The Bayswater Omnibus, 1895. George William Joy. Oil on Canvas, 47 /2 X 78 /4 In
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1 1 The Bayswater Omnibus, 1895. George William Joy. Oil on canvas, 47 /2 x 78 /4 in. Museum of London. 906 George William Joy/Museum of London, UK/Bridgeman Art Library 00906-0920906-0920 UOU5-845482.inddUOU5-845482.indd 906906 11/29/07/29/07 12:52:4912:52:49 PMPM UNIT FIVE The Victorian Age 1837–1901 Looking Ahead During the sixty-four-year reign of Queen Victoria, Britain experienced unprecedented economic and technological growth and dramatic political and social change. Britain became “the workshop of the world.” About a quarter of the world’s people lived within the British Empire. A growing social consciousness stirred reforms. Some Victorian writers felt an optimistic promise in the era; others saw the menace of a world driven by inhuman forces. Keep the following questions in mind as you read: How were Britain and the British Empire changing during the Victorian age? What conditions helped stimulate Victorian optimism? How did the mood of later Victorian writers change? OBJECTIVES In learning about the Victorian age, you will focus on the following: • analyzing the characteristics of Victorian literature and how issues of the period influenced writers • evaluating the influences of the historical period that shaped literary characters, plots, settings, and themes in Victorian literature • connecting Victorian literature to historical contexts, current events, and your own experiences 907 00906-0920906-0920 UOU5-845482.inddUOU5-845482.indd 907907 11/10/07/10/07 9:01:509:01:50 AMAM Timeline 1837–1901 BRITISH LITERATURE Charles Darwin 1835 1865 1841 1850 1861 1865 Humorous weekly Punch Alfred Tennyson becomes Charles Dickens publishes Lewis Carroll publishes is founded poet laureate Great Expectations Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland 1847 1859 1862 Emily Brontë publishes Charles Darwin publishes Christina Rossetti publishes 1866 Wuthering Heights On the Origin of Species Goblin Market ▼ Gerard Manley Hopkins becomes a Roman Catholic 1847 1859 Charlotte Brontë publishes Edward FitzGerald publishes 1867 Jane Eyre Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám Matthew Arnold publishes New Poems BRITISH EVENTS 1835 1865 1837 1840 1851 Victoria is crowned queen Queen Victoria marries Great Exhibition is held Prince Albert 1838 1854 Chartists demand political 1841 Britain enters Crimean War reforms Hong Kong comes under 1857 British sovereignty Crystal Palace 1839 Indian Mutiny breaks out First real bicycle is invented 1845 1861 1865 in Scotland Irish Potato Famine begins Prince Albert dies Joseph Lister initiates antiseptic surgery 1862 John Hanning Speke identifies source of the Nile WORLD EVENTS 1835 1865 1837 1856 1865 John Deere invents the Remains of Neanderthal American Civil War ends steel plow in the U.S. man are discovered 1866 in Germany 1848 Alfred Nobel invents Revolutions break out 1861 dynamite in Europe Alexander II 1868 emancipates Russian serfs 1848 Meiji restoration occurs German philosophers Marx in Japan and Engels write Communist Manifesto Timeline Visit www.glencoe.com for an interactive timeline. 908 UNIT 5 THE VICTORIAN AGE (t)Mary Evans Picture Library, (tc)The Art Archive/British Museum Eileen Tweedy, (bc)CORBIS, (b)Bildarchiv Preussischer Kulturbesitz/Art Resource, NY 00906-0920906-0920 UOU5-845482.inddUOU5-845482.indd 908908 11/29/07/29/07 12:53:0812:53:08 PMPM The Mad Tea Party, John Tenniel. The Pierpont Morgan Library, New York. 1885 1878 1894 1897 Thomas Hardy publishes First issue of The Yellow Book Bram Stoker publishes The Return of the Native is published Dracula 1882 1895 1898 Robert Louis Stevenson The Importance of Being H. G. Wells publishes publishes Treasure Island Earnest by Oscar Wilde The War of the Worlds is produced 1884 First volume of 1896 Oxford English Dictionary A. E. Housman publishes is published A Shropshire Lad 1885 1866 1885 1901 Great Eastern lays first General Gordon is killed Commonwealth of Australia successful transatlantic cable at Khartoum established 1869 1897 1901 Debtors’ prisons abolished Queen Victoria celebrates Queen Victoria dies; Edward her Diamond Jubilee VII becomes king 1876 Queen Victoria is 1899 proclaimed Empress Boer War begins of India in South Africa 1885 1874 1885 1895 ▲ 1900 First Impressionist Leopold II of Belgium German physicist Wilhelm Boxer Rebellion breaks out exhibition is held in Paris acquires Congo in Africa Röntgen discovers X rays in China 1876 1888 1899 1901 Alexander Graham Bell Wilhelm II becomes emperor Austrian psychoanalyst First Nobel Prizes are invents the telephone of Germany Sigmund Freud publishes awarded in the U.S. ▼ The Interpretation of Dreams 1895 Italian engineer Guglielmo Marconi invents wireless telegraphy Reading Check Analyzing Graphic Information For how many years was Queen Victoria a widow? INTRODUCTION 909 (cw from