England in Victorian Times

Муниципальное общеобразовательное учреждение

«Средняя общеобразовательная школа № 4»

Доклад к научно-практической конференции

на тему:

“England in Victorian Times”

Работу выполнила:

Ученица 11 б класса

МБОУ СОШ № 4

Г. Мытищи

Чикалова Лидия

Научный руководитель:

Учитель английского языка

Шаповалова Е.Б.

г. Мытищи

2015 г.

Introduction.

I’ve been studying English for a long time and I noticed that almost every English textbook mentions the Victorian era as an important period in the history of England. But despite of thу fact that this era is considered to be great, textbooks make casual mention of it. I wanted to know more about it and to answer the question «Why does Queen Victorian’s reign take such an important place in the history of England and why do English call this period as «Time of great changes»?» And I found some interesting facts about it.

What was England like on the eve of Victorian era?

During much of the long period beginning with the French Revolution (1789-92) and the following Napoleonic era, which lasted until 1815, England was caught up in the swirl of events on the continent of Europe, with resultant conflict at home.

Early in the French Revolution, many Englishmen enthusiastically welcomed the overthrow of the old order. But as the violence and terror in France reached extreme heights, keen partisanship divided English society. The upper levels of society — the propertied and governing classes — were naturally alarmed at the way events across the English Channel were stimulating radicalism among the populace. On the other hand, the underprivileged and the liberals were encouraged to agitate for improved conditions. Disorder, followed by repressive measures, became commonplace, particularly later, when England was at war with France.

The struggle on the continent led to acute hardship among the English people. The heavy tax burden imposed to support military operations bore hardest on those least able to pay. Although the upper classes had relatively little need to sacrifice, the working classes were hit hard by rising prices and food scarcity. Their hardships were multiplied when the government issued paper currency, which produced inflation.

At the same time, the prolonged economic struggle between France and its enemies deprived England of most of its markets for manufactured goods. Extensive unemployment brought on acute distress during the years 1811-13. In 1811, jobless workers in organized groups known as the Luddites roamed the country, destroying the machinery that they believed had replaced them in the labor market. In 1812, the year of Charles Dickens's birth, the destruction of manufacturing equipment was made punishable by death.

In 1815, Napoleon was defeated and confined to the island of St. Helena for the remainder of his days. After the long period of bloody conflicts, peace was restored, resulting in a general jubilation. But optimism and high hopes were quickly shattered. The end of war plunged England into the most ruinous depression the nation had ever suffered. The working classes placed the blame for their woes on the landlords and industrialists.

Once again violence and destruction swept the land, with the inevitable retaliation by the authorities. A climax was reached with the "Peterloo Massacre." In St. Peter's Fields, Manchester, on August 16, 1819, a regiment of cavalry charged an orderly assembly of citizens, killing eleven and injuring four hundred. Fierce public indignation followed the outrage, but officials openly gave support to the action.

For a long time, one of England's major problems had been the support of paupers, whose numbers steadily increased. Direct relief had been in operation since the days of Queen Elizabeth. This outlay came to require the imposition of crushing parish taxes. Abuses became rampant; many of the able-bodied preferred to live at public expense rather than to seek work. When the practice of supplementing starvation wages with relief payments developed, unscrupulous employers took advantage of the situation by lowering wages, and the independent worker who wanted to be self-supporting was frustrated in his efforts. After the defeat of Napoleon, 400,000 veterans were added to the hordes of the unemployed, aggravating the crisis.

In contrast to ugly appearances on the surface, there was an undercurrent of strong forces striving for improvement. The pressure of public opinion supported the efforts of reformers to rectify many old abuses.

In 1800, 220 crimes, many of them obviously minor, were punishable by death. One result of these circumstances, which now seem barbaric, was that juries often refused to convict the accused. At the same time, prominent crusaders were campaigning relentlessly for abolition of capital punishment. By 1837, only 15 crimes carried the death penalty.

