English 455, Section 01, Fall 2009
Professor Charles Baraw
Reflection Paper
08 December 2009
Things I've Learned About Victorian Literature and Times
This semester we have read works by male and female authors living during the Victorian period. One theme that I found throughout most of them is the concept of challenging gender roles. Both Charlotte Brontë and Charles Dickens created female characters that tried to live outside of restriction. Jane Eyre wanted to make her own living, and Louisa is determined to be happy even if it means using her heart and not her mind. These two female characters in particular helped to change my view of Victorian culture. When I came into this class I thought that the Victorian period was comprised of stuffy people writing over exaggerated literature. But that has changed.
I now realize that it was not just a time filled with high collars and unexposed ankles. I now know that there was a group of people, many of them writers trying to change the social conventions of the time. It doesn't seem like Charlotte Brontë and Christina Rossetti are radically feminist to the modern reader, but for their time they were blazing a new path. I think that this is the biggest shift I have had in regards to my ideas of Victorian literature. I was afraid that what I was going to read was going to be boring, that the topics would be out of my sphere of understanding. I assumed it would be about the aristocracy and the plights of the dejected working class but I am surprised by how many topics actually concern me.
Another opinion of mine that has changed since the first day of this class is their concern for art. I think, rather naïvely, that I thought there was a lack of appreciation for art during this time. Having been to the Yale Center for British Art I saw the myriad of paintings of men with hunting dogs, and ocean panoramic and while they were beautiful I was somewhat putt-off. I understand that not all of these were from the Victorian period but some were. I think this may have given me a skewed view of Victorian art, namely that it is prudish and kind of uptight. But after reading all of the text this semester including The Fleshly School of Poetry by Robert Buchanan (which is not entirely for sexuality in writing) and Goblin Market by Christina Rossetti I realize that there was a type of sexual awakening at the time. The poetry in particular is full of sensual language and innuendo. This surprised me first, but pleasantly so. I was intrigued by the fact that even women were willing to venture into the realm of sex, because I did not think it was a subject they would be willing to broach.
The text that I found the most engaging was Jane Eyre. Even though I did not agree with her choice of actions, especially since Rochester is potentially one of the biggest jerks I have ever read about, I thought the novel was compelling. I really approved of the fact that Jane Eyre was a strong enough female character that she could set out on her own and try to make her own way. At first I thought she was a radical female character, she was rebellious and outspoken. But in the end I was saddened by the fact that she seemed to conform to societies conventions by marrying Rochester. I think it was partly because Brontë knew that her novel would never be widely accepted if she had a strong female character succeeding entirely on her own.
Overall, I have come to realize that Victorian culture and literature were far more interesting than I thought they would be. They are not boorish and prudish as I assumed they would be, and they had specific ideas about art that conform in some ways to my own. I have found a lot of the topics that were written about intriguing, and I like to see the ways that they align with the way we write about the same topics today. I feel like my appreciation for the Victorian era has grown, and I look forward to reading and learning more.
