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Parallels between the Victorian Era and
Parallels between the Victorian Era and
Parallels between the Victorian Era and
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During the Victorian era, women were viewed as the very opposite of what a man ought to be. In the words of John Stuart Mill, who published a criticism of the way society differentiated between males and females "The female sex was brought up to believe that its ‘ideal of character’ was the very opposite to that of men’s ‘not self-will , and government by self-control, but submission, and yielding to the control of others" to live for others; to make complete abnegation of themselves, and to have no life but in their affections.’” (171) Basically, women were expected to be sweet, docile, and man’s perfect helpmate.
Contrary to that belief, throughout the Victorian era the view of women began to change, at least in the mind of some. Women began to infiltrate themselves into the industrial world. One field that became increasingly dominated by women during the Victorian era was the world of writing. Many women were published during this century, although only a small number have been “canonized” or truly recognized as literature. The four most popular are doubtlessly the three Brontë sisters, and George Eliot. These authors were perhaps popular because of their subject matter, or perhaps because their works were analyzed and criticized from the beginning, whereas no attention was paid to the remainder.
These above mentioned notable authors often wrote about women in their traditional, and also non-traditional Victorian roles. Charlotte Brontë, for example, reflected the proper, meek demeanor in Jane Eyre, not only with Jane herself. Jane was the very contradiction of Mr. Rochester. Even when he is at his worst, during the final chapters, Jane takes it upon herself to care for him without thought of herself, and to be his tradit...
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...s her role as the proper Victorian woman despite Heathcliff’s presence.
The role of women in the Victorian Age was varied far and between. The “woman question,” is a commonly addressed question, which basically asked, “what was a ‘proper’ woman supposed to be like anyway?” Emily Brontë was not a “normal” woman either. Her characters are incredibly deep and powerful, she reflects them as very wild, independent, and socially “different” than what was considered o be “proper” for the time. Her works are much more vibrant than most from this period as well. As for me, I think that the propriety of a woman depends entirely on the woman, her circumstances, her background, and those she associates with. And truly, there is nothing wrong with a woman if she does not live up to what was socially considered to be normal for a Victorian woman. After all, what truly is normal?
During the Victorian Era, society had idealized expectations that all members of their culture were supposedly striving to accomplish. These conditions were partially a result of the development of middle class practices during the “industrial revolution… [which moved] men outside the home… [into] the harsh business and industrial world, [while] women were left in the relatively unvarying and sheltered environments of their homes” (Brannon 161). This division of genders created the ‘Doctrine of Two Spheres’ where men were active in the public Sphere of Influence, and women were limited to the domestic private Sphere of Influence. Both genders endured considerable pressure to conform to the idealized status of becoming either a masculine ‘English Gentleman’ or a feminine ‘True Woman’. The characteristics required women to be “passive, dependent, pure, refined, and delicate; [while] men were active, independent, coarse …strong [and intelligent]” (Brannon 162). Many children's novels utilized these gendere...
... than a servant, for you do nothing for your keep.” They also tell her that “to strike a young gentleman, your benefactress's son! Your young master.” The servants respect the Victorian patriarchal society, despite the fact that they are so badly treated through it. Brontë is trying to tell us that this system has been in form for so long, that people are thinking of it as natural, and insists that it should not be so. In Brontë’s opinion, everyone should have equality.
As the social and economic conditions of eighteenth century Britain shifted from a family based system to one dependent on industry, women were no longer valuable as workers. This transition allowed for the developing reading habits of the middleclass woman as they were left with more free time. However, the cultural definition of females compromised the feminized genre. As women were defined as subordinate to men, their literature was reduced by critics to "bad-fiction." One critic wrote, "So long at the British ladies continue to encourage our hackney scribblers, by reading every romance that appears, we need not wonder that the press should swarm with such poor insignificant productions" (365). Despite the presumed inferiority of fiction, authors, ...
The Victorian era was a period of time in England spanning from 1837 to 1901, named after Queen Victoria who reigned in this time period. Women were a suppressed gender in the Victorian era. Unmarried women that were 21 years old or older had the right to own their own property and earn their own money; however as soon as they got married they lost all of their rights. Their husband was now entitled to all wealth and property. Most people accepted the suppression however certain people started fighting for women’s rights. One of the protestors was Barbara Bodichon who wrote the pamphlet “Laws Concerning Women”, which is about the laws that women were obligated to follow.
