Nineteenth-Century Morality and "The Decline in the Sentiment of Sex". Henry James’s "The Bostonians" and Charlotte Brontë’s "Jane Eyre" PDF Download
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Author: Sabine Mercer
Publisher: GRIN Verlag
ISBN: 3656930147
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 34
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Book Description
Essay from the year 2005 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, James Cook University (James Cook University), course: Women in the Nineteenth-Century English Novel, language: English, abstract: The aftermath of the traumas of the American Civil War saw an unleashing of intellectual, cultural and economic forces, which accelerated the rate of transformation in American society. In post-Reconstruction America, after so much controversy about slavery, social and political reformers climbed on the platform to agitate on behalf of the Feminist movement in an “air [that] was thick with theory and controversy about women” (Habegger 9). When Henry James outlined his general idea for "The Bostonians" (1886) in his notebook-entry of 1883, he referred to this new ideology, which he perceived as being responsible for the perversion of the confused and uprooted young American society: I wished to write a very American tale, a tale very characteristic of our social conditions, and I asked myself what was the most salient and peculiar point in our social life. The answer was: the situation of women, the decline of the sentiment of sex, the agitation on their behalf. The undoing of the differences between man and woman and the blurring of the boundaries between the feminine and the masculine and, in particular, the subordination of the masculine hegemony by “the stirrings of feminism in late nineteenth-century Boston” (Lansdown x) might be the root, or at least a symptom of the problem, which was upsetting both public and domestic affairs. The novel is a drama between opposing dogmas: progressive Feminism versus conservative Chauvinism, ultimately, between the forces of progress and reaction. The analysis of the ideological conflict between these two extremes is “dramatically focused in a conflict among characters who, James said, were evolved from his ‘moral consciousness’” (McMurray 339). The notebook-entry reveals that the novel represents James’s response to a contemporary phenomenon: it seeks to investigate the situatedness of individuals in a historical context. James's main purpose was to trace the effects of a confused system of morals in the relations between men and women and he chose to exemplify that idea by portraying a group of people in whom the essence of love had become distorted or vulgarized. The conservative James assumed that the epitome of the American problem lied in the decline of what was generally considered traditional ideals surrounding gender, which he evaluated as a potential threat to the equilibrium of forces that had previously regulated society.
Author: Sabine Mercer
Publisher: GRIN Verlag
ISBN: 3656930147
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 34
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Book Description
Essay from the year 2005 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, James Cook University (James Cook University), course: Women in the Nineteenth-Century English Novel, language: English, abstract: The aftermath of the traumas of the American Civil War saw an unleashing of intellectual, cultural and economic forces, which accelerated the rate of transformation in American society. In post-Reconstruction America, after so much controversy about slavery, social and political reformers climbed on the platform to agitate on behalf of the Feminist movement in an “air [that] was thick with theory and controversy about women” (Habegger 9). When Henry James outlined his general idea for "The Bostonians" (1886) in his notebook-entry of 1883, he referred to this new ideology, which he perceived as being responsible for the perversion of the confused and uprooted young American society: I wished to write a very American tale, a tale very characteristic of our social conditions, and I asked myself what was the most salient and peculiar point in our social life. The answer was: the situation of women, the decline of the sentiment of sex, the agitation on their behalf. The undoing of the differences between man and woman and the blurring of the boundaries between the feminine and the masculine and, in particular, the subordination of the masculine hegemony by “the stirrings of feminism in late nineteenth-century Boston” (Lansdown x) might be the root, or at least a symptom of the problem, which was upsetting both public and domestic affairs. The novel is a drama between opposing dogmas: progressive Feminism versus conservative Chauvinism, ultimately, between the forces of progress and reaction. The analysis of the ideological conflict between these two extremes is “dramatically focused in a conflict among characters who, James said, were evolved from his ‘moral consciousness’” (McMurray 339). The notebook-entry reveals that the novel represents James’s response to a contemporary phenomenon: it seeks to investigate the situatedness of individuals in a historical context. James's main purpose was to trace the effects of a confused system of morals in the relations between men and women and he chose to exemplify that idea by portraying a group of people in whom the essence of love had become distorted or vulgarized. The conservative James assumed that the epitome of the American problem lied in the decline of what was generally considered traditional ideals surrounding gender, which he evaluated as a potential threat to the equilibrium of forces that had previously regulated society.
Author: Sarah Jean Schmitt
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781392065662
Category : Electronic dissertations
Languages : en
Pages : 37
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Book Description
Charlotte Bronte utilizes Milton's ideology of virtue in Areopagitica, which emphasizes the importance of being exposed to vice and choosing to dismiss it, to frame the protagonist of Jane Eyre as a virtuous heroine outside of the "angel in the house" discourse. Jane is ultimately presented as a model of the Milton-inspired, new Victorian heroine. Her success comes not despite foreign presences, but is rather defined in contrast to them. In the cultural moment that Bronte comes out from behind the shroud of Currer Bell, this conception of virtue -- in contrast to "excremental whiteness" -- provides a framework in which she may continue to strive to engage in the public sphere without moral censure. The question of whether or not Jane Eyre is a "naughty book" concerns not only critics of nineteenth-century literature, but also anyone engaged with today's debates regarding issues of women, citizenship, or morality.
