Victorian Morality - Historical Background

Historical Background

The term Victorian has acquired a range of connotations, including that of a particularly strict set of moral standards, often hypocritically applied. This stems from the image of Queen Victoria—and her husband, Prince Albert.

Two hundred years earlier the Puritan movement, which led to the installment of Oliver Cromwell, had temporarily overthrown the British monarchy. During England’s years under Cromwell, the law imposed a strict moral code on the people (such as abolishing Christmas as too indulgent of the sensual pleasures).

When the monarchy was restored, a period of loose living and debauchery inspired too by the rise of French Court cultural influence all over Europe, appeared to be a reaction to the earlier religious based forms of repression. (See: Charles II of England) The two social forces of Puritanism and libertinism continued to motivate the collective psyche of Great Britain from the Restoration onward. This was particularly significant in the public perceptions of the later Hanoverian 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.