...The Victorian Age Angela Anderson Troy University Victorian Family Life The term ‘Victorian’ describes everything what is connected with period of the reign of Victoria Regina (1837-1901). Queen Victoria acceded to the throne in 1837 at the age of eighteen. She reigned for 63 years until 1901. The Victorian Age in the history of England is the period of transformation and developments in approximately each sphere. Although this period was a time of unprecedented changes, the fabric of society remained invariable throughout the second half of the nineteenth century. The British people at that time were traditionally puritan and straight-laced. They adhered to the codes of conduct and took care of their moral appearance. Despite the fact that the working class predominated quantitatively, the Victorian age was the time of the middle class prosperity. Significant part of the working class representatives struggled to meet some unspoken social demands to deserve the right to be called middle class. A family as a social unit was regarded a foundation stone of the Victorian society. Men and women played different social roles and fulfilled different functions as family members. There was no equality between sexes and social classes; and it could be traced in all spheres (education, availability of work and salary rank). In general, the Victorian Age is a period of striking social contrasts and...
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...The social history of England evidences many social changes over the centuries. These major social changes have affected England both internally and in its relationship with other nations. The themes of social history include demographic history, labour history and the working class, women's history, family history, the history of education in England, urban history and rural and agricultural history. The topic generally excludes politics, diplomacy and intellectual and constitution. Prehistoric society The distant past does not offer us much information on the structures of society, however, major changes in human behaviour make it likely that society must have changed dramatically. In common with much of Europe, the switch from the hunter-gatherer lifestyle to farming around 4000 BC must have heralded an enormous shift in all aspects of human life. Nobody knows what changes may have occurred, and recent evidence of permanent buildings and habitation from 3,000 years ago means that these may still have been gradual shifts. One of the most obvious symbols of change in prehistoric society is Stonehenge. The building of such stone circles, burial mounds and monuments throughout the British Isles seems to have required a division of labour. Builders would have needed to dedicate themselves to the task of monument construction to acquire the required skills. Not having time to hunt and farm would make them rely on others to such an extent that specialised farmers would emerge...
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...The Style of Victorian Novels The Victorian Age is marked roughly by the reign of Queen Victoria of England from 1837-1901. The Victorian reading public firmly established the novel as the dominant literary form of the era. The novel is the most distinctive and lasting literary achievement of Victorian literature . The publication of novels in monthly installments enabled even the poor to purchase them .The Victorian novel featured several developments in narrative technique , full description and exposition , authorial essays and multi plotting featuring several central characters . Furthermore, the practice of issuing novels in serial installments led novelists to become adept at sub climaxes . Dickens was the most successful of the English Victorian novelists, a master of sentiment and a militant reformer . The literature of the Victorian age entered in a new period after the romantic revival. The literature of this era expressed the fusion of pure romance to gross realism. Though, the Victorian Age produced great poets, the age is also remarkable for the excellence of its prose . Literature of this age tends to come closer to daily life which reflects its practical problems and interests . Moral purpose : The Victorian literature seems to deviate from "art for art's sake" and asserts its moral purpose . Idealism : It is often considered as an age of doubt and pessimism. The influence of science is felt here. The whole age seems to be caught in the conception...
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... The age that followed the Romantic Age, the age of Queen Victoria, that spanned almost the whole of the nineteenth century was an age consolidation in many respects. Increase of wealth, the general prosperity of England as a whole an account of its colonial hold over other countries, immense growth in scientific and industrial development, are some of the clearly noticeable characteristics of this age. Lord Tennyson, the poet laureate of Victorian era glorifies the reign of Queen Victorian through his ode On the Jubilee of Queen Victoria. On the other side of this picture of commercial and scientific expansion we see the appalling social condition of new industrial cities, the squalid slums, and the exploitation of cheap labour ,the painful fight by the enlightened to introduce social legislation and Victorians were caught between materialism and spiritualism, between realism and romanticism, peace and unrest, science and religion, mechanism and humanism .They could not give up the conventional morality or religious practices so, they try to reconcile religious dogma and scientific truth. Thus Victorian age is often known as an age of compromise. The Victorian age was not only the longest, but also the greatest age in the history of English Fiction. The Novel was the most appealing form of literature during the Victorian age. It was partially because of the steady increase of reading public with...
