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Spreekbeurt Engels 18 Century England
Introduction
We are going to tell you a couple of things about 18th century England and explain to
you what life back then was like and tell you some facts about the period during which
the book was written.
Life back then and life right now have one huge thing in common. Money is a
wonderful thing to possess.
The people in 18th century England could be divided into two categories; those who
have money, and those who don't. The people that did, the upper and middle class,
always had plenty to eat and drink, and generally lived a relatively comfortable life. The
poor people, well, their lives weren't all that nice. While the upper class would be sitting
in their spacious rooms enjoying fine wine and delicious food, the lower classes would
be scavenging the dirty streets for a potential meal. In the worst case scenario people
could be found sharing a loaf of rotten bread with their ten children, not to mention their
wife. Or wives. So no, life definitely was not pleasant for all.
The gap between rich and poor did simply mean the difference between eating a decent
dinner and eating food we wouldn't even feed our dog. No, money meant a clear
distinction between social classes. There weren't many upper class citizens who could
look at the lower class people without feeling a slight hint of superiority.
As if life wasn't already awful enough, the 18th century showed a large increase of
people migrating from the rural areas to the cities, many of them under the impression
that they would be able to find better work there. Only to find out they weren't the only
one who thought so, and end up sharing a tiny room with six or more people. Chances
were at least one of them had smallpox, a very common disease back in those days.
The men typically made most of the money in the household, while the women did most
of the housework. It was, however, not uncommon for the lower class women to try and
work as well, since these families needed every penny they could get their hands on. In
the middle and upper class, women generally did not need to work. They probably never
even had to do much housework, since the wealthier families always had one or more
servants to do this for them. One of the main priorities of women in that day was to
secure a husband as soon as possible so to be guaranteed a pleasant life. Financially
pleasant, that is. The average age of women when they married was a little over
twenty-two. More and more, however, could you find couples who married, not for
financial reasons, but because of affection. The majority still married for the money,
though, I can imagine parents in those days would be more willing to see their daughter
marry a rich man than see their daughter marry a homeless person. Because, yes,
families were worried about their image, about the way others saw them.
From time to time one could witness random acts of kindness, rich people giving money
to the poor, for example. The main reason for this was to make themselves look better,
look generous. Even though everyone, even the poor, knew they were giving money not
to help others, but to make them feel better about themselves.
The position of women did not get any help from the educational corner of England
either, only men were allowed to go to university. Not that many made it there, since
there weren't many spots available. Only two hundred men attended one of the two
universities, Oxford or Cambridge, in England a year. You were lucky if you even
found yourself in a position where you could go to a university, since it wasn't easy at
all to follow the education that proceeds it. Not that it was too difficult, but since
schools did not receive any of the government funding they did today, the students
themselves had to pay the teacher salaries as well as pay for the required materials.
Since most people in those days did not have any money, education was something not
everyone could afford. This furthermore increased the gap between the rich and poor,
because the poor rarely found themselves in a position where they could climb up the
social ladder.
ECONOMY
The period in which Jane Austen wrote her book lay somewhere in between the age of
mercantilism and the industrial revolution. The age of mercantilism was all about
maximizing the trade inside the empire and trying to weaken rival empires. The modern
British Empire was based upon the preceding English Empire which first took shape in
the early 17th centur, with the English settlement of the eastern colonies of North
America, which would later become the original United States, as well as Canada's
maritime provinces and the colonisations of the smaller islands of the Caribbean such as
Trinidad and Tobago, the Bahamas, Barbados, and Jamaica.
These sugar plantation islands, where slavery became the basis of the economy, were
part of Britain's most important and successful colonies. The American colonies also
utilized slave labour in the farming of tobacco, cotton, and rice in the south. Naval
material and furs in the north were less financially successful, but had large areas of
good agricultural land and attracted far larger numbers of British immigrants who would
also utilize slave labor to farm agricultural commodities.
The Industrial Revolution saw a rapid transformation in the British economy and
society. Previously large industries had to be near forests or rivers for power. The use of
coal-fuelled engines allowed them to be placed in large urban centres. These new
factories proved far more efficient at producing goods than the cottage industry of a
previous era. These manufactured goods were sold around the world, and raw materials
and luxury goods were imported to Britain.
During the Industrial Revolution the empire became less important and less
well-regarded. The British defeat in the American War of Independence (1775-1783)
deprived it of one of its most populous colonies. This loss of the southern American
colonies was coupled with a realisation that colonies were not particularly economically
beneficial. It was realised that the costs of occupation of colonies often exceeded the
financial return to the taxpayer. The American Revolution helped demonstrate this by
showing that Britain could still control trade with the colonies without having to pay for
their defence and governance. Capitalism encouraged the British to grant their colonies
self-government. The end of the old colonial system was most evident in the repeal of
the Corn Laws, the agricultural subsidies on colonial grain. The end of these laws
opened the British market to unfettered competition, grain prices fell, and food became
more plentiful. The repeal greatly injured Canada, however, whose grain exports lost a
great deal of their profitability.
LITERATURE
ROMANTIC PERIOD
Major political and social changes at the end of the eighteenth century, particularly the
French Revolution, awakened a new breed of writing now known as Romanticism.
William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge began the trend for bringing
emotionalism and introspection to English literature, with a new concentration on the
individual and the common man. The reaction to urbanism and industrialisation
prompted poets to explore nature.
The major "Second generation" Romantic Poets flouted social convention and often
used poetry as a political voice.
At the same time Jane Austen was writing highly polished novels about the life of the
landed gentry, seen from a woman's point of view, and wryly focused on practical social
issues, especially marriage and money.
Jane Austen wrote Pride & Prejudice during the Romantic Period, this was an important
period for English literature and not the least for the way how people begun to think
about everything.
While music and art from the Classical period was based on reason, order and rules,
music and other art from the Romantic period was based on emotion, adventure and
imagination. The Romantic period was a time of political revolution and new ways of
looking at the world. Instead of working for wealthy bosses, composers were for the
first time able to work for themselves. They composed music to express what they were
thinking and feeling- unlike during earlier days, when they were only allowed to
compose exactly what their employer wanted. During the Romantic period, there was a
new appreciation of the artist as an individual- someone who had feelings which were
expressed through their creations.