What do you know about Charles Dickens? What do you know about the Victorian Era in England? As you learn, listen for connections to Great Expectations!

What do you know about Charles Dickens?

What do you know about the Victorian Era in England?

As you learn, listen for connections

to Great Expectations!

Introduction to Charles Dickens, Great Expectations,

and the Victorian Era in England

Who was Charles Dickens?

Charles Dickens, 1812-1870

Literary Period: Victorian Period, 1837-1901

Literary Movement: The 'Condition of England' Writers

Dickens’s Life

When Charles Dickens was twelve, his father, unable to manage the family's financial affairs, was sent to debtors' prison. Young Dickens was forced to leave school and work in a factory. During his several months there, he developed a deep hatred of factory work and an abiding sympathy for the poor. Upon his father's release from prison, Dickens was able to resume his schooling.

Dickens completed his formal studies at fifteen and found work first as a law clerk and then as a legal reporter. He later worked as a journalist and began to pen sketches and anecdotes about daily life in London. These pieces, published in weekly journals, brought him some early recognition. When he was twenty-four, he serialised his first novel, Pickwick Papers. The novel was very successful and popular. From that point on, Dickens wrote continually. Oliver Twist began to appear in serial form immediately after Pickwick, and Nicholas Nickleby emerged before Twist was finished. In 1843, he wrote A Christmas Carol, for which he is perhaps best remembered.

Dickens married in 1836; he and his wife had nine children. A dedicated and responsible father, the writer devoted much time and energy to his family. Dickens, who at one time had wanted to become an actor, gained renown as a lecturer and speaker, touring widely with readings from his own works. He also threw himself back into journalism with a passion, editing and reporting for a number of newspapers, including the Daily News, which he founded, Household Words, and All the Year Round.

Resource: Proquest Learning Literature Database

Dickens’s Life

As he aged, his immense expenditure of energy and many obligations began to wear him down. George Bernard Shaw, in an introduction to a 1937 edition of Great Expectations, wrote that Dickens 'killed himself prematurely to pile up money for that excessive family of his' (631). In 1869, Dickens embarked on a grueling reading and speaking tour of America. It was his final trip outside of England. He died while in the middle of his latest serialisation, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, which was published unfinished in 1870.

One of the greatest novelists in the English language, Dickens conferred on the genre a clarity of vision, a depth of character analysis, and a sense of drama that attracted legions of readers at a time in which educated readers preferred poetry over prose and the novel was viewed as a lesser art form. The single clearest indication of his scope is indicated by the word Dickensian, which is often used to describe characters and situations similar to those Dickens crafted in his exceptional novels.


Life in Victorian England (1837 – 1901): Literature

The novel is the most popular form of literature!

The modern-day novel is shaped by the efforts of authors like Charles Dickens, Emily Bronte, Wuthering Heights (1847) and George Elliot, Silas Marner (1861), Charlotte Bronte (Emily's sister), Jane Eyre (1847)

These works were also highly ironic and satirical, and they typically probed or questioned many of the conventions of the Victorian class system.

“Social criticism novel” - very popular with middle-class readers during the Victorian Age. These works were highly realistic and had a didactic purpose: to teach their primarily middle-class readers about certain social problems and to motivate society to do something to solve these problems.

Notable examples of such works include Dickens’ David Copperfield (1850), Hard Times (1854), and A Tale of Two Cities (1859); Elizabeth Gaskell's Mary Barton: A Tale of Manchester Life (1848); George Eliot's Silas Marner (1861); and Thackeray's Vanity Fair (1847–48).

Victorian poets: Alfred Lord Tennyson, Robert Browning Resource: Proquest Learning Literature Database

Life in Victorian England (1837 – 1901): Governments and Politics

Queen Victoria 1837- 1901

67-year reign–the longest of any English monarch–

Great social, scientific, and political change in England.

During this time, the country became one of the world's—and one of history's—great imperial powers. Scientific advancements and rapid industrialism also brought

enormous wealth and commercial success to England. During the period, the country was transformed from a mostly

rural, agricultural society to an urban, industrial nation, with a growing middle class.

The modern-day railroad system, the telephone, electricity, and the radio were all introduced during the Victorian Age.

There was also a growing population of poor citizens as the gap widened between the well-off and the impoverished and as more and more people moved to the cities to make a living.


Life in Victorian England: Social Class System

What is a social class system?

People don’t often like to talk about the existence of social classes, but they do exist and are distinguished by inequalities in such areas as power, authority, wealth, working and living conditions, life-styles, life-span, education, religion, and culture.

What kind of class system existed in Victorian England?

