Victorian: the word is derived from the name of the Queen. George III: long reign. Then came George IV, and then William IV. Then the longest reign ever, that of Victoria: 1837-1901. This word evokes a lot of associations, positive or negative. Whoever the Victorian person was, he or she considered himself/herself as a perfect creature, not being able to develop any longer. Of course, there were Chartists and working class reformers. No change, Britain is strong. Britannia, rule the waves (a song).
No war, no government, no country can do anything without British agreement. So Victoria started in 1837. But there were Victorian attitudes before and after her. Stability, law-abiding, balance. Negative associations:
complacency, strong conservatism, hypocrisy. The Queen was not to see the genital areas on a sculpture. Family stability is absolute. Lot of repression, self-denial. This is the period of Jane Austen, Charles Dickens and George Eliot. The head of the family is the male, the patriarch. Unwanted marriages. A male could do anything, except for killing the others. A law valid in Britain till 1956: a man was allowed to beat his wife. Wife-bashing was legal, but no broken bones or bodily wounds were allowed. They thought that through this structured educational system a man would exercise prudence, caution, would not be unfair. Divorce was looked down on, it was held in disdain. So there were usual trespasses in complete secrecy. Everyone knew everything but no one said anything. No one wanted a divorced person ever. /Lenocinium (pandering): allowing one's wife to commit adultery./ They don't want each other, but they can't get a divorce. One had to pay a man to plead guilty of adultery of one's wife. A man's adultery was not a good enough reason, a woman's was an immediate cause. The Victorian attitude was exactly the same as that of the Islam, even before Victoria. People always refer to Victorian times as the good old days of peace. The politics of...