Early Victorian England and Charles Dickens (1962)

[Music] [Applause] [Music] Princess Victoria became Queen Victoria in 1837 she died in 191 and that long span of 64 years we call for convenience the Victorian era what was it like like to be a Victorian during the first half of this period oh say from 1837 to 1870 the years when Charles Dickens was writing his novels during the next half hour let's try to get some feeling of the age Dickens reflected attacked and transcended where shall we start why not with a symbolic moment at which the era was born it is early morning June 20th 18 37 we're looking at Kensington Palace in London where the 18-year-old Victoria granddaughter of George III and her mother The Duchess of Kent have been living and waiting for this very moment a visit upon urgent State business of the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Lord Chamberlain of England Your Grace my Lord Cunningham you have news for us for har Royal Highness the princess we have news Madam ah the King then is dead and my daughter is now Queen of England it has come then at last and I am the queen mother no Madam your Royal Highness is not the Queen Mother not your Royal Highness is the Queen's mother that is the distinction only had your Royal Highness been Queen in the first place would that other title now follow then if it is not mine by your laws she shall give it to me that Madam I fear will be impossible I will go myself and speak to her at once that shall settle it Madam we are here to see her majesty the queen on urgent business and we must not be delayed Your Presence at the interview Madam will not be required unless Her Majesty sends for you ah oh this is not to be born Madam this is a very historic occasion we are here officially only etiquette and the memorial tradition prescribe certain rules which have to be observed your Royal hus will not wish to break them your grace she's coming your majesty and starting from this very moment for 64 long crowded years the wishes taste and personality of this young [Music] girl this middle-aged woman this old lady will stand for much though far from all of what Victorian England was what was it there is no one answer there is no short answer it was an age of startling contrasts of artistic bad taste in some fields and of artistic Triumph in others of morality and hypocrisy of Splendor and squalor and the most striking contrast of all of prosperity and poverty Benjamin is Ry was twice Queen Victoria's prime minister he also wrote novels and in one of them he makes a character referred to England's two Nations the privileged and the people the privileged and the people wealth and grinding poverty how true was this well in 1842 there was an official investigation of working conditions in the coal mines of England and various Witnesses came to testify before the commission one of them spoke these words I am Sarah good I am 8 years old I'm a coold carrier in the Garber mine it does not Tire me but I have to trap without a light and I'm scared I go at 4:00 and sometimes halfast 3 in the morning and come out at 5: and half past in the evening I never go to sleep in the pit sometimes I sing when I have light but not in the dark I dare not sing then I don't like being in the pit I'm very sleepy when I go in the morning I go to Sunday school and learn to read and they teach me to pray I've heard tell of Jesus many a Time I don't know why he came on Earth I don't know why he died but he had stones for his head to rest on Sarah gooda coal carrier 8 years old but what of the other side of the coin just 9 years after little Sara gooda had testified another witness spoke for England and this witness was a bill building a vast and wonderful structure of glass and cast iron erected in Hyde Park London and known as the Crystal Palace in 1851 under the sponsorship of Prince Albert Victoria's german-born husband the Crystal Palace was opened to the public it housed the great exhibition and the great exhibition displayed to the whole world Victorian England's truly marvelous achievements in trade industry science and technology in the mid 19th century the great exhibition symbolize British progress and power it stands at one extreme at The Other Extreme we have the testimony of an 8-year-old coal carrier Sarah goodar who said Sometimes I sing when I have light but not in the dark I dare not sing then in between the Crystal Palace and Sarah gooda lies the rest of England let's now Block in some of its main features in terms of the man who is perhaps its greatest Observer Charles Dickens as I said Dickens reflected his age attacked it and transcended it but we must add a fourth relationship of Dickens to his age he ignored it there are certain areas of English life which seemed not to interest Dickens at least as far as material for his novels went for example to get a broad realistic picture of the clergy of his day or the political life of the era or the life of the landed gentry and the fox hunting Squires for all this it's better to turn to another bearded Victorian novelist Anthony trolip and if you were looking for a picture of the great the fashionable world of the aristocracy you'd find it better portrayed in the works of William make peace thery Dickens too like ther wrote about the Shams and hypocrisies the snobbery of class conscious England but thery born a gentleman knew the world of the aristocracy From the Inside Out whereas Dickens in a way never escaped from his unhappy lower middle class Origins and there's something else you won't find reflected in Dickens any sense of the great outsized personalities who flourished in Victorian England and who helped to change its Spirit Florence Nightingale whom we should remember whenever we see a modern hospital George Stevenson one of the men who in a few short years laid down the basis for the British Railway system Charles Darwin who shook the world to its foundations with this theory of evolution Cardinal Newman convert to Catholicism subtle Theologian and Brilliant philosopher of Education John Stewart Mill champion of Liberty and the emancipation of women reformer on a dozen fronts people such as these are not to be found in Dickens novels and yet they were among the Giants who shaped the Victorian world living in an age that was for many one of prosperity and security they dared to question its basis they acted as the ferment of their time they forced their countrymen to grow in spirit and one of them in some ways the greatest was Dickens himself he had a gift the others didn't possess he touched people's hearts he played like a musician on their emotions he gripped their imaginations no novelist before his time had reached so many people so directly it's hard for us to understand what a powerful influence the novel was in those days and especially the novels of Dickens often they appeared in fortnightly Parts one installment at a time and as GK chesteron has put it in the days when Dickens work was coming out in serial people talked as if real life were itself the interlude between one issue of Pi and another Dickens was not a philosopher not an intellectual indeed not even a very well educated man but he understood intuitively the spirit of his age even when he attacked it he was part of it how shall we characterize that age behind all the contradictions that we've already mentioned lay one underlying driving force the impulse toward growth other words have been applied to it it's been called the age of Imperialism of expansion of trade of progress of optimism but all these words suggest growth Dickens reflected the spirit in many ways and one of the most amusing occurs in Great Expectations pip the young hero has Ambitions to rise in life he comes to London and there under the ttil of another young man Herbert pocket begins his education as a gentleman to Pip's question what did Herbert pocket do what was he that young man replies that he is a capitalist a capitalist yes an insurer of ships oh I see however I shall not rest satisfied with merely employing my capital in insuring ships I shall buy up some good life Assurance shares and cut into Direction I shall also do a little in the mining way none of these things will interfere with my chartering a few thousand tons on my own account I think I shall trade the East Indies for silks Shaws spices dyes drugs and precious Woods it's an interesting trade and are the profits large tremendous tremendous I think I shall trade also to the West Indies for sugar tobacco and rum also to Salon especially For Elephants tasks you will want a good many ships a perfect Fleet and um and how many ships do you ensure at present oh I haven't begun insuring yet I'm um looking about me oh of course Dickens is making gentle fun of the Victorian Spirit of Enterprise but the dreams of Herbert pocket nonetheless reflect ref what the commercial classes of Victorian England wanted and got they weren't satisfied like Herbert just to look about them these new enterprising people of whom Herbert himself wants to be one were the middle class and it is they the middle class who dominate the life of the period Supply many of its ideas produce many of its men and women of high ability they had astounding energy these new middle class men with their passion for trade Machinery Commerce markets expansion in a word growth as men of business they were bold imaginative and often ruthless but in their social and private lives they stressed respectability and Convention and here their model was probably the royal family the queen and Prince Albert lived a wellp publicized life of domestic virtue piety decorum and their middle class subjects for the most part imitated them the conduct of the middle class then was dominated by respectability but their minds were dominated by optimism a belief which to us today seems a little naive in the inevitability of progress in all Fields moral intellectual economic and as a matter of fact there seemed to be some justification for this optimism the Industrial Revolution was transforming Society the age of steam as it was often called did make possible a vast flow of products which streamed outward to every corner of the world and back from every corner including England's far-flung Colonial possessions came a return stream to Echo Herbert pocket of silks Shaws dyes precious Woods even elephant tusks finally this optimism rested on the reality of Peace just as our uncertainty is based on the fear of War I who am in my 50s have lived through two world wars and half a dozen smaller ones but remember that during the entire 64 years of Queen Victoria's reign there was no major war these were the people then for whom Dickens wrote his novel these respectable Pious energetic optimistic and often materialistic people of the dominant middle class the class to which once having