The Victorian Compromise

 

 

The Victorians sought a happy compromise when they were faced with radical problems. They were not willing to be dominated by one extreme viewpoint and in a welter of confusing issues, they struck out a pleasing compromise.

In the field of political life, there was a compromise between democracy and aristocracy. While accepting the claims of the rising masses to political equality, they defended the rights of aristocracy. While reposing their faith in progress in the political sphere, they were not ready for revolutionary upsurges disturbing the settled order of life. Progressive ideals were reconciled with conservative leanings for an established order of society.

In the field of religion and science, a satisfying compromise was affected. The advances made by science were accepted, but the claims of old religion were not ignored. The Victorians took-up compromising position between faith of religion and doubt created by science.
"There remains more faith in honest doubt
Believe me than in half the creeds."

The Victorians desired to discover some compromise which, while not outraging their intellect and their reason, would none the less soothe their conscience and restore their faith- if not completely, at least sufficiently to allow them to believe in some ultimate purpose and more important still, in the life after death. In voicing these doubts, in phrasing the inevitable compromise, Tennyson found and endeavored passionately to fulfil his appointed mission.

In the field of sex too, the Victorians made a compromise. The sex problem was the most blatant and persistent. In this field their object was to discover some middle course between the unbridled licentiousness of previous ages and the complete negation of the functions and purposes of nature. The Victorians permitted indulgence in sex but restricted its sphere to conjugal felicity and happy married life. They disfavored physical passion and illegal gratification of sex impulse.

Against the backdrop of technological, political, and socioeconomic change, the Victorian Period was bound to be a volatile time, even without the added complications of the religious and institutional challenges brought by Charles Darwin and other thinkers,reformers and writers. Hence also, the need for a compromise.