Slavery also came under attack by humanitarian forces. In 1808, the slave trade was made illegal. In 1834, slavery was entirely abolished in British land possessions. The objective was quietly achieved through gradual transition and with generous compensation to former slave-owners.

In the elections brought about by the crowning of William IV in 1830 as king, the Tories (conservatives who supported the established church and the traditional political structure) lost control of the government. With the power now in the hands of the Whigs (favorers of reform), the way was opened for an era of accelerated progress.

Among the most urgently recommended steps was parliamentary reform. In 1829, the first Catholic was admitted to Parliament. In spite of determined opposition in the House of Lords, the Reform Bill of 1832 was passed. The bill eliminated many inequities in representation, and the middle class was enlarged.

In 1833 came the beginning of child-labor laws. From that time on, an increased amount of legislation was enacted to control the hours of labor and working conditions for children and women in manufacturing plants.

A new concept was adopted to deal with the vexing issue of poverty. The Poor Law of 1834 provided that all able-bodied paupers must reside in workhouses. Inmates of the workhouses became objects of public stigma, and to further heighten the unpopularity of the institutions, living arrangements in them were deliberately made harsh. In one way, the plan was successful. Within three years, the cost of poor relief was reduced by over one-third. However, the system was sharply censured, and the increased prevalence of crime has been attributed to it. Dickens made the Poor Law of 1834 a conspicuous target of denunciation in Oliver Twist.

On June 20, 1837, Queen Victoria came to the throne of England as the long period of middle-class ascendancy was gaining momentum

Some facts from the biography of Queen Victoria

Victoria was born at Kensington Palace, London, on 24 May 1819. She was the only daughter of Edward, Duke of Kent, fourth son of George III. (см. прилож. фото 1) Her father died shortly after her birth and she became heir to the throne because the three uncles who were ahead of her in succession - George IV, Frederick Duke of York, and William IV - had no legitimate children who survived.

Warmhearted and lively, Victoria had a gift for drawing and painting; educated by a governess at home, she was a natural diarist and kept a regular journal throughout her life. On William IV's death in 1837, she became Queen at the age of 18.

Queen Victoria is associated with Britain's great age of industrial expansion, economic progress and, especially, empire. At her death, it was said, Britain had a worldwide empire on which the sun never set.

In the early part of her reign, she was influenced by two men: her first Prime Minister, Lord Melbourne (см. прилож. фото 2), and her husband, Prince Albert (см. прилож. фото 3), whom she married in 1840. Both men taught her much about how to be a ruler in a 'constitutional monarchy' where the monarch had very few powers but could use much influence.

Her marriage to Prince Albert brought nine children between 1840 and 1857. Most of her children married into other Royal families of Europe.

Victoria was deeply attached to her husband and she sank into depression after he died, aged 42, in 1861. She had lost a devoted husband and her principal trusted adviser in affairs of state. For the rest of her reign she wore black.

In her later years she became the symbol of a long and successful reign. Signs of public affection pleased her and she become much easier and more gracious in manner .Victoria was a staunch upholder of proper conduct in family and public life.

Despite her advanced age, Victoria continued her duties to the end - including an official visit to Dublin in 1900. The Boer War in South Africa overshadowed the end of her reign. As in the Crimean War nearly half a century earlier, Victoria reviewed her troops and visited hospitals; she remained undaunted by British reverses during the campaign: 'We are not interested in the possibilities of defeat; they do not exist.'

Victoria died at Osborne House on the Isle of Wight, on 22 January 1901 after a reign which lasted almost 64 years, the longest in British history.

Victorian Families

Upper and Middle class Families(см. прилож. фото 4)

Families were very important to Victorians/They were usually large , with an average family having at least five or six children.

