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Tess of d'Urberville: context study 2 (Literature (Oscar Wilde (1854…
Tess of d'Urberville: context study 2
Health
Inner City Movement
Early 19th century all food produced locally, ⅘ in countryside
Progressed into more in the city
New means of mass transport
1865, Britain’s first large scale meat-canning factory
Cuisine
Massively French influenced
Middle and Upper class could afford the more luxurious goods
Many cookbooks released - the most famous being The Book Of Household Management
One of the first to introduce precise quantities and cooking times
Beer
32.5 Gallons a year per person
Disease
Disease was the greatest cause of Victorian mortality
Smallpox, Tuberculosis and Influenza
1831 First cholera epidemic
Sewage water
Impact of cholera in combination with protests for workers health in 1848 led to the creation of local health boards
Aim was to combat unsanitary conditions
Mortality
Three biggest advancements in 19th century medicine; anaesthetics, understanding microbes as a cause of disease and antiseptic surgery
Most diseases still remained incurable
1850 : 40 for men and 42 for women
1900 : 45 for men and 50 for women
Literature
Oscar Wilde (1854-1900)
Wrote mostly epigrams and plays (The Picture of Dorian
Grey) that won him a place in the London society.
Best known for his flamboyant wit, talent and charm.
He is devoted to aestheticism, but also wrote famous
poems like De Profundis and The Ballad of Reading
Gaol which commemorates the harsh rhythms of prison
life.
Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936)
An English novelist, short-story writer and poet.
Best known for his prolific works of fiction, such as
The Jungle Book and Kim.
Also glorified British soldiers in India in his
collection of short stories, Soldiers Three and
Barrack Room Ballads
Herbert George Wells (1866-1946)
A well-known English novelist, journalist, sociologist and historian.
His infamous science-fiction novel, The Food of the Gods displays his
concern for man and society.
He eventually abandons science fiction for comic novels of the lower
middle-class life.
After the First World War, he began an ambitious work of popular
education such as The Science of Life, and The Outline of History.
Edith Warton (1862-1937)
An American novelist, short-story writer and designer.
Wrote mostly about the lives and morals of the
upper-class society that she lived in.
Warton’s short stories, Xingu and Other Stories
demonstrates her proficiency for social satire and
comedy.
Emily Brontë (1818-1848)
An English novelist and poet.
Published only one novel, Wuthering Heights.
Wuthering Heights is vastly different from other novels of that era. It had a
dramatic presentation and an unusual structure.
Her poems which discusses isolation, freedom and rebellion are often used
to interpret her novel.
Publishing
Why release in episodes?
Hardy wanted to have it up into a serialised story which was then delivered in four installments
Hardy had been working on this manuscript with the intention of submitting only a few chapters of the manuscript will be released at a time.
History
In the late-eighteenth and early-nineteenth centuries, reading was a privileged skill available to the upper-class elite.
In the 19th century, it was common for individuals to be able to read but not write. However, most illiterates had had contact with at least one literate person.
In the 19th century, it was common for individuals to be able to read but not write. However, most illiterates had had contact with at least one literate person.
Newspapers were read out loud and Dickens serialised novels were commonly read aloud in the home by a literate family member.
The 1830 and 40’s a new form of printed text emerged. Prose fiction serialized.
In 1870, the Education Act helped establish the foundation for generalised literacy rates across England.
The Graphic
The Graphic was a British weekly illustrated newspaper.
Was first published on 4 December 1869 by WIlliam Luson Thomas’s company, Illustrated Newspaper Limited. Hardy had an offer to publish the serial in The Graphic. The novel appeared as a serial on july 4, 1891, in England and Australia.
Fortnightly Review
It was one of the most prominent and influential magazines in 19th century England.
Founded in 1865 by Anthony Trollope, Frederic Harrison, Edward Spencer Beesly and six other with an investment of £9,000.
Their first edition appeared on 15 May 1865.
National Observer
The National Observer was a British newspaper published from 1888 to 1897.
It began as the Scots observer, until its location was moved from edinburgh to London in 1889.
The paper was considered conservative in its political outlook
Politics
Social Class In Tes
Clear distinctions between:
Professional middle-class people (Angel Clare’s family)
Farmers and liviers (Dairyman Crick)
Copyholders or freeholders (Tess’s father)
Skilled farm labourers
Unskilled labourers
Rural society was very stratified in its classes. Among the farming community, there would be lifeholders, or ‘liviers', who had security of tenure as long as they lived. Sometimes, this right to lease could be passed on to the next generation. Fortunes can very quickly be reversed when a property is not handed down to the net generation
Then there would be labourers who lived in ‘tied' cottages, so that when their contract ended, they had to leave them.
Due to industrialisation, the employment options for agricultural workers were growing more insecure:
Work was becoming increasingly seasonal and temporary
Farming methods were being mechanised
The Great Depression
Caused by the dramatic fall in grain prices
Triggered by America opening their market to England due to cheap transportation using steamships.
British agriculture did not recover from this depression until after the Second World War.
The depression also caused rural depopulation. Many former farm workers moved to cities to find work in industry.
Victorian Democracy
Parliament dominated by the aristocratic landowners. People with "a stake in the country" (people who paid taxes and held property), should take part in politics. The poor and the working classes, had no voice in Parliament.
Three major Reform Acts
1832, 1867, and 1884
Extended voting rights by integrating proportional representation in Parliament. The body more accurately represented the citizens of the country, gave the power of voting to those lower in the social and economic scale. Approximately one man in five now had the right to vote.
1830s and 1840s increased pressure from reformist groups
Chartists 6 Key reforms:
Manhood suffrage. Every man, regardless of class or property, should have the vote.
Annual elections
No regional differences in the electoral system.
Secret ballots
The end to property qualifications for MPs.
Payment for MPs; Enabling men who were not already wealthy to stand for election to Parliament.
1866 & 1867
By the early 1860s around 1.43 million could vote out of a total population of 30 million.
All voters = male adults over 21 years of age
Still based on a property qualification.
Lack of secret ballots resulted in open voting.
Voters could be offered bribes or be subject to intimidation in order to vote a certain way.
No proportional representation to the various parts of the United Kingdom.
Scotland still found themselves with fewer MPs and less of a say in Parliament that many other smaller areas of the UK.
Parliamentary system was not that of a democracy.
1884 Bill & 1885 Redistribution Act
Tripled the electorate, giving the vote to most agricultural laborers.
Voting becoming a right rather than property of the privileged.
Voters in counties deserved the same political rights as those in the boroughs → 1884 Parliamentary Reform Act.
1885 Act gave growing towns the right to send more MPs to Parliament and a redistribution of 142 seats took place. This cut old dominance of southern England and increased Scottish representation to 72.
In the Context of Tess
County - A geographical region of a country used for administrative or other purposes, in certain modern nations. Historically land ruled by a count or a countess.
Borough - A self-governing walled town, although in practice, official use of the term varies widely.
Wessex - Where the play is set is a county. It is worth noting that “Hardy’s Wessex” is considerably different and serves a fantasy purpose as opposed to being geographically accurate.
Voting changes caused by:
Reformist Groups
Increased Mobility - Industrial Revolution and the changes this brought
Regional differences and reputation changing between boroughs/counties. Sanitation drove development.