...history of tea, tea was such a fundamental part of everyday life that English tea drinkers often failed to notice its significance within their daily lives. G. G. Sigmond, in the opening pages of Tea: Its Effects, Medicinal and Moral, declares, “Man is so surrounded by objects calculated to arrest his attention, and to excite either his admi- ration or his curiosity, that he often overlooks the humble friend that ministers to his habitual comfort; and the familiarity he holds with it almost renders him incapable of appreciating its value.”1 By the early nineteenth century, tea had become a com- modity of necessity, forming a crucial part of daily patterns of consumption and domesticity. The habitual comfort of tea, ac- cording to Sigmond’s tea treatise, does not draw attention; it is quiet and familiar and thus goes unnoticed. Tea is represented as dependable, a frequent part of everyday life that forms a com- fortable, secure basis for the rest of life’s responses, decisions, and actions. As Sigmond declares, the English tea drinker is “in- capable of appreciating [tea’s] value” (1). What the typical tea drinker fails to recognize, Sigmond suggests, is the crucial role that tea plays in forming the foundation of everyday life. Despite Sigmond’s attempts to rectify the humble status of tea in nineteenth-century English culture, tea has remained a 1 2 introduction relatively unrecognized aspect of Victorian life. Just as Sigmond implies that the beverage’s mundane role precludes...
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...The article of reference is currently held by the British Library, with a detailed shelfmark to help enlighten viewers/readers on the historical context and importance of this piece of news. According to the shelfmark, suicide was becoming an active topic among newspapers and magazines, the monthly Pearson’s Magazine (published from 1896-1939) publishing an article titled ‘Is Suicide a Sign of Civilisation?’ This article, as the shelfmark says, indicated that “the public was aware of [suicide]. Suicide was seen as a symptom of a sense of failure running through society, a loss of moral ‘tone’ and an increase in degeneracy.” It also continues to say that suicide could be seen as ‘eugenically beneficial.’ Referencing Olive Anderson (author of Suicide in Victorian and Edwardian England, published 1987), the British Library quotes that ‘medical writers and “advanced” thinkers’ were more likely to group suicide with a ‘loss of tone.’ To conclude, the shelfmark gives a relatable bit of history, referencing famous novelist and poet, Thomas Hardy and his work Jude the Obscure (published 1895.) Hardy apparently captured the ‘talk of the time’ when, in Jude the Obscure, he made ‘the local doctor’ comment on the suicide...
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...novel, we have the theatre of life and for over two centuries it has been the most effective agent of the moral imagination. Though it has never really achieved perfection in form and its shortcomings are numerable, nevertheless one experiences from it not only the extent of human variety, but also the value of this variety. Fiction existed right from the first time man told a story and thus it is in this respect only, that it is similar to the forerunner of the novel as we know it today, which is any work of fiction in England written before 1670. Novelists express their conscious conclusions about life as they experience it and these manifest themselves not only in the characters they create and their interaction with each other, but also in the way they make them react or respond to the various situations in which they find themselves and in what they say within these situations. They are relatively free to choose their material, but their conclusions about life and the nature of their novels are dependent on their innate personality, as this affects not only the way in which they present their characters, but also our own understanding and response to their inherent values and behaviour. In this sense, novelists can be seen as mediators between their characters and their audience, as this is the only way through which they can convey to us their attitude towards their characters and the total situation they are rendering. The Victorian novel reflected the pressing...
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...Discuss. By the end of the nineteenth century, Britain experienced enormous industrial expansion, thereby creating an improvement in the lives of most of its people. The middle classes fare well by the opening of new opportunities in employment, residing, for the most part, in the new suburbs of the industrial cities and towns. They surrounded themselves with the clutter of possessions associated with a new consumer age. There were modest improvements in the working and living conditions of working class people, many of whom were drawn to the cities from rural areas in the hope of a better life. This essay will examine the conditions of life in late Victorian Britain in order to establish the extent of the benefits brought about by industrial transformation, insofar as they affected the lives of the different classes. In 1800, twenty five per cent of the population of England lived in the cities and towns. Within a period of eighty years this position was reversed. In 1850, the year of the Great Exhibition, which was a celebration of British industrial achievement, the ‘number of urban dwellers exceeded those who dwelt in the countryside’. The cities of Birmingham and Manchester more than doubled their populations between 1801 and 1831. The industrial revolution was synonymous with the cotton industry in the early part of the century. This was followed by the development of the coal and iron industries, essential to the construction and running of the railways. ...
