During the Victorian Era jobs such as being a maid were tireless, poor paying jobs. Today, maids make considerably more. During this time untrained maids who were known as “slavey”, along with maids-of-all-work, could be paid only 6 pounds a year. These women could be sexually abused by the mistress, the sons, or the man of the household and of course be blackmailed into this activity. When they got pregnant they would sometimes be kicked out of the household and forced to get a new job, which was hard to do if you were pregnant and still in a way is. Their is a reason today as to why people do not want to hire women who are pregnant: Maternity leave. It is too expensive, and is just a reality that people need to understand. Women are not being “oppressed” just because someone doesn’t want to pay them to not be there, it’s just a harsh reality.
In Elizabeth’s poetry it shows her idea of worshiping her lover and having the mindset that he can do no wrong. With Robert Browning’s work he focuses on something very strange: a lover who is deeply in love with a woman but is a bit psychotic because he kills the woman that loves him back because he believes she wants it. In the story the man truly loves the woman, and the woman loves him back. The both of the stories are similar, but in Robert Browning’s poetry he shows the man doing something wrong, but in the psychotic brain he is doing something out of love. Both of the works of poetry combined can in a way represent reality because there are those kind of people out there who are madly in love with each other and will do what they think they should to keep that love. Robert Browning’s poetry reminds me a bit of Edgar Alan Poe in regards to one part of Annabel. In Annabel, Edgar’s poetic character sleeps next to his deceased love’s body. This is similar to Robert Browning’s poetry in that he also spends time with the deceased woman, with an undying love for her. I am not very surprised that the two are married because they both have an enjoying time writing poems about love.
In Victorian society prostitution was right around the block (literally). Prostitution was a dangerous profession, especially if the prostitute was lower class (which they likely would be). Prostitutes, who could be around the age of thirteen (because the age of consent was thirteen) could easily contract STDs. This was very common, and during the Civil War (in America) the nickname “hooker” was given to prostitutes who were approved by Major General Hooker of the Union Army, to be safe and STD free for the men in his ranks to have sex with. This was simply an interesting fact, but of course this is more of an American term but in Great Britain prostitutes had no extra fun names. If you were a prostitute in Great Britain with more money you were able to be more picky and as a result able to skip those with STDs. Prostitution, although widely practiced, was looked down upon in society. People did not tend to pity or care for prostitutes, and when one was killed just like today, less people are concerned. The only reason people became interested in the deaths of some of the prostitutes who were Jack the Ripper’s victims was because of the fashion they were killed in, along with the messages he left with the Police. It is also interesting that it is believe that there may have been possibly earlier victims that can not be confirmed as his, of course. He took advantage o the situation these women were in, being poor and sometimes alcoholics. Just like today, prostitutes are unable to get out of this line of work successfully, and those that do are the lucky ones. Really, not much has changed because there are still Jack the Killer’s out there, just considerable less brutal unless were talking about Dexter’s brother (Dexter the older TV series).
When we look at The Lady of Shallot there is lots of imagery that you may have missed when reading it that can be seen in art pieces. Though the scenery is described in the poem sometimes seeing someone else’s interpretation of it through art helps us really get the full picture. An image I have provided that was made by John Waterhouse in 1888 best describes the story through it’s imagery. In the painting we see a Canoe on a body of water. There are three candles weirdly placed, two appearing to be unlit. The two unlit candles, and the lilies seem to foreshadow her death. The lilies would definitely be their to do so because “As the flowers most often associated with funerals, lilies symbolize that the soul of the departed has received restored innocence after death.” (teleflora). The article from teleflora, a website which describes the meaning of certain flowers, helps to indirectly explain the significants of the lilies. Though she waits for Camelot she can wait no more, though she loves him she must depart. The imagery was very good, through symbolization and foreshadowing it good in explaining how the story would end.
If you were a labourer you’d be looking at about 30 shillings a weak, while if you were a coach-maker you’d make 5 guineas a weak. Labourers were less educated and therefore seen as easy to take advantage of. Thankfully though Working Men’s Colleges (founded in 1854) and also Working Women’s Colleges were available for people who wished to learn Latin and things that would make them look good enough to get a high paying job as a Union official or any form of management. Trade schools were also available. This is very similar today because if you don’t have as much money to afford tuition there is financial aid to help people get this educated. Unfortunately today not many people appreciate this because some are just going to get that extra money. Their are also scholarships available which are just as good and available for everyone. Many poor people in Victorian society would have gladly took advantage of the opportunity because though some didn’t value education there are others who would work a painfully hard day of work to feed their families just to go back out and spend hours trying to better themselves in regards to education in order to get a job that pays more, possibly requires less working hours (which is very unlikely).
