GUIDELINES OF THE VICTORIAN PERIOD AND MOVEMENTS

GINA

CIOBANU ALEXANDRA COJOCARIU PETCU IULIANA VIZITIU IOANA

CLASA A-XII-A G

CONTENT
1.VICTORIAN ERA a.introduction b.events 2.WOMEN IN THE VICTORIAN ERA a.the status of women b.women as generals of households c.women and sex d.reforming divorce laws e.reform of prostitution laws 3.THE FEMINIST MOVEMENTS a.achievement a1.relationships a2.effect on religion 4.VICTORIAN LITERATURE a.Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte b.Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte c.Tess DUberville by Thomas Hardy d.Washington Square by Henry James e.Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

VICTORIAN ERA
1.INTRODUCTION
The Victorian era of the United Kingdom refers to Queen Victoria's rule which began in 1837 and concluded in 1901. Under the rule of Queen Victoria, the British people enjoyed a long period of prosperity. Profits gained from the overseas British Empire, as well as from industrial improvements at home, allowed a large, educated middle class to develop. Some scholars would extend the beginning of the periodas defined by a variety of sensibilities and political concerns that have come to be associated with the Victoriansback five years to the passage of Reform Act 1832. The era was preceded by the Regency era and succeeded by the Edwardian period. The latter half of the Victorian era roughly coincided with the first portion of the Belle poque era of continental Europe and other non-English speaking countries. Queen Victoria had the longest reign in British history, and the cultural, political, economic, industrial and scientific changes that occurred during her reign were remarkable. When Victoria ascended to the throne, Britain was primarily agrarian and rural (though it was even then the most industrialised country in the world); upon her death, the country was highly industrialised and connected by an expansive railway network. The first decades of Victoria's reign witnessed a series of epidemics (typhus and cholera, most notably), crop failures and economic collapses. There were riots over enfranchisement and the repeal of the Corn Laws, which had been established to protect British agriculture during the Napoleonic Wars in the early part of the 19th century.

Queen Victoria (shown here on the morning of her ascension to the Throne, 20 June 1837)

Discoveries by Charles Lyell and Charles Darwin began to examine centuries of the assumptions about humanity and the world, about science and history, and, finally, about religion and philosophy. As the country grew increasingly connected by an expansive network of railway lines, small, previously isolated communities were exposed and entire economies shifted as cities became more and more accessible. The mid-Victorian period also witnessed significant social changes: an evangelical revival occurred alongside a series of legal changes in women's rights. While women were not enfranchised during the Victorian period, they did gain the legal right to their property upon marriage through the Married Women's Property Act, the right to divorce, and the right to fight for custody of their children upon separation. The period is often characterized as a long period of peace and economic, colonial, and industrial consolidation, temporarily disrupted by the Crimean War, although Britain was at war every year during this period. Towards the end of the century, the policies of New Imperialism led to increasing colonial conflicts and eventually the Anglo-Zanzibar War and the Boer War. Domestically, the agenda was increasingly liberal with a number of shifts in the direction of gradual political reform and the widening of the franchise. In the early part of the era the House of Commons was dominated by the two parties, the Whigs and the Tories. From the late 1850s onwards the Whigs became the Liberals even as the Tories became known as the Conservatives. Many prominent statesmen led one or other of the parties, including Lord Melbourne, Sir Robert Peel, Lord Derby, Lord Palmerston, William Gladstone, Benjamin Disraeli and Lord Salisbury. The unsolved problems relating to Irish Home Rule played a great part in politics in the later Victorian era, particularly in view of Gladstone's determination to achieve a political settlement.

2.EVENTS
1832 Passage of the First Reform Act 1837 Ascension of Queen Victoria to the throne. 1842 A law is passed to ban women and children from working in coal, iron, lead and tin mining. 1848

Around 2,000 people a week die in a cholera epidemic. 1850 Restoration of the Roman Catholic hierarchy in Britain. 1851 The Great Exhibition (the first World's Fair) is held in the Crystal Palace, with great success and international attention. 1857 The Indian Mutiny, a widespread revolt in India against the rule of the British East India Company, was sparked by sepoys (native Indian soldiers) in the Company's army. The rebellion, involving not just sepoys but many sectors of the Indian population as well, was largely quashed within a year. In response to the Mutiny, the East India Company was abolished in August 1858 and India came under the direct rule of the British crown, beginning the period of the British Raj. 1858 the Prime Minister Lord Palmerston responded to the Orsini plot against French emperor Napoleon III, the bombs for which were purchased in Birmingham, by attempting to make such acts a felony, but the resulting uproar forced him to resign. 1859 Charles Darwin publishes "The Origin of Species", which leads to great religious doubt and insecurity. 1861 Prince Albert dies; Queen Victoria refuses to go out in public for many years, and when she does she wears a widow's bonnet instead of the crown. 1866 an angry crowd in London, protesting John Russell's resignation as prime minister, was barred from Hyde Park by the police; they tore down iron railings and trampled the flower beds. Disturbances like this convinced Derby and Disraeli of the need for further parliamentary reform. 1875 Britain purchased Egypt's shares in the Suez Canal as the African nation was forced to raise money to pay off its debts. 1882 Egypt became a protectorate of Great Britain after British troops occupied land surrounding the Suez Canal in order to secure the vital trade route, and the passage to India. 1884 the Fabian Society was founded in London by a group of middle class intellectuals, including Quaker Edward R. Pease, Havelock Ellis, and E. Nesbit, to promote socialism. George Bernard Shaw and H. G. Wells would be among many famous names to later join this society. 1887

tens of thousands of people, many of them socialists or unemployed, gathered in Trafalgar Square to demonstrate against British coercion in Ireland. Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Charles Warren ordered armed soldiers and 2,000 police constables to respond.Rioting broke out, hundreds were injured and two people died. This event was referred to as Bloody Sunday. 1888 The serial killer known as Jack the Ripper murders and mutilates five (and possibly more) prostitutes on the streets of London. 1870 - 1891 Under the Elementary Education Act 1870 basic State Education becomes free for every child under 13.

