Victorian era. Morals of Victorian England

When people talk about the Victorian era, I personally have a feeling of sadness that this era will never repeat itself! After all, it was a time of high moral principles, a time of high standards of relationships. For example, at this time the qualities that really appeal to me - punctuality, sobriety, diligence, hard work, thriftiness and frugality - became a model for all residents of the country. It was a time of beautiful ladies and noble gentlemen, a time of great discoveries and technological progress, a time of industrial boom, quality things and lasting relationships.

During this period, the young Queen Victoria ascended the throne. She was not only wise, but also a very beautiful woman, as her contemporaries noted. Unfortunately, we mostly know of her portraits, where she is in mourning and no longer young. She wore lifelong mourning for her husband, Prince Albert, with whom she lived happy years. Their subjects called their marriage ideal, and the royal family was revered. The ladies of the court dreamed of being like the queen, respected by all.

In general, the Victorian era, in my opinion, is an ideal time. But is it? Was everything so perfect? Was life really that good for people of that time?

It's easy to judge everything without knowing the details. But it is they who make life not contour and illusory, but clear and truthful. Books and magazine articles dedicated to this period will tell us about this.

The most factual guide "Queen Victoria and the Golden Age of Britain" from the series “Guides to the History of the World.” Here, in a brief, condensed form, the biography of Queen Victoria is given, the main directions of British policy during her reign, the main trends in the development of the country's economy, the directions of industrialization and the transformation of the state into the “workshop of the world” are revealed. The advantage of this small book is that it is richly equipped with illustrations that make the presentation of the material visible and understandable.
"In Britain and not so much in most of Ireland, - wrote the English historian D. Cannedine, - Victoria personified the image of the mother of the nation, a moral ideal rising above rough everyday life; internationally she became the imperial matriarch who presided with motherly care over the greater British family spanning two hemispheres.". Despite the fact that the guidebook was written by Russian authors, when reading it, you feel how proud the English nation was of its huge state, which managed to create such marvels of engineering as the London Underground, the railway network, the Paddington station, etc.

However, industrialization also had a downside - difficult working conditions for workers in factories, poverty and appalling living conditions for the lower strata of the population, unsanitary conditions and poisonous smog in London, which became a breeding ground for dangerous diseases...

You can read more about this in the book by Tanya Dittrich "Daily Life in Victorian England", which is designed to literally “chew” for the modern reader how people actually lived in England at that time. Where and how did you work? How did you dress and have fun? What moral and ethical standards did you adhere to? What technical improvements have been implemented? How did production and transport develop? Tanya Dittrich's book is written in a light literary style and reads like a fiction novel, although the fastidious reader clearly lacks documentary evidence and statistical evidence of the material presented.
On the one hand, the author confirms the greatness of the era when previously dormant humanity seemed to wake up and be illuminated by a flurry of ideas, projects and discoveries that radically changed the situation not only in Britain, but throughout the world. Great inventions gave impetus to the development of production, industry changed the appearance of cities, cities imposed their heavy toll on the people living in them, and people, as always, adapted to new conditions and responded to changes with new ideas. The inertia of these changes is so strong that even now, one might say, any area of ​​our life stands firmly on the roots planted in the Victorian era.
But, on the other hand, here we see the unsightly sides of the life of the British, and especially the Londoners of that time. If a person did not belong to the upper class, but was a simple city dweller, his life was not at all sweet! Exhausting work for 12-14 hours in factories and factories, where no safety regulations were observed, lack of normal housing (entire families huddled in one room), complete unsanitary conditions (until sewers were built), constant coal smog, which could suffocate, and other delights...
By the way, Tanya Dittrich's book details the construction of the sewer system in London in the 1860s. And before that the city was the most polluted city in the world. This period is also called the “Great Stench.”

The same topic is touched upon by an article in the magazine “Profile” (No. 23, 2015), which is called “With the advent of toilets, chaos ensued.”. This is an interview with Lee Jackson, author of Dirty Old London. The Victorian battle against unsanitary conditions." The British of the Victorian era were obsessed with the idea of ​​cleanliness: they polished silverware to a shine and tirelessly fought dust. But at the same time, the city was covered with a layer of disgusting black substance, a viscous mess of soot, dust, dirt and excrement. And the Thames was generally a sewer. But the most interesting thing is that the water closets only made the problem worse. The shortage of drinking water led to the fact that Londoners drank mainly alcoholic beverages...

The “disadvantages” of English society during the reign of Queen Victoria also included ineradicable superstition, which persisted despite all scientific discoveries and research. This is the story of the book by Ekaterina Kouti and Natalia Kharsa "Superstitions of Victorian England". The authors of the book retell for the Russian audience legends, omens, fairy tales and ballads that were popular in England in the 19th century. The life of the English is shown here through the prism of customs and superstitions. The entire life of a subject of the British Empire, from birth to death, was accompanied by unshakable traditions and rituals, many of which today cause laughter and bewilderment. Weddings and family life, childbirth and raising children, death and funerals, everything was built on the basis of various signs and predictions.
What would you think if your business partner spit on his hand before shaking yours and signing the contract? Will some relative at a wedding insist that the bride in a snow-white lace veil kiss the soot-stained chimney sweep? Believe me, what seems crazy now would have surprised few people 150 years ago. What could these strange actions mean? You can read about this in the presented book, which is just as exciting and interesting to read as the previous one, and seems to be its direct continuation.

