The Victorian Age

The Victorian Age

1. Scientific Progress

   • Economic prosperity
   • Social injustices
     • Labour exploitation
   • The Great Exhibition, 1851

2. Double standard of morality / Hypocrisy

   • Strict morality / Rigid standards of behaviour: duty, hard work, respectability and charity.
     • http://www.parafrasando.it/TESINE/The-victorian-age.html
   • Child labour exploitation
   • Prudery / The fallen women and children prostitution
     • https://listverse.com/2016/05/03/10-facts-about-prostitution-in-the-victorian-era/

3. Social progress

   • The women question: the suffragettes
   • Reform bills
   • The Trade Unions, 1882
   • The Education system
     • http://www.epertutti.com/inglese/The-education-in-the-Victorian41259.php

4. The Victorian novel

   • Early Victorian: Charles Dickens - social/humanitarian
   • Late Victorian: Hardy, Wilde - dissatisfaction/desecration of values
   • Mid Victorian: Bronte sisters, Stevenson - Romantic and Gothic traditions/the double.

5. The Victorian Drama: Wilde

6. The British Empire

   • http://www.parafrasando.it/TESINE/The-victorian-age.html
   • Colonial expansion
   • Jingoism
   • The American Civil War - 1861/65: Abolition of slavery

7. Utilitarianism / Darwinism / Empiricism