This thesis is aimed at following the evolution of the character of Sherlock Holmes throughout three works : the original Conan Doyle's canon, the spinoff Enola Holmes series written by Nancy...Show moreThis thesis is aimed at following the evolution of the character of Sherlock Holmes throughout three works : the original Conan Doyle's canon, the spinoff Enola Holmes series written by Nancy Springer (2006-2010) and its recent film adaptation on Netflix (2020). Taking the famous detective's change in emotionality as basis, the thesis covers a number of topics in order to understand the reasons behind that change. Those topics include adaptations, feminism, the evolution of detective fiction and our relationship to emotions as a society.Show less
Nineteenth-century London expanded tremendously due to British imperialism. The Britons were acquinted with new cultures and religions. Besides the benefits of the forming of London as metropolis,...Show moreNineteenth-century London expanded tremendously due to British imperialism. The Britons were acquinted with new cultures and religions. Besides the benefits of the forming of London as metropolis, the citizens experienced new anxieties. Urbanisation from immigrants led to xenophobia. The use of alcohol and opium rose and the city became even more divided wealth wise. Stevenson, Wilde and Stoker explore these Victorian anxiety.Show less
This essay will focus on the ways in which the house, and indeed the right to own property, shaped female experience in The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (1843), The Spoils of Poynton (1897) and Howard’s...Show moreThis essay will focus on the ways in which the house, and indeed the right to own property, shaped female experience in The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (1843), The Spoils of Poynton (1897) and Howard’s End (1910). The relationship between houses and female power will be explored through three chapters. The first will focus on The Tenant of Wildfell Hall and will examine the relevance of the house as a physical space within women’s lives. The second will look at The Spoils of Poynton in the context of female homelessness, shedding light on the importance of the female home in wielding power, as women without property are left disenfranchised throughout, as well as the precarious nature of female inhabitance of the home. The third and final chapter will examine Howard’s End in light of this. Women, able to take full ownership of the home, are able to exert control over their environment and exercise a relatively high degree of independence. Howard’s End, then, I will examine in terms of legal female ownership of the house and female inheritance. This essay will examine the role of the house in female agency within the novel, and how these novels emerge from, and form part of, the shifting political, social and legal context of the 19th Century.Show less
Although the Victorian age is popularly understood to be an age in which motherhood was glorified, by the end of the nineteenth century mothers in late Victorian novels were often portrayed as...Show moreAlthough the Victorian age is popularly understood to be an age in which motherhood was glorified, by the end of the nineteenth century mothers in late Victorian novels were often portrayed as negative characters and motherhood as an institution was under attack. The rise of feminism and the introduction of the New Woman could be seen as provoking this negative portrayal. Not only women but also men criticized women’s and mothers’ positions in society. Straightforward criticism on the position of mothers was likely to be censured. Writers took it on themselves to portray the mother’s distorted social position, one that made her practically invisible within the public realm. Some feminist writers attacked motherhood in order to advocate another life and lifestyle equal to men; in literary texts, they used discouraging depictions to show women what would happen to them if they too would walk into the trap of marriage and motherhood. I shall argue that such writers portrayed mothers as undesirable characters in order to expose what the social conventions invented by a patriarchal society did to mothers and how it affected their behaviour. I shall analyse what motherhood meant in the late nineteenth century and how ‘the mother’ was characterized in literature during that time period. Two novels and a play will be analysed for the support of my argument: George Bernard Shaw’s Mrs Warren’s Profession (1894); Henry James’s The Spoils of Poynton (1897); and Kate Chopin’s The Awakening (1899). I shall demonstrate that in each primary source the author criticizes a distorted situation that affects mothers and their behaviour that is regarded as deleterious.Show less
The coincidence of increased immigration into Britain in the late nineteenth century with the revitalisation of the trade union movement encourages the investigation of interaction between the two...Show moreThe coincidence of increased immigration into Britain in the late nineteenth century with the revitalisation of the trade union movement encourages the investigation of interaction between the two phenomena. This study seeks to determine the impact that immigrants had upon trade unions that were primarily created for workers born in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, whether through joining these unions, through the impact of their own independent unions, or as unorganised workers. Specifically, the Alliance Cabinet Makers Association, the primary furniture making union, is considered as an example of immigrant integration into British trade unionism of the period, revealing significant levels of immigrant participation, and therefore evidence for considerable acculturation into elements of British society. Trade union records and census data are combined to create an in-depth study of the background and identities of hundreds of trade union members over a thirty year period. Ultimately, the historical investigation is compared to contemporary trends in immigration and trade unionism, both in the United Kingdom and the United States.Show less