The life of any era is always best studied through the biographies of people who lived at that time. To do this, I propose to read three books dedicated to scientists, writers and politicians in Great Britain.

Among the scientists of that time, the names of Charles Darwin and Thomas Huxley stand out, whose lives and scientific research are dedicated to the book by William Irwin "Monkeys, Angels and Victorians". The Victorian era is a time when revolutions were made in the scholar's study. The book is distinguished by the fact that the depiction of the main characters is given against the backdrop of a broadly and accurately outlined historical and social situation. Like true Victorians, Darwin and Huxley were consistent, noble and courageous. Despite the fact that the ideas of the founder of evolutionary theory and the greatest fighter for Darwinism met with strong opposition, both from society and from the scientific community, they managed to refract public opinion and turn the development of biology towards the path of truth.

If Irwin's book shows us the life of scientists against the backdrop of the Victorian era, then Margaret Forster's novel Notes of a Victorian Gentleman depicts the life of a writer of the same time. The book is dedicated to William Mikepeace Thackeray, the author of the famous Vanity Fair. The English writer chose a unique form for her novel. She allegedly acts as the publisher of autobiographical notes of Thackeray himself. The story of his life, creative searches, and his relationship with his contemporaries is revealed in a vivid artistic form. Letters, diaries and other materials from Thackeray's legacy are freely introduced into the fabric of the narrative, as well as his original drawings. Thackeray was labeled a “cynic,” but, according to the concepts of the 19th century, he was a real gentleman, a dandy, sophisticated in the subtleties of etiquette, a welcome guest at any social salon, an excellent father, and a respected citizen by all. Writing a novel in Thackeray's name was a difficult task and an audacious idea. But, as critics say, Margaret Forster succeeded.

If you are more interested in the life of politicians of the Victorian era, then I advise you to read the book by Vladimir Grigorievich Trukhanovsky “Benjamin Disraeli, or the History of his own incredible career.” How, in a country so fanatically committed to conservative traditions as England, could an unknown upstart, a foreigner who had no money, no connections, no university education, and who had not even graduated from high school, achieve supreme power? Coming from a wealthy background, but at the beginning of the 19th century. disenfranchised Jewish environment, he led the conservative party of the aristocracy - and became Chancellor of the Exchequer. A staunch and consistent defender of Great Britain's imperial interests, as prime minister he significantly strengthened its position on the seas and continents.

But these are all the fates of men...

The book by Tanya Dittrich, with which we began our review, touches on the topic of the position of women in Victorian society. Complete lack of rights and dependence on men are the main points of this description. Even Charles Darwin considered women to be the lower class. Listing the traits that are more pronounced in women than in men, he recalled that “at least some of these properties characterize the lower races, and therefore the past or lower state of civilization.”

This topic is continued by an article by Natalia Kryuchkova "Middle Class Woman in the Victorian Era", which was published in the magazine “Knowledge is Power” (No. 8 for 2013). The author writes that women from the middle classes were constrained much more than their sisters from the working classes or from the circles of the nobility, who had much greater freedom in choosing occupations, in communication, etc. It is not surprising that feminism as a movement for women's equality arose precisely among middle class women. The activities of women's organizations contributed to the expansion of women's professional and social activity by the end of the 19th century. Women were allowed to participate in elections to local representative bodies, they were officially given the opportunity to receive higher education and, thus, engage in professional activities, reforms related to marriage relations also owed much to the women's movement.

In general, after reading these books and articles, you will learn a lot about that time, which, at first glance, seems almost ideal. You understand that any period has its light and dark sides. In modern literature there is a tendency to denigrate everything, looking for unsightly moments. Personally, all the shortcomings of Victorianism do not frighten me at all, because it was at that time that people learned, and quite successfully, to overcome them - legislation was changed, sanitary facilities were built, medicines were invented, medical technologies were developed... It was the Victorian era that made our world what it is today . Only much more boring.

Dear friends! As a sign that we are not dead, from this day on we will regale you with huge doses of texts about our beautiful Old New England, where we are all going to live.

GM has an idea that the neuroses-ridden Victorian society (the era ended with Her Majesty Victoria in 1901) in 1909 is still alive in the minds and souls of the British, but this harsh mentality is gradually being replaced by its lighter version - Edwardianism , more refined, sophisticated, frivolous, prone to luxury and adventure. The change of milestones occurs slowly, but still the world (and with it the consciousness of people) is changing.

Let's look today at where we all lived before 1901 and look at history and Victorian morality. This will be our foundation, the bottom from which we will push off (and for some, the platform on which they will stand firmly and confidently).

Here's the young Queen Victoria, who valued morality, ethics and family values ​​above all else.
A living person fit extremely poorly into the Victorian value system, where each subject was supposed to have a specific set of required qualities. Therefore, hypocrisy was considered not only acceptable, but also obligatory. Saying what you don’t mean, smiling when you want to cry, lavishing pleasantries on people who make you shake—this is what is required of a well-mannered person. People should feel comfortable and comfortable in your company, and how you feel is your own business. Put everything away, lock it, and preferably swallow the key. Only with the closest people can you sometimes allow yourself to move the iron mask that hides your true face a millimeter. In return, society readily promises not to try to look inside you.

