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The Victorian Period

27 important questions on The Victorian Period

When was the Victorian Period?

1830 -1900

When was Victoria's reign?

from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901.

What was the Victorian period like??

It was a long period of peace, prosperity, refines sensibilities and national self-confidence for Britain. It also is an era characterized by change and progress.

What made the country become a capitalist society?

The Industrial Revolution accelerated by the invention of the steam engine and this together with the development and growth of industry made the country a capitalist society.

What was the downside of this developing into a industrial and rich nation?

That England became a nation of bitter contrasts a well were the conditions for the working classes were far from ideal and were child labor as the order of the day.

By what was the Victorian Age marked as well?

by the growth of imperialism, the supposed right of the British to govern over distant territories and people.

What happened with regards to becoming a more social and democratic country?

–Rise of democracy
•Two Reform Bills (1832 and 1869) gave the middle and working classes the right to vote.
–Position of the poor
•Childlabour (under 9 yearolds) banned in 1833, butPoor Law of 1834 destroyedfamilylife.
–Emancipation of women

What is the difference between romantic and victorian poetry?

- Victorian poetry followed the Romantic movement, but is marked by darker qualities and subjects.
- Romanticism offers an idealized look at the world while Victorian poetry is much harder and realistic.
- In romantic period, poetry personifies an beautifies nature, while Victorian poetry didn't like the romanticized version of society and the poems produced in this period dealt with grave social injustices and realistic subjects calling for social reform.
- Victorian poetry marks society's progression from the carefree notions of Romanticism to a state of social awareness and reform

What was founded around the middle of the 19th century?

The Pre- Raphaelite Brotherhood. Whose members returned to the art forms of he Italian primitives. Their works are simple, pure and dreamlike.

The Brotherhood's early doctrines were expressed in four declarations:

1. to have genuine ideas to express
2. to study Nature attentively, so as to know how to express them
3. to sympathise with what is direct and serious and heartfelt in previous art, to the exclusion of what is conventional and self-parodying and learned by rote
4. most indispensable of all, to produce thoroughly good pictures and statues.

What type of literature became leading during the Victorian Period?

the novel.

What made mass production of novels possible?

Economic progress. It gave a wider public access to books.

The novels written in this period formed a link and transition between what?

between the writers of the Romantic Period and the very different literature of the 20th century. Along with romance novels, there were many horror novels written as well.

Who was the best known author of this time?

Charles Dickens. His novels are characterized by intricate plots and realistic descriptions of working class conditions. He also had a talent for the comical and used his writing as a (satirical) criticism on society.

What are the Victorians credited for?

inventing childhood. Partly via their efforts to stop child labour and the introduction of compulsory education.

What happened as children began to read?

literature for young people became a growth industry and introduced a new group of dedicated children's authors.

Who were Victorian poets?

•Poets likeTennyson, Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett Browning continued in the Romanicfashionwith the edge of focus oncurrenttimes.

What did the Victorian poets write about as well?

–For example, Victorian poets als wroteaboutdemocracy, education, technologicaladvances, industrialprogress, orabout the “newclass”: the proletariat, the workingclass.

What is the poem crossing the bar about?

death

What does Tennyson reflect on in this poem?

•In this short, intense poem, Tennyson reflects on his own impending death
•-he sounds kind of confident—serene, even.
•This, was his swan song.

Who published my last duchess and when?

Robert Browning published "My Last Duchess" in 1842 in a book of poems titled Dramatic Lyrics.

What type of writing does Robert Browning have?

•Browning experiments with form, combining some aspects of stage plays and some aspects of Romantic verse to create a new type of poetry for his own Victorian age.

When and by who was "remember" written?

Written in 1849, when Rossetti was just 19 years old,

What happened in Rossetti's life when she was young?

By the time she was 18, Rossetti had learned much about the fragility of life. Beginning in 1843, her father was continually sick and she herself had a serious mental breakdown sometime in the 1840s

Who wrote Oliver Twist?

•Oliver Twist is one of the most famous novels Charles Dickens ever wrote (which is impressive, given that he wrote fifteen super-popular novels during his life).

What is Oliver Twist about?

It’s a classic rags-to-riches story about an orphan who has to find his way through a city full of criminals, and avoid being corrupted

Why did people read Oliver twist back then and nowadays?

•People read Oliver Twist in Dickens's day—and are still reading it now—for the gritty realism with which Dickens portrays working class people and the horrible living conditions of the London slums.

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English Literature

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