Englisch » Victorian Times

Victorian Times:

The Life of the Queen:
Victoria was born in Kensington Palace, in London, in 1819. Her father, Edward, son of King George III, died when she was a baby.
As her Uncles, George IV and William IV, had no heirs, it soon became clear that Victoria would succeed William to the throne.
She had a strict, lonely upbringing with little company apart from her over-protective mother.
Despite her solitude, Victoria was a lively, playful child who enjoyed painting, riding, music and dancing.

Despite the usual school subjects such as history and mathematics, Victoria had to learn how to act like royalty. For example she had holly leaves tied under her chin to make her hold her head up high. She also had a special book, where she noted everything she did. This book showed that although she was anxious to be good, Victoria was often stubborn and quick tempered too.
When Victoria became queen in 1837, she had to restore the image of the monarchy. So it was necessary that she made a good impression on her first major public event - her coronation.
During the ceremony an elderly baron tripped and she helped him to his feet, that gesture won the peoples hearts, convincing them that their new queen would be caring, humble and respectable. To them she became known as England’s rose.

One of her duties was to marry and produce an heir, so she married her German cousin, Albert, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, when she was 21 and they had nine children.
Later she urged her children to marry European royalty too, so that the family ties would ensure peace.
Bit when the First World War broke out in 1914, two of her grandsons, King George V and Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany, were on opposing sides.

Building an empire:
In 1877 Victoria acquired a new title: Empress of India.
By the end of her reign wide parts of the world was under British rule (parts of Canada, the Caribbean, India and Africa). Her empire became known as the “empire on which the sun never sets” because it was the largest the world had ever known and every time of the day in one part of it the sun shined.

The empire developed from colonies overseas. During Victoria’s reign the East India Trading Company took over more and more land while the Indian Mogul Empire became weaker and weaker. 1856 had been issued (ausgestattet) with rifle cartridges (Gewehr Patronen) smeared with cow and pig fat, which offended their religious sensitivities. The soldiers mutinied and protest spread across northern India. The mutiny lasted 13 months and thousands died.

A year later the British government took direct control of India, which now became the keystone of the empire. Rail networks were built, industries developed and trade expanded.
In 1877 Disraeli persuaded Victoria to take the title “Empress of India” and he described India as the “jewel” in her crown.

The Victorian Age:
When Victoria became Queen of Great Britain and Ireland in 1837, she was about to become Britain’s longest reigning monarch. She ruled for 64 years.
The Victorian age was one of unstoppable social, economic and scientific progress. By the Queen’s death in 1901m Britain had become the most powerful nation in the world.

Victoria’s predecessors had been unpopular – George IV was wasteful and William IV was old and doddery. Their reigns saw public protest and bloody riots as workers demanded better pay and more rights.

How did the industrial revolution change Britain?
In the late 18th century most British people still worked as farmers or factory workers, but soon new machines were invented that could do their jobs in a fraction of the time.
This left many people out of work, so they flocked to the towns in search of jobs in new industries. This radical change in the way people lived and worked became known as the Industrial Revolution.


Charles Dickens:
Charles Dickens (1821-1870) was one of the greatest writers in English Language.
He was very popular while he was alive and he is still popular today. He described ordinary life very well and created a lot of normal, funny and charming people in his books, such as Ebeneezer Scrooge, Oliver Twist, Mr Pickwick and many others.
At the same time he was able to show many of the darker sides of life in the Victorian age, such as crime, poverty and drunkenness.

Oliver Twist:
An infant is born of a dying mother in a parish workhouse. Old Sally, attending the birth and death, takes from the dying woman a locket and ring. Bumble, the beadle, names the boy Oliver Twist. Oliver is sent to an infant farm, run by Mrs Mann, until he is 9 years old, at which time he is returned to the workhouse.

The orphans at the workhouse are starving due to callous mistreatment and cast lots to decide who among them will ask for more gruel on behalf of the group and Oliver is chosen. At supper that evening, after the normal allotment, Oliver advances to the master and asks for more.

Oliver is branded a troublemaker and is offered as an apprentice to anyone willing to take him. After narrowly escaping being bound to a chimney sweep, a very dangerous business where small boys are routinely smothered being lowered into chimneys, Oliver is apprenticed to the undertaker, Sowerberry.

