This lesson contains 22 slides, with interactive quiz, text slides and 3 videos.
Lesson duration is: 45 min
Items in this lesson
Introduction literature V4B
Victorian Age 1830 - 1900
& Gothic novels
Slide 1 - Slide
Remember Edgar Allan Poe?
the Tell-Tale heart
This was a Gothic short story, who can tel me why?
Slide 2 - Slide
what are we doing this period?
Highlights of 4 classic novels & their writers
Wuthering Heights (E. Brontë)
Frankenstein (M. Shelley)
The Curious Case of doctor Jekyl and mr Hyde (R.L. Stevenson)
The Picture of Dorian Gray (O. Wilde)
Slide 3 - Slide
Today: introduction to the 19th century
1800-1837
- “Regency era”
- King George III
- Mentally ill
- Son had to step in
- Took a loooong time
1873-1901
- Successsion of Queen Victoria
- Enormous industrial advancement
- Class differences
- The British Empire
- slavery
Slide 4 - Slide
The Romantic philosophy
Inspired by the French Revolution
Away from science and social constructs
Truth in
Intuition
Nature
Emotions
Human connection
Slide 5 - Slide
Victorian Era
Slide 6 - Mind map
The Victorian Age (1)
Started around 1830 ended when the queen died
Named after Queen Victoria (1837 - 1901)
Britain: great economic and political power
"The empire on which the sun never set"
Slide 7 - Slide
Slide 8 - Slide
The Victorian Age (2)
Sense of moral superiority (white man's burden)
From 1830s: Laws aimed at reform (Reform Bills, Poor Laws, educational laws)
Yet: period of great social inequality
rich vs poor ("the two nations")
men vs women ("Victorian double standard")
Slide 9 - Slide
Exploring the human mind
The Romantics explored the mind & human experience
Experiments with
Love
Fear
Opiates
Travel
In order to find truth & meaning
Slide 10 - Slide
Wealth and class
High production
The colonies
Working class
Child labour
Slide 11 - Slide
Punishing the poor
Poverty was seen by the upper class as:
A social problem
A sign of laziness
Something to be fixed or punished
Workhouses
Separating families
Forced sterilisation
Slide 12 - Slide
Upper class
Mostly in the countryside
No perspective on life for the poor
Decadence and hypocrisy
Opium addiction & prostitution
Slide 13 - Slide
Position of women in Victorian Times
*Poor women had to work
*Bad living conditions
* no rights to vote, husband was the boss
Difference between the classes:
*Rich women were supposed to be "the Angel of the House"
*Well-furnished houses & enough food, servants
* no rights to vote, husband decided on everything
Slide 14 - Slide
Victorian literature - the novel
The age of the novel
Growing audience for "true stories"
Greater wealth (rise of the middle classes)
Better education (rise in literacy)
Instalment system (novels published in serial form)
Slide 15 - Slide
Gothic novel
The adjective gothic describes something that is characterized by mystery, horror, and gloom — especially in literature. Gothic literature combines the genres of romance and horror. Some famous writers of Gothic fiction include Charlotte Bronte, Mary Shelley and Edgar Allan Poe.
Slide 16 - Slide
key elements
- fear, horror, death, gloom
romantic elements (nature, individuality and high emotion)
- The uncanny
- The sublime
- crisis
- the supernatural and the real
Slide 17 - Slide
Slide 18 - Video
Let's have a look at Wuthering Heights
Slide 19 - Slide
Slide 20 - Video
let's have a look at our reader!
read pages 3 to 5 and underline any words you don't know!
Done? have a look at the character list and go online to find more information about the characters!
Lesson duration is: 45 min
