Regency Era And The Victorian Period

Britain under the Regency era and the Victorian period

Throughout this written assignment I´m going to discuss the Regency Era and Victorian period, two different periods in two different centuries. I´m going to discuss the topics “women issues” and “social classes” that were in these two periods in Great Britain. To strengthen my examples, I´m using two versions of the Mansfield Park series and the the novel Persuasion written by Jane Austen.

The British time periods

British time can be divided into small time periods, for instance Anglo-Saxon, Norman, Georgian and Victorian. Within the Georgian period from 1714 to 1837 we find an even smaller period called the Regency era that lasted

Women wanted to have the same right rights, laws and to be treated as the other sex. Early in the period, matters such as politics was of small concern for the Victorian woman since she was disallowed to own either property nor money. She was always supported by her family and husband. In some cases, she had to go to her husband’s family for support. When a woman successfully divorced her husband, she was forbidden to see her children. In addition, she would never earn acceptance and respect from the rest of the society again. It wasn’t before the second half of the century that things changed. In 1860s women started to play a bigger and more important role in the fight for human right to vote and improved and improved wages and working conditions. In 1869 the women had to work and pay taxes to be able to vote. In 1887 women were finally given the rights to own property. In 1928 the women got their voting-rights. While men had to be 21, the women had to be 30 years to vote. The women’s working conditions were obviously poor at that time. They could not expect to earn the same wage as the men, despite the fact that they were likely to end being married and stay home supporting their children. The average wage for women working in factories ranged between 11 and 18 shillings, whereas the men earned about 25 shillings.

To be the “ideal woman” in England in the Regency era, you had

The women never truly got their “need” fulfilled. We can see this in the movie Hysteria when the women aren´t sexually fulfilled. Their needs wasn´t taken as seriously as they should be. Women could be medical diagnosed with female hysteria.

There´s an expression in the UK that goes: “The queen reigns but does not rule”. England has had a queen as their ruler since the 16th-centuary. Up until the English monarch lost it´s power to the parliament and democracy, the queen was more a trophy than a ruler. She “ruled” the country, but at the same time didn´t rule the country. To say it in another way:

If Great Britain was a ship, the queen was (and still is) the figurehead instead of the captain.

For as long as humans can remember, women have been overruled by men. Trough stereotypes women have been seen as people who stay home all day taking care of her and her husband’s children and making dinner as well as tidying up the home, while the men are seen as family’s provider. Thanks to a handful of women of dared to speak up women finally got their wish granted. It wasn´t before around 100-200 years that this changed. Still there are countries today that are