Victorian morality

The Victorian period formally begins in 1837, the year Victoria became queen, and ends in 1901, the year she dies. 1830 is usually thought of as the end of the Romantic Era in Britain, which makes an appropriate starting date for Victorianism. (Walker pg. ) Arthur Conan Doyle’s birth year, 1859, fell 22 years into Queen Victoria’s 64-year reign, a time of unparalleled growth and optimism for the British Empire. (BBC.co.uk) Supplies and workforce taken from groups worldwide had made England grow…

In the passage from Act II “The Importance of Being Ernest” by Oscar Wilde, Wilde uses many sources of humor to show the comical way in which Ernest and Cecily meet for the very first time. Starting with a confusing engagement and ending with a phony name, this encounter took a different turn than expected as it developed. The first source of humor used in “The Importance of Being Ernest” is when Cecily has announced to Ernest, also known as Algernon, that they are engaged. Ernest has never met…

In contrast to the literal slavery in Twain’s “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,” Henry James’s “The Portrait of a Lady,” makes reference to metaphorical slavery. The story is about a woman named Isabel Archer. She must choose between keeping her independence or following the social norms of women by marrying. Because she is so determined to make her own choices and not listen to what her friends and family tell her, she falls victim to a scheme. As a result, she loses all the independence she…

Many critics have presented the sexualism of the characters in Bram Stoker’s Dracula in relation to different theories such as feminism. Other critics have developed their articles on the theme of religion mainly referring to the Victorian era and history of religion theology. On one hand, Noelle Bowels in her article “Crucifix, Communion, and Convent: The Real Presence of Anglican Ritualism in Bram Stoker's Dracula” argues that the religious symbols in Stoker’s novel Dracula hold deeper meaning…

Anecdotes, stories, novels, and other grandeur forms of art often bring out many different emotions and feelings such as happiness, sympathy, pain, and horror. Books such as “ the Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Stetson and “the Dead” by James Joyce lead to create a maudlin environment within the book by discussing mawkish topics such as pain and restraint. In the yellow wallpaper, one of the main themes is constraint, an element that leads to the antagonist to lose sanity, “ "I 've got out at…

Explain How the Separate Spheres Ideology Shaped Women’s Lives During the Nineteenth Century. The British Victorian Era saw men have power over everything to do with politics, society and economy. Women in late 19th and early 20th century were thought to be inferior and property to their male counterparts. This stemmed from the genuine believe that each gender, in biological terms, were different. It is thought that men were logical and rational thinkers, whereas women were tied more to their…

In western academia, the Victorian era has always been a well studied subject. It was known to be an elegant time: filled with new innovations, a bustling economy, and an evolving political narrative. The Victorian era was the epitome of extravagance of its time, and no other society could compare. However the Victorian era was not faultless. While it was a prosperous time period, issues involving class, poverty, race, and gender still existed (as they do with all societies). Some of these…

This is possibly due to a sense of modernity in The Diary of a Nobody, which not is not only written less formally than other Victorian texts, but presents more modern issues to the reader. The Diary of a Nobody has been suggested to: “[celebrate] the lower-middle-class husband 's eager commitment to domesticity” (Hammerton, 291), which shows a drastic change to earlier Victorian ideologies concerning traditionalist domesticity: “Whilst men accumulated money to support home and family, women…

Among the numerous Femme Fatales of the Gothic Literature Era existed one of extraordinary power and mystery. Ayesha, known as “She,” was one of the greatest seductresses of the late Victorian Gothic period created by H.G. Haggard. With her unique beauty and charm she could put the world at her feet, but with total power comes consequence. She who must be obeyed was only as powerful as the blinding obsession she had for Kallikrates would allow her to be. Ultimately,a it is that obsession that…

A Bell Jar The notion of ideal gender roles that have been brought up by the post-world war two era are self-evident in the novel, The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath. The title of the novel itself represents how the protagonist, Esther, feels about the pressure of holding up to proper feminine decorum put into place by society. This is obvious when Esther begins to explain about her life choices, as represented by the fig tree, where each fig is a path that Esther can choose to live, however choosing…