Victorian Age Flashcards
Which were the main values of the middle class?
Capitalism in economy, Positivism in philosophy and Naturalism in art.
What did the decadent artist hate?
They rejected the cult of money and the hypocrisy of the middle class(what came to be known as the Victorian comprise).
Aesthetic movement?
The Aesthetic movement professed the cult of beauty as the supreme value in life, art must not be influenced by social or moral values.
The model of decadent life was des esseintes, the main character of A rebours written by joris Karl Huysmans. Des esseintes decides to leave society to dedicate his life to the cult of beauty and pleasure, he tries to build a world of absolute perfection. Their motto was art for art’s sake which derived from Gautier’s theory.
What is the picture of Dorian gray about?
The picture of Dorian gray is about the cult of beautiful things ,the search for pleasure and art as the supreme value of life. Dorian is indifferent to social and moral issues to pursue his own aesthetic goals ‘‘life was the greatest of arts’’. In this novel we can find mysterious and horror elements: the ending is similar to Stevenson’s novel.
What is the moral of the picture of Dorian gray?
There’s a price to pay if you live a life of sin and pleasure.
What is the plot of the picture of dorian gray?
Dorian is a beautiful young man and he’s part of the best London society. Everybody loves. Lord Henry Wotton introduces him to a new hedonistic philosophy based on the cult of pleasure and happiness. His friend Basil, an artist, paints a portrait of him, Dorian is so in love with his own image that he wishes to never age. His wish is granted and while he stays young and beautiful his imagine is scarred by his dissolute life. Dorian disgusted by the painting tries to destroy it but he dies. He turns into an old man while the picture goes back to its original beauty.
What is the definition of dandy?
A dandy is usually a man from the middle class who acts like an aristocrat . He wants his life to be his masterpiece.
Oscar Wilde’s life?
Oscar Wilde was born in Dublin in 1854, he attended Oxford university where he encountered for the first time the aesthetic movement led by Walter Pater(studies in the history of the Renaissance). Thanks to his legendary wit he became known among the upper classes. He married Constance Lloyd and they had 2 kids. His career came to an end when he was imprisoned because of his gay relationship with Lord Alfred Douglas. When he got out of jail he was a broke and aged man. He died alone in Paris.
What did Oscar Wilde write?
He wrote a series of fables, but his literary success came with a novel, the picture of Dorian gray. Then he started writing novels: lady windermere’s fan, a woman of no importance, an ideal husband and the importance of being Ernest. He also wrote Salomé which was considered scandalous and had to be staged in Paris.
What is the strange case of dr. Jekyll and mr Hyde about?
It deals with the ethical problems raised by the progress of science during the Victorian. It also deals with the theme of the double personality and of the evil within man. Jekyll’s double life strikes at the core of the Victorian compromise. It also shows a new awareness of the human mind anticipating psychoanalysis.
The strange case of dr. Jekyll and mr. Hide’s plot?
Dr. Jekyll is a known scientist, obsessed with the idea of diving his evil side from his good one. He discovers a drug that causes this division and turns him into a new person, mr. Hide, who’s mean and ugly. Hyde’s evil nature grows to the point where Jekyll can’t control him anymore( triumph of evil over good).Seeing no way out of this situation he decides to commit suicide and leaves a letter in which he explains his case.
What elements of the strange case can be considered a crime story?
- the title: case refers to a police case or a medical case
- the settings: it is set in a foggy London and most of the scenes take place at night
- the scattered clues present throughout the novel.
How many narrators are there in the strange case of Dr Jekyll …
There are three narrators: third person narrator who is not omniscient, dr Lanyon and Dr Jekyll
Stevenson’s life?
He was born in Edinburg, he went to Edinburg university where he decided to be a writer. He always rejected his Calvinist education and led a bohemian life for a while. He suffered from tuberculosis throughout his life, which killed him while he lived in Samoa. He visited Hawaii,Tahiti and Australia.
What did stevenson write?
He wrote an adventure novel, Treasure Island but his literary success came with the strange case of Dr Jekyll and mr hide. He also wrote Scottish stories such as kidnapped and the master of Ballantrae.
Wuthering Heights’ plot?