Author: Tessa Hadley
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1139432915
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 215
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Book Description
Tessa Hadley examines how Henry James progressively disentangled himself from the moralizing frame through which English-language novels in the nineteenth century had imagined sexual passion. Hadley argues that his relationship with the European novel tradition was crucial, helping to leave behind a way of seeing in which only 'bad' women could be sexual. She reads James's transitional fictions of the 1890s as explorations of how disabling and distorting ideals of women's goodness and purity were learned and perpetuated within English and American cultural processes. These explorations, Hadley argues, liberate James to write the great heterosexual love affairs of the late novels, with their emphasis on the power of pleasure and play: themes which are central to James's ambitious enterprise to represent the privileges and the pains of turn-of-the-century leisure class society.
Author: Caroline De Groot
Publisher: GRIN Verlag
ISBN: 3656108048
Category : Foreign Language Study
Languages : en
Pages : 17
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Book Description
Seminar paper from the year 2008 in the subject Didactics for the subject English - Literature, Works, grade: 14/20, University of Louvain, language: English, abstract: 'Jane Eyre' (1847), one of Charlotte Brontë’s most famous novels, is a Victorian fictional autobiography that depicts the life of an independent young woman. At the time scores of critics were convinced that Jane Eyre’s ambitions were improper for a young woman, moreover, it was regarded as a violent book about a passionate woman. On the other hand, bildungsromans about women were not widespread and it was a real success in the early nineteenth century. But how can we explain it? Whether people were only curious or not, Brontë found a good compromise between her own outlook on women and that of most other people. In this essay I will try to demonstrate that although frequent critical in it, Brontë adhered to the morality of her time. I will first describe the context of Jane Eyre and especially the status of women during the Victorian age to explain why the novel was considered unusual. Secondly I will point out some feminist elements in the book then I will try to outline Brontë’s opinion about feminism and her real intentions in writing Jane Eyre.
Author: Harold Bloom
Publisher: Infobase Publishing
ISBN: 1438114613
Category : Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 101
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Book Description
Discusses the writing of Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte. Includes critical essays on the work and a brief biography of the author.
Author: Elsie Browning Michie
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0195177789
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 222
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Book Description
Divided into three sections, this work explores a range of interpretive strategies applied to readings of "Jane Eyre". The last section includes essays that frame the historical and social contexts out of which "Jane Eyre" arose, and investigate the critical reception and afterlife of the text." - publisher.
Author: Lochana Kulatunga
Publisher: GRIN Verlag
ISBN: 3656587434
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 8
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Book Description
Essay from the year 2013 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: B+, , language: English, abstract: The aim of this paper is to discuss the status of women in nineteenth century Victorian England as depicted in Charlotte Bronte’s most renowned novel, Jane Eyre, published in 1847.
Author: ERSKINE
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781913087258
Category : Governesses in literature
Languages : en
Pages : 220
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Book Description
This book offers a radical rethinking of Jane Eyre from feminist and post-colonial positions.
Author: Debra Teachman
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 031300711X
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 232
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Book Description
Immediately popular when published over a century and a half ago, Jane Eyre has continued to find appreciative audiences since. This student casebook offers a unique interdisciplinary approach to the study of Charlotte Bronte's landmark novel. While it gives insightful literary analysis, it also contextualizes the novel in terms of the historical social issues it confronts. Expert commentary is supported with primary documents from legal and medical treatises, magazine articles, letters, essays and first hand accounts. A personal biography written by Elizabeth Gaskell, an acquaintance of Bronte, offers a detailed account of the Cowan Bridge School which Charlotte attended and fictionalized in Jane Eyre. Educators will find ideas for teaching these topics and for helping students see the connections between the novel and the social concerns it raises. Devoted to close examination of such topics as the diagnosis and treatment of madness and inheritance and marriage law and custom, this work will help students to understand historical cultural influences of yesterday. Contemporary issues such as education and mental illness raised by Jane Eyre are also discussed. Each section offers valuable ideas for written and oral exploration including role playing, debates, and journal writing assignments. Chapters conclude with suggestions for further reading.
Author: Julia Balogh
Publisher: GRIN Verlag
ISBN: 3656003866
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 18
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Book Description
Seminar paper from the year 2005 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 2,7, University of Trier, language: English, abstract: Wherever you let your eye travel these days you come across sexuality and nakedness. Three beautiful women are nakedly smiling at you from a huge advertising poster for a solarium, in the advert break on TV a woman tears an attractive man’s clothes because she is mesmerized by his new scent, and in the phone book you can even find a voucher which guarantees you a bottle of champagne for free if you book a one hour-service in a certain brothel . Sexuality, and along with it desire and lust are accepted that much that they indeed build the base for a huge manufacturing branch. Of course, this has not always been the case. Sensuality and passion have been fought and punished in earlier times. During the Victorian era for example they have even been seen as dangerous and attacking the mental as well as the physical health. When in 1847 Charlotte Brontë’s successful novel Jane Eyre was published, it caused riot and rage because of how the topic “sexuality” was dealt with. In this paper I am going to explain the Victorian beliefs and notions regarding this topic. Furthermore I am going to reveal the attitude of the characters Jane Eyre, Edward Rochester and Bertha Mason towards sexuality. Before though, I will give a short biography of Charlotte Brontë, to depict how her own attitude differed from the social conventions and expectations of her time.