victorian political situation

The Victorian age has often been called 'The Age of Reform' and much of the legislation that passed through Parliament at the time, successful or unsuccessful, was aimed at reform, including bills relating to Parliament itself.

Distinctions came to be drawn between constitutional, political, economic and social reform bills. The last of these categories dealt with what were conceived of as 'social problems' or 'social abuses', many of which were associated with the growth of population and the development of capitalist industry, including health and factory acts. Initial reform bills were concerned with the hours and condition of factory children and women. One bitterly contested economic reform, the repeal of the corn laws in 1846, involved and affected the balance of social forces in the country - rural versus urban, agricultural versus industrial - but within a few years of repeal, the opposition to it had dwindled away.

Structures and processes changed. Early in Victoria's reign organised political parties were beginning to take shape, and there was no totally independent civil service. Yet, by the end of the reign, 'democracy' was no longer a bogey word, political parties had a constituency as well as a Parliamentary base, and competition to enter the civil service (by examination) was taken for granted. The pattern of communications, physical and social, had also changed with the rise of a railway system. A new geography had effectively been created, and there was a different kind of popular Press. Long before the launching of the Daily Mail in 1896, press circulation had begun to increase after the abolition of stamp duties on newspapers in 1855, the result of sustained agitation. The National Education Act had also been passed, belatedly, in 1870, creating elementary schools financed from local rates. Attendance was made compulsory ten years later.

TopExtra-parliamentary forces
The drive behind reforming legislation usually came from outside Parliament, as with the working-class Chartist movement intent on reform of the whole electoral process. It is essential, therefore, in the case of each projected 'reform bill' to assess the influence on it of extra-Parliamentary pressures, both of opinion and interests and, in the case of each successful 'reform bill', it is necessary to weigh the role of Parliament and the role of extra-Parliamentary forces in determining the outcome. Doing so has involved controversy between historians as it usually involved political controversy at the time. Moreover, since reformers outside Parliament were often dissatisfied with the extent of the reform, they returned sooner or later to what seemed to them a continuing struggle. Meanwhile, those public servants concerned with implementation often suggested further reforms in the light of experience. The stories of particular reforms, therefore, were usually serial stories.

Whether the comprehensive title the 'Age of Reform' should refer to the whole period in British history between 1837 and 1901 - a period of sharp contrasts in place and time - raises other basic questions, pivoting on the relationships between 'improvement', 'reform' and 'revolution'. As the fear of revolution in Britain receded after 1815, many 'reformers' claimed that only if particular reforms were carried in time could revolution be avoided. And almost all reformers agreed that 'revolution' was the best means of 'reform'. The opponents of the Great Reform Bill claimed that it was 'revolutionary', but within two years of its passing in 1832 most of them accepted it as a fait accompli and adjusted their politics accordingly. It proved to be the first of four successful 19th-century reform bills, the second in 1867, the third introducing the ballot in 1872 and the fourth in 1885. There was more popular agitation, driven by economic as well as by political discontent, in the years 1830-1832 and in the years 1866-1867 than there was in 1885, when the Reform Bill was introduced, as the 1867 had been, by a Conservative government. Yet the 1885 Act had long-term radical consequences - mainly, the political opening up villages through a rural electorate.

It is difficult in retrospect to tell the serial stories of particular reforms in terms of party manifestos, although politicians (and some historians) have been tempted to do so. Group politics are relevant in early and mid-Victorian Britain because members of the medical profession were in a position, as many clergymen were, to cross environmental and social divides and collect evidence, including statistical evidence, when they sought to identify 'problems' requiring action. It is individuals, however, who must usually be given the limelight. Coming from different social and political backgrounds, their personal commitment was crucial to the success of reform legislation.

TopThe Earl of Shaftesbury
The individual most involved in a sequence of different social reforms was the evangelical Tory philanthropist Anthony Ashley Cooper, seventh Earl of Shaftesbury (1801-1885), who fought indomitably for the protection of children in factories and mines, and later chimney sweeps, for public health legislation and for the proper treatment of what were then called 'lunatics'.

Nonetheless, it is doubtful whether Ashley, as a private member of Parliament before he became an earl, would have been as successful as he was had he not been accepted as a Parliamentary leader by a popular movement in the North of England actively engaged until an Act acceptable to them was passed in 1847. Not all the movements had a working-class base, as Chartism did. The Health of Towns Association, for example, founded in 1839, had substantial middle-class support. The main obstacle to its success was apathy, but it also provoked opponents of 'centralisation'.