top)The Pierpont Morgan Library/Art Resource, NY, Bettmann/CORBIS, Mary Evans Picture Library, Getty Images, Giraudon/Art Resource, NY 00906-0920906-0920 UOU5-845482.inddUOU5-845482.indd 909909 11/29/07/29/07 12:53:1612:53:16 PMPM By the Numbers Growth in the British Electorate, 1832–1884 Through a series of reform bills, the ELIGIBLE VOTERS number of male voters in Britain 5,000,000 greatly increased during the 5 million Victorian age. Women would have to wait until the twentieth century 4 million to win the right to vote. 3 million 2,520,000 2 million 717,000 440,000 1 million Number of People 2 ct ct ct THE GREAT EXHIBITION 83 A A A 1 rm 2) rm rm 4) re fo 3 fo 67) fo 8 OF 1851 fo 8 8 8 t Re (1 Re (1 Re (1 Be nd ird Queen Victoria officially opened Firs co Th Se the “Great Exhibition of the Works Source British Parliamentary Reform in the 19th Century of Industry of All Nations”—the first world’s fair—at noon on May 1, 1851, in the mammoth Crystal Palace erected in London’s Hyde Park. SETTLING AUSTRALIA SERVANTS The Crystal Palace was 1,848 • Between 1788 and 1868, Britain In Victorian Britain, having at feet long and 408 feet wide. sent more than 160,000 convicts least one servant was a mark of The central transept was to Australia. The First Fleet con- middle-class respectability. In 108 feet high. sisted of 11 small ships carrying 1891 servants made up 16 per- • Built of prefabricated sections, 736 criminals. Their average age cent of the British work force. the building’s iron frame held was 27. The oldest male was in 896,000 square feet of glass. his sixties; the youngest was 9. EDUCATION The youngest female was 13; the More than half of the almost Elementary education was not • oldest, 84. 14,000 exhibitors at the Great compulsory in Britain until 1880. In 1871 more than 19 percent of Exhibition were from Britain HOME LIGHTING and the British Empire. the men and 26 percent of the Before the electric light was women getting married could More than 6,200,000 visitors • invented, candles and oil lamps not sign their names in their par- attended the exhibition— lighted homes. Both needed ish register. Twenty years later, 478,773 in the last week constant attention. One estate both of these figures had alone—before it closed on employed 3 or more men cutting dropped to around 7 percent. October 11, 1851. candlewicks, removing wax drips, • Entrance fees alone brought in cleaning glass lamp chimneys, HUNTING 424,418 pounds, 15 shillings. and filling lamps. Even a modest The Victorian upper class spent a As a result, the Great Exhibition home could have some 20 or lot of time shooting game ani- made a large profit. more lamps. mals on their estates. During a Among the displays on the three-day period in 1864, hunt- • CHILD MORTALITY grounds of the Great Exhibition ers at one estate killed 4,045 were the first life-size models In 1839 nearly half the funerals pheasants, 3,902 rabbits, 860 of extinct creatures that scien- in London were for children hares, 59 woodcocks, and 28 tists had only named a few younger than 10 years old. creatures described as “various.” years earlier: dinosaurs. 910 UNIT 5 THE VICTORIAN AGE 00906-0920906-0920 UOU5-845482.inddUOU5-845482.indd 910910 11/29/07/29/07 12:53:2912:53:29 PMPM Being There The Victorian age was a period of great expansion for the British Empire. Along with other European powers, the British engaged in a fierce competition for African colonies. The vast Indian subcontinent became “the Jewel in the Crown” of Queen Victoria, who was declared Empress of India in 1876. Britain’s annexation of Australia continued throughout the Victorian age, until the entire B The Last of England, Ford Madox Brown, 1852– island continent was part of the British Empire. 1855. Oil on panel. Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery, United Kingdom. View of Harbour Street, Kingston, Jamaica, after James A The British Raj Great Indian Peninsular Terminus, Hakewill, nineteenth century. Engraving. Private collection. C unknown artist, nineteenth century. Watercolor on paper. British Library, London, United Kingdom. UNITED CANADA KINGDOM B NEWFOUNDLAND CYPRUS BURMA MALTA BAHAMAS EGYPT C INDIA BR. WEST INDIES A OMAN HONG KONG NIGERIA SUDAN JAMAICA BARBADOS ADEN BRITISH GAMBIA BRITISH TRINIDAD HONDURAS SIERRA SOMALILAND MALAYA KIRIBATI LEONE SARAWAK MALDIVES CEYLON GOLD UGANDA BRITISH COAST BRITISH EAST AFRICA SOLOMON GUIANA ZANZIBAR IS. SEYCHELLES SINGAPORE RHODESIA BRITISH MAURITIUS GUINEA BECHUANALAND FIJI TONGA AUSTRALIA IS. CAPE COLONY British Empire NEW FALKLAND ZEALAND IS. Reading Check Analyzing Graphic Information: 3. On what continent did the British Empire have 1. About how many times greater was the British elec- the smallest amount of territory? torate after 1884 than it had been before 1832? 2. Approximately how many exhibitors at the Great Maps in Motion Visit Exhibition were from Britain and the British Empire? www.glencoe.com for an interactive map.