TAKING NOTES

THE VICTORIAN AGE (1837-1901) = IL PERIODO VITTORIANO

The Victorian age begins conventionally when Victoria, from the House of Hannover,
became the queen of Britain in 1837 and finishes when Victoria died (1901). The queen
was so influential, charismatic, powerful to give the name to the period, as well as it was
with Elisabeth I, talking about the so called Elizabethan age (see Shakespeare). The limits
of the Victorian age correspond to the limits of the reign. From a political point of view, it
was quite a peaceful time. A colonial expansion gave birth to the British Empire. Thats why
Victoria was queen of Britain and empress of India: its the period of the Commonwealth
(=bene comune), which corresponds to the British Empire. From an industrial point of view,
Britain was the most developed, the wealthiest and most powerful country in the world. It
was called: the workshop (=officina, fucina, laboratorio) of the world.
For Britain the Victorian period was a period of rapid expansion, both economically and
territorially. The modern urban economy of manufacturing industry and international
trade (=commercio internazionale) took over from (=ebbe la meglio su) the old agricultural
world.
Theres a relationship between industrial power and Empire: the colonies represented for
the mother country a business. Raw materials (=materie prime) were taken, came to
Britain at a very low cost. They were manufactured and sold in the same colonies from
were they were taken.
Colonising poor countries was an ethical necessity, a spiritual mission of the white man:
the Victorian writer and intellectual Rudyard ( pronuncia radiard) Kipling (the author of
Kim, Jungle Books, Captain Courageous, etc) said:

Colonising poor countries is the white mans burden (=fardello)

(R. Kipling)

The western man has the moral responsibility to teach what he knew: the best civilisation
was a gift (=dono) and a moral task (=dovere, compito morale). It was a self-justification
for colonial expansion. For the minority it was the same old story: misery, exploitation.
The wellness, the well-being of a majority of people justified the miserable conditions of a
minority which was considered tolerable and inevitable (=nel nome del benessere, della
ricchezza di una maggioranza erano tollerate le condizioni misere di una minoranza). This
was admitted for a healthy, industrialised country on the base of a philosophy: Jeremy
Benthams utilitarianism.
The Victorian age was an age of compromise (compromise was a key-word of the
Victorian age). We mean that opposites coexisted, opposites were both tolerated on one
condition: the respect of decency (other key-word

it was the leading principle

(=principio conduttore, principe) of the age). That was respectability, you had to be
respectable you can be whatever you want unless you are respectable and dont show
the bad aspects. Theres a gap between public and private life, appearance and
substance. Double, critical view of life. Doubleness was another key-word of the age. Age
of sexual repression and strait-laced (=prudish= puritan, severo) morality. Victoria was a
puritan (very rigid, strict). Puritan values, pruderie dominated the age, sex was a taboo:
you even couldnt allude to legs (you couldnt say legs, nor even the legs of the table were
covered!!). Actually (=in realt), in this period the number of prostitutes increased : that
was considered attaining to private life! Victoria didnt want to pronounce the word sex:
actually she was married to Albert (see Victoria and Albert museum in London) and had 9
children. There was a gossip between Victoria and her horse keeper. It was a period of
doubleness and hypocrisy. Did the intellectuals denounce this doubleness? The Victorian

age is associated with double standards (=doppiezza, 2 pesi e 2 misure) and many of its
foremost writers attacked the vice of hypocrisy.
First of all, we should divide the Victorian age in three periods, from a cultural and literary
point of view:
1.

Early Victorianism (from 1837 to 1850);

2.

Mid Victorianism (the middle portion, about 1850 to 1890 of the reign);

3.

Late Victorianism (from 1890 to 1901). All this time frame can vary!

