Learn about Victorian morality. Discover Victorian values of work, charity, respectability, and family. Explore Victorian era sexual repression and hypocrisy. Updated: 11/21/2023
Victorian Morality Values, Ideals & Hypocrisy
Frequently Asked Questions
What were typical Victorian values?
Typical Victorian values included charity, sexual propriety, and charity. Moreover, Victorian family roles were patriarchal and served to maintain the authority of fathers over the entire household.
What is Victorian ideology?
Victorian ideology included extensive beliefs about gender roles and sexual difference. It was seen as natural, for instance, for men to be more inclined to seek sexual gratification than women. Women were also considered more religious and were expected to be obedient to their husbands. Men meanwhile, were expected to be independent providers, thrifty, and charitable.
The Victorian era was named after the English Queen Victoria. She reigned from 1837 to 1901, and consequently, the Victorian era is centered on those dates, although it could be argued that the era's limits extend past the exact years of Queen Victoria's reign. The era is notable because it was associated with a certain set of social mores and values that, to some extent, remain to this day. Victorian morality is associated with family values, charity, and thriftiness along with sexual repression. These values conflict with the social tendencies of the time including rampant prostitution, child labor, and the exploitation of the lower classes.
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While the Victorian era ended over a century ago, its values are likely familiar. These included roles and duties dealing with the family as well as duties stemming from social class. The morality of the era encouraged charity as well as sexual propriety. Victorian values could be considered elitist insofar as they prescribed paternalistic duties to men and the upper classes to those who were considered lesser, e.g., women and the lower classes. While Victorian values were well-known, the social trends of the era suggest that the advocacy of Victorian morality was at least somewhat hypocritical.
Family Structure
One of the main concerns of Victorian morality was the family. Families tended to be large with many children. Moreover, the expected roles of the family, such as the mother, father, eldest child, etc., were rigid and demanding. Consequently, one's familial role was a source of duty, and the division of domestic roles and labor were divided along gender and generational lines. Ultimate authority was vested in the father, and thus "family values" in the Victorian era entailed perpetuating a patriarchal structure. It was considered proper, for instance, for a woman to obey her father until she was married, at which point she was expected to obey her husband.
Within the family, fathers were given the authority to command the rest of the household and could punish disobedience. Victorian mothers were charged with domestic duties, e.g., nurturing and educating children. It was assumed that women were "naturally" more religious than men, so it fell on mothers to foster religious values in the household. Children were expected to be obedient as well as honest.
Victorian Ideals: Charity
One of the general ideals of the Victorian era was charity. It was expected that those who had the economic means should seek to help the "deserving poor." The deserving poor were those who were considered innocent, or in other words, were not the cause of their own poverty. This includes the sick and infirm, orphans, widows, and the elderly. By contrast, the undeserving poor consisted of those who did not have much money due to their supposed moral flaws. This class included gamblers, prostitutes, single mothers, drunkards, etc.
Victorian Era Sexual Repression
Gender difference was central to many of the Victorian social expectations. For instance, it was assumed that men naturally had an inclination toward sexual gratification that women did not have. Instead, women were expected to find pleasure in motherhood and should only have sex for reproductive purposes. At a minimum, women were expected to not have sex before marriage. Sex was viewed in the upper classes as vulgar, and consequently, the Victorian era developed a system of metaphors using flowers, called the language of flowers, to express (sexual) affection.
Victorian women who apparently experienced sexual gratification were depicted in literature as immoral. They were often further portrayed as being righteously punished or suffering for their impropriety. Men were not subjected to such strict limitations on their sexuality, although certainly "perversions" of various sorts, including homosexuality, could result in serious social censure. Note that these standards were largely a concern of the upper and middle classes. Consequently, it was often overlooked that women from the lower classes turned to prostitution for money. In sum, the Victorian era sexual repression certainly focused on (middle to upper class) women, but it applied to everyone.
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Victorian morality set the standards for different roles that were considered respectable. A respectable upper-class man, for instance, would give to charity to help the deserving poor; a respectable upper-class woman would not violate standards of sexual propriety. Moreover, husbands and wives were expected to have many children and to educate and care for them. However, these standards conflicted with the social reality of the era, especially for the lower classes.
Among the most glaring hypocritical features of Victorian society was the use of child labor. Children were not simply potential employees, they were expected to work dangerous jobs, such as in coal mines and scrap yards.
Explain how Victorian values related to work, charity, respectability, and family were violated by the widely accepted practice of child labor. Briefly describe child labor conditions during the Victorian era. Describe the flourishing practice of prostitution as another example of the conflict between morals and reality during the era.
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The Victorian era refers to the period that mapped onto the reign of the English Queen, Queen Victoria. Her reign lasted from 1837 to 1901. The Victorian era is famous for its morality that detailed both social and familial roles. In terms of social relations, it was expected that those with the means would give to charity. Charities, when functioning ideally, would benefit the deserving poor, which includes those who were poor through no fault of their own, such as the sick, orphans, widows, and the elderly. This era can also be seen to have a significant degree of hypocrisy. For instance, despite espousing charity and family values, the era involved child labor in which children worked dangerous jobs such as in coal mines and scrap yards.
