Norwegian Culture in the Victorian Era

Phoebe Beitnes

Politics

• The right to vote in Norway was mostly limited to the social elite (officials, property owners, lease owners).

• “University educated civil servants (graduates in theology, law, and medicine)” held the majority of political power.

• The aristocracy of “university educated civil servants” filled most of the important posts in the Norwegian government, controlling the economy.

• There wasn’t a large bourgeoisie (middle class) in Norway “to demand the breakdown of this aristocratic control of the economy”.

• Norway was more progressive politically than most other nations of the time.

Social Classes

• Upper Class: Received their money mainly through inheritance. The upper class was mostly comprised of nobility and people of the church. Most did not have to work.

• Middle Class: Worked the cleaner types of jobs- bankers, shopkeepers, merchants, etc.

• Lower Class: Did mostly physical work, doing dirtier jobs than the middle class, such as working as servants or factory workers. Received little to no education most of the time.

The Academic Elite

• The academic elite was a very exclusive social group.• All university students were men (until 1882). Over

half of these university students had fathers with academic occupations (another 25% of university students were the sons of business men, and the other 25% was made up of the sons of farmers and workers).

• Although it was not compulsory to attend a university, and it would be just as acceptable to be taught at home, many went simply to develop connections in order to rise higher on the social ladder.

Entertainment

• Victorian Norway was very interested in literature, theatre, and the arts. Operas were widely attended.

• Gambling at cards in casinos became wildly popular during the Victorian Era.

• Many men took up the study of natural history, studying birds, butterflies, seashells, beetles, and wildflowers.

• The Victorian Era was the golden age of the circus. Travelling circuses drew large amounts of people to their shows.

Courtship

• Courting during the Victorian Era usually began at balls and other such dances during which young girls were introduced into society during their “coming out”.

• The Victorian society dictated several criteria with which to use in finding “the perfect suitor”: “not marrying a person with the same eye color as yourself, marrying someone that was the opposite of you in physical and mental characteristics, and marry someone with straight or thicker hair if your hair is curly or thin”.

• The courting couple always had to be chaperoned, had to have permission to go out in the daytime, “the gentleman could never call without permission, and the young lady had to say goodbye at the parlor door”.

Courtship (continued)

• Because the courtship rules were so restrictive, many couples ended up getting to know each other through letters, “as opposed to face-to-face interaction”.

• Victorian society was very repressive towards true emotion, so couples often created secret languages consisting of fan, glove, parasol, handkerchief movements in order to communicate nonverbally.

• Ladies were often given gifts by their suitors called “love tokens”, such as painted miniatures, flowers, and jewelry. Many times these tokens had secret meanings.

• When a gentleman decided to propose marriage, he first had to ask permission from her father to have her hand. This was when the courtship ended and the engagement began.

Marriage

• Although a large feminist movement was taking place, a woman’s place in society was still largely thought to be at home.

• The idea of romantic marriage was made popular during the Victorian Era, but because of “practical political circumstances”, marriage was predominantly still a financial transaction. It was treated as a business

• Because married women had very little political power, except through their husbands, they wanted to marry politically powerful men “as opposed to men with whom they were ‘in love’”.

Women’s Rights

• In 1854, women were granted the right to inherit property. However, “it was not until the 1890’s that married women gained the right to control their own wealth”.

• Victorian Era Norwegian women mainly expressed themselves through literature.

• Aasta Hansteen, a passionate feminist writer of the time, served as a model for one of the characters in Henrik Ibsen’s The Pillars of Society (1877).

• It was between 1879 and 1890 that the first wave of feminism in Norway broke out.

Women’s Rights (continued)

• Writers began writing to speak for the cause of the feminist movement.

• Four writers became particularly famous for this. Nicknamed ‘The Big Four’, the group of writers included Henrik Ibsen, Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson, Alexander Kielland, and Jonas Lie.

• Ibsen’s book A Doll’s House (1879) had a very large influence on the feminist movement (even outside of Norway, as it was translated into several different languages and performed widely across Europe).

• Bjørnson’s play A Glove (1883) had a huge impact on the Norwegian public

Prostitution

• News organizations, clergymen, and others became very concerned about prostitution, and labeled it “The Great Social Evil”.

• Many asylums and institutions claimed to want to help these “fallen women” and retrain them to reenter society, teaching them to work as domestic servants.

• Moral reform movements were made in an effort to close down brothels.

• The theme of prostitution soon became a staple feature of Victorian literature.

