The Victorian Era was predated by the Romantic Era so naturally there are elements from the Romantic Era that people saw fit to carry over into the Victorian Era and then there are others that were decidedly dropped. One characteristic that carried over would be Gothic architecture; for example, the Palace of Westminster was damaged and rebuilt using a Gothic style as described in Thomas Carlyle's The French Revolution: A History and Charles Dickens' Great Expectations and A Tale of Two Cities. John Rusk, a prominent figure of the time praised Gothic as the embodiment of societal values while Classicism, a literary movement from the Romantic Era, was the embodied a conformity to mechanical standardization. The supernatural factor of Gothicism became a rather popular past time for some of Britain’s citizens. An interest in nature that sprouted from the previous era led to the hobby of amateur collections of birds, butterflies, flowers, and other miscellaneous collectable “trinkets” one may find in nature. However as stated there are elements that were rejected and abandoned from the previous era. The propriety and prudery may have resulted from more sensual literature like Bram Stoker’s Dracula. There was a disapproval of such literature that grew in magnitude as Queen Elizabeth disapproved such characteristics of Romantic literature. Also, whereas the Romantic Era was slightly inclined toward the unconventional life, it seems the Victorian Era encouraged people to cultural norm that should not be broken.
Gary Choi
Fenghua Yang
Alex Deng
Isaac Lee
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