The Setting for Thomas Hardy's The Withered Arm and Other Wessex Tales

The 19th century strict victorian hierarchy places a colossal importance on one’s social standing. Wealth and status prevail over one’s virtue, as an aristocrat is taught to associate poverty and the lower class with inferiority and ignorance. As she grows up a penniless orphan in a wealthy estate, Jane Eyre’s social mobility between classes allows her to endure prejudice as well as display it. Jane lives with her affluent cousins and aunt, and despite her own lack of wealth, Jane is taught that the poor are despicable and unworthy people. As Jane grows and matures throughout her lifetime, she must make her own judgements regarding caste. Throughout her novel, Charlotte Bronte of Jane Eyre criticizes the rigid class system and exposes

However, despite changes, the literary world remained predominantly male, and women writers not encouraged, or taken seriously. Consequently, to counteract this Emily Bronte published her novel Wuthering Heights, under the male pseudonym of Ellis Bell. Wuthering Heights is the story of domesticity, obsession, and elemental divided passion between the intertwined homes of the Earnshaw’s residing at the rural farmhouse Wuthering Heights, and the Linton family of the more genteel Thrushcross Grange. This essay will discuss how the language and narrative voices established a structural pattern of the novel, and how these differing voices had a dramatic effect on the interpretation of the overall story.

Britain’s Victorian Era was one in which the status of a person affected how someone lived their whole life. Not only in how they lived, but also in appearance, how they presented themselves, and how others treated them. In the novel Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontё, socioeconomic status and how it affected the citizens of England is shown through the character descriptions of John Reed, Jane Eyre -the main character-, and Miss Abbot.

In Charlotte Bronte’s novel, Jane Eyre, Bronte seemingly condemns the existing social hierarchy. Not only are the characters who are most concerned with the allure of fortune and rank portrayed as either deceitful or unethical, but even characters who’ve accepted their means of poverty and demonstrate honest moral natures are mocked. Rather than use the normal class structures, the book suggests that a person of impoverished means can be viewed as socially respectable with the condition that they maintain a sincere desire to better both oneself and their means of living.

In Pride and Prejudice Austen offers up commentary on a variety of themes — prejudice, family, marriage, class, and so on. Of all the themes, perhaps none is better developed than that of Pride. Pride and Prejudice is regarded as a brilliant piece of social commentary, offering a vivid peek into the British Regency life in 1813. The social milieu of Austen’s Regency England was particularly stratified, and class divisions were rooted in family connections and wealth. In her work, Austen is often critical of the assumptions, pride, and prejudices of upper-class England. Austen often satirizes England’s prideful individuals; the England she depicts is one in which social mobility is limited, and class-consciousness and pride are relatively strong. It seems that pride is what hinders the characters from revealing their potentially best nature.

Education for women has evolved throughout the years, and has not always been open to women like it is in today’s society, where more than half of the enrolled students in educational courses are women. Wollstonecraft blames education for the condition of women, and the moral conduct of chastity. Education is at the center of Wollstonecraft’s arguments in the work, it is clear that she wants all women to have the same access to the education that men have, “men, in their youth, are prepared for professions; whilst women, on the contrary, have no other scheme to sharpen their faculties”, whether it be that women are not interested in getting an education when given the opportunity, or not given the opportunity at all, women did not continue on to an education, instead they continued on in their life, many times which was marriage (Wollstonecraft 232). Wollstonecraft, a privileged woman of her time, was given the opportunity to get an education, something that was rarely offered to women, and argued that if women were given the same opportunity as her and that of men, there would be more distinguished and productive women. Because women are only taught that of small surface things, such as what their duties around the home were and how to make their husband happy by doing what they were told.

People often say “money makes the world go ‘round”. Money brings power, and power brings action. Elitism has a constant trend throughout history. Jane Eyre learns this lesson quite well in her life in the Victorian era. She constantly floats on the fringes of different social classes, allowing readers to see the revolution that really emphasizes the materialist nature of the book. Her journey towards independence represents her ability to free herself from the oppressive hierarchy of the patriarchal, elitist Victorian era. Jane represents the Marxist nature of the book which bases life on socioeconomic status and not ideology. She also represents the Marxist cycle of contradiction, tension, and revolution. Brontë wrote of a society that affirmed the power of the upper-class male. Jane Eyre is able to overcome this patriarchal hierarchy of social classes because she does not live in a definite socioeconomic status.