TopOther individual reformers
Other voluntary associations pressing for reforms were mobilised by women, like the Ladies' Sanitary Reform Association of Manchester and Salford, founded in 1862. Women were without the vote, but there were two women, in particular, who were as outstanding in influencing Parliament as Shaftesbury - Josephine Butler (1828-1906) and Octavia Hill (1838-1912). The former fought a long (and still controversial) battle to repeal the Contagious Diseases Acts of 1864, 1866 and 1869, which regulated women working in brothels. The Acts were totally repealed after a long agitation, which had international ramifications, in 1886. Octavia Hill, housing reformer, supported by John Ruskin, was more interested in voluntary than in state action. She wanted affordable working-class houses to become real 'homes'.

Josephine Butler was a reformer who was concerned not with new legislation but with repeal. And so had been Ashley's Parliamentary political leader, Sir Robert Peel (1788-1850), who earlier in the century reformed the Metropolitan Police and carried Roman Catholic emancipation (giving Roman Catholics civil rights) before Ashley, who had little in common with him, entered Parliament. Peel, along with Wellington, had opposed the Parliamentary Reform Bills introduced by the Whigs in 1831 and 1832, but he appreciated the need to adapt to change; and while he opposed most of the social reforms that Ashley supported, it was he who as Prime Minister carried the repeal of the corn laws. The part that he played in securing repeal - and his motivations - have been assessed and re-assessed. So, too, has the role of the Anti-Corn Law League, founded in Manchester in 1838, a largely middle-class organisation, extremely well organised under the leadership of Richard Cobden (1804-1865) who won a seat in Parliament in 1841. This enabled him to confront Peel directly across the floor of the Commons. They both believed in 1846 that repeal would benefit both working-class consumers (through cheap food) and industrial employers (through the opening of foreign markets), but Peel, unlike Cobden, refused to try to exploit repeal politically. Indeed, in carrying repeal he broke up his own divided party.

TopConclusion
Not everyone who believed in free trade, which became a gospel, precluded acceptance of measures which social reformers were urging. Nor did the people influenced by Jeremy Bentham (1748-1882) consider that the State had no part to play in what came to be called social policy. The role of Benthamism in the evolution of 19th-century policy has been as controversial as the role of Peel and far more controversial than the role of Fabianism (the socialism of Sidney and Beatrice Webb) in the formation of 20th-century policy, culminating in the 'welfare state'. It was the important early 19th-century British political economists, Nassau Senior (1790-1864), one of the framers of the New Poor Law of 1834, who wrote that 'it is the duty of a government to do whatever is conducive to the welfare of the government'.

The British emphasis on reform rather than revolution, the desire to adapt institutions rather than to destroy them, seemed a national asset in the nineteenth century, but in the last decades of the twentieth century many writers in the media, including some historians, claimed that by not having a revolution in the nineteenth century Britain had suffered. In particular, old values of deference survived. Old institutions, like Parliament, the key to much else, should have been totally transformed. Tradition was a brake on progress.

taken from: http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/victorians/reforming_acts_01.shtml

Anton & Lucía

Robert Louis Balfour Stevenson Biography

Robert Louis Balfour Stevenson was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, in November 1850, the only child of a prosperous middle-class family. His father, Thomas, was a civil engineer who specialized in the design and construction of lighthouses, and his mother, Margaret, was the daughter of a well-known clergyman. Probably the two most important influences on Stevenson's childhood were his family's strict (although not for the time fanatical) Presbyterian religion and his own ill health. During his frequent illnesses, his loving nurse, Alison Cunningham, like to entertain him with stories of bloody doings, hellfire, and damnation, and this made him a frightened, guilt-ridden child and also apparently something of a little prude — a characteristic he certainly outgrew, however, by the time he reached his late teens. His illnesses, which seem to have been the result of a weak or damaged immune system, making him susceptible to regular and debilitating bouts of respiratory infection and eventually to tuberculosis, encouraged his parents to spoil him. His mother, too, was often ill, and given the family's frequent winter trips from cold, wet Edinburgh to southern Europe, his father's scorn of schoolteachers, and Stevenson's own disinclination to go to school, his early education was spotty at best. He read widely if unsystematically, picked up languages with relative ease, and was occasionally tutored, but by the time he entered Edinburgh University at the age of sixteen, his background was anything but standard.