Religion and Mythology

• Scholars in the Victorian Era “found renewed interest” in the old Norse mythology. By this time Christianity was so deeply rooted in the Norwegian society that it was no longer so much a legitimate religion as a popularized legend.

• Norwegian scholars began studying the Prose Edda and the Poetic Edda and forming various new theories.

Norse Mythology• Norse mythology states that there are nine different worlds,

all of them connected by a giant tree called Yggdrasil.. However, it mostlyfocuses on the Aesir gods,who inhabit Asgard.

Architecture

• The architecture styles used during the Victorian Era were mostly interpretations and “eclectic revivals of historical styles”- neoclassicism- mixed with middle eastern and Asian influences.

• Gothic Revival architecture became increasingly popular during the Victorian Era in Norway, leading to a battle of the styles between the gothic and classical styles of architecture.

• Italianate architecture became increasingly popular as well. The Italianate architecture mirrored the 16th century Italian Renaissance architecture, with more picturesque aesthetics. The Italianate style paid homage to the lavish style of the houses of the wealthy “Italian merchant princes”.

• By the end of the Victorian Era, the medieval Gothic Revival style of architecture was the most popular.

Child Labor

• Only about 50% of children between the ages of 5 and 15 in Norway during the Victorian Era did not attend school.

• The children of the poor were made to help earn money for their families, working long hours at dangerous jobs for very low pay.

• Many small boys worked as chimney sweeps. Children also worked in coal mines, and took on apprenticeships.

• Children as young as 4 were put to work. • In the coal mines, children began to work at age 5 in

general, and usually died before the age of 25. Most worked 16 hour days.

Bibliography• http://www.history.ac.uk/ihr/Focus/Victorians/• http://www.clas.ufl.edu/users/agunn/teaching/enl3251/vf/pres/horsl

ey.htm• https://wiki.uiowa.edu/download/attachments/59579500/Victorian

+Norway.pdf?version=1&modificationDate=1317598367800• http://www.clas.ufl.edu/users/agunn/teaching/enl3251/vf/pres/zieg

enfuss.htm

Quiz• 1. The right to vote in Norway was mostly limited to • A. The lower class• B. The middle class• C. The bourgeoisie• D. The social elite• • 2. The upper class• A. Worked the cleaner types of jobs- bankers, shopkeepers, merchants, etc.• B. Was mostly comprised of the nobility and people from the church• C. Received most of their money from inheritance• D. Both b and c• • 3. It was compulsory to attend a university• A. True• B. False

• 4. No women attended any universities in Norway until what year?

• A. 1877• B. 1882• C. 1920• D. 1913• • 5. The academic elite was a very exclusive social group• A. True• B. False

• 6. Operas were wildly unpopular• A. True• B. False• • 7. The Victorian Era was the golden age of• A. The lower class• B. The circus• C. Romantic marriage• D. Movies

• 8. Courtship during the Victorian Era usually began at• A. b and c• B. The movie theater• C. Dances/Balls• D. The factory• • 9. The Victorian society had several criteria one was

supposed to use to find the perfect suitor.• A. True• B. False

• 10. The courting couple always had to be chaperoned

• A. True• B. False• • 11. The courting couple didn’t have to have

permission to go out in the daytime• A. True• B. False

• 12. Couples often got to know each other through letters instead of talking face-to-face

• A. True• B. False• • 13. Because Victorian society was so repressive towards true emotion,

couples often• A. Ran away• B. Created secret languages consisting of fan/glove/parasol/handkerchief

movements• C. Exchanged tokens such as flowers/jewelry/ painted miniatures that had

secret meanings• D. b and c•

• 14. When a gentleman decided to propose marriage, he first would ask

• a. Her mother• b. Her grandfather• c. Her father• d. Both b and c• • 15. A woman’s place in society was thought to be • a. At home• b. In a factory• c. High up in the government• d. In college

• 16. The idea of romantic marriage was made popular during the Victorian Era

• a. True• b False• • 17. Because women had little political power, except through

their husbands, they wanted to• a. Marry politically powerful men• b. Stay at home forever• c. a and b• d. None of the above•

• 18. In what year did women gain the right to inherit property?• a. 1854• b. 1890• c. 1956• d. 2012• • 19. Who served as a model for one of the characters in Ibsen’s The Pillars of Society?• a. Bjornstjerne Bjornson• b. Jonas Lie• c. Aasta Hansteen• d. a and c• • 20. Some of the architecture styles used during the Victorian Era were• a. Rococo and Neo-palladian• b. Gothic Revival architecture and Italianate