Everyone knows the frequent descriptions of Victorian England, the depressing streets, cluttered with poverty stricken families and thick clouds of smog. Even Peter Bailey, author of Leisure and Class in Victorian England, agrees that,“The early historians of England as an urban industrial society have left us with an overall picture of popular recreation which is cramped and joyless…”. While this may not have been true in all parts of Victorian England, the schools were no exception. Middle and lower class schools were places of strict rules and harsh punishments for students. Two stories that create an accurate picture of Victorian schools are Hard Times, by Charles Dickens, and Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontё. Hard Times is a story about …show more content…
While the two girls discussed the way that Miss Scatcherd treated Helen, Jane brought up another teacher that Helen has to learn from. This teacher, Miss Temple, had a way of teaching that always kept Helen interested and, unlike Miss Scatcherd, held her attention for long periods of time. The appreciation that Helen has for Miss Temple can be felt with this line,“Miss Temple is full of goodness; it pains her to be sever to anyone, even the worst in the school…”(1034). This quote demonstrates that Miss Temple’s teaching strategy has a much better effect on Helen than Miss Scatcherd’s method has. While Helen kind of disses herself right after this quote, Brett Harrison agrees that it is a cute scene in his essay, The Real ‘Miss Temple’,“In this self-deprecating manner Helen Burns underlines the virtues of Miss Temple…”. While helen goes on about how she can’t stay focused in Miss Scatcherd’s class, she doesn’t realize that she admits exactly what is wrong with Miss Scatcherd’s way of teaching. The reason that Miss Temple gets much more attention from Helen is because her teaching was different than most of the other teachers in the Victorian era. This proves that Victorian school children were not taught information well because of the harsh treatment from the
At first, Mrs.Baker seemed like an evil teacher. ‘“Mrs.Baker hates my guts”’, Holling told all his family members when he went home. Based on what I read at the time, I thought the same. I thought that Mrs. Baker was an unfair teacher that used Holling to clean her classroom. My opinion about Mrs.Baker became worse after I read about Holling’s
Children's Literature is everlastingly framed by variable ideologies; this represented the standards and values of a didactic society in the nineteenth century, which was controlled transcendently by the church. Enforcing religious perspectives on the idealistic family life, gender roles were compulsory in respectability, and a woman's place was inside the home. The nineteenth century was an extremely confusing time, with its firm Victorian qualities, class limits, industrialism and expansionism. It was the time when society was a male dominated society in which women were controlled by the male figures in the society.
We will analyse, in this essay, the differences as well as the similarities which exist between Jane Eyre and Incidents in the life of a slave girl written by herself. We will see that they differ in terms of genre, the period of history in which they find themselves, the way the characters are presented and so forth. However, they share some of the main values concerning womanhood, race and some other aspects of life which they both treat in different ways and yet they do so in a specific aim. Charlotte Brontë and Harriet Jacobs present to us two texts which are both based in totally opposite moments in history. While many differences exist between the two texts, they have several aspects in common.
Charlotte’s mother made it clear that Ms. Hancock was not conventional, nevertheless, seventh graders were inspired by her to love writing. This irony shows that society can be blinded by its own rules that someone like Miss Hancock is looked down
As Charlotte moves, and goes into a new school, she realizes that “[she] was anonymous”(76); she could blend in with her peers to hide her drawbacks. As a result, she starts to dress according to a 10th grade girl: “hair curled, makeup intact”(75). Additionally, she was easily influenced by peer pressure. Although she loved Miss Hancock and was shocked when people started making fun of her style, she nonetheless joins in, “[snickering] fiercely”(76). It takes courage and confidence to act against the majority.
It was all a reflection of newly found joy in her tradition. However, as she got older, Joanna started to struggle with some tenets of her religion, like where the Church stood when it came to women's rights and homosexuality. Joanna’s adolescent and early adulthood faith was not challenged by a calculated act of revelation of trickery, but rather by a sudden shift in her awareness and priority coming into clash with an inflexible system. It is her ideal dream school of BYU that Brooks sees punishing her favorite professor, Cecilia Konchar Farr, for the feminist views that had started to open new possibilities for Brooks. When the Church excluded a group of feminists because they spoke out about a church controversy, it brought up emotions in Brooks that made her question her own stance.
