Victorian age & gothic novels introduction V4

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Introduction literature V4B

Victorian Age 1830 - 1900

& Gothic novels

Remember Edgar Allan Poe?

the Tell-Tale heart 

This was a Gothic short story, who can tel me why?

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)

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

The Romantic philosophy

Inspired by the French Revolution

Away from science and social constructs

Truth in

Intuition

Nature

Emotions

Human connection

Victorian Era

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"

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")

Exploring the human mind

The Romantics explored the mind & human experience

Experiments with

Love

Fear

Opiates

Travel

In order to find truth & meaning

Wealth and class

High production

The colonies

Working class

Child labour

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

Upper class

Mostly in the countryside

No perspective on life for the poor

Decadence and hypocrisy

Opium addiction & prostitution

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

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)

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.

key elements

- fear, horror, death, gloom

romantic elements (nature, individuality and high emotion)

- The uncanny

- The sublime

- crisis

- the supernatural and the real

Let's have a look at Wuthering Heights

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!