WOMEN IN THE VICTORIAN ERA

1.THE STATUS OF WOMEN
The status of Women in the Victorian Era is often seen as an illustration of the striking discrepancy between England's national power and wealth and what many, then and now, consider its appalling social conditions. Also, they were seen as pure and clean. Because of this view, their bodies were seen as temples which should not be adorned with jewellery nor used for physical exertion or pleasurable sex. The role of women was to have children and tend to the house, in contrast to men, according to the concept of Victorian masculinity. They could not hold a job unless it was that of a teacher or a domestic servant, nor were they allowed to have their own checking accounts or savings accounts.

2.WOMEN AS GENERALS OF HOUSEHOLDS

The Household General' is a term coined in 1876 by Isabella Beeton in her manual Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management. Here she explained that the mistress of a household is comparable to the Commander of an Army or the leader of an enterprise. In order to run a respectable household and secure the happiness, comfort and well-being of her family she must perform her duties intelligently and thoroughly. For example, she has to organize, delegate and instruct her servants which is not an easy task as many of them are not reliable. Another duty described by Beeton is that of being the "sick-nurse" who takes care of ill family members. This

requires a good temper, compassion for suffering and sympathy with sufferers, neat-handedness, quiet manners, love of order and cleanliness; all qualities a woman worthy of the name should possess in the 19th century. A very special connection existed between women and their brothers. Sisters had to treat their brothers as they would treat their future husbands. They were dependent on their male family members as the brother's affection might secure their future in case their husband treated them badly or they did not get married at all. Also, while it was very easy to lose one's reputation, it was difficult to establish a reputation. For example, if one person in a family did something horrible, the whole family would have to suffer the consequences. Women as generals of households were very common. Women always were basically the generals of a strict and proper household

3.WOMEN AND SEX

The Victorian society preferred to avoid talking about sex. Although difficult, sexual activities have been highly regulated in Europe by church and state law. Sexuality, viewed by the doctrines of medieval church, was considered as a gift from God; they followed the teachings of St. Paul and encouraged a life of chastity over a life of sexual desire. Church law also ruled out sexual activities between the same genders and placed sexual limitations on married couples. Sexual relations were solely for the purpose of reproduction; therefore the church opposed sexual relations for the intentions of solely obtaining pleasure. For this, certain positions were outlawed, for example: standing up (it was believed that the semen would flow out) and the placement of women on top (it contradicted the idea that men were dominant and it reversed the role of women). As far as adultery, the courts treated women versus men unjustly. They typically granted more severe consequences to women adulterers than men. The courts argued that women jeopardized becoming pregnant with another man's child which could allow the child to inherit the property of the wrong father; thus their laws set standards for the sexual behavior of women higher than that of men

4.REFORMING DIVORCE LAWS

Great changes in the situation of women took place in the 19th century, especially concerning marriage laws and the legal status of women. The situation that fathers always received custody of their children, leaving the mother completely without any rights, slowly started to change. The Custody of Infants Act in 1839 gave mothers of unblemished character

access to their children in the event of separation or divorce, and the Matrimonial Causes Act in 1857 gave women limited access to divorce. But while the husband only had to prove his wife's adultery, a woman had to prove her husband had not only committed adultery but also incest, bigamy, cruelty or desertion. In 1873 the Custody of Infants Act extended access to children to all women in the event of separation or divorce. In 1878, after an amendment to the Matrimonial Causes Act, women could secure a separation on the grounds of cruelty and claim custody of their children. Magistrates even authorized protection orders to wives whose husbands have been convicted of aggravated assault. An important change was caused by an amendment to the Married Women's Property Act in 1884 that made a woman no longer a 'chattel' but an independent and separate person. Through the Guardianship of Infants Act in 1886 women could be made the sole guardian of their children if their husband died .

5.REFORM OF PROSTITUTION LAWS

The situation of prostitutes -- and as was later demonstrated women in general -- was actually worsened through the 'First Contagious Diseases Prevention Act' in 1864. In towns with a large military population, women suspected of being prostitutes had to subject themselves to an involuntary periodic genital examination. If they were diagnosed with an illness they were confined to hospitals until they were cured. This law applied to women only since military doctors believed that these shameful examinations would destroy a man's self-respect, another indication of the double standard of Victorian society. Because the decision about who was a prostitute was left to the judgement of police officers, far more women than those who were really prostitutes were examined. After two extensions of the law in 1866 and 1869 the unjust acts were finally repealed in 1886. A crusader in this matter was Josephine Butler who helped to form a society who worked to repeal these acts.

THE FEMINIST MOVEMENT

The feminist movement (also known as the Women's Movement or Women's Liberation) is a series of campaigns on issues such as reproductive rights (including abortion), domestic violence, maternity leave, equal pay, sexual harassment, and sexual violence. The goals of the movement vary from country to country, e.g. opposition to female genital cutting in Sudan, or to the glass ceiling in Western countries

1.ACHIEVEMENT
The feminist movement in Western society, including women's suffrage; broad employment for women at more equitable wages ("equal pay for equal work"); the right to have esx divorce proceedings and "no fault" divorce; and the right of women to make individual decision regarding pregnancy, including obtaining contraceptives and safe abortions; and many others. As Western society has become increasingly accepting of feminist principles, some of these ideas are no longer seen as specifically feminist. Some beliefs that were radical for their time, such as equal pay for equal effort and time, are now mainstream political thought. Almost no one in Western societies today questions the right of women to vote, choose their own marital partner if any, or to own land, concepts that seemed quite strange only 100 years ago. Feminists are often proponents of using non-sexist language, using "Ms." to refer to both married and unmarried women, for example, or the ironic use of the term "herstory" instead of "history". Feminists are also often proponents of using gender-inclusive language, such as "humanity" instead of "mankind", or "he or she" in place of "he" where the gender is unknown. This can be seen as a move to change language which has been viewed by some feminists as imbued with sexism - providing for example the case in the English language the word for the general pronoun is "he" or "his" (The child should have his paper and pencils ), which is the same as the masculine pronoun (The boy and his truck). These feminists use theory to purport that language then directly affects perception of reality (compare Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis). However, to take a post-colonial analysis of this point, many languages other than English may not have such a gendered pronoun instance and thus changing language may not be as important to some feminists as others. Yet, English is becoming more and more universal, and the issue of language may be seen to be of growing importance.

