Quest for Identity in the Victorian Era Essay -- Literature Essays Lit

Quest for Identity in the Victorian Era Who are you? said the caterpillar to Alice (Carroll 60). This was a hesitation she could not answer. Why doesnt Alice know what constitutes her being? Humans desire completeness, and a solid identity. Up to the age of Darwinism, that void was filled by religious faith. tho with the emergence of Charles Darwins theories on natural selection and survival of the fittest, Victorians were reevaluating their paths to righteousness. Without God as a foundation, what were lifes rules? Peter Bowler argues in Charles Darwin The Man and His Influence that the old pathway to salvation had been damaged by one of Darwins greatest triumphs - being the catalyst for the transformation of Victorian thought (150). Darwin made man apparent movement his belief dodging and, as Richard Altick presents in Victorian People and Ideas, revisions of mans destiny and place within the universe had to take form (232). Since no divine agency could be relied upon to break his condition, man must turn himself to make whatever he can of his life (235), thus helping himself. This idea of self-help brought Victorians in search of mens sana in corpore sano, or total health or wholeness, in which they adopted the well-knit body as their model for spiritual health, the harmony of the self with external principles of growth and revise (Anderson). Through this model, they attempted to identify their purest and most desirable form through the use of drugs and a yearning for eternal youth. They admired Grecian characteristics as well, which was the get opposite image Darwin placed within the Victorian mind - that man was a descendent of a hairy quadruped. All of these goals were sought after ... ...York Cambridge University Press, 1990. Carroll, Lewis. Alices Adventures In Wonderland. 1866. New York HarperCollins Publishers, 1992. Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan. The Sign of Four. New York The Berkley Publishing Group, 1994. Gardner, Martin. The Annotated A lice. New York W. W. Norton & Company, 2000. Haggard, H. Rider. She. 1887. New York Oxford University Press, 1998. Man or Beast? The Lasting Effects of Darwin. Florida Gulf Coast University. Unpublished essay, 2001. Mitchell, Sally. day-after-day Life in Victorian England. Westport, Connecticut Greenwood Press, 1996. Stevenson, Robert Louis. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. 1886. Mineola, New York Dover Publications, Inc., 1991. Wilde, Oscar. The Picture of Dorian Gray. 1891. Mineola, New York Dover Publications, Inc., 1993. Quest for Identity in the Victorian Era Essay -- Literature Essays LitQuest for Identity in the Victorian Era Who are you? said the caterpillar to Alice (Carroll 60). This was a question she could not answer. Why doesnt Alice know what constitutes her being? Humans desire completeness, and a solid identity. Up to the age of Darwinism, that void was filled by religious faith. save with the emergence of Charles Darwins theorie s on natural selection and survival of the fittest, Victorians were reevaluating their paths to righteousness. Without God as a foundation, what were lifes rules? Peter Bowler argues in Charles Darwin The Man and His Influence that the old track to salvation had been damaged by one of Darwins greatest triumphs - being the catalyst for the transformation of Victorian thought (150). Darwin made man question his belief system and, as Richard Altick presents in Victorian People and Ideas, revisions of mans destiny and place within the universe had to take form (232). Since no divine agency could be relied upon to remedy his condition, man must turn himself to make whatever he can of his life (235), thus helping himself. This idea of self-help brought Victorians in search of mens sana in corpore sano, or total health or wholeness, in which they adopted the well-knit body as their model for spiritual health, the harmony of the self with external principles of growth and couch (Anders on). Through this model, they attempted to identify their purest and most desirable form through the use of drugs and a yearning for eternal youth. They admired Grecian characteristics as well, which was the take away opposite image Darwin placed within the Victorian mind - that man was a descendent of a hairy quadruped. All of these goals were sought after ... ...York Cambridge University Press, 1990. Carroll, Lewis. Alices Adventures In Wonderland. 1866. New York HarperCollins Publishers, 1992. Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan. The Sign of Four. New York The Berkley Publishing Group, 1994. Gardner, Martin. The Annotated Alice. New York W. W. Norton & Company, 2000. Haggard, H. Rider. She. 1887. New York Oxford University Press, 1998. Man or Beast? The Lasting Effects of Darwin. Florida Gulf Coast University. Unpublished essay, 2001. Mitchell, Sally. mundane Life in Victorian England. Westport, Connecticut Greenwood Press, 1996. Stevenson, Robert Louis. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyl l and Mr. Hyde. 1886. Mineola, New York Dover Publications, Inc., 1991. Wilde, Oscar. The Picture of Dorian Gray. 1891. Mineola, New York Dover Publications, Inc., 1993.