The Victorian Era in the United Kingdom is archetypally deemed the time period when Queen Victoria ruled, from 1837 to 1901 (Miller 1). While the Queen’s reign altered many social aspects of British life, perhaps the most noticeable was drama. Previously, theatre had been precluded and disapproved of due to various reasons, particularly religion. However, Queen Victoria chose to attend histrionic performances often and eventually made it reputable. The Queen considered Shakespeare too confusing of a playwright (Airdrie 1) and it soon became the job of numerous others to create amusing plays that she and countless other Europeans would enjoy. Although the playwrights of the Victorian era such as George Bernard Shaw, Oscar Wilde, and J.M. Barrie came from extremely diverse backgrounds and circumstances, each one gave writing their all in the hopes that they would both express themselves and regale their audience.
Perhaps the best known of the Victorian playwrights, George Bernard Shaw was born on July 26, 1856 to a drunkard, George Carr Shaw, and his wife, Lucinda Elisabeth Shaw (George Bernard Shaw 1), a lower-middle class family (Mazer 1). Shaw attended Wesleyan Connexional School before transferring to Dublin’s Central Model School. From there, he proceeded to Dublin English Scientific and Commercial Day School. However, his schooling concluded around the age of fifteen when he began to work as a clerk (George Bernard Shaw 1). It was at this time that Shaw’s mother left her husband and moved with a singing coach of hers to London (Mazer 1). By 1876, Shaw had joined his mother in London (George Bernard Shaw 1) where he pursued journalism and writing while reading excessively and even becoming involved in politics and public spe...
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Levine’s first chapter presents evidence that 19th century Americans of all social classes enjoyed Shakespeare as an integral part of their culture and entertainment. Shakespeare’s works were familiar enough to the populace that a variety of parodies were written and performed for large crowds that displayed their engagement with the works by applause, vegetable-throwing, interruptions, and commands to the actors. Shakespeare’s plays were performed in frontier communities and in cities, in churches and theatres and make-shift stages, attended by people of all classes. He describes the integration of Shakespeare into the Americans’ language and imagination, and explains Shakespeare’s popularity on the basis of its compatibility with 19th century Americans’ oral rhetorical style and their ability to see their own culture’s emphasis on individualism and morality reflected in Shakespeare’s characters and stories.
Bell, Clive. The Aesthetic Hypothesis. Aesthetics. Edited by Susan Feagin and Patrick Maynard. New York: Oxford University Press, 2010.
There are many important aspects of theatre history. Important playwrights, actors, theatres, and events that impacted theatre in major ways. In this paper I am going to discuss the life of an important actor who would be better known for his last name and the actions of his brother. By looking into his life I have learned how interesting of an actor he was and what significance he had on theatre history. This actor is Edwin Booth.
Robert Gould Shaw was born in Boston, Massachusetts 1837 into a family of abolitionists, unlike his mother Sarah Blake, and his father Francis George Robert Gould Shaw did not really have a thing for freeing slaves but his parents had a passion for it. They wanted to end the slave act and have them freed. his dad was called one of the advocates of the abolition of slavery and his mother was a part of it too. The Shaws had a large inheritance left by his paternal grandfather, Robert Gould Shaw, from which he got his name. Shaw had four sisters Anna, Josephine, Susanna, and Ellen. When Robert was five he moved to a large estate in West Roxbury, New York. when he was a teenager he traveled to Europe to study mathematics and foreign languages. While he was in Europe, he learned to play the piano and violin in boarding school in Switzerland. He also went traveled in Europe for social activities, like going to the theater, opera, concerts, and parties. Later on in his life Shaw passed an exam to get into Harvard University back in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He was not good with academics and spent most of his time playing sports and music. He was involved in a musical group in which he played the violin. Shaw left Harvard before he actually graduated, disappointed because he was not sure what sort of career he was going to go after. He did not seem like he had any further plans for himself.
Elizabethan times in the 1600s was a progression for the world of the theater. A period named after Queen Elizabeth I of England, it is from this period that modern day society has its foundation for the entertainment industry. From the violence that was prevalent because of the Black Death, people turned to the theater for its poetry and romance. During this time period, there were two types of theatrical performances that were available for the people’s viewing, comedies or tragedies. These two genres were never really intertwined until the time of William Shakespeare. His play, Romeo and Juliet, is an example of both a comedy and a tragedy. It starts off as a comedy with Romeo weeping like a baby because of his love Rosaline, who did not love him back and ends as a tragedy when Romeo and Juliet, a pair of star crossed lovers, commit suicide because the lost of each other. It was also during Shakespeare’s time that writer were finally acknowledged by the people. Before this time, writers were not considered upper classman. Another group of people that began to rise into a higher social class were the actors. Actresses were not present back then because women were not allowed on stage. It was considered unladylike to have a female actor. Men played all the parts. Theater owners were dependent on actors to make them a profit. Rehearsals for the plays were fairly short, only lasting for about a week. The performances themselves would only show for three to four days.
