...City in most urban gothics tend to be a labyrinth of mystery, a source of corruption and evil. The role that the city plays in creating evil is not limited to the labyrinth nature of the city which protects the crimes of antagonists and villains. The creation of evil and is association with the city is also influenced by the early Victorian perception of the city and the crimes that occurred in the city. Irene Adler the primary antagonist and villain, in the Arthur Conon Doyle’s “Scandal in Bohemia” (1891), outwits Sherlock Holmes – One of the greatest detectives and brilliant minds in literature to date. The nature in which if she operates, is helped by the nature of the city which encourages, promotes and even hide the criminality and violence....
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...is in conflict with the cultural anxieties of living an extravagant, seductive, moralistic, and self-confident life style along with two friends with similar conflicts. The Picture of Dorian Gray is a novel that reveals many aspects of cultural anxieties instilled in three characters. The cultural anxieties complicate the virtues of every character in the novel and lead each of their lives into the vices of their virtues. All the characters have the anxieties for living great lives. However, all their lives turn for the worse including death. Each character wants more or less than their role, place, and identity in society. The anxieties of the Late Victorian Era were “sexual restraints, low tolerance...
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...Frederick Hammond Ms.Alchorn English 111 13th February 2011 Crime & Punishment In The Victorian Era The stripping of a person’s freedom has been used since ancient times as a punishment. However, until the late eighteenth century ( Victorian era) in England, it was unusual for guilty people to be imprisoned for long terms. Hanging and transportation (deportation) were the main punishments for serious offences. Prisons served as lock- ups for debtors and holding cells were the accused were kept before trial. However, by the Victorian era, prison had become an acceptable punishment for serious offenders and it was also seen as a means to prevent crime. It had become the primary form of punishment for a wide range of offences from stealing bread to adultery. As towns grew to cities and villages grew to towns the crime level increased dramatically in England, citizens became more and more worried about how criminals could be kept under control. There was also public unease at the number of people being hung. By the 1830’s, many areas in Australia were refusing to be the dumping-ground’ for Britain’s criminals. There were more criminals than could be transported. The answer to this problem was to reform the police and to build more prisons: 90 prisons were built or added all across Britain between 1842 and 1877. This was a massive building program, costing the crown millions of pounds. By the mid Victorian period, there were two distinct prison systems in England. There...
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...Victorian prisons and punishments The removal of a person’s freedom has been used since ancient history as a form of punishment. The Victorian period went through a lot of changes in how people were caught, arrested and charged. They were trying to find an efficient way to slow down the raising crime rates . The victorian era didn’t have any form of police. That is known today, it wasn’t until 1856 when they were finally introduced. Before then, most towns had an unpaid “policemen” known as parish to keep citizens in check. The first professional policeman, were set up in England was known as “Peelers” or “Bobbies” in 1829 by Robert Peel. “It was the start of a campaign to improve public law. Reform, however, it was slow because there was distrust of the police at all levels” (1). The first official police uniform had a long blue coat that came with a tall hard hat, that would protect them from blows to the head and could also be used as a step stool to look over walls . Their only weapon was a truncheon, and they would raise alarm or attention by shaking loud rattles. Even though the crime rate was rising faster than a skorn snake, most counties refused...
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...In a capitalist, materialistic society, the concept of crime is a romanticized one, far-removed and scandalous in its operation. Crime is abstruse, and after centuries of pondering the same question, both psychologists and laymen would give the same vague handful of answers as to why crime exists: poverty, lack of education, and/or negative role models. In Michael Crichton’s The Great Train Robbery, the Victorian populace supposed crime a derivative of the above-stated sources, poverty being considered a sinful, fallen state, in which violence and filth fester. Edward Pierce, the enigmatically charming protagonist of Crichton’s historical novel, apparently suffers no such want, but is instead spurred towards his illicit actions by mere need for exhilaration....
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...Victorian morality is a distillation of the moral views of people living at the time of Queen Victoria's reign (1837–1901) and of the moral climate of the United Kingdom throughout the 19th century in general, which contrasted greatly with the morality of the previous Georgian period. Victorian morality can describe any set of values that espouse sexual restraint, low tolerance of crime and a strict social code of conduct. Due to the prominence of the British Empire, many of these values were spread across the world. The term "Victorian" was first used during The Great Exhibition in London (1851), where Victorian inventions and morals were shown to the world. The Victorian Age was a complex era characterized by stability, progress and social reforms, and, in the meantime, by great problems such as poverty, injustice and social unrest; that’s why the Victorians felt obliged to promote and invent a rigid code of values that reflected the world as they wanted it to be, based on: * duty and hard work; * respectability: a mixture of both morality and hypocrisy, severity and conformity to social standards (possessions of good manners, ownership of a comfortable house, regular attendance at church and charitable activity); it distinguished the middle from the lower classes; * charity and philanthropy: an activity that involved many people, especially women. The family was strictly patriarchal: the husband represented the authority and respectability, consequently a single...