The father , who perhaps worked in banking or insurance, was the head of the household. The children would speak politely to him, and call him «Sir». The mother was responsible for running the household and would usually spend her time planning dinner parties or visiting her dressmaker or friends. Children saw very little of their parents and spent most of the day in the nursery with a nanny as Victorians firmly believed that a child should be «seen not heard»!

Upper and middle class families lived in large, comfortable houses and had servants such as cook and kitchen maids to prepare the family meals, a butler to answer the door and wait on the family, and housemaids to carry out household chores such as washing clothes, cooking and cleaning.

For entertainment , families visited parks and museums, such as the Victoria and Albert Museum.

Working class families (см. прилож. фото 5)

Most of these families lived in small houses. Often several families lived in a single room. Houses had no running water and it was not uncommon for a whole street to share two outdoor toilets and a water pump.

It was very common for pure families to have as many as nine or ten children, many of whom didn’t go to school. Instead, the looked after their younger brothers and sisters or even worked. In Victorian Britain, children as young as three or four years of age , worked up to 16 hours a day in coal mines, in cotton mills and as chimney sweeps. The father of the house often worked in a factory while the mother was responsible for all the household chores.

For entertainment, working class families went to park, cheap music halls or to gardens which had fairgrounds, sports matches and fireworks displays.

Victorian Culture

Tea culture

Tea has become a very British beverage over the last century. However, tea was introduced in England much after it was discovered and put to use as a drink. It was introduced in England, for the very first time sometime between 1652-1654. However, it was during the Victorian era that tea became very popular. In fact, it became so widely liked that ale was displaced as the most favourite of all beverages and tea reigned supreme.

During the time of Queen Victoria, there was a lady in waiting, Anne, the Duchess of Bedford. (см. прилож. фото 6). The meals in England consisted of a huge breakfast, slightly lesser lunch and dinner. After lunch, the duchess would ask her maids to get her some tea and little cakes to go with it. 
She drank it in solitude at first. But later, she began inviting her friends and other ladies to join her in partaking of this brew. This became so well liked that the duchess carried on with tradition even after going back to London. Hence, the institution of afternoon tea was established. 
The drinking of tea led to the birth of a thing beyond a mere habit or addiction. It became a culture. Tea rooms mushroomed all over the place, private teas and teas in hotels were in demand. Tea dances were held as meeting place for potential match making and also so that young men and women could interact with each other.

Seeing this, other ladies began emulating her and very soon, they were all being invited and in turn inviting women for afternoon tea. This practice has been established as a social custom in most parts of the world today. 
There were two kinds of tea services, namely, high tea and low tea. The upper echelons of the British society took Low tea(см. прилож. фото 7). This meant that the tea was accompanied by small snacks and not proper food. Low tea meant more conversation and less food. In contrast to this, the high tea (см. прилож. фото 8) was partaken by the lower classes of the British society, which was accompanied by a proper lunch. 
The practice of drinking tea, during the Victorian era was interspersed with garden teas and promenades around the estates. Social dictates were relaxed slightly in these gatherings. Tea helped bridge the divide between genders and different parts of the society to a small degree. 
Funnily though, initially, the expression taking tea was only employed by the lower strata of the society and looked down upon by the wealthy aristocrats and the royals. 
The latter part of the Victorian era saw the industrial revolution take off in full swing. The workers, after coming back home tired, would want something refreshing and light. They would be hungry as well, so bread, meat, fruits and vegetables were also served along with the tea. Hence the term, High tea was coined then.

Christmas carols

What better way to get into the festive sprit then singing a Victorian Christmas carol. During this era they were very in to joyful choruses of Christmas songs and had revived old medieval songs whilst adding their own spin and writing new ones!

These were meant for both the relaxed occasions such as when singing amongst friends and family and the other songs were meant for more religious, respectful occasions. People who played instruments used to gather old nativity songs then turn them into new and mix them up a bit such as: A Good Christmas Box, Christmas Carols Ancient and Modern and O Holy Night.

