Why were Victorian morals so Victorian?

[DotCommunist]

Could it be that the new, aspirant middle classes saw the 'official' morality of the aristocracy and sought to copy that, while missing out the hypocrisy part that allowed the aristos to transgress?

An aristocrat understood that the marriage vows of a union of convenience were purely for show, but you probably needed to be born into such a web of double standards to be able to navigate around it with confidence. A social climber would be on safer ground taking the show of public morality at face value.

nah, the transgressions on normal church morality by the aristos were the Heat magazine scandals of their age. There was a different drive behind Victorian morality, largely a drive to fit all kinds of bad behavior under a cloak of Providence and Gods Will.

The morality struggled to fit the new paradigm forced upon it by radical change through increased mercantile relations and the Industrial Rev. It reacted by reverting to an ultra-conservative mode, in the hope that the zietgeist could be contained by over literal interpretations of a fast fading creed

imo

 

[littlebabyjesus]

The morality struggled to fit the new paradigm forced upon it by radical change through increased mercantile relations and the Industrial Rev. It reacted by reverting to an ultra-conservative mode, in the hope that the zietgeist could be contained by over literal interpretations of a fast fading creed

Yes, that sounds right in fact. Just as Thatcher extolled Victorian morality as she set about dismantling the welfare state.