Social Class of the Mid-Victorian Period and Its Values

Social Class of the Mid-Victorian Period and Its Values

Author: Alexandra Köhler

Publisher: GRIN Verlag

Published: 2008-10

Total Pages: 37

ISBN-13: 3640185560

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Seminar paper from the year 2007 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Culture and Applied Geography, grade: Sehr gut, University of Osnabrück, course: Seminar, language: English, abstract: The term "Victorian" remains a living concept in our daily society. The term is related to the reign of Queen Victoria of England from 1837 to 1901. Since it covers a wide time span, the era has been divided into the early-Victorian period (1837-1851), the mid-Victorian period (1851-1875) and the late-Victorian period (1875-1901). "Victorian" is also used today to describe British furniture and architecture made during the greater part of the 19th century. Additionally it refers to British literary works which were written, for instance by Wilkie Collins or Charles Dickens. Furthermore specific social and moral attitudes are associated with the word "Victorian." The Victorian age was an age of transition. England was transformed from a feudal and agricultural society into an industrial democracy. Nevertheless the process of the industrial revolution did not only create progress but also problems. One drawback was the hierarchy which was created in the British society leading to a division of people into distinctive social classes. In order to analyze the class distinctions more precisely this term paper concentrates on the specific class divisions that arose especially between the middle class and the working class and on how these differences were characterized. In addition, the three well known Victorian values of the middle and working class, family life, respectability and self-help, are defined and discussed. Due to the fact that it is not possible to discuss the whole Victorian period as one homogenous era, the discussion of the social classes and their values is restricted to the mid-Victorian period. In order to understand the society in the Victorian era it is necessary to depict a brief overview of the historical circumstances concerning the Victoria


Working Class Radicalism in Mid-Victorian England

Working Class Radicalism in Mid-Victorian England

Author: J. B. Poole

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2019-09-18

Total Pages: 421

ISBN-13: 100001035X

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This fifth volume of annual reviews of developments in the implementation of arms control and environmental agreements and in peacekeeping activities covers recent developments. It discusses nuclear proliferation, nuclear testing, a fissile materials cut-off and the counter-proliferation concept.


Daily Life in Victorian England

Daily Life in Victorian England

Author: Sally Mitchell

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA

Published: 2008-11-30

Total Pages: 354

ISBN-13: 0313350353

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What was life really like in Victorian England during its transition from provincial society into modern urban power? Discover the effects of increased women's rights, technological advances, and Charles Darwin's discoveries on everyday life. This volume offers a fascinating glimpse into Victorian daily living, including women's roles; Victorian Morality; leisure; health and medicine; and life in all settings, from workhouses to country estates. This edition features an extensive guide to contemporary primary source material and further research, including information about finding authoritative sources easily on the Web. Illustrations, interactive sidebars, a chronology and glossary further illuminate the details of Victorian culture. This volume is an ideal source for students and teachers alike. Discover the effects of increased women's rights, technological advances, and Charles Darwin's discoveries on everyday life. Engaging narrative chapters explore all aspects of the Victorian experience, including: fashion, morality, courtship and mourning rituals, crime and punishment, public school requirements, legal status (marriage, divorce, inheritance, guardians, and bankruptcy), sports like croquet and foxhunting, and the importance of religion.


Middlemarch

Middlemarch

Author: George Elliott

Publisher: ReadHowYouWant.com

Published: 2009-03-09

Total Pages: 486

ISBN-13: 1425040527

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An extraordinary masterpiece written from personal experience, Middlemarch is a deep psychological observation of human nature that revolves around the issues of love, jealousy, and obligation. Eliot's feminist views are apparent through the novel: she stresses the fact that women should control their own lives.


The De-moralization of Society

The De-moralization of Society

Author: Gertrude Himmelfarb

Publisher: Knopf

Published: 1995

Total Pages: 342

ISBN-13:

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As the debate over values grows ever more divisive, one of the most eminent historians of the Victorian era reminds readers that values are no substitute for virtues--and that the Victorian considered hard work, thrift, respectability, and charity virtues essential to a worthwhile life