In a typical Victorian home, it was usually common to have a piano or an organ in one of the rooms which on Christmas day after Christmas dinner was served and presents were opened, everyone who was in the house used to gather around the piano as someone played and sing Christmas carols.

Silent night was a well known favourite that used to be sung within the Victorian era. Where carolling actually originated from was from the ancient English custom of travelling house to house as they sang to get the return of food. This was through the Victorian era when this tradition become popular and the main countries carolling thrived in were America and England.

When Victorians did think up new carols from old ones or thought up a brand new song all about the festive season of Christmas, the carols usually incorporated a religious and were quite often sang in Church as the religious references were quite significant. During this melodic worship and celebration, there was a number of different instruments that were incorporated into the mix such as that pipes, drums, bells and voices!

So now when you wonder where Christmas carolling originated from or when it became popular you can now say – the Victorian era. Just another few of the songs that were recreated or modified during the Victorian time period are: Away in a Manger, We Three Kings and jingle Bells. These really bring back the memories and are still popular during our day! We really owe a lot to the Victorians for creating such great carols that have been playing for decades and contributing to the Christmas celebrations in today’s modern society.

So why not discover more and do some digging on a few of the traditional Victorian carols so you can get in the Victorian festive spirit nice and early for this years seasonal greetings!

People’s clothing

Even though many people were poor within the Victorian era, fashion was still a big thing. The women were always dressed to impress. Their clothing was almost always a dress of some kind. It would typically be lavished with lace, braid, fringes, and ribbons throughout. By todays standards, you could easily say that these dresses were probably very uncomfortable and inconvenient to wear. The exterior was all decoration, but underneath there were wires and steel keeping everything into place along with multiple layers of fabric. To go along with the dresses were often gloves, collars, and hats.
Accustom to the mid-nineteenth century were side lacing boots. These were typical when going outdoors or walking. However, indoor shoes were also available to many of the ladies who were concerned with fashion, as most were. They would often have ivory boots or elegant slippers that they would use when they wanted to impress someone at a party or some other type of indoor event.
The hats or bonnets themselves by this time had a lot of color on them. Almost any color could be found and often they were multiple colors. For example, you could have a brown silk bonnet. Adorned all over it would perhaps be purple silk ribbon with some added effect through red and yellow flowers. The bonnets would be large but were considered very stylish and beautiful during the Victorian era.
Mens fashion was perhaps not the easiest either. The facial hair continued to be a big thing. It did not matter how much or how little you had as long as you had some and it was kept trimmed evenly. Mustaches were extremely popular. The hair itself was to always be kept short. The longer hair was beginning to go out of style and it was much more stylish to get a regular haircut.
When it came to clothing, the men would almost always wear some variation of a suit. Generally the coat was long, sometimes reaching down to their knees. Underneath would typically be a vest with either a large knot on a tie, or a bow tie underneath it. The pants would generally be the balloon style pants with long socks. Much of what you would see old baseball players wear except not as tight. Of course, by this time, large bucket hats were the in thing. It was not a requirement, was certainly popular. If you did not have a pocket watch that would keep in your hand, you would sometimes have a cane, even if you did not need one

Books and Authors

The Victorian era, as stated many times, was a period of change and transformation. It, therefore, formed a bridge between the history and the modern era. The books written during this time depict these changes and also the circumstances and all the aspects of daily living during those times. The literature of the Victorian era also formed a chain between the authors of the romantic genre and those of the modern authors, i.e. the twentieth century.

Novels came into existence in this era. Books were not called novels before this time, and the latter were called so because of the kind of writing, the stories and the kind of issues raised in these novels. A novel was thus named because it was new, hence the term novel. 
The likes of Jane Austen and Walter Scott had paved the way for the new literature. Theirs was an observance of life from the eyes of the most unlikely people. The furore and frenzy created was such by the writers of the Victorian era that they are revered and read till date.