1.1.RELATIONSHIPS
The feminist movement has certainly affected the nature of heterosexual relationships in Western and other societies. While these effects have generally been seen as positive,some have argued that these changes have had a negative effect on traditional morals.

As a consequence of these changes, women and men have had to adapt to relatively new situations, sometimes causing confusions about role and identity. Women frequently have new opportunities, but some have suffered from the demands of trying to live up to the so-called "superwoman" identity, and have struggled to "have it all," i.e. manage to happily balance a career and family. Many socialist feminists blame this on the lack of state-provided childcare facilities, with the onus of childcare continuing to rest solely on women. Society has however started to recognize male responsibilities in assisting in managing family matters, as can be seen in the Nordic countries like Sweden where instead of maternity or paternity leave there is a set amount of parental leave, which can be used by either parent. The Swedish system allows families to decide for themselves the best split of childcare responsibilities; in countries such as the UK, where the majority of the leave must be taken by the mother, the state encourages women to take a greater share in childcare. There have been changes also in attitudes towards sexual morality and behavior with the onset of second wave feminism and "the Pill": women are then more in control of their bodies, and are able to experience sex with more freedom than was previously socially accepted for them. This sexual revolution that women were then able to experience was seen as positive (especially by sex-positive feminists) as it enabled women and men to experience sex in a free and equal manner. However, some feminists felt that the results of the sexual revolution only was beneficial to men. Whether marriage is an institution that oppresses women and men, or not, has generated discussion. Women who do view marriage as oppressive sometimes opt for cohabitation or live separately from men, fulfilling their sexual needs through casual sex.

1.2. EFFECT ON RELIGION

had a great effect on many aspects of religion. In liberal branches of Protestant Christianity, women are now ordained as clergy, and in Reform, Conservative and Reconstructionist Judaism, women are now ordained as rabbis and cantors. Within these Christian and Jewish groups, women have gradually become more nearly equal to men by obtaining positions of power; their perspectives are now sought out in developing new statements of belief. These trends, however, have been resisted within Islam and Roman Catholicism. All the mainstream denominations of Islam, (the vast majority of Sunni and Shi'i scholars,) forbid the imamate of women over men in prayer. Yet, the past has not been absent of female scholars of Islam in all disciplines (as it would have to profile nearly ten thousand women, or roughly forty volumes). Rather, it is the present that is showing this absence, if indeed it is showing one. [See: Akram, Mohammad Nadwi, (Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies), al-Muhadditht] Liberal movements within Islam have nonetheless persisted in trying to

bring about feminist reforms in Muslim societies. Roman Catholicism has historically excluded women from entering the main Church hierarchy and does not allow women to hold any positions as clergy except as nuns. However, given the shortage of new priests, key roles in Roman Catholic churches are increasingly being filled by lay ministers, 80% of whom are women. The movement also has had an important role in embracing new forms of religion. Neopagan religions especially tend to emphasise the importance of Goddess spirituality, and question what they regard as traditional religion's hostility to women and the sacred feminine. In particular Dianic Wicca is a religion whose origins lie within radical feminism. Among traditional religions, the feminist movement has led to self examination, with reclaimed positive Christian and Islamic views and ideals of Mary, Islamic views of Fatima Zahra, and especially to the Catholic belief in the Coredemptrix, as counterexamples. However, criticism of these efforts as unable to salvage corrupt church structures and philosophies continues. Some argue that Mary, with her status as mother and virgin, and as traditionally the main role model for women, sets women up to aspire to an impossible ideal and also thus has negative consequences on human sense of identity and sexuality. Others argue that greater emphasis on Mary, as the symbolic embodiment of nurturance and feminine wisdom, is greatly needed to bring Christianity back to Christ's core teachings on love. While feminism has affected religion, feminism's roots in America can be traced back to religious activism. Women, through involvement in religious social activism movements such as temperance (an attempt to stop domestic violence), abolition, and others, began to draw their collective attention to the conditions and rights of women. A separate article on God and gender discusses how monotheistic religions reconcile their theologies with contemporary gender issues and how the modern feminist movement has influenced the theology of many religions.

VICTORIAN LITERATURE
Victorian literature is the literature produced during the reign of Queen Victoria (1837-1901) and corresponds to the Victorian era. It forms a link and transition between the writers of the romantic period and the very different literature of the 20th century.

The 19th century saw the novel become the leading form of literature in English. The works by pre-Victorian writers such as Jane Austen and Walter Scott had perfected both closely-observed social satire and adventure stories. Popular works opened a market for the novel amongst a reading public. The 19th century is often regarded as a high point in British literature as well as in other countries such as France, the United States of America and Russia. Books, and novels in particular, became ubiquitous, and the "Victorian novelist" created legacy works with continuing appeal. Significant Victorian novelists and poets include: the Bront sisters, (Anne, Emily and Charlotte Bront), Christina Rossetti, Robert Browning, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Edward Bulwer-Lytton, Lewis Carroll, Wilkie Collins, Charles Dickens, Benjamin Disraeli, George Eliot, George Meredith, Elizabeth Gaskell, George Gissing, Thomas Hardy, A. E. Housman, Rudyard Kipling, Robert Louis Stevenson, Bram Stoker, Philip Meadows Taylor, Lord Alfred Tennyson, William Thackeray, Anthony Trollope, George MacDonald, G.M. Hopkins, and Oscar Wilde.

1.WUTHERING HEIGHTS BY EMILY BRONTE

Emily Jane Bront
(pronounced /brnti/); (July 30, 1818 December 19, 1848) was a British novelist and poet, now best remembered for her only novel Wuthering Heights, a classic of English literature. Emily was the second eldest of the three surviving Bront sisters, being younger than Charlotte and older than Anne. She published under the masculine pen name Ellis Bell.

