The Changing Function of Victorian Public Parks, 1840-1860 Tastefully laid out in grass intersected by broad gravel walks, and planted with a great variety of trees, shrubs and flowers, botanically arranged. The Arboretum, as these gardens are designated, is much frequented, and has already produced a perceptible effect in improving the appearance and demeanour of the working class. J.M. Milton, in reference to The Derby Arboretum, State of Large Towns, 1871 (l) This mid to late-19th century account of an early Victorian (English) public park illustrates the change of function and transformation of the Victorian public park from its original role as an upper-middle class observatory of Nature to its redefinition as this class' s social observatory of the lower classes. Between the years of 1840 and 1860, the public park's role in the eyes of England' s upper crust changed drastically due to the economic and political structure of Victorian England during this time and J.M. Milton's quote reflects this reality. In the mid-19th century, public parks in England began to emerge in response to a rise in pollution and lack of open space within newly industrialized urban centers in places such as London, Derby, Birmingham, and Manchester.(2) The first public parks were funded by private benefactors who were often times the owners of the factories that created these tainted environments. Influencing this environment-friendly attitude was the increased Victorian interest in the sciences (especially botany) due to nineteenth century contributions of both biologists and writers including the empirical work of Darwin's Origin of Species (1858) and Tennyson's literary work, InMemoriam (1867).(3) Many of these benefactors put money into the development of public walks and parks to give birth to not only a healthier urban setting, though, but also to create a façade that made them appear as altruistic philanthropists who were genuinely concerned with the social welfare of the urban-based factory workers who had little or no open space of their own.(4) However, while these upper-middle Victorian philanthropists appeared to provide the working class with the social and health ideals of the upper crust, the public environments that they created did not reflect this universal ideal of integrating the disparate classes together, but rather they were attempts to maintain the isolation and segregation the Victorian upper class desired. The English public park from 1840-1860 provides a physical reflection of this Victorian frame of mind in that it exemplifies one of the grave contradictions that defines the upper-middle class Victorian society which boasts for universality of its ideals for all yet is exclusionary toward the proletariats.
This anthropocentric theme continues throughout his narrative but is personified on a societal level. This matter is first introduced in the chapter “Polemic: Industrial Tourism and The National Parks.” In this chapter Abbey notes the expansionist nature of the industrial economy and how it is affecting the national parks. Abbey critiques arguments for uni...
Mary Poovey, “Domesticity and Class Formation: Chadwick’s 1842 Sanitary Report,” in Making a Social Body: British Cultural Formation, 1839-1864 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995), 115-131
The dominance of men in the Middle Ages is unethical, irrational, and dangerous; women are given few rights and the opportunity to earn rights is non-existent. The dictates to the dominance is formed by the internal combination of man’s personal desire and religious interference. In Geoffrey Chaucer’s, The Canterbury Tales, the combined perspectives’ on a haughty Pardoner and non-subservient wife is the stronghold of separation in moral roles. The moral roles between men and women are exemplified in the rankings of religious hierarchy for men are at the top and women towards the bottom. Even prestigious women, ones with noble connections, are subservient to men, but contradictorily have religious affiliations. The “Wife of Bath’s Tale” is a perfect example of defying man’s dominance and the “Pardoner’s Tale”, a problematic reasoning of why selfishness connects moreover to the manipulation. The frailties of religious reasoning however, will cause The Pardoner and the Wife of Bath to be separated from society’s morals.
Stiles, Anne. “The Rest Cure, 1873-1925.” BRANCH: Britain, Representation and Nineteenth-Century History. Ed. Dino Franco Felluga. Extension of Romanticism and Victorianism on the Net. Web. Accessed February 14th 2014.
Buzard, James, Linda K. Hughes. "The Victorian Nation and its Others" and "1870." A Companion to Victorian Literature and Culture. Ed. Herbert F. Tucker. Malden: Blackwell Publishers, 1999. 35-50, 438-455.
