...Clare Whitehead. Write about the ways in which three of the Victorian novels you have read make use of villains and / or villainesses in their plots. The villains and villainesses in the following novels demonstrate the class struggle in society that existed in the Victorian era and that still exists today. The upper class who are described by Marx as ‘the bourgeois’ which (cited in Hamilton) he goes on to describe as; ‘the class of modern capitalists, owners of the means of social production and employers of wage labour’ (1991 p.57) have the power in society. The working class or what Marx refers to as ‘the proletariat’ which (cited in Hamilton) he goes on to describe as; ‘the class of modern wage labourers who having no means of production of their own, are reduced to selling labour power in order to live’ (1991 p.57) are controlled by this power which often leaves them vulnerable to the rich. Furthermore, the villains and villainesses appear to be used in order to demonstrate the ‘inequalities of the rich and the poor’ (Eagleton 1996 p.200). The wealth of the ‘bourgeois’ gives them access to many privileges and opportunities that the poor can never have access to. In the first novel Jane Eyre (Bronte 1847) Mrs Reed highlights the selfish nature of the wealthy. She speaks of Jane as ‘such a burden to be left on my hands’ (1992 p.203) because she has no wealth of her own. Mrs Reed sees her as one of ‘social inferiority’ (Nunokawa cited in David 2001 p.145) who is of...
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...Summary Published in 1891, The Picture of Dorian Gray is Oscar Wilde’s only novel. An immediate and popular success, it has never been out of print. The story is set in London towards the end of the 19th century. Basil Hallward has painted a portrait of a handsome young man, Dorian Gray. Thrilled by the beauty of the painting, Dorian Gray wishes that he could always stay as young as his image in the picture. He gives up his soul to achieve this wish. Dorian sets out on a life of self-indulgence and evil. His behaviour seems to be reflected in the portrait and he realises that his wish has come true – the portrait is beginning to show a corrupted man while he remains unchanged physically. Frightened of what is happening, Dorian hides the picture in a locked room. The years pass and Dorian leads an increasingly depraved life, but the years have no effect on him; he looks as young and beautiful as ever. Then one evening he meets the artist once more and, after he has shown him the evil-looking portrait, Dorian kills him in a fit of hatred. Dorian tries to carry on with his immoral life but he is tormented by feelings of guilt and decides that the only way he can make up for what he has done is to destroy the painting. In the climax of the story Dorian tries to kill the man in the portrait, but kills himself in the process. Aestheticism was inspired by the principle of 'art for art's sake (art for the love for art) ...it had to simply create beauty. The Aesthete believed that...
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...Steven Miller April 9, 2013 Professor Thiele Intro to Fiction Sexuality in The Picture of Dorian Gray Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray alludes to homosexuality throughout the entirety of the novel. While homosexual relations between the characters are not directly discussed, the context and conversations between the characters points to homosexual relations between all of the male characters. Oscar Wilde, himself, was part of the Decadents movement at the end of the Victorian period. Decadents are known for undermining the mainstream Victorian ideals. There has been a significant change in society’s morals since the publication of the novel in 1891. A person reading The Picture of Dorian Gray in today’s culture may see nothing wrong about the context of the novel or the relationships between the characters within it but, at the time of publication, it was seen by society as an immoral book and even used in the trial against Oscar Wilde that resulted in two years imprisonment and hard labor. I will argue that using the characters of Dorian Gray, Lord Henry Wotton, and Basil Hallward, Oscar Wilde supports the common Decadents belief that open sexuality in mainstream Victorian culture would make for a better, happier society. From the very beginning of the novel, homosexual relations are apparent through the conversation about Dorian Gray between Basil Hallward and Lord Henry. As Lord Henry questions Basil about the mysterious person in his painting, Basil’s odd obsession...