Unfortunately, for Sally Vasquez, this was not the kind of environment in which she worked. Instead of serving as a trusted mediator and assisting Sally with her concerns, Mrs. Pelfrey further exacerbated them. She clearly took sides with the other teachers, leaving Sally to fear for her
All through the ages, the Christ figure archetype has appeared in literature and film. In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Harry gives himself to Voldemort purposefully sacrificing himself for the benefit of the Wizarding World. In doing this he becomes the “Savior” and functions as a Christ figure in the novel. The Christ figure also emerges in real life, as anyone who acts as a role model and demonstrates moral fiber at an enormous cost to him or herself. In Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre, Helen Burns serves as a Christ figure in the novel and her fundamental role is to illustrate and reveal the pivotal Christian belief of forgiveness to Jane.
Oscar Wilde wrote his plays against the backdrop of the Victorian English society. It therefore helps to discuss the salient aspects of the Victorian society. Victorian England is known for many paradoxes -- glaring contrasts between the rich and the poor, insistence on morality on the one hand and the practice of cynicism on the other, blooming creativity pitted against blatant constriction, imperial grandeur since Britain was then ruling almost one fifth of the total surface of the earth and domestic squalor since the majority of people did not have decent means of livelihood, and finally collectivity dictated by tradition opposed to the rapidly developing individualism. The class system denied the talented members of the lower classes access to social and economic advancement. The upper classes alone had the privilege of working in the government, the armed forces, and the church, while trade was monopolized by the rising middle class.
Victorian society is marked by the period of Queen Victoria’s rule in England. This was a period in history where people were prosperous and constantly finding new ways in which to refine themselves and their lives. The literature of this time period reflected both aspects of society – the well-to-do that were consistently trying to find ways in which to elevate their status as well as conditions that were more challenging for many other aspects of society. Authors like Charles Dickens and William Blake (Victorian-era writers) called attention to the challenges present in Victorian society that were not as well publicized as all of the positive attributes of this time period. There were significant disparities throughout the Victorian era.
While Helen has been taught a significant amount since Annie arrived, Annie expects Helen to be able to communicate herself, rather than just repeating each motion that Annie does in her hand. After Helen and Annie return inside, the Keller family makes a nice dinner, at which Helen is misbehaving. Annie does not tolerate her behavior and commands, “Let me take her from the table.” Aunt Ev—Helen’s aunt—argues, “Oh, let her stay, my goodness, she’s only a child, she doesn’t have to wear a napkin if she doesn’t want to on her first evening” (541). After Annie tries to discipline Helen ever since she stepped in the Keller house, Aunt Ev continues to pity her by making excuses for her bad behavior.
Throughout Bram Stoker 's time in the Victorian Era, societal norms were prevalent in terms of the seclusion of women 's rights, as well as the religious revival of Catholicism. The time in which Stoker lived was when Catholicism made its breakthrough in english societies. In terms of prominent time periods,"The Victorian Age is in fact above all others an age of religious revival" (Arnstein 149). Because religion was one of the largest changes in the Victorian era, Bram Stoker was surrounded by efforts of incorporating Catholicism back into everyday life. In addition, Stoker grew up in an environment where the "Problem of women 's emancipation in nineteenth century Britain was...recognition for their achievements" (Jihang 49).
In this history of American education, educators strove to use schooling as a great equalizer. In the beginning of the 1800s before the Civil War, educational opportunities were limited to middle and upper class white males; women and African Americans were not permitted equal opportunities. Following emancipation, black schools became established, and freed slaves could have an education. Despite this positive change, schools were segregated and unequal. In the late 1800s the market economy expanded and modern educational ideas of public schools were prioritized.
In addition to encouraging the girls’ superiority, Miss Brodie’s fascist-like teachings offers her unrestricted power to justify her actions past moral boundaries. Similar to the totalitarian dictator of a fascist state, Miss Brodie created a setting as an undisputed leader where she was able to exert such power on the Brodie set that “all the time [the Brodie set] were under her influence she and her actions were outside the context of right and wrong” (91). The girls never once questioned her affair with the married Teddy Lloyd, or her continued relationship with Mr. Lowther; in fact, Ms. Brodie’s possessed such a dangerous sense of inflated self-authority that she believed she even had the power to command the favor of God himself: “She
The Victorian society was full of society code and very focused on the appearances. Even though the author doesn’t bother to describe the society itself at that time we can see the different characteristics of it through the different