Term Papers on Victorian Age

Term Paper Title	Victorian Age
# of Words	1041
# of Pages (250 words per page double spaced)	4.16

Victorian Age

     The historical terms, Victorian Age or Victorian Era, referred to the things and the events that happened during the reign of Queen Victoria in England from 1837 to 1901.  Some adjectives to describe the people and things of this period would be prudish, strait-laced, and old-fashioned.  Another characteristic of the Victorian society was that many of the upper class individuals were snobbish and that they looked down upon others, especially the lower class individuals.  In addition, this era came before the Women’s Suffrage Movement in the 1920’s.  Many women were still thought of as being inferior to their male counterparts, even if they were wealthy.  Two examples of literary works that show some of the characteristics of the Victorian age are The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde and The Old Nurse’s Story by Elizabeth Gaskell.

      During the Victorian age, there were immense changes in society, advances in the sciences, and it was also the beginning of the Industrial Age.  A number of the literature produced during this period reflected on these changes and celebrated them.  Some literary works criticized the changes being made and made a mockery of them as well.

     The literary genre, the novel, also came on the scene during the Victorian Era.  Some Victorian writers that also emerged are Charles Dickens, George Eliot, Elizabeth Gaskell, and Oscar Wilde.  Victorian writers always responded to the conditions around them.  Queen Victoria influenced her world and she also influenced the literature that used conditions in the Victorian world as its subject.

     Oscar Wilde’s play, The Importance of Being Earnest, is set in the late Victorian age in England.  Here, he uses satire to get his point across about how it was to be an aristocrat during the Victorian Era.  In the play, Wilde portrays many characters as being prudish, snobbish, and very formal.  Many times, it is a person’s name that determines social status.  Like today, a name such as, Hilton, Kennedy or Rockefeller might suggest that one is a descendant from one of these wealthy families or it may mean that you may have some social status.  The character of Gwendolyn is set on obtaining social status by marrying a man named Ernest.  In Act I, Gwendolyn says to Jack, “…my ideal has always been to love someone of the name of Ernest.  There is something in that name that inspires absolute confidence.  The moment Algernon first mentioned to me that he had a friend called Ernest, I knew I was destined to love you” (Wilde 1769).  There is also the ideal of love at first sight.  Jack, whom Gwendolyn thinks his name is Ernest, is willing to lie to her in order to get the girl that he wants.  To get a better idea of how it was to live in upper crust Victoria, it is best to view the movie, The Importance of Being Earnest.  The viewers will get a better sense as to how the Victorians dressed, how they spoke, among other things.

     Elizabeth Gaskell, like many other women wr...

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