Dr. Jekyll and Victorian Literature
England during the reign of Queen Victoria was a very rigid, prudish, and regulated society, very different from the world today. In Victorian England, there were very strict rules which dictated the behavior of the citizenry. Those who wanted to be accepted in proper society were heavily restricted in every aspect of their lives. There were restrictions on alcohol and other substances which lesser individuals might succumb to. There were restrictions on interactions with other people, particularly members of the opposite sex or with those who were in a different social stratum than themselves. For example, a gentleman did not consort daily with a servant, nor would a common gentleman be likely to consort with members of royalty or landed gentry. Some men accepted these rules and others were incapable of conforming. Robert Louis Stevenson's The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde tells the story of a man who was unable to live with the conflict between his baser desires and the social dictum. The story exemplifies the Victorian era in its depiction of the servant/master relationship, the violence as presented in the plot, and of course the very duality of man that is at the center of the story's narrative.
Social standing is still...
Victorian Female Sexuality Victorian Sexuality: George Bernard Shaw's Mrs. Warren's Profession and Thomas Hardy's "The Ruined Maid" Women in the Victorian era must have suffered enormously under the massive double standards and the shameful image of a woman who wanted to be on her own. It is clear from examining the literature of the period how much discrimination was placed on women in the era. George Bernard Shaw's Mrs. Warren's Profession and
Victorian Poetry We may know an era by its poetry - or at least those eras for which poetry was still important. It might be difficult indeed to draw any conclusions about our own days from poetry because it has become so marginal to the lives and experiences of most 21st-century denizens. But for the Victorians, who still read poetry as if it had ability to change the world, poetry was
Alice in Wonderland as Victorian Literature -- Being a child in Victorian England was difficult. They had to behave like the adults did, follow all rules, they had to be seen but not heard. Children, however, are naturally curious; unable to sit for long periods of time, and as part of normal cognitive development, consistently asking questions about the world. In fact, childhood is the period when a child acquires
Meanwhile, Melmotte introduces Marie into the matrimonial arena at an extravagant ball for which, in hope of favors that will come, he gains the patronage of several duchesses and other regal individuals. Marie, believed to be the heiress of millions, has many highly placed but poor young noblemen asking for her hand in marriage. She falls in love with Sir Felix Carbury, who is the most shady of them all.
Gothic Literature Art, as defined by Plato in his paradigmatic work The Republic, serves both as a definition qua definition - a way of telling us what art should be in and of itself - and as an exemplar of other aspects of society. Plato was fundamentally concerned with the relationship between the world and art (including all media of art) because he argued passionately that the true purpose of literature
In the face of this awareness of human decline and despair the protagonist pledges love to his partner. This love is described as "true," which implies a love that is faithful and enduring and which can transcend the loss of faith in the world. This vision or poetic image of loss of faith in human nature can be seen, albeit in a different light, in the work of Browning. An
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