Victorian+Period

​​​Victorian Period Page....go to it guys!

The Victorian Period is named for Queen Victoria, who ruled from 1837 until her death in 1901.

Novelty characterised the Victorian period. This is the era best known for inventions, for remarkable technological advances and engineering marvels. Throughout, the speed of change was phenomenal, a movement best encapsulated by the arrival of the steam train.



Early Victorian hairstyles for women were almost always worn up. Hair was parted down the middle, curled or braided, then tied or pinned back. Only formal occasians saw the Victorian lady dare leave her hair fall loose around her shoulders.



The Victorian period of fashion was about living more simply than the previous era. Clothing, makeup, and hairstyles become more natural and relaxed. The use of elaborate wigs made way for cleaner, gentler looks. False hair was limited to rats or switches.

The Church was built in 1870, in response to the rapid expansion of the township, now City of Kingston upon Hull. Previously the people of Hull had lived in a tight community around its two medieval churches of Holy Trinity and St Mary's, Lowgate. During the population explosion of the mid-Victorian period it was necessary to build on the surrounding farm lands. St Matthew's was built on such a site, approximately 2 miles from the town centre on the road to Anlaby and beyond. The Rev'd George Robinson, Curate of Holy Trinity, was charged with the task of creating the new parish in 1867.



Elizabeth Barrett Browning( Victorian Poet) was born in Durham, England in 1806. Her father, Edward Moulton-Barrett, was a Creole and owned a plantation in Jamaica. Her mother,Mary Graham-Clarke, was from a wealthy family of Newcastle upon Tyne. Her bloodline can be traced to King Edward III of England.


 * //The last completed period of English literature, almost coincident in extent with the reign of the queen whose name it bears//** **//(Victoria, queen 1837-1901), stands nearly beside The Elizabethan period in the significance and interest of its work. The Elizabethan literature to be sure, in its imaginative and spiritual enthusiasm, is the expression of a period more profoundly great than the Victorian; but the Victorian literature speaks for an age which witnessed incomparably greater changes than any that had gone before in all the conditions of life--material comforts, scientific knowledge, and, absolutely speaking, in intellectual and spiritual enlightenment//**.

**Queen Victoria** After the death of her uncle, William IV, in 1837, Queen Victoria took the throne. She was born on May 24th, 1819 in London. Her parents were Edward, the Duke of Kent; and Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg. Queen Victoria was a stubborn and take-charge type of women. She refused any help from her mother and was more of a figure head for England, having comities and cabinets do her work for her during the first few years of her reign. At twenty one, she married her cousin, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. They had nine children. Albert became her life. She wouldn’t do anything without his approval, and he was a great influence on her opinions. But Albert did give her the self confidence to make their opinions recognized. Albert insisted on a strict respectability in court and made a point of moralistic behavior. When Albert died in 1861, Queen Victoria fell into a deep depression in which she did not success from until 1887, when a celebration was held to commemorate her 50th year as Queen called the Victorian Jubilee. Queen Victoria’s Reign experienced an evolution in English politics and the expansion of the British Empire, as well as political and social reforms on the continent. Even in her declining years, she maintained a youthful, optimistic energy that infected the English population as a whole.

=Fine Arts= ====Paintings and artwork of the Victorian era are characterized as sponatneous expressions of emotion rather than reason. They often contained bright colors and dramatic events. Impressionism is one of the major art movements that began during the Victorian era. Some famous impressionists are Claude Monet and Pierre-Auguste Renoir. Their pantings included visible brush strokes and movement. This type of artwork was nothing that most people were used to, so Monet and Renoir were often critized for it. Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema is said to be the most successful artist of the Victorian era.==== ====Most of the paintings in the Victorian Era focused on reality so they were usually very detailed and colorful almost to the point that they were life like. The developement of photography and new technology for architecture was also introduced.====

​ = = = = = = = = = = = Themes = Many of the themes and meanings of Victorian poetry reflect a conflicted sense of self. At once many poems by Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett Browning portray a longing for the ideals of the Victorian period of literature but they are stunted it seems by the unique period and its new use of language, the changing and ever-growing economy in the bustling city of London, and of course, the changing views of religion and its place in such a complex world. Through the poems from the Victorian era of both Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Matthew Arnold, the recurrent themes of shifting religious ideas, language usage, and the economy are clear.


 * Philosophy and Values of the Victorians/ **
 * Characteristics of Victorian Literature **

Form/ Structure ** || ** Literary Content/ Themes ** || ** Literary Genres/ Styles ** || ** Key Authors ** || Monologue ** || ** Lord Tennyson ** || Elegy magazines ** || ** The Brontes
 * ** Values ** || ** Major Ideas ** || ** Literary
 * ** E **** arnestness ** || ** Expansion of Empire ** || ** Narrative over Lyric ** || ** Isolation/ Alienation ** || ** Dramatic
 * ** Respectability ** || ** Glorification of War ** || ** Meter and Rhythm over Imagery ** || ** Lack of communication ** || ** Novel

Oscar Wilde ** ||
 * ** Evangelism ** || ** Industrialism ** || ** Objective; reflective ** || ** Pessimism and despair ** || ** Drama: Comedy of Manners ** || ** Elizabeth Barrett and Robert Browning ** ||
 * ** Evolution and Progress ** || ** Economic Prosperity ** || ** Melancholy or meditative, even in love poems ** || ** Loss of faith ** || ** Rigid standards of personal behavior ** || ** Charles Dickens ** ||
 * ** Hypocrisy? ** || ** Reform ** || ** Moral issues, didactic ** || ** Didactic ** || ** High moral tone ** || ** Thomas Carlyle ** ||
 * ** Protestant work ethic ** ||  || ** Contemporary subjects ** ||   ||   || ** Charles Darwin ** ||
 * ** Restraint ** ||  || ** Longer over shorter forms ** ||   ||   || ** Matthew Arnold ** ||
 * ** Utilitarianism **
 * Strong emphasis on duty ** ||  || ** More common expressions ** ||   ||   || ** Dante Gabriel and Christina Rosetti ** ||
 * ||  || ** Medieval subjects and forms ** ||   ||   || ** Rudyard Kipling ** ||

** More Victoriana **


 * ** Key Metaphor ** ||  || ** Struggle or strife ** ||

Intellectual and spiritual doubt – antidote is work ** ||
 * ** Key Theme ** ||  || ** Theory of evolution leads to crisis of faith

consciousness ** ||  || ** Reform movements – child labour, safety, hours Women – demand emancipation, enfranchisement, evolution ** ||
 * ** Growing social


 * ** Victorian Trinity ** ||  || ** Religion, science, morality ** ||


 * ** Nationalism ** ||  || ** Britain ** ** – first great modern industrial nation ** ||


 * ** Poets ** ||  || ** Feel alienated, betrayed – estranged from life and love – so isolate themselves no groups or friends ** ||

Common man Imagination ** Middle class Reality Work ** ||
 * || ** Romantic Era ** || ** Victorian Era ** ||
 * ** Idealism ** || ** Visionary/Utopian ** || ** Sober/Utilitarian ** ||
 * ** View of Nature ** || ** Kind/Harmonious ** || ** Harsh/Cruel ** ||
 * ** Focus ** || ** Inward/Individual
 * Introspection ** || ** Outward/Nation
 * ** Philosophy ** || ** Transcendentalism ** || ** Utilitarianism ** ||



"Queen Victoria (1819-1901)." //Victorian Station//. Victorian Station, 1999-2001. Web. 20 May 2010. [].
 * Citations:**

"Victorian Art." //Huntfor.com// (2007): n. pag. Web. 21 May 2010. []