During the 1890's, American audiences still saw theater as a form of entertainment and therefore, it could not be considered a medium through which to comment on the social situation of the society. However, across the Atlantic, Henrik Ibsen was steadily bringing realist drama to prominence and simultaneously achieving critical acclaim. At home, James A. Herne débuted his radical play, Margaret Fleming, but achieved little success. However, it did draw both positive and negative criticism. Such a varied reaction to such a controversial play at such a pivotal time must have a profound effect on the society that existed during this time. This can only be caused by a society in transit. During this period many changes such as industrialization, urbanization and women's suffrage were taking place. In this turmoil, new ideas emerged as old ideas tried to hold their ground. This tension between the old and the new, lead to the difference in opinions.
The Victorian Era was the time of the British rule of Queen Victoria, and how during her time pe...
Strunk, William and White, E. B. The Elements of Style (4th ed.). Allyn & Bacon, Boston, MA, 2000.
1908 Government Regulation of the Elizabethan Drama. The. New York: Columbia University Press. Lee, Sir. Sir Sidney. 1916
One of the most interesting aspects of Victorian era literature reflects the conflict between religion and the fast gathering movement aptly dubbed the enlightenment. Primarily known for its prude, repressed, social and family structure beneath the surface of the Victorian illusion many conflicting, perhaps even radical, ideas were simmering and fast reaching a boiling point within in the public circle. In fact writers such as Thomas Hardy and Gerald Manly Hopkins reflect this very struggle between the cold front of former human understanding and the rising warm front know only as the enlightenment. As a result we as readers are treated to a spectacular display of fireworks within both authors poetry as the two ideas: poetics of soul and savior, and the poetics of naturalism struggle and brutality, meet and mix in the authors minds creating a lightning storm for us to enjoy.
Oscar Wilde was born in October 16, 1854, in the mid era of the Victorian period—which was when Queen Victoria ruled. Queen Victoria reigned from 1837 to 1901.While she ruined Britain, the nation rise than never before, and no one thought that she was capable of doing that. “The Victorian era was both good and bad due to the rise and fall of the empires and many pointless wars were fought. During that time, culture and technology improved greatly” (Anne Shepherd, “Overview of the Victorian Era”). During this time period of English, England was facing countless major changes, in the way people lived and thought during this era. Today, Victorian society is mostly known as practicing strict religious or moral behavior, authoritarian, preoccupied with the way they look and being respectable. They were extremely harsh in discipline and order at all times. Determination became a usual Victorian quality, and was part of Victorian lifestyle such as religion, literature and human behavior. However, Victorian has its perks, for example they were biased, contradictory, pretense, they cared a lot of about what economic or social rank a person is, and people were not allowed to express their sexuality. Oscar Wilde was seen as an icon of the Victorian age. In his plays and writings, he uses wit, intelligence and humor. Because of his sexuality he suffered substantially the humiliation and embarrassment of imprisonment. He was married and had an affair with a man, which back then was an act of vulgarity and grossness. But, that was not what Oscar Wilde was only known for; he is remembered for criticizing the social life of the Victorian era, his wit and his amazing skills of writing. Oscar Wilde poem “The Ballad of Reading Gaol” typifies the Vi...
Baron, Dennis. “From Pencils to Pixels: The Stages of Literary Technologies.” Writing Material. Ed. Evelyn Tribble. New York. 2003. 35- 52.
The name most associated with excellence in theatre is William Shakespeare. His plays, more than any other playwright, resonate through the ages. It may be safe to say that he has influenced more actors, directors, and playwrights than any thespian in the history of the stage. But what were his influences? During the Middle Ages theatre was dominated by morality, miracle, and mystery plays that were often staged by the church as a means to teach the illiterate masses about Christianity. It wasn’t until the early sixteenth century that Greek tragedy experienced a revival, in turn, inspiring a generation of renaissance playwrights.
Shea, Renee, Lawrence Scanlon, and Robin Scanlon. The Language of Composition: Reading, Writing, Rhetoric. 2nd ed. Boston: Bedford St. Martins, 2013. 525-529,546-551. Print.
During Queen Victoria's reign in England, ideals and the very thought of going against the “current” was born and passed along, embellishing into our mainstream personal views on practically everything. Throughout her reign of 64 years, till her death in 1901, England saw changes that changed their own way of doing things, their own way of thinking and refining their views to the point where it represented their work and no one could disagree with them. It was during her successful reign in England that incomprehensible things took place that changed history within such fields and specialties as art, literature, music, philosophy, sciences, and modern inventions. It is because of this time period, known as the Victorian Era, we have many of the modern conveniences, ideas, philosophies, and knowledge that we enjoy, and take for granted, on a daily basis. This period bridged the gap from the dark and medieval ages to our present and productive day. Authors, playwrights, and philosophers documented the changes that society underwent during the Victorian era. Oscar Wilde’s The importance of being earnest and even Charles Dicken’s works have included these such changes in society. This would not have come about without the influence of the ideas and works of several people from Britain, living under