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... II Abstract The purpose of my study is to show the conflict between idealism and society in Thomas Hardy’s Jude the Obscure. In this novel, Hardy portrays the strife of the two individuals Jude and Sue to make their own ways in society by seeking to realise their ideals. He also reveals the difficulties met by the two idealists in front of society’s attempts to thwart their ideals and to force them to surrender to its norms. This study allows the reader to have a deep understanding of the origin of the conflict, the climax of the confrontation between the two opposing sides and the result of the conflict. In this respect, the present study helps the reader to acquire a thorough knowledge of Hardy’s thought and the values of the Victorian society to which he belongs. III Résumé L’objectif de cette étude est de montrer le conflit entre l’idéalisme et la société décrit dans le roman de Thomas Hardy Jude the Obscure. Dans ce roman, Hardy dépeint la lutte des...
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...1 THE VICTORIAN AGE The Victorian Compromise The Victorian Age takes its name from Queen Victoria who ruled from 1837 to 1901; it was a complex era characterised by stability, progress and social reforms, and, in the mean time, 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 distiguished the middle from the lower classes; * charity and philanthropy: an activity that involved many people, expecially women. The family was strictly patriarchal: the husband represented the authority and respectability, cosequently a single woman with a child was emarginated because of a wide-spread sense of female chastity. Sexuality was generaly repressed and that led to extreme manifestations of prudery. Colonialism was an important phenomenon and it led to a patriotism deeply influenced by ideas of racial superiority: British people thought that they were obeying to God by the imposition of their superior way of life. The concept of “the white man’s burden” was exalted in the works of colonial writers (such as Rudyard Kipling). This code of values, known as “Victorian Compromise”...
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...Dickens wrote essays and journalistic pieces, and edited a weekly periodical filled with fiction, poetry, and essays. First titled Household Words, the magazine was later retitled All the Year Round. Dickens contributed to this publication several serialized novels, including Great Expectations, and writings on political and social issues. Dickens was born on February 7, 1812, in Landport, Portsea, England. He was the second child and eldest son of eight children. Dickens’s father, who worked as a clerk in the Navy Pay Office, was a spendthrift who often mismanaged the family money. In 1822 the family moved to London and soon found itself in financial crisis. The family was forced to live in poverty, and Dickens was no longer able to go to school. One of the most traumatic periods of his life began in February 1824, when his father was sent to debtors prison. Young Dickens, only twelve years old, was forced to go to work for several months pasting labels on bottles. This experience was painful and socially humiliating to him, and images of the factory haunted him for the rest of his life. These images provided a backdrop to much of his fiction, which often focused on class issues; the plight of the poor and oppressed; and lost, suffering children. As an adult, he championed social and political causes designed to help the poor, prisoners, and children. Dickens became a reporter in 1832, and in 1833 he began publishing short stories and essays. In 1836 he married Catherine Hogarth...
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...A. and PhDr. Věra Pálenská, CSc. for their guidance, advice and kind encouragement. Table of Contents Preface ...............................................................................................2 Introduction ......................................................................................3 Chapter I – The Way of the World 1.1 In General ..................................................................................8 1.2 True Wit and False Wit ............................................................9 1.3 Courtship and Love .................................................................14 1.4 Invention vs. Reality ................................................................18 Chapter II – The Importance of Being Earnest 2.1 In General ................................................................................22 2.2 True Wit and False Wit ..........................................................23 2.3 Courtship and Love ................................................................28 2.4 Invention vs. Reality ...............................................................32 Conclusion .....................................................................................36 Résumé ...........................................................................................40 Notes...
