Vanity Fair, Bleak House And Felix Holt Essay, Research Paper

Queen Victoria and her consort, Prince Albert, established the thought of a sound household life as a premier value of the mid-century old ages. In Vanity Fair, Bleak House, and Felix Holt we see a really different thought in household resonance.

In Vanity Fair, the Sedley household gives us a good illustration of a household that did non see sound household life as a premier value. Though both Amelia and Jos live good lives, Amelia traveling to a respectable miss & # 8217 ; academy, Miss Pinkerton & # 8217 ; s, and Jos populating abroad in India, neither of them is exceeding, though, an foreigner might hold seen them so. Amelia, whom we see being good liked by many and a apparently lovely miss, is non every bit perfect as she seems. A major mistake that Amelia has is her thoughts about love. Though we see this more as the novel progresses, we see her relationship with George and see it more as an infatuation so a echt love. She is in love with the visual aspect of George and the thought of George more than the individual that he really is. In chapter 3 we see Jos cruelly flim-flaming Becky into eating spicy nutrient which she has ne’er tasted earlier. As for Mr. Sedley, he is non a loving male parent. He is really average to Jos, naming him names and doing merriment of him at any given chance. Mr. Sedley is thoughtless, awful and cruel. To an foreigner like Becky, one & # 8217 ; s initial reaction to the Sedleys is that they are an ideal household, but one time one is submerged into their universe he/she begins to see the truth behind their fa? fruit drink. Becky besides idealizes them ab initio because she is an orphan. She comes from a household less fortunate than the Sedleys and hence sees them as a perfect. Now that she is alone she must work to take attention of herself. She is really unhappy about this because she likes being with the Sedleys and besides because she has set her sights on Jos as a possible mate.

In Bleak House the first brush we have with a household or non-family is with Sir Leicester and Lady Dedlock. Not merely are they are 30 old ages different in age but they have no kids. We can deduce that this fusss Lady Dedlock because of her reaction to the adjacent household who seem loving and caring.

We become acquainted with Esther was raised by her godmother who tr

eated her horribly. She invariably reminded Esther that she was her mother’s ruin because of the fortunes under which she was born. Esther grew up without love and feeling worthless. After her godmother’s decease she becomes a ward of the Crown and is taken attention of by Mr. Jarndyce. ( There are besides other ward of the Crown, Rich and Ada, whom Mr. Jarndyce takes attention of. )

The Jellyby household is rather dysfunctional. Mrs. Jellyby is merely interested in her charity work. She ignores her kids and her place go forthing them in sordidness. The house and the kids are foul. The lone kid who she pays attending to is Caddy, whom she uses as her secretary.

Mrs. Pardiggle besides does charity work, missional work to be exact. Her five boies dislike her and are fierce with discontent because she forces them to make that work every bit good and to lend money to it.

One more illustration of a non-family state of affairs is the Neckett household. After Mr. Neckett dies, Charlotte, better known as Charlie, must take attention of her siblings. Though they adore her this is far from what we would see as the ideal household state of affairs.

In Felix Holt the first household we encounter is the Transome household. They are quite disfunction from the really get downing. We are told that Mr. and Mrs. Transome have non seen their boy in many old ages nor have they of all time met their grandson, this alone makes us get down to inquire what sort of familial ties they have. After Harold arrives he is nil but mean and disrespectful to his female parent and male parent. He arrives without his boy, he bosses his female parent around rearranging everyone & # 8217 ; s life quarters in the house to accommodate his ain demands, and he makes merriment of his male parent who is non good. Proving farther the deficiency of household values in this family, we come to happen out that Mr. Transome is non even Harold & # 8217 ; s male parent but the neighbour Mr. Jermyn in fact is.

These illustrations taken from Vanity Fair, Bleak House, and Felix Holt show us that these novels, though written in the clip of Queen Victoria, did non emanate the household values that she and Prince Albert tried to establish. The households portrayed in these novels are rather opposite. These households were far from holding a sound household life ; one might oppugn naming them households at all.