Contents

• Introduction and Chronology
• Historical overview
• Literary Overview
• Sample Reading : Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre
• Reference

Chapter 5 also includes detailed readings of the following literary texts:

• Charles Dickens, Bleak House
• Christina Rossetti, 'Goblin Market'
• Robert Louis Stevenson, The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
• Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest

Suggested essay questions

• Choose a work of literature that addresses the theme of 'the Condition of England' and reflect on the author's presentation of social protest within the milieu of industrialism. What assumptions does the author make about the difference between his or her implied readership and the social group in need of sympathy, understanding, and/or ameliorated circumstances?
• In what ways do tensions between the country and the city manifest themselves in a text you are studying? What are the author's presuppositions about what each area represents, literally and symbolically?
• Many works of Victorian literature grapple with problems of individualism and the subjective nature of experience. Choose two works of different genres (e.g., a novel and a poem, or a poem and a play) and compare and contrast how the authors use the tools available to them through their chosen genre to explore individualism and/or subjectivity.
• Select three works from the Victorian period in which Britain's role as an imperial identity is made reference to. Explore ways that themes of colonialism and imperialism influence interpretation of the works under consideration.
• Explore the way a particular work of Victorian literature reveals the complexities of religious crisis. Does the work suggest that scientific or historical knowledge is behind the religious crisis, or is the crisis more personal? Would you characterize your chosen work of literature as one of faith or doubt? Or faith and doubt?
• An understanding of the Victorian era today often derives from magazines and holiday cards that represent the period through a series of images of angelic children and happy families gathered together by a fireside in a scene of domestic comfort. Explore some of the ways such an understanding of the era is belied by the representation of domestic interiors and domestic relations in the literature of the period.