He did not suddenly become a model university student. His family expected that he would study engineering and join his father and uncle in the lighthouse business, and apparently Stevenson accepted this plan without protest. But he was not interested in construction or optics, and he studied as little as possible, skipped lectures, and was in general a lackluster student. He did, however, make the first real friends of his life, and he also joined a popular literary and debating society by invitation, which probably had more to do with his quirky but genuine personal attractiveness and his family name than with anyone's perception of his academic brilliance.

He eventually confessed to his father that he did not hope to become an engineer, at which his father swallowed his disappointment and suggested that he study law; Stevenson obediently did so, but was no more interested in this than in engineering, and although he was admitted to the bar at the age of 24, he never practiced. Still, his late teens and early twenties were a period of great and solid growth. He continued to read voluminously, if seldom in accordance with what he had been assigned. He roamed the streets of Edinburgh, alone and with friends, and although he apparently frequented his share of taverns and brothels, he also became a close observer of human behavior and a close listener to human language. Stevenson's youthful "dissipation" became much exaggerated in legend, after his fame and death; he was during these years on a strict allowance from his father and could not have afforded the wild life that gossip later attributed to him. He continued to travel, alone or with his parents, or sometimes with his cousin and good friend, Bob Stevenson. And always, from childhood on, he wrote — essays, poetry, descriptive sketches, and narrative accounts of historical events. His goal seems not to have been to make a living as a writer (which his family would not have considered a worthwhile profession) so much as to learn to write well. And learn he did.

http://www.cliffsnotes.com/study_guide/literature/Treasure-Island-Robert-Louis-Stevenson-Biography-Personal-Background.id-175,pageNum-5.html

R obert Louis Stevenson, one of the masters of the Victorian adventure story, was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, on November 13, 1850. He was a sickly child, and respiratory troubles plagued him throughout his life. As a young man, he traveled through Europe, leading a bohemian lifestyle and penning his first two books, both travel narratives. In 1876, he met a married woman, Fanny Van de Grift Osbourne, and fell in love with her. Mrs. Osbourne eventually divorced her husband, and she and Stevenson were married.

Stevenson returned to London with his bride and wrote prolifically over the next decade, in spite of his terrible health. He won widespread admiration with Treasure Island, written in 1883, and followed it with Kidnapped in 1886; both were adventure stories, the former a pirate tale set on the high seas and the latter a historical novel set in Stevenson’s native Scotland. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, which Stevenson described as a “fine bogey tale,” also came out in 1886. It met with tremendous success, selling 40,000 copies in six months and ensuring Stevenson’s fame as a writer.

In its narrative of a respectable doctor who transforms himself into a savage murderer, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde tapped directly into the anxieties of Stevenson’s age. The Victorian era, named for Queen Victoria, who ruled England for most of the nineteenth century, was a time of unprecedented technological progress and an age in which European nations carved up the world with their empires. By the end of the century, however, many people were beginning to call into question the ideals of progress and civilization that had defined the era, and a growing sense of pessimism and decline pervaded artistic circles. Many felt that the end of the century was also witnessing a twilight of Western culture.

With the notion of a single body containing both the erudite Dr. Jekyll and the depraved Mr. Hyde, Stevenson’s novel imagines an inextricable link between civilization and savagery, good and evil. Jekyll’s attraction to the freedom from restraint that Hyde enjoys mirrors Victorian England’s secret attraction to allegedly savage non-Western cultures, even as Europe claimed superiority over them. This attraction also informs such books as Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. For, as the Western world came in contact with other peoples and ways of life, it found aspects of these cultures within itself, and both desired and feared to indulge them. These aspects included open sensuality, physicality, and other so-called irrational tendencies. Even as Victorian England sought to assert its civilization over and against these instinctual sides of life, it found them secretly fascinating. Indeed, society’s repression of its darker side only increased the fascination. As a product of this society, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde manifests this fascination; yet, as a work of art, it also questions this interest.