When Jane Austen placed her novels in the leisured English middle class, it was in a society she knew best: a world in which ladies did charity, paid morning calls on each other whilst men were sportsmen, hunting, socializing, and developing their wealth. Her scale has already been reflected in discussion of her use of places which serve as settings, with an ideal of three or four families in a country village. Characteristic of this select social world are lavish rendezvouses, whose attendees, through their interactions, reveal the Georgian ideals on status, wealth, and gender. Even more is said about the Georgian society that Austen lived in through the speech, and more specifically, the manners, of this class. Such decorum provided a way

Throughout this essay , I will be looking at the theme of social class in Jane Austen’s work ; critically analysed by Juliet McMaster, a chapter taken from ‘The Cambridge Companion to Jane Austen’, edited by Edward Copeland and Juliet McMaster. Jane Austen's novels at first glance tell a story of romance, set within the landowning society amidst country estates, and their cultivation of tea parties, social outings, and extravagant balls; ladies frolicking in flowing gowns through decorated rooms, and men deliberating over their game of whist. The storybook romance usually unfolds in these familiar settings, and inevitably involves the conflict of two lovers separated by differences in social class, and the resulting influence of the

Jane Austen is a famous 19th century British novelist whose beloved work has continued to live on for hundreds of years. Jane grew up in a rural middle class family which consisted of eight siblings. Out of them, she was especially close to her sister, Cassandra. Jane had an intimate, nurturing home life where literature was a common interest. Her parents provided education for all the children, although Jane and Cassandra had a less extensive one than their brothers. The gender roles of the time period portrayed women’s careers as wives and mothers. Nevertheless, they had five years of formal education starting with studies at a boarding school at Oxford. Due to a typhus outbreak, the girls were sent home, and they registered

In Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights, Catherine’s marriage choice is heavily influenced by the patriarchal attitudes and gender conventions of her society. During 19th century Britain, the ideology of separate spheres for men and woman was most commonly accepted. Women were submissive to men and were generally expected to fulfil their responsibilities entirely as a wife. In these times, power and status could only be obtained from the possession of money and land. It

Pride and Prejudice is a novel which follows the fine, beautiful, and single Bennett daughters and in more particular, Elizabeth Bennett, who copes with trials and tribulations of life, morals, and marriage. Throughout the novel, most of the issues that Elizabeth must deal with have to do with her and her family’s social ranking. Since the novel takes place in a society of the landed gentry of the British regency, social class/status is among the utmost importance of a person during this time. Jane Austen uses her satirical and witty writing style to depict certain characters in this novel to represent the various class rankings and the differences they cause between people who are not of the same class. In more detail, Austen portrays the effects of different statuses and income among the lives of women, especially single women. She also uses family income, property, consumer items, and language to differentiate different social rankings. One of the most important rankings for Austen in this novel is the status of a ‘gentleman’. She portrays many of her characters in this way and on the contrary characterizes some characters as snobbish and superficial (Stafford 302).

Jane Austen and Charlotte Bronte explore social class in a number of different ways throughout their novels Pride and the Prejudice and Jane Eyre. They do this through the use of stylistic devices which in turn appeals to their different audiences. Both Jane and Charlotte are notable writers for their remarkable texts. Jane Austen is known for playing a revolutionary role in the generation of English female literature, which was counteracted by this piece- and Charlotte Bronte also developed her feminist thoughts, which have been displayed throughout her novels. By analysing social class in Pride and Prejudice and Jane Eyre this essay will compare these two women writers’ texts and display how social class is presented

In nineteenth century Britain, what people did and their behaviour was very much governed by the social class they were born into. Class distinction in Jane Austen's time was in fact very rigid. The land-owning aristocracy belonged to the highest rank of the social ladder. The class immediately below them was the gentry who had

In this piece I will be showing the role of women in the 18th century