Essays on Victorian Era

In the Victorian era, women were expected to live by certain rules and virtues and had a pretty rigid role in society. They were to bear children, do housework and to be selfless, submissive and pure. They were considered to be the weaker sex and...

The Victorian Era is defined by the societal alterations that developed over the time period. This is particularly true when concerning wives, mothers, domesticity, and the like. Throughout portions of Anne Bronte’s The Tenant of Wildfell Hall the relationship between Helen and her aunt, Peggy...

Anne Bronte’s The Tenant of Wild fell Hall is a novel in which the plights of the female protagonist overlap with the issues faced by the majority of women in the Victorian Era of England. The book raises questions of the Brontës’ family’s sisters own...

In George Eliot’s Daniel Deronda, a theme of subjugation through observation becomes a unifying tie between Jews and women, two primary categories of characters in the novel. Eliot’s female characters provide a complex commentary on the performance demanded of women in their public lives, a...

Charlotte Bronte wrote the victorian novel Jane Eyre with the intention to tell the story of how a seemingly mere governess, Jane Eyre, managed to challenge the notion of what a conventional woman during the victorian era was capable of accomplishing with sheer courage. Jane...

Victorians were very much concerned with the roles assigned to gender in society, particularly those roles that were customary for women. From this concern and fascination, the “Woman Question” arose, a debate that touched on issues of sexual inequality in politics, economic life, education, and...

Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861) “Books and dreams were what I lived in and domestic life only seemed to buzz gently around, like bees about the grass,” At a time, when poetry was considered a noble art worthy of a man’s intellectual supremacy, a handful of...

Cuff links are one of the most popular accessories for men to match their suits or black ties on a special occasion. Women these days are also wearing cuff links to accessorize their plain white, blue or black long-sleeved blouses. Vintage cuff links are one...

In The Vicar of Wakefield, although Charles Primrose portrays almost flawless virtue, he retains two major flaws, pride and obstinacy, which lead to many complications in his family’s life. The Primrose family suffers from the retribution of these flaws until they are finally purged when...

Mary Ann Evans, born in Warwickshire, England, wrote the novel The Mill on the Floss during the Victorian era of 1859 under the pseudonym George Eliot. In keeping the Victorian mindset, the novel encompasses many stereotypes of gender roles for its main characters. Evans received...

Abraham Stoker was born in Clontarf, Ireland, on November 8, 1847. He was a sickly child, bedridden for much of his boyhood until about the age of seven. As a youth, Stoker was intrigued by the stories told him by his mother, Charlotte. Especially influential...

The Odd Women, by George Gissing, is a story that centers upon the decisions that people make in life and the outside factors that influence these decisions. Gissing looks at the situations of five different women and utilizes their lives to make observations about both...

The first few books of Daniel Deronda focused on Gwendolen Harleth, who shines as a self-centered, domineering young woman. In becoming trapped by marriage to Grandcourt, she develops growing fascination with Daniel, an attraction that began with their encounter in the opening pages of the...

Within the span of British literature, it should come as no surprise that the themes and motifs which appear in written works evolve in nature. Times, cultures, and peoples change, so it is only natural that the things they write down change as well. An...

Thomas Hardy’s Tess portrays a central character who is at the mercy of both circumstance and fate. Tess, by Victorian definition, is a fallen woman and, as such, not accountable for her own fate. Numerous critics — Rosemary Morgan, Norman Page, and Terrence Wright among...