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...Analysis of the text: ``The Importance of Being Earnest´´. ``The Importance of Being Earnest´´ is a comedy written by Oscar Wilde in the year 1894. In the text, Oscar Wilde makes fun of the upper class in the Victorian Age society. The reason why he had written ``The importance of Being Earnest´´ was to irritate the Victorian society. He focused on the term bunburing, which means creating a false person or identity. The creation of a false person and the creation of a false identity take place in the text to masquerade the true intentions of the main characters, Jack and Algernon. There are five characters in this text; Algernon, Lady Braknell, Gwendolyn, Jack and Lane. Algernon, which is the owner of the house the story takes place in, is a bachelor who sometimes leaves London to help a sick friend of his. However, he is bunburying, since he has invented a fictive person, so he could get out off unpleasant situations, especially when it involves his Aunt, Lady Braknell. In this case, Algernon had invented a sick friend by the name of Bunbury, which is funny since the name suggests bunburing. Lady Braknell is the mother of Gwendelyn Fairfax and a perfect example of typical Victorian classism. She doesn’t want her daughter to marry Earnest, because she found out that he was an orphan. Her daughter, Gwendolyn, is in love with Earnest, who also loves her. Although she returns her affection towards Earnest, she is self-centered, since she desires only to marry a man named Earnest:...
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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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... 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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...Lady of Shalott The ballad, “The Lady of Shalott”, written by Alfred Tennyson in 1833, is an analysis of the Victorian woman's predestined role in society and her free will desire to abandon this identity and break free into the male dominated world. In the Victorian Age, society had very little tolerance for those who did not conform to the predetermined roles. This is shown through the main character in “The Lady of Shalott”. The Lady represents those who did not reciprocate the idealized role of women during that time period. The Victorian age was one of much turmoil with women actively campaigning for more rights in a male dominant society. During this time men were considered to be intelligent, strong, powerful characters, while women were emotional, and only capable of housework and raising children. It is the Lady's rejection of these Victorian ideals of femininity that ultimately lead to her destruction. After seeing the city's people interacting and the charming Knight Lancelot, she rejects her life of solitude and seeks a new lifestyle, but unfortunately, the restricted society she escapes to has no place for the creative female and ultimately leads to her demise. The Lady is doomed to remain a stranger to society. She is completely isolated on her own island in a tower near the Victorian town of Camelot. The Lady’s confinement reflects the Victorian attitude towards women. The image of the “four grey walls, and four grey towers” (357) gives a restricting...
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...Enc-1102 Week One Assignment Two Part one: Victorianism- A descriptive term for the time when Victoria was queen of England, from 1837 to 1901. The Victorian period in England is known as a time of industrial progress, colonial expansion, and public fastidiousness in morals. The Victorian period in the United States had many of the same characteristics.Within the fields of social history and literature, Victorianism refers to the study of late-Victorian attitudes and culture with a focus on the highly moralistic, straitlaced language and behavior of Victorian morality. The era followed the Georgian period and preceded the Edwardian period. The later half of the Victorian age roughly coincided with the first portion of the Belle Époque era of continental Europe. Romanticism- was an artistic, literary, and intellectual movement that originated in Europe toward the end of the 18th century and in most areas was at its peak in the approximate period from 1800 to 1850. Romanticism was characterized by its emphasis on emotion and individualism as well as glorification of all the past and nature, preferring the medieval rather than the classical. It was partly a reaction to the Industrial Revolution, the aristocratic social and political norms of the Age of Enlightenment, and the scientific rationalization of nature. It was embodied most strongly in the visual arts, music, and literature, but had a major impact on historiography, education, and the natural sciences. It had a significant...
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...Dracula Essay There was no doubt that Dracula was written in the victorian age. 1897 to be exact. Back then and even in this present day women are seen to be weak and “helpless” meanwhile men are brave almost “heroic”, they are also seen to be more emotionally and physically stronger than women. There is a couple ways that this is portrayed in the book. For example the three women that were extremely beautiful but mainly used in the story for the sexual desire that they caused leading them to be seen as “evil”. The women in the story that were pure and chaste were seen as “strong, heroic, and steadfast in relationships”. Another example is how when the group of people go after dracula none of the girls are allowed to do anything strenuous in fear of causing them too much stress. This theme of women being less than men is very common in the gothic literature style, which is why it doesn't surprise many people when reading it. Chapter three is where...