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...Discuss the 'Fallen Woman' as a Familiar Feature of Victorian Writing Elizabeth Gaskell's Mary Barton may be characterised as a 'social problem' novel. Basch (1974: 263) states, 'Mrs Gaskell's impure women came from ... the work and exploitation which she knew, relatively speaking, better than other novelists.' Gaskell was the wife of a Unitarian clergyman in Manchester. She devoted her time to setting up homes for fallen women, and after Mary Barton women became her central characters, her novels primarily seen through women's eyes. Thomas Hardy, since his career began, has been notably associated with his portrayal of female characters. Erving Howe even writes about 'Hardy's gift for creeping intuitively into the emotional life of women.' (Boumelha 1982: 3) From this point of view, I intend this essay to establish a comparison between Gaskell's 'fallen woman' in Mary Barton and the way in which Thomas Hardy frames his central female character in Tess of the D'Urbervilles.In the context of the nineteenth century, there emerged an increasingly ideological 'rethinking' of sexuality, particularly of the female. Darwin's Origin of Species in 1859 and The Descent of Man later in 1871 argued that men and women were somehow mentally different. Darwinian sociology led to sexual stereotypes such as Clement Scott's 'men are born "animals" and women "angels" so it is in effect only natural for men to indulge their sexual appetites and, hence, perverse, "unnatural" for women to act in the...
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...Q2: Comparison of Jane Eyre and “Goblin Market” Bronte’s Jane Eyre and Rossetti’s “Goblin Market” are both texts written in the Victorian period. They both carry similar themes of the evils of patriarchy and the importance of empowering women to assert their identity in this time period. Both Jane Eyre and Laura are characters that are affected by the issues that mainly affected women in the male-dominated Victorian society. This is clearly portrayed when the men in both texts try to confine women physically and emotionally through deception and force. The different portrayal of both male and female characters also plays a very important role in communicating these issues. Rossetti’s “Goblin Market” can be read as a criticism of Victorian arrangement of marriage. She stresses the importance of women’s friendship as the main agent that can help in fighting against or changing society’s exploitation of women. The two sisters represent two different kinds of women; Lizzie, the submissive ones and Laura, those that fought against patriarchy, and the goblins represent the patriarchal system. It shows that women can control their destinies, gain some level of independence, and avoid society’s oppressive rules and work towards their liberation and happiness. In the Victorians society men where more educated, powerful and rich hence they dominated women. Women were subjugated to the home as housewives whilst their husbands earned money for the family. This gave the men even more...
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...atmosphere by using a variety of techniques and language devices. His choice of words creates a sense of gloom and dismay that reflects the character of Scrooge. This extract starts with a reference of the setting in Victorian England during the 1800s. Electric lights were rare so the darkness in the streets was enhanced by the fog and the ‘flaring links’ that provided light to people. This could refer to the need for light in Scrooge’s life. His was dark with selfishness. Christianity was practiced by most people during the Victorian times but Scrooge was unaffected by the themes of kindness and love that the religion advocated. This is reflected by Dickens writing ‘‘the ancient tower of a church… became invisible’’ where the use of personification highlights the withdrawal of the old bell from Scrooge’s visibility. Pathetic fallacy makes the extract highly effective in contributing to the coldness of Scrooge’s personality , ‘the cold became intense’ adds an atmosphere of frosty bitterness which is exactly how Scrooge is portrayed. In the midst of this miserable weather there is a change of mood when we read ‘’some labourers… had lighted a great fire ‘ which lightens the dismal atmosphere. This could foreshadow changes in Scrooge’s life by the end of the novel. The ‘ragged men and boys’ could rejoice even when affected by icy weather conditions, which sheds some light on the character of Bob Crachit who could find contentment in the midst of his hard life. The ‘water- plug...
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..."The Victorian elements in Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontё" The Victorian Era, in which Brontё composed Wuthering Heights, receives its name from the reign of Queen Victoria of England. The era was a great age of the English novel, which was the ideal form to descibe contemporary life and to entertain the middle class. Emily, born in 1818, lived in a household in the countryside in Yorkshire, locates her fiction in the worlds she knows personally. In addition, she makes the novel even more personal by reflecting her own life and experiences in both characters and action of Wuthering Heights. In fact, many characters in the novel grow up motherless, reflecting Emily’s own childhood, as her mother died when Emily was three years old. Similarly, the vast majority of the novel takes place in two households, which probably is a reflection of author’s own comfort at home as whenever she was away from home she grew homesick. Emily Brontё’s single novel is a unique masterpiece propelled by a vision of elemental passions but controlled by an uncompromising artistic sense. However, despite the relative invisibility of Victorian influence in the plot and content, the attitudes of the Victorian Era make some impact on the story, and the novel is considered not only a form of entertainment but also a means of analyzing and offering solutions to social and political problems. Brontё may not highlight the social aspects in the novel, nevertheless the indications of Victorian society’s...