From Spinster to Career Woman

From Spinster to Career Woman

Author: Arlene Young

Publisher: McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP

Published: 2019-05-30

Total Pages: 233

ISBN-13: 0773558489

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The late Victorian period brought a radical change in cultural attitudes toward middle-class women and work. Anxiety over the growing disproportion between women and men in the population, combined with an awakening desire among young women for personal and financial freedom, led progressive thinkers to advocate for increased employment opportunities. The major stumbling block was the persistent conviction that middle-class women - "ladies" - could not work without relinquishing their social status. Through media reports, public lectures, and fictional portrayals of working women, From Spinster to Career Woman traces advocates' efforts to alter cultural perceptions of women, work, class, and the ideals of womanhood. Focusing on the archetypal figures of the hospital nurse and the typewriter, Arlene Young analyzes the strategies used to transform a job perceived as menial into a respected profession and to represent office work as progressive employment for educated women. This book goes beyond a standard examination of historical, social, and political realities, delving into the intense human elements of a cultural shift and the hopes and fears of young women seeking independence. Providing new insights into the Victorian period, From Spinster to Career Woman captures the voices of ordinary women caught up in the frustrations and excitements of a new era.


A Man's Place

A Man's Place

Author: John Tosh

Publisher: Yale University Press

Published: 2008-10-01

Total Pages: 267

ISBN-13: 0300143680

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divDomesticity is generally treated as an aspect of women’s history. In this fascinating study of the nineteenth-century middle class, John Tosh shows how profoundly men’s lives were conditioned by the Victorian ideal and how they negotiated its many contradictions. Tosh begins by looking at the experience of boyhood, married life, sex, and fatherhood in the early decades of the nineteenth century—illustrated by case studies representing a variety of backgrounds—and then contrasts this with the lives of the late Victorian generation. He finds that the first group of men placed a new value on the home as a reaction to the disorienting experience of urbanization and as a response to the teachings of Evangelical Christianity. Domesticity still proved problematic in practice, however, because most men were likely to be absent from home for most of the day, and the role of father began to acquire its modern indeterminacy. By the 1870s, men were becoming less enchanted with the pleasures of home. Once the rights of wives were extended by law and society, marriage seemed less attractive, and the bachelor world of clubland flourished as never before. The Victorians declared that to be fully human and fully masculine, men must be active participants in domestic life. In exposing the contradictions in this ideal, they defined the climate for gender politics in the next century. /DIV


Daily Life in Victorian England: The Middle Class and its Values

Daily Life in Victorian England: The Middle Class and its Values

Author: Julia Schubert

Publisher: GRIN Verlag

Published: 2003-03-24

Total Pages: 21

ISBN-13: 3638178102

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Seminar paper from the year 2002 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Culture and Applied Geography, grade: 2+ (B), Martin Luther University (Institute for Anglistics/ American Studies), course: The Condition of England-Question, language: English, abstract: The Victorian age in England is generally defined by the reign of Queen Victoria from 1837 to 1901. Since the queen ́s rulership was for such a long time, it is not possible to discuss the whole period as one homogen part. There were so many changes during the different phases of Victorias ́s reign that the 64 years of her rulership may be seperated into 3 different periods: the first period which lastet until 1851 is a period of growth; England ́s manufacturing and trading forces grew more and more. In 1851 the Great Exhibition in London started the second and for this paper most important period. Now England was the leading industrial country in the world; the period of supremacy had begun.The late Victorian period covers the last quarter of the century. During this phase England lost its supremacy and the society had a more critical look on the earlier periods.1 The Victorian values which were developed by the middle class were most influential during the second third of Victoria ́s reign. During this time the middle class grew significantly and became very important (for example through the Reform Bills which enlarged the voting population as well as through their growing wealth). Because of their new role in society middle-class opinions, behavior and values were adopted by the other classes above and below.2 Therefore, it can be said that from its beginning onwards the mid-Victorian era was and is of a special influence on the British society in past and present: “The opening of the Great Exhibition was also the opening of the Golden Age of Victorianism,...”.3 This “Golden Age” even has been recognized at the end of the 20th century when the British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher stated: “Victorian Values were the values when our country became great.”4 Therefore, this term paper will discuss the famous “Victorian Values” which were developed in one class and later characterized a whole society. How did the people of the middle class live in the middle of the 19th century? How did they practise their morals and values? What were their morals and ideals? [...] 1 David Thomson, England in the Nineteenth Century: 1815-1914 (Harmondsworth: Penguin Books 1991) 221-224. 2 Gottfried Niedhart, Geschichte Englands im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert, 3 Bände (München: Verlag C.H. Beck 1987) 39-49. 3 Thomson, England 19th Century, 100. 4 Asa Briggs, A Social History of England, 2nd edition (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1994) 249.