English Literature 24 - Victorian Compromise: analysis and explanation

[Music] Hi everybody welcome back to this new video about English literature. So today I'll answer many of your requests. I've been asked to talk about the Victorian compromise. So in order to explain what the Victorian compromise is, it is very important to understand the different mechanisms and aspects during Victorian age or Victorian era if you prefer. We have already talked about that very widely and in detail and you can find my video or better link to my video here above and so if you have any doubts or you want to go deeper into the aspects of this era you just have to click on the link above and you'll have the full explanation. This is very very important. Anyway going back to our topic today so we can say that first of all in order to explain what the Victorian compromise is we have to remember that the Victorian age was characterized by a very very strong dualism. A contrast, a juxtaposition, okay, between progress on one side and reforms, social reforms, prosperity and industrialization, development of this new upper middle class. On the other side we have poverty. We have social and rest. We have and we can say a panel code that is considered in just we have the exploitation of the lowest classes and especially of children of women pathylences. So there is this strong strong juxtaposition between these two aspects. We can say a contrast between rich and poor, okay, it's very simple if we say that way and in fact the territory prime minister in 1845 wrote about these two nations, okay, rich and poor two nations inside the country. So the Victorian compromise is sort of a silent pact, okay, between these two nations. We have to remember that the Victorian age was characterized by moralists, okay, moralists who can say they developed sort of the code, the code of values that was first meant for upper middle class or middle class in general but then it had to be respected by everyone, okay, by the all society including the lowest classes. The code of values, the strict moral code, the social pattern included hard work, a very typical value of the middle age, also charity. Now this is important we'll say, we'll see why and respectability. So respectability in this case was, you can say a mixture of morality and hypocrisy because it was based on wealth and manners and manners were often a display of appearances. We remember Jane Austin even if she, okay, she didn't belong to the middle age, okay, she belonged to the romantic period and she didn't talk about the middle class or upper middle class but she talked about gentry, okay, so the Newland owners, the social class, she belonged to. But anyway, she talked in advance, okay, about these topics, about the strict moral code, about manners, in fact her works are called "nobel of manners" and all those of manners. And she also talked about marriage because family, okay, was the main cell of society and during the Italian age especially, family was sort of a mirror of society. Family had the same structure, okay, that society represented, okay, so it was like a sort of a microcosm that mirrored all the values and aspects and the hierarchies of society in general. It was obviously a patriarchal society, the man was the head of the society of family we can say so and the women had to look after the household and children and so on. So in this period, so the period of the Victorian compromise which is moral less, okay, between 1832 and 1860, okay, it was considered as a sort of a bridge. A bridge between romanticism, okay, ethical, ethical romanticism and modernism. With a very strong influence from naturalism on one side and positivism on the other side and we know that positivism was all about science, okay, objectivity. So it was completely free from the spiritual authority of the church and for this reason we also have a strong satire against, okay, concerning clergymen or church, or Anglican church in general. Taboos and censorship were a great part of the cultural life during Victorian age. In fact, many, many works and I'm also talking about classics and I'm also talking about the Elizabethian works, Shakespearean works. We're considered to strong, to erotic sometimes and they were eliminated or considered taboos or anyway changed in order to be more respectable and so more acceptable for society. So as far as the cultural element is concerned we can say that the spirit is characterized by fiction and some names are very, very common like for example, deacons or the sisters, brunti or a trullop or a factory, okay, disraeli we already mentioned him today. And even poets like for example Wordsworth, but we know that Wordsworth together with Collarija belonged to the first generation of romantic poets and he had this incredible vision of nature as an organic living hall, this sort of a pantheistic and spiritual view of nature. Now he has to change his perspective in order to belong to the Victorian age and for this reason he became more conservative and more more realistic. He talked you know that during romanticism nature was similar to God and now he's talking about a God that is similar to the father of the patriarchal society and so he's an extremely strict father. So there is a complete change in his view, in his poetic view. Well back to the idea of the romantic compromise, romantic compromise is then this sort of a silent figurative pact between higher and lower classes, okay, very simple if I say that way. So it is sort of a silent figurative metaphorical pact, an agreement between these two parts of society where an opposite sides and honestly this great juxtaposition could be a danger for society. It was sort of an unexploded bomb that could say ruin and change and move everything very quickly. So this is why this Victorian compromise silently developed sort of a pact and the pact meant that the middle class upper middle class rich people anyway had to give small help, okay, for the poor and on the other side the lowest classes, you can say supported institutions and supporting institutions also meant support, supporting the prevailing of the rich people, of the upper middle class. So, as I said before, there were social unrest. There wasn't a general revolutionary intent, because of this silent pact. So, you can say that the lowest classes accepted, generally accepted the structure of society itself. Then we have unrest, obviously there are tensions and many other unpleasant things, but on the, say, talking in general, they they they accepted the situation. We can say that even if it started for quite say moralistic idea and I could say that there was a great great amount of prophecy in this pact, but something very good started from here anyway. Volunteers most of the times were women. Women who became gaurances or nurses and for the very very very first time even doctors. In fact, we can name, we can remember Florence Nightingale who was the first woman doctor. Okay, and it was possible just because of this sort of a pact just before just because of this actions of this volunteering and of this situation that created also a real development and some parts of society. So, this is what a term compromise is about. If you have any questions, any more questions, just leave me a comment below and I'll be glad to answer. Also, if you have any requests, I want to really thank you for your support that comes from all around the world and it makes me really really happy and proud and I'm absolutely glad to be helpful. So, thank you very very much and see you very soon with another video about English literature. Bye!