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...Biography An exuberant nonconformist and controversial playwright, eminent author Oscar Wilde produced critically acclaimed literary works that defined the essence of late Victorian England. Posthumously recognized for his only novel The Picture of Dorian Gray and satiric comedy The Importance of Being Earnest, Wilde initially acquired criticism for his immoral and unconventional style of writing. Additionally, to his dismay, strife followed Wilde in his personal life as he was notoriously tried and incarcerated on allegations of “gross indecency” (homosexuality). Emotionally depleted post-imprisonment and stricken with poverty, Wilde was diagnosed with meningitis and died soon thereafter at the ripe age of 46. Born October 16, 1854 to father...
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...Brtlt20a.wpd Lesson 20a: The Victorian Novel (Day: 168-170) The Victorian reading public firmly established the novel as the dominant literary form of the era. Virtually the entire literate population consisted of novel-readers. Herbert Spencer, that rigorous apostle of science, exempted George Eliot's works works from his general condemnation of "mere" novels; Newman and Arnold were avid readers of fiction; and Darwin stated in his Autobiography that to him novels were "a wonderful relief and pleasure." Carlyle, however, dourly excluded the novelist from the category of the hero as writer. Amazingly, Tennyson compared the novel to verse drama and gave it higher rating: "I am of the opinion that if a man were endowed with such faculties as Shakespeare's, they would be more freely and effectively exercised in prose fiction with its wider capabilities than when "cribbed, cabined, and confined" in the trammels of verse." Certainly the novel may well be termed the most distinctive and lasting literary achievement of Victorian literature. At the outset of the Victorian period no one, except possibly Thackeray, considered the novel a significant art form. By 1853, however, Clough, writing in the North American Review, recognized that cultured readers had turned their attention from poetry to the novel. By the century's end the novel had completely triumphed over poetry as aesthetic and spiritual nourishment for English readers. The novel by this time claimed writing...
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...People living in the Victorian era had many dangers to their health due to so many diseases and lack of knowledge of medicines. Death rates were high and children never lived long because of all the horrible conditions people lived in. Because of these horrible illnesses, diseases, and lack of medicinal knowledge, many people suffered. Consequently, Victorian age health was horrible with nutrition, general health, and diseases affecting their daily life. Back then, general health was greatly affected by simple things such as a window being closed. Due to this, life expectancy was very low and women's health was highly affected. Life expectancy was so low that even at the of the Victorian period, infant mortality was about ten times as high as it is today (Mitchel 192). Rural people lived longer than the city dwellers due to the fact that they weren't packed together spreading diseases, rural people had lots of space between each others so that getting sick or dying was not as common. Women were also extremely affected to the uncontrolled illness and sickness being passed around. Because of women's working class, many of them got sick off of the patients they worked with....
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...and courtship that there were specific rules that you had to follow. In the victorian era courtship and marriage was a popular thing. Queen Victoria and her family were the idols of society and in courtship. The victorian era was also a time of marriage and some other stuff. Marriage was the thing that most victorians wanted. Victorians wanted a lot about marriage and courtship. In the victorian era courtship was a very popular thing. Queen Victoria was a popular person in courtship. The society in the victorian era put down the rules of courtship. Courtship and marriage was a good thing in the victorian era. You had to follow the rules of victorian courtship. Courtship was the plot of fiction in the victorian era. The divorce bill said”(Jennifer Phegley) you had to be an adult to divorce your husband/wife. You had to an adult at the age of 30 to vote for politics. Courtship in the victorian era made the notice act and the divorce law bill....
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...domestic duties in the reign of Queen Victoria. A woman's place was in the home, as domesticity and motherhood were considered by society at large to be a sufficient emotional and economic fulfillment for females. These constructs kept women far away from the public sphere in most ways, but during the 19th century charitable missions did begin to extend the female role of service, and Victorian feminism emerged as a potent political force. The transformation of Britain into an industrial nation due to the industrialization had profoundly influenced the ways in which women were to be believed ideally in Victoria times. Newly emerged urban jobs formed an urban living style that no one had lived before, it prompted a change in the ways in which appropriate male and female roles were perceived. In particular, the notion of separate spheres, which woman was in the private sphere of the home and hearth, man was in the public sphere of business, politics and sociability - came to influence the choices and experiences of all women. The Victorian era from 1837 to 1901 is characterized as the domestic age, idealized by Queen Victoria, who came to represent a sort of femininity that was centered on the family, motherhood, and respectability. Accompanied by Albert, Prince Consort, her beloved husband, and by her many children in Balmoral Castle, Victoria became an icon of late 19th-century middle-class femininity and domesticity. In fact, Queen Victoria came to be seen as the very model...
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