The New Era

The Progressive Era The Progressive Era was a period of widespread social activism and political reform across the United States. During this ear activists and reformers from various backgrounds ad very different agendas pressed for their goals of a better America. Reformers were reacting to the challenges that face the country at the end of the nineteenth century like immigration, corruption, industrial working conditions and women’s right just to name a few. Different causes shared some…

Do Orsino and Viola share a similar kind of love in Twelfth Night? Shakespeare wrote Twelfth Night as a comedy that opens many plot lines but eventually closes all of them. The main story revolves around the love that Orsino and Viola eventually share in the end. Their love is unique because it seems to be genuine, but it came about in a unique way. Duke Orsino is very physically attracted to Olivia when the play first opens. He also holds a unique type of genuine romantic love, or rather he’s…

Furthermore, Oscar Wilde projects himself in addition to the Id, Ego, and Superego through Dorian Gray, based on how Wilde lived a “Double Life”(Schmidt 3). Dorian was thought to be pure and innocent when really his inner self reflected the complete opposite. Dorian “desperately wanted to find his true identity”(Schmidt 4) and longed to be known for more than just his appearance. Dorian’s desperation resulted in an unhealthy intrigue with Henry Wotton. Henry’s fascination with Dorian resulted…

Through the comparison of Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s poetry Sonnets from the Portuguese (1850) and F Scott Fitzgerald’s modernist novella The Great Gatsby (1926) it becomes evident that the presentation of universal themes is intrinsically linked to the composer’s context, purpose and audience. Whilst both texts convey love’s ability to impact on one’s identity and present notions of a woman in love, as a result of their starkly contrasting contexts, purposes and audiences; Browning’s…

In The Awakening, Kate Chopin illustrates the slow awakening of Edna Pontellier, a married woman who seeks her own happiness of individuality and her desires in a Victorian society. As a result, Edna tries to make changes in her life, such as abandoning her responsibilities as a mother and relocating into her own home. However, Edna is soon aware that change is not pleasant. Feeling impossibility and hopelessness, Edna chooses to die as an ultimate escape from the restrictions of the Victorian…

work hours as well as how they are repetitively being undermined by their boss and their coworkers. Little did they know that in the Victorian Era both adults and children had it far worse than your parents could imagine. Textile factories were bad for English workers because they were dangerous and the workers were abused. Factories in the Victorian Era were unsanitary and held highly dangerous machinery that workers were subjected to use on a daily basis. Dr. Ward, a doctor who visited…

Individuality in The Importance of Being Earnest Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest takes place in the Victorian Era in Europe, showcasing the strict societal rules and the pressure they cause to attempt to remove individuality from the society by having characters follow the proper upper class stereotypes (being rude to lower class, choosing marriages for money, etc.) By showing the upper class standards and stereotypical snobby behavior through multiple characters, Wilde highlights…

Revolution in France, Burke proposed that men are supposed to be constrained by the tradition of their forbearers and ill-considered reforms are dangerous. Such prominence of tradition and the past resulted in some reluctance and hesitation to accept this new idea of an industrialized nation. James Kay, a doctor from Manchester, argues the hardships of factory labor and its effects, stating “prolonged and exhausting labor continued from day to day, from year to year is not calculated to develop…

In my study during this course, I have noticed a pretty clear divide between the Medieval Era and the Victorian Era. The Medieval texts were often complex and exaggerated narratives. On the other hand, the Victorian texts were rather simplistic in nature. Personally, works that depict realistic situations have more credibility. Therefore, Victorian era works of literature serve as a more accurate representation of childhood as opposed to Medieval literature. To support this argument, I will…

In the nineteenth century, Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu’s texts present varying circumstances of inexplicable terrors situated in Gothic tradition to explore the political and social ideals fundamentally inherent in the Victorian age, particularly surrounding imperialism and sexuality. However, Le Fanu’s method of exploring and critiquing Victorian ideology of imperialism and sexuality are cleverly concealed under the prevalent supernatural elements present in his works. This is a concept that is…