Great Expectations and the Victorian Era

1. Great Expectations and the Victorian Era  “I must be taken as I have been made. The success is not mine, the failure is not mine, but the two together make me.”

2. Victorian Era (1837-1901) • great expansion of wealth, power, and culture. • conveyed connotations of "prudish," "repressed," and "old fashioned“

3. Problems? What problems? • Many improvements brought about • Cameras • Transportation • Sanitation • Lighting and heating • Soap • However...

4. Poverty • Increase in population • Many people living in urbanized places looking for work kept the wages down to the bare minimum • Places to live are expensive - slums

5. Child labour • Employment in factories and mines • Children work to earn enough money for their families • Children as young as four were put to work. • In coal mines children began work at the age of 5 and generally died before the age of 25. • Many children (and adults) worked 16 hour days • Under the Elementary Education Act 1870, basic State Education became free for every child under the age of 10.

6. Prostitution • Many young people worked as prostitutes (the majority of prostitutes in London were between 15 and 22 years of age) •  Dickens thought prostitutes were treated as possessions that were consumed and thrown away when they were used up • Jack the Ripper

7. Social Classes • Working class - performed physical labour, paid daily or weekly wages • Middle class - performed mental or "clean" work, paid monthly or annually • Upper class - did not work, income came from inherited land and investments • Typical Incomes (annual) • Labourers, soldiers £25  • Sailors and domestic staff £40-75 • Skilled workers (carpenters, typesetters) £75-100 • Lower middle-class (head teachers, journalists, shopkeepers) £150-300 • Middle-class (doctors, lawyers, clerks) £300-800 • Merchants, bankers £10,000 • Aristocrats £30,000 

8. Writing Task (C2 + C3) • Read the questions provided. (they are about Great Expectations) • Answer the questions. • Write a paragraph that tells a story that includes all the answers to the questions. • Minimum of 8 lines.

9. Example • Who lives with Miss Havisham? • Is this person nice and polite? • How does this person make Pip feel? Estella was a little girl that had been adopted by Miss Havisham. They lived together in Satis House. Estella was raised to be a cruel and unfeeling person and treated everyone like dirt. When Pip met her, he thought she was lovely, but Estella made him feel like a poor commoner with rough hands and ugly shoes.

10. Tips and Tricks • Don’t just write down the answers! You must write complete sentences. • The text you are writing is a story, so it must be written in the PAST tenses (simple past, past perfect, etc.). • Include other details! You can’t just answer the questions – use more information to complete your story.