Tuesday, August 6, 2019
The Victorian Upward Mobility as Viewed by Three Novels Essay Example for Free
The Victorian Upward Mobility as Viewed by Three Novels Essay Victorian refers to the things and events that had developed during the period where Queen Victoria was the ruler of the British Empire. This era had been the prelude of  modern Europe. This is the time were people began to feel the need for urbanization. The people tend to move to the cities. They leaved their farms and took on the city life and its opportunities for a better living. Some had flocked to London and Manchester which had caused those cities to be densely populated. There had been a growing number of industries and many factories had been instituted in the London and other big cities in Britain. The poor people of the cities were displaced because their previous places had now been occupied by big industrial plants. The decreasing number of farm lands in Britain had caused the empire to depend heavily on the raw materials of the colony. The British Empire had further their grip in the colony causing large amount of conflicts with other imperialist like the French and the Spaniards. Some people had migrated to the colonies to explore and establish an improved living in wide farms; and also to supply the burgeoning need of the empire.            However, the Victorian era signifies a period of economic prosperity and industrial successes. There had also been a quick changes and developments in almost every field of knowledge. This is the time where Darwin, Marx and Freud had appeared. They had presented modern ideologies that seem to be altering and deviating with the old view of things. This occurrence had caused some historians to describe the Victorian era as a transition period towards modernity. This claim was proven by many factors. First, the power of the churches and other religious groups weakened. The people no longer derived their morality from the church; the people seemed to derive their morality from society-based standards. The people began to feel the connection between themselves and the society that they sought alliances with socio-civic groups. The period was also characterized as the golden age for democracy in Britain where people had felt the power of their voices and the freedom to express their sentiments to the state and to its policies. The abolition of slavery was the first indication of this.                        However, many scholars had preferred to describe the Victorian era as old fashioned and traditional. This may brought a lot of confusion because Victorian era is described as the prelude to modernity where harsh and radical changes had occurred. However, this is true to the early period of the era that many scholars had accounted that it was a period of harsh transition. The technology may have improved but the society seemed to be stagnant , and radical changes were not accepted at first. However, the development of the era had been accounted by many scholars as a struggle for both the society and the people. The people appeared to accept the technological development but were stiff on accepting the sociological and the political development.            Moreover, the capitalist view of life was never removed and capitalism was still the key player in terms of economic policies. However, even though capitalism had demolished the feudal lords and feudalism yet the bourgeoisies remained. Social stratifications were still common and many, during the Victorian era, had motives to further increasing their wealth and their status. This is the basis of why many scholars had argued that the Victorian era is old fashioned and traditional.            Moreover, the status of men was still higher than women. There were certain rights that where only entitled to the male and were prohibited to the women, example of this is the right to suffrage and the right to college education. However, one of the most significant revolutions that had occurred in the Victorian era is the high degree of activism which had caused the major changes to the society and to the Victorian period itself. Many of these activisms were women-driven and their tool was the pen and the paper.            Even though the early British society did not much recognized the work of women, many women still had ventured into writing. They had adopted male names to disguise themselves and in order that their work be sold and be read by the people seriously .This was the beginning of feminism. Few of these writers were Mary Ann Evans, Charlotte Bronte, Emily Bronte and Jane Austen. Moreover, many of these works had fairly described the people and the setting of the Victorian period.             Mary Ann (Marian) Evans, more commonly known as George Eliot, had ventured into writing, after her marriage with a critic George Henry Lewes. She had become fond of realism and started her way on becoming a writer. This realism was very evident on her first novel, Adam Bede which appeared in 1859. She continued to write that the daughter of Queen Victoria – Princess Louise became an avid fan and admirer of her novels. However, one of the most controversial novels of George Eliot was the Felix Holt, the Radical which appeared in 1866. It was deemed as a social novel because it discussed the effect of the First Reform Act of 1832 to the electoral and electioneering processes. However, the novel did not only focus on the act, however it also discussed the struggles of the different classes of society to maintain or to better his economic stature.  This is commonly referred to as upward mobility and economic advancement. In Felix Holt, the Radical, Harold Transome was being compared and contrasted to Felix Holt. Felix Holt, even though a radical, wanted to live a life in modesty and poverty rather than a life of comfort. However, Harold Transome was a man who wanted material success and security. He wanted that the wealth and estate he had so long worked hard for will not be lose to obnoxious undertakings;  but he wanted to secure it and further increased it. Transome was a clear manifestation of a Victorian gentleman who wanted upward mobility. He decided to run to the elections to the parliament to get hold of a position that will secure his wealth and his estate. However, the electioneering of him and the other radicals was deeply criticized by Holt. The giving of beer to miners in exchanged of their votes was done by the Radicals; however Transome still had lose the election to Philip Debarry . Meanwhile, Felix was involved in pacifying a riot on Election Day and he had been jailed for an allege manslaughter. However, after the election, Debarry and Transome reconciled and had removed him from jail.            