Victorian America

“Victorian fears about women's behavior evolved into a national debate known as "The Woman Question," which encompassed issues such as property ownership, marriage contracts, inheritance law, and female sexuality, among others.” A quote from an article called “Staking Salvation: The Reclamation of the Monstrous Female in Dracula.” The “New Woman,” concept which is used to describe Mina Harker in “Dracula is a woman who wishes to be educated, sexually, economically self-sufficient. This shows…

“A woman is never looking upon as an independent person since she has constantly been assigned a secondary and comparative position. Man can consider of himself devoid of woman. She cannot think of herself without man and she is simply what man decrees” (Beauvoir 534). Similar to most post modernist literary texts, Home is satirical, vague and open-ended. The novel is in a full circle and assumes post modernist outlook in its open ending though Manju Kapur has shown Nisha arriving at a crucial…

Realism is a literary movement in the nineteenth century and is used in literary works to depict real life of this world that we are living in. When an author uses realism in his writing, all aspects of the works are taken into account; the characters, the setting as well as the themes should portraying the reality of this life. The protagonist in the realist works usually is from common people and is dealing with the same thing as the people at that particular era are dealing with, for instance…

manufacturing during the American Civil War, the British turned to India’s traditional cotton economy. The English believed they knew India and could, through political power and force, stimulate the cotton trade and make it a mirror of the trade lost in America. The Europeans believed they knew better than the Indian people, viewing them as the “other” and somewhat primitive in their approaches. The British found success as they severely punished noncompliance with British standards or…

During the Victorian period amongst many issues human sexuality, gender, and religion was heavily debated. Human sexuality is an element that has been evolving since the beginning of the nineteenth century. Sexual preference is one of the most criticized matters in society; moreover, to speak of sex is often taboo. These opinions are comparatively due to old teachings of religion. Although human sexual preference has become more accepted and published; however, during the Victorian period,…

skin color, one’s status seems to be given automatically even before she sees the light of the world out of mother’s womb. Absurdly, people have despised others with this kind of things that people could not actually change or choose. During the Victorian time period that this novel depicts, it seems all people, saying ‘this is the way it is.’ But Tess, as one of the most purest human beings in nineteenth-century British literature, stands up against the cruel contemporary society, which is full…

Thomas Hardy is one of the most renowned poets and novelists in English literature history. Hardy’s career spanned through the Victoriana and the Modern Eras. During his eight-eight years of life he lived through many upheavals, such as World War One. He was often criticized for his work because of its existentially bleak outlook and sexual themes. Hardy wrote fourteen novels and several poems through the course of twenty-six years. Hardy’s great novels, included Tess of the D’Ubervilles…

People living in the Victorian era are often thought of as individuals who lived under the pressure of the period’s values, and this was reflected on the concern of what was ‘good’ and ‘bad’ (or in other words, ‘evil’) that was represented in the literature produced at that time. Good could be defined as ‘having in a large or adequate degree the qualities or properties desirable in something of the specified kind; of high or acceptable quality, standard, or level’, whereas evil would be ‘the…

During the Victorian Era, “survival of the fittest” was a common figure of speech. Based on Darwin’s theory of evolution, it was used to describe the survival pattern of humans during this time period. This term was used to describe the survival of the middle and upper class during the Victorian era while the lower class lived in extreme poverty causing many to die. In this description, the “fittest” humans would appear to be those within the upper class. In reality, however, the “fittest”…

behaviour, as during this period emotions were accustomed by the influence of Society and power, despite both men and women sharing the same emotions (Hansen, Norberg 441). The Victorian period can be particularly associated with the roles and characteristics of men and women becoming more discrete which resulted in the Victorians belief of “separate spheres” (1607). This gave rise to the idea that it was more appropriate for women to stay in the home or private sphere where they were expected…