By the late 1880s, Stevenson had become one of the leading lights of English literature. But even after garnering fame, he led a somewhat troubled life. He traveled often, seeking to find a climate more amenable to the tuberculosis that haunted his later days. Eventually he settled in Samoa, and there Stevenson died suddenly in 1894, at the age of forty-four.

http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/jekyll/context.html

DIEGO & FLORENCIA

VICTORIAN SCIENCE

Medical Treatments

During most of the Victorian era, people--including doctors--knew very little about the causes of disease. Health was a challenge because for most of the 19th century, people understand about germs. People had no idea why they became ill, and often, medicine was no more than guesswork. If a serious illness did not cause death, often some of the "remedies" might!

Frequently, people drank from the same unwashed cup which others had used. They did not take baths very often, and when settlers traveled, they typically slept on dirty sheets where many others had slept, or else they shared a bed. Settlers were ignorant as to what part cleanliness played in good health, and they knew nothing of the fact that germs thrive in dirty places.

In the first part of the 19th century, people generally believed that bathing too often removed protective oils from a person's skin, leaving them open to disease. If a person was ill, sunlight and fresh air were not allowed into their room. It was felt that cold, fresh air made people sicker. Sick people were told to stay in bed, not realizing how important it was for recovery to actually get a little exercise.

People believed that diseases traveled through the air, in the water, and underground. They associated sicknesses with "miasma" (a noxious or unpleasant vapour), and doctors carried scented sticks which supposedly kept the miasma from reaching the nose and entering the body.

"Playing Doctor"

Victorians typically had a strong faith in God, which allowed them to courageously face both illness and death. During the 19th century, death was simply "a part of life", something that the Victorians and Settlers just had to face. On the other hand, there were healthful benefits to living during the 19th century! The air was fresher; there was no smog to contend with. The sun shone more brightly, and food contained no chemical preservatives. People also had to walk long distances and do hard physical labour, both of which helped to maintain their bodies.

Unfortunately, however, early doctors were basically very limited in the ways they could treat patients. Because they did not know the cause of disease, they treated the symptoms only. For example, if a person had a rapid heartbeat, the doctor might give him/her a medication or herb to slow the heart rate, but would not cure the cause. Early doctors could not operate, and most medicine of the early 1800s was of little, or no help.

The most common methods of treatment used by 19th-century doctors were: 1) Bleeding (phlebotomy) 2) Blistering 3) Plastering 4) Amputation 5) Purging, Vomiting, and Sweating.

1) PHLEBOTOMY:

No matter if the illness was minor or serious, "phlebotomy" was the remedy most commonly used. Better known as "bloodletting" or "bleeding", it was believed that the use of phlebotomy released the "bad blood" which contained disease from a person's body.

There were a few different methods of bleeding a person. One way was to cut a patient with a "lancet"--a small knife. Later, an instrument called a "scarificator" was invented. This was a small box containing small, sharp blades, and it was used to scratch a person's skin, causing them to bleed. Then, a special cup was heated and placed over the scratches, creating a vacuum, allowing the blood to freely flow from the vein. This procedure was called "cupping".

Another common method of bloodletting was to apply "leeches" or bloodsuckers to a vein. In order to perform this procedure, first a leech was placed in a thin tube while the patient's skin was washed and shaved. To encourage the leech to bite, a drop of blood or milk was placed on the area of a vein. Then the tube with the leech in it was inverted over the spot, and the leech sucked blood from the vein. When it was felt that the leech had taken enough blood, salt was sprinkled on the leech, causing the leech to stop sucking and to let go of the skin.

Many people in a community performed bloodletting, and the same leeches were used many times. Leeches were kept in a jar by and used not only the doctor, but also the blacksmith, the apothecary, and even the barber! As a matter of fact, the colors of red and white seen on the striped pole outside barber shops originally stood for red blood and white bandages--the symbols of bloodletting!

Bleeding was used as a solution to many health ailments during the 1800s, but there were often serious consequences. For one thing, bleeding a person actually lessened the chances for a healthy recovery as it greatly weakened the patient. Doctors often bled patients until they fainted!

Doctors did not yet know about germs and the importance of sterilizing their instruments. Instruments were simply wiped clean of visible dirt and blood, but were not sterilized. Therefore, when these instruments were used, infection often occurred, and the treatment for the infection would typically be more bleeding, which meant that these dirty instruments would be used yet again...and so forth. Sometimes, doctors even used the same instruments on humans as they did animals!

