History Empire Science Religion Philosophy Society Literature 19 th Century Britain An Overview of the Period

• History

• Empire

• Science

• Religion

• Philosophy

• Society

• Literature

19th Century Britain

An Overview of the Period

History

19th century Britian

Queen Victoria reigned from 1837 to 1901, the longest in British history (64 years).

The age was predominately known as the Victorian age, emerging values and ideal were called “Victorian,” e.g. “Victorian sensibilities,” a new style of architecture was and is still called “Victorian.”

The era saw an increase in population, literacy rates, development of cities, scientific advancement, flux of the arts, and territorial expansion.

The British during this period were absorbed in a process called “nation formation” * (look at notes for explanation).

Empire


The British empire was called “the empire where the sun never sets” due to its expansion in every part of the world.

Britain emerged as world superpower with its advances in trade and its position as an imperial (an empire-building) nation as it exploited the riches of its foreign territories.

Consequently, London became the world’s financial center, a world warehouse, and global port for shipping and insurance.

National wealth increased and the British gold sterling (pound) became the international currency of the world.

Cont’d


Britain continued to open new markets in its colonies in Asia, Africa, and Latin America for cheap labor and cheap goods.

From its rule in Canada, Britain traded in timber (wood); from the West Indies, sugar; and from India *, tea.

The 1851 Great Exhibition ( the world’s first international display of goods) symbolized Britain’s relationship with the world economy as it displayed the exotic objects it acquired to show off its wealth and advertise its markets in the world.

By the end of the nineteenth century Britain ruled one fourth of the world’s population and had dominated the world market

Map of the British Empire

Terrotories colored red

Science


It was the age of industry and invention as the world saw the first communication era with the invention of the light bulb, canals, railways, steamships, photography, printing machines, and the telegraph.

In medicine, scientists began to establish a connection between unhealthy living conditions and disease.

In biology, Charles Darwin * developed his theory of evolution which entailed the survival of the fittest.

Scientific studies were biased such as the studies that “proved” that the European skull and brain was larger and better than Africans,

Science


Other scientific studies made a connection between the increasing intellectualism of women and a decline in reproduction. That meant that smart women would suffer from barrenness.

In psychology, scientists established a link between the mind and body. They also established a genetic factor for mental illness.

What scientists said about the operation of natural law was routinely regarded as

having important consequences for social organization.

Industrial Revolution*


The Industrial Revolution was responsible for the mass production of good, increased diversity of goods, and a development of a factory system of production.

It also lead to the development of new socioeconomic classes such as the nouveau riche (the new rich) as well as a great increase in the working classes.

It lead to urbanization which meant that people left farms to work in old and newly formed cities.

Convenience machines (machines that made life easier like washing machines), faster modes of transportation (steamships), increased leisure time for the rich and middle classes..

Cont’d


For the working classes, industrialization lead to a general worsening of living conditions as most factory workers were lower class women and children who worked under harsh terms and lived in unhealthy spaces.

The Industrial Revolution also strengthened the brutal capitalistic system in Britain as relationships began to be based on financial benefit.

The financial success of the revolution lead to a new commitment to research and development, investments in new technologies, and industrial and governmental interest in promoting invention.

Religion


The three main denominations of Christianity at the time were Catholicism, Protestantism, and Anglicanism.

The Catholics were given lesser rights than the other sects of Christianity; they were excluded from holding public office and were regarded with antipathy by the rest of society. However, in 1829 the Catholic Relief Act was decreed and in turn Catholics were given more freedom.

Catholics provided the first charity schools for the public, which focused on providing a mostly primary education.

Cont’d


Catholic schools were criticized for holding the Bible in one hand and holding bread in the other.*

Protestants were the strongest sect in Britain at the time and they were anti-Catholic and advocated a religiosity beyond the reach of the Church. They rejected the Catholic doctrines of papal supremacy and authority and believed in Providence, which is the foreseeing care and guidance of God over the creatures of the earth.

Predestination and predeterminism were beliefs held by many Christians.*

Cont’d


Predestination is the belief that God is sovereign and decides everything that will happen regardless of the will of man and that what God determines no man can change. It also means that God determines in advance who will be in heaven and who will go to hell.

Predeterminism is the idea that every event is caused, not simply by the immediately prior events, but by a causal chain of events that goes back well before recent events. For example, one’s personal characteristics are predetermined by heredity, by a chain of events going back before one’s birth. This also lead to a type of social determinism in which a person does not have any control over their social standing and will die in the same social class he was born.

Philosophy


German philosopher Georg Hegel emphasized the importance of human will in his philosophies of idealism and ethical voluntarism.

He argued that people need to exercise reason to achieve self-determination. He held the belief that each person’s individual consciousness or mind is part of the Absolute mind and that all people are part of a larger consciousness.

According to Hegel, human will takes precedence over intellect. The will is traditionally understood as a capacity for making choices and decisions, whereas the practical intellect refers to an ability to make reasoned judgments about which actions to take.

Ethical voluntarism is the view that whether an act qualifies as right or wrong depends primarily upon how the act is willed and that the consequences of one's act are judged good or bad primarily in accord with the goodness or badness of the will which produces the act.

Philosophy


Jeremy Bentham and John Stewart Mill came up with Utilitarianism in which a morally good action is one that helps the greatest number of people. That means the value of a good deed is in its utility or in other words its usefulness. Utilitarianism is also known by its impartiality; everyone’s happiness counts the same. When one maximizes the good, it is the good impartially considered. Any person’s good counts for the same as anyone else's good.

An action is right if it tends to maximize happiness, not only that of the agent but also of everyone affected. Thus, Utilitarian's focus on the consequences of an act rather than on its intrinsic nature or the motives of the one doing the action.

