The Victorian Era is often presented as a period of emotional repression and extreme self-restraint. The idea of a prudish, tight-lipped and straight-laced character is often juxtaposed with the Dickensian view of orphaned street urchins and the criminal poor who resided in the urban slums. The Victorian period was a time of great emotion, sentimentality and romanticism; many positive emotions were increasingly seen as essential in respectable society.[1] Love, Joy, and Faith were important to the ideals of upper and middle-class culture. However, not all emotions fit into these ideals. At the beginning of the Victorian Period, anger was considered to be a negative emotion. Uncontrolled anger was believed to lead to crime, violence and disorder which was a condition generally attributed to lower-class society.[2]
While feeling anger was considered natural, loss of control and excessive anger were considered unhealthy. Public displays of anger such as riots or extreme acts of violence were attributed to the lower classes. This idea was intensified by the literature and media of the time, which sensationalised the slum environment. The poor were presented as a different race, uneducated and unable to supress their anger in a civilised manner.[3] This consolidated the belief that those who lived in slums were animalistic and childlike in their inability to control themselves.
Anger and violence were frequently presented as detrimental within the media. The growth of sensational journalism ensured they remained a topic of popular interest. High profile murder cases, such as the Whitechapel murders were reported daily, and used as a platform to discuss the problems of society, such as the dangerous and unhealthy living conditions of the slums. Throughout the century, as attitudes to the poor began to change, the way anger was seen by society developed. Anger shifted from being seen as an individual problem, to a group problem as the threat of public disorder over the need for reform continued to grow.[4] This public anger manifested into the reform bill riots in October 1831, which historian Richard Gaunt describes as being ‘interpreted at the time (and subsequently) as Britain’s own potentially revolutionary moment’.[5]
While uncontrolled anger remained negatively viewed, controlled or organised anger was seen as increasingly essential within the public sphere.
Bibliography
Secondary Sources
Books
Stearns, P. N. ‘The Victorian Style’ in American Cool: Constructing a Twentieth-Century Emotional Style (New York: NYU Press, 1994)
Journal Articles
Beier, A. L. ‘Identity, Language, and Resistance in the Making of the Victorian “Criminal Class”: Mayhew’s Convict Revisited.’ Journal of British Studies 44:3 (2005) pp. 499-515
Conley, C. A. ‘Wars among Savages: Homicide and Ethnicity in the Victorian United Kingdom’ Journal of British Studies 44:4 (Oct, 2005) pp. 775-795
Primary Sources
Pamphlets
Godfrey, J, ‘The Poor Man’s Friend: or, A few plain words from a plain man, who desires to see the poor happy and contented in that situation of life in which it has pleased god to place them, etc.’ LSE Pamphlets, (Norfolk: Griffin, 1835)
Images
English School, The Riot in Hyde Park (The Illustrated London News) Engraving, 1866, Private Collection, Accessed Online: https://www-bridgemaneducation-com.ezproxy.derby.ac.uk/en/asset/1103438/summary?context=%7B%22route%22%3A%22assets_search%22%2C%22routeParameters%22%3A%7B%22_format%22%3A%22html%22%2C%22_locale%22%3A%22en%22%2C%22filter_text%22%3A%22Hyde+Park+Riot%22%7D%7D [Date Accessed: 07/12/2017]
Marcquoid, P., Unpleasant Reflections (The Illustrated London News) Engraving, 1872, Private Collection, Accessed Online: https://www-bridgemaneducation-com.ezproxy.derby.ac.uk/en/asset/1613502/summary?context=%7B%22route%22%3A%22assets_search%22%2C%22routeParameters%22%3A%7B%22_format%22%3A%22html%22%2C%22_locale%22%3A%22en%22%2C%22filter_text%22%3A%22unpleasant+reflections%22%7D%7 [Date Accessed: 07/12/2017]
Unknown, The fifth victim of the Whitechapel fiend (Illustrated Police News) Engraving, 1888, Museum of London, Accessed Online: http://www.museumoflondonprints.com/image/65594/illustrated-police-news-the-fifth-victim-of-the-whitchapel-fiend-1888 [Date Accessed: 07/12/2017]
[1] Stearns, P. N. ‘The Victorian Style’ in American Cool: Constructing a Twentieth-Century Emotional Style (New York: NYU Press, 1994) pp. 20
[2] Beier, A. L. ‘Identity, Language, and Resistance in the Making of the Victorian “Criminal Class”: Mayhew’s Convict Revisited.’ Journal of British Studies 44:3 (2005) pp. 501
[3] Conley, C. A. ‘Wars among Savages: Homicide and Ethnicity in the Victorian United Kingdom’ Journal of British Studies 44:4 (Oct, 2005) pp.777
[4] Godfrey, J, ‘The Poor Man’s Friend: or, A few plain words from a plain man, who desires to see the poor happy and contented in that situation of life in which it has pleased god to place them, etc.’ LSE Pamphlets, (Norfolk: Griffin, 1835) pp.14
[5] Gaunt, R., ‘The Fourth Duke of Newcastle, the ‘Mob’ and Election Contests in Nottinghamshire, 1818-1832’, Midland History, 33.2 (2008), p. 196
Exploring the Slum 