Essays on Victorian

Introduction to Business and Society-Persuasive Essay

Introduction In his book titled The Short Story of Progress, Ronald Wright analyzes civilizations that have witnessed rapid growth and supremacy. He also elucidates the fatal fall of many such civilizations and enjoins that over-exploiting the environment can lead to ecological catastrophe. By finding answers to questions relating to human origins, reasons for existence and destination of the progress pursuit, Wright warns the society from traversing through progress traps, created by humans themselves, blinded by a short term urge to modernize. “We can go to understand the reckless aspects of human nature and circumvent the danger of arrogant self-destruction, ...

The career that I am pursuing for advancement concerns BA in the field of Child and Family Development. Being a student, I read about the Victorian period for which I need to conduct extensive reading and comprehensive study. My readings about the field have influenced me so much that I need to learn concepts from different angles. To stimulate my understanding about the child and family development in the Victorian Period, I need to learn the manner in which families and their children lived in this prosperity period. I must look at what were the fertility rates, what was ...

There are key features which define Victorian era literature. While some trends in literature may be difficult to define, the Victorian era is not. It is not only easily definable, current classic literature is riddled with examples of it. Victorian era literature contains some combination of several primary characteristics. While not every piece contains every characteristic, it is common to find more than one in those works. It includes serialization resulting in many Victorian era literary works being interminably long. Often ideas of industrialization appear as it reflects the changes people from every social stratum were forced to cope ...

Victorian Era Love in

In Wuthering Heights love comes in many forms. There are various examples of it throughout the novel. Most people think first and perhaps only, of Heathcliff and Catherine. There love was obsessive and destructive. It burned them both with a fire so big it could not be put out even by death. Heathcliff loved and hated Catherine, cursed her soul that she would have no peace, and then begged her to haunt him so he could have none either (Bronte 201). But there is much love to be found in Bronte’s 1847 novel. Consider for example Lockwood. Lockwood ...

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 ...

3.08.2016

Alfred, Lord Tennyson is a vivid representative of the Victorian period in the history of England, and particularly, the English literature. Together with the English society he was witnessing the industrial development of the world and together with the Victorian community he felt hostile towards these changes. For these convictions he was highly appreciated by the members of the Victorian society and the Queen herself. We will analyze two of his poems, which reflect his attitude to biological and geological progress – “In Memoriam” and “The Epic”. The poem “The Epic” tells us about a Christmas Eve and four ...

Satire in The Importance of Being Earnest

The most important role of any work of fiction is not simply to entertain its readers but to teach some moral lesson or convey a message. Each writer seeks to improve bad side of humans’ nature, presenting all their shortcoming and inappropriate behaviour in the images of the main characters of their stories. The best way to do it is definitely by using such genre of literature as satire. It does not only ridicule different vices and faults of particular individuals or society in general, but aims to construct social criticism and lead to further improvement. The Importance of ...

In Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper”, the typical Victorian marriage is constructed as a prisoner from which a woman is only able to escape when she becomes insane. Her insanity becomes her only way of defying her husband, and gaining freedom. The author’s feminist argument in “The Yellow Wallpaper” is skillfully constructed by creating a protagonist whose growing mental instability is narrated from her own perspective. However, ironically, at the same time with her worsening mental state, she evades the social rules and pressures which had entrapped her in an unhappy marriage. While her mental condition ...

Varney the Vampyre Analysis

Varney the Vampyre by James Malcolm Rymer is a very early vampire story that predates Bram Stoker's Dracula by 50 years (Dracula n.p.). James Malcolm Rymer was apparently the given name for a writer of many popular novels and stories in London in the 1840s through the 1860s. He wrote and published works under many names however, but one of his specialties was novels and stories about the supernatural, horror, and terror. He was a “hack” writer, meaning that he wrote voluminously on many subjects for popular publications. “Hack” is generally defined as “a mediocre and disdained writer” (“Hack ...

Around the world, societies have placed immense responsibilities on women as the pillars of their families and it is sad that the responsibilities become oppressive. “The Story of an Hour” is Kate Chopin’s story about a woman who is told that her husband had died in an accident. The story was first published in 1894 in Vogue. In this story, Chopin shows great determination in her opposition to the oppression women face. At the time, Chopin wrote her story, women were undergoing great oppression especially from the domestic front. In the story, Chopin depicts marriage as taking away ...

English literature

The 19th and early 20th century had to face a reality characterized by social, political and economic issues. Furthermore the World War One dramatically changed the already complex and troubled frame which gave birth to the Modernism. Indeed during the 19th century the traditional Victorian society turned itself into a modern and industrialized society, where cities were growing fast and the old ethical and religious values were rejected. This massive change also involved all the traditional forms of art, literature, architecture, philosophy, science and even all the aspects of the everyday lives. Salient of the Modernism Era is the ...