“Upper classes"“Middle classes"

“Working Classes""Under Class"

Life in Victorian England: Social Class System, Employment and Politics

“Upper classes" : men and women who did not work – income came from inherited land and investments - old hereditary aristocracy and new gentry who owed their

success to their formal university education, commerce, industry, and the professions - politically involved

“Middle classes” : men who performed mental or "clean" work, paid monthly or annually- merchants, bankers, ship owners,

doctors, teachers – kept out of political process until Reform Act of 1837 which gave them the right to vote.

“Working Classes”: men and women who performed physical labor, paid daily or weekly wages - skilled and unskilled laborers – carpenters, blacksmiths, sailors, soldiers kept out of political process until the Reform Act of

1867 which gave them the right to vote."Under Class”: very poor – beggars, thieves, criminals –

More info: Victorian Occupations: Life and Labor in the Victorian Period

Life in Victorian England: Education

Education was not equal - not between the sexes, and not between the classes.

Gentlemen - educated at home by a governess or tutor until they were old enough to attend Eton, Harrow, Rugby, Winchester, Westminster, Charterhouse, or a small handful of lesser schools (public high schools).

- curriculum: the classics - the languages and literature of Ancient Greece and Rome.

After that, they would attend Oxford or Cambridge University - curriculum: mathematics, law, philosophy, and modern history.

Life in Victorian England: Education

However, it was not compulsory, either legally or socially, for a gentleman to attend school at all. He could, just as easily, be taught entirely at home. However, public school and University were the great staging grounds for public life, where you made your friends and developed the connections that would aid you later in life.

A lady's education was taken, almost entirely, at home. There were boarding schools, but no University, and the studies were very different. She learned French, drawing, dancing, music, and the use of globes. If the school, or the governess, was interested in teaching any practical skills, she learned plain sewing as well as embroidery, and accounts.

Life in Victorian England: Children and Education

Children and SchoolingBBC - Victorians - Flash Page

Charity Schools Dame SchoolsRagged SchoolsWorkhouse SchoolsPublic Schools / Boarding Houses

Life in Victorian England: Children and Work and Play

Children and Work BBC - Victorians - Flash Page

Children and PlayBBC - Victorians - Flash Page

Life in Victorian England: House work

Who did the house work in the Victorian Era?

Working class women!

What other role did a woman play?

cook house keeper baker

hostess seamstress accountant

mother wife moral guide


Laundry tools: soap bars, scrub

brushes, washtub, washboard, wringer, clothesline

method: The laundry was placed into a huge tub of boiling, soapy water for 20 minutes and moved back and forth to a tub of cold water with a wooden fork . Then there was a final rinse with clean water. The clothes were then hung on the line to dry.


Other household tasks:CookingBaking Ironing Sewing ShoppingHousecleaning – dusting, sweeping, polishing, mopping, scrubbing, washing – every surface and piece of furniture

Life in Victorian England: Apprenticeship

What is an apprentice? A person who works for another in order to learn

a trade.Dependent on a master for food, clothing, moneyMany youngsters less than 10 years old whose

parents could not support them were indentured to masters who agreed to teach them a trade.

Apprentices were usually bound to masters until they were 21 years old. An apprenticeship could last anywhere from 10-12 years.

Life in Victorian England: The Legal System

PunishmentsAlternative – probationCapital – executionJuvenile – tried as adults

Prisons – unsanitary, proliferation of disease, men, women and children all

locked up

all different kinds of criminals together

Ex: Newgate Prison in London


Prison Reform Gaols Act of 1823 – makes prisons safe,

clean, and separates men, women, and children, also separates types of criminals

Few thought criminals could be rehabilitated. The public viewed criminals as animals; the lowest form of life.


Police OfficersPeople believed communities should police themselves rather than having a government system that could oppress the people.

LawyersLawyers were very important and respected. Winning a case likely meant saving someone from death. Talented lawyers were well-paid. Unfortunately, injustices were common in the courts.

Life in Victorian England: Architecture

Home of a wealthy person

1899


Housing for the poor

Pre -1860


Typical Victorian Architecture

An English country house

Life in Victorian England: Fashion

Formal dress for upper and middle class English men and women 1870s


What to wear at a ball


Formal wear

1901


Smocks, jackets, and wide brim hats were common among agricultural workers

Chimney sweeper and Victorian lady

Victoria Era Dress

Victorian Era Dress

Victoria Era Dress

Victorian Era Dress

The End

Questions?

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What do you know about Charles Dickens? What do you know about the Victorian Era in England? As you learn, listen for connections to Great Expectations!