The Victorian age, long and Glorious

6.1. The Victorian Age (1837 – 1901).

6.1.1. As a result of the in­dustrial revolution, Britain became the workshop of the world. British factories were pro­ducing more than any other country in the world. Having many colonies, Britain controlled large areas of the world. The British had a strong feeling of their importance. Queen Victoria is associated with Britain's great age of industrial expansion, economic progress and, especially, the growth of the colonial empire. At her death, Britain had a worldwide empire on which the sun never set. It was during the mid-1850s that the word “ Victorian ” began to be employed to express a new self-consciousness, both in relation to the nation and to the period through which it was passing. In 1851 Queen Victoria opened the Great Exhibition of the Industries of All Nations in the Crystal Palace in London. The aim of the Exhibition was to show the world the greatness of Britain's industry. The exhibition was a triumph.

6.1.2. The Victorian Age knows many outstanding personalities who contributed to the development of the nation. They are great engineers like Isambard Brunel, public figures like Florence Nightingale, travelers like David Livingstone, and a great number of world-class artists. For example, the Victorian era produced an amazing number of popular novelists and poets. Perhaps the most famous authors of this time were Charles Dickens, William Makepeace Thackeray, the Bronte sisters — Charlotte, Emily, and Anne, Robert Louis Stevenson, Alfred, Lord Tennyson.

6.1.3. Advances in science were prominent, too. During the Victorian age, Michael Faraday's and James Maxwell's work led to the practical application of the electric power. Biologist Charles Darwin developed the theory of evolution through natural selection, which radically influenced modern science and thought. Indeed, it was a pioneering breakthrough. Surgeon Joseph Lister introduced antiseptic surgery in the 1860s which helped reduce mortality during operations.

6.1.4. During the Victorian Age Britain was at its most powerful and self-confident. Many famous traits of the British mentality, such as snobbery, conservatism and imperial outlook, humbug and hypocrisy appeared. From the early 1850s to the early 1870s, almost all sections of the population seemed to be benefiting from relative prosperity. It was during these years, when great individual creative power was tapped, that Victorianism, perhaps the only “ism” in history attached to the name of a sovereign, came to represent a cluster of restraining moral attributes — “character,” “duty,” “will,” earnestness, hard work, respectable comportment and behavior, and thrift. Yet despite their widespread appeal, all of these Victorian virtues were subjected to contemporary criticism.

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