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Victorian literature
Stage 5, Year 9

Rationale
The English novel has a relatively short history compared with the
development of other written texts, with the first novels appearing
around the early 18th century: Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe (1719)
and Samuel Richardson’s Pamela (1740). The novel form proliferated
during the nineteenth century, when rivalries emerged among its
emerging Gothic, Romance, realist and naturalist genres. This unit aims
at introducing students to describing, analysing and exploring the values
and contexts of Victorian literature. The unit also provides the
opportunity for teachers to use Victorian literature as entry to
investigating other sub-genres, such as Gothic, Romance and social
realism. The focus text for the unit is the play Jane Eyre, adapted by
Steve Barlow and Steve Skidmore. This is a very accessible text which
is true to the main elements of the narrative and characters in Charlotte
Bronte’s novel. Teachers could easily substitute the play Great
Expectations (from the same series as Jane Eyre), which might be more
interesting for boys. There is also a range of film versions of both texts.

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Professional reading
Fuery, Patrick and Mansfield, Nick, 1997, Cultural Studies and the New Humanities, Oxford,
Melbourne, (p. 102