Here is a list of some of the most renowned novelists of the Victorian era.
1. Lewis Carroll (см. прилож. фото 9)
2. Thomas Hardy (см. прилож. фото 10)
3. Charlotte Bronte (см. прилож. фото 11)
4. Rudyard Kipling (см. прилож. фото 12)
5. Oscar Wilde (см. прилож. фото 13)
6. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (см. прилож. фото 14)
7. Charles Dickens (см. прилож. фото 15)
8. H G Wells (см. прилож. фото 17)
9. William Thackeray (см. прилож. фото 16)
10. Robert Louis Stevenson (см. прилож. фото 18)

The common thread of all the novels of the Victorian era is that they portray an individual undergoing severe hardships and failures before rising to the occasion. It may involve a person wronged who sets things to right and getting justice in the end, or someone losing all money and working hard to get back to the way things were before. 
They idealized the concept of justice and hard work and truthfulness. They also depicted the wrong doers as losing in the end, or being at the receiving end of the backlash, thereby inculcating the sense of right versus wrong. Thus, there was always a moral to be learnt by the end of it. Later on, the plots and stories became even more complicated and engaging. 
Te literature of Victorian era also emphasized on children, perhaps due to the prevalence of child labor. They also tried to involve the children in reading from an early age and also the concept of compulsory education took form. Authors began to write books primarily for children and young adults. On the lines of science and academic literature, none comes close to Charles Darwin and his fantastic work, Origin of Species.

The English Language

What better way would there be to observe the English language during the Victorian era than to read the most influential writer from this time period, Charles Dickens. One obvious change is that there had been significant different between the English language during the Victorian era and a few centuries before this when William Shakespeare was actively writing. (см прилож. № 19)
One of the most common things to see is that the English language by this point had been modernized. Most of Charles Dickens writing is fairly clear to understand. This is a good indication that the English grammar rules had been established. No longer was there repeating words for emphasis. Instead, to create emphasis you would frequently see similes being used throughout the writing of this time period.
Another common thing among the language is sarcasm. This was not often used in previous English writings. Charles Dickens loved it. He would frequently use it and as we know, it did have a huge impact on the way people would think as they were reading or speaking.
Still though, much of the Victorian English was extremely proper. It is safe to assume that we have become more relaxed in how we form sentences in our everyday speech. I can imagine that if people from the Victorian era could listen to us now they might be slightly confused. We do not always complete sentences or sound proper. Our writing often differs from the way we would actually talk.
However, the English spoke exactly as the literature was written. Very proper, often deep thinking, and with only slight slang. The slang terms they used were quite different from what we would use today, but our slang spans across whole sentences. Normally they would replace a word, maybe two. Overall, their English was extremely proper but very easy to understand by todays standards. 

Industrial Revolution

         During the 1800s the Industrial Revolution spread throughout Britain.

Britain changes from a rural society to an urban one

In 1837, Britain was still a rural nation with 80% of the population living in the countryside. Most people were farmers or spun wool and cotton to weave into cloth. Soon new machines were invented that could do these jobs in a fraction of the time. This left many people out of work, so they flocked to the towns in search of jobs in new industries. By the middle of the nineteenth century over 50% of the population lived in towns and cities.

The Age of Steam

The Industrial Revolution rapidly gained pace during Victoria's reign because of the power of steam. Victorian engineers developed bigger, faster and more powerful machines that could run whole factories. This led to a massive increase in the number of factories (particularly in textile factories or mills).

By 1870, over 100,000 steam engines were at work throughout Britain.

The industry depended on steam and steam depended on coal. The number of coalfields doubled between 1851 and 1881.

The Age of Steel

1856 - Henry Bessemer invented a method for converting iron into steel quickly. Ships, bridges and building could now be bigger.

Britain becomes wealthy but ...

Despite the growing wealth due to trade and commerce, many of the working people, who actually produced the wealth, lived, worked and died in very poor conditions.