The Victorian Period

The Victorian era indicates a certain ideology, a way of thinking and living, spiritual atmosphere, the complex moral and ethical principles and successful progressive development of society. The term "The Victorian Period" received the broadest interpretation. It was reduced to only the positive sides of Victorian culture, stable aesthetic and ethical standards, which are not present in today's society. The Victorian Period is associated with the long reign of Queen Victoria (1837- 1901), but it is very significant for the subsequent development of English history, culture, and literature. During this period England acquired the status of a great colonial ...

Introduction

Racism refers to the act of distinguishing the superiority or otherwise of members belonging to a particular race and discriminating them based on their appearance and perceived characteristics. Depending on the language and the characters that writers choose to use while writing stories, a text may propagate racism by including characters that reflect certain races as inferior while also portraying other characters perceived as representing other races as superior. Accordingly, the manner in which scholars portray racism in their stories may differ from one’s personal prejudices to the period when the story was written. Ultimately, the extent of ...

“In Memoriam A.H.H.”, a poem by the British poet Lord Alfred Tennyson, is a requiem for his beloved friend Arthur Henry Hallam. It touches upon many significant aspects of Victorian society. In that time there appeared a serious conflict between science and religion caused by Darwin’s theory. His scientific suppositions that people evolved from apes struck many people in their faith. Moreover, the Victorian era is marked by a rapid growth of industry (facories, mills, etc.) which made many people greedy and more materialistic. Their moving away from religion closer to capitalism only enlarged the gap and increased ...

Katherine O’Flaherty was born in Missouri in August 1904. Kate was a renowned novelist and short story writer whose works reflected the status of the society during her time (Chaeyoung, 59). In The Story of the Hour, Kate weaves a tale of a woman who is mistakenly told that her partner had perished in an accident. Interestingly, the woman is euphoric at the thought of her husband’s death and feels physically and psychologically free. However, her joy was curtailed when her husband comes home one hour later alive and well. In fact, he had not even heard ...

In Parts one and Two of Volume One of Michael Foucault’s Philosophy on Sexuality, he analyses and distances himself from what he calls “Repression Hypothesis,” using our desire to analyze and investigate the “science” of our sexual behavior, our need to confess what we deem sexual immorality, and the productive nature of the relationship of sex to power and knowledge, as the key elements of his argument. A definition of “Repression Hypothesis” is necessary for us to understand further why Foucault rejects it. According to American philosopher and University of California, Berkeley professor of Philosophy, Hurbert Dryfus, and ...

The Picture of Dorian Gray is a contradiction of people who are authentic such as Sybil and Henry and those who are hiding their true selves behind deceptions, like Dorian and Basil. This paper will look at the use of “smoke and mirrors” in The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde. “Smoke and Mirrors” is a metaphor that refers to the hiding of truth behind a veil of deception. This is a concept that is popular in Victorian Literature and helps to drive the plot as the conflict is often times essential to the advancement of the storyline. ...

Ibsen exposes the life experiences of his main female character Nora to show the way patriarchal societies deprive women their freedom by suppressing their views, treating them like children, and through repressive gender roles. Nora’s life and her relationship with her husband, Torvald, is a typical reflection of the importance of self-determination for women within the marriage institution. It is apparent that when a person’s freedom is limited either by choice or by chance, one is not able to establish a relationship based on equality with a partner or other people within the society. The author provides ...

The play “The Importance of being Earnest” was written by Oscar Wilde, and was first seen in a theater in 1895. The play is a comedy which uses various literary techniques to bring out various themes in the Victorian era. Irony is a major literary technique in the play in which the protagonist named Jack uses the name Earnest as an alibi whenever he wishes to escape from his reality. He has created an imaginary character in his head in which he has a younger brother by the name Earnest (Wilde 15). In his real world, he is however ...

The book “Late Victorian Holocausts: El Nino Families and the Making of the Third World” by Mike Davis is relevant within the circles of world economics. It illustrates the relationship between global political economies and climate patterns. Specifically, the book ties economic events with the El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO). The author creates comparisons between ENSO occurrences with various factors. Critically, the book considers the aspect of time in different countries. The ideas presented in the book explore the implications of colonial interests in world history. This also includes a focus on the creation of economic philosophies that surround ...

The Response of the Victorian Churches to Charles Darwin’s Doubt

Pitch Contrary to the perception of the Victorian Era as one of the highlight of English Christianity and even morality among societies, the situation was not so behind closed doors. The people were beginning to question the Biblical inspirations and teachings based on Christian doctrines that had otherwise defined their existence and faith for centuries. Accordingly, the sources of doubt were twofold: there was a rapid development of biblical criticism, and the scientific discoveries were challenging cultural norms. Perhaps there was no original sin. Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution presented an alternative for the European societies of the ...