Wuthering Heights

is Emily Bront's only novel. It was first published in 1847 under the pseudonym Ellis Bell, and a posthumous second edition was edited by her sister Charlotte. The name of the novel comes from the Yorkshire manor on the moors on which the story centres (as an adjective, wuthering is a Yorkshire word referring to turbulent weather). The narrative tells the tale of the all-encompassing and passionate, yet thwarted, love between Heathcliff and Catherine Earnshaw, and how this unresolved passion eventually destroys both themselves and many around them. Now considered a classic of English literature, Wuthering Heights' innovative structure, which has been likened to a series of Matryoshka dolls,met with mixed reviews by critics when it first appeared. Though Charlotte Bront's Jane Eyre was originally considered the best of the Bront sisters' works, many subsequent critics of Wuthering Heights

argued that its originality and achievement made it superior. Wuthering Heights has also given rise to many adaptations and inspired works, including films, radio, television dramatisations, a musical by Bernard J. Taylor and songs (notably the hit Wuthering Heights by Kate Bush), ballet and opera

Catherine (Cathy) Earnshaw is Heathcliff's adopted

sister. A free-spirited and somewhat spoiled young woman, she returns Heathcliff's love utterly, but considers him too far beneath her for marriage into poverty from both not having any money; instead choosing another childhood friend, Edgar Linton, through which marriage she hopes to advance Heathcliff. Later, after Heathcliff's return, she acknowledges to both men that Heathcliff is her true love. However her physical and mental health is destroyed by the stress of regretting her marriage to Edgar and the feud between them, and she descends into prophetic madness before dying during childbirth

A.Characters

Isabella Linton is the younger sister of Edgar who becomes infatuated with Heathcliff. She fundamentally mistakes his true nature and elopes with him despite his apparent dislike of her. Her love for him turns to hatred almost immediately, as she is ill treated both physically and emotionally and held captive against her will. Eventually she escapes, leaves for London and gives birth to their son Linton Heathcliff, whom she attempts to raise away from Heathcliff's corrupting influence.
Dean is, at various points, the housekeeper of both Thrushcross Grange and Wuthering Heights, and is one of the two narrators of the novel. She recognizes early on that Heathcliff is Catherine's true love and tries to dissuade her from the disastrous marriage to Edgar. Having been a disapproving witness and unwilling participant to many of the events between Heathcliff and both the Earnshaw and Linton families for much of her life, she narrates the story to Lockwood during his illness

Ellen (Nelly)

B.THEMES
The concept that almost every reader of Wuthering Heights focuses on is the passion-love of Catherine and Heathcliff, often to the exclusion of every other themethis despite the fact that other kinds of love are presented and that Catherine dies half way through the novel. The loves of the second generation, the love of Frances and Hindley, and the

"susceptible heart" of Lockwood receive scant attention from such readers. But is love the central issue in this novel? Is its motive force perhaps economic? The desire for wealth does motivate Catherine's marriage, which results in Heathcliff's flight and causes him to acquire Wuthering Heights, to appropriate Thrushcross Grange, and to dispossess Hareton. Is it possible that one of the other themes constitutes the center of the novel, or are the other themes secondary to the theme of love? Consider the following themes:

Clash of elemental forces.

The universe is made up of two opposite forces, storm and calm. Wuthering Heights and the Earnshaws express the storm; Thrushcross Grange and the Lintons, the calm. Catherine and Heathcliff are elemental creatures of the storm. This theme is discussed more fully in Later Critical response to Wuthering Heights

The clash of economic interests and social classes.

The novel is set at a time when capitalism and industrialization are changing not only the economy but also the traditional social structure and the relationship of the classes. The yeoman or respectable farming class (Hareton) was being destroyed by the economic alliance of the newlywealthy capitalists (Heathcliff) and the traditional power-holding gentry (the Lintons). This theme is discussed more fully in Wuthering Heights as Socio-Economic Novel.

The striving for transcendence.

It is not just love that Catherine and Heathcliff seek but a higher, spiritual existence which is permanent and unchanging, as Catherine makes clear when she compares her love for Linton to the seasons and her love for Heathcliff to the rocks. The dying Catherine looks forward to achieving this state through death. This theme is discussed more fully in Religion, Metaphysics, and Mysticism.

The abusive patriarch and patriarchal family.

The male heads of household abuse females and males who are weak or powerless. This can be seen in their use of various kinds of imprisonment or confinement, which takes social, emotional, financial, legal, and physical forms. Mr. Earnshaw expects Catherine to behave properly and hurtfully rejects her "bad-girl" behavior. Edgar's ultimatum that Catherine must make a final choice between him or Heathcliff restricts Catherine's identity by forcing her to reject an essential part of her nature; with loving selfishness Edgar confines his daughter Cathy to the boundaries of Thrushcross Grange. A vindictive Hindley strips Heathcliff of his position in the family, thereby trapping him in a degraded laboring position.

Heathcliff literally incarcerates Isabella (as her husband and legal overseer), and later he imprisons both Cathy and Nellie; also, Cathy is isolated from the rest of the household after her marriage to Linton.

Study of childhood and the family.

The hostility toward and the abuse of children and family members at Wuthering Heights cut across the generations. The savagery of children finds full expression in Hindley's animosity toward Heathcliff and in Heathcliff's plans of vengeance. Wrapped in the self-centeredness of childhood, Heathcliff claims Hindley's horse and uses Mr. Earnshaw's partiality to his own advantage, making no return of affection. Mr. Earnshaw's disapproval of Catherine hardens her and, like many mistreated children, she becomes rebellious. Despite abuse, Catherine and Heathcliff show the strength of children to survive, and abuse at least partly forms the adult characters and behavior of Catherine and Heathcliff .

The effects of intense suffering.

