Masculinity In Treasure Island Essay

The Victorian Era is a remarkable time in history with the blooming industries, growing population, and a major turnaround in the fashion world. This era was named after Queen Victoria who ruled United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from June 1837 until she passed away 64 years later in January 1901.When Victoria received the crown, popular respect was strikingly low. The lack of respect for the position she had just come into did not diminish her confidence. Instead she won the hearts of Britain with her modesty, grace, straightforwardness, and her want to be informed on the political matters at hand even though she had no input. She changed Britain into a flourishing country. She also impacted how women interacted

Women in British society during 1931 were expected to be married and look after the children. Older woman who worked in professions such as a teacher, (commonly in primary schools) were regarded with the derogatory term, “spinster,” meaning they were passed the age a woman was supposed to be married, and it seemed unlikely that the ever would.. This viewpoint was mostly because of how much effect Queen Victoria’s words had. “Let women be what God intended, a helpmate for man, but with totally different duties and vocations.” Even some women agreed, considering political and other social equality among sexes to be improper and a sin.

The Victorian Era women was vastly different than the female we think of nowadays. Women during that time were expected to fulfill more of a domestic and motherly role, one that stayed at home and took care of the house. They were confined within the private sphere of the world while the men toiled away in the public sphere. The ideal Victorian women was described as:

Carter claims that “Jim was a first in American fiction- a recognition that the slave had two personalities; “the voice of survival within a white slave culture and the voice of the individual: Jim, the father and the man.” Twain uses several examples to show that Jim, the voice of slavery, the voice of survival and the individual, faces difficulties and pain. In Huckleberry Finn, one small example of the individual in pain, trying to survive, is where Jim hides while Huck is in town. “I poked into the place away and come to a little open patch as big as a bedroom all hung around with vines, and found a man laying there asleep- and, by jings, it was my old Jim!” (143). This was the moment where readers could truly realize the conditions that the individual had to face while escaping slavery. This is the moment where people should feel sympathetic for

In novels, characters are written with care and a purpose with every word. These actions and words are carefully welded together to form a characters that go through development and have emerging traits. A character can be clever, athletic or mindful in social situations. For example in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, his characters are purposely written in a specific way, so that they fit into the story’s plot and insure that the readers interest is maintained. Yet when Mark Twain wrote The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Jim was not meant to be a character to catch the reader's eye. In the adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Jim is written an undynamic and flat character, who is always dependent on others.

Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is occupied with the mean lies and scams of the duke and the dauphin. The novel shows how people who look dignified easily cheat people who are innocent. The lies spoken by Huckleberry Finn are to save the innocent victim Jim from the harsh and cruel hands of slave hunters. Huckleberry Finn tells the slave hunters that his father suffers from smallpox to avoid them seeing Jim.

Late Victorian and Edwardian’s idea of masculinity was influenced by domesticity. Manliness was above all a moral attribute,

Social standing, and moral values were vital elements in Victorian society, and the fundamental doctrine of establishing this ideology, began at home. The home provided a refuge from the rigour, uncertainty, anxiety, and potential violence of the outside world. (P, 341) A woman’s role was to provide a safe, stable, and well-organised environment for their husbands and families. However, change was on the horizon with an underlying movement of business and domestic changes both home and abroad, with industrialization, and the suffragist movement. Women were beginning to gain autonomy and began to grasp their opportunities, thus significantly curtailing male supremacy and the definable acceptable ‘role’ of the woman.

In the Victorian period “…the childless single woman was a figure to be pitied.” (Abrams. 2001). It was considered to be outside of social hierarchy not to be a part of the domestic scene for women, “domesticity and motherhood were portrayed as sufficient emotional fulfilment for women.” (Abrams. 2001). In reality this was not the case and the role of motherhood and domesticity clearly did not sufficiently fulfil a woman’s emotional desires and requirements, situated in a suppressed, dominant patriarchal society ruled by men. In fact patriarchal society subjugated the role of women; they were seen as lesser than, and required to stay on the domestic

During the Victorian Era in 1837 the period that was ruled by Queen Victoria I, women endured many social disadvantages by living in a world entirely dominated by men. Around that time most women had to be innocent, virtuous, dutiful and be ignorant of intellectual opinion. It was also a time associated with prudishness and repression. Their sole window on the world would, of course, be her husband. During this important era, the idea of the “Angel in the House” was developed by Coventry Patmore and used to describe the ideal women who men longed. Throughout this period, women were treated inferior to men and were destined to be the husbands “Angel in the House”.

Instead of getting angry at his situation he decided to use this time to write literature and this turned into great work (‘Robert Louis Stevenson-early life’). Jim also took advantage of his situation by embracing his work and doing it to the best of his ability. He learned responsibility and contentment through his childhood. Although Jim was a bit sheltered and easily frightened, his responsibility helped him later on in the book. Because Jim was so sheltered and attached to his parents all his life, he did not hesitate when given the opportunity to go on the big treasure adventure (‘Jim Hawkins- character’). This willingness for adventure relates back to Robert Louis Stevenson.

During Victoria’s reign there were changes of great importance economically, socially, and technologically. London had a rapid growth from a 2 million to a 6.5 million population by the time of Queen Victoria’s death, due to a significant change. As a result of the industrialization, instead of a life based on ownership of lands, England was transformed to a modern economy. Based on trade and manufacturing they changed from an agrarian society in 1800’s with 75% rural to an industrial society by the 1900’s with a 75% modern urban economy. Socially, there were extreme discriminations especially between men and women. Consequently, women were not eligible for a higher education, employment and were denied the right to vote. Gradually and by the end of Victoria’s reign, women won significant political and legal rights. These included a greater access to education, the custody of children, economic independence and were able to work under fair conditions. Definitely, the Victorian Period was an era of dramatic changes that highly developed England’s power and

Following the death of his father, Jim took this opportunity to discover himself on the open sea. It was at this time that Jim would embark on a journey he would never forget. “I said good-bye to my mother and the cove where I had lived since I was born, and the dear old Admiral Benbow” (Stevenson 59-60).

Jim Hawkins, the protagonist, is the primary narrator of the novel. He is the son of the owner of the Admiral Benbow inn. His connection to piracy commences in the beginning of his narrative with the “arrival of a mysterious old sailor named Bill[y] Bones at the Admiral Benbow” (Gale). From then on, Jim meets the other ship

In the Victorian era, women were expected to fulfill specific gender roles. Women possessed feminine qualities such as being nurturing, pure and docile, while men were expected to be bold and independent.