Early Victorianism was an age of optimism, faith in the progress, faith in the future, pride of
the industrial development. Mid Victorianism was an age of doubt and late Victorianism
was a definitely more pessimistic era.
Oscar Wilde (The Portrait of Dorian Gray, The Importance of Being Earnest, De Profundis,
etc) Robert Stevenson (The Strange Case of Doctor Jekyll and Mr Hide, Treasure island,
Master of Ballantree, etc.) and Lewis Carroll (Alice in Wonderland and Through the Glass,
Sylvie and Bruno) were intellectuals of the third period. The intellectuals of the 1 st period
were optimistic, endeavoured with (=intrisi di, ubriacati di) the faith in progress. One talk
about Merry England (=felice Inghilterra). But Carlyle, a historian of the 3 rd period talked
about not so merry England! The 3rd period was very critical, but criticism was hidden,
never open.
Oscar Wilde: he is witty (=spiritoso, arguto), he plays with words, he is famous as a
playwright (=scrittore teatrale). In The Importance of Being Earnest Wildes critics is witty,
joyful, typical of the language of comedy which is light the theme of doubleness is
treated in a witty way.
Robert Stevenson: theme of the double in Doctor Jekill.
Lewis Carroll: social criticism. Theme of the double. He was reverend Charles Dogson, a
mathematician at Victorias court. Doubleness in Alices world. Alice is in search of her
personal identity (a role, a position in the Victorian period). Alice is Victorian (shes got a
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Victorian education): shes always kind, well educated, even with the Queen of Heart
orders to cut the heads off. Alice gets tiny (=minuscola) and big: she cant find her right
size: reference to a non-sensical society which claims adaptations from the individuals.
Non-sense is the great protagonist of the Victorian age. You can seize contradictions in the
late Victorian age.

Social reforms.
There were social reforms in the Victorian age:

for example the Elementary Education Act of 1870 against analphabetism, which

gave all children the right to a basic education (compulsory (=obbligatorio) elementary
education). This had a big influence on literature, increasing the number of readers.

Institution of the Metropolitan Police by the Prime Minister Robert Peel (Bobby

for policeman!).

Limit of working hours in factories with the Ten Hours Act: it restricts (=limita) the

working hours of women and children in textile factories.

Independent Labour Party is founded (

they substituted the Whigs, the

liberals).

Trade Unions Act legalises workers unions.

It was a contradictory period: there was just one war: the Crimean War. Florence
Nightingale (dama della lampada) foundation of the Red Cross. In 1851 the Great
Exhibition in London celebrates British advances in science, technology, and the Empire.
It was held in Crystal Palace, a magnificent glass edifice designed by the architect J.
Paxton for the occasion. It displayed objects from all over the world, from steam
locomotives (=locomotive a vapore) to a stuffed elephant from India.

Victorian novel (=Romanzo vittoriano)

The leading literary genre in the Victorian age is fiction: its a period of concrete things,
materialism, and business. Fiction is the most suitable genre, in particular the novel.
Poetry was the genre most representative of the Romantic age. Whereas (=mentre) the
Romantic age was one of poetry, the Victorian age was mainly (principalmente) one of
prose.
Victorian age means Charles Dickens: he gave voice to the Victorian age. The Victorian
novel had a very specific and peculiar characteristic: serialisation (that is (=cio),
publication in periodical issues (= a puntate) or instalments (=dispense, fascicoli). Most of
the Victorian novels were published in a serialised form (especially weekly or monthly) in
a periodical magazine.
The positive aspects were:
o

the publishing favoured the selling of the magazine with the novel (it was

advantageous for the publisher);

o

in the first moment, the author had sketched, figured out the characters, but

somehow the book is written in progress: the readers reaction can modify the story. Lets
take the case of Dickens nice novel (published at the beginning of his career) The Old
Curiosity Shop. In the novel, Little Nell, a good girl, an angel at the end of the book died.
The readers didnt like that and treated Dickens as a killer. After that, Dickens studied the
readers reaction. He followed the likes and dislikes of the readers.
Advantages: novels can be quite changeable, being suited, modified according the
readers reaction.
Consequences: cheap cost influence the reading. The public was larger than the
conventional readers (upper classes) it became much more heterogenic (=eterogeneo)
and included the lower middle classes (= classi medio-basse) that were absent till now.
The instalments of novels provided a popular form of entertainment and were read aloud
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by the family in the evening. Participation in the events of a story was great, so great that,
on occasions, letters to the editor persuaded Dickens to change events to suit the tastes
and expectations of the readers. In comparison to the Elizabethan era when drama was a
popular, it had become much more selective (indoor theatres instead of outdoor ones, for
example).
Realism is typical of the Victorian age. Dickens describes upper classes and low classes.
-1st characteristic: characters of both the worlds. Dickens characters give voice to the
whole panorama of social classes and professions which were emerging in the modern
city, of which London was the prime example.
Subject matters see on page 130F
Dickens was an early Victorian optimistic, he believes in the possibility of a better future
for everybody, even the poor).

