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| '''Victorian morality''' is a distillation of the ] views of people living at the time of ]'s reign (1837–1901) and of the moral climate of the ] of the 19th century in general, which contrasted greatly with the morality of the previous ]. Many of these values spread throughout the ]. Today, the term "Victorian morality" can describe any set of values that espouse ], ] and a strict social ]. | |||
| The term "Victorian" was first used during ] in London (1851), where Victorian inventions and morals were shown to the world.<ref>Merriman 2004,p. 749.</ref> Victorian values were developed in all facets of Victorian living. The morality and values of the period can be classed as Religion, Morality, Elitism, Industrialism, and Improvement. These values took root in Victorian morality, creating an overall change in the British Empire. | |||
| Historians now regard the ] as a time of many contradictions, such as the widespread cultivation of an outward appearance of dignity and restraint together with the prevalence of social phenomena such as ] and ]. A plethora of social movements arose from attempts to improve the prevailing harsh living conditions for many under a rigid ]. | |||
| ==Historical background== | |||
| The term ''Victorianum'' has acquired a range of ]s, including that of a particularly strict set of moral standards and rules often ]ly applied. This stems from the image of Queen Victoria—and her husband, ].<ref>Merriman 2004, p. 747.</ref> | |||
| Two hundred years earlier the ] movement, which led to the installment of ], had temporarily overthrown the British monarchy. Cromwell imposed a strict moral code on the people (such as abolishing ] as too indulgent of the sensual pleasures). | |||
| When the monarchy was restored, a period of loose living and debauchery inspired too by the rise of French court cultural influence all over Europe, appeared to be a reaction to the earlier religious based forms of repression. (See: ]) The two social forces of Puritanism and ] continued to motivate the collective psyche of ] from the ] onward. This was particularly significant in the public perceptions of the later Hanoverian monarchs who immediately preceded Queen Victoria. For instance, her uncle ] was commonly perceived as a pleasure-seeking playboy, whose conduct in office was the cause of much scandal. | |||
| ==Description== | |||
| ] of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, ]]] | |||
| Historians ] and Michael Mason both point out that modern society often confuses Victorian etiquette for a lack of knowledge. It is often thought that those going for a swim in the ] at the ] would use a ] out of modesty. Despite the existence of the bathing machine, it was still possible to see people bathing ]. Another example of the gap between common preconceptions of Victorian sexuality and historical record is that, contrary to what might be expected, Queen Victoria liked to draw and collect male nude ]s and even gave one to her husband as a present.<ref>], The Bourgeois Experience: Victoria to Freud</ref> Popular conception suggests that typical middle-class brides likely knew nothing about sex and learned about their husbands' expectations for it on their wedding night, and that the experience was often traumatic. However, Victorian society did recognize that both men and women could enjoy copulation.<ref name="draznin2001">{{cite book | title=Victorian London's Middle-Class Housewife: What She Did All Day (#179) | publisher=Greenwood Press | author=Draznin, Yaffa Claire | year=2001 | series=Contributions in Women's Studies | location=Westport, Connecticut | pages=95–96 | isbn=0-313-31399-7}}</ref> | |||
| Verbal or written communication of ] or ]s was also often proscribed so people instead used the ]. However, they also wrote explicit ], perhaps the most famous being the racy tell-all '']'' by the pseudonym Walter (allegedly ]), and the magazine '']'', which was published for several years and reprinted as a paperback book in the 1960s. Victorian erotica also survives in private letters archived in museums and even in a study of women's orgasms. Some current historians now believe that the myth of Victorian repression can be traced back to early twentieth-century views, such as those of ], a member of the ], who wrote '']''. | |||
| Victoria ascended to the throne in 1837, only four years after the ] in the British Empire. The ] movement had campaigned for years to achieve the ban, succeeding with a partial abolition in 1807 and the full ban on slave trade, but not slave ownership, which only happened in 1833. It took so long because the anti-slavery morality was pitted against powerful economic interests which claimed their businesses would be destroyed if they were not permitted to exploit slave labor. Eventually, ] owners in the ] received £20 million in ]. | |||
| In Victoria's time, the ] patrolled the ], stopping any ships that it suspected of trading ]n slaves to the ] and freeing any slaves found. The British had set up a ] in ]—]—and transported freed slaves there. Freed slaves from ] founded and named the capital of Sierra Leone "]". Many people living at that time argued that the living conditions of workers in English factories seemed worse than those endured by some slaves. | |||
| Throughout the Victorian Era, homosexuality held a vexed position in the culture. Homosexual acts were a ] until 1861. ] has argued that homosexual and heterosexual identities didn't emerge until the 19th century; before that time terms described practices and not identity. Foucault cites "Westphal's famous article of 1870 on 'contrary sexual sensations'" as the "date of birth" of the categorization of the homosexual (Foucault 1976). The first known use of ''homosexual'' in English is not until ]'s 1895 translation of ]'s ''Psychopathia Sexualis'', a study on sexual practices.<ref>], ''One Hundred Years of Gayness | |||
