The Victorian Century Woman And A Victorian Woman Essay

What is the difference between a 21st century woman and a Victorian woman? Most women in the 21st century are exhilarating, lively, intelligent, passionate, and full of life, but who is to say that Victorian women were not? It is said that the typical Victorian woman must have â€Å"inherent qualities of femininity [such as:] emotion, passivity, submission, dependence, and selflessness† (Historical). Most of the Victorian women abode by these social standards and therefore could not speak their true thoughts or emotions. This is because they â€Å"were dominated by their sexuality, and were expected to fall silently into the social mold crafted by men, since they were regarded as irrational, sensitive, and dutiful† (Historical). A famous writer from that era, Charlotte Bronte, defied these social standards by creating characters and explaining, through them, her own thoughts and beliefs. The protagonist, Jane Eyre, was created to exemplify Bronte’s powerful emoti ons that would have been looked down upon in society. In Charlotte Bronte’s Victorian novel, Jane Eyre, Bronte uses constant description of fire to symbolize Jane’s emotions and her thoughts that could not have been expressed aloud. Bronte also uses fire to demonstrate the emotional aspect of Jane’s personal development throughout the novel. Overall, Bronte creates this symbol of fire to defy the social standards of typical and suppressed Victorian women by demonstrating their true passion and exuberant emotions. For oneShow MoreRelated Wilkie Collins’ The Woman In White: 19th Century Victorian femininity exposed through the accounts of multiple narrators1837 Words   |  8 PagesWilkie Collins’ The Woman In White: 19th Century Victorian femininity exposed through the accounts of multiple narrators Readers of nineteenth century British literature imagine typical Victorian women to be flighty, emotionally charged, and fully dependent on the men in their lives. One envisions a corseted woman who is a dutiful wife, pleasant entertainer, and always the model of etiquette. Wilkie Collins acknowledges this stereotype in his novel The Woman in White, but he contradicts thisRead MoreAnalysis Of Virginia Woolf s Woolf Essay1201 Words   |  5 Pagestwentieth centuries, women typically only held the following positions: wifehood and motherhood. On the other hand, a man’s job was to obtain a well-rounded education and become the head of the household—the breadwinner (â€Å"Women’s History in America† 1). Having a woman obtain the same level of education as her spouse was not encouraged by Victorian society. In fact, women were still being restricted to a certain level of education (Yuzuncu 18). Virginia Woolf, a prominent twentieth century writer, wasRead MoreThe Representation of Family in Nineteenth Century English Art1338 Words   |  6 PagesNineteenth Century English Art 19th century art gives us a great insight into Victorian society and culture, its hopes, fears, likes, dislikes, its ambitions and failures and its preconceptions and contradictions (The Victorian Web, 2003) . Each picture tells a story and provides us with a great record of Victorian culture and the thoughts and pre-occupations of people throughout the 19th century. The home and the family became the centre of 19th century life and theRead More Defining the Victorian Woman Essay1590 Words   |  7 PagesDefining the Victorian Woman      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   In the Victorian Age, there existed a certain ideology of what constituted the perfect Victorian woman. In the beginning of the eighteenth century, young girls began attending schools that offered basic skills such as reading, writing, and math. Manuals of etiquette and conduct instructed young girls in manners of society and the home (Basch 3). All of this prepared a young woman for marriage, which, in the nineteenth century, was putRead MoreFemale Sexuality Within Charlotte Bronte s Jane Eyre1689 Words   |  7 PagesEyre sets a strong example of female sexuality in the Victorian era. The title character confronts herself with her feelings for Mr. Rochester and her growing throughout the novel. She eventually finds the courage to embrace herself as she is. Jane’s independent mind and nature contradict the grain of Victorian society. She defies historical notions of female sexuality and Victorian codes and rules on sexuality. Brontà « reimagines the Victorian notion of marriage as she emphasizes Jane’s educationRead MoreVictorian Women: A Human Sacrifice Essay1465 Words   |  6 PagesIn herself the woman is nothing. The woman can only justify her presence on the earth by dedicating herself to others; through deliberate self-effacement, duty and sacrifice she will discover the identity and raison d#234;tre of which, by herself, she is deprived (Basch 5). Surrounded by such popular belief, the women of the Victorian age had to surrender their valuable possessions simply to avoid the wrath of the male dominated society. The female characters in A Dollhouse, by Henrik Ibsen,Read MoreThe Victorian And Post World War I1590 Words   |  7 Pagesdichotomy. The division between the two identities of the man and the woman permeated through the Victorian era and developed a template for prospective gender constructs. The Victorian woman, expected to preserve purity and domesticity, was portrayed with a repressed sexuality. Passive characterization supported the duty of child bearing as the female destiny and molded their identities into subordinate ones. At the turn of the 20th century in Great Britain, women began to partake in conventionally maleRead MoreWomens Rights during the Victorian Era1082 Words   |  5 PagesRights during the Victorian Era The Victorian era, spurred a momentary sequence of both women and men in search of a prosperous relationship regulated by the demanding etiquettes of the Victorian Society. If these desired qualities were not in possession, a man or woman could be labeled as ‘unsuitable’ in the positions of a husband or a wife. Women suffered mostly throughout the Victorian Era as rights were ceased and the rules and guidelines of society were placed. The Victorian Era caused the rightsRead MoreThe Story of an African Farm by Olive Schreiner812 Words   |  3 Pagessociety to equal the scope of a mans station. This facet of Schreiners best-known book is the reason that she has become famous as, a feminist who hated being a woman (Showalter, 195), and the reason that African Farm has endured as an early feminist manifesto. Like other novels written by women in the mid-to-late nineteenth century, Schreiners book attempts to expose the precarious position in society in which women of the time found themselves. Schreiner does not have a single character embodyRead MoreRole Of Women During The Victorian Era1664 Words   |  7 Pagesshaped by many movements and time periods. The Victorian Period had a huge impact on many aspects in British literature and culture. The roles of women were greatly affected during this time period. The question of what women could (or should) do attracted a lot of debate in the Victorian era. There are numerous characteristics about The Victorian Period, one of them being the transformation of Britain. From the1830’s to the 1870’s, as seen in Victorian Literature, Britain underwent changes that transformed