Mr Earnshaw of Wuthering Heights, and old house on the Yorkshire Moor, brings home a foundling. He names him Heathcliff because of his violent temper, he is only calm when Catherine(daughter) is around. When Earnshaw dies, Hindley becomes the master of the master of the house and degrades Heathcliff. When Catherine decides to marry Edgar Linton, H disappears. When he comes back he’s wealthy but still socially excluded, his only goal is to destroy Linton and Hindley. Catherine had died of child birth so he only seems to live for his future union with Cathrin in death.
What is Wuthering heights about?
It describes the clash between human passion and social convention. For the first time ever passionate love appears in Victorian literature. Catherine, the main character of the Novel is oppressed by social convention, she’s in love with Heathcliff but she knows that marrying him would mean social failure.
Who are the narrators in Wuthering heights?
Mr. Lockwood and nelly dean which give a shifting point of view.
Emily Bronte’s life?
Emily Brontë was born in 1818 from an Anglican priest and a Cornish woman. His father changed the family name to Brontë as a sign of admiration to Horatio Nelson who was duke of Bronte in Sicily. She was inspired by the landscape of desolate Yorkshire moors. Emily and two of her sisters published a book of poetry Poems by Currer, Ellis and Action Bell. Imagination, passion and feelings and the need to go beyond social conventions are very important to Emily.
What did Emily Bronte write?
She wrote a collection of poems with her sisters and a novel, Wuthering Heights.
What is coketown?
Coketown is a typical industrial Victorian town, in the north of England. The air is polluted by smoke and ash, life is hard and monotonous. It recalls an unnatural world.
Hard times’ plot?
Thomas Gradgrind is a teacher and a father and he teaches his own children nothing but facts. He suggests his daughter Louisa to marry Bounderby, a rich banker, she only agrees to marry him in order to help her brother Tom. Tom though starts stealing from the bank and he hides in a circus. In the end grandgrind realises his mistakes caused by the utilitarian philosophy.
What is hard times about?
Hard times is set in coketown, and industrial city in the north of England. Dickens criticises the inhumanity of the factory and of the utilitarian philosophy.
Dickens’ life?
Dickens was born in Portsmouth in 1812, when he was ten he moved to London where he was forced to work in a factory which traumatised him. At the age of 14 he worked in a legal office where he got to know institution and law better. He became a journalist and adopted the pen name Boz and became extremely famous worldwide.
What did Dickens write?
He was aware of social injustice and the poverty and suffering of the masses. An example is Oliver Twist, an orphan who lives in a workhouse and joins a gang of young thieves. He attacks the cruelty of the factory system and of the principles of utilitarianism. Most of his novels are about growing up - Bildungsroman. His novels are set both in the industrial settings in northern England but they’re set also in London. His characters are mainly from the middle class and lower classes and are divided in good and bad.
What did Darwin change in literature?
Thanks to Darwin’s theories, Realism studied the influence of environment on man, with a predilection for the poor and evil side of society as a reaction to the triumphant Victorian ideology.
Who is Thomas Hardy?
Thomas hardy rejected the Victorian optimism based on progress and adopts the notion of immanent will. His stories are set in the fictional rural region of South-West England. He wrote Tess of the D’Urbervilles, which has love as its central theme. He thought that Character and Environment shaped man’s destiny.
Which social reforms passed during the Victorian age?
- the Mines Act, which forbade children and women to work in mines
- the Emancipation of religious sects which allowed Catholics to hold government jobs and work in university
- the Trade Union Act which legalised the unions of workers
Where did Britain’s modern-day parties evolve?
The conservatives evolved from the tories while the liberals evolved from the Whigs.
Reform bills during queen Victoria’s reign?
- First Reform Bill satisfied the middle class
- Second Reform Bill gave town workers the right to vote but excluded miners and farmers
- Third reform Bill the suffrage was extended to all male workers
How did England develop during the Victorian Age?
Free trade was adopted which helped the British economy grow. The locomotive was invented, railways developed and steamboat services linked Britain to America and the rest of the world. Gas lighting was introduced in London and the telegraph was invented by Samuel morse.
Poor Law?
Because of the Poor Law the poor were amassed in workhouses which were like jails(they’d get food and shelter in return for unpleasant jobs). In large cities workers lived in urban slums which were bleak and overpopulated.
What was the Victorian compromise?
The Victorians promoted a code of values that wasbased on personal duty, hard work, respectability and charity. Sexuality was generally repressed in its public and private forms.
