Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf

Virginia Woolf's novel Mrs. Dalloway was very influential during the modern era. The story deals with issues inherent to the modern age due to societal changes coming out of the Victorian era.

For instance, the industrial movement brought about a faster paced ecomony and lifestyle, this in turn created more stress. Combined with the stress of societal structure changes, people are going to suffer mentally. Most don't, most people adapt very well to change. However, there are those who don't adapt and fall into mental illness.

This book portrayed the rising issues of the age. It influenced how people thought of mental illness and relationships. The victorian era is really the starting point for the constantly increasing pace of society. The modern age is when people started to reap the results, both good and bad, from this faster pace of living.

Next week, we don't have any assigned reading. However, I will be sharing more insights on the modern era and possibly more on Mrs. Dalloway next week. See you then.

An Age of Change

The Victorian age was an age of great changes and reform, including social and religious.

One religious movement influenced english society and how people lived their daily lives. Here is a link to my webpage that talks about the effects of the evangelical movement on society and english literature.

In the works we read this week, ideas of the past sparked new ideas for the future. They also spoke of the times and the issues prevelent in the minds of the people, especially the middle class.

To read the literature of this period is to look through a window into the psyche of people who lived in this era, no matter what their class.

Next week, we are going to read Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf and all about the modern age.
Happy reading!

Greater Expectations

I said in the previous post that the Victorian Age was a time when people realized they could produce solutions to their own problems. But people also realized they had power over their own circumstances and could carve out their own destinies. They were no longer bound by societal rules and expectations of stations to which they had been born and in which they had no control over.

Charles Dickens certainly painted a clear picture of thsee times in his book, Great Expectations. He builds a clear world picture and its awakening to this idea.

Pip, the main protagonist, is born into the lower-class, but is given the chance through a benefactor to change his circumstances and live as an upper-class gentleman. Pip gets to experience the good and bad of both sides. In the end, class no longer matters, because the one he loves, Estella, was born of lower-class parents, but adopted and raised as an upper-class lady. In this way, Pip and Estella have much in common. Estella went looking for a rich society husband, but found true love with Pip.

This was a very interesting story with many twists and turns. I truly enjoyed reading it and learned a lot about the time period in which it was written. No story could have protrayed the struggle between traditional and newly immerging ideas about class and social structure, than this novel. It was the main theme of the Victorian Era that was the transition people of that time experienced.

Next week, we read W.B. Yeats's poem When You Are Old, T.S. Eliot's poems The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock and The Waste Land, and James Joyce's short story The Dead.

Until then, Adeu!

A Time of Great Change

The Victorian Age, what do you know or believe about this time period from 1837 to 1901? Do you believe as most that it is a time of poofy dresses and men in capri pants, dancing through fields laden with spring wildflowers?

I think most of us believe or have a similar view of this time. However, if you look more closely, you might see something different, something more. Read this article and you'll see why I say this. It really opened my eyes to the reality of truth of this very important age.

While most associate this time period with the reign of Queen Victoria, there is so much more that defines this age as uniquely its own. This was a time of increased wealth and productivity. The industrial revolution occurred to boost the economies of Europe and the lives of everyone who lived during this time. Even today, the idea that people can create solutions to their own problems and the problems of others continues. This idea sprang from this era.

Romantic elements continued on into the modern period we enjoy today along with emphasis on emotions and imagination. However, this age incorporated doubt and self-examination; literature especially mixed these ideas in the shadow of this re-evaluation of self and societal beliefs. There was a struggle between the fantasy of romanticism and modern realism.

Personally, I see this era as a bridge between the ideals of the romantic period and the modern era; what we are today. Change is always a struggle, a fight to evolve and grow as human beings. I don’t think there was more change in any era than this one. One explanation for this could be the extreme diversity between romanticism and the modern era. To make the transition, it would be natural for human beings to experience a huge amount of change and to resist such change. However, it also appears that much of society embrace these changes in light of the promise of improved standards of living.

One last and most important aspects of the Victorian Era, is their emphasis on social issues. Improving one’s life and the lives of others was a major focal point. Where the romantic era focused inward and was mostly concerned with one’s own ambitions, Victorians looked outward and focused on others and their wellbeing.

Next week, we are reading Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations, written in 1860. It is part of this great chunk of time called the Victorian Era. To read more about this time, visit The Victorian Web. Enjoy!