Gender difference was central to many of the social roles and values in the Victorian era. It is perhaps an oversimplification to characterize the era as one that was sexually repressed. Certainly, women were subjected to many restrictions regarding sexuality. It was assumed, for instance, that women were naturally more interested in reproduction than sexual gratification. Consequently, middle and upper-class women were expected to be "pure" and, at minimum, should not have sex before marriage. Men were not subjected to the same level of sexual limitation, although homosexuality was also considered immoral. The Victorian family had a division of roles and duties. In general, the Victorian family was patriarchal and concentrated authority in the father. In brief, the father was considered the undisputed head of the family and could punish disobedience.
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Video Transcript
The Victorian Era
When was the Victorian era? It was an era that spanned from 1837 to 1901, which were the years that coincided with Queen Victoria's ascension to the throne and her death. The Victorian era is seen as an era of contradiction. Social movements that promoted public morality coincided with a divisive class system that imposed harsh living conditions on the working and lower classes. Dignity and repression were contrasted with child labor and rampant prostitution.
Family & Duty
What were the values of the Victorian era? Families were an all-important structure in the Victorian era. Most families during this period were quite large, with five or six children on average. As such, their structure was patriarchal, the father as the head, and everyone in the family fulfilling a specific role.
For Victorian parents, the upbringing of their children was the most important responsibility. They believed that a child must know right from wrong in order to adhere to the strict moral code as an adult. As such, consequences were freely given for those children who did not follow the rules.
Truthfulness was another Victorian moral that was taken very seriously. This idea was utilized as a way in which to determine someone's character; Victorians valued the moral character of a person more than the factual basis of his or her assertions.
Charity
The act of charity to the ''deserving poor'' was an important part of the Victorian era value system. Who were the deserving poor? Those included in that category were the sick and infirm, orphans and widows, and the elderly. The idea was that it was the obligation of the upper class to care for and manage the remainder of the population.
Victorian era charities saw the role of the church start evolving, becoming the main instrument of charity. Charity was about involving every being in some kind of social service and good work.
Sexual Propriety
The ideas of prudery and repression were features of the Victorian era code of morality, though there is evidence of the existence of a small collection of erotica from the Victorian era, one of the most famous being My Secret Life, which was written by someone anonymous and discreetly distributed in the late 19th century.
However, verbal and written communications regarding sexuality and emotions were often conveyed by using what was known as the ''language of the flowers.'More specifically, it became popular to use flowers to send secretive messages of affection and love. During the Victorian era, the publication of flower dictionaries explaining the meaning of plants, flowers, and herbs, sparked the spread of this ''language'' throughout Europe. This was important because the same flower could have opposite meanings depending on how it was arranged or delivered.
What was the view regarding the moral expectations of women during the Victorian era? Well, different social classes in Victorian times were held to different standards when it came to sexual propriety. In the upper and middle class, women were expected to have no sexual relations before marriage. The only premarital sex that would take place would be between men and servants or prostitutes because the upper and middle class women would not go against the standards of accepted sexual conduct.
Victorian literature and art was full of examples of women paying dearly for straying from these moral expectations. The upper class Victorians strictly enforced these beliefs and values, so that women would continue to be seen as pure. In contrast, it was far more acceptable for those belonging to the working class to have sex before marriage.
Additionally, homosexuality was illegal and regarded as distasteful in the Victorian era. There were, however, a number of famous men who were known to be homosexual, the most famous of whom was Oscar Wilde.
Hypocrisy
What were the practices and ideals that conflicted with Victorian ideas regarding morality? Though the morals and values of the Victorian era included hard work, respectability, and charity, there was a contrast in society. The Victorian era was notorious for its use of child labor in factories and mines. Children as young as four or five years of age were put to work in coal mines.
This was also a society in which young children spent hours digging for scrap coal, in which young lower-class girls and women openly flaunted themselves as available for purchase, and in which poor widows would do hours of debilitating needlework for a handful of pennies rather than starve or be forced into the workhouse.
Essentially, during the Victorian era, there was a stark contrast between the lives and expectations of the upper and middle classes as compared with the working and lower classes. Therefore, the standards and expectations of acceptable moral behavior varied for the different classes of people as well.
Lesson Summary
All right, let's take a moment to review what we've learned. During the Victorian era, which was an era that spanned from 1837 to 1901, which were the years that coincided with Queen Victoria's ascension to the throne and her death, a specific code of morality was promoted: sexual propriety, charity, family, and duty. Simultaneously, contrasts in moral standards were blaring. These strict moral standards were only expected from the upper and middle class, while less was expected of the poor and working class.
While charity was a virtue, and many programs were put into place to aid those ''deserving poor,'' there was rampant child labor, crime, and prostitution. The Victorian era was one of constant change and glaring contradictions.
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