Evelyn Waugh’s novel Brideshead Revisited is about a relationship between two Oxford boys: Charles Ryder and Sebastian Flyte. The book takes readers through the progression of their friendship and the introduction of Sebastian’s family: the Marchmains. Throughout the book Charles remains enamored with both Sebastian and his aristocratic family even though Charles and Sebastian grow apart. The novel takes a reflective look back to the golden age before the Second World War and what the author terms the age of Hooper and how it threated to bring down aristocracy. The underlying theme of the book is the changing nature of British society, however, Waugh presents an overly pessimistic representation about what the age of Hooper meant for the future of Britain.
Before a complete analysis of the changing nature of British society can be reviewed, it is essential to define the age of Hooper. At the beginning of the novel Waugh introduces commander Hooper. Charles looks at Hooper as a symbol of young England, which represents the rise of the middle class. Although Hooper only appears at the beginning and end of the book, he represents a pivotal expression of symbolism, which permeates the novel and gives it context. Without introducing Hooper, the symbolic meaning of the Marchmains and what happens to them would be lost.
Waught’s novel Brideshead Revisited looks at the decline of the aristocracy and the rise of the middle class. The Marchmain family represents old England with their country manor, lavish lifestyle and pedigree. Old England seems to have no problems spending their money on rather vulgar extravagance. An example from the novel is when Charles father gives him five hundred and fifty pounds as an allowance for the school ...
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...uce an heir. This leads to the deterioration of the Marchmains name.
The 1920s saw a number of changes within British society, not only was the decline of the aristocracy on the horizon but also some new liberties for women. Waugh provides an example of this in Brideshead Revisited. At the end of the novel Lord Marchmain states he would like to leave Brideshead to Julia instead of his oldest son. The Property Act of 1922, which came into effect during the era of this book would have allowed this to happen. The act made it possible for male family members to pass property down to female members. This was an important milestone for the fight for equal rights for women. However it is unknown if this was a bone of contention for Waugh and that is why he included this in his disgruntled novel or just a point of interest. Either way it was a change for British society.
...ow this transformation extends further over time, from the quiet town of Amiens to the liberty of 1970s London. Their resistance to the horrors of the War, to patriarchal systems and to social formalities led to significant turning points in the novel, giving us the sense of a theme of revolution on a personal and social level throughout making it the core element of the novel. The differences between the pre-war and post-war period are contrasted episodically by Faulks, and via the female protagonists, he is able to represent very openly how society has transformed. Faulks is able to very cleverly wrong foot the modern reader with the initial realist portrayal of a oppressive husband, illicit relationships and the gore of war. However, it serves only to provide him a platform from where he can present a more buoyant picture of societal and personal transformation.
In addition, Britain’s societal transformation augmented women’s role in society, and according to Braybon in “Women Workers in The First World War,” “A completely different pattern of life was established … for women” and that society had “prevailing attitudes towards women as workers” (Braybon 16). The newfangled life given to women gave most women an enormous surge in recognition throughout society, as people valued women a lot more after they became the backbone of the production of nearly all British goods. Concurrently, King underscores this point in her novel, as throughout the novel, Mary is never discriminated against simply for being a woman. In preceding years and throughout history, society typically perceived women as naturally inferior to men, and women’s occupations were limited to taking care of the family and domestic occupations. Nevertheless, the overarching effect of the augmentation of the number of women employed in the British workforce was the society’s realization that women could perform at a level equal to men, and this helped facilitate the women’s rights movement in Britain, a leading factor in Britain’s evolution to a gender equal society. In the novel, throughout Mary Russell’s journeys across Britain, there is not a single time when
In Stephen Dunn’s 2003 poem, “Charlotte Bronte in Leeds Point”, the famous author of Jane Eyre is placed into a modern setting of New Jersey. Although Charlotte Bronte lived in the early middle 1800’s, we find her alive and well in the present day in this poem. The poem connects itself to Bronte’s most popular novel, Jane Eyre in characters analysis and setting while speaking of common themes in the novel. Dunn also uses his poem to give Bronte’s writing purpose in modern day.
Hunt, Margaret R. The Middling Sort: Commerce, Gender, and Family in England, 1680-1780. London: University of California Press, 1996
In nineteenth century Great Britain, women’s status and rights are almost non existent. She cannot vote, she cannot own property, she cannot get divorced. Everything she has— even her body—belongs to her husband. Women who come from humble beginnings are constrained into the occupations of household servants, farm laborers or factory workers in order to survive. “The only ‘genteel’ professions open to middle-class women [are] governess, school teacher or companion to a wealthy woman with its awkward status between servant and lady” (Thaden 66). The only reasonable way for women to obtain any social position or economic security is to be married into it. Unlike most middle-class boys who receive an education to prepare them for a profession, mo...
...English history and the English way of life is re-created. The temperament of each age is conveyed in a series of vignettes: the boy Orlando kneeling with an ewer of rose-water before the aged Queen Elizabeth, the Great Frost of James I's reign [where he wakes up not remembering a thing about it], Pope unforgivably witty at a fashionable tea-party”(page 131, Blackstone). As Orlando went through each faze of her life, she constantly tried to measure up to the ways of each society she entered. Every place she tried to fit in made her feel as if she just did not belong. However, when Orlando became a woman she did not lose the sense of her identity, she retained it and instead of being disappointed that every time she tried to conform she continued to press on until she was finally at a place in her life where she was content to be an independent person, living in her own world. She realized that even though she matured over the years, she remained true to herself despite the conditions, and restrictions society tried to place her in.
Sypher, Eileen. Wisps of Violence: Producing Public and Private Politics in the Turn-of-the-Century British Novel. London: Verso, 1993.
Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre entails a social criticism of the oppressive social ideas and practices of nineteenth-century Victorian society. The presentation of male and female relationships emphases men’s domination and perceived superiority over women. Jane Eyre is a reflection of Brontë’s own observation on gender roles of the Victorian era, from the vantage point of her position as governess much like Jane’s. Margaret Atwood’s novel was written during a period of conservative revival in the West partly fueled by a strong, well-organized movement of religious conservatives who criticized ‘the excesses of the sexual revolution.’ Where Brontë’s Jane Eyre is a clear depiction of the subjugation of women by men in nineteenth-century Western culture, Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale explores the consequences of a reversal of women’s rights by men. This twentieth-century tradition of dystopian novels is a possible influence, with classics like Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World and George Orwell’s 1984 standing prominence. The pessimism associated with novels of this genre—where society is presented as frightening and restrictive—exposes the gender inequality between men and women to be deleterious.
Within this extended essay, the subject chosen to study and formulate a question from was English Literature, in particular the portrayal of women during the 19th and 20th centuries, where the following novels 'The Great Gatsby' written by F. Scott Fitzgerald and Jane Austen's 'Pride and Prejudice' were set in and originated the basis from. The question is as follows 'How does Jane Austen and F Scott Fitzgerald portray gender inequalities in both lower and upper class relationships particularly through love and marriage within the novels 'Pride and Prejudice' and 'The Great Gatsby' from the different era's it was written in?' This particular topic was chosen reflecting the morality and social class during the two different era's and determining whether there was change in the characteristics of women as well as men and how their behaviour was depicted through the two completely different stories, as they both reflect the same ethical principles in terms of love and marriage. The two novels were chosen in particular to view their differences as well as their similarities in terms of gender inequality through love and marriage, as the different era's it was set in gives a broader view in context about how society behaved and what each author was trying to portray through their different circumstances, bringing forward a similar message in both novels.
James clearly resists historical interpretation which would fill in the blanks with knowledge on social groups. Yet, through analysis of the Governess and Mile’s relationship by placing their narration and dialogue in a socio-historic context the battle is revealed between desires and demands. Awareness of Victorian sexual commencement allows readers to trace the development of the two characters transformations from pupil and teacher to lover and mistress.
There have always been class divisions in England’s social groups, but it was not until the nineteenth century that they were labeled. The lower class was often uneducated and overlooked and mostly servants and prostitutes, the middle class generally had steady jobs and members of the higher classes were born to old money and did not have to work. The French Lieutenant’s Woman written by John Fowles is a complex “Victorian novel filled with enchanting mysteries and magically erotic possibilities” (Canby) in which, Fowles describes a Victorian society in 1867 that is still largely separated by class, which creates strong restrictions with respect to sex and marriage. Notably, conflict in the novel involves scandals where these restrictions are disregarded. Fowles shows that sex and marriage were still largely dictated by whether a person belonged to the lower, middle or upper class in order to highlight that there were more restrictions for higher-class men and women.
Jane Austen’s works are characterized by their classic portrayals of love among the gentry of England. Most of Austen’s novels use the lens of romance in order to provide social commentary through both realism and irony. Austen’s first published bookThe central conflicts in both of Jane Austen’s novels Emma and Persuasion are founded on the structure of class systems and the ensuing societal differences between the gentry and the proletariat. Although Emma and Persuasion were written only a year apart, Austen’s treatment of social class systems differs greatly between the two novels, thus allowing us to trace the development of her beliefs regarding the gentry and their role in society through the analysis of Austen’s differing treatment of class systems in the Emma and Persuasion. The society depicted in Emma is based on a far more rigid social structure than that of the naval society of Persuasion, which Austen embodies through her strikingly different female protagonists, Emma Woodhouse and Anne Eliot, and their respective conflicts. In her final novel, Persuasion, Austen explores the emerging idea of a meritocracy through her portrayal of the male protagonist, Captain Wentworth. The evolution from a traditional aristocracy-based society in Emma to that of a contemporary meritocracy-based society in Persuasion embodies Austen’s own development and illustrates her subversion of almost all the social attitudes and institutions that were central to her initial novels.
In Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice” the story of two unlikely lovers unfolds. Elizabeth Bennett, the second eldest of five sisters, unfortunately has a mother who wants her to marry rich. When Elizabeth first encounters Fitzwilliam Darcy they mutually dislike each other. The two characters undergo conflicts that revolve around each other. As the story progresses Mr. Darcy finds a likeness for Elizabeth that she does not return. After Mr. Darcy proposes to Elizabeth, that she rejects, he clears up all the mistakes that Elizabeth believed he had made. Elizabeth then realizes that Mr. Darcy evolves much like herself, she falls in love with him, and he finally proposes to her, which she accepts. Through Austen’s use of strong character’s she illustrates how society and class can produce prejudice between two people madly in love.
Charlotte Bronte’s novel Jane Eyre, is not a book that can easily be viewed through one critical theory. However, by knowing the historical background of when Bronte developed her novel, readers are able to understand Jane Eyre on a deeper level. The Victorian era was a time of change, and what authors like Charlotte Bronte did was help increase the change by shedding light into problems in Victorian society. Jane Eyre touches on many of the issues in Victorian society like feminist issues, class struggles, and the relationship between Britain and its colonies. Not only can readers see how much society has changed, but also the similarities. By understanding the novel at a historical level, readers can understand the novel through the lense
The author Jane Austen was writing in the most transformative eras of British history. Austen experienced the beginning of industrialization in England. The movie shows concerns over property, money and status that highlight’s the social scale of the eighteenth and early ninetieth-century England. The film shows the broad social class that included those who owned land as well as the professional classes (Lawyers, doctors, and clergy). Throughout this time there were strict inheritance laws. The law for owning property was that it would go to male children or male relatives rather than breaking it up ...