“I think you are the most special person in my whole life, even more than my wife," says Abdul Karim (Ali Fazal) to Queen Victoria (Judi Dench) on a private walk trough the royal gardens.
Those words perfectly express the beautiful friendship of Queen Victoria and her servant Abdul. A friendship based on a true story, that thanks to film director Stephen Frears, we all get to know more about. Side note: without question some of the scenes have been sort of invented, and exaggerated - nevertheless, the exceptional affection between the young Indian servant, "the Munshi" (we will come to that later) and the ageing Queen of England, really happened and shows that love can go beyond borders, no matter who you are.
The film, "Victoria & Abdul", starts in Uttar Pradesh, India, in 1887 and takes the audience to a alleged normal day in Abdul's life - morning prayers included. Alleged because
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We find ourselves in England, the royal palace, where a normal day in Victoria’s life starts. Sitting in the soft and fluffy bed, while waiting for some royal functionaries to come with the layers of dresses - all extremely heavy and not the most comfortable to wear. Getting the fine white hair brushed that is being made into a braid and listening to a lecture on where to be when, what important people to meet and what dinners to attend. A dark atmosphere is spreading across the room.
Victoria is bored from her life, the daily routines seem to repeat every single day - kind of like in the movie "The Groundhog Day". We could not help but starting to feel sorry for her. The person who apparently had it all, but still feels alone and sad. It has been 16 years of being a widow now and almost as many years of not hoping for anything exciting to happen anymore. But as is generally well known, you should never lose hope. Things are viz supposed to change dramatically when Abdul crosses her
Karen Halttunen’s Confidence Men and Painted Women examines the massive changes—and the causes of these changes—in American culture in the 19th century. In her book, Halttunen argues that the movement of American populations away from rural environments to urban cities made citizens concerned about future generations of Americans. Specifically, Americans had a growing concern about hypocrisy, which is defined in the book as an inability to see someone’s true character, led to a huge emphasis on sincerity and sentimentality. This, in turn, produced a series of changes in an effort to have society reflect this new importance on sincerity more clearly, especially as it pertains to fashion and etiquette. Halttunen supports this argument very clearly
In this article the reader should learn that a person’s character could be based off of a person’s everyday living. Queenie was a character that seem to feel that she was perfect. In the store it describes the way she walks. She walked heel first putting all the weight on her toes. She seem to feel as if it was not an issue dressing the way she dressed.
Bernice’s dull life and outlook on it is changed when Marjorie informs her, “‘What a blow it must be when a man with imagination marries the beautiful bundle clothes that he 's been building ideals round, and finds that she 's just a weak, whining, cowardly mass of affectations!’” (Fitzgerald, “Bernice Bobs Her Hair” 5). Marjorie wants Bernice to become an interesting person who does not live for the chance to please a man. When Bernice asks her cousin, “‘Don 't I dance all right?’ Marjorie responds, ‘No you don 't-- you lean on a man; yes you do-- ever so slightly” (Fitzgerald, “Bernice Bobs Her Hair” 6).
Lizabeth is sad, confused, and angry on what is going on with her father’s unemployment. Lizabeth took all her anger out on Miss Lottie’s marigolds. Miss Lottie sees her flowers destroyed and looks at Lizabeth with sadness in her face. “‘M-miss Lottie!’ I scrambled to my feet and just stood there and stared at her, and that was the moment when childhood faded and womanhood began.
In the novel, women’s looks and behaviors are different of what was going on in the Victorian era. In the novel, Mina was the ideal Victorian woman. Mina was the wife and mother type of person, said to be marrying Jonathan. After all she had to deal with concerning Jonathan; she remained loyal and never gave up on him.