In the passion-driven charactersCatherine, Heathcliff, and Hindleypain leads them to turn on and to torment others. Inflicting pain provides them some relief; this behavior raises questions about whether they are cruel by nature or are formed by childhood abuse and to what extent they should be held responsible for or blamed for their cruelties. Is all their suffering inflicted by others or by outside forces, like the death of Hindley's wife, or is at least some of their torment self-inflicted, like Heathcliff's holding Catherine responsible for his suffering after her death? Suffering also sears the weak; Isabella and her son Linton become vindictive, and Edgar turns into a self-indulgent, melancholy recluse. The children of love, the degraded Hareton and the imprisoned Cathy, are able to overcome Heathcliff's abuse and to find love and a future with each other. Is John Hagan right that "Wuthering Heights is such a remarkable work partly because it persuades us forcibly to pity victims and victimizers alike"?

Self-imposed or self-generated confinement and escape.

Both Catherine and Heathcliff find their bodies prisons which trap their spirits and prevent the fulfillment of their desires: Catherine yearns to be united with Heathcliff, with a lost childhood freedom, with Nature, and with a spiritual realm; Heathcliff wants possession of and union with Catherine. Confinement also defines the course of Catherine's life: in childhood, she alternates between the constraint of Wuthering Heights and the freedom of the moors; in puberty, she is restricted by her injury to a couch at Thrushcross Grange; finally womanhood and her choice of husband confine her to the gentility of Thrushcross Grange, from which she escapes into the freedom of death.

Displacement, dispossession, and exile.

Heathcliff enters the novel possessed of nothing, is not even given a last or family name, and loses his privileged status after Mr. Earnshaw's death. Heathcliff displaces Hindley in the family structure. Catherine is thrown out of heaven, where she feels displaced, sees herself an exile at Thrushcross Grange at the end, and wanders the moors for twenty years as a ghost. Hareton is dispossessed of property, education, and social status. Isabella cannot return to her beloved Thrushcross Grange and brother. Linton is displaced twice after his mother's death, being removed first to Thrushcross Grange and then to Wuthering Heights. Cathy is displaced from her home, Thrushcross Grange.

Communication and understanding.

The narrative structure of the novel revolves around communication and understanding; Lockwood is unable to communicate with or understand the relationships at Wuthering Heights, and Nelly enlightens him by communicating the history of the Earnshaws and the Lintons. Trying to return to the Grange in a snowstorm, Lockwood cannot see the stone markers. A superstitious Nellie refuses to let Catherine tell her dreams; repeatedly Nellie does not understand what Catherine is talking about or refuses to accept what Catherine is saying, notably after she locks herself in her room. Isabella refuses to heed Catherine's warning and Nellie's advice about Heathcliff. And probably the most serious mis-communication of all is Heathcliff's hearing only that it would degrade Catherine to marry him.

2.JANE EYRE BY CHARLOTTE BRONTE

Charlotte Bront
(pronounced /brnti/) (April 21, 1816 March 31, 1855) was a British novelist, the eldest of the three famous Bront sisters whose novels have become standards of English literature. Charlotte Bront is best known for Jane Eyre, one of the most famous of British novels.

Jane Eyre

is an 1847 novel by Charlotte Bront, published by Smith, Elder & Company, London. It is one of the most famous of British novels. Charlotte Bront first published the book as Jane Eyre: An Autobiography under the pseudonym Currer Bell. The novel was an immediate critical and popular success. Especially effusive in his praises was William Makepeace Thackeray, to whom Charlotte Bront dedicated the novel's second edition, which was illustrated by F. H. Townsend.

A.CHARACTERS
Jane Eyre:
The protagonist and title character, orphaned as a baby. She is a plain-featured and reserved but talented, empathetic, hardworking, honest (not to say blunt), and passionate girl. Skilled at studying, drawing, and teaching, she works as a governess at Thornfield Manor and falls in love with her wealthy employer, Edward Rochester. But her strong sense of conscience does not permit her to become his mistress, and she does not return to him until his insane wife is dead and she herself has come into an inheritance

B.THEMES
Morality: Jane refuses to become Rochester's paramour because
of her "impassioned self-respect and moral conviction." She rejects St. John Rivers's puritanism as much as Rochester's libertinism. Instead, she works out a morality expressed in love, independence, and forgiveness. [1] Specifically, she forgives her cruel aunt and loves her husband, but never surrenders her independence to him, even after they are married. For he is blind, more dependent on her than she on him.

Religion:

Throughout the novel, Jane endeavours to attain an equilibrium between moral duty and earthly happiness. She despises the hypocritical puritanism of Mr. Brocklehurst, and rejects St. John Rivers' cold devotion to his perceived Christian duty, but neither can she bring herself to emulate Helen Burns' turning the other cheek, although she admires Helen for it. Ultimately, she rejects these three extremes and finds a middle ground in which religion serves to curb her immoderate passions but does not repress her true self.

Social Class: Jane's ambiguous social positiona penniless

yet learned orphan from a good familyleads her to criticize discrimination based on class. Although she is educated, well-mannered, and relatively sophisticated, she is still a governess, a paid servant of low social standing, and therefore powerless. Nevertheless, Charlotte Bront possesses certain class prejudices herself, as is made clear when Jane has

to remind herself that her unsophisticated village pupils at Morton "are of flesh and blood as good as the scions of gentlest genealogy."