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...true meaning of life and what values are most important. Dickens uses a range of characters to show Pip learning this lesson and to provide insights into various aspects of the Victorian era culture. Characters such as Joe and Magwitch provide an insight into the education and the crime and justice systems of Victorian England, along the importance of social class and wealth. Whilst, Estella and Miss Havisham provide an insight into the position of women and the inequality of power between the genders. Throughout the novel Pip encounters a range of people and undergoes various experiences. It is through these people and experiences that Pip learns numerous lessons in life. Pips main learning-catalysts are Magwitch, Joe, Miss Havisham and Estella. Education was an important cultural aspect of the Victorian era. Education allowed wider access to employment, and respect; for one could not become a gentleman and part of the upper-class without an education. Yet access to education was greatly determined to one’s position in society. Those in the upper class were given a higher priority to receive education than those in the lower class. Therefore it was very difficult for one to advance within society. This provides Dickens with the opportunity to gently satirize the class system of this era and to provide a Marxist view on the inequality of wealth and power. Dickens presents numerous characters, all from different social classes with different levels of education...
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...remove the disguise of the Victorian era. From 1837 to 1901, the people of London, England cloaked themselves with wealth, peace, and confidence through their expansions of land and population. However, Londoners were corrupt with their expectations of gender and society, while their city was grimy and impoverished....
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...Charles Dickens’ Oliver Twist was written and published during the Victorian era, 1838. Dickens’ use of language successfully denotes contextual issues and narrative concepts, an important social commentator who used fiction effectively to highlight the contextual issues of society and class and criminality. The narrative techniques Dickens uses, unified with the context in which he wrote the novel, exemplify his ideas throughout the text. The use of good literature adds to an audience’s understanding of life during those times. It embodies thought and feeling on matters of human importance. Dickens uses the characters and situations in the novel to make a deliberate statement of his personal views of society and class about the poor laws and the criminal system. Society in Oliver Twist is hugely divided. While the upper classes live in their comfortable large houses, the lower class are seen to lead wretched lives, driven to crime by hunger and deprivation. At times Dickens steps out of the novel and addresses the reader directly using indirect speech. The opening of the book, the detached narrator impresses upon the reader that Oliver was only seen as a burden upon the parish, and also highlights the injustice of falling into a predestined social class. “The parish authorities resolved that Oliver should be ‘farmed’... be despatched to a branch workhouse where juvenile offenders against the poor-laws… ‘. He uses shifting narrative voice throughout Oliver Twist to provoke...
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...characters and was regarded as one of the best writers of the Victorian Era. During his life, his works enjoyed unprecedented fame, and by the twentieth century his literary genius was broadly acknowledged by critics and scholars. His novels and short stories continue to be widely popular. But the debate still continues. Was this man just an English storyteller or a campaigner for social justice? I believe Charles John Huffam Dickens was one of the greatest social critics the world has ever seen for his commentary on the English social structure. But why did Dickens commentate on social injustice? Was he ever affected? Dickens’s deep social commitment and awareness of social ills are derived from his traumatic childhood experiences when his father was imprisoned and he at the age of twelve worked in a shoe-blacking factory. Imagine that, working at the age of 12 in a factory with no guidance from a mother or father? As a result, Dickens developed a strong social conscious which put into his two most recognisable novels, A Tale of Two Cities which continues to be the best seller of all time with over 200 million copies and Oliver Twist. Dickens succeeded in making the Victorian public aware of the conditions of the poor through his book Oliver Twist and through the characterisation of his titular character, Oliver Twist. In Oliver Twist Dickens presents a portrait of the macabre childhood of a considerable number of Victorian orphans. The orphans are underfed, and for a meal they...
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...The Plight of a Victorian Era Wife American author, Kate Chopin, in her narrative short story, "The Story of an Hour," recounts the story of an hour in the life of Mrs. Louise Mallard, a young woman "with a fair, calm face, whose lines bespoke repression and even a certain strength" (Chopin, 605). Chopin's purpose for writing this short story is to address the lack of independence and social status that was an everyday part of life for married women living in the Victorian era. She adopts a sympathetic tone in order to appeal to similar feelings and experiences in her female readers. In 1870, Kate married Oscar Chopin, a Louisiana businessman of French-Creole descent. In New Orleans, where Chopin and her husband lived until 1879, she was among Southern high society. Proper Southern women of this time were expected to be submissive, compliant and stoic. Coming from a long line of Southern females, I know this to be true. The society of this era viewed the altruistic wife, reliant on her husband and devoted to her children, as the feminine ideal. Chopin's forward-thinking literary works of the late nineteenth century were not considered socially acceptable, so it wasn't until the 1960s or 1970s that she became "an integral part of the evolution of feminism" (katechopin.org). Chopin begins "The Story of an Hour" with an instant, essential revelation of the story's pinnacle. Readers learn in the first sentence that the story's main character, Mrs. Mallard, is "afflicted with...
