《英美文学选读》英国文学The Victorian period.docVIP

PART ONE：ENGLISH LITERATUREChapter 4 The Victorian period 　　概　述　　（一）标志：　　The Victorian period coincides with the reign of queen Victoria who ruled over England from 1836 to 1901.The period had been generally regarded as one of the most glorious in the English history.　　（地）早期的经济发展和社会动乱：　　The early years of the Victorian England was a time of rapid economic development as well as serious social problems.　　1.经济发展：　　（1）政治：After the Reform Bill of 1832 passed the political power from the decaying aristocrats into the hands of the middle class industrial capitalists, the Industrial Revolution soon geared up.　　（2）科学技术：Scientific discoveries and technologic inventions from railways to steamships, from spinning looms to printing machines quickly brought amazing changes to the country.　　（3）经济：For a time England was the workshop of the world. Large amounts of profit were accumulated both from expanding its foreign trade markets and from exploiting its huge-sized colonies.　　2.社会问题：　　（1）Beneath the great prosperity and richness, the widespread poverty and wretchedness among the working class.　　（2）Poor Law（平民法）of 1834 with its workhouse system finally gave rise to the Chartist Movement(人民宪章运动).　　3.中期社会稳定： 　　（1）During the next twenty years, England settled down to a time of prosperity and relative stability.　　（2）With the Industrial Revolution in full swing, the nation was well ahead of others in development.　　（3）Common sense and moral propriety, which were ignored by the romanticists, again became the predominant preoccupation in literary works.　　4.晚期的势力衰退与道德观的改变：　　The last three decades of the century witnessed the decline of the British Empire and the decay of the Victorian values　　（1）Abroad: 　　Britain still maintained its strong economic and military forces and its colonial territory was still the largest.But its absolute leadership in industry and military force was already facing challenge from Germany.The competition with America also hurt the British mono