What the Victorians did not tolerate was nudity of any kind - both mental and physical. Moreover, this applied not only to people, but to any phenomena in general. If you have a toothpick, then there should be a case for it. The case with the toothpick should be stored in a box with a lock. The box must be hidden in a locked chest of drawers. To prevent the chest of drawers from seeming too bare, you need to cover every free centimeter of it with carved curls and cover it with an embroidered bedspread, which, in order to avoid excessive openness, should be filled with figurines, wax flowers and other nonsense, which it is advisable to cover with glass covers. The walls were covered with decorative plates, engravings and paintings from top to bottom. In those places where the wallpaper still managed to immodestly come out into the light of God, it was clear that it was decorously dotted with small bouquets, birds or coats of arms. There are carpets on the floors, smaller rugs on the carpets, the furniture is covered with bedspreads and strewn with embroidered cushions.

But human nakedness, of course, had to be hidden especially carefully, especially female nakedness. The Victorians viewed women as some kind of centaurs, who had the upper half of the body (undoubtedly, the creation of God), but there were doubts about the lower half. The taboo extended to everything connected with feet. This very word was prohibited: they were supposed to be called “limbs”, “members” and even “pedestal”. Most words for pants were taboo in good society. The matter ended with the fact that in stores they began to be quite officially titled “unnameable” and “unspeakable”.

Men's trousers were sewn in such a way as to hide the anatomical excesses of the stronger sex from view as much as possible: thick fabric linings along the front of the trousers and very tight underwear were used.

As for the ladies' pedestal, this was generally an exclusively forbidden territory, the very outlines of which had to be destroyed. Huge hoops were worn under skirts - crinolines, so that a lady's skirt easily took 10-11 meters of material. Then bustles appeared - lush overlays on the buttocks, designed to completely hide the presence of this part of the female body, so that modest Victorian ladies were forced to walk, dragging their cloth butts with bows, protruding half a meter back.

Victorian family
“The average Victorian family is headed by a patriarch who married a virginal bride late in life. He has rare and restrained sexual relations with his wife, who, exhausted by constant childbirth and the hardships of marriage to such a difficult man, spends most of her time lying on the sofa. He holds lengthy family prayers before breakfast, whips his sons with rods to enforce discipline, keeps his daughters as untrained and ignorant as possible, kicks out pregnant maids without pay or recommendations, secretly keeps a mistress in some quiet establishment, and probably visits minors. prostitutes. The woman is absorbed in worries about the household and children, and when her husband expects her to fulfill marital duties, she “lies on her back, closes her eyes and thinks about England” - after all, nothing else is required of her, because “ladies do not move.”

Gender relations
Victorianism achieved the least success in the ethics of gender relations and family life, as a result of which about 40% of Englishwomen of the so-called “middle class” of this era remained unmarried throughout their lives. The reason for this was a rigid system of moral conventions, which led to a dead end for many who wanted to arrange their personal lives.

The concept of misalliance in Victorian England was brought to the point of real absurdity. For example, at first glance, nothing prevents the descendants of two equal noble families from marrying. However, the conflict that arose between the ancestors of these families in the 15th century erected a wall of alienation: the ungentlemanly act of Gilbert’s great-great-grandfather made all subsequent, innocent Gilberts ungentlemen in the eyes of society.

Open manifestations of sympathy between a man and a woman, even in a harmless form, without intimacy, were strictly prohibited. The word “love” was completely taboo. The limit of frankness in explanations was the password “Can I hope?” and the response “I have to think.” Courtship was supposed to be public, consisting of ritual conversations, symbolic gestures and signs. The most common sign of favor, intended specifically for prying eyes, was permission for the young man to carry the girl’s prayer book upon returning from Sunday services. A girl who was left alone in a room for even a minute with a man who had no officially declared intentions towards her was considered compromised. An elderly widower and his adult unmarried daughter could not live under the same roof - they had to either move away or hire a companion in the house, because a highly moral society was always ready to suspect father and daughter of unnatural relationships.

Led by the burgher queen, the British were filled with what Soviet textbooks liked to call “bourgeois morality.” Splendor, splendor, and luxury were now considered not quite decent things, fraught with depravity. The royal court, which for so many years was the center of freedom of morals, breathtaking toilets and shining jewelry, turned into the abode of a person in a black dress and a widow's cap. The sense of style caused the aristocracy to also slow down in this matter, and it is still widely believed that no one dresses as poorly as the high English nobility. Saving was elevated to the rank of virtue. Even in the houses of lords, from now on, for example, candle stubs were never thrown away; they were to be collected and then sold to candle shops for recasting.

Modesty, hard work and impeccable morality were prescribed to absolutely all classes. However, it was quite enough to appear to have these qualities: there was no attempt to change human nature. You can feel whatever you want, but giving away your feelings or doing inappropriate things was highly discouraged, unless, of course, you valued your place in society. And society was structured in such a way that almost every inhabitant of Albion did not even try to jump a step higher. God grant that you have the strength to hold on to the position you occupy now.

Failure to live up to one's position was punished mercilessly among the Victorians. If a girl's name is Abigail, she will not be hired as a maid in a decent house, since the maid must have a simple name, such as Anne or Mary. The footman must be tall and be able to move deftly. A butler with an unintelligible pronunciation or too direct gaze will end his days in a ditch. A girl who sits like this will never get married.

Don’t wrinkle your forehead, don’t spread your elbows, don’t sway when walking, otherwise everyone will decide that you are a brick factory worker or a sailor: that’s exactly how they are supposed to walk. If you wash down your food with your mouth full, you won't be invited to dinner again. When talking to an older lady, you need to bow your head slightly. A person who signs his business cards so clumsily cannot be accepted in good society.

Everything was subject to the most severe regulation: movements, gestures, voice timbre, gloves, topics of conversation. Every detail of your appearance and manners should have eloquently screamed about what you are, or rather, trying to represent. A clerk who looks like a shopkeeper is ridiculous; the governess dressed up like a duchess is outrageous; a cavalry colonel must behave differently from a village priest, and a man's hat says more about him than he could tell about himself.

In general, there are few societies in the world in which gender relations would please the outsider with reasonable harmony. But Victorian sexual segregation is in many ways unparalleled. The word “hypocrisy” here begins to play with new bright colors. For the lower classes, everything was simpler, but starting with middle-class townspeople, the rules of the game became extremely complicated. Both sexes got it to the fullest.

Lady

By law, a woman was not considered separately from her husband; her entire fortune was considered his property from the moment of marriage. Quite often, a woman also could not be the heir of her husband if his estate was a primogeniture.
Women of the middle class and above could only work as governesses or companions; any other professions simply did not exist for them. A woman also could not make financial decisions without her husband's consent. Divorce was extremely rare and usually led to the expulsion of the wife and often the husband from polite society. From birth, the girl was taught to always and in everything obey men, obey them and forgive any antics: drunkenness, mistresses, ruin of the family - anything.

The ideal Victorian wife never reproached her husband with a word. Her task was to please her husband, praise his virtues and rely entirely on him in any matter. However, the Victorians gave their daughters considerable freedom in choosing spouses. Unlike, for example, the French or Russian nobles, where children's marriages were decided mainly by their parents, the young Victorian had to make a choice independently and with her eyes wide open: her parents could not force her to marry anyone. True, they could prevent her from marrying an unwanted groom until she was 24 years old, but if the young couple fled to Scotland, where it was allowed to get married without parental approval, then mom and dad could not do anything.

But usually young ladies were already sufficiently trained to keep their desires in check and obey their elders. They were taught to appear weak, tender and naive - it was believed that only such a fragile flower could make a man want to take care of him. Before leaving for balls and dinners, young ladies were fed for slaughter, so that the girl would not have the desire to demonstrate a good appetite in front of strangers: an unmarried girl was supposed to peck food like a bird, demonstrating her unearthly airiness.

A woman was not supposed to be too educated (at least to show it), have her own views and generally show excessive knowledge in any issues, from religion to politics. At the same time, the education of Victorian girls was very serious. If parents calmly sent boys to schools and boarding schools, then daughters had to have governesses, visiting teachers and study under the serious supervision of their parents, although there were also girls' boarding schools. Girls, it is true, were rarely taught Latin and Greek, unless they themselves expressed a desire to learn them, but otherwise they were taught the same as boys. They were also especially taught painting (at least watercolor), music and several foreign languages. A girl from a good family had to know French, preferably Italian, and usually German came third.

So the Victorian had to know a lot, but a very important skill was to hide this knowledge in every possible way. Having acquired a husband, the Victorian woman often gave birth to 10-20 children. The contraceptives and miscarriage-causing substances so well known to her great-grandmothers were considered so monstrously obscene in the Victorian era that she had no one to discuss their use with.

However, the development of hygiene and medicine in England at that time left 70% of newborns, a record for humanity at that time, alive. So the British Empire throughout the 19th century did not know the need for gallant soldiers.”

Gentlemen
Having such a submissive creature as a Victorian wife on his neck, the gentleman took a deep breath. From childhood, he was raised to believe that girls are fragile and delicate creatures who need to be treated with care, like ice roses. The father was fully responsible for the maintenance of his wife and children. He could not count on the fact that in difficult times his wife would deign to provide him with real help. Oh no, she herself will never dare to complain that she lacks something! But Victorian society was vigilant in ensuring that husbands dutifully pulled the strap.

A husband who did not give his wife a shawl, who did not move a chair, who did not take her to the water when she was coughing so terribly all September, a husband who forced his poor wife to go out for the second year in a row in the same evening dress - such a husband could put an end to his future: a profitable place will float away from him, the necessary acquaintance will not happen, at the club they will begin to communicate with him with icy politeness, and his own mother and sisters will write him indignant letters in bags every day.

The Victorian considered it her duty to be constantly ill: good health was somehow unbecoming of a true lady. And the fact that a huge number of these martyrs, forever moaning on their couches, lived to see the First and even the Second World War, outliving their husbands by half a century, cannot but amaze. In addition to his wife, the man also had full responsibility for his unmarried daughters, unmarried sisters and aunts, and widowed great-aunts.

In addition, this norm has changed over time towards softening. The Guardianship of Minors Act in 1839 gave mothers of good standing access to their children in the event of separation or divorce, and the Divorce Act of 1857 gave women (fairly limited) options for divorce. But while the husband had to prove only his wife's adultery, the woman had to prove that her husband had committed not just adultery, but also incest, bigamy, cruelty, or desertion from the family.

In 1873, the Guardianship of Minors Act expanded access to children to all women in the event of separation or divorce. In 1878, following an amendment to the Divorce Act, women were able to seek divorce on the grounds of abuse and claim custody of their children. In 1882, the Married Women's Property Act guaranteed a woman the right to control the property she brought into marriage. Two years later, an amendment to this law made the wife not a “chattel” of the spouse, but an independent and separate person. Through the Guardianship of Minors Act in 1886, women could be made the sole guardian of their children if their husband died.

