literary characteristics of the victorian period
DESCRIPTION
This PowerPoint has sound as well. To hear the audio that accompanies this presentation, you will need to download the file.TRANSCRIPT
Literary Characteristics of the Victorian Period
Cori Shirk and Cat Whelan
Themes
• Social unrest
• Realism
• Sublimity
• Social status
Social Unrest
• Corruption in government
• Economy
• Significant changes in society
Realism
• Details
• Average person
Sublimity
• “Perfection”
• Admiration
• Gender
Social Status
• Overall importance
• Appearance
Additional Themes
• Pathetic Fallacy
• Judgment
Pathetic fallacy
• Often related to personification
• Artistically suggests emotion
Judgment
• Judgment by Others
• Narrator’s Judgment
• Author’s Judgment
Application to A Doll’s House
• Social Unrest“You have never loved me. You have only thought it pleasant to be in love with me.”—Nora, Act III, p. 63
• Sublimity“Have you forgotten that it is I who have the
keeping of your reputation?”—Krogstad, Act II, p. 44
• Realism“Listen to me, Nora. You are still very like a child in many things, and I am older than you in many ways
and have a little more experience…”—Christine, Act II, p. 32
Application to A Doll’s House
• Social Status“From this moment happiness is not the question; all that concerns us is to save the remains, the
fragments, the appearance.”—Helmer, Act III, p. 60
• Pathetic Fallacy“Do you know, you ought to embroider…it’s far more becoming… But in the case of knitting—that can never be anything but ungraceful.”—Helmer, Act III, p.54
• Judgment“How kind you are, Nora, to be so anxious to help me! It is doubly kind of you, for you know so little of the burdens and troubles of life.”—Christine, Act I, p. 11
Sourceswww.victorianweb.com
http://www.waycross.edu/faculty/selby/2120/viclit.html
http://kirjasto.sci.fi/ibsen.htm
http://www.ajdrake.com/e212_fall_04/index.htm
http://vos.ucsb.edu/browse.asp?id=2751
http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~jlynch/Lit/victoria.html