In the “Wife of Bath’s Prologue,” she begins her introduction by telling the other pilgrims that she has experience because she has been married five time. She believes more in experience rather than in written authority (that is , in texts written by men). The Wife of Bath argues with virginity: “Where can ye saye in any manere age that hye God defended mariage by expres word? I praye you, telleth me. Or Where comanded he virginitee?” [Norton,118] She asks where in the bible is virginity commanded? If God condemned virginity, there would be no children, and no population: “For hadde God comanded maidenhede, Thanne hadde he dampned wedding with the deede; And certes, if there were no seed ysowe, Virginitee, thanne wherof sholde it growe?” [Norton,118] She then says how she is not jealous of virgin women, and how she always has her man in her bed. The Pardoner, hearing this, interrupts her in disgust and tells her how he has been thinking about marriage but now is glad that he is a single guy.
Gavin, Hector. Sanitary Ramblings, being Sketches and Illustrations of Bethnal Green, a Type of the Condition of the Metropolis and other Large Towns. London: Cass, 1971.
Robson, Catherine, and Carol T. Christ. "The Victorian Age." The Norton Anthology English Literature. Ed. Stephen Greenblatt. 9th ed. Vol. E. New York: Norton &, 2012. 1130-137. Print.
It is, perhaps, a dated novel. However, it is important in its delineation of the social, political, and economic forces that were at work in England from 1835 -- 1850, and it is an attempt to bring them all into harmonious focus.
One of the most interesting and widely interpreted characters in The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer is the Wife of Bath. She has had five different husbands and openly admits to marrying the majority of them for their money. The wife appears to be more outspoken and independent than most women of medieval times, and has therefore been thought to symbolize the cause of feminism; some even refer to her as the first actual feminist character in literature. Readers and scholars probably argue in favor of this idea because in The Canterbury Tales, she uniquely gives her own insight and opinions on how relations between men and women should be carried out. Also, the meaning of her tale is that virtually all women want to be granted control over themselves and their relationship with their husbands, which seems to convince people that the Wife of Bath should be viewed as some sort of revolutionary feminist of her time. This idea, however, is incorrect. The truth is that the Wife of Bath, or Alisoun, merely confirms negative stereotypes of women; she is deceitful, promiscuous, and clandestine. She does very little that is actually empowering or revolutionary for women, but instead tries to empower herself by using her body to gain control over her various husbands. The Wife of Bath is insecure, cynical towards men in general, and ultimately, a confirmation of misogynistic stereotypes of women.
The world-renowned Canterbury Tales by the great Geoffrey Chaucer aims to magnify the controversial social injustices of gender roles in the medieval time period that consequently flow into today’s current modern society. One of the greatest social standing issues addressed throughout the poem includes the institution of marriage, and the particular viewpoint held by the character named the Wife of Bath. The Wife of Bath is notably shamed by her potential suitors and moralist peers, for her devious actions of taking advantage of her former husbands throughout her lengthy five marriages. However, Chaucer actually invites the audience to give a closer look at the overall flawed instuition of marriage
Another economist Douglas Irwin wrote a book titled “Against the Tide”. The book is an Intellectual History of Free Trade; it is an interesting, educational account of how free trade appeared and of how the concept of free trade has coped with two centuries of attacks and criticism.
The Public Culture of the Victorian Middle Class. Ritual and Authority in the English Industrial
The Wife of Bath had a strong argument in favour of marriage but is easy to fault. Her argument that marriage grows more virgins, while correct makes us wonder why she bore no children. And she also mentions the fact that “in wyfhood I wol use myn instrument” but her marriage did not seem to have stopped her from restraining her “Chamber of Venus from a good felawe.” The Wife of Bath confuses bigamy with remarriage and manipulates the arguments for remarriage to suit her purpose. Chaucer gives the Wife of Bath’s arguments less credibility
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