2) BLISTERING:

Another popular early medical practice was called "blistering". Blistering was used as a treatment for anything from a fever or arthritis to serious illnesses such as cholera. Blistering did not actually cure any disease or ailment, but many Victorians believed in its effectiveness. This is because the pain of being blistered caused the patient to focus on a new pain, taking their minds away from the more serious pain from which they suffered.

In the early 1800s, it was believed that the body could only contain one illness at a time. When a second illness entered the body, the first was forced out. Therefore, if the skin of an ill person was made to blister, it was felt that the burn would force the illness from the body. Thus, acid or hot plasters would be poured on the skin to burn it and form a blister, which was then drained. Sometimes, hot pokers were used to burn the skin instead.

3) PLASTERING:

"Plasters" and "poultices" were made slightly differently, but both were popular "remedies" for a variety of ailments. Plasters were paste-like mixtures, made from a variety of ingredients, including even substances such as cow manure. They were applied to the chest or back of a person suffering from a chest cold, or an internal pain--even pneumonia. Poultices were made from bread and milk, and sometimes other ingredients were added such as potatoes, onions, herbs, and linseed oil. Poultices were applied to cuts, wounds, bites, and boils.

4) AMPUTATION:

For most of the first half of the 19th century, there was no real effective type of anaesthesia. Anaesthetics were not introduced until the 1840s (read more about anaesthetics on later pages in this series). Therefore, when a doctor performed an amputation (surgical removal of an arm, leg, or appendage), the patient was usually given wine to drink beforehand in an attempt to help deaden the pain.

Several years later, during the Civil War, amputation was the most prevalent surgery performed. Nearly three out of every four operations were amputations. Often for the army doctor, his operating table would be nothing more than a couple of boards placed between two barrels. He usually soaked a rag with chloroform and applied it to the patient's mouth and nose (a bit more useful in deadening pain than a glass of wine). He would, however, need to periodically remove the rag to avoid chloroform poisoning from occurring. The surgeon first used a tourniquet to tie off the blood flow. Then he used a scalpel to cut through the skin, flesh, and outer tissue, after which he used a saw (called a capital saw) to cut through the bone.

In the early years of the 19th century, the doctor finished the surgery by cauterizing the veins and arteries, then sealed the limb with hot tar so that it would not bleed. By the time of the Civil War, however, doctors usually sutured the limb with either silk (in the North) or cotton (in the South).

Once again, though, there was no knowledge of bacteria or viruses, nor antiseptics and sterilization, and frequently infection set in.

5) PURGING, PUKING, AND SWEATING:

"Purging" consisted of dosing a patient with powerful laxatives in order to expel poisons by relaxing the interior of the body. Despite its ineffectiveness, this was a common treatment for numerous ailments, widely practiced throughout the first half of the century--and beyond--by many doctors. The most commonly-used purgative was Calomel, a form of mercuric chloride.

"Puking" consisted of dosing a patient with emetics in order to produce vomiting. Advocated by Benjamin Rush (see entry below), and used by thousands of doctors during the era, the practice of puking was believed to relieve tension on arteries and to expel poisons from the body. The treatment was used to cure numerous diseases, but like most of Rush's treatments, puking did nothing to cure any illness at all.

"Sweating" was a common practice, originally advocated by Benjamin Rush, by which patients were made to "sweat out" the poisons that caused their disease. Therefore, people who suffered with a high fever were kept warmly dressed and under many layers of blankets. In many early settler communities, people sometimes visited nearby Indian villages for help with their maladies. There, a patient might be made to sweat in a "sweat-house"--that is, a tent or teepee which had been tightly closed, where hot stones had been placed in the center and drenched with water. A heavy steam would form inside the tent. When the patient was covered in sweat, he would be plunged into cold water and given a vigorous rubdown. A long nap followed, while the doctor prayed for the patient's recovery.

BENJAMIN RUSH: (Who advocated these medical practices?)

