Introduction

When Queen Victoria came to the throne in 1837, Britain was still largely an
agricultural country, but by the end of her reign it was transformed into one
dominated by large industrial cities, like Manchester, Leeds, Glasgow and Birmingham.
Victorian factories produced huge number manufactured goods and gadget that found
their way into shops and homes.
Victorian engineers created machinery to make steel, mine coal and build ships,
industrial production made factory and mine owners very rich, but the people who
worked for them were often poor and had to live in filthy, unhygienic conditions. Slum
housing was a breeding ground for serious diseases like cholera, tuberculosis and
typhus.
Journalists, writers and artists all helped reveal the grim truth of how working people
had to live and the long working hours, low pay and dangerous conditions they faced,
the Victorian n had a strong sense of religion and morality. They took poverty very
seriously though they thought many poor people had only themselves to blame. These
¨ undeserving¨ poor people had to go into workhouses, where they were made to
work long hours in return for basic food and clothing. But the Victorians also
introduced new regulations for working hours and conditions in factories and mines;
they built proper sewers and established better hospitals. Victorian cities appointed
health inspectors, laid out parks for fresh and exercise, and provided healthcare advice
for mothers and families. Even so, when the second Queen Victoria reigned for 63
years- the longest of any ruler in British history. Initially people found her headstrong
and stubborn, but then she fell in love and found happiness with her German cousin,
Prince Albert. They had nine children and liked to present their happy family life as an
ideal, which all families should copy. In 1861, Prince Albert died and Queen Victoria
went into deep, refused to appear in public. Many people thought that it was hardly
worth having a Queen if they never saw her. However, when she did start appearing in
public again, she found she was still very popular. In 1872, she was made Empress of
India and, in 1887 and 1897, the whole empire celebrated the Golden and Diamond
Jubilees of her reign. A number of her children married into the various royal families
of Europe, so that, by the time she died in January 1901, she was grandmother to
many of Europe`s rulers.

Industrial Revolution
Victoria came to the throne during the early, frenetic phase of the world`s first Industrial
Revolution. Industrialization brought with it new markets, a consumer boom and greater
prosperity for most of the propertied classes. It also brought rapid, and sometimes chaotic
change as towns and cities expanded at a space which precluded orderly growth.
Desperately poor housing conditions, long working hours, the ravages of infectious diseases
and premature death were the inevitable consequence. The Victorian symbolized Britain`s
progress and world prominence, but it also witnessed some of the most deprived people, and
depraved habits, in the civilized world.