In the 1880s, several women's institutes, art studios, a women's fencing club were opened in London, and in the year of Dr. Watson's marriage, even a special women's restaurant, where a woman could safely come without being accompanied by a man. Among middle-class women there were quite a few teachers, and there were female doctors and female travelers.

In the next issue of our "Old New England" - about how Victorian society differs from the Edwardian era. God save the king!
Author emeraldairtone , for which I thank her very much.

In the Victorian era, real erotic and pornographic literary works like “My Secret Life” were circulated. There was even a porn magazine “The Pearl”... But the Victorian code of conduct, in fact, did not require a person to have no sins - the main thing was that they should not be known about them in society.

Reign of Queen Victoria

The cheerful 19-year-old girl, who ascended the British throne in 1837, could hardly have imagined what associations her name would evoke a hundred years later. And after all, the Victorian era was far from the worst time in British history - literature flourished, economics and science developed rapidly, the colonial empire reached the peak of its power... However, perhaps the first thing that comes to mind when you hear the name of this queen is “Victorian morality” "

The current attitude towards this phenomenon is at best ironic, more often - outright negative. In English, the word “Victorian” is still a synonym for the concepts of “sanctimonious” and “hypocritical”. Although the era named after the queen had little to do with her personality. The social symbol “Her Majesty Queen Victoria” did not denote her personal views, but the basic values ​​of the time - the monarchy, the church, the family. And these values ​​were postulated even before the crown was placed on Victoria.

The period of her reign (1837-1901) for the internal life of England was a time of calm digestion after a grandiose gluttony. Previous centuries were filled with revolutions, riots, Napoleonic wars, colonial conquests... And regarding morality itself, British society in previous times was by no means distinguished by excessive strictness of morals and stiffness of behavior. The British understood the joys of life and indulged in them quite unbridled - with the exception of the not too long period of existence in the country of a powerful Puritan movement (which temporarily turned England into a republic). But with the restoration of the monarchy, a long period of considerable relaxation of morals began.

Generations of Hanoverians

The generations of Hanoverians preceding Victoria led a very dissolute lifestyle. For example, King William IV, Victoria's uncle, did not hide the fact that he had ten illegitimate children. George IV was also known as a womanizer (despite the fact that his waist circumference reached 1.5 meters), an alcoholic, and also drove the royal house into huge debts.

Prestige of the British Monarchy

Victorian Code of Conduct

She got a husband who was completely in line with the trends of the times. Albert was so puritanical that he “felt physically ill at the mere thought of adultery.” In this he was the direct opposite of his immediate family: his parents were divorced; his father, Duke Ernst I of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, was simply an enchanting womanizer who never missed a skirt - as was Albert’s brother, Duke Ernst II.

The Victorian Code of Conduct is a declaration of every conceivable virtue

Of course, the idea that “it’s always been done this way” was a lie. But in any society suddenly gripped by a struggle for morality, the view of the past takes on a “Chinese accent”: history is presented not as it was, but as it should have been.

Victorian persecution of sensuality

Victorianism traced its particularly cruel persecution to sensuality. Men and women were forced to forget that they had a body. The only parts of him that were allowed to be exposed in the house were his hands and face. On the street, a man without a high stand-up collar and tie and a woman without gloves were considered naked. All of Europe had long been fastening their pants with buttons, and only in England they used ropes and laces.

There were a huge number of euphemisms; for example, calling arms and legs other than “limbs” was very indecent. They wrote and spoke about feelings and emotions mainly in the language of flowers. The bend of the neck of a shot bird in a still life was perceived in the same way as erotic photography is now (it is not surprising that offering a woman a bird’s leg at dinner was considered rude)…

The principle of "separation of the sexes"

At the feast, the principle of “separation of the sexes” was observed: at the end of the meal, the women left, the men remained to smoke a cigar, drink a glass of port and talk. By the way, the custom of leaving a company without saying goodbye (“leaving in English”) did exist, but in England it was called “leaving in Scots” (in Scotland - “leaving in French”, and in France - “leaving in Russian” ).

Open displays of sympathy between a man and a woman were strictly prohibited. The rules of everyday communication recommended that spouses address each other formally in front of strangers (Mr. so-and-so, Mrs. so-and-so), so that the morality of those around them would not suffer from the playfulness of the tone. Trying to talk to a stranger was considered the height of cheekiness.

The word “love” was completely taboo. The limit of frankness in explanations was the password “Can I hope?” with the response “I have to think.”

Courtship

Courtship consisted of ritual conversations and symbolic gestures. For example, a sign of affection was the gracious permission of a young man to carry a young lady's prayer book upon returning from Sunday service.

A girl was considered compromised if she was left alone with a man for a minute. The widower was forced to either separate from his adult unmarried daughter or hire a companion in the house - otherwise he would be suspected of incest.

Girls were not supposed to know anything about sex and childbirth. It is not surprising that the first wedding night often became a tragedy for a woman, even to the point of suicide attempts.

A pregnant woman was a spectacle that offended Victorian morality to no end. She locked herself within four walls, hiding the “shame” from herself with the help of a specially cut dress. God forbid you mention in a conversation that she is “pregnant” - only “in an interesting situation” or “in happy waiting”.

