Victorian morality

In George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion, he highlights the issue of language in relation to class structure. Borrowing ideas from the Greek myth Pygmalion, Shaw creates character Henry Higgins, a phonetician, who tries to transform the flower-selling, cockney Eliza Doolittle into a lady. While exploring the idea of creation between Higgins and Doolittle, Shaw chooses to focus on their social dimensionality. While Eliza is trained to speak and act like a lady, she does not gain the proper instincts in…

became a product primarily consumed by women. (Gitelman). Not only were women in the right place physically to be the phonograph’s most important consumers, but they also were in the right place mentally. Women were meant to be listeners in the Victorian Era. They were “vessels of culture and models of self-cultivation,” and not meant to speak. Rather, they to be seen. (Naeem 461, Katz…

“Goblin Market”, a poem by Christina Rossetti, was written in the Victorian Era during a time of vast social and economic change across Europe. Even though this period was during a time of female suppression and order, Rossetti exposes many social ideologies -such as purity and female education- fd through the journey of two sisters, Laura and Lizzie. Despite initial impressions of being a childhood fairytale, the suggestive use of language implies an underlying message of an erotic sexual…

add, immured/ In the hot prison of the present, month/ To month with weary pain” (Arnold 21-25). Similar to Dorian Gray, the speaker would do anything to stay young and beautiful, aware of the better life one can live in society. During the late Victorian Era, there was an immense pressure put upon people to maintain their beauty. Aestheticism was an ongoing movement where individuals only had a value in society if they had a youthful appearance. Pressure to look a certain way took over the…

Charles Kingsley created the novel under the influence of the social disturbance in the Victorian Britain. Although intended for children, the novel was coming out periodically in the Macmillan’s Magazine for adults and deeply affected many public matters, left the readers contemplative and become the base for social changes (Uffeleman & Scott, 1986). There is an evidence of Alexander Macmillan’s words “from your description of the story I think it will suit us admirably and form a new and…

survey on how the image of gentleman has developed since the beginning of Victorian Era until its sunset. Uncountable examples of male characters are often seen in English literature, but the aim of choosing this period is because the concept of masculinity has always been of great importance and it gives an idea of how a man should look and behave and what are the prerequisites to become a distinguished representative of Victorian society. If the poetry and drama had been capitalized in the…

a mere reflection of religion and morality. This notion persisted that art served as a reinforcement of ethics. As religion and morality pursued to restrict art to stand on its own, a group of artists revolted against Victorian beliefs; among them was Oscar Wilde. He composed a philosophical fictional novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, that serves as a contradictory model against Victorianism for the sake of art. It directs on Wilde’s uprise against morality and the embrace of a hedonistic…

values. The Sybil Vane encounter reflects how deeply the immoral teachings are planted in the mind of Dorian. After being enthralled by the latter’s beauty and social status, Sybil Vane, a poor but a talented stage actress falls in love with him. She also calls him “Prince Charming” due to his unstained beauty and goes against her family members who do approve her love for Dorian. However, Dorian wants to explore his sensuality and to know about all aspects of life and can’t fathom her love…

and close ups focuses on the importance morality is in the certain scene and dialogue. The editing it not jumpy or sudden, but it is put together in order to make the specific moral moments pop and draw attention to key scenes and the moral thread that is woven throughout the movie. The underscore of music throughout the movie is light and comical, but the specific moments that Parker wants to highlight, the music somewhat foreshadows the conflict of morality. The music leading up to Lady…

earnest to spin a story of Victorian Era upper class practices to challenge the world he lived in. Through his play The Importance of Being Earnest, Oscar Wilde uses the notion of being earnest to display the absurdity that is deeply rooted in upper class Victorian Era beliefs and the hypocrisy that is easily accepted, and because of how the characters react to being trivial Wilde is able to reveal the shocking morality that comes through being openly immoral. The Victorian…