March
1
October
18
Victorian Values
The Victorian values were originally made in the late 1800’s by Queen Victoria during her reign as queen of the British empire. The Victorian values were hard work, focus on personal success, morals, and the Christian church. Religion (Christianity) was very important for them and this gave the church a lot of power over the country. Elitism was also another big aspect of this era as wealthier people were more respected overall.
In terms of social values, married women were expected to keep the household running by cleaning, and cooking. Unmarried women would spend their spare time socializing to find a suitable husband. If you were a poor woman without a husband then you would be forced to work in factories. Finally, the rich women would live easily lives without having to work or do anything. They would have a lot of servants however they would also receive no inheritance when someone died. On the other hand, though, the men would be expected to work longer shifts and to get money for their families.
All the different men and women constituted the social class system at the time. Wealthy families would always inherit fortune and wouldn’t need to work. These were called the Royal Class. Then, the upper working class would perform skilled labor while the lower working class would perform unskilled labor. These two classes were the ones most affected by the recent Industrial Revolution in the 1820’s. Finally, there were the “sunken people”, which were the homeless, sick, and unskilled people.
October
17
The Victorian Era: ‘Double Standards and Hypocrisy’
During the Victorian Era, there were strict social codes and certain pretenses that the English public had to keep in order to maintain their social status. The Victorian Era was also known as the Two-faced era as people put on a front of nobility to be accepted and valued in society but behind the scenes, there were issues with homosexuality, brothels, and prostitution which were regarded as severe crimes during the Era. The strict social codes limited people to whom they can marry specifically in their social class and who they can form friendships and relationships with. Additionally, many famous icons felt obligated to lead a secret scandalous life behind the public’s back due to the severe punishments and the social humiliation they receive. Amongst those famous people was the author Oscar Wilde who was a phenomenal writer during the Era and lead quite a sumptuous lifestyle but behind hidden door faced many challenges specifically regarding his homosexuality. Due to the occurring scandals, Oscar Wilde lost everything he owned and suffered as he was sentenced to prison.
As lots of people led a double life during the Victorian Era which leads to high-status people sent to prison and having their career crash because of their homosexuality. Wealthy families were always expected to become some type of a role model to the other people, therefore, a lot of pressure of subjected on the wealthy as they were expected to marry from their own social status. Moreover, this concludes that the high-class people weren’t usually who they said they’d be. This all leads us to question, to what extent does being involved and considered part of the high social status actually beneficial when you are forced to live a life of secrecy and hiding, which feels like it isn’t your own? And is it really worth having a title if you are going to suffer for your personal choices? How would that affect people psychologically in the future other than living an exterior shell of a life that they don’t want to be part of?
October
17
Victorian Society: Double standards/Victorian Hypocrisy
The major double standards in the victorian society is between men and woman. In the Victorian Era they associated woman with an idealized, prudish and an unrealistic perspective of woman. Women were expected to conform to the idea of ‘feminine delicacy’ which excluded exercise except for gentle walking. obliged them to wear tightly laced corsets, and often limited their education to refined ‘accomplishments’ like singing and drawing. young girls were though to be like angels, not only physically, but morally. Woman were thought to be more innocent and generous than men, and are naturally will to sacrifice.
William Gladstone, Prime Minister in the Victorian era four times in the late 19th century, believed that giving women the vote would endanger “their delicacy, their purity, their refinement, the elevation of their whole nature”. Often, young girls were not allowed even to read the newspapers, for fear of the evil effects of contact with the real world. As well, married life also had beliefs of a double standard between men and woman. All of the woman’s property would be passed automatically into her husband’s hands. At this time no married woman could owned any property at all. If a woman tried to escape from a violent husband, he could kidnap and imprison her with the support of the law. A husband could divorce his wife if she committed adultery, but the woman who wanted a divorce had to prove her husband guilty not only of adultery, but also of incest, bigamy, bestiality, cruelty or desertion.
October
17
Victorian Values
The Victorians were very hardworking, had savings, used to invest and were self-reliant. Victorians found success through business and dealing with others. They were confident with themselves and showed importance to religion; mainly Christianity. They had to maintain a status by showing wealth, snobbery and show superiority over people who were non-British. The Victorians were also very materialistic as they showed wealth by buying large and beautiful houses and expensive clothing.
The Victorians had social classes such as the upper class which was for queens dukes and princesses. They didn’t have to work: inherited fortune and got the best education. The middle class was for doctors, lawyers, scientists, and very well educated people. The working class was for factory workers, farmers, and servants. Finally, The poor class which was for the jobless, homeless or people without security and opportunities.
In a household, the father goes to work and is the head of the house and gets to vote whereas the mother is expected to look after her house and family. It was shameful if she worked after marriage and couldn’t vote. Furthermore, the unmarried women mostly socialized in their spare time, the poor women worked in factories, taught in private households or into prostitution and the rich women got no inheritance.
March
16
The reception of Dorian Gray in the Victorian Era
October
5
Podcast: Realism in Europe
http://www.arthistoryunstuffed.com/podcast-25-realism-in-europe/
Firstly, I apologise profusely for the monotonous robotic voice in this podcast (I still can’t work out if it is actually a human being speaking…) However, there are some key points made about the origins of realism in Europe in this podcast (ifyou skip to about the 7 minute mark…). As we discussed in our last lesson, Henrik Ibsen is often hailed as the “Father of Modern Drama” and his work is deeply rooted in realism so it is useful for you to understand the concept of realism at some level.
If this podcast is as tedious as I think you may find it, feel free to research the term realism yourself and post in the comments your understanding of the concept and let’s see if we are all on the same page. 🙂