It was believed that a sick woman deserved to die rather than allow a male doctor to perform “shameful” medical procedures on her. Doctors' offices were equipped with blind screens with an opening for one hand, so that the doctor could feel the pulse or touch the patient's forehead to determine the fever.

Statistical fact

Who is a mate for whom and not a mate was decided at the level of a complex algebraic problem. Thus, the conflict that occurred between their ancestors in the 15th century could have prevented the marriage of the offspring of two aristocratic families. A successful rural merchant did not dare to marry his daughter to the butler’s son, because the representative of the “senior master’s servants,” even penniless on the social ladder, stood immeasurably higher than the shopkeeper.

Classes in English society

However, the harsh Victorian rules were introduced into English society only to the level of the lower middle class. Ordinary people - peasants, factory workers, small traders, sailors and soldiers - lived completely differently. It was in high society that children were innocent angels who had to be protected from the world in every possible way - children from lower social strata began to work in mines or factories at the age of 5-6... What can we say about other aspects of life. Ordinary people have never even heard of any politeness in gender relations...

However, in high society everything was not so simple. It circulated real erotic and pornographic literary works like “My Secret Life.” There was even a porn magazine “The Pearl”... But the Victorian code of conduct, in fact, did not require the absence of sins in a person - the main thing was that they should not be known in society.

Born a little before the accession of Her Majesty, Victorianism died before her. This can be clearly seen in English literature. The three Bronte sisters are complete mature Victorians. Late Dickens recorded signs of the destruction of the Victorian code. And Shaw and Wells described only the “Canterville Ghost” of the Victorian era. Wells was a particularly remarkable figure: the author of popular novels was a desperate, first-rate womanizer. And he was proud of it.

Considering the Victorian era in a global context, it should be noted that for a significant number of states - the British colonies - it was marked by the acquisition of greater independence and freedom, as well as the opportunity to develop their own political life. In addition, the discoveries that were made in Britain at this time were important not only for the country, but also for all humanity as a whole. The appearance in Britain of several outstanding representatives of art and, first of all, fiction, influenced the development of world art. For example, the work of the English writer Charles Dickens had a significant influence on the development of the Russian novel.

If we consider the significance of this period for Britain itself, it should be noted that the Victorian era occupies a very special place in the history of Great Britain. This period of British history is characterized by two main circumstances. First of all, during the Victorian era, Britain was not involved in any significant wars on the international stage, apart from the infamous Opium Wars in China. There was no serious tension in British society caused by the expectation of any catastrophe from outside. Since British society was and remains quite closed and self-centered, this circumstance seems especially important. The second circumstance is that interest in religious issues has grown significantly with the simultaneous rapid development of scientific thought and self-discipline of the human personality, which was based on the tenets of Puritanism.

The development of scientific thought in the Victorian era was such that as the importance of Darwinism increased and in the wake of more and more new scientific discoveries, even British agnostics turned to criticize the basic tenets of Christianity. Many nonconformists, including, for example, the Anglo-Catholic W. Gladstone, viewed the domestic and foreign policies of the British Empire through the prism of their own religious beliefs.

The Victorian era was marked by the acquisition of new social functions by Britain, which was required by new industrial conditions and rapid population growth. As for personal development, it was built on self-discipline and self-confidence, reinforced by the Wesleyan and evangelical movements.

Distinctive features of the Victorian era

The beginning of the Victorian era dates back to 1837, when Queen Victoria ascended to the English throne. At that time she was 18 years old. Queen Victoria's reign lasted for 63 years until 1901.

Despite the fact that Victoria's reign was a time of unprecedented change in British history, the foundations of society during the Victorian era remained unchanged.

The Industrial Revolution in Britain led to a significant increase in the number of factories, warehouses, and shops. There was rapid population growth, which led to urban sprawl. In the 1850s, the whole of Britain was covered by a network of railways, which greatly improved the situation for industrialists by making it easier to transport goods and raw materials. Britain has become a highly productive country, leaving other European countries far behind. At the International Industrial Exhibition of 1851, the country's successes were appreciated; Britain earned the title of “workshop of the world.” Leading positions in industrial production remained until the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries. However, it was not without its negative sides. Unsanitary conditions were typical for the working-class neighborhoods of industrial cities. Child labor was common, and low wages were coupled with poor working conditions and exhausting long working hours.

The Victorian era was marked by the strengthening of the position of the middle class, which led to the dominance of its basic values ​​in society. Sobriety, punctuality, hard work, frugality, and thrift were held in high esteem. These qualities soon became the norm, as their usefulness in the new industrial world was undeniable. Queen Victoria herself acted as an example of such behavior. Her life, completely subordinate to family and duty, was significantly different from the life of her two predecessors on the throne. Victoria's example influenced much of the aristocracy, which led to the rejection of the flashy and scandalous lifestyle characteristic of the previous generation in the upper circles. The example of the aristocracy was followed by the highly skilled part of the working class.

At the heart of all the achievements of the Victorian era were, of course, the values ​​and energy of the middle class. However, it cannot be said that all the features of this middle class were examples to follow. Among the negative traits so often ridiculed in the pages of English literature of that period are the bourgeois belief that prosperity is the reward for virtue, and extreme puritanism in family life, which gave rise to hypocrisy and feelings of guilt.