Gender Relations: A particularly important theme in the

novel is patriarchalism and Jane's efforts to assert her own identity within a male-dominated society. The three main male characters, Brocklehurst, Rochester, and St. John, try to keep Jane in a subordinate position and prevent her from expressing her own thoughts and feelings. Jane escapes Brocklehurst and rejects St. John, and she only marries Rochester once she is sure that theirs is a marriage between equals. Through Jane, Bront refutes Victorian stereotypes about women, articulating what was for her time a radical feminist philosophy: Women are supposed to be very calm
generally: but women feel just as men feel; they need exercise for their faculties, and a field for their efforts as much as their brothers do; they suffer from too rigid a restraint, too absolute a stagnation, precisely as men would suffer; and it is narrow-minded in their more privileged fellow-creatures to say that they ought to confine themselves to making puddings and knitting stockings, to playing on the piano and embroidering bags. It is thoughtless to condemn them, or laugh at them, if they seek to do more or learn more than custom has pronounced necessary for their sex. (Chapter XII)

3.TESS DUBERVILLE BY TH.HARDY

omas Hardy, OM (June 2, 1840 January 11, 1928) was an English
novelist, short story writer, and poet of the naturalist movement, though he saw himself as a poet and wrote novels mainly for financial gain only. The bulk of his work, set mainly in the semi-imaginary county of Wessex, delineates characters struggling against their passions and circumstances. Hardy's poetry, first published in his fifties, has come to be as well regarded as his novels, especially after The Movement of the 1950s and 1960s Tess of the d'Urbervilles: A Pure Woman Faithfully Presented is a novel by Thomas Hardy, first published in 1891. It initially appeared in a censored and serialized version, published by the British illustrated newspaper, The Graphic. It is Hardy's penultimate novel, followed by Jude the Obscure. Though now considered a great classic of English literature, the book received mixed reviews when it first appeared, in part because it challenged the sexual mores of Hardy's day.

A.CHARACTERS

Tess Durbeyfield

- The protagonist, eldest daughter in a poor rural working family; a fresh, pretty country girl with a good heart and a sensitive soul Joan Durbeyfield - Tess's hardworking and modest mother who has a practical outlook on life.

B.THEMES
Hardy's writing often illustrates the "ache of modernism", and this theme is notable in Tess. He describes modern farm machinery with infernal imagery; also, at the dairy, he notes that the milk sent to the city must be watered down because the townspeople can not stomach whole milk. Angel's middle-class fastidiousness makes him reject Tess, a woman whom Hardy often portrays as a sort of Wessex Eve, in harmony with the natural world and so lovely and desirable that Hardy himself seems to be in love with her. When he parts from her and goes to Brazil, the handsome young man gets so sick that he is reduced to a "mere yellow skeleton." All these instances are typically interpreted as indications of the negative consequences of man's separation from nature, both in the creation of destructive machinery and in the inability to rejoice in pure nature. Another important theme of the novel is the sexual double standard to which Tess falls victim. Hardy plays the role of Tess's only true friend and advocate, pointedly subtitling the book "a pure woman faithfully presented" and prefacing it with Shakespeare's words "Poor wounded name! My bosom as a bed/ Shall lodge thee." However, although Hardy clearly means to criticize Victorian notions of female purity, the double standard also makes the heroine's tragedy possible, and thus serves as a mechanism of Tess's broader fate. Hardy variously hints that Tess must suffer either to atone for the misdeeds of her ancestors, or to provide temporary amusement for the gods, or because she possesses some small but lethal character flaw inherited from the ancient clan. From numerous pagan and neo-Biblical references made about her, Tess can be viewed variously as an Earth goddess or as a sacrificial victim. Early in the novel, she participates in a festival for Ceres, the goddess of the harvest, and when she performs a baptism she chooses a passage from Genesis, the book of creation, over more traditional New Testament verses. At the end, when Tess and Angel come to Stonehenge, commonly believed in Hardy's time to be a pagan temple, she willingly lies down on an altar, thus fulfilling her destiny as a human sacrifice. This symbolism may help explain Tess as a personification of nature lovely, fecund, and exploitablewhile animal imagery throughout the novel

strengthens the association. Examples are numerous: Tess's misfortunes begin when she falls asleep while driving Prince to market, thus causing the horse's death; at Trantridge, she becomes a poultry-keeper; she and Angel fall in love amidst cows in the fertile Froom valley; and on the road to Flintcombe-Ashe, she compassionately kills some wounded pheasants to end their suffering.

4.WASHINGTON SQUARE BY HENRY JAMES

Henry James, OM (April 15, 1843 February 28, 1916), son of
theologian Henry James Sr., brother of the philosopher and psychologist William James and diarist Alice James, was an American-born author. He is one of the founders and leaders of a school of realism in fiction; the fine art of his writing has led many academics to consider him the greatest master of the novel and novella form. He spent much of his life in England and became a British subject shortly before his death. He is primarily known for a series of major novels in which he portrayed the encounter of America with Europe. His plots centered on personal relationships, the proper exercise of power in such relationships, and other moral questions. His method of writing from the point of view of a character within a tale allowed him to explore the phenomena of consciousness and perception, and his style in later works has been compared to impressionist painting.

Washington Square is a short novel by Henry James. Originally published in 1880 as a serial in Cornhill Magazine and Harper's New Monthly Magazine, it is a structurally simple tragicomedy that recounts the conflict between a dull but sweet daughter and her brilliant, domineering father. The plot of the novel is based upon a true story told to James by his close friend, British actress Fanny Kemble. The book is often compared to Jane Austen's work for the clarity and grace of its prose and its intense focus on family relationships. James was hardly a great admirer of Jane Austen, so he might not have regarded the comparison as flattering. In fact, James was not a great fan of Washington Square itself. He tried to read it over for inclusion in the New York Edition of his fiction (1907-1909) but found that he couldn't, and the novel was not included. Other readers, though, have sufficiently enjoyed the book to make it one of the more popular works of the Jamesian canon

A.CHARACTERS

Catherine Sloper,

often referred to by the narrator as "poor Catherine", is Dr. Sloper's only surviving child; her brother died at the age of three, and her mother succumbed to complications of childbirth a week after Catherine was born. She is sweet-natured and honest; however, she is also shy, plain, and not considered 'clever'. This makes her a great disappointment to her father

Lavinia Penniman,

Sloper's childless, long-widowed sister, provides comic relief derived from her unrealistic romantic scheming, wild hyperbole, and duplicitousness. She takes a keen vicarious interest in Catherine's courtship, and later becomes infatuated with Morris as a tyrannical son, whose love affairs are of the greatest interest. She manipulates both Catherine and Morris, trying to shape their relationship into a romantic melodrama in which she plays a leading role; almost invariably, however, she makes matters worse

