E X T E N S I O N THE VICTORIAN COMPROMISE The Victorian Age was a period of great contradictions1 characterised by prosperity, progress, and political stability2 on the one hand, and poverty, exploitation, and injustice on the other. This coexistence of opposites is generally referred to as The Victorian Compromise . The dominant value3 of the period, expressed also in literature and in art, was respectability 4. Respectable people followed very strict moral5 rules: men had to work hard, could not gamble6, drink or swear7, and women were supposed to be pure8 and submissive9. They had to be angels , ideal companions to their husbands, like Agnes in David Copperfield. Victorian artists often expressed this idea, as we can see, for example, in the picture by George Elgar Hicks Woman s Mission: Companion of Manhood (1863), in which we see a loving wife who supports her husband in a difficult moment. Women spent all their time looking after their families but had no power G. E. Hicks, Woman s Mission: over them. While a single woman held Companion of Manhood the same legal rights as a man like Miss Trotwood in David Copperfield a married woman had none: her husband had complete control of the family money and of her personal property, and even her children belonged only to him. An example of this idea of marriage can be seen in Clara s (David s mother) marriage to Mr Murdstone, who controlled her in every possible way. 5. moral: relating to the ideas of good and bad behaviour held by a society. 6. to gamble: to risk money, for example in games or horse races. 7. to swear (swore, sworn): to use rude or offensive words. 8. pure: behaving in a way that is morally good. 9. submissive: the condition of someone who lets others control them. 1. contradiction: a situation in which two things are very different from each other and should not exist together. 2. stability: a situation in which something does not move or change. 3. value: idea about what is morally right or wrong. 4. respectability: the condition of being considered good and morally acceptable. 92