Essays on English Society

Some of the greatest works of Victorian literature look at English culture in the 1800s through a critical or jaundiced eye; these works then find ways to expose the restrictive, oppressive and isolationist aspects of British culture that were characteristic of the empire at that time. This is particularly true of Bram Stoker’s Gothic novel Dracula, as it looks critically at race through the personification of Dracula as the feared Other from Eastern Europe, seeking to violate the women of England with his exotic sexuality and behavioral taboos. Looking at Dracula through the lens of race, it becomes ...

1. Clearly state in your own words the “surprise ending” in the reading you selected. Clearly identify the point in the reading when you realized that there were elements in the reading that surprised you. Not all of the surprises come at the end. The “surprise ending” of Swift’s “A Modest Proposal” became evident when the work made it apparent that the argument it was making was satire. This became obvious due to the increasingly radical views that were being proposed within the text. As the author continued to monetize and commoditize human life and began discussing trading ...

[Client’s name] Discuss how the General Prologue to The Canterbury Tales and one of the tales themselves could function as a criticism of the three estates of medieval culture; that is, the social hierarchy of the 14th century. How do Chaucer’s descriptions of the pilgrims in the prologue contribute to this? In the Medieval Culture there were three estates of the society. There were those, who prayed, those who fought and those who worked. In Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer the representatives of each estate go into the journey, and right from the Prologue each participant starts ...

[Client’s name] Discuss how the General Prologue to The Canterbury Tales and one of the tales themselves could function as a criticism of the three estates of medieval culture; that is, the social hierarchy of the 14th century. How do Chaucer’s descriptions of the pilgrims in the prologue contribute to this? In the Medieval Culture there were three estates of the society. There were those, who prayed, those who fought and those who worked. All the representatives went into the journey, and right from the Prologue each participant starts to tell the stories that show all the ...

The dialogue between Thomas More and Hythloday brings out the character traits. Through the conversation that these two characters engage in, the ideas that each brings out is a reflection of what they believe in and would do if given a chance. The key concepts that these two characters engage discussing are philosophical issues, civil and religious issues. Their opinions based on these concepts reflect their belief and thus enhancing their character traits. This essay analyzes the critic nature of Thomas More of the contemporary English society through his dialogue with Hythloday.

According to More for any political venture, a politician has ...

Virginia Woolf's novel, Mrs. Dalloway, is considered by most to be a baffling read. This is partly because the novelist, Woolf, experiments with the technique of connecting the character's internal and external dialogues in the text. This is quite obvious in the author's characterization of Mrs. Dalloway or Clarissa, the protagonist of the novel, and Septimus. Many critics contend that both of these characters are a doubles. This idea, of course, comes from the “Introduction to the Random House edition of her novel” which states that, “‘Septimus, who later is intended to be her [that ...

The Impact of the Industrial Revolution in England

History has always shown that man had continuously struggled to foster development for the improvement of life and progress. This struggle had managed to trigger changes and events that led to the Industrial Revolution or the Age of Industrialization. The revolution had established Europe as a dominant industrial region and bolstered its economy, allowing its population to grow and prosper. In England, industrialization brought significant social changes that had transformed England to the mighty European hegemony it was known for and a society fit for further industrialization. Industrialization physically transformed England’s lands and waterways to become fit for commercialization and ...

Throughout the second half the 1800’s England was the most powerful country on Earth, undergoing rapid industrialization and experiencing tremendous social change. At the time, the “women’s question” was a societal conversation about the nature, identity and role of woman in society (Norton Anthology). With a growing middle class, and increased literacy rates, novels and periodicals became a popular medium which was often used to investigate and debate the "women's question" since “the fate meted to characters could reflect opinions of their behavior”(Waller). During the Victorian era, a woman’s fate and lifestyle were largely determined by their perceived social, ...

Orwell’s essay ‘England Your England’ written in 1941 is typical of the confusion that is felt by individuals and the whole of the country in uncertain political times. George Orwell attempts to set some kind of direction for the country amongst all the confusion of war. England was being bombed by the Germans in WWII at the time. This paper will argue that the central thesis of the essay was that English patriotism and loyalty exists in different forms depending on class in normal circumstances. As a collective idea, it is far more complex and is undergoing transition. For ...

Introduction

Twelfth night by William Shakespeare is a romantic comedy play that incorporates romantic scenes and comic elements in it. It’s a form of comedy play that the story line is based on romance and love within family and society. Do you believe in love at the first sight? Well, Shakespeare finds a way of telling a story based on love at first sight in a comic manner. To the viewers of the play, love is the main theme. Throughout the play, the characters engage disagreement which appears as a problem making the union of marriage difficult. Characters have no other business other than loving ...

Canterbury Tales

Introduction The Canterbury tales are a set of short stories written by Geoffrey Chaucer in Middle English by the end of the 14th century. The Canterbury tales are a set of stories told in a pilgrimage to the pilgrims. This makes them very interesting as the analysis of each of the characters helps explore the culture and way of life in the 14th century. It also gives an insight into the feelings, emotions and social structure of the life of the English in the 14th century (Linne R. Mooney, 2006).

Character analysis

The four characters chosen for analysis include the knight, the wife ...

Charles Dickens is one of the prominent literary figures of the Victorian era, and he was not just a critically acclaimed writer but also a profound social critic. His novels present to us an historic account of the predicament of the destitute and women in the nineteenth century English society. The theme of Dickens’ works were influenced by many social events and issues such as the Clayton Tunnel Rail Crash, Debtor’s Prison of Marshalsea and working conditions for child laborers in England. This essay aims at imploring one such event based on which Dickens wrote one of his most memorable ...

1) Oscar Wilde Oscar Wilde's many poems, plays and novels poke subtle fun at the Victorian mainstream, addressing the faults and the problems inherent within that society. Many of his works deal with the decadence and beauty of the Victorian upper class, as well as how empty and duplicitous that society is. By painting detailed portraits of flawed and overly vain characters, he shows the Victorian aristocrat as someone nearly inhuman, and far from sympathetic. In many ways, it transcends the nature of the Victorian mainstream by holding a mirror up to it and pointing out its flaws, whether ...

Introduction – a novel for all seasons

This is a classic novel set in 1970’s England in the context of the Bangladeshi community and how this is integrated up to a point with English society. Identity is a crucial issue throughout the novel and for example when the novel starts we observe Archie a 47 year old man whose wife walked out on him attempting to gas himself in his car due to the fact that his disturbed Italian wife walked out on him. Here we have the identity of Archie who could be seen as a failed persona but who has also had his hopes and dreams shattered so ...

Levers that set the wheels of social change in motion often seem banal and insignificant from a modern perspective. In the 17th century, sugar was little more than a dietary novelty, a foreign curiosity that improved the taste of brackish teas and sedimentary coffee for the wealthiest members of English society. A century later, the uncanny growth of the cane-based product had made it an irreplaceable commodity that would saturate the British market and lead to a sea change in Western Europe’s economic framework. The means by which sugar was produced and financed helped to revolutionize the very principles upon which English ...

Based on your reading of The General Prologue, what do you believe are some of the predominant aspects of English society that Chaucer intends to write about in The Canterbury Tales? Chaucer’s opening 12 lines are a celebration of spring and new life, so we might expect the Tales which follow to show the variety and sheer vitality of different human experiences.

Am important aspect of English society at the time was the class system and this is shown in The General Prologue. Chaucer begins his descriptions of his fellow pilgrims with a description of the Knight (becauae he ...