The Victorian Era will forever be remembered for the condescending style, language, and people. The general prudery which dominated this time period was a social response to the Romantic Era preceding it.
The Romantic Era was one of self discovery, and unbridled expression and social freedom. As this movement came to a close, people looked to the upper class for social direction (as the Romantic movement had died out for the most part). This resulted in a general movement towards the snobbery of the upper class (also seen from royalty of the time).
This movement towards prudery is very evident in literature. There is a definite shift away from soul-searching works (such as Mary Shelley's Frankenstein) which sought an answer to humanity and nature. Literature instead began to reflect a sense of apathy towards any social or political happenings, and instead a self-aware kind of humor intended to impress its audience. This is seen in such works as Oscar Wilde, where there is rarely a serious comment or thought about any part of life.
Whether its effects were positive or negative, the Victorian Era was necessary. After such an socially inverted time (the Romantic Era), society had to turn its gaze outwards. This offered new perspective which the previous era neglected. Modern culture's self-awareness and propriety hit an all time high as man struggled to impress man.
Overall, great response! The synthesis answer had a lot of great ideas and examples to back up those ideas. Similarly, our synthesis answer has talked about how the use of literature was used to demonstrate and highlight the economic and social pressures of the era. For example, the novel Hard Times (circa 1854) by Charles Dickens demonstrated such when Dickens bluntly and truthfully portrays what urban life was like for those living during that time period. Likewise, authors such as Mary Ann Evans, better known by her pen name George Eliot, wrote novels well-known for their realism and insight into how to solve the social problems of the era.
ReplyDeleteHowever, the synthesis answer could have been even stronger had the second paragraph been more elaborated on. The main idea about how and why the snobbery of the Victorian Era came to be does come through; but, the way it is worded makes the paragraph a bit confusing at times. Also, it is stated that the Romantic Era is a “socially inverted time” and that “society had to turn its gaze outwards.” But, what does the idea of “inverted” and “outwards” mean in such a context? It seems that it could have easily been argued that the Romantic Era, when people turned towards imagination and away from reason could have been turning their “gaze outwards;” while, the snobbery of the people during the Victorian Era represents a “inverted” turn towards their selfish selves. But, once again, great response and keep up the good work!
-Asher.p2.t1 (Brianna Loo, Calvin Chan, Christina Yang, Jane Lu)