For the most part, the most influential practitioner of the time was a man named Benjamin Rush. Beginning in 1791, Rush was Professor of the Institute of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, and then, from 1783 - 1813, Physician to the Pennsylvania Hospital. Rush was known by his devoted followers as the "Hippocrates of American Medicine". As a believer in the Enlightenment era's philosophy of natural law, Rush lectured to and persuaded thousands of physicians and medical students to subscribe to his ideas and beliefs about medicine and the human body. Among the ideas that Rush promoted was the notion that Black people were black due to a form of leprosy, tobacco caused not only tuberculosis (consumption), but also insanity, and that yellow fever outbreaks were produced by "noxious miasmas". Rush advocated that the human body was a machine, and that all disease was one disease--that is, an over stimulation of the nerves and blood. His ideas about the treatment of disease were controversial to say the least, and many of his peers did in fact question Rush's methods. At the center of the controversy were his "heroic medicine" (bloodletting, blistering, puking, purging, and sweating) treatments which he believed would relieve nervous constriction of blood vessels caused by an accumulation of poisons from illness. While some of Rush's adversaries clearly opposed such therapies, claiming that they were ineffectual at best, and extremely harmful to the patient at worst, Rush's concepts held fast throughout the first half of the century. His work influenced numerous physicians, many of whom continued practicing bleeding and purging therapies through the 1870s, with some rural doctors continuing even beyond that.

victorian society.

HERE ARE SOME LINKS!
http://www.exampleessays.com/viewpaper/23975.html

"During the Victorian period, society was broken down into three distinct classes. There were the Aristocracy, the middle-class, and the working class. Each one of them behaved in society with its own set of characteristics. The Industrial Revolution was responsible for major changes that took place within society during this time of political and economic change. Women and children entered the work force. They worked long hours doing menial jobs and suffered poor living conditions that included a lack of a stable diet. The role of women during this time began to change as they entered the work force and questions began to surface about their rights to own property, have money, and vote. Middle class women generally stayed home and were in charge of taking"

http://www.victoriaspast.com/FrontPorch/victorianera.htm

http://www.aboutbritain.com/articles/victorian-society.asp

http://www.fashion-era.com/victorians.htm

"Victorian prosperity for an elite was built on the development of new machinery, new work methods and an underpaid workforce consisting of adults and children living in wretched poverty. Many people previously rural became urbanised by the new rail transport. Country families often drifted into towns to stay with other relatives whilst seeking work.

By 1850 half the country's former peasants were squashed into Britain's cities. The growth of industry, the building boom, the swift population spurt and spread of the railway changed the character of Britain too rapidly for many to understand.

Small towns were overtaken by growing industries to become uncoordinated and sprawling industrial dwelling areas. Rail towns such as Crewe soon developed as main rail junctions. These towns were close to other industrial towns like Stoke On Trent which became densely urban, spreading to make six joined towns.

By 1870 Britain had grown from 10 million at the start of the century to over 26 million."

Poster 1880

Poster from the 1880´s

Victorian Society

Source:Sparknotes http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/jekyll/themes.html

This society prizes decorum and reputation above all and prefers to repress or even deny the truth if that truth threatens to upset the conventionally ordered worldview. Faced with the irrational, Victorian society and its inhabitants prefer not to acknowledge its presence and not to grant it the legitimacy of a name


Source:BBC http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/english_literature/prosegreatexpect/0prose_greatexpect_contrev4.shtml

The 19th-century social, historical and cultural setting
The key social and cultural influences of the time were:
1. Ambition
In 1859, Samuel Smiles published his book Self-Help, which told people that if they worked hard they could improve their station in life. The 19th century was the age of the 'self-made man'.
2. Social class
In Victorian times, society was strictly layered - not only into rich and poor, or even upper, middle and lower class, but hundreds of 'grades'. People were expected to 'know their place', and the Church taught them to be content in their 'station'. Dickens did not like the effects of social class.
3. Social problems
At the time, many people were becoming aware of the need to improve the condition in which the poor found themselves. Dickens was a great supporter of social reform - especially in education and prisons.
4. Church and religion
In Victorian times, Britain was overwhelmingly Christian. The Church dominated religion and the morals of the time. Dickens, however, disapproved of the power the Church had over people's lives.
5. Family
Family was at the centre of Victorian society. People had large, extended families - although Dickens was aware that not all families were happy families.


Source:Sparknotes http://www.sparknotes.com/poetry/browning/analysis.html

This apparent moral decay of Victorian society, coupled with an ebbing of interest in religion, led to a morally conservative backlash. So-called Victorian prudery arose as an attempt to rein in something that was seen as out- of-control, an attempt to bring things back to the way they once were. Thus everything came under moral scrutiny, even art and literature.