Oliver fights with Noah Claypole, another of the undertaker's boys, after Noah mocks Oliver's dead mother. After being unjustly beaten for this offence, Oliver escapes the undertaker's and runs away to London.

On the outskirts on the city Oliver, tired and hungry, meets Jack Dawkins who offers a place to stay in London. Thus Oliver is thrown together with the band of thieves run by the sinister Fagin. Oliver innocently goes "to work" with Dawkins, also known as the Artful Dodger, and Charlie Bates, another of Fagin's boys, and witnesses the real business when Dawkins picks the pocket of a gentleman. When the gentleman, Mr. Brownlow, discovers the robbery in progress Oliver is mistaken for the culprit and, after a chase, is captured and taken to the police. Oliver, injured in the chase, is cleared by a witness to the crime and is taken by the kindly Brownlow to his home to recuperate.

Oliver is kindly treated at the Brownlow home and, after a period of recuperation, is sent on an errand by Mr Brownlow to pay a local merchant 5 pounds and to return some books. On carrying out this charge Oliver is captured by Nancy and Bill Sikes and returned to Fagin's den of thieves.

Mr Brownlow, thinking that Oliver has run away with his money concludes that Oliver was a thief all along. This assumption is further strengthened when Bumble the beadle, answering an ad in the paper, placed by Brownlow, for information concerning Oliver, gives a disparaging opinion of Oliver.

Oliver is forced by Fagin to accompany Sikes in an attempted robbery, needing a small boy to enter a window and open the door for the housebreakers. The robbery is foiled when the house is alarmed and, in the ensuing confusion, Oliver is shot.

Oliver is nursed back to health at the home of the Maylies, the house Sikes was attempting to burglarize. Oliver imparts his story to the Maylies and Doctor Losberne.

The mysterious Monks, revealed to be Oliver's half brother, teams up with Fagin in an attempt to recapture Oliver and lead him into a life of crime thereby negating the unknowing Oliver's claim to his rightful inheritance which would then go to Monks.

Sike's woman, Nancy, having compassion for Oliver, overhears Fagin and Monk's plan and tells Rose Maylie in the hope of thwarting the plan. Rose recruits Mr. Brownlow, Dr. Losberne, and others.

Bumble the beadle has married the matron of the workhouse, Mrs. Corney. The former Mrs. Corney, attending the death of Old Sally, has taken the locket and ring that Sally had taken from Oliver's mother on her deathbed. Monks buys this locket and ring from the Bumbles hoping that in destroying it that Oliver's true identity will remain hidden.

Mr. Brownlow and Rose Maylie meet Nancy on London Bridge and she tells them where to find Monks. Fagin has had Nancy followed and, enraged, tells Sikes that Nancy has betrayed them. Sikes brutally murders Nancy and flees to the country.

Monks is taken by Mr. Brownlow. Fagin is captured and sentenced to be hung. Sikes, with a mob on his tail, accidentally hangs himself trying to escape. The Bumbles are relieved of their position at the workhouse, become paupers, and are now inmates at the same workhouse they once managed.

Oliver is revealed to be the illegitimate son of Edwin Leeford and Agnes Fleming. Leeford has fathered the evil Edward (Monks) through a failed former marriage. After seducing Agnes, Edwin dies, leaving a will which states that the unborn child will inherit his estate if "in his minority he should never have stained his name with any public act of dishonor, meanness, cowardice, or wrong" in the event of which all would go to Edward (Monks), hence Monk's attempt to corrupt Oliver via Fagin.

Monks is given half of Oliver's inheritance by Mr. Brownlow, who had been a friend of Edwin Leeford, in the hope that he will start a new life. Monks flees to America where he quickly squanders his portion and dies in prison. Rose Maylie is revealed to be the sister of Agnes Fleming who is adopted by the Maylies after her parents die, therefore Rose is Oliver's aunt.

Oliver collects his inheritance and is adopted by Mr. Brownlow. Rose marries longtime beau, Harry Maylie.

Oliver Twist: an orphan boy
Fagin: a sinister that runs a gang of thieves
Sikes: one of Fagin’s accomplices
Mr. Brownlow: a rich guy who is robbed by Dodger and takes Oliver in at the end