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The word “Victorian” resonates with negative connotations. Derived from the name of Queen Victoria, monarch of Great Britain for 64 years during the 1800s, the term has come to have several meanings. Besides Victorian architecture and clothing styles, the dictionary includes the synonyms of “prudish, conventional, priggish, straightlaced, smug, prim, narrow.” A person’s response to things “Victorian” can overshadow the actual people or person behind the term, much like reaction to the word “fundamentalism” today. What was Queen Victoria actually like? Has she been misjudged? The BBC offers a glimpse into her life struggles and the relationship with her consort, Prince Albert, with a four part miniseries: Victoria & Albert. Produced in 2001 and starring Victoria Hamilton (seen frequently in Jane Austin movies) and Jonathan Firth (brother of British star, Colin Firth), the series avoids the usual methodical approach of BBC productions and instead gives color and zip to a queen we usually think of as, well, priggish. Perhaps some of the negative press for the Victorian era comes from her forty year reign after the untimely death of Albert. She spent those years in semi seclusion and always wore black, forever in mourning. Yet, the movie indicates that it was Albert who set the moral tone for the Victorian era, a much needed reform at that time for the royal family in England. Critics complain that the series does not keep entirely to the truth. For example, the ending shows a warm understanding between Prince Albert and their wayward son Bertie (Edward VII). In reality, there is no record of the Royal Couple coming to any kind of understanding with the future King who threatened, with his indiscretions, to destroy the high moral ground they had achieved. That aside, the series supplies a human portrait of a struggling queen and her marriage. Hamilton plays the part with a striking range of emotions for Victoria, from fear of her duties to livid anger at the way she has been manipulated for the gain of others. She shows courage in the face of threats on her life, fights total frustration with her marriage, and displays a deep grief over the death of her beloved. Soon after she ascended the throne at the age of eighteen, she found herself suddenly in love with her cousin, Albert, from Germany, a relationship her overbearing mother had wished upon her, and which Victoria had formerly resisted. Albert’s feelings for her took quite a bit more time to develop. Firth matches Hamilton’s acting skill with his own ability to capture the hearts of viewers much like Prince Albert worked to gain the trust of England. At one point the film shows us a flip side of the usual marital roles when the Queen reminds Albert that he “doesn’t know his place.” She is hesitant to use his gifts and skills in government affairs because he is considered by the British people to be a foreigner. Frustrated, Albert learns what his advisor, the beloved “Stocky,” had told him, that what he needs is what goes against a man’s very nature: patience. He must work behind the scenes to bring about the greater good until Victoria and England come to trust him. The process of Albert learning patience and Victoria learning to reign is interwoven with the tumultuous development of their love relationship. Throughout the film, the couple must cope with redefined roles, stemming from Victoria’s position as queen, which spills into their personal relationship. At one point when Victoria rejects Albert’s advice concerning their sick daughter, Vicky, Albert clarifies, “I’m not speaking as your consort; I’m speaking as Vicky’s father.” In sync with her times, Victoria truly was priggish when it came to some issues. Even though she was one of the most powerful women in the world, she opposed women’s suffrage. By contrast, Britain made great strides in industry and economics and was a world leader in the Constitutional Monarchal form of government, due to reforms during that era. Albert contributed to the British Empire with his interests in the arts and sciences and human rights, along with planning the Great Exhibition in 1851. Sadly, his life was cut short by typhoid at the age of 42 before he could realize even more accomplishments for the country he had come to appreciate. Their relationship also produced nine children (the series includes only six). Unfortunately, Victoria passed on the genetic trait for hemophilia. Most of their children married into royal families throughout Europe and Asia, spreading the trait for hemophilia, also known as “the royal disease.” Her son Leopold was a hemophiliac and two of her daughters were carriers. The horrors of this disease sparked fear and vigilance for the mothers, most notably in the Romanov family in Russia. Victoria bore this burden, besides the death of Albert, which created more grief and strain in her life. The term “Victorian” also describes evangelicalism in American during the mid-1800s. The traits of virtue, piety, and consideration that attach to the term “Victorian” served as a cultural catalyst that helped bring about the birth of Christian fundamentalism (see George Marsden’s Fundamentalism and American Culture). Yet, just as the beginning of the reign of Victoria and Albert is far removed from the outcome, so the embryonic fundamentalism of the Victorian era grew beyond its original scope and transformed into a movement that came to embody nearly the opposite of its original intent. What began with the intention to promote unity and spirituality, later became a source of divisive and censorious legalism. Just like with hemophilia, a hidden genetic defect, which impacted only Victoria's descendents and not herself, Fundamentalism carried within it the genetic components of legalism that infected later generations of fundamentalists. More insidiously, it has the potential to infect more distant descendants like the Evangelicals and more recently the “Emerging Church." The now pejorative terms “Victorian” and “fundamentalism” once addressed concerns during their conceptions which we might ourselves have taken up as a cause. The miniseries captures Victoria’s determination to rule England with integrity. Beyond that, it provides a rich portrayal of a marriage that survived tremendous pressures, mixing duty with intimacy in a unique picture of what it means to be “Victorian.” Victoria & Albert is well worth viewing if only to help us redefine our perceptions in light of the human struggles of a young queen and her beloved consort. If you do not have it readily available, ask your library to add it to their collection. Read more about Victoria’s reign here. Read more about Prince Albert here. by Rachel Ramer |
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