Jane austen

JANE AUSTEN

She is the most important writer of Romanticism, and her writing became very important. The Romantic innovation had been brought ten years before by Wordsworth when he had published Lyrical Ballads.

The King George 4^th wanted to congratulate with her for her working.

She lived in Bath, a Spa town that had been founded by Romans. All the Spa towns were revaluated by the aristocracy in the 19^th century, when people went there to spend their holiday season.

She used to describe the environment where she lived, that is to say the upper middle class. She introduced the love novels, her novels are also considered as a fresco of living in her society.  She considered only one or two social classes, not all of them; she spoke only about her personal experience. Her world was set a part from changing, it was a close one.

The division between classes was rigid and none can mix with another one.

She moved many times, because of her father job, but she always lived in the South.  She had a big house in Chatom, but in 1814 she began to fail and she went to live in Winchester to be closer to her sister and to the doctor.

She analyzed the characters of her romances, the 1^st writer that made it had been Richardson that made a psychologically analysis of his characters. In order to make it he published a post day novel that was didactic.

The frescos that Jane Austen made give us the opportunity to understand the values, the advantages and the problems of the high class.

CHARACTERS OF JANE AUSTEN

Her characters belonged to the upper middle class, she analyzed them philologically. All of them had to respect a behavior code (Elisabeth was in love with Bingley but she was worried about his financial condition and also about her situation that wasn't a traditional one).

Emma can be compared to Elisabeth Bennet, she is match maker, so she arranged marriage for other people, she takes care to the others feeling but not to hers. She helped an orphan girl as in Pride and Prejudice Lady De Bourgh helped Catherine. Both Emma and Lady Catherine hoped for a good marriage for the women who they helped, so Lady Catherine helped Collins and Emma helped her friend even if she taught it wasn't the right man.

In Pride and Prejudice Mr. Collins who had been rejected by Elisabeth, made a proposal to Charlotte who was happy because she didn't think that love was the most important thing in a relationship, and she taught that marry Mr. Collins was the right thing to do because, even if he wasn't handsome and he could also be boring, he would be the heir of her father's propriety.

Both Emma and Elisabeth didn't believe in love, they taught it was a too habit thing, but at the end of Pride and Prejudice Elisabeth got married with Mr. Darcy

STYLE OF JANE AUSTEN

It is balanced even if she wanted to show that something was changing

DIVISION OF THE SOCIETY.

The 1^st class was formed by noble (middle class) and aristocratic people that had a good position and lived in big houses. They wanted to keep themselves a part in the society. (In Pride and Prejudice Bingley, Darcy e Lady Catherine). This class wanted to protected itself from the exterior world, where many events, the most important had been the French Revolution, changed the way of thinking. This class knows the problems and the bad condition of the lower class because rich men used to read newspaper.

The 2^nd was formed by the upper class that is also called the gentry, they didn't work, they lived in the countryside and they wanted to join the highest class, they wanted to emulate aristocratic people.

The 3^rd was formed by the lower middle class, with the workers who had as only strength their work.

THE REGENCY

The beginning of the 19^th century was called the Regency. George 3^rd was the king, and people believed he was crazy, even if he wasn't crazy; he had only a strong pain in the stomach. His son George 4^th caught the power even if he didn't become king.  

QUEEN VICTORIA

Victoria became Queen in 1837; she was both Queen of India and Queen of England. One of the consequences of the colonies was the Commonwealth.

Victoria didn't expect to become Queen, but her father and her brother died before her, so she came to the throne, because she was the only heir. She grew up with her widow mother in Kensington.

She got married with Prince Albert, who was a good husband, and who had some economical relationship with Germany.  His family name was Hanover, but after the defeat of England, the English Royal Family changed it into Windsor. Albert was also her first counselor, so he helped her a lot. The Royal Family, that had 4 children, was an example and a model for all the English people. But Albert died before her so she withdrew and she had never meet people for some years, when she always wore black clothes.

In the Victorian age England appeared as the most powerful country in the world, in which every year took place the great exhibition, for whom they built in 1851 the Crystal Palace made by iron and glas.

VICTORIAN MORALITY.

It was strict and based on rigid rules that all people had to follow. The society was divided in classes that couldn't mix one another. When someone tried to climb the social ladder, he was called a social climber. Women could do it only with the marriage.

It seemed the puritan morality that had some values that each man had to respect.

Rich people gave material helping to the poor, because the morality of that time was a sort of puritan one, people had to work and to pray, it was a good thing getting rich, but they considered it as pity, and so to feel happy and satisfied they helped poorer and inferior people, in which they weren't really interested in. They had some points to respect: punctuality (everywhere), diligence and sense of beauty.

Earnestness was important, it means to be more honest and to always have a rigid behavior.

God had an important rule, he blessed the fire of the progress and the progress itself, it was up to him if the situation improved.

It was taught that if someone was unemployed he was the only responsible of his situation.

This morality was also full of hypocrisy, also because the charity wasn't a really good action, but only a way to feel happier and in right.  If a child died, his father would have not said he was his child.

A lot of men had a double life

FEMALE CONDITION.

Women weren't great considered by the people, and when Victoria went on the throne she was queen of the most important nation in the world (after the defeat of Napoleon).

Because of the rigid divisions between classes women could climb the social ladder only with the marriage.  

Women hadn't the same rights of men, if a father had a propriety, he would not leave it to his daughter but only to his sons, and if he had no male children, he would have to leave it to the closer male heir.

A woman who didn't get married would have a bad future.

In the upper middle class mothers had an important rule in their families; they had to give a good education to their children and to search a good husband for their daughters (in Pride and Prejudice Mrs. Bennet was worried about his sons- in- low, also because his daughters couldn't receive their father propriety because all of them was females). They also decided where her children had to study and what, they choose the most prestigious university.

They used to write letters, diaries; to read a lot of books, to sing, to make philanthropy and to organize party.

Women of the upper class didn't want to change the lows but they believed in the personal help for poor people.

In the lower middle class also women had to work hardly, so they had no time to take care of their children.

THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION AND ITS CONSEQUENCES.

When Queen Victoria became queen the financial condition of England wasn't easy to solve because even if it had wont against France it had to pay a lot of money for the war.

In England was built the oldest railway because the industrialization went on quickly than in the other countries, and it brought also a lot of problems to the workers.

INDUSTRIAL CITIES (PROGRESS)

All the industrial cities were overcrowded, because they grew in a unregulated way. All of them were divided in some areas, and poor people couldn't go were rich people lived. Criminality and prostitution spread up in this period in the industrial cities. Workers' houses were close to the factories, also because a lot of people moved from the country side to the city at the same time. Hygienic conditions were bad, there was a toilette every 100 people. All the houses were untidy; there were no dump to throw away the rubbish, so people threw out of the window what they didn't need.

Work hard was considered important for the economical improvement, so for the progress, people taught that the progress and its fire were blessed by god, also because of the predestination.

In this period was made the first stamp-

WORKERS CONDITIONS (PROGRESS)

In this period were born the trade unions that wanted more rights for the workers. Both the farmer and the industrial workers in order to obtain better conditions started to make riots and strikes. They wanted the increasing of their wages; they contested the absence of any insurance against accidents in the work place. If someone had an accident, he would be dismissed and he wasn't able to restart to work.

WORK HOUSES.

To improve the quality of the life England introduced new lows for the public organization. To give work to all people England introduced the work houses (background of a lot of Dickens' novels). In the work houses each man had to take care only of himself, and children, mothers and fathers were separated one another. Sometimes children were also sold (Oliver Twist).