| '', Routledge, 1990, page 15</ref> | |||
| In the same way, throughout the Victorian Era, movements for justice, freedom, and other strong moral values opposed greed, exploitation, and ]. The writings of ], in particular, observed and recorded these conditions. ] and ] carried out much of their analysis of ] in and as a reaction to Victorian Britain. | |||
| ==Religious morality== | |||
| ] (]) of the young ]]] | |||
| {{One source|section|date=October 2011}} | |||
| Religious morality changed drastically during the Victorian Era. When Victoria took the throne the ] was very powerful—running schools and universities, and with high ranking churchmen holding offices in the ].<ref name="bayley108">Bayley, S. 2008, p. 108</ref> The Church's power continued to rule in rural areas throughout the Victorian Era; however that was not the case in industrialized cities.<ref name="bayley108"/> In the cities those against the Church were many and dissent was rampant.<ref name="bayley108"/> However, dissent has been running its pressure since the onset of ] in politics even before the Oliver Cromwell days. The dissenting sects were against what the Anglican church was using its power for.<ref name="bayley109">Bayley, S. 2008, p. 109</ref> The Church demanded obedience to God, submissiveness and resignation with the goal of making people more malleable to the will of the Church.<ref name="bayley109"/> The Church was accused of appeasing the will of the elite, and of caring little if at all about the needs and wants of the lower, peasant class,<ref name="bayley109"/> from which dissent emerged ], Congregationalism, The Society of Friends (]) and ].<ref name="bayley109"/> The Methodists and Presbyterians in particular stressed personal salvation through direct individual faith in Jesus Christ's sacrificial death and resurrection on the behalf of sinners, citing the New Testament Gospels and the writings of the Apostles Peter, James and Paul.<ref name="bayley109"/> This stress on individualism is seen throughout the Victorian Era and becomes even more developed in Middle Class life. | |||
| The Crisis of Faith was brought about in 1859 with ]'s work '']''; his theory was (in the basic form) that the Natural World had become what it was through gradual change over eons.<ref name="bayley112">Bayley, S. 2008, p. 112</ref> He stated that natural selection and survival of the fittest were the reasons man had survived so long.<ref name="bayley112"/> His theory of ] based on empirical evidence would call into question Christian beliefs and Victorian values.<ref name="bayley113">Bayley, S. 2008, p. 113</ref> People whose lives became totally uprooted felt the need to find a new system on which to base their values and morality.<ref name="bayley113"/> Unable to completely lose faith, they combined both their religious beliefs with individual duty—duty to one's God, fellow man, social class, neighbour, the poor and the ill.<ref name="bayley113"/> | |||
| ==The elite and middle class values== | |||
| ]'s '']'' (1853)]] | |||
| At the start of the Victorian era, the elite were in total control of society and its politics.<ref>Bayley, S. 2008, p. 146</ref> The elite were made up of about 300 families which were firmly established as the traditional ruling class.<ref>Bayley, S. 2008, p. 147</ref> However, new values, such as individualism, were developing throughout the Victorian era. For example, the idea of the self-made man<ref>Bayley, S. 2008, p. 200</ref> became a dominant aspiration in the middle class. Similar to the ], the idea is that, if they work hard enough, all men can become wealthy. | |||
| ===Upper class values=== | |||
| The upper class (the elite) valued history, heritage, lineage and the continuity of their family line.<ref name="bayley154">Bayley, S. 2008, p. 154</ref> They believed that they were born to rule through divine right and they wanted this right to continue.<ref name="bayley154"/> They had a paternalistic view of society, seeing themselves as the father in the family of society.<ref name="bayley154"/> ] was their belief that it was the elite's ''duty'' to take care of society.<ref name="bayley154"/> The elite hoped to continue tradition and the status quo, through institutions such as the law of primogeniture (first-born son inherits everything).<ref name="bayley154"/> The elite intended to stay on top and wealthy.<ref name="bayley154"/> However, when a financial crisis threatened their position, they adapted and opened up their ranks to the wealthiest of the middle class, allowing them to buy a place within the ranks of the elite.<ref name="bayley154"/> The elite were landed gentry and so they did not have to work, and instead enjoyed a life of luxury and leisure.<ref name="bayley154"/> While the elite maintained their traditional values, Victorian values and attitudes changed and the elite began to recognize and promote the middle class. | |||
| ==References== | |||
| ;Notes | |||
| {{reflist|colwidth=35em}} | |||
| ;Bibliography | |||
| *Bayley, S (2008). ''Victorian Values: An Introduction'' Montreal: Dawson College. | |||
| *]. ''The Bourgeois Experience: Victoria to Freud'' | |||
| *Merriman, J (2004). ''A History of Modern Europe; From the French Revolution to the Present'' New York, London: W.W. Norton & Company. | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
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