Abstract

This paper begins with an introduction that provides a general overview as well as the setting of the play A Doll’s House. It also sets out to provide an analysis of how Ibsen portrays the rights of women through the female characters in his most famous plays, A Doll’s House and Ghosts. The paper begins by evaluating the rights of woman as portrayed through the experiences of the female characters in the Doll’s House. In particular, the primary focus of this part is Nora, who is a central character in the play. Accordingly, the play proceeds ...

Article Analysis

The cries of the goblin merchants give the story its haunting quality. Lizzie is more sensible than Laura, so she is more protective when it comes to heeding the cries, and she ends up protecting Laura.

Repeating Lizzie’s warnings over and over again provides an “aural lesson” for the reader, as well as for Laura.

There is some disagreement as to whether the nature of the cries is local in context or provides a larger comment about the class war. Rossetti’s poem is somewhere between the sounds of the streets around her and the literary evocations of that city that transform sounds into words. London had a reputation for being filled with a huge array of noises ...

As a self-taught photographer Samuel Bourne has given the world a view of India that is as prolific and beautiful. His photographs are an example of the true photography artistry and the photos remain a gem even in this time. The history of the mutiny in India against the British dominance is captured in a way of contrast between the old and the new. Bourne is centered at the period of disruption in the Indian lifestyle and portrays both the good and the racially charged emotions of the times. Bourne shot his photographs in the 1850 and 1860’s ...

Introduction

Walter Besant in his essay “The Queen’s Reign” (1897) , spoke about the changing role of women in the Victorian era which proved to be a reformatory span in terms of uplifting the social status of women and raising the sense of awareness among the people. However, the prime issue of feminism was dominant throughout the era which demanded an equal status for women along with a consideration of feminine virtues for them. The essay speaks about the various issues in which the primary issues involved the context of segregating the role of women to only housekeeping and managing ...

Thomas Nast

Thomas Nast was born in Germany in 1840, and he moved to the United States at the age of six. Initially he used to do illustrations to support his family that was going through acute financial crisis. Nast started his work as an illustrator when he was 15. At that time he was working as an illustrator for a magazine called Leslie’s Weekly New. His earning was $4 a week. In the year1862, during Civil War, he took a job of a war reporter in Harper’s Weekly Magazine.

Thomas Nast stereotypes the Irish as

unmixable in America's melting pot. 1889 For reporting the ...

The aim of this paper is to compare and contrast how Marry Wollstonecraft and George Elliot express their femininity and the consequences of the contradictions between what they stood for and their personal choices. Unlike her counterpart Mary Wollstonecraft, George Elliot does not exhibit characteristics of a real feminist. She is cowed by the male chauvinism that she perceived to have dominated the society during her time. This perception she hold onto despite the fact that other female authors at the time were using their real names. George Elliot was the pen name of Marry Ann Evans. She was ...

The proposed research will compare the women in Kate Chopin's The Awakening and A Doll's House by Henrik Ibsen. Specifically, the research will explore the subject of feminism. Feminism is defined as the avocation for the rights of women. Both novels present prime examples of feminism in their display of the breaking away from tradition roles and the consequences of gravitating away from these conventions. In order to effectively assess the conventions of the women in both works, the research will necessitate examining the symbols and characteristics associated with the characters. Ibsen's main character, Nora, is on a quest ...

My name is Archibald Jones. Throughout my lifetime I lived through a ton of advancements in industrial production. I’ve ever heard some people call it a revolution – an industrial revolution. I’m not sure I’d go that far, but from when I first moved into my farm and to where I am today, I can tell you, things have changed a ton. I never got along that well with my father, so when I got word that my grandfather had passed away and that I’d be able to take over his plot of land out in ...

In the Victorian period The Woman Question was a widely discussed topic, and engaged many Victorians, both male and female. The ideal woman of that age was associated with tenderness, understanding, innocence, domestic affection and submissiveness. The woman had to maintain the status and integrity of her husband, being always the devoted and pleasing angel in the house. Coventry Patmore supported the idea that women should be extremely pure and selfless in his popular, best-selling long poem “The Angel in the House” (1854). A woman that failed at such responsibilities was labelled either mad or hysterical. During the Victorian ...

In his tenth novel, Charles Dickens assessed the social and economic pressures of Victorian society. The times were harsh, especially for children struggling to survive and make their way through life. This brief essay discusses some of the abuses of children during Victorian times. Industrialization in the Victorian era created urban growth and a large influx of industrial workers that further divided English society into recognizable classes that emerged as the capitalists or new middle class and the working class. Both are represented in the characters and plot developments in Hard Times. About one-third of Queen Victoria’s subjects ...

