Women in Pre-1914 Prose

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Women in Pre-1914 Prose I am going to show different aspects of women as them being victims, villains and heroes, all throughout the stories. Writers in the 19th Century were writing to a small portion of the audience, as few of them during the time were literate. 19th Century stories were published for many different reasons from today. They wrote to be famous and wrote to make money; these are the same reasons as writing today. But keeping in mind, unlike today, where entertainment is the main factor. The main principle difference between 19th Century and 20th Century writers is that, 19th Century writers would use 20 words, where as today they'd use just one. They did this mostly to show off their language skills, to show that they were clever than everyone else, therefore, their flowery descriptions makes it difficult for the reader to follow the storyline as there is so much description. Many 19th Century writers use a Gothic background. A gothic novel is thought to be a novel of horrors and mysteries and its plot is always bound up with secret murders. The action mostly is taken in Castles, monasteries, or an abbey with forbidden rooms, which are kept locked, near long narrow passageways. This makes the atmosphere be witch crafty, have predictions and also moaning and howling of the wind with ghosts, near a cemetery. The main characters in the stories include a young man, women, and the presence of evil. During a gothic novel heroes fight with villains and seek a solution to a problem. Find info on gothic background, rmemba. Dickens wrote his novels to entertain, but also to preach the messa... ... middle of paper ... ... us 21st Century women, we find it deeply sexiest "A man marries according…it at the risk of her life." And the implication that Bessy should be completely grateful for him. One the 3 stories, however, it is the most satisfying story. In the final story also by Wilkie Collins the women is presented in a completely different light, she is the Villain and she is the victim. What is unusual about these 3 stories is that the writer has shown the craft of writing, developing the idea of woman as villain and the man as victim, developing from story 1 to story 3, each story includes more detail, but all of them leave us in suspense. The stories are in complete contrast to Captain Murderer, Sikes and Nancy, and the Black cottage, in two ways, the woman is a very obvious villain, and we never find out the whole story.

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