The Victorian period hosted great social and ideological contrasts: the rich against the poor, and the devoutly religious church-builders against those who followed new scientific theories on evolution.

The Industrial Revolution brought:

• a new rich, middle class, set against a working class, whose life had improved as they did not have to suffer starvation due to a bad harvest;
• discoveries and inventions that tried to conteract high death rates. These were caused by childbirth and diseases like cholera epidemics, typhoid, tuberculosis, scarlet fever and smallpox;
• an increase in the population due to fewer deaths;
• the first age of mass production and advertising;
• the right to vote for all men, the right to education for all children, and civil rights for religious minorities.

The power of the aristocracy diminished because of two laws:

1. the ‘Reform Bill’ in 1832, which damaged the political influence associated with land ownership, and
2. ‘death duties’ in 1894, which impeded the inheritance of accumulated wealth.

It was also a time of censorship: works by Shakespeare and Charlotte Bronte were banned, nudity in art was severely curtailed, and modesty in costume reached a peak.

Diagram of some key events of the Nineteenth century (or list of key events; both links open in new windows).