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...‘The Gothic elements of Wuthering Heights are made credible by the novel’s setting and narrators.’ How far would you agree with this view? Wuthering Heights is Emily Bronte’s only novel and was published in December 1847 under the androgynous pseudonym Ellis Bell, due to having a, “vague impression that authoresses are liable to be looked on with prejudice”. This initial perception demonstrates the lack of gender equality within the Victorian era, with autocratic male dominance being commonly viewed as an ideal within the restrictive patriarchal society; such varying social conventions resonate throughout the novel, perhaps providing a sense of stability, reality and authenticity among the primal passions, savage cruelty, and supernatural entities present within the boundaries of Wuthering Heights and the Yorkshire Moors. The juxtaposition provided by the arguably civilised, ornate Thrushcross Grange provides a rational foundation where societal norms are upheld, with the domestic, cultural setting providing a balance to the unruly natural passions; it is suggested further that cogency is gained not only through the historical and geographic settings, but also through the dual narration of Nelly Dean and Lockwood. Contrastingly, a deeper reading suggests that the societal beliefs and conservative, obstinate nature of the narrators would cause them to condemn individuals and demonise events that threatened the social balance, meaning the creditability can certainly be disputed...
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...Physical education Physical education equipment in Calhan, Colorado. Physical education, Phy. Ed., or PE, also known in many Commonwealth countries as physical training or PT,[1] is an educational course related to the physique of the human body. It is taken during primary and secondary education and encourages psychomotor learning in a play or movement exploration setting to promote health.[2] Asia[edit] In South Korea, it is mandatory for pupils to take a total of 3 hours of physical education through primary and secondary level schools[citation needed] In Singapore, pupils from primary school through junior colleges are required to have 2 hours of PE every week, except during examination seasons. Pupils are able to play games like football, badminton, captain ball, and basketball during most sessions. Unorthodox sports such as touchball, fencing, and skateboarding are occasionally played. In more prestigious secondary schools and in junior colleges, sports such as golf, tennis, shooting, and squash are played. A compulsory fitness exam, NAPFA, is conducted in every school once every year to assess the physical fitness of the pupils.[citation needed] Pupils are given a series of fitness tests (Pull-ups/Inclined pull-ups for girls, standing broad jump, sit-ups, sit-and-reach and 1.6 km for primary [10- to 12-year-olds]/2.4 km for secondary and junior college levels [13- to 18-year-olds]). Students are graded by gold, silver, bronze or fail. NAPFA for pre-enlistees serves...
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...7 Technology and Control: the interactive dimensions of journalism Anthony Smith The newspaper and the novel were the first cultural forms to emerge directly from printing; they were both essentially publishing phenomena and developed in England in the aftermath of the expiration in 1695 of the Licensing Act when printers, no longer limited in numbers by statute, were free to flourish - or perish - according to the behaviour of the market. 1 Journalism has thus a similar relationship to printing as pop music to the phonograph or the film to photography: it depends upon an industrial activity, it involves the creative individual as a worker within a fairly complex process of manufacturing and distribution. The journalism is, as it were, the 'software' supplied to fill the 'hardware' of the newspaper system, and it thus serves as a pioneer example of the working of modern mechanical media. Unfortunately the newspaper is only now beginning to be studied historically as a media system;2 most of those interested in the history of the press have been hitherto concerned with the newspaper either as a component of 'Whig' history, concentrating on those elements which illustrate the great tide of public freedom swelling from the eighteenth century onwards,3 or else as a component of a kind of 'Whiggism-in-reverse', bringing out those elements which illustrate the increasing amiseration or exploitation of the new mass readership.4 Part of the interest in...
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...Bros, wrote down his ideas for Sunlight Soap – his revolutionary new product that helped popularise cleanliness and hygiene in Victorian England. It was 'to make cleanliness commonplace; to lessen work for women; to foster health and contribute to personal attractiveness, that life may be more enjoyable and rewarding for the people who use our products In the late 19th century the businesses that would later become Unilever were among the most philanthropic of their time. They set up projects to improve the lot of their workers and created products with a positive social impact, making hygiene and personal care commonplace and improving nutrition through adding vitamins to foods that were already daily staples. At the beginning of the 21st century, our Path to Growth strategy focused us on global high-potential brands and our Vitality mission has taken us into a new phase of development. More than ever, our brands are helping people 'feel good, look good and get more out of life' – a sentiment close to Lord Leverhulme's heart over a hundred years ago. Mission Statement “Unilever's mission is to add Vitality to life. We meet every day needs for nutrition; hygiene and personal care with brands that help people look good, feel good and get more out of life” Vision Statement Our Vision is to help people feel good, look good and get more out of life with brands and services that are good for them and good for others. We will inspire people to take small everyday actions that...
