ENGLISH 12
NOTES
The Victorian Age: Progress and Decline
pp. 852 – 862
From the timeline
1. When did Victoria become Queen of England?
a. 1837
2. Name a technological improvement of the period.
a. Electric Lighting
3. What evidence can you find of women’s changing status before 1855?
a. Women attend University of London beginning in 1848.
4. Name a British development after 1865 that “made the day longer.”
a. Streetlights (gas lamps)
5. Name a nation that, like Britain, made technological progress at this time.
a. USA
pp. 854 – 856
6. How was manufacturing changing the landscape of England?
- Small villages grow into large cities
7. What two key issues dominated domestic politics during the first half of the Victorian era?
a. Electoral Reform and Trade Policy
8. Why did the Corn Laws anger the poorer classes?
a. The price of local corn was way too high.
9. How did the Second Reform Bill of 1867change the voting process in England?
a. Men who live in cities could now vote.
10. Parliament voted to provide public sanitation and for the first time FREE this!!! J
a. School
11. What was the typical Victorians’ belief about other (non-Christian) cultures?
a. Victorians believed they were superior to all other cultures.
12. What were some of the British colonies acquired during Victoria’s reign?
a. India, Africa, Hong Kong
13. The Industrial Revolution brought about many conflicts within Victorian society. What were some of the political, philosophical and religious debates of the time?
a. Darwin’s theory of natural selection and Utilitarianism (greatest good for the greatest number)
p. 859 “Victorian Fiction”
14. What cheap, mass produced medium allowed almost all members of Victorian society to have access the novels of the age?
a. Magazines
15. Dickens’ choose to contrast the rich and the poor in industrial England. What were some of the sentimental elements of his work?
a. Innocence suffering in a cruel world