Housing

Most cities and towns were not prepared for the great increase of people looking for accommodation to live near their work place.

There was a shortage of houses, so many people had to share a room in other peoples houses. Rooms were rented to whole families or perhaps several families. Often ten or twelve people shared one room. If there was no rooms to rent, people stayed in lodging houses.

Many factory owners built houses for their workers near their factories. The houses were built close together really quickly and cheaply.

These houses often had two rooms downstairs and two rooms upstairs. They were not really big enough for the large families people tended to have during the Victorian time.

The houses also did not have running water and toilets. Up to 100 houses had to share an outdoor pump to get their water and share an outside toilet. To make things worse, the water from the pump was often polluted.

Pollution and ill health

The household rubbish was thrown out into the narrow streets and the air was filled with black smoke from the factories chimneys.

Dirty streets and cramped living was a perfect breeding ground for diseases. More than 31,000 people died during an outbreak of cholera in 1832 and lots more were killed by typhus, smallpox and dysentery.

Public Health Act of 1875 banned open sewers, thanks to Joseph Bazalgette’s sewage system. Houses were made further apart, rubbish collection was introduced and public health inspectors had to be provided by the local council. They basically had to go round whatever town or city they were employed in and check that sanitation and health of the people was alright.

In 1853, the tax on soap was taken off, meaning poor people could buy it and become more hygienic by washing with it. 

Working conditions

Many factory owners put profit above the health and safety of their workers. Children and young women were employed in terrible conditions in textile mills and mines. Furnaces were operated without proper safety checks. Workers in factories and mills were deafened by steam hammers and machinery. hours were long and there were no holidays.

Children worked in factories

How did factory conditions change in the 1840's

1833 Factory Act,

• Children banned from working in textile factories under the age of nine.
• 9 - 13 year olds limited to 9 hours a day and 48 hours a week.
• 13 - 18 year olds limited to 12 hours a day and 69 hours a week.
• All children under eleven to have two hours education a day.
• Government Factory Inspectors appointed to enforce the law.

1842 Mines and Collieries Act

• All women and children under 10 were banned from working underground.
• No one under 15 years was to work winding gear in mines.

1844 Factory Act:

• Minimum age for working in factories reduced to 8 years old.
• 8 to 13 years old to work a maximum of six and a half hours on weekdays and only six hours on Saturday
• 13 to 18 year olds to work a maximum of 12 hours a day and the same applied to women.
• Safety guards had to be fitted to all machines.
• Three hours education a day for children.

1847 Fielder's Factory Act:

• 10 hour day introduced for under 18's and for women.

1864 Factory Act, this extended the regulations to factories other than textiles and coalmines.

1867 Factory Act, the legislation was extended to all workshops with more than 50 workers.

Conclusion

During her reign, Queen Victoria saw a number of changes. The power of the monarch was greatly diminished during the Victorian Era, and Victoria learned to adapt to her role as a constitutional monarch, establishing a role for the royal family which included charity, engagement in social and public issues, and regular meetings with members of government to follow ongoing events. Her influence on the monarchy and on British society was quite extensive.

After her death in 1901, Queen Victoria was buried in Windsor next to her beloved Prince Albert, and her son Edward VII succeeded her.

Literature:

1. “The History of England. Parliamentary Monarchy.”, изд. Питер, Санкт-Петербург, 1996 г.

2.  «Spotlight-11”, изд. Просвещение, Москва, 2011

3. http://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/o/oliver-twist/critical-essays/early-19thcentury-england

4.  http://www.royal.gov.uk/historyofthemonarchy/kingsandqueensoftheunitedkingdom/thehanoverians/victoria.aspx

5. BBC “Короли и королевы. Королева Виктория.»

Plan:

http://www.royal.gov.uk/historyofthemonarchy/kingsandqueensoftheunitedkingdom/thehanoverians/victoria.aspx и книга

http://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/o/oliver-twist/critical-essays/early-19thcentury-england

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