achieved success he himself belonged some of their beliefs he shared some as we shall see he transcended but others he loathed for example he is aware of the sorted reality that lay back of Herbert pocket's innocent dreams of wealth perhaps you remember Marley's ghost in A Christmas Carol and his complaint to Scrooge my spirit never walked beyond our Counting house in life my spirit never roved beyond the narrow limits of our money changing hole but the victorians were not all Marley and scrooges by any means with prosperity assured they too like most of us wanted some of the good things of life and these good things they found following the example of royalty in the Comforts and dignity of family life these Comforts and this dignity depended to a great extent on the possession of things on the enjoyment of large heavy dinners eaten in large fussy houses on the display of works of art all too often bad art the title of this painting is the suffering Husband by Augustus egg why is the husband suffering what is contained in the letter he clutches hopelessly in his hand why is his wife weeping Charles Dickens was well aware of the absurdity of this emphasis on Pious morality he attacks it again and again there is a scene in his novel little daret in which the young heroine is instructed by the gential Mrs General in the demeanor proper to Young Victorian ladies ah Amy my dear uh pray be seated uh Amy you have been the subject of some conversation between myself and Mrs General we agree you scarcely seem at home here how is this I think father I require a little time papa is a preferable mode of address my dear father is rather vulgar the word Papa besid gives a pretty form to the lips Papa potatoes ptry prunes and prism are all very good words for the lips especially prunes and prism you will find it serviceable in the formation of a demeanor if you sometimes say to yourself in company on entering a room for instance Papa potatoes poultry prunes and prism fr wound and prism pray my child attend to the precepts of Mrs General I I will try Father Papa I hope so I I must devoutly hope so you may if m d will accept of my poor assistance in the formation of a surface Mr D will have no further cause for anxiety and may I take this opportunity of remarking in as an instance in point it scarcely seems delicate to look at vagrants and other low creatures with the attention which I have seen bestowed upon them by a very dear young friend of mine they should not be looked at nothing disagreeable should ever be looked at apart from such a habit standing in the way of that gracious Equanimity of surface so expressive of good breeding it seems hardly compatible with refinement of Mind a truly refined mind will seem to be ignorant of the existence of anything is not perfectly proper Placid and pleasant proper pleased and pleasant the aim of much Victorian home life was to arrange things so that there would be nothing which was not proper Placid and pleasant this high moral tone was set by the Victorian father inside his home though not always outside it the household was often ordered like a petty Kingdom with the heavy father as the autocratic Tyrant his wife and children as the court retainers and an army of servants as the carefully graded ordinary subjects Behavior was formal etiquette rigid would you like to get some idea of the atmosphere of such a household here is Mr grad grind in Dickens Hard Times talking to his daughter Louisa Louisa my dear I prepared you last night to give your serious attention to the conversation which we are now going to have together yes Father my dear Louisa you are the subject of a proposal of marriage that has been made to me a proposal of marriage my dear I hear you father I'm attending I assure you well uh perhaps you are not unprepared for the announcement which I have it in charge to make I cannot say that farther until I hear it what you say my dear loua is perfectly reasonable well I have undertaken then to let you know that well in short Mr bounderby has informed me that he has long watched your progress with particular interest and pleasure and has made his proposal of marriage to me and has entreated me to make it known to you and to express his hope that you will take it into your favorable consideration Louisa of course says nothing no no well brought up Victorian young lady would dare and there you have the Victorian weakness all this striving for respectability for gentility for a high moral tone all this went against the grain of human nature the Victorian had to pay for it and he paid for it by an inner unhappiness behind the smooth formal surface of his home life there often lay friction hypocrisy and divided Souls two characters again from Little daret Mr Myrtle and his wife are in Mrs Myrtle's sitting room Mr mle Mr mle he yes what is it what is it it is I suppose that you have not heard a word of my complaint your complaint Mrs myle what complaint a complaint of you oh a complaint of me a complaint which I could scarcely show the justice of more emphatically than by having to repeat it I might as well have stated it to the wall but if you wish to know the complaint I make against you it is in so many plain words that you really ought not to go into society unless you accommodate yourself to society now in the name of all the fury Mrs mytle who does more for society than I do do you see these premises Mrs mytle do you see