Religion played a big role in the Victorian era, despite the fact that a significant part of the British population was not at all deeply religious. Various Protestant movements, such as Methodists and Congregationalists, as well as the evangelical wing of the Church of England, had a great influence on the people's minds. In parallel with this, there was a revival of the Roman Catholic Church, as well as the Anglo-Catholic movement within the Anglican Church. Their main tenets were adherence to dogma and ritual.

Despite Britain's significant successes during this period, the Victorian era was also a period of doubt and disappointment. This was due to the fact that the progress of science undermined faith in the inviolability of biblical truths. At the same time, there was no significant increase in atheists, and atheism itself still remained an unacceptable system of views for society and the church. For example, the famous politician who advocated social reform and freedom of thought, Charles Bradlow, who became famous among other things for his militant atheism, was able to get a seat in the House of Commons only in 1880 after a number of unsuccessful attempts.

The publication of Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species in 1859 had a great influence on the revision of religious dogmas. This book had the effect of a bomb exploding. Darwin's theory of evolution refuted the previously seemingly indisputable fact that man is the result of divine creation and, by the will of God, stands above all other forms of life. According to Darwin's theory, man evolved through the evolution of the natural world in the same way as all other animal species evolved. This work caused a wave of harsh criticism from religious leaders and the conservative part of the scientific community.

Based on the foregoing, we can conclude that England was experiencing an undoubted surge of interest in science, which resulted in a number of large-scale scientific discoveries, but at the same time the country itself remained quite conservative in terms of its way of life and value system. The rapid development of Britain from an agricultural state to an industrial state led to rapid urban growth and the emergence of new jobs, but did not improve the situation of workers and their living conditions.

Page from the first edition of On the Origin of Species

Political structure of the country

The Victorian Parliament was more representative than during the reigns of Queen Victoria's predecessors. He listened to public opinion more than in previous times. In 1832, even before Victoria ascended the throne, parliamentary reform gave the vote to a large section of the middle class. Laws in 1867 and 1884 granted suffrage to most adult men. At the same time, a vigorous campaign began to give women the right to vote.

During Victoria's reign, the government was no longer subordinate to the reigning monarch. This rule was established under William IV (1830-37). Although the Queen was highly respected, her influence over the ministers and their political decisions was extremely small. Ministers were subordinate to parliament and primarily to the House of Commons. But since party discipline in those days was not strict enough, the decisions of ministers were not always implemented. By the 1860s, the Whigs and Tories had formed into much more clearly organized parties - Liberal and Conservative. The Liberal Party was led by William Gladstone and the Conservative Party by Benjamin Disraeli. However, the discipline in both parties was too liberal to keep them from splitting. The policy pursued by Parliament was constantly influenced by the problem of Ireland. The famine of 1845–46 forced Robert Peel to reconsider the grain trade laws that kept British agricultural prices high. The Free Trade Act was introduced as part of a general Victorian movement to create a more open, competitive society.

Meanwhile, Peel's decision to repeal the Corn Laws divided the Conservative Party. And twenty years later, the activities of William Gladstone, aimed, in his own words, at the pacification of Ireland, and his commitment to the policy of home rule caused a split among liberals.

During this reformist period, the foreign policy situation remained relatively calm. The conflict came to a head in 1854-56, when Britain and France started the Crimean War with Russia. But this conflict was only local in nature. The campaign was waged to curb Russian imperial aspirations in the Balkans. In fact, it was just one round in the long-running Eastern Question (a diplomatic problem related to the decline of the Turkish Ottoman Empire) - the only thing that seriously affected Britain in the pan-European politics of the Victorian era. In 1878, England found itself on the brink of another war with Russia, but remained aloof from the European alliances that would later split the continent. British Prime Minister Robert Arthur Talbot Salisbury called this policy of refusing long-term alliances with other powers brilliant isolation.

Based on the available data, the Victorian era was a period of parliamentary restructuring, as well as the formation and strengthening of the main parties that exist in Britain today. At the same time, the nominal power of the monarch made it impossible for him to have a significant influence on the political life of the country. The figure of the monarch increasingly became a tribute to the traditions and foundations of Britain, losing its political weight. This situation continues to this day.

British foreign policy

The Victorian era for Britain was marked by the expansion of colonial possessions. True, the loss of the American colonies led to the fact that the idea of ​​new conquests in this area was not very popular. Before 1840, Britain did not seek to gain new colonies, but was concerned with protecting its trade routes and supporting its interests outside the state. At that time, there was one of the black pages of British history - the opium wars with China, the cause of which was the struggle for the right to sell Indian opium in China.

In Europe, Britain supported the weakening Ottoman Empire in its fight against Russia. In 1890, the moment of redistribution of Africa came. It was to be divided into so-called “zones of interest.” The undoubted conquests of Britain in this case were Egypt and the Suez Canal. The British occupation of Egypt continued until 1954.

Some British colonies received additional privileges during this period. For example, Canada, New Zealand and Australia received the right to create a government, which weakened their dependence on Britain. At the same time, Queen Victoria remained the head of state in these countries.

By the end of the 19th century, Britain was the strongest maritime power and also controlled a significant part of the land. However, the colonies were sometimes an exorbitant burden for the state, since they required significant cash injections.