B.THEMES
The bitterest irony in the story is that Dr. Sloper, a brilliant and successful physician, is exactly right about Morris Townsend, and yet shows complete cruelty to his defenseless and loving daughter. If the doctor was incorrect in his appraisal of the worthless Townsend, he would only be a stock villain. As it is, the doctor's head works perfectly but his heart has grown cold after the death of his beautiful and gifted wife. Catherine gradually grows throughout the story into right judgement of her situation. As James puts it simply but memorably: "From her point of view the great facts of her career were that Morris Townsend had trifled with her affection, and that her father had broken its spring. Nothing could ever alter these facts; they were always there, like her name, her age, her plain face. Nothing could ever undo the wrong or cure the pain that Morris had inflicted on her, and nothing could ever make her feel towards her father as she felt in her younger years." Catherine will never be brilliant, but she learns to be clear-sighted.

5.PRIDE AND PREJUDICES BY JANE AUSTEN

Jane Austen(16

December 1775 18 July 1817) was an English novelist whose realism, biting social commentary and masterful use of free indirect speech, burlesque and irony have earned her a place as one of the most widely-read and best-loved writers in British literature.[1] Austen lived her entire life as part of a large and close-knit family located on the lower fringes of English gentry. She was educated primarily by her father and older brothers as well as through her own reading. The steadfast support of her family was critical to Austen's development as a professional writer. Austen's artistic apprenticeship lasted from her teenage years until she was about thirty-five years old. During this period, she wrote three major novels and began a fourth.From 1811 until 1815, with the release of Sense and Sensibility (1811), Pride and Prejudice (1813), Mansfield Park (1814) and Emma (1815), she achieved success as a published writer. She wrote two additional novels, Northanger Abbey (written in 1798 and 1799 and revised later) and Persuasion, both published after her death in 1817, and began a third (eventually titled Sanditon), but died before completing it. Austen's works critique the novels of sensibility of the second half of the eighteenth century and are part of the transition to nineteenth-century realism. Austen's plots, although fundamentally comic, . highlight the dependence of women on marriage to secure social standing and economic security. Like those of Samuel Johnson, one of the strongest influences on her writing, her works are concerned with moral issues During her lifetime, Austen's works brought her little fame and only a few positive reviews. Through the mid-nineteenth century, her novels were admired only by a literary elite. However, the publication of her nephew's A Memoir of the Life of Jane Austen , in 1870, introduced her life and works to a wider public. By the 1940s, Austen was firmly ensconced in academia as a "great English writer", and the second half of the twentieth century saw a proliferation of Austen scholarship that explored many aspects of her novels: artistic, ideological, and historical. Currently, Austen's works are among the most studied and debated oeuvres in the field of academic literary criticism. In popular culture, a Janeite fan culture has developed, centred on Austen's life, her works, and the various film and television adaptations of them.

Pride and Prejudice, first published on

28 January 1813, is the most famous of Jane Austen's novels and one of the first "romantic comedies" in the history of the novel. The book is Jane Austen's second published novel. Its manuscript was initially written between 1796 and 1797 in Steventon, Hampshire, where Austen lived in the rectory. Called First Impressions, it was never published under that title, and following revisions it was retitled Pride and Prejudice

A.CHARACTERS
Elizabeth (Lizzy, Eliza) Bennet is the core character of this
family saga as it unfolds in the novel. She is the second of Mr and Mrs Bennet's five daughters, and is an intelligent, bold, attractive 20-year-old when the story begins. In addition to being her father's favourite, Elizabeth is characterized as a sensible, yet stubborn, young woman. She is also witty, as Mr Collins pointed out in his proposal to her. Elizabeth initially holds Mr Darcy in contempt, misled by his cold outward behaviour. Her prejudice mounts after he "wounds [her] pride" (or "vanity", as her sister Mary points out with his personal insult at the dance, and as she believes what Mr Wickham says about him.

Mrs. Bennet

is the querulous, excitable and ill-bred wife of Mr. Bennet and mother of Elizabeth and her sisters. Her first name is never mentioned. She is particularly indulgent towards Lydia. Her main concern in life is seeing her daughters married well to wealthy men, so that they will be taken care of following Mr. Bennet's death. However, her foolish nature end. Her single-minded pursuit of future husbands for her daughters can also blind her in several ways to their welfare and best interests in the present. Mrs. Bennet's opinions of people frequently and easily change. The first visit of Mr. Collins is a good example, as Mrs. Bennet quickly alternates from contempt to giddy anticipation after reading his letter

Jane Bennet is the eldest Bennet sister. She is twenty-two years old
at the start of the novel and is generally considered to be the most beautiful of her sisters. The depth of her feelings is difficult to discern by those who do not know her well, due to her reserved manner and pleasantness to all. Seeing only the good, she is incapable of suspecting the worst of people. She falls in love with Charles Bingley, and is devastated when he abruptly breaks off their developing relationship without explanation. Eventually however, the misunderstanding on his part is cleared up and she accepts his hand in marriage.

Lydia Bennet

is the youngest of the Bennet sisters. Fifteen years old when the narrative begins, Lydia is extremely flirtatious, naive, headstrong and reckless. She is described as the favourite of her mother, who indulges her and encourages her idleness and folly. Lydia and Catherine (Kitty), who despite being the older of the two is dominated by Lydia, are wrapped up in frivolous pursuits, especially chasing after the officers stationed at Meryton. Her father often calls Lydia 'silly'. She is seduced by Mr. Wickham and runs away with him without much thought for the consequences to her family, but Mr. Darcy bribes Mr. Wickham to marry her. is the most serious of all the Bennet girls, almost to the point of pomposity; she is also the only plain one in the family. She enjoys performing for people on the piano, but otherwise she is not very interested in local society, seeing balls as a duty rather than a pleasure. On the other hand she is interested in social theory, especially regarding people's ideas on vanity and pride. Much of her time is spent in studying, but she tends to sermonize about many subjects in a fashion not unlike Mr. Collins. She is rather dull and around the age of 18 in the beginning of the novel although two years older than her sister Lydia at age 17, is somewhat of a sidekick to her. She follows everything that Lydia does, and becomes very jealous when only Lydia is invited to go to Brighton with the troops, as she wishes to go herself. After Lydia elopes with George Wickham, she frequently invites Kitty to stay with her, but their father will not permit it. However, once Jane and Elizabeth marry Mr. Bingley and Mr. Darcy, respectively, Kitty is allowed to stay often with them. By this marked elevation in the society she keeps, and the removal of Lydia's influence, Kitty's personality improves dramatically. and frequent social often impede her efforts towards this

