General information about the period:
-Queen Victoria is in charge.
-She started her reign at age 18 and ended at age 81. (63 years, longest in the British history.
-At that time Britain had India, Canada, Africa, Australia. (We can see colonization clearly.)
-It is the era of industrialization, industrial and agricultural revolution.
-The industrial revolution allows materials like paper to be cheap, so, printing and writing was very popular and important. They did not want to just write they wanted people to read also. This way the literature has improved at that time.
-Industrialization also allowed people to open factories and new factories meant new and a lot of job opportunities. AND, this way wealth and riches showed an increase, BUT, poverty and poorness also showed and increase too.
-It was the time when there was The Crimea War and Boer War.
-The Pax Britannica brought peace, prosperity(having good fortune),nationalism YET, the Pax Britannica was disrupted by the two wars of the period(Crimea and Boer).
-House of Commons(Kind of a Parliament) was ruled by two major sides, Liberals and Conservatives.
LITERATURE
-It is a romantic period.
-Writing style explains the difficult lives that people have and the hard work they do, love and luck wins in the end.
-Taste and creativity is an important literature feature of that era.
-Sentiments of nature and reality, detailed realism has a big role.
-The literature has shown a great increase because the printing, at that time was getting less expensive so, some people wanted to write and some people wanted to read.
-The relations between man and man became more important from the relation between god and man for a certain amount of time.
-The conflict between poor and rich, country and city can be seen in the works of this era.
-The melancholy always exists in the background of the “never setting sun”
-Intellectual and education based works are made.
-Idealization of what “English” and “Englishman” is.*
-Aestheticism started the late Victorian period.
-Modernist Period that follows the Victorian Period is influenced by the late developments of the Victorian Period.
-Important Writers: Charles Dickens, William Thackeray, The Brontë Sisters, George Elliot, Thomas Hardy, Alfred Tennyson, Oscar Wilde.
*Giving a definition for the terms “English” and “Englishman”, we can say that the term “English” is used for the ones who are not “Pure English”. Whilst the term “Englishman” is used for pure and 100% English people. In other words we can say that Britain wanted to separate the ones who joined their kingdom in the later years, and the ones who were there from the beginning of everything.
POETRY
-Mix of classic and medieval literature of England.
-Holds an ironic mirror to the aristocracy and paradoxical wisdom.*
-More simple compared to the earlier eras.
-The novelists or classic writers also wrote poems at the side so most of the famous names are the same for poetry.
-Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Robert Browning are the most appealing poet couple of the time. Maybe it is possible to say that the rebellion that they had created had been an influence on the minds of the in love of the time.
HERE IS ROBERT AND ELIZABETH BROWNING’S STORY (SHORTLY):
Robert was 6 years younger than Elizabeth but secretly obsessed with her poetry, they had never met yet Robert wrote her a letter saying:
“I love your verses
with all my heart
and I love you too.”
They met and fell in love after this letter, yet there was a problem. Elizabeth’s father Edward Barrett had 8 boys and 4 girls and he refused to any of them getting married –no one knows why-. SO, they married secretly in Italy where they had a son and wrote poetry and lived happily every after.
They may seem happy but there is always a darkness behind the light, just like The Victorian Period.
SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY
-Charles Darwin shook the whole world with the “Origin of Species” (Evolution Theory)
-Beginning of the Oxford English Dictionary.
HEALTH AND MEDICINE
-Anesthetics became common.
-Chloroform was introduced.(used to make people faint)
-Teeth pulled and replaced a lot because of the diet of the people.
-Surgeries were more hygienic thanks to new cleaning products being introduced.
ENTERTAINEMENT
-Theater, opera, music, drama is widely attended.
-Circuses and magic shows are getting popular.
-Ghost conjuring, mesmerism(hypnotizing) and mediums became popular.
TECHNOLOGY AND ENGINEERING
-Trains and steam ships were made –> industry and trade is improved thanks to this development.
-Cinema is being created.
-Telegraph
-Cars
-Aircraft
-Photography (first in 1839)
-Sewage system in London.
*Shows the wrongs of the people who consider themselves wise with a big ego, aristocrats at the time seemed or felt themselves like royal blood. Literature of this era is a mirror held against this kind of narcissist behavior of the “wise” of the “aristocrat”.
SPORTS
-Cricket, bicycling, roller-skating, horseback riding and tennis (all of them are already popular sports of the time.)
-First football league is created.
DECORATIVE ARTS AND ARCHITECTURE
-Styles mixed with middle east and Asian influences in furniture and interior design.
-The separation of private and public spaces are considered very important.
(houses are separated and divided carefully)
-Every room was filled with objects that had the interests of the owner.
-Harmony of the whole is very important.
-Rooms were painted according to their use.
-Using wallpapers were famous
-Gothic and melancholic influence was always there.
-“THE Victorian Architecture” wasn’t popular until the death of Queen Victoria.
-Romantic, Medieval, Gothic revival brought iron and steel buildings.
-Some of the important examples for the architecture of The Victorian Era:
•The Crystal Palace: destroyed by fire, originally erected in Hyde Park London.
•Palace of Westminster – London
•Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts – North America
•Hotel Windsor – Australia
•Joseph Paxton – Important architect of the time.
- In other words “The Victorian Architecture” has the melancholy of the era yet it also has its unique way of happy, relaxing and calm affects.
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