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...The term “modern” in everyday language means contemporary, new, the latest thing. When we talk about “Modernism” term, modernism is a literary and cultural international movement which flourished in the first decades of the 20th century. It was an intellectual movement and a change that defined itself as the latest thing. During Modernism it seemed like religion and culture fell apart. In modernism people tried to reject tradition and tried new things. This period was marked by large technological advances such as invention of new building material, cars, speed and locomotion. Although modernism brought up innovative and experimental changes, this time period witnessed the First World War and the Great Depression. Those events led people to feel a sense of loss and uncertainty. When it comes to literature, experimentation with the form was another defining characteristic of modernism is not a term that can be described in single term. It may be applied both to the content and to the form of a work, or to either in isolation. It reflects a sense of cultural crisis which was both, exciting and scary. Modernism opened up a whole new pallet of human possibilities at the same time as putting into question any previously accepted means of grounding and evaluating new ideas. “Modernism is marked by experimentation, particularly manipulation of form, and by the realization that knowledge is not absolute.” (Ciaffaroni, 2009). While New York City is in the middle of a heat wave, the residents...
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...ENGLISH LITERATURE ITS HISTORY AND ITS SIGNIFICANCE FOR THE LIFE OF THE ENGLISH-SPEAKING WORLD A TEXT-BOOK FOR SCHOOLS BY WILLIAM J. LONG, PH.D. (Heidelberg) TO MY FRIEND C H T IN GRATITUDE FOR HIS CONTINUED HELP IN THE PREPARATION OF THIS BOOK CANTERBURY PILGRIMS From Royal MS., 18 D.ii, in the British Museum PREFACE This book, which presents the whole splendid history of English literature from Anglo-Saxon times to the close of the Victorian Era, has three specific aims. The first is to create or to encourage in every student the desire to read the best books, and to know literature itself rather than what has been written about literature. The second is to interpret literature both personally and historically, that is, to show how a great book generally reflects not only the author's life and thought but also the spirit of the age and the ideals of the nation's history. The third aim is to show, by a study of each successive period, how our literature has steadily developed from its first simple songs and stories to its present complexity in prose and poetry. To carry out these aims we have introduced the following features: (1) A brief, accurate summary of historical events and social conditions in each period, and a consideration of the ideals which stirred the whole nation, as in the days of Elizabeth, before they found expression in literature. (2) A study of the various literary epochs in turn, showing what each gained from...
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...The Importance of being Earnest - THEMES # Lies and Deceit: The most prevalent reason characters in The Importance of Being Earnest lie is to get out of social or familial duties and, instead, to do something more enjoyable. Not surprisingly, few characters hold honesty in high regard. However, we see how hard it is for characters to set things straight once they’ve lied about them. As the situation gets increasingly complicated, characters must weave more complex lies to get out of the tangles of their previous lies. Eventually they reach the point where lies will no longer work and the truth is revealed. Perhaps the most striking thing is that none of the characters ever shows true remorse or guilt about lying. 1. Algernon: Yes. But why does your aunt call you her uncle? 'From little Cecily, with her fondest love to her dear Uncle Jack.' There is no objection, I admit, to an aunt being a small aunt, but why an aunt, no matter what her size may be, should call her own nephew her uncle, I can't quite make out. Besides, your name isn't Jack at all; it is Ernest. Jack: It isn't Ernest; it's Jack Jack lies to cover up his double life. A simple white lie that he doesn’t know anyone named "Cecily" gets him into an incredibly messy situation. When he’s forced to admit he does know a "Cecily," he tries to pass her off as his aunt. But Algy, a fellow Bunburyist, eventually sniffs it all out and forces Jack to confess. What is most surprising is that Jack seems to have no shame...
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