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...supervisors Pr. Harouni and Mr. Boughenout for their help and discussion of my topic. I would like to thank all the teachers of the department of English of Mentoury University. I Dedication To the memory of my mother To my father, to my brothers and my sisters and to all my friends and classmates. II Abstract The purpose of my study is to show the conflict between idealism and society in Thomas Hardy’s Jude the Obscure. In this novel, Hardy portrays the strife of the two individuals Jude and Sue to make their own ways in society by seeking to realise their ideals. He also reveals the difficulties met by the two idealists in front of society’s attempts to thwart their ideals and to force them to surrender to its norms. This study allows the reader to have a deep understanding of the origin of the conflict, the climax of the confrontation between the two opposing sides and the result of the conflict. In this respect, the present study helps the reader to acquire a thorough knowledge of Hardy’s thought and the values of the Victorian society to which he belongs. III Résumé L’objectif de cette étude est de montrer le conflit entre l’idéalisme et la société décrit dans le roman de Thomas Hardy Jude the Obscure. Dans ce roman, Hardy dépeint la lutte des...
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...Arnold A. Markley is the author of a compelling critical essay about how profound the effects of the novel Great Expectations being published serially had on the plot and characters. Markley is an extremely credible source for critical analysis. Markley, a professor of English at Pennsylvania State University Brandywine during his lifetime, taught classes on classic Victorian literature and a wide array of other literature-related subjects. His extensive knowledge and experience in the literary arts is evident throughout the entire criticism: he is able to make a deep analysis of Great Expectations that remain relevant to his thesis. Markley intends to prove that the effects of Great Expectations being published serially greatly altered the way the characters were written and the length of the plot line as compared to the way a modern novel is written. He provides extensive logical reasoning and utilizes background commentary to reaffirm this point. Each installment (or chapter) ends in a fashion similar to this: “But, now I was frightened again, and ran home without stopping,” (13; Ch. 1) which is a clear cliffhanger that is then answered in the following chapter(s). This is a recurring theme that is omnipresent in the novel, as stated by Markley. He demonstrates that the characters are required to remain memorable so they are not forgotten between installments. This is evident in a character like Miss Havisham who is eclectic, only wears her old wedding dress, and says memorable...
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...Bearing in mind Gaskell's desire to "...give some utterance to the agony which from time to time convulsed this dumb people," how effective is "Mary Barton" in its attempt to move the reader through its depiction of working class struggles. Elizabeth Gaskell's main purpose of the novel is to bring to light the struggles that are faced by the poor. Gaskell does this through the use of descriptive language and also by presenting a number of themes through certain characters, such as a belief of injustice in the industrial working class. As a female writer, there is much criticism against her for writing a novel so out of depth of her class and gender. However, even with this criticism Gaskell still brings to light key socio-political issues, such as the need for the worker and employer to understand each other. The era in which "Mary Barton" is written is known as the Time of Troubles. During a period of prosperity from 1832 to 1836 during the industrial revolution, Gaskell's experience of these conditions are sensed strongly in the narrative, in particular her contact with the working class in her home city of Manchester, as she "elbows" the working class everyday on the streets. This historic document therefore brings you closer to the struggles of the working class, as suggested by Gaskell: "The more I reflected on this unhappy state of things...as the employers and employed must be, the more anxious I became to give some utterance to the agony." It can be argued that Gaskell...
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...the Jekyll-Hyde relationship is revealed. Therefore, we confront the theory of a dual human nature explicitly only after having witnessed all of the events of the novel, including Hyde’s crimes and his ultimate eclipsing of Jekyll. The text not only posits the duality of human nature as its central theme but forces us to ponder the properties of this duality and to consider each of the novel’s episodes as we weigh various theories. Jekyll asserts that “man is not truly one, but truly two,” and he imagines the human soul as the battleground for an “angel” and a “fiend,” each struggling for mastery. But his potion, which he hoped would separate and purify each element, succeeds only in bringing the dark side into being—Hyde emerges, but he has no angelic counterpart. Once unleashed, Hyde slowly takes over, until Jekyll ceases to exist. If man is half angel and half fiend, one wonders what happens to the “angel” at the end of the novel. Perhaps the angel gives way permanently to Jekyll’s devil. Or perhaps Jekyll is simply mistaken: man is not “truly two” but is first and foremost the primitive creature embodied in Hyde, brought under tentative control by civilization, law, and conscience. According to this theory, the potion simply strips away the civilized veneer, exposing man’s essential nature. Certainly, the novel goes out of its way to paint Hyde as animalistic—he is hairy and ugly; he conducts himself according to instinct rather than reason; Utterson describes him as a “troglodyte...