Problems haunted Britain not only overseas, but also on its own territory. They came mainly from Scotland and Ireland. At the same time, for example, the population of Wales quadrupled during the 19th century and amounted to 2 million people. Wales boasted rich coal deposits in the south, making it the center of a booming coal mining and metallurgical industry. This led to almost two-thirds of the country's population seeking to move south in search of work. By 1870 Wales had become an industrial country, although there remained large areas in the north where farming flourished and most of the inhabitants were poor peasants. Parliamentary reforms allowed the people of Wales to get rid of the wealthy landowning families that had represented them in Parliament for 300 years.

Scotland was divided into industrial and rural areas. The industrial estate was located near Glasgow and Edinburgh. The industrial revolution dealt a severe blow to the inhabitants of mountainous regions. The collapse of the clan system that had existed there for centuries was a real tragedy for them.

Ireland caused many problems for England, the battle for freedom of which resulted in a large-scale war between Catholics and Protestants. In 1829, Catholics received the right to participate in parliamentary elections, which only strengthened the sense of national identity of the Irish and encouraged them to continue their struggle with great effort.

Based on the data presented, we can conclude that the main task of Britain in that period in the foreign policy arena was not the conquest of new territories, but the maintenance of order in the old ones. The British Empire grew so large that managing all its colonies became quite problematic. This led to the granting of additional privileges to the colonies and a decrease in the role that Britain had previously played in their political life. The rejection of strict control of colonial territories was due to the problems that existed on the territory of Britain itself, and the solution of which became a priority task. It should be noted that some of these problems have not yet been properly resolved. This is especially true of the Catholic-Protestant confrontation in Northern Ireland.

The Victorian era, or the era of the reign of Queen Victoria (1837-1901) was a strange time when some traditions were broken and others were born - strange and repulsive. Perhaps the reason was that the British were crazy about their kings, and with the death of Victoria's husband, Prince Albert in 1861, widespread, continuous mourning began in the country. In conditions of eternal grief, you begin to look at the death of a loved one from a different angle. What now terrifies and causes unpleasant movement of the hair on the head was then not obvious, but the norm...

Attention: the article contains shocking images and is not recommended for viewing by site visitors under 18 years of age, as well as by people with a traumatized psyche!

Posthumous portraits

Until 1839, portraits were painted with a brush on canvas (or wood) - this was a long and expensive task, not accessible to everyone, but with the invention of the daguerreotype, acquiring your own portrait, or a portrait of loved ones, became accessible to almost everyone. True, the middle class often did not think about this, and grabbed their heads only after family members “played the box.”

Post-mortem portraits began to become very popular. And with the invention of the carte de visite in the middle of the century, photographs could be printed in any quantity and distributed to all close and distant relatives and friends.

Given the high infant mortality rate, postmortem photographs of infants of all ages have become especially popular. At that time, such images were not perceived as taboo, but were a kind of norm.

The idea of ​​post-mortem photographs caught on so well that it eventually reached a new level. Photographers tried to add “life” to the portraits, and corpses were photographed surrounded by family.

The deceased children had their favorite toys shoved into their hands, and their eyes were forcibly opened and propped up with something so that they would not accidentally slam shut during the slow filming process. Sometimes the photographer's students added rosy cheeks to the corpse.

Sad decorations

The only acceptable thing for women was to wear items made of brown coal as mourning jewelry - dark and gloomy, it was supposed to personify longing for the departed. Jewelers, it must be said, took no less money for products made from coal than for jewelry with rubies or emeralds.

This was worn during the first stage of mourning. A year and a half. On the second, the woman could afford to wear some jewelry. But with one caveat - they had to contain hair. Human. Hair from the head of the deceased.

Brooches, bracelets, rings, chains, everything was made from hair - sometimes they were included in gold or silver jewelry, sometimes the jewelry itself was made exclusively from hair cut from a corpse.

The widow was required to wear a heavy black veil that hid her face for the first three months after her husband's death. After three months, the veil was allowed to be lifted onto the hat, which, of course, significantly facilitated the movement of women in space.

Almost nothing was visible through the mourning veil. The woman wore a veil on her hat for another nine months. In total, the woman did not have the right to remove her mourning for two years. But the majority, along with the queen, preferred not to take it off for the rest of their lives.

Haunted houses

When a family member died, the mirrors in the house were covered with dark cloth. For some reason, this norm took root in Russia, but not in such a global time frame - in Victorian England, mirrors were kept closed for at least a year.

If a mirror fell and broke in the house, this was considered a sure sign that someone in the family would definitely die one of these days. And if someone did die, the clocks in the whole house were stopped exactly at the moment of his death. People sincerely believed that if this was not done, it would bring more deaths and troubles.

But they carried the dead out of the house head first, so that the rest of the family would not “follow” him.

With all this, coffins with bells were especially popular in the Victorian era. So, it seemed, he died and died, but just in case, the corpses were not buried for almost a week, and then they hung a bell over the grave, in case the deceased, by coincidence of circumstances, turned out to be alive and well and, waking up in the grave, would be able to tell the whole world, that it needs to be dug up.

The fear of being buried alive was so great that bells were attached just in case to everyone who was buried in the ground, even to a corpse with obvious signs of decomposition. To make the task completely easier for a potential living person, the bell was connected by a chain to a ring, which was placed on the index finger of the deceased.

Well, and for a snack – completely unrealistic photographs of people without heads from the Victorian era. If you believe all sorts of archives, this method of photo manipulation was exactly in second place after post-mortem photography. Damn these Englishmen...