Victorian Compromise 1j1g6e

The Victorian compromise Victorian = adj. used to describe a set of moral and sexual values even though some go back to earlier times, Victorians felt the need to reformulate many of these values to keep up with the rapidly changing world around them. Victorians were great moralisers, the rules they promoted reflected not the world as they saw it in its harsh social reality, but the world as they would have liked it to be. The main notions and ideas underlined in this 19th c. were: - hard work – in an age of rapid progress, material progress would emerge from hard work and to insist on a sense of duty rather than personal inclination. Schools stressed the importance of behaviour, punctuality, application rewarded in all strata of society but especially in upper/middle class - the idea of respectability- distinguished middle class from lower class, but was a mixture of both morality and hypocrisy, severity, conformity to social standards, marked by good manners, a comfortable house, servants and a carriage, regular attendance at church, charitable activity (philanthropy was a broadly-based Victorian phenomenon and marked out the position in the community). - bourgeois ideals- on which Victorian family was based: patriarchal man/husband dominating, a source of discipline, a role imposed upon him by divine providence. The woman had to submit and obey., so the role of women was very difficult and submitted (a fallen woman, an unmarried woman with a child was considered an outcast); there was an intense concern with female chastity, sexuality was repressed in public and private forms, with prudery(= exaggerated moralism) as extreme manifestation. As a reaction to the feminine Victorian stereotype of “the angel of the house” a group of activist women started to campaign for Woman’s suffrage and for laws to improve life conditions for children and women. Colonial power, economic progress, self-confidence, moral certainties are only some of the elements which compose the complex framework of Victorian ideals. It was an age of contradictions, doubts about religion and increasingly about the relationship between science and belief.

Victorian positivism - Darwin’s theory = complex life forms – the fittest – adapt themselves to the environment and evolve because they have a better capacity than others for surviving (subverting the theory of Creation of the Bible: all living creatures appeared in a week). 3 main points to consider: a) this theory had a negative connotation for religious people because the fittest didn’t necessarily mean the best, but the strongest, the most self-assertive b) reinforced the economical theory of a struggle in which wealthy and leaders of new industry were fit to survive and overcome the poor, the weaker part of society c) reinforced the idea of the spread of British imperialism over poor nations Victorian writers welcomed a new change as progress, recognizing education and freedom of discussion as effective and positive. Some intellectuals of the time were: - Thomas Carlyle- was against the doctrine of laissez-faire and advocated morality and responsibility of the Captains of Industry towards the workers - T. Macauly (Whig)- ed free trade economy and industrial growth, therefore progress (materialism) - John Stuart Mill- advocated legislation in favour of the working class and the right to vote (promoted many reforms); he stressed the importance for the Victorian man to be free to express himself, to construct his own opinions.

He was in opposition to UTILITARIANISM, a movement of social thinking founded by Jeremy Bentham whose principles stated: a) man’s actions are driven by the pursuit of pleasure and avoidance of pain b) all institutions should be measured in of usefulness, in providing material happiness c) religious belief is merely superstition Utilitarianism suited the Victorian middle class and reinforced the conviction that any problem could be overcome by reason. -