In the below image we see a poor child, but not a child who is simply poor because he can’t afford a Xbox S. These children are dirt poor and forced into a life of picking trash for things they can sell. These children were put in horrible conditions as they could very easily get injured, and in some cases these injuries could lead to death through infection spreading through cuts. With the way this job was they might as well have been in a factory, getting stuck in machines like old industrial cotton-gins. No matter what job you had at the time being in the city could lead to your demise, because you could be killed by a deranged serial-killer or just die of inhalation of the factory fumes and the infections which plagued the cities. What adds insult to injury is that these children who went through human feces and garbage to find items of some value to sell were named “Mudlarks”, which seems a bit degrading to be called. Overall, most of the jobs were degrading and just about as dangerous. The advancements in technology and medicine were a great effect of the Industrial Revolution, but to achieve such advances in leisures many people had to die. Unfortunately, today in order to make these goods more widely available and cheep, companies like Nike make their products overseas in third-world countries so they can make a profit off their suffering. We do not care where the products or made and how the conditions are in the factories, but we do care how available they are. We are all hypocrites as we criticize each other for these things but we do the same. In many ways it is similar to the Victorians in that some of them would talk about how much they feel for the people suffering in poor working conditions and would try to solve it through some useless government program that causes trouble for everyone. (I’m sorry for extending it so long, I just had a lot to say about it. And sorry if I repeated myself, hope it wasn’t too much trouble.)
Who? – South African Republic and the Orange Free State vs. Great Britain.
Why? – Great Britain believed they owned this land by right. Along with this, Gold was in large quantities which became a large reason for Great Britain to try and take over.
Where? – South Africa and the Orange Free State.
What? – The war was a war for independence from Great Britain which took place from 1899 to 1902. The war was not only fought over the independence of South Africa and the Orange Free State but also for control of plentiful resources within the African territories obtained, some through purchasing from the Native tribes. Also, for the large supply of Gold which was in that land.
It was a war for both freedom from British rule and the freedom to live the simple life of a Boer (farmer) and make money from their own labor without the crushing taxes from Great Britain. In many respects, it is similar to the American Revolution except this war for independence was short lived and resulted in the victory of Great Britain. An estimated one-hundred thousand lives were lost, which included a large death toll of twenty thousand British soldiers. The Boer troops had an estimated death toll of fourteen thousand, and twenty-six thousand of the Boer Women and children. These Women and children died primarily in British built Concentration Camps. Not only did the Boers die in these camps but also the black Africans as well, with an estimated thirteen thousand to twenty thousand deaths. These deaths were primarily caused by malnutrition and diseases. The poor treatment black Africans showed that Great Britain was not interested in a lasting alliance with the these black Africans. In the end though, Great Britain won. During this battle the Boers promised that they would allow black Africans to be involved in the Political sphere if they fought for them, but since they made peace with Britain the promise was not upheld.
A very interesting thing I learned from the short article regarding the history of the Victorians was that Queen Victoria used Chloroform when giving birth to her son. Quote: “Queen Victoria taking chloroform for the birth of her son in 1853” (Shepard). Queen Victoria’s use of chloroform made many people more interested in expanding on antiseptics to both ease the pain of birth and stop the spread of bacterial infection. Though, the main purpose was to simply ease the pain of birth for the mothers. This would further be researched and advanced upon by Joseph Lister, who lived from 1827 to 1912. This would of course absolutely apply to today in that we use many antiseptics, not only for birth but also to of course for other medical problems and has become very important today for such a reason. We are very much a like the Victorians in that we both use these medicines to help ease pain (both through abuse of the drugs like in Sherlock Holmes with his heroine addiction, but also for legitimate medical issues). Without advancements like these in medicines we would have a much higher infant mortality rate in the West. This is why the West is best. 😊
I hope to learn as much as I can about the Victorian era and how it compares to our life’s today. When we read and discuss the the events that took place in the Victorian era I hope that I can compare it to everything I do everyday. Hopefully this will be a fun experience, and also a very educational one to help me in my future career as a nurse (in whichever particular part of the field I choose) to help better understand the physiology of serial killers. I can’t wait to hear more about Jack the Ripper. Perhaps I can learn more about him then I already know.
One real that is very important is not cursing, so many people have this problem whether they curse in public or not. You may be less likely to curse in public but when in private it is much easier to do so because it’s less likely someone would lash out at you for doing so. If you curse at someone out of anger, maybe calling them “f@g” or “c^n!”, but you are far less likely to say such a thing to their face as you are scared of getting into a genuine fight. It is easier to get offended from something trivial like being teased for something, especially when you can not see the body language of the person which indicates that they are teasing you and not simply insulting you. For many, it is hard to get over this habit but it is something everyone should try to brake which will make social media much more barrable to be a part of. With mature people it is much easier to talk to them.
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