Key words:
Age of compromise
Respect of decency
Doubleness
Novel
Serialisation
Realism

REVISION

Short revision of what weve done about Victorian Age. Chronological limits
correspond to Victorian reign. Strong optimism at the beginning: everything is
very positive. Hard times for a minority were considered necessary according
to utilitarianism. Optimistic attitude little by little decreased and turned to a
pessimistic one. The loss of optimism marks the distinction in different literary
phases. The key word: decency, strict behaviour at least publicly (puritan
mentality of Victoria), what looked like gap between exterior decency and
private behaviour ( Victorian compromise: formal behaviour beyond private
vices). Hypocrisy denounced as doubleness (late Victorianism) see Doctor
Jekyll and Alice. Difficult and contradictory times: formal decency that hid
controversial dimension. What literature best suited the times? Fiction, the
novel. When the middle class became the ruling class, it brought material
values, success, money. In the Augustan age Defoe, Swift, Fielding, etc.,
dominance of the middle class, the so called backbone (=struttura portante,
scheletro) of England. It corresponds to the birth of the novel (romanzo
augusteo, illuminista

borghesia corrisponde a prosa). Aristocracy prefers

poetry no concrete matters, but personal issues). Life was concerned by

material, objective issues. The Victorian novel: realistic (inspired by real life).
What life and whose life? Life of common people. It dealt with their life. A
novelty through: a new entry in the public readers the lower middle class.
Two factors justify this:

1.

A technical fact (compulsive education1 by an act of the parliament)

widens the public of readers (people can read now!);

2.

serialisation consisting in dividing the novel into periodical issues

(instalments =puntate). Almost all the V. novels were published in instalments.
Of course publishing a novel in this way positive and negative results 2.
Positive consequences:

a.

the public readers widened enormously, including the lower class (before
literature was not for them!) instalments cost less; people could afford the
novel in this way.

b.

The author had to make any instalment very interesting (with suspense,
expectation);
From the novelists point of view: the novelist kept the public under

c.

control. He could modify the plot according to the publics reaction. The contact
with the public was strict. Minor changes became possible in the plot.
Negative consequences:
a. from an artistic point of view, theres a degradation in literature. If you have
to fit a heterogenic public, the cultural value diminishes (V. novel is a popular
form of art, not an aristocratic one3). In order to make the reader willing to
read the next issue, the writer created suspense (with a subplot, a new
character, etc.) It is going to create a mess! Too many complications, too many
characters, too many subplots it is more and more difficult to conclude a
story! The story risks to be not very balanced, coherent, harmonious
something is not perfectly written: the overall view is of something not
Istruzione obbligatoria (the Elementary Education Act of 1870).
Possibile domanda da 3^ prova: Aspetti positivi e negativi del romanzo vittoriano.
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Shakespeare pleased everyone, without lowering the level of literature.
1
2

homogeneous. Complex plot to bring to an end! Dickens introduces at the end

a very classical role: the role of the deus ex machina4. Who is he? A character
coming from classical Greek tragedy (often a god, brought into the stage by a
machine). In D. books he belongs to the upper class the character who
solves all the situations is a member of the upper class, hes rich (while the
protagonist belongs to the lower class). He can solve the many problems of the
protagonist. Was this strategic? Stereotyped division:
1. saviour upper class,
2. protagonist lower class
D. had readers from all the classes. How could he possibly please all the
classes? In this way. All D. had happy end the protagonist has all his
problems solved (optimism about the future). As the protagonist solves all the
problems, the upper class readers were satisfied as well they had an
important role in society: saviours, the ones who could save the world.
Capability to satisfy the needs, the expectations of all his readers typical of
D. the most beloved English writer of his time.

Dio che mette pace in situazioni intricate. Tragedie greche con colpo di scena e deux ex
machina che risolve le complicazioni.
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