These women authors have served as an eye-opener for the readers, both men and women alike, in the past, and hopefully still in the present. (There are still cultures in the world today, where women are treated as unfairly as women were treated in the prior centuries). These women authors have impacted a male dominated society into reflecting on of the unfairness imposed upon women. Through their writings, each of these women authors who existed during that masochistic Victorian era, risked criticism and retribution. Each author ignored convention a...
19th-Century Women Works Cited Missing Women in the nineteenth century, for the most part, had to follow the common role presented to them by society. This role can be summed up by what historians call the “cult of domesticity”. The McGuffey Readers does a successful job at illustrating the women’s role in society. Women that took part in the overland trail, as described in “Women’s Diaries of the Westward Journey” had to try to follow these roles while facing many challenges that made it very difficult to do so. One of the most common expectations for women is that they are responsible for doing the chore of cleaning, whether it is cleaning the house, doing the laundry.
The Victorian period is often defined by its antique images of flowers, doilies, rosy-cheek children and intricate fashion. However, these trite images shadow the true realities of middle-class families struggling to succeed in the emerging business world. Traditionally, the men spent long days in the city working out business affairs, while the women stayed home with the children preparing meals and planning for social gatherings. Work was often not an option for women because they were seen as incapable of any duty outside of the home. However, with the onset of Queen Victoria’s reign, the women of England slowly began to challenge their subservient roles, taking on jobs as teachers, writers, and charity workers. Over the next fifty years, women explored many occupational fields that were before only available to men. The Victorian women were able to controvert many of the stereotypes that existed about them, while also creating a future filled with new opportunities for women of all classes.
There is no doubt that Charlotte Bronte knew the works of Mary Wollstonecraft, and she knew them well. Although Wollstonecraft's ideas were written a hundred years beforehand, many women did not read her work because it was not easily attainable. Many women were not educated to read this piece of literature and many men deemed it unimportant to their education. Bronte's works were cleverly disguised in women's entertainment, the novel. The main themes both women discuss are education, love and marriage.
During the 1800s, society believed there to be a defined difference in character among men and women. Women were viewed simply as passive wives and mothers, while men were viewed as individuals with many different roles and opportunities. For women, education was not expected past a certain point, and those who pushed the limits were looked down on for their ambition. Marriage was an absolute necessity, and a career that surpassed any duties as housewife was practically unheard of. Jane Austen, a female author of the time, lived and wrote within this particular period. Many of her novels centered around women, such as Elizabeth Bennet of Pride and Prejudice, who were able to live independent lives while bravely defying the rules of society. The roles expected of women in the nineteenth century can be portrayed clearly by Jane Austen's female characters of Pride and Prejudice.
Values and morals of the Victorian era are quite different than those that our society upholds today. The satirical plays, A Doll's House by Henrik Ibsen, and Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw, examine the problems with certain beliefs held by the people, both men and women, of the Victorian age. Furthermore, the people in general didn't not just hold certain morals, but the different classes in the Victorian society also held their own beliefs on moral code. Of which, the middle class beliefs are most closely examined in both plays. Men and women were expected by others in Victorian society to uphold certain moral behaviors. These expectations caused many problems for the individual that upheld them by limiting their behavior, and overshadowing how the person really thinks he or she should act or what he or she really believes. Men in the Victorian era were anticipated by women and other men to do certain things that would 'qualify' them to be an accomplished masculine figure. The first 'requirement' is that the man must support and protect his woman. In A Doll's House Torvald, Nora's husband, most definitely feels his obligation to protect his wife, whether she likes it or not. "Do you know, Nora, I have often wished that you might be threatened by some great danger, so that I might risk my life's blood, and everything, for your sake"(Ibsen 58). Torvald hopes that one day he will be able to show his manly and virtuous side by protecting his wife, most likely so he will be praised for it. Torvald also feels that his woman must be protected because she most definitely cannot fend for herself. "Aha! so my obstinate little woman is obliged to get someone to come to her rescue?" (Ibsen 27). This ...
Throughout the Victorian era, women were expected to meet the standards set by communities and submit to the power of men. A woman’s duty was to be a partner to man, to comply with their authority and be physically submissive, even if mentally, they were unrestricted. Women who defied society’s normalities and refused to have restraints put upon them were often seen as recalcitrant and difficult by the public. In Charlotte Brontë's, Jane Eyre, Jane defies the expected role of a Victorian era woman, and shows that females do not have to comply to societal norms. This is shown through Jane's rebellion, denial of love, and rejection of St. John.
