Morality in Victorian and Neo-Victorian Novels
An essay on Jane Eyre, The Mill on the Floss,
The French Lieutenant's Woman, Possession and The Dress Lodger
The Victorian era is one bound to morality. Morality is also defined through the traditional and religious standards that structure the way of life for many Victorians. Morality is defined as the proper principles and standards, in respect to right and wrong, which are to be practiced by all humanity. Ideally, these include obtaining decent careers, being sexually inactive prior marriage, and being faithful when married. Who defines proper behaviour for Victorians? Mainly, the idea of what is right or wrong is based upon the traditions practiced by one's forefathers, along with the religious upbringings they receive since childhood. Morality is held in such high regard by the Victorians that many of their works of literature are based upon the way one should morally live. These works that set out to instruct are called didactic. Following suit, Neo Victorian literature is written to exaggerate the morality presented in Victorian literature. Nonetheless, didactic literature of the past and present displays good morals with the intention to teach proper conduct either directly or obliquely to its readers; within Victorian novels this is done openly through oral preaching, whereas in Neo-Victorian novels this is accomplished implicitly by means of satire. Such Victorian novels as Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte and The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot, and Neo-Victorian works as The French Lieutenant's Woman by John Fowles, Possession by A.S Byatt and The Dress Lodger by Sheri Holman are essentially about how one should morally live. This is demonstrated by the issues of c...
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.... Possession rejects the hypocrisy of the Victorians and punishes both the female and male. Keeping true to the Victorian notion, Byatt has both her characters suffer for their actions - no matter their class or gender, they committed adultery. However, Byatt also shows how extreme the Victorians reacted towards such issues with simple acceptance demonstrated by the modern characters. Even though all the novels attempt to display the Victorian notions of morality, they all suggest in their own ways that Victorians did not directly follow such morals themselves. This is why there are differences between class and gender. This is why there are moral and immoral creatures. If anything, along with reminding the readers the essentially proper way to life our lives, these novels are teaching us that the Victorians lived in dual worlds without true knowledge of morality.
Each chapter contains numerous sources which complement the aforementioned themes, to create a new study on cultural history in general but women specifically. Her approach is reminiscent of Foucault, with a poststructural outlook on social definitions and similar ideas on sexuality and agency. Power cannot be absolute and is difficult to control, however Victorian men and women were able to grasp command of the sexual narrative. She includes the inequalities of class and gender, incorporating socioeconomic rhetic into the
mortal decide, and act as God for God? These men in power made Hester look
The red hue is conjointly used in The Book of Revelations as the color of the seven headed dragon. “Then another sign appeared in heaven: and behold, a great red dragon having seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads were seven diadems” (Revelation 12:3). This dragon represents evil and esoteric darkness. The tenebrous serpent is Jane’s burden due to her extreme passions and unpleasant aunt. While crimson is not traditionally associated with light-dark imagery, the red room was selected to illustrate both Jane’s passion as a child and as the color of war and bloodshed. At this moment in the novel Jane is bleeding from the violent head wound she received from John Reed, this physical blow only begins to scratch the surface of the horrible war Jane has been fighting. The psychological and even sometimes physical war is fought for Jane’s equality and the right to love and be loved. Brontë progresses to illustrate the vile sanguine room. “Out of these deep surroundings shades rose high, and glared white, the piled-up mattresses and pillows of the bed, spread with a snowy Marseilles counterpane. Scarcely less prominent was an ample cushioned chair near the head of the bed, also white, and looking as I thought, like a pale throne” (Brontë 17). The white chair is symbolic of justice and the victory of incorruptibility. The allusion to the stark white demonstrates the innocence of Jane, against those charges vehemently thrust upon her by John Reed. This is further affirmed with the mention of the snowy throne. “And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God...And the sea...
Another issue that the writer seemed to have swept below the carpet is the morality of women. First, women seemed to have been despised until they started excelling in mass advertising. Also, the author seems to peg the success of the modern woman to clothing and design. This means that women and cloths are but the same thing. In fact, it seems that a woman’s sex appeal determine her future endeavours, according to the author. It is through this that I believe that the author would have used other good virtues of women to explain
...conflicts generated by the characters’ moral ambiguity. In Jane Eyre, as St. John Rivers’s passion for spiritually superior life, abiding by the principles of God, ultimately encourages him to coerce Jane into marriage, Jane finds the love without desire equally appalling as the love without principles. Nevertheless, at the same time, Jane acknowledges that her self-respect can be accomplished when she avoids neglecting her inner desires and accept herself in her entirety. St. John Rivers, the morally ambiguous character, plays a pivotal role in the novel as he reveals the meaning of the text through the conflict with the protagonist and develops the overall theme of the novel: the self-respect arises from appreciating oneself as a whole, not from concealing the inner Feeling from others.