The series focuses on sexuality, gender, and social through the eyes of Miss Astley and her self-discovery as a young woman in 19th Century London. The Victorian era was the beginning of women questioning the patriarchal standards of society. Women were oppressed, and confined to the house. Society expected women to have children, raise them and run the household while the husband had opportunities to work and to even make something of themselves in society by working their way up. The working class women had the
In the short story “The Story of an Hour”, By Kate Choplin was about a main character named Louise Mallard, who had a tremendous change in her life. The open window and the independence Louise Mallard is experiencing is a forbidden pleasure that represents her way of new life and opportunity. The life of Louise Mallard was always been in control by his husband and she never gets any freedom until the news she receive about the death of his husband Brentley Mallard. Mrs. Mallard reaction to the death of her husband was “She wept at once,” this describe how she felt when they told her about his husband was “killed” (Para 2, Line 6), she felt as she was hopeless and not herself anymore and that she will always be the wife material of Brentley Mallard.
However, Louise contradicts the gender norm of Victorian society as she sits in her room “drinking the elixir of life” rather than grieving for her husband. She is engulfed with joy because she is happy to be free from
He places her in the nursery of the colonial mansion, despite her requests to be placed otherwise, “I don 't like our room a bit. I wanted one downstairs... but John would not hear of it” (Gilman, 2). The narrator’s husband dictates all aspects of her life to the point where she internalizes her husband 's authority, accepting his dominance over her, “I sometimes fancy that in my condition if I had less opposition and more society and stimulus—but John says the very worst thing I can do is think about my condition, and I confess it always makes me feel bad,” (Gilman, 2). Even though the narrator knows what she needs is to be active surrounded by people instead of cooped up alone in a house out in the countryside, she abruptly stops her train of thought as she remembers John’s instructions to not think about her condition.
She feared for her life as well as the lavish lifestyle she had become accustomed to. This time she was not trying to save the queen’s image but instead present herself to us in a similar way. She presents herself both as a sympathetic figure and someone to look up to. Lebrun highlights her own delicate and graceful features, as well as her daughter’s beauty. “A youthful and lovely Vigée Le Brun, wearing a loose-fitting white garment that enticingly reveals her right shoulder and arm, and adorned with a reddish shawl, enfolds in her arms little Julie.
Miss Brill, a lovely respectable women who lives in a perfect world or so we thought. Miss Brill seemed to be a happy being, who as though was a cheerful optimist, didn 't see the sadness of herself but she did of others. In the text ‘Miss Brill’ written by Katherine Mansfield, Miss Brill feels as if she appears to be wanted by others, but only plays a part in a fantasy world. The reality is, she is not wanted and is just a lonely old women. The author shows the difference between appearance and reality by using a range of language features to show that Miss Brill has her idea of herself as a fantasy and the way that near the end, reality hits her.
Wilde’s representation of the British upper class, its values and opinions, is presented most notably through Lady Augusta Bracknell. She is a dignified aristocratic residing fashionable London society circles. On the surface, she is very typical Victorian woman. As a mother to Gwendolen Fairfax, she has a great authority over her controlling her life. She has even a list of ”eligible young man” whom she is ready to interview in order to select a suitable partner for her daughter.
Later on, Nadia asked her father if he could remember Hamed’s voice and his face. Her father couldn’t remember so then Nadia went on In conclusion, Nadia persevered through the toughest times without one of the most important people in her life. “Nadia the Willful” by Sue Alexander teaches us that it is ok to go through the pain when you lose one of the most important people of your life. Throughout the story, we can learn that the tough times all come to an end.
She is an upper class Victorian woman and her ideals correspond to her stature in society. One of the most evident examples of Lady Bracknell’s outspoken ideals is seen in her interrogation of Jack Worthing. Once Lady Bracknell finds out that Jack and Gwendolen are interested in each other, she examines Jack with a series of questions. Lady Bracknell likes the answers to the first few questions she poses but calls Jack a “cloak-room” and “a parcel” after finding out he was found in a handbag as a baby (Wilde 25). The comments Lady Bracknell makes about Jack’s upbringing shows the reader that she looks down upon him.
She lost her mother when she was very young and is the only daughter of a Marquis who kept her in her beautiful house for most of her life. She knows nothing about the real world and her ideas about it are based on the books she read. She was raised in an uncommon way and she was given an uncommon education for a woman of the 18th century. She is very well educated and enjoys reading her father’s book, where she finds