Philosophy


Karl Marx views criticized church and society and declared religion as the “opium* of the people”

According to his philosophy, human beings need to assert their communal essence. Human beings exist as a community, and what makes human life possible is their mutual dependence on the vast network of social and economic relations

The oppressors were the wealth owners of the means of production (property and factory owners) the oppressed were the working class

He believed that ruling class (aristocracy) always developed ideologies (idea systems)to justify and legitimize the exploitation of the lesser classes of people..

Marx called the workers’ acceptance of ideologies that ran counter to their interests false consciousness.

Society


Britain at that time had a rigid and distinct class system. Society was divided into:

Aristocracy: they were those who had titles such as Duke and Baron as well as those who owned large estates of land. They had much leisure time and did not have to work for money.

Gentry: they are rich however they are considered beneath the aristocracy either because they did not have a title or due to the fact that they are “new money” nouveu riche due to industrialization

Middle Class: they were people who had to work for a living and were mostly artisans (people who worked with their hands, like carpenters and blacksmiths), as well as those with professions like doctors, lawyers, bankers… etc.

Society


Additionally, the middle class were upper middle class like professors, doctors, and lawyers and a lower middle class like governesses, teachers, and clerks.

The middle class espoused strong values such as integrity, individualism, self-reliance, thrift and responsibility as they strived to establish a society based on merit rather than on one's birth.

The Low (Working) class: they were the laborers, those who served and made little money. About 80 percent of the population were of the working class and consisted mostly of women and children who worked in factories and as servants for the rich. The working class was further divided into skilled workers, unskilled workers, and the poor.

Society


Upper-class and middle class men were the center of society while women and the working class were marginalized.

The political arena was a masculine world from which women and the lower class were excluded.

In the early 19th century women and lower classes were banned from political activity. However, toward the second half of the century, women began to have limited rights with the 1857 Divorce Act that allowed a woman to divorce her husband if she can prove his adultery* and that he had either treated her with cruelty, had deserted her, or had committed incest or bigamy. The working class also started to form unions which demanded rights and protection.

Society


Men and woman lived in separate spheres in society and were required to perform different roles in life.

The public sphere was an exclusively male domain an is characterized by the manly virtues of determination, action, strong will, and resolution.

The private sphere was an exclusively domestic setting for women where a woman's moral virtues of gentleness, tenderness, piety, and faith could be developed*.

Women were barred from the universities and were not allowed to pursue a profession other than a domestic servant or teacher.

Women did not inherit property and any money or possessions automatically belonged to their husbands upon marriage.

Society


The concept of the “Angel in the House” became an ideal that a woman was supposed to strive to become. The angel of the house was devoted to the image of family home; it was her task to keep the household functioning smoothly. She is supposed to be weak, timid, useful, obedient, humble, loving, and beautiful.

These ideals became central to the values of the middle class and were absorbed by government policy maker and social commenter's.

Literature


This era saw an increase in literary rates. With the advances of printing technology (due to the Industrial Revolution) more books were published and distributed among people.

The age saw a reading revolution with the novel being the most read genre of the time.

With the establishment of Mudie’s Circulating Library, the first lending library for a small subscription, the novel became available to readers of the middle-class as books were leather-bound and were unaffordable.

There was a stigma attached to novels as they were as a distraction from religious reading.

Literature


To bring the novel to more people at a lower cost, novels were serialized in magazines such as Household Words and All the Year Round . These magazines were designed for families and were considered to be respectable readings.

Novels were also published in three volumes (books) called “three-decker's”

Serialization and three-decker’s gave the novel its distinct form as authors needed to fill out three volumes and lengthen plot lines to keep magazine reader's interest, adding complexity, depth and intricate details to their stories.

Literature


Realism was the defining characteristic of the 19th century novel.

It took a new approach to character and subject matter in paying attention to detail and to effectively and realistically portray characters and circumstances that reflect real life.

The realistic novel rests upon the strengths of its characters rather than plot.

Novelists attempted to portray characters that could be read as real people in representing psychologically complicated, multifaceted, contradictory, and emotional characters*.

Novelists described an everyday world that the reader could recognize.

They also addressed the social evils of the time and often objected the standard morality of the time.

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Literature

19th century Britain

The novelists of the Victorian era accepted middle class values and were concerned with the problem of the individual's adjustment to society

They created well-rounded middle-class characters who are rational and virtuous, but suffered lapses of judgment that were corrected by maturation.

Novelists brought new developments to the narrative technique by writing detailed background information and elaborate settings.

They also addressed the reader directly, sometimes assuming the character they invented, and sometimes stepping out of their persona (narrator).

They also included many subplots featuring several characters with various sub-climaxes due to the serialization of novels.

Genres of 19th Century Novel:

The Historical Novel: it recreates an actual history event and refers to actual historical people. It reflects the existing conditions of its period. An example is Charles Dickens's A Tale of Two Cities (1859).

The Social Condition Novel: it dealt with social and humanitarian themes, realism, criticism of social evils but with faith in progress, and general optimism. An example is Charles Dickens Oliver Twist (1838)

The Social Satire Novel: It uses irony, ridicule, and sarcasm to criticize society, institutions, and individual failings. An example is Jane Austen's Emma (1815)The Sensation Novel: it is concerned with domestic relationships and portrays them realistically, yet contains elements of the Gothic and melodrama. An example is Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre (1847).

The Mystery Novel: it had elements of surprise and mystery, much like a detective novel. An example is Willkie Collin’s Woman in White (1859).

The Fantastic Novel: it contains supernatural elements such as ghosts and vampires; it aims to incite fear and horror. An example is Bram Stoker's Dracula (1897)

Documents

History Empire Science Religion Philosophy Society Literature 19 th Century Britain An Overview of the Period