Intro: Victorian ideals

'The Victorian era of British history was the period of Queen Victoria's reign from 20 June 1837 until her death, on 22 January 1901.Victoria became queen in 1837 at age 18. Her long reign until 1901 was generally characterised mostly by peace and prosperity. There were no great wars.' 

Victoria married Prince Albert of Saxe- Coburg and Gotha in 1840. Together they had nine children and all of them married into royal and noble families across the continent making Victoria known as the 'Grandmother of Europe'. Albert sadly died in 1861 and Victoria went into deep depression and from then on didn't make any public appearances or very little at that.
Whilst she was in mourning she also only wore black.

Victoria was inspirational to young girls throughout her empire and beyond. Growing up all teenage and young girls wanted to be exactly like Princess Victoria, creating the same hairstyles as her. 

The victorian middle class came about because of the industrialisation that occurred at the time. Middle class people were seen as being above the workers but below the aristocracy. In victorian times styling and accessories were very important in identifying what class type people were. Hairstyles would say a lot about a person, for example their social background. Males could tell whether they were commoners or set to be queens just from how they did they hair and what adornments they put in it. What kind of jewellery and stones they wore depended on how much they could afford therefore showing their social class.

Gothic Horror became popular in the late 18th century and early 19th century.  Novels were written that combined fiction, horror and sometimes romance. For this unit we were asked to read a novel of our choice from the victorian gothic era and create characters based on that novel. I chose 'Wuthering Heights' which was written by Emily Bronte in 1847. The novel is based in the late 17th century and early 18th century. I will be basing my modern character off of the character in the novel known as 'Heathcliff'. Using the text to get an idea of his personality and the background than him and characters around him come from i will be able to get an idea as to his story and how i can adapt him into a modern version of the character.











References:
1.
 Book:

Marsh, M. (2014) The compacts and cosmetics: Beauty from Victorian times to the present day. United Kingdom: Pen & Sword Military.

2.

Book:

Beaujot, A. (2012) Victorian fashion accessories. London: Berg Publishers.

3.

Book:

Bryer, R. (2000) The history of hair: Fashion and fantasy down the ages. London: Distributed in the USA and Canada by Antique Collectors’ Club.

4.

Victorian era (2016) in Wikipedia. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victorian_era (Accessed: 18 April 2016).

5. 

(no date) Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_Victoria (Accessed: 18 April 2016).

6. 

ANON., n.d. [viewed 18 April 2016]. Available from: http://BBC(2011) History - British history in depth: The rise of the Victorian middle class. Available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/victorians/middle_classes_01.shtml (Accessed: 18 April 2016)

7. 

FREEDMAN, E. of B., 2014. The origins of the gothic [viewed 18 April 2016]. Available from: http://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/articles/the-origins-of-the-gothic

8. 

Gothic Fiction Wikipedia (2016).