Victorian morality: Encyclopedia II - Victorian morality - Historical background

Victorian morality - Historical background

The term Victorian has acquired a range of connotations, including that of a particularly strict set of moral standards, which are often applied hypocritically. This stems from the image of Queen Victoria —and her husband, Prince Albert, perhaps even more so—as innocents, unaware of the private habits of many of her respectable subjects; this particularly relates to their sex lives. This image is mistaken: Victoria's attitude toward sexual morality was a consequence of her knowledge of the corrosive effect of the loose morals of the aristocracy in earlier reigns upon the public's respect for the nobility and the Crown.

Two hundred years earlier the Puritan republican movement under Oliver Cromwell had temporarily overthrown the British monarchy. During England's years as a republic, the law imposed a strict moral code on the people (even abolishing Christmas as too indulgent of the sensual pleasures).

When the monarchy was restored, a period of loose living and debauchery appeared to be a reaction to the earlier repression. See: Charles II of England. The two social forces of puritanism and libertinism continued to motivate the collective psyche of the United Kingdom from the restoration onward. This was particularly significant in the public perceptions of the later Hanoverean monarchs who immediately preceded Queen Victoria. For instance, her uncle George IV was commonly perceived as a pleasure-seeking playboy, whose conduct in office was the cause of much scandal.

By the time of Victoria, the interplay between high cultured morals and low vulgarity was thoroughly embedded in British culture.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Historical background", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki