The Assault on Victorianism in the Twentieth Century

Abstract

the United States, modified only slightly, though significantly, since the late nineteenth century. On medium-sized farms and in towns that serve them commercially, in cities which lie just out of the suburban commuter's reach, the essence of Victorianism still thrives. It also pervades places where more far-reaching influence is exercised: in prestigious metropolitan clubs, conservative private boarding schools and suburban country clubs, and in the executive dining rooms of Pittsburgh steel companies, for example. This is not to suggest that Victorian ideas and values have disappeared elsewhere. Even the most liberated member of a California commune and the coolest pimp or pusher in a central city ghetto subconsciously hold Victorian precepts to some extent, no matter how vehemently they consciously reject those doctrines. Victorian values implicit in messages from parents, ministers, more acculturated friends and relatives, the mass media, and even teachers have reached them all. The basic elements of a culture are transmitted early in an individual's development, and efforts to change these ordinarily are resisted steadfastly. Furthermore, not all of Victorianism offends contemporary tastes. Values associated with traditional Victorian family roles, for example, retain wide appeal. Nevertheless, unmistakable shifts in the place of crucial Victorian values in American life, and in their nature, have occurred during the twentieth century. Probably the most important aspect of those changes is a loss of confidence in the civilization's conceptual bases. Even the most dedicated twentieth-century adherents of Victorianism suffer from a progressive decrease in certainty more obvious in each succeeding generation that their ideas and values are indisputably true. Twice in the twentieth century, culminating in the 1920's and 1960's, discontent with the prevailing culture became so intense and widespread that strong, organized movements and dense networks of rebellious individuals