Mary Bennet

Catherine (Kitty) Bennet,

B.THEMES
In the novel Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, she displays a stark contrast between two characters in the story. Austen does so by discussing the theme of pride throughout the novel. The concept of pride can be defined in two ways: positive and negative. Possessing positive or right pride is to have self-respect, honor, and integrity. On the other hand, wrong or negative pride is defined as showing arrogant or disdainful conduct and haughtiness. Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy displays the positive side of pride while Mr. Bennet possesses wrong or negative pride, and a lack of

pride itself in some cases. Darcy is responsible for his sister, himself, his estate, and his family name. He takes pride in these things and does anything he can in order to protect them. But Mr. Bennet who is responsible as a father of five daughters, a husband, and the holder of reputable conduct in the family, does not take pride in his family or his responsibility; Mr. Bennet instead ridicules the members of his family and in turn does not control their unruly actions. Mr. Darcy, the leading male character in the novel, possesses an ancient family name, magnificent estate, and a sizable fortune which may seem to contribute to his pride. But later on in the book, we learn that he is a generous master to his servants and tenants and a loving brother to his young sister Georgiana. He is responsible for so much: his sister, his family name, and his estate, Pemberley. Although seen as excessively proud in a negative way, Charlotte Lucas defends Darcy by saying that a man of his wealth and family background has a right to be proud. Darcy cares dearly for his younger sister, Georgiana. As the estate holder of the family, it is his responsibility to watch over and guide her. In an experience with George Wickham, Georgiana is deceived and almost taken in by Wickham. But Darcy finds out and stops it immediately. This shows that Darcy is concerned with his sister's well-being; this incident further intensifies his hatred for Wickham, but Darcy protects his sister from him. By protecting his sister, Darcy also wants to make her happy; in turn, he purchases a piano for Georgiana so that she can play well. He takes his responsibilities seriously and fulfills them. For example, as explained briefly in the previous paragraph, he takes pride in his honor and displays generous treatment of his servants and tenants. Mrs. Reynolds, the housekeeper, says that [Darcy] is the best landlord, and the best master, and that she never had a cross word from him in her life. He cares even for his servants generously and is not haughty about his higher class status. This further shows Darcy's attention to responsibility, self-respect, and honor. Mr. Darcy is also in charge of the protecting his family name and estate. He holds his family name and estate of Pemberley with high esteem and value, but not in a conceited manner like Lady Catherine de Bourgh's. Darcy's pride here is not of a negative nature, but is one of positive nature. His pride in his name is typical of any person; and in some instances when it is jeopardized, he takes care of the situation and returns everything back to normal. For example, Darcy does not want the Pemberley estate to be tainted with Wickham's foul and unconscionable behavior. He takes pride in the Darcy name and wants to protect it from the likes of Wickham who has tried to blemish the family name. Along with Darcy's pride and reputable fulfillment of his responsibilities comes the honor that he shows. For example, Darcy undertakes the rescue of Lydia from Wickham; he does so by agreeing to pay Wickham a certain amount in turn for his marriages

with Lydia. Darcy also does this to save his family name because in the future, he is going the marry her sister, Elizabeth Bennet. Mr. Bennet is a witty father of five daughters and a husband of a foolish wife. He is a disappointed man, who long ago gave up all hope of finding happiness in his marriageand who often treats his foolish wife and younger daughters as objects of amusement. He calls his daughters silly and verbally plays with his wife in the presence of their daughters. He fails his duty as a husband by not controlling his rowdy wife and as a father for not keeping his young flirtatious daughter, Lydia, out of trouble. He suffers from a lack of pride by not being responsible as the leader of the household and not protecting his daughters from harm. Mrs. Bennet's behavior inside and outside of the Longbourn estate is utterly annoying and rude. Her behavior and reactions to trivial occurrences is excessive and again vexing. For example, at the balls that the Bennets had attended, Mrs. Bennet talked loudly without watching over her own behavior. Mr. Bennet does not control his wife or even tell her to quiet down. In order to protect the reputation and integrity of the family, he must maintain the good manners in the family. This also applies with Lydia's behavior. She flirts with most of the soldiers in the regiment, and Mr. Bennet does not even criticize her wanton behavior. He does not take pride in his daughters and thus does not put much care into their behavior; through this he cannot protect the reputation of the Bennet family name. Another of his disappointments is that his estate, Longbourn, can only be handed down to a male heir. Because he has tried to get a son and gets five daughters instead. There is no one to hand it down to; thus the estate goes to Mr. Collins, his cousin. Expecting a son, he never saw a need to save any of his income in order to provide for his daughters' future. Mr. Bennet fails his responsibility to provide for his family and daughters. His lack of pride leads to his own lack of responsibility for the things that should be most important to him, his family and its reputation. Mr. Darcy and Mr. Bennet differ obviously concerning the subject of pride. Darcy possesses a positive form of pride while Bennet almost has none at all. But within the pride, there exists a difference in priority. Mr. Darcy is careful about the Darcy family name and protects it with a hawk-like manner. He takes his responsibility as the landowner, brother, and master very seriously. On the other hand, Mr. Bennet lets his family do as it pleases and almost does not care. The reputation of the Bennet family is blemished by the behavior of its members because the head of the household, Mr. Bennet, lacks the pride to protect it.