Moreover, on of the most common among female writers was a woman protagonist. In Felix Holt, the Radical, Esther, Reverend Lyons step daughter, was described to be a modest teacher with refined manners. At the opening of the novel, she antagonized Felix Holt and Felix appeared to despise her. However, as the novel progressed, Esther had seen the goodness of Felix Holt and she softened on him. This was the common characteristics of women in the Victorian period. They were passive and they prized themselves a lot. They were often ambitious and they often desire to marry men with higher social status than them. However, Eliot had been creative and was very effective in the concluding part of the novel. Even though Esther had discovered that she was the real heir to the Transome estate and she had a valid claim to the estate, and even though Harold Transome had been courting her and a life with him was a lot more comfortable than with Felix Holt yet she refused it all. She still chose Felix Holt to be her husband.            However, the novel had shown the different struggles that Esther had combated. Before Esther had chose Felix, the narrative immensely described the torments and the anguish that she had been feeling. It is vividly described that Esther like most common Victorian women had the tendency of favoring wealth and prosperity rather than real love. However, she chose to be happy. In this manner, George Eliot had shown the resistance of both Felix and Esther to the Victorian upward mobility.            Likewise, Charlotte Bronte was also an immense female writer during the Victorian period and she had written many successful novels that had been cherished by many generations. However, charlotte like Mary Ann Evans had also disguised her name in publishing her first novel, Jane Eyre in 1847 in the name of Currer Bell. However, Jane Eyre was a realist view of the nineteenth century Britain. It enormously portrayed the role that woman played in the Victorian period.            Jane Eyre was a proof to the claim of many scholars that the early Victorian period was still traditional and old fashioned. In Jane Eyre, the protagonist had described on how female education remained the constant and unchanging. It also described the fact that male superiority was still evident during that time and few privileges were given to women. The story started with a Cinderella-type plot wherein Jane was being maltreated by her evil cousins; however she managed to get away from them when she entered a boarding school for women which was also very common during that time. She had excelled in her subjects and she had become a teacher for two years in the school. Then, afterwards she became a governess and a tutor for a little girl named Adele. She had felled in love with the father of the girl who is Edward Rochester. Jane fell in love with Rochester not because of money but because of his intellect. The character of Jane was often compared and contrasted to the character of Miss Ingram. Miss Ingram was the rival of Jane with the love of Rochester. Miss Ingram was described in the novel as beautiful and had a high social stratum. Yet both Jane and Edward knew the financial ambitions of Miss Ingram. So Edward proposed to Jane and she accepted. However, at the marriage ceremony, Mr. Briggs interrupted. Edward and Jane could not marry each other because Edward was married to Bertha Mason. Bertha Mason was the psychotic who was incarcerated by Edward in the attic and whose noise disturbed Jane when she was a tutor to Adele.            However, Edward had married Bertha because of the same reason as Miss Ingram would like to marry him –money. This was the turning point of the novel and it this innately described the upward mobility that both would like to experienced. However, like Eliot, Bronte had positioned the protagonist to resist the urge of an upward mobility. In the ending, it was very evident that true love still prevailed. Even though Jane had been an heiress, she tried to seek Edward and had been reunited with him and had married each other.            However, Charles Dickens, a male writer had also contributed to the description of upward mobility in the Victorian period. In his novel, Great Expectations, in 1861 described a story filled with great expectations and surprises. Pip, the protagonist, was a person of humble beginnings who rose through the odds to better his social status. At a young age, he had accompanied Miss Havisham, a spinster, and was scorned by her adopted daughter, Estella. Due to the love that Pip felt for Estella, he had promised himself that he will become prosperous and rich to win her love. With the help of a mysterious benefactor, Pip had better his stature and had gained economic prosperity and upward mobility. However, when he came back for Estella, Estella had married Drummle. However, he soon discovered the identity of his benefactor and it was Magwitch, the convict he helped to escape when he was just young. He also had discovered that Magwitch was the real father of Estella. However, the convict, even helped by Pip, did not escape the authority. Yet in the end, Pip had resolved to part from his material accomplishments. He sought Estella and found happiness with her.            Moreover, the three novels had described vividly the setting of the Victorian period. Men and women during those times were status conscious and most wanted to marry in order to better his social position. However, in the three novels, the authors had clearly resisted the conventions of the upward mobility of the Victorian period. They had inclined their protagonist in pursuing happiness rather than material accomplishment. Works Cited Bronte, Charlotte. Jane Eyre. New York: Courage Books, 1989. Dickens, Charles. Great Expectations. New York: BarnesNoble, 2000. Eliot, George. Felix Holt, the Radical. New York: Penguins, 1970.
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