Historical context
The Victorian period (1837-1901) can be separated into three periods.
 The early Victorian period (1837-1851) started when Victoria became queen on June
20, 1837. Before Victoria`s reign in 1801 most people lived in the countryside. By 1851,
more than half of the population was urban. The first periods of Victoria`s reign is
characterized by ¨ social and political turmoil¨ caused by the rapid changes that came
with industrialization. In 1840 there were economical and political problems that led
to the term ¨hungry forties¨ because of the high food prices and the numerous people
who were unemployed.
The Chartist movement, a political activism campaign by the working class, strived for
improved economic conditions and democracy. The Reform Bill of 1832 extended
voting privileges to the lower middle class and redistributed parliamentary
representation to break up the conservative landowner´s monopoly of power,
England’s economical troubles could not be entirely solved. By the end of this Time of
Troubles, the Chartists, among others, succeeded in introducing important economic
reforms, such as the repeal of the Corn Laws and the introduction of a system of Free
Trade. It`s estimated that in the early 1840s, the life of a working man in one of the
factory cities (Manchester, Liverpool, etc) was about 20 years because of the poor
conditions. A great part of the population of Britain still did not have the vote, and the
working class poor became even poorer as workhouses, poorhouses, and orphanages
became cheap source of disposable labor. As a result, the period that saw such
remarkable prosperity for some also saw the formation of an UNDERCLASS of the
poor, reflected in works like Dickens` OLIVER TWIST or HARD TIMES.
There were also improvements during the early Victorian period such as, the coming of
the railway, the invention of the telegraph, the development of electrotyping and
high-speed presses for mass printing, and lighting through gas for the major streets.
 Role of the railway, during those twenty years Industrial Revolution was carried to co
completion by the huge development of steam traffic both by land and by water.
Passenger traffic by rail was in effect inaugurated by the opening of the Manchester
and Liverpool railway in 1830; in 1850 all the main railway lines were at work.
The railroad carried goods in an hour perhaps as far as old horse haulage conveyed
them in a day and an immensely greater quantity at a time. An Act of Parliament in
1844 required the railway companies to provide a sufficiency of trains with covered
accommodation for passengers at the rate of a penny a mile.
Travelling in style; some companies started designing proper carriages, with varying
degree of luxury for first, second and third class. Different companies competed to
have the smartest carriages. Their lines came into different London terminals and they
built grand hotels there for their passengers. They also provided bookstalls and cafes
for passengers on station platforms.
 The great industrial effort of the early period culminated in the Great Exhibition, which
showed industrial products of English and foreign make. The Crystal Palace, where the
exhibition was held, was a great feat of building engineering and confirmed Great
Britain as ¨ the workshop of the world¨.
 The penny post; out of the development of steam traffic came the creation in 1840 the
Penny post, carrying with it an enormous increase in correspondence; and
immediately after the establishment of the Penny Post came the Electric Telegraph.
The first telegraphic line in England was set up between London and Slough in 1844,
and seven years later came the laying of the first submarine cable between Dover and
Calais.
 The Mid- Victoria period (1851-1875). England enjoyed domestic stability, progress
and growing prosperity during this era. At the Great Exhibition of 1851 in London,
Great Britain demonstrated her industrial, military, and economic superiority. The
standard of living increased as profits and wages rose. The second Reform Bill of 1867
 extended the vote to still more of the middle class and even to some working class
householders, furthering Britain`s move towards greater democracy.
 New laws prevented the adulteration of food, protected children from abuse, and
enforced standards of safely and sanitation in housing.
 Trade4 unions were legalized, universities were modernized, and the purchase of army
commissions was abolished.
 The factory Act of 1874 established a maximum week of fifty-six hours.
 The Education Act of 1870 created government supported schools and made
elementary education available to every child in England.
 Victoria’s ideals were the ones of most of the British public. Her ideals were very
puritan. Being a puritan meant that she believed in strict Christianity and discipline.
Many paintings show her with “her nosed turned up” in sternness. She heavily
believed in discipline. Because she mourned the death of her husband for so long it
went along with the Victorian mentality. The Great Exhibition of 1851 was a large
show of Victorian ideals. The exhibition was held in the Crystal Palace, which was a
palace made out of crystal and had a new architectural design. The Crystal Palace was
built for the same reason that the later Eiffel Tower was built. The reason was to show
off the building, the Crystal Palace for the Great Exhibition and the Eiffel Tower for the
World’s Fair. The Golden Jubilee of 1887 and the Diamond Jubilee of 1897 were also
examples of Victoria putting on an exhibition.
 Charles Darwin; the man who changed the way we view life on Earth. He was a
British naturalist and one of pioneer of the evolution. He developed the idea of the
natural selection to explain how an animal life changes and evolves as some species
and varieties survive others die out. He developed his ideas on a voyage on HMS
Beagle., where he saw how animals of the same species living on different ways. He
concluded that life on Earth does not stay the same forever. It evolves by natural
selection. Those that adapt, survive; those that do not die out. He put his ideas in a
book, on the Origin of species, which created huge controversy when it was published
in 1859 because it challenged the story of creation in the Bible.

The British Empire

Under Queen Victoria`s reign approximately 400 million people were added to the British
empire- making it the largest in history.
Many Victorians were convinced they should rule the world. The British Empire covered a huge
area of the globe, Including Canada, India, Burma, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, vast
areas of Africa and islands in the Pacific, the Caribbean and the Mediterranean. The British
believed they had a duty to bring Western technology, medicine, education and law to all
these different parts of the world.

