children, women and classes in Victorian Times

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• Middelbare school
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• Leerjaar 6

Victorian Times 

Victorian Era

Position of women in Victorian Times

*Poor women had to work: nannies/servants/  work in     factories / prostitutes.   

                      

*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

What about children?

What was the position of children during the Victorian Era?

In the different classes?

Girls/boys

Health-wise?

rich children

raised by a nanny & spoiled 

hardly any contact with their parents

not allowed to eat at the same table

educated

needed to marry a person from the same class

In your reader on Victorian Times p. 17

19th century society

Optimism, for the middle & upper classes

Pessimism for the lower classes & poor people

Industrial + economic growth Economic recession: surplus of labour

- Bad living conditions lower classes/poor

- Reform bills to improve situation labourers (child labour)

Max. 48 hours if 9 years old

Chimney sweepers

 Emancipation: women's rights

Sufragettes: women's & votes

1918 :allowed to vote if 30 years old

1928: 21 years old

Right to vote for women & lower classes

World Power: the British Empire

Queen of Britain

Empress of India

Imperialism: GB doubled its size

The Sun never sets on the British Empire!

Anglican Church, very religious + high morals Religious doubts, Darwin "Origin of Species", no longer only Adam and Eve story, but evolutionary ideas

Lower classes 

- Bad living conditions lower classes/poor 

- Reform bills to improve situation labourers (child labour)

Max. 48 hours if 9 years old

Bit of education...

Bad health circumstances

Sufragettes: women's & votes

1918 :allowed to vote if 30 years old

1928: 21 years old

Right to vote for women & lower classes

Where in the UK are the Midlands?

• Scotland
• North West
• North East
• Yorkshire / Humber
• East Midlands
• West Midlands
• Wales
• Anglia
• South East
• London
• South West

Women's rights

Emancipation: women's rights

in GB called Sufragettes: rights & votes for women 

1918 :allowed to vote if 30 years old

1928: vote at 21 years old

Rights to vote for women & lower classes

Types of jobs for poor women

servants

nanny's

governesses

prostitutes

What was Great Britain named in the 19th century

1. The Empire where the sun never sets
2. Old America
3. The Indian Empire
4. The Commonwealth Empire

What do you know about Darwin?

1. He has invented a new type of religion
2. His has written the evolutionary theory
3. He was the Prime Minister from 1850-1854
4. He was Queen Victoria's brother-in-law

Who is this person?

Female writers in the 19th century 

The Brontë sisters:

Charlotte, Emily and Anne

A quick guide to the Brontë sisters 

What type of girls were these Brontë sisters:

little contact/shy

Emily & sisters had sharp characters

Did not opt for marriage, governesses

wrote under a pseudonyms, why?

- Mr Lockwood: new tenant, curious and uninvited, but visits WH twice

- Mr Heathcliff : landlord of WH and TG, bit harsh + unfriendly + no manners

- Difference between these two houses: 

Wuthering Heights & Thruscross Grange

wild + sheltered

up hill + in valley 

passionate + quiet

dark + light

heavy furniture + elegant furniture

Questions p. 37

1. Britain was a rich and powerful empire with many colonies where the sun never set.

2. Upper/middle class were rich, had large mansions, enough and expensive food, changes in the structure of English society.

Working class: bad house, bad food, low income, hard work

Questions p. 37

3. Shocking development was mr. Darwin's evolutionary theory. Some people saw it as the illustration of progress & perfectibility, others questioned the very foundation of religion itself. Many discussions about the evolutionary theory.

Questions p. 37

4. 

5. Isolated lives on the moors

www.sparknotes.com

Theme of this novel

revenge

precariousness of social class

destructiveness of love that never changes

Wuthering Height excerpt

* p. 37

* do 1-13 questions in your reader

Make a drawing of the differences between Thruscross Grange + Wuthering Heights

summary WH

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rM-zN4sqOAo (summary WH in American)

Charles Dickens' ideas

criminals are made not born

he was closely concerned with every day life (poverty etc.)

his father had debts, was sent to debters prison

the rest of the family to the workhouse

Charles had to work in a shoeblackening factory as a 12 -year-old boy

The Workhouse

Orphans, the elderly, sick, disabled or unemployed in Victorian London, then you may have found yourself in the workhouse. Until the Poor Law Amendment Act 1834, the treatment of the poor had not changed since the 1601 Poor Law.

Special for Dickens' novels (I)

serialised stories in journals (= installments)

cliffhangers

literature available for a wider audience 

(cheap + information for people from middle/higher classes )

ironical/satirical (subtle irony)

absurd characters and absurd names

Special for Dickens's novels (II)

flat and vivid characters

most of the novels took place in the busy city

workhouse, childlabour

mostly male characters

Oliver Twist

* Poor boy born in the Workhouse

* Sold for 5 pounds to a coffin maker

* Runs away to London

* Where he is "found" by an older boy

*  Brought to Mr Fagin, the leader of a boys' pickpocketing gang

* Lots of (sometimes criminal) activities happen

* Finally there is a happy end...

Charles Dickens 

* Read exerpt of Oliver Twist in your reader

* Find a summary on "Oliver Twist" and read it

* Read the PP about Dickens in your reader

* Finish the questions on Charles Dickens in your reader

subtle irony

Subtle irony: not immediately obvious irony. Use of words to convey a meaning that is

      the opposite of the real meaning.

example:

...where on a rough, hard bed, he sobbed himself to sleep. Novel illustration of the tender laws of England. They let the paupers go to sleep.

Check answers questions 14-20

Question 15. Is Dickens representative of the period ( Victorian era) he lived in?

    He is a clear representative of the Victorian period. His father spent too much money

    had large debts and was sent to prison for that. The rest of the family was sent to

    The WORKHOUSE. BAD LIVING CIRCUMSTANCES. Charles(12) had to work in a shoe

    blackening factory for three years CHILD LABOUR

. DICKENS EXPERIENCED THESE TERRIBLE CIRCUMSTANCES HIMSELF 

    He wrote for his own class (identification) and to make sure richer people

    also learned about bad circumstances of the poor classes.

ENKELE GOUDEN TIPS:

*  Alles wat in de reader staat, ook uitleg en achtergrond info over b.v. schrijver of tijdperk

* Lees en onthoudt alle verhalen in de reader (extra begrip: samenvatting OT  & WH goed lezen)

* Belangrijk tekstdelen te  herkennen, bv. Macbeth

* Vetgedrukte delen in de reader extra belangrijk!

*Alle vragen + antwoorden en PowerPoints uit de reader uit je hoofd leren

* Ken soorten sonnetten: Italian/Petrarchan, Spenserian, English/ Shakespearean & uitleg 

*assonance, alliteration, run-on-lines, caesura or full stop, subjectmatter etc.

*Shakespearean plays, b.v. Tragedies, comedies, history plays with themes en een voorbeeld

*Pay attention to comic relief, flaw in character, blank verse, soliloquys, type of theatres and stage in those days etc.