this furniture Mrs mytle do you look at yourself in the mirror and see yourself Mrs mytle do you know the cost of all this and who it's all provided for and will you tell me that I ought not to go into society I who shower money upon it in this way every day of my life pray don't be violent vient Mr Myrtle violent you're enough to make me desperate you don't know half of what I do to accommodate Society you don't know anything of the sacrifices I make for it I know that you receive the best in the land I know that you move in the whole society of the country and I believe I know indeed not to make any ridiculous pretense about it I know I know who sustains you in it Mr myle Mrs M I know that as well as you do if you were not an ornament to society and if I was not a benefactor to society you and I would never have come together and when I say a benefactor I mean a person who provides it with all sorts of expensive things to eat and drink and look at but to tell me that I'm not fit for it after all I've done for it after all I've done for it after all to tell me I mustn't mix with it after all it's a pretty reward I say that you ought to make yourself fit for it by being more deage and less preoccupied there is a positive vulgarity in carrying your business Affairs about with you as you do how do I carry them about with me Mrs mytle how do you carry them about look at yourself in the mirror Mr mle the face of Mr Myrtle reflected in the Looking Glass is the face of a man who could commit suicide and eventually that is what he does thus in his more critical moments the Victorian could not help feeling that his success and prosperity even his so-called morality were built on the unhappiness of others one of whom might be little Sarah good often he was riddled with guilt prayed upon by Melancholia often his personality was split it's no accident that Robert Louis Stevenson's story about a man with two personalities Dr JL and Mr Hyde should have appeared in 1886 six at the very height of Victorian power the Victorian period itself was both J and hide like Mr Myrtle it looked in the mirror and often did not like what it saw it saw progress it saw growth it saw Prosperity but it also saw the cost of these things and that's why we must describe this great period not only as a period of growth and optimism but as a period of Reform the reaction to Victorian complacency optimism and piety was reform Florence Nightingale Matthew Arnold John Stewart Mill Charles Dickens these were not voices crying in the wilderness they were listened to the abuses to which they pointed were often if slowly corrected and the terrible gap between Israel's two Nations was gradually bridged this would not not have been possible if all the victorians had been grad grinds and myrtles they were not the famous Victorian conscience may seem stuffy but it was real it was there it could be appealed to and it was think only of a few parliamentary reforms that you may have encountered in your history studies we have now traced certain patterns in Victorian England patterns of optimism progress growth patterns of self-doubt pattern patterns of Reform and human decency some of these patterns we shall find in concrete form as we study Great Expectations and to this novel perhaps the most beautifully balanced one that Dickens ever wrote We Now turn from time to time as we consider the book our company of actors will continue to make Vivid for us crucial scenes and so to the first chapter of Charles dickens's Great Expectations surely one of the most gripping opening scenes in fiction turn over camera mark it 7 take two action sacred to the memory of philli P Hold Your Eyes H keep steing her devil or I'll cut your throat please don't cut my throat sir pray don't do it sir tell us your name Quick pip sir pun more give it math pip pip sir show us where you live point out the place over Yonder sir [Applause] you young dog what fat cheeks you got Dar me if I couldn't eat them please sir I hope you won't sir look here where's your mother here sir here sir also Georgiana that's my mother that your father alongside your mother yes sir him too late of this Parish here who do you live with that's supposing you're kindly let to live which I ain't made up their mind about yet my sister sir Mrs Joe gargery wife of Joe gargery the blacksmith sir relx Sai a then the question being whether you're going to be let to live do you know what a file is yes sir do you know what whittles is yes sir I it's food you bring me a file and you you bring me whittles you bring them both to me or I of your art and your Liber out if you would kindly please to let me keep up right perhaps I shouldn't be sick and perhaps I could attend more you bring me tomorrow morning early that file and them whittles you do it and you never dare to say a word nor dare to make a sign concerning your having seen such a person as me or any person soever and you'll be let to live but you fail or you go from my words in any particular no matter how small it is and your heart and your liver will be tore out roasted and ate n what do you say I'll will get them sir say the Lord strike you dead if you don't Lord strike me dead if I don't good ah you remember what you undertook and get on home good night Sir much of that and so through a chance meeting with this escaped convict pip has started on the first stage of his Great Expectations [Music] [Applause] [Music]