Women should not have too much power or abuse the power that is given to them. Men and women are both subjected to different statuses. John Mill discusses the term “So true is it that unnatural generally means only uncustomary, and that everything which is usual appears natural. The subjection of women to men being a universal custom, any departure from it quite naturally appears unnatural” (Mill). John Mill is setting the fact that the ordinary customs of women from men are different and anything that isn’t custom for women to usually do is unnatural. When author Elizabeth Braddon was discussing how women in the Victorian age were so apart from men and certain customs were to be in their place and anything that women did that seemed odd are not normal would be put into action. The way Elizabeth Braddon described Lady Audley was too create a character of 2 purposes, bad and good-natural and
When Charlotte Bronte created Lucy Snowe’s character in Villette, she made her as a woman that transgressed society’s deemed role in the Victorian Era (Peel, 231). Bronte was a women who personally endured and witnessed the lack of rights and equalities offered women in the Victorian Era and by creating Lucy Snowe’s “transgressive” character she displayed her thoughts and rebellions against society’s standards. Women novelist were not very common in this time period due to the belief by men that it was not right. “The female writer posed a threat to men who described women as weak and submissive creatures” (ARAS, 499). Instead it was thought that women should write poems only, and because of this most women novelist used a “male pseudonym” for their books so that they did not receive ridicule and criticism (ARAS, 499). Charlotte Bronte did not let this fear stop her from expressing her beliefs about the mistreatment and societal abuse of women by men, but instead created Villette which transcended the idea that women were dependent to men for their own happiness.
Tremendous spirit. The enviable trait that Jane Eyre from Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre possesses is what stimulates her to achieve self-actualization despite the fact that she is a woman. True feminism isn’t as violent as a handful of vicious extremists claim it to be. The accurate definition of feminism is “the doctrine advocating women’s social, political, civil, educational and all other rights as equal to those of men.” Women of Charlotte Bronte’s era did not have basic rights such as the aforementioned. The feminist movement in the Victorian Era had only just begun and Jane Eyre was far ahead of her peers. Published in 1847, the bildungsroman novel of Jane Eyre was an intricate one, with subtle feminism carefully woven in it, particularly through the actions and thoughts of Jane Eyre, the protagonist. Her quest for self-worth and identity lead her to overcome the various stigmas that women in that era were faced with. These ambiguities reflect the tensions real Victorian women of faith experienced in trying to meet multiple often conflicting demands in their lives. Such challenges were complicated further by the fact that 19th century Evangelical Christianity- attentive to the realities of sin, sorrow, sacrifice, and loss- was no easy creed for women and men. (Lamonaca) Jane Eyre’s battles for authentic love, good reputation and indifferent attitude towards social classes dominated English women’s lives. The heroine tackles gender roles and breaks all the mannerisms of the time to inject an early dose of feminism in the English audience. Jane’s transformation from naïve child to independent woman stunned the public and gave women the inspiration to make their own decisions and defy the norms of their era.
“Girls wear jeans and cut their hair short and wear shirts and boots because it is okay to be a boy; for a girl it is like promotion. But for a boy to look like a girl is degrading, according to you, because secretly you believe that being a girl is degrading” (McEwan 55-56). Throughout the history of literature women have been viewed as inferior to men, but as time has progressed the idealistic views of how women perceive themselves has changed. In earlier literature women took the role of being the “housewife” or the household caretaker for the family while the men provided for the family. Women were hardly mentioned in the workforce and always held a spot under their husband’s wing. Women were viewed as a calm and caring character in many stories, poems, and novels in the early time period of literature. During the early time period of literature, women who opposed the common role were often times put to shame or viewed as rebels. As literature progresses through the decades and centuries, very little, but noticeable change begins to appear in perspective to the common role of women. Women were more often seen as a main character in a story setting as the literary period advanced. Around the nineteenth century women were beginning to break away from the social norms of society. Society had created a subservient role for women, which did not allow women to stand up for what they believe in. As the role of women in literature evolves, so does their views on the workforce environment and their own independence. Throughout the history of the world, British, and American literature, women have evolved to become more independent, self-reliant, and have learned to emphasize their self-worth.