Victorian Age

Question 1

What characterizes the Victorian Age?

Answer 1

A complex age marked by unprecedented change, contradictions, progress, reforms, political stability, poverty, and rusticity.

Question 2

What are the key components of respectability during the Victorian era?

Answer 2

• Self-restraint
• Good manners
• Self-help
• Assertion of social status
• Keeping up appearances
• Hypocrisy

Question 3

What do Evangelicals believe in?

Answer 3

• The literal truth of the Bible
• Obedience to a strict code of morality
• Dedication to humanitarian causes and social reform

Question 4

According to Bentham’s Utilitarianism, when is an action morally right?

Answer 4

If it has consequences that lead to happiness.

Question 5

What did John Stuart Mill believe about happiness and legislation?

Answer 5

• Happiness is a state of the mind and spirit
• Legislation should help develop natural talents and personalities

Question 6

What was the significance of Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution?

Answer 6

• All living creatures developed through change and adaptation
• Survival depends on favorable physical conditions
• Man evolved from less organized forms
• Discarded the biblical version of creation

Question 7

What was the Oxford Movement’s response to scientific challenges?

Answer 7

A return to ancient doctrines and rituals by British Catholics.

Question 8

Who led the Liberal Party during Queen Victoria’s later years?

Answer 8

William Gladstone.

Question 9

What key acts were introduced during Benjamin Disraeli’s leadership?

Answer 9

• Artisans and Labourers Dwellings Act (1875)
• Public Health Act (1875)
• Factory Act (1878)

Question 10

What was the main focus of William Gladstone’s reforming legislation?

Answer 10

Education, including the 1870 Education Act and the legalization of trade unions.

Question 11

What title was Queen Victoria given in 1877?

Answer 11

Empress of India.

Question 12

What characterized Victorian poetry during this period?

Answer 12

• Concern with social reality
• Expression of intellectual and moral debate
• Creation of majestic poems linked to myth and belief

Question 13

How was the role of the poet viewed in the Victorian era?

Answer 13

As a ‘prophet’ and philosopher expected to reconcile faith and progress.

Question 14

What significant change occurred between readers and writers during the Victorian era?

Answer 14

A communion of interests and opinions, particularly due to the growth of the middle class.

Question 15

How was Victorian literature commonly published?

Answer 15

In serial form, through installments in periodicals.

Question 16

What did novelists in the 1840s believe their literature should accomplish?

Answer 16

Reflect social changes and fulfill moral and social responsibilities.

Question 17

What narrative technique was commonly used in Victorian novels?

Answer 17

The voice of the omniscient narrator to comment on the plot and behaviors.

Question 18

What types of novels were prevalent during the Victorian era?

Answer 18

• Novel of manners
• Humanitarian novel
• Novel of formation
• Literary nonsense

Question 19

What challenges did women writers face during the Victorian period?

Answer 19

• Difficulty getting published
• Often used male pseudonyms

Question 20

What is the American Renaissance?

Answer 20

A period from the 1830s to the end of the American Civil War marking the beginning of a truly American literature.

Question 21

What is Transcendentalism?

Answer 21

A philosophical movement emphasizing the unity of all reality and the importance of nature for truth.

Question 22

What impact did Darwin’s theory have on the late Victorian novel?

Answer 22

It mirrored a society in moral and religious crisis, with plot coincidences reflecting Darwinian principles.

Question 23

What themes did colonial literature explore?

Answer 23

British imperialism and the belief in the white man’s duty to civilize.