NEW HERITAGE VALUES

Modern heritage involves the conservation of heritage with the application of new heritage values. Mankind is known for its ability to express themselves through art. This includes designs used to come up with various structures and their representation to the artist and the locals. Modern heritage includes post war office buildings, lighthouses and suburbs among others. In the past, only older buildings were referred to as heritage. However in the recent days newer buildings have also been classified as heritage. This paper will discuss issues affecting heritage conservation, both old and new, in relation to new heritage values. It ...

A social commentary is a piece of work that expresses opinions and expressions about a historical event, appealing to the audience’s sense of social justice. George MacDonald Fraser wrote a novel known as “Flashman “in 1969, which he identified as a reflection of his childhood memoirs.The novel entails the escapades of Flashman. The character is a fictional character that initially appeared in Tom Brown’s work “School days”. The author used his interest in being a soldier in Asia, and quitting his job as a journalist as the majormotivation for writing this novel, and the other series that ...

Canon Doyle’s version of characterization is entwined with social issues, especially with regards to relationships. The time and the context of Doyle’s stories gives a critical, yet contrasting relationship developed between male and female partners. Thus, the concept of sexually comes in, and Doyle is keen to express this concept through his stories involving Sherlock Holmes and his acquaintances. However, this concept would hold a different social paradigm in the modern society, as Sherlock’s nature would be interpreted otherwise. Asexuality is defined in Sherlock’s stories as lack of taste, mood, or interest in women and ...

In the world of Jane Austen adaptations, Joe Wright’s 2005 film Pride and Prejudice proves itself incredibly innovative in its approach. Prior attempts at adapting Austen works, including Pride, focus on a clean-cut, ornate and incredibly stately world of Victorian England, with upper-class characters spending the entire film in eloquent settings and speaking in decidedly unapproachable manners. Wright, along with screenwriter Deborah Moggach, eschew this aesthetic in order to provide their adaptation of Pride and Prejudice with a more casual, approachable take on the classic Jane Austen romance, complete with a greater emphasis on naturalism, grit and approachability. ...

Van Helsing as a Protector: The Role of the Vampire Hunter the Present-Day Vampire Culture

Abstract The vampire culture grew out of the Gothic genre and became extremely popular throughout the world. The first and most famous representative of the vampire cast is Dracula, who first appeared as a protagonist in Bram Stocker’s book with the same name. Dracula was created as a predator that hid within his threatening castle, and attacked helpless women. The author also introduced Van Helsing, the hero who acted as a protector of women and fought to destroy the monster. However, Van Helsing remained a less popular and well-known character as compared to the monster he hunted. In ...

The Crystal Palace is a massive and very impressive building in London that was constructed from iron and glass in 1851 in Hyde Park in London specially for the Great Exhibition of that year. The Palace received its name from the magazine Punch, in which the playwright Douglas Jerrold called it in 1850 as “a palace of very crystal” . Though the building was very beautiful and seemed to have a promising future, after the end of exhibition the Crystal Palace was taken down and moved to Sydenham Hill, the place not far from London. The building there was kept ...

The era of European civilization was marked by the French Revolution. The epoch was entangled in dialectic movements that tore it between romanticism and rationalism. The period marked the pick of literary works with several artists fronting different ideologies and eventual rejection of classicism. The fronting of romanticism came as a revolt against the intellectual order that had been glorified by rationalism. The critical period gave birth to great artists like Gerard Hopkins who followed in the footsteps of his father became an iconic figure in literary and poetic works that defined the era of romanticism (Caldecott 121-42). The ...

This poem is written in the first person and the present tense and this gives it an immediacy and vibrancy. The poem begins as night is falling; in the second stanza there is snow on the trees and the storm is coming; in the final stanza the narrator is surrounded by clouds and wastes. The narrator is held by ‘a tyrant spell’ (3), but there is a progression in her attitude: in the first two stanzas she says she ‘cannot’ (4,8) go, but in the final line she expresses defiance – ‘I will not go’ (12) – the act of braving the ...

Introduction and Thesis

‘My Last Duchess’ by Robert Browning is a very famous and much-anthologized poem. It is a dramatic monologue written in rhyming iambic pentameters – that is to say the poet adopts the voice of someone else and speaks throughout as that person. It was first published in 1842 and is one of many dramatic monologues that Browning wrote. This poem is based on real historical events. Duke Alfonso II of Modena and Ferrara (1559 – 1597) married Lucrezia de Doctors and she died four years after the wedding in mysterious circumstances. This is the starting point for Browning’s poem. Victorian Britain was ...

In Charlotte Bronte’s popular book Jane Eyre, the main theme of the story is finding personal space within the greater society. As her main character, Jane, progresses from childhood through to adulthood, she struggles between the Victorian society life she inhabits and her own inner inclinations. Within the strict social view, Jane, as a glorified servant and a woman, was expected to control all her impulses, emotions and passions, willingly relegating herself to her subservient position so as to avoid any embarrassing social confrontations such as in her confrontations with her cousin and her aunt.

As Jane grows through the ...