to
  be done about them to preserve law and order.
  Thus, public schools were created.

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Response to The Poor

• The well off seemed to ignore the existence of
  such places as East End. They did the same as
  they did in their private lives, brushed it under
  the carpet and hoped it would go away.
• Quotes from the wealthy of Victorian England
• -the poor were improvident, they wasted any
  money they had on drink and gambling
• -God had put people in their place in life and
  this must not be interfered with because the life
  after death was more important
• a hymn published in 1848 by Cecil Frances
  Alexander demonstrates that even churches were
  reinforcing the negligent attitudes towards the
  poorThe rich man in his castle,The poor man at
  his gate,God made them, high and lowly,And
  orderd their estate

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The Solution The Poor Law of 1834

• Introduced some severe order into the poor legal
  system of issuing monies collected from taxes to
  the poor.
• Declared that poor relief should be granted to
  able-bodied poor and their dependents only in
  well-regulated workhouses.
• Called for the grouping of independent parishes
  into unions. Each union, under an elected board
  of trustees, decided how much relief each family
  or dependent pauper would receive. (Usually, the
  trustees pocketed much of the money granted to
  the union workhouses and forced the poor into a
  substandard living.)
• Forced the poor to wear pauper uniforms as a
  symbol of their inferiority in society and forced
  the poor to complete mundane, unproductive tasks
  for up to 18 hours per day
• Robbed the poor of their civil and political
  rights, including the right to vote.

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The Workhouses

• Families who did enter the workhouse were broken
  up, males and females were housed in separate
  sections and not allowed to mix.
• Bones were crushed by hand to make fertilizer.
  Sometimes the inmates were so hungry that they
  would pick scraps of flesh off the bones and eat
  it. The bones were not all animal bones either!

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Crime and Prisons

• Criminal offenses went up from about 5,000 per
  year in 1800 to about 20,000 per year in 1840.
• 90 prisons were built or added to between 1842
  and 1877
• Walking a treadwheel or picking oakum (separating
  strands of rope) were the most common forms of
  hard and meaningless labor.
• Prisoners were not allowed to speak or see any
  other people in some prisons. In fact, many went
  insane from such harsh treatment.
• Children were punished the same as adults until
  1847 when the courts decided that children under
  the age of 16 were instead to be sent to
  reformatory institutions until adulthood.

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Joseph Lewis Prisoner 5248 Age 11 Offense
Larceny Sentence 1 month in prison
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Walking the Treadwheel