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...professionalism during the end of that century, culminating in the ongoing response to issues that demanded attention during the Civil Rights Era, and, which continue to remain prevalent. The basis for modern policing lies in the principles outlined in the 1820's, during a period of high crime, rioting, and economic instability, by Britain's then-Home Secretary, Robert Peel, who would later serve as Prime Minister (Bloy, 2002). His commonly referred to, "nine principles," became the structure for London's organized police force, refining its function, practices, and ideals in language both adaptable and explicit, appealing to notions of police productivity and effectiveness, also, over time, becoming a model for the rights of the accused and resultant law enforcement regulations and policies. The current conception of community-based policing, with focus directed toward police-community relations, is suggested in Peel's second, third, and seventh principles, detailing the importance of "public approval," "willing cooperation of the public," and maintaining a unifying relationship with the public, in mutual responsibility for law and order (Kooi, 2011). Historically, failure to adhere to Peel's principles has inspired occasions of public backlash, in the form of riots, reminiscent of the social climate that precipitated America's first police reform. The adoption of London-style policing in America was necessitated by organizational inadequacies, exposed during a period of unrest...
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...Ms. Jyoti Ahuja Abstract: In this essay, I have attempted to bring out the reality of the “glorious” Victorian Era. An era which is said to be the time when the world took its first steps towards reform in terms of technology, medicine, entertainment - every section of the society was touched with the reform but women were still shackled in the society’s ideals. “What is the role and significance of women in Thomas Hardy’s ‘Tess of the D’Urbevilles’ and George Eliot’s ‘Middlemarch’?” ‘Tess of the D’Urbevilles’ is a book which mocked at the norms about the purity of a woman. I have tried to analyse the struggle of a woman through the seven stages of her life whereby man is not punished for his sins but the woman has to suffer the brutality of life. It is about the doomed life of Tess Durbeyfield, who at every stage of life, struggled for her identity. ‘Middlemarch’ again a book defining the lives in the Victorian Era where some sky-castles are built and with a change of fate, they shatter on the ground like glass pieces. They take decisions which define their lives and yet at the end they are bound in the walls of the society. This research is attempted in bringing out the real role which a woman played in the Victorian Era with the help of George Eliot’s Middlemarch and Thomas Hardy’s Tess of the D’Urbevilles. Through this research, I learnt that in Victorian Era women were mere puppets but in reality; women are more than just porcelain dolls and have a significant role...
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...Peter McGovern British Literature Miriam Kroeker March 19, 2010 Soho Paper Soho has changed much throughout time from the Victorian time to modern days. It has had its problems such a cholera or racial issues, as well as social reform in the founding of its police force and the founding for China Town in 1985 by the Duke of Gloucester. It has also maintained a rich tradition in dining and drinking which has acquired its own rich history along the way. During the reign of Queen Victoria the population of England doubled due to Industrial Revolution witch also put new pressures on her society. This caused the crime rate to increase. Seeing the need to reform the police force of England, the Home Secretary Robert Pell developed what was a crude but partially effective police force. He formed ‘The Metropolitan Police Force’, and two men he put in charge of the force of 1000 men, were Charles Rown and Richard Mayne. All London’s police were the responsibility of one authority, under the direction of the Home Secretary, with headquarters at Scotland Yard. At the time their duty was not only crime prevention but inherited many of the watchmen’s duties, consisting of lighting lamps, calling out time, watching for fires, and providing other public services. “Bobbies or Peelers were not immediately popular. Most citizens viewed constables as an infringement on English social and political life, and people often jeered the police”(McDonnell). In much of...
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...The English novel is an important part of English literature. This article focuses on novels, written in English, by novelists who were born or have spent a significant part of their lives in England, or Scotland, or Wales, or Northern Ireland (or Ireland before 1922)]. However, given the nature of the subject, this guideline has been applied with common sense, and reference is made to novels in other languages or novelists who are not primarily British where appropriate. Portrait of Samuel Richardson by Joseph Highmore.National Portrait Gallery, Westminster, England. Contents [hide] 1 Early novels in English 2 Romantic period 3 Victorian novel 4 20th century 5 Survey 6 Famous novelists (alphabetical order) 7 See also 8 References Early novels in English[edit source | editbeta] See the article First novel in English. The English novel has generally been seen as beginning with Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe (1719) and Moll Flanders (1722),[1] though John Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress (1678) and Aphra Behn's Oroonoko (1688) are also contenders, while earlier works such as Sir Thomas Malory's Morte d'Arthur, and even the "Prologue" to Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales have been suggested.[2] Another important early novel is Gulliver's Travels (1726, amended 1735), by Irish writer and clergyman Jonathan Swift, which is both a satire of human nature, as well as a parody of travellers' tales like Robinson Crusoe.[3] The rise of the novel as an important...
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