Essay on The Victorian Era and The French Lieutenant's Woman

By investigating the gender roles of the Victorian Era in Jane Eyre and looking at the more modern presentation of gender roles in The Eyre Affair, a clear understanding of these author’s intentions to expose the gender issues can be seen. Jane Eyre is a classic novel in which orphan Jane opposes societal expectations by becoming an intelligent,

The world today consists of children roaming the streets, technology taking over the world, and being able to work wherever you'd like but, could you imagine a life without all these things? Believe it or not there was a time in life where these things were very uncommon to see. This would be known as the victorian era. This time period was between 1837 and 1901. Daily life was very different from now. Health, social classes, and fashion are just three examples of how daily life was different in the victorian era.

Imagine taking a typical Sunday morning jog on a sunny spring afternoon, only to stop in fascination to watch as a young woman takes her last moments of life. In this moment, she takes an extra step off the Golden Gate Bridge “to land like a spilled purse at your feet” (Rodriguez 57). She waves to another passerby before she commits the deed and her life is over in a tiny fraction of the time it took for her to get to this point. Observing this event provides an eschatological effect on the viewer, and the viewer in this case was a solitary man named Richard Rodriguez. The woman in his anecdote is never named and neither is the waving passerby for they are part of a bigger picture.

Ultimately, the evidence shown above reveals the many apprehensions and difficulties women endured during the 19th century, and the implications of their actions. Through the above examples, it demonstrates that women must show certain etiquette among European society despite personal heritage. As well as one being innocent and denying social norms, there are limitations and one should be cautious to personal decisions. Similarly, young women should be more vigilant towards warnings of others and adult figures that offer helpful advice even if their nature is to be ignorant to rules. Given these points, James emphasizes in the novella ‘Daisy Miller’ the taboo of young sexuality during the Victorian era, and the strict social conventions and

A woman in the Victorian era was good for few things – marriage being of the upmost importance. When married, a woman needed to pure of sexual experiences and desires, for only men had sexual needs to be fulfilled. If a woman were “ruined,” or not a virgin, she was unmarriageable. Few outlets were available unmarried women to survive, and many of them turned to prostitution. We shall see the image of a ruined woman presented by Christina Rossetti in “The Goblin Market,” and find the conflicting images of a prostitute in D. G. Rossetti’s “Jenny” and Thomas Hardy’s “The Ruined Maid.”

Women in the Victorian society had two main goals which were to marry a respectable man and to have/raise children. The society had a vision of the “perfect woman” who did what she was told and did not question it. She did what her mother did before her, and her mother did what her mother did before her. They were constricted, as if they lived in a box. They couldn’t go too far forward or backward and they couldn’t tray too far off the sides. There were high standards and a true Victorian woman upheld those standards no matter how she felt about them. Victorian women were not their own; they were property-- property that was owned by their husbands or fathers.

She is the typical woman desired by men, a woman who is a “perfect and enthusiastic housekeeper”(634) who “hopes for no better profession”(634). Jennie is everything that the narrator is not. As time passes at the colonial mansion, she replaces, and diminishes John’s wife “who now sees to everything”(634). It is apparent that a comment is being made on how yielding Jennie’s character is as opposed to that of the narrator, for she is the one who chooses to stoop down to such humiliation, while the narrator attempts to escape submission to such treatment.

Phoebe Marks subverts the Victorian belief that that regardless of how moral a person is, that her class is still easily determined based on appearances. Lady Audley, Phoebe’s upper class mistress, has a “fair” face,” “large and liquid blue eyes,” a “delicate” nose, small “rosy lips,” and a “fragile figure” (50). She is an ideal high-class woman, with perfect feminine features. Phoebe, similarly, has a “pale face”, “light grey eyes”, “small features”, and a

In Valerie Martin’s novel, Property, the reader is drawn into the engrossing story of Manon Gaudet and her life on a Louisiana sugar plantation in 1828. Manon lives a life full of bitterness as the wife of a plantation owner, a man whom she completely detests. Interestingly enough, the husband is never named, he is always referred to as just her husband which I believe reveals the fact that their relationship is not one of love but one of power. She rejects the stereotypical idea of a wife of the time and often outright refuses to preform her “wifely duties”, such as bearing his child. While the story is seen through Manon’s perspective, we also see much of Sarah’s life, who is Manon and her husband’s slave. Sarah is living an unhappy life because she has been continually abused by Manon’s husband and forced to conceive his child. As we can see, both women are living unhappy lives for different reasons; however, the reasons begin to assimilate over time. During the whole of the novel, Martin captures the readers attention and allows them to place themselves in the shoes of Manon and truly resonate with her beliefs in the world. By focusing the novel on the story of two women who are the “property” of one man and who are actively in pursuit of their freedom, it requires the reader to truly acknowledge the lack of power and privilege women had in the 19th century.

A prevalent theme throughout Dracula is that of a woman’s role in society. The main female protagonist, Mina, is a delicate balance between the strong and independent “New Woman” and the quiet, proper Victorian woman that was customary in English society prior to the 1900s. She embodies the kindness, sense of duty, and femininity of a Victorian woman, while tentatively embracing the strength, bravery, and intelligence of “New Women.” Despite this slight reform, Mina still desires to be seen a meek, righteous woman. In fact, all of the protagonists - including Mina - view both Mina and the role she plays in the novel as minimal. The only man that grasps the vitalness of Mina’s contributions is not even a man at all. The point in the novel when Dracula first speaks to Mina in her bedroom, with Jonathan lying unconscious nearby, reveals much more than the surface dialogue suggests. When historical context, close observation of word choice, and the characters’ personal views are taken into account, Stoker expresses that though this is the first time the audience is aware of any interaction between Count Dracula and Mina, Dracula displays a keen understanding and borderline respect for Mina’s mental capabilities that exceed that of any of her male companions in the novel.

In the Victorian era, the status of women in society was extremely oppressive and, by modern standards, atrocious. Women had few rights, in or outside of the home. Married women in this period relied on men almost completely as they had few rights or independence. With this mindset in focus,

This develops the idea that her future with this man as a married woman provided a stable lifestyle where she would not have to live by the rigid patterns of society, reinforcing a modern day feminist reader’s view of the expectations and restrictions placed on unmarried women during the Victorian era.

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.

In this essay I will be comparing Oscar Wilde's play 'A Woman of No Importance' to John Fowles' novel 'The French Lieutenant's Woman'. I will be exploring their differing views of woman in Victorian society. Generally, woman were viewed as inferior to men, yet Wilde shows compassion for them in his writing, this can be seen through his kindness to Mrs Arbuthnot towards the end of the play. However, John Fowles, although much darker in his presentation of woman, portrays Sarah Woodruff as

great prosperity in Great Britain's literature. The Victorian Age produced a variety of changes. Political and social reform produced a variety of reading among all classes. The lower-class became more self-conscious, the middle class more powerful and the rich became more vulnerable. The novels of Charles Dickens, the poems of Alfred,