Britain’s+Victorian+Age


 * Britain’s Victorian Age **

Big Ideas: - Optimism pand hope for a new era/self improvement - The belief in progress and expansion
 * The First Reform Bill granted suffrage to middle class men and later to working-class women. By the end of the nineteenth century, a much larger demographic of both men and women were able to vote.
 * Victorian authors such as Samuel Smiles and Lord Tennyson published works with the intent of emphasizing the importance of hard work and the principal of morality, respectively. Also popular were the literary works of Charles Dickens and Margaret Thackeray. Subsequently, the rate of literacy in England rose significantly during this time period.
 * Because Britain did not seek centralized rule amongst its colonies, those colonies were able to govern themselves in a way best suited to their regional needs.
 * Rather than enforcing military expansion, Britain focused on commercial expansion.

-The birth and influence of Utilitarianism/economic changes
 * Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill contributed this theory that the ethics of any activity would be measured by how useful it was.
 * The expanding interest in economic self-interest was stimulated by the amalgamation of Utilitarianism and political/economic practices.
 * A steadily growing poor population raised concern about how to handle this rise in poverty. For example, Utilitarians strongly advocated a redistribution of wealth. On the other hand, Darwinists felt that giving aid to a social class which was both physically and economically weak would only weaken society as a whole.
 * Thomas Carlyle spoke out against poverty and encouraged society to lend a hand. His opinions inspired the works of Karl Marx and Charles Dickens.
 * Organizations such as the YMCA and the ASPCA emerged as efforts to better the lives of both people and animals alike.
 * Elizabeth Gaskett and Benjamin Disraeli wrote novels which depicted the gap between the rich and the poor.

-Naturalism and Decadence/Realism
 * Realist novels began to raise some existential questions, specifically regarding how one was meant to lead one's life/whether any outside force was acting as a guide.
 * Literary works by Thomas Hardy began to acquire a more fatalistic/somber tone as a reflection of self-pity