Source:Sparknotes http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/jekyll/canalysis.html

Stevenson depicts Victorian society’s general attempt to maintain the authority of civilization over and against humanity’s darker side. Stevenson suggests that just as Utterson prefers the suppression or avoidance of revelations to the scandal or chaos that the truth might unleash, so too does Victorian society prefer to repress and deny the existence of an uncivilized or savage element of humanity, no matter how intrinsic that element may be.

New work sheet

These are some guiding questions related to the hand out on Gothic Literature. I expect you to print it and take it to class on Wednesday to work on in class, together with the hand out it deals with.

See you then.

http://www.box.net/shared/eglx3eoy8u

Organizing the dossier

These are the notes you put together when reviewing the contents of our first topic option Media and Culture. Bravo to Lucia who typed it all up!!

this is the link.

http://www.box.net/shared/6zz1i5y2t3

Diego's interest in biotechnology

Hello people! I just came across a wonderful link from ScientificAmerica.com (we should think it reliable, right?) that has an interactive display of the 12 discoveries/events that will change the world, or how we view it.
Of course, one of these is genetic engineering, and Craig Venter's genome creation is mentioned.
It is short, and interesting. It quotes a phrase used in the movie "Spider Man" 1, and has a very, very interesting conclusion in terms of how our relationship with the world will be like if creating life from the inanimate becomes a reality.
Very recommendable. Enjoy!

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=interactive-12-events

"Give me the strength"

These are two interesteing sites related to the prayer Mr. Brooks chants to himself in times of tribulation. check them out! It is a different view on the issue.

http://www.thevoiceforlove.com/serenity-prayer.html

http://www.lewrockwell.com/vuk/vuk10.html

Gothic

This text is an introduction to Gothic literature, it will be useful while analyzing the context in which Dr. J. and Mr. H. came to be.
Please read it for next week's Monday class.
This is the link in case you can't access the box.

http://www.box.net/shared/asst6a52sk

Acompáñame a estar solo (Ricardo Arjona)

I wasn't sure if I should upload this song or not because it is in spanish, but I decided to upload it anyways because I think it shows a duality since the begining of the song when he says that he wants to be alone but with her at the same time and in other parts too, and I think Julie can erase it if she thinks it's not appropiate.

Acompáñame a estar solo
A purgarme los fantasmas
A meternos en la cama sin tocarnos
Acompáñame al misterio
De no hacernos compañía
A dormir sin pretender que pase nada
Acompáñame a estar solo
Acompáñame al silencio
De charlar sin las palabras
A saber que estás ahí y yo a tu lado
Acompáñame a lo absurdo de abrazarnos sin contacto
Tú en tu sitio yo en el mío
Como un ángel de la guarda
Acompáñame a estar solo
Coro
Acompáñame
A decir sin las palabras
Lo bendito que es tenerte y serte infiel solo con esta soledad
Acompáñame
A quererte sin decirlo
A tocarte sin rozar ni el reflejo de tu piel a contraluz
A pensar en mí para vivir por ti
Acompáñame a estar solo
Acompáñame a estar solo
Para calibrar mis miedos
Para envenenar de a poco mis recuerdos
Para quererme un poquito
Y así quererte como quiero
Para desintoxicarme del pasado
Acompáñame a estar solo
(coro)
Y si se apagan las luces
Y si se enciende el infierno
Y si me siento perdido
Se que tú estarás conmigo
Con un beso de rescate
Acompáñame a estar solo
(coro)

Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (song)

Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde – The Who

Hyde, Hyde.

Someone is spending my money for me,
The money I earn I never see,
In all things I do he interferes,
All I know is trouble as soon as he appears.

Mister Hyde, Mister Hyde, Mister Hyde, Mister Hyde, Hyde.

When I drink my potion my character changes,
My whole mind and body rearranges,
This strange transformation takes place in me,
Instead of myself everybody can see...

Mister Hyde, Mister Hyde, Mister Hyde, Mister Hyde, Hyde.

Whenever you're with me make sure it's still me,
I've got to the stage I can't tell which I'll be,
The loveable fellow who'll buy you a drink,
Then when he's drunk his he'll change in a wink into...

Hyde, Mister Hyde, Mister Hyde, Mister Hyde, Hyde.