in The House of Eld is shown at the end and The Persons of the Tale is
Flannery O’Connor’s short story, A Good Man is Hard to Find, cleverly conveys morality through various literary devices. Her allegory is heavily loaded with irony and cryptic motifs. The diction and dialogue in the story is constructed very deliberately. The story portrays individuals with distorted dispositions on morality and the concept of ‘a good man’. And through their interactions, O’Connor is able to convey their misguided dispositions.
Victorian single women in the middle and upper class were expected to explore charity and community service as a way to help the poor. The attitude of “ rich are busy, poor can wait” was supposed to be overturned, so that a “ poor are busy, rich can wait” attitude could alleviate the growing poverty within the lower class. Miss Crawley’s blatant disregard for the poor, in addition to her zealous behavior, would normally be shunned in Victorian society, but because of her status, her irate behavior is overlooked. Her love for French culture was unusual for a woman of her status, but French novels, along with various types of British “ sensation” novels, were a popular form of entertainment among Victorian women.
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...
This novel was one of the most radical books of the Victorian Era. It portrayed women as equals to men. It showed that it was possible that men could even be worse than women, through John and Jane. It taught the Victorians never to judge a book by its cover. The novel would not be as successful were it not for Charlotte Brontë’s talent in writing, and were it not for the literary devices employed.
When someone examines the case of Jack The Ripper, the victims are the most important part. The canonical five had one thing in common, the fact that they had all been involved in prostitution. When the press began to cover the killings and reported about the victims, what they wrote was consistent with the understanding of prostitution in the late-19th century. In order to understand beliefs that the Victorian people had about prostitution, on most understand the idea of the fallen women. Throughout this essay, I will, explain the idea of the fallen women, select parts of reports about the canonical five victims and explain how they are consistent with the understandings of prostitution during that time.
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.
In every society and community, everyone had a role to play which made their life work and made the economy go around. Although these roles were not pre-set, a person’s life can influence where in the community they fit. This is also true from criminals. Criminals weren’t just born to break the law, no one would chose to lead a life of a criminal, but instead, most were pushed to a certain point to take steps against the law. A life as a criminal was tough and hard, although their ethics were off and moral were low, most were just trying to survive. These certain things are true today, crime is still committed out of necessity. This can be caused because of poverty, when a person is too poor to provide themselves with the basic necessities of life they might turn to crime in order to get these certain things, such as food. This was especially true during the Victorian Era. One of the main differences though is the punishment
The industrialization of the nineteenth century was a tremendous social change in which Britain initially took the lead on. This meant for the middle class a new opening for change which has been continuing on for generations. Sex and gender roles have become one of the main focuses for many people in this Victorian period. Sarah Stickney Ellis was a writer who argued that it was the religious duty of women to improve society. Ellis felt domestic duties were not the only duties women should be focusing on and thus wrote a book entitled “The Women of England.” The primary document of Sarah Stickney Ellis’s “The Women of England” examines how a change in attitude is greatly needed for the way women were perceived during the nineteenth century. Today women have the freedom to have an education, and make their own career choice. She discusses a range of topics to help her female readers to cultivate their “highest attributes” as pillars of family life#. While looking at Sarah Stickney Ellis as a writer and by also looking at women of the nineteenth century, we will be able to understand the duties of women throughout this century. Throughout this paper I will discuss the duties which Ellis refers to and why she wanted a great change.
The Victorian Literary Movement that took place in England during the reign of Queen Victoria is what lead to the prominent factors that can be seen across the era of writing. From 1837 to 1901 Victorian Literature evolved from a heavy focus on proper behaviors, to a high level of rebellious acts against the proper Englishman. The code of conducts and push towards social advancements that once moved literature forward soon fell victim to change. This era started out in poetry and moved towards novels as being the dominate form of writing. The Victorian era, being so large in and of itself, has always been thought of as the time when Queen Victoria ruled. Through the years however, there are three major ideas that have been seen in writing that can really help to break this era down. As the audience for writers changed, the stigma of reading only for pleasure began to dissipate. People began to see how social advancement could be a positive thing, and from there aspired to be proper Englishmen. Authors such as Charles Dickens, William Thackeray, Charlotte and Emily B...