The English novels Emma, Jane Eyre and Middlemarch are all among the most famous of the 1800s and feature romances between main characters which are important for the story. Emma Woodhouse falls in love with George Knightley, Jane Eyre with Edward Rochester, and Dorothea Brooke with Edward Casaubon and then Will Ladislaw. These novels explore... Continue Reading →
The novel Jane Eyre is a Victorian Gothic bildungsroman that explores the early life of the eponymous character. At eighteen Jane is hired by Mr. Rochester as a governess at Thornfield Hall. This essay will argue that Jane’s innocent, independent personality liberates Mr. Rochester from his mental enslavement at Thornfield Hall. Jane provides a glimpse... Continue Reading →
Robert Louis Stevenson was a Scottish novelist, poet and travel writer who published a novella called The Strange Case of Henry and Jekyll in 1886. It is about a doctor called Henry Jekyll who separates himself into two beings. Through his investigations of the human psyche, Jekyll discovers that he is not simply one being,... Continue Reading →
Thomas Carlyle was a Scottish historian and writer who in 1843 published his very influential historical and social criticism book “Past and Present”. There, he joins medieval history with criticism of 19th-century British society. In the chapter “Gospel of Mammonism”, Carlyle examines the materialism of his Victorian society. He argues that a society’s imagery of... Continue Reading →
Arthur Conan Doyle’s “Sherlock Holmes: The Speckled Band” is a “locked room” mystery which sees the famed detective try to solve the mysterious death involving a “specked band” by the whim of Helen Stoner, who feels that her stepfather is attempting her murder so he can keep control of his inheritance. It is one of... Continue Reading →
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