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...Gray” which was immediately attacked in many papers for its homoerotic theme it had, which was considered immoral by Victorian standards and would come to play a huge role in his legal trials.( Ellmann) .He went on to write a play, “Lady Windermere’s Fan” which was a literary and financial success for Wilde which prompted him to continue writing plays. These included “ A Woman of No Importance”, “An Ideal Husband” and “The Importance Of Being Ernest”. In the summer of 1891, Oscar Wilde first met Lord Alfred Douglas. They soon became lovers, both infatuated with each other until Wilde was arrest some years later. Wilde sued Alfred Douglas’s father for accusing him of homosexuality. The case was later thrown out, but Wilde was sentenced to two...
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...‘fallen woman’ against the backdrop of Victorian society. This portrayal by the authors of their heroines and the contrasting ways in which each character deals with their own situation leads us to empathise with their burdens and gain a deeper insight into their thoughts and emotions. As we witness the deepening punishments and tragedies unfolding for each character, both authors also succeed in eliciting our sympathy for these women as they enable us to experience the unfairness and injustice of the world as it was then. Wilde demonstrates the sheer devastation for a woman, of becoming ‘ruined’ through his character Mrs Arbuthnot as she expresses her demoralising thoughts and deep feelings that she has not spoken of before. We witness the destruction foisted upon her state of mind by the label of ‘fallen woman’ that was bestowed upon Mrs Arbuthnot, through the way that she scrutinises herself and expresses that she is a “tainted thing”. This metaphor implies that she believes her actions are so horrendous that she has been de-humanised and should be regarded as something impure. When describing her emotional burdens she states “I will bear them alone”. This simple declarative suggests that she has command over her own feelings and is deciding upon her own punishment. However she continues to affirm that she “must bear them alone”, where through the addition of the modal verb “must” we are brought back to the sad truth that, in Victorian society, a fallen woman would have had...
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...The rise of the Victorian novel in nineteenth century England is often associated with social changes and reform. The narrowing gap between the aristocratic and middle classes and the deplorable conditions of the working class provided ample material for Victorian novelists to develop plots exploring social concerns and often providing useful commentary. Following the French Revolution, England showed a remarkable social plasticity predicated by the Magna Carta and the Bloodless Revolution. While France’s working class built up a storm of vengeful justice toward the aristocracy unleashed on Bastille Day, England’s aristocracy incrementally relinquished political power to the people, thereby avoiding much of the calamity seen during the 1780s...
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...as a Familiar Feature of Victorian Writing Victorian social conventions placed the female inside the male domain, a domestically cultivated flower rather than a wild one, uncontrollable and free to roam. Woman was idealised: the angel in the house, the wife complementing her husband, the helpmate of man. Social conditions offered the Victorian woman little in occupation so her aim in life was to secure a husband, succumbing to the political propaganda. As Foster states: Because so much importance was attached to the roles of wifehood and motherhood, marriage was deemed the apotheosis of womanly fulfilment, alternatives to which were regarded as pitiable or unnatural.( Foster 1985: 6) In this role of wife, woman's great function is to praise her husband and, in return, she shall be praised for ruling inside the home where she can be 'incapable of error' (Ruskin 1865: 149) In Ruskin's lecture his view is that a husband is a chivalric knight guarding his wife from the 'peril and trial' he encounters. For the 'noble' woman, her true place is in the home, an 'incorruptibly good household nun', praised for choosing 'self-renunciation' over 'self-development'(D'Amico 1992: 69). This could also be viewed as oppression. Rather than the female 'complementing' the male, she is oppressed by him, and the praise offered by Ruskin could be viewed as a weapon, lulling the female into a false consciousness, trapping her inside the home. For the Victorian woman, serving man's desire...
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