Queen Victoria's Struggle For Equality In The Victorian Era

1269 Words3 Pages

One of the darker and more mysterious periods in history was the Victorian Era. The nineteenth century was a major period in literary history, with stories mostly related to supernatural beings, poetry, and fantastic literature. Along with the differing genres, there were also many different religions. People of England were extremely religious and centered their lifestyle off of their chosen religion. Mostly everyone went to church, despite their social class and standing. The higher up someone was, the better the clothes they had. The clothing style was very formal and posh, with their trends of petticoats, corsets, and wigs. All of these are reasons that combine to make the Victorian Era more intriguing. This was an enthralling time period …show more content…

Before the nineteenth century, wives were usually in charge of the housework and the children, and the men were in charge of working and earning money (Modern International and American History). However, this changed when the Industrial Revolution began; women now had the option to work in a factory or perform domestic work. The domestic work was not as physically draining as the factory work, but it was still tiring and had its own difficulties. The Industrial Revolution also affected the social classes. The upper class included the royal family and aristocrats who owned businesses that hired many people during the Industrial Revolution. This opened doors for the middle class and lower class because now families could earn more money and children were not troubled with needing to have enough money to help support their family (. The social classes continued to consist of differences even after the revolution. The higher class had luxurious outfits, while the poor had outfits made of rags and cheap cloth. The poor had food that was tasteless and had consisted of anything they could afford to buy. The social class standards also changed when people could not marry outside of their class (The British Library). Unfortunately for the family of Queen Victoria, being in the higher class doesn’t mean you always get the best. Queen Victoria and her descendants were …show more content…

This powerful disease was a mystery to any doctor trying to help. There had been similar cases discovered throughout Europe, but none had been solved or cured. This became a tremendous issue, when it was found spreading through the Queen’s family. The queen herself was found to be a carrier of hemophilia. In the late nineteenth century, hemophilia was an incredibly devastating disease, killing people as high in society as Prince Leopold, son of Great Britain’s Queen Victoria (Dartmouth Undergraduate Journal of Science). Because of Leopold’s prominent position in society as a member of the Royal Family, his condition drew greater attention to the disease, resulting in a spike in publications in the 1880s and eventually more research towards a cure (A Royal Shame: Prince Leopold’s Hemophilia and Its Effect on Medical Research). Of Queen Victoria’s nine children, three of them were affected by hemophilia: Alice, Prince Leopold, and Princess Beatrice. Hemophilia is a genetic disorder passed along on the X chromosomes. This disease is most commonly found in boys because they only have one X chromosome which is handed down from their mother. It is a lot less likely to be found in girls because both the mother and father would need to have hemophilia. Not long after Prince Leopold’s sickness went public, there was a cure invented to help hemophilia patients. The

More about Queen Victoria's Struggle For Equality In The Victorian Era

Open Document