Victorian Age Research Paper

“Writers often highlight the values of a culture or a society by using characters who are alienated from that culture or society because of gender, race, or creed.

     Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre is a coming-of-age story about an unconventional woman's development within a society of strict rules and expectations. At pivotal moments in Jane's life, she makes choices which are influenced by her emotions and/or her reason. Through the results of those choices, Jane learns to balance passion and practicality to achieve true happiness.

Sexual Ethics are integral to Judaism because they provided direct guidance on how to behave morally and in accordance with the Torah and God. Although, over many years Jews were suffering from persecution, they are currently showing stability which can be attributed to the framework that is outlined through the strong ethics that they uphold. Sexual ethics provide guidance on how to behave morally, righteously and in accordance to the Torah as well as preventing promiscuity, infidelity, immorality and sexual acts which hinder the constancy of Judaism. The teachings on Adultery,

Charlotte Bronte's, Jane Eyre takes place during the Victorian period of England. This gothic romance novel tells the story of an abused orphan, Jane, who later matures into a strong independent woman. The societal standards Bronte portrays in the novel consist of oppression, gender inequality, and social class. Throughout the novel, Jane overcomes each of these social norms and defies what every other person in the society believes.

1. Throughout the Victorian era, one of the most prevalent concerns was a female's role in society.

of the church taught that sexual relations should be avoided if possible and indulged in

Charlotte Bronte’s novel Jane Eyre embraces many feminist views in opposition to the Victorian feminine ideal. Charlotte Bronte herself was among the first feminist writers of her time, and wrote this book in order to send the message of feminism to a Victorian-Age Society in which women were looked upon as inferior and repressed by the society in which they lived. This novel embodies the ideology of equality between a man and woman in marriage, as well as in society at large. As a feminist writer, Charlotte Bronte created this novel to support and spread the idea of an independent woman who works for herself, thinks for herself, and acts of her own accord.

In the Antebellum time period, there were four voices that carefully discussed and showed their beliefs of sex to the society. One of the voices was known as Evangelical Christianity. Christian ministers and Lyman Beecher’s, strong ideas and passionate efforts were shown to try and get society to follow their ideas of sex. In their eyes, lust was known to be a deadly sin during the Nineteenth Century (Horowitz, 8). In order for them to control society members, they expressed and advocated that if one goes against the Christian view of sex and lacks morality, then he or she will be lead to the devil (Beecher, 45). Evangelical Christianity supporters such as Lyman Beecher believed in using the church, Bible, law and institutions to control how individuals acted upon sex as well as how sex was seen in society as

The Victorian Era formally begins in 1837 with the coronation of Queen Victoria and ends in 1901 with her death. The early Victorian years are marked with the developments in economics, social life, religion and the government. The major governmental reformations can be seen in the Reform Acts of 1832 which introduced changes in the electoral system in order to increase seats in the House of Commons, to the large cities that had emerged during the Industrial Revolution; being followed by the Reform Act of 1867, which doubled the number of adult males that could vote; and the Reform Act of 1884 that targeted the rural areas, so they could have the same right to vote as the urban areas.

have been considered sinful and distasteful yet the era showed that men's promiscuity was not

Victoria was Queen of Great Britain and Ireland from 1837 to 1901. She was the only daughter of Edward, the Duke of Kent. Her father died shortly after she was born and she became heir to the throne. The Victorian Age was characterised by rapid change and developments in almost everything. From advances in medical, scientific and technological knowledge, to changes in population growth and location. Today, we associate the 19th century with the work ethic, family values, religious observation and institutional faith. In 1840, Queen Victoria married her first cousin, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. At first, the British public did not particularly like the German prince, and he was excluded from holding any official political position. At times, their marriage was hectic because they both had

The idea that is still taught in some churches today is that the Christian sexual ethic came to earth fully formed, straight from heaven, about 2,000 years ago. Throughout all that time, there was exactly one way for Christians to express their sexuality — by staying abstinent until they got married to a person of the opposite gender. And then, you could have at it all you wanted.

Jane Eyre was written in a time where the Bildungsroman was a common form of literature. The importance was that the mid-nineteenth century was, "the age in which women were, for the first time, ranked equally with men as writers within a major genre" (Sussman 1). In many of these novels, the themes were the same; the protagonist dealt with the same issues, "search for autonomy and selfhood in opposition to the social constraints placed upon the female, including the demand for marriage" (Sussman). Jane Eyre fits this mould perfectly. Throughout the novel, the reader follows Jane Eyre on a journey of development from adolescence to maturity to show that a desire for freedom and change motivates people to search for their own identity.

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,

I believe that during the Victorian era, society was very uncaring towards issues such as, juvenile crime and illegitimate pregnancies. Orphaned children, and the mothers of illegitimate children were treated badly, for example these mothers often were forced to abandon their children.