Trade and the empire

The empire began with trading companies buying and selling goods. These companies became
very powerful; in Africa they took over huge areas of land from their local chiefs, and the East
India Company ended up ruling much of India. The British went to war to force China to accept
the British trade in opium, while the British mining companies in South Africa helped to start
the Boer War.
The British also sent missionaries around the empire to spread Christianity and to run schools
and hospitals. They were not always welcome in India, Muslims and Hindus wee so suspicious
that missionaries were trying to attack their beliefs that, in 1857. Indian soldiers mutinied and
started a huge uprising against British rule. In some areas, like Canada, Australia, and South
Africa, large numbers of British people emigrated to settle and farm the land that had been
taken from the local inhabitants. In Tasmania, these settlers completely wiped out the local
population by. By the end of the century, many of these British colonies were starting to act
independently and rule themselves.
The British firmly believed that the people of the empire were better off being ruled by British
than by anyone else under British rule. They were able to get a good education and career, but
by the end of the century, many of these educated colonial people were beginning to ask why
they could not run their countries themselves.

The Irish famine

From 1845-1852, around 1 million Irish starved to death and another million emigrated to
more prosperous countries. Although Victorian Britain created a lot of wealth. Some areas
were very poor, including much of Ireland. Many Irish people could not afford a varied diet and
lived almost entirely on potatoes. In 1845, however, disaster struck: a disease destroyed the
whole potato crop and the poor people of Ireland faced starvation. The British government
organized a famine relief operation, but they did not hand out free food. They said the real
problem was that the Irish were extremely poor. Unfortunately, the work was ear too heavy
for people who were already desperately hungry and it made the situation even worse.
Thousands of people starved to death in the Irish famine, and many of those who survived left
Ireland to seek better lives in America, Australia or South Africa. Many Irish people still blame
the British government for not doing more to help them during the famine.

Social class and class distinction

Victorian England was structured in a class hierarchy. The distinguishing factor was not
necessary how much money people owned; instead the class belonged to was revealed
through his/her manners, speech, clothing, education, and values. Generally the various social
classes would live in separate parts of town and differ significantly in their attitudes toward
politics and religion. Consequently people were most likely to associate with others who
shared their social status and hence also their opinions and values.
In general Victorians saw their society as divided into three classes. On top in the hierarchical
order was the elite called the Aristocrats, in the center the middle-class and below was the
working class.
 The Victorian UPPER CLASS consisted of the Aristocrats, Nobles, Dukes and other
wealthy families working in the Victorian courts. The upper class was in powerful
position giving them authority, better living conditions, and others facilities. The upper
class was by inheritance a Royal class. Many Aristocrats did not work and their families
had been gathering enough money for each generation to live a luxurious life.
There were a number of aristocrats who managed large industries like mining or
shipping. In terms of Education also those belonging to the rich families got the best
tutors to provide education.
 The MIDDLE CLASS was the next in social ranking. Middle class people also owned and
managed vast business empires. They consisted of shopkeepers, merchants, clerks,
businessman, bankers, doctors, etc. the Industrial Revolution in the mid –century
brought about drastic changes in the standard of living of the Victorian middle- class
people. These revolutions opened the door for more job opportunities and earn a
decent living. This in turn, had a positive impact on the education of children.
 The WORKING CLASS was the lowest among the social hierarchy.
 The working class consisted of unskilled laborers who worked in brutal and
unsanitary conditions. They did not have access to clean water and food,
education for their children, or proper clothing. Often, they lived on the
streets and were far from the work they could get, so they would have to walk
to where they needed to get to. Unfortunately, many workers resorted to the
use of drugs like opium and alcohol to cope with their hardships.
 The Under Class was those were helpless and depended on the support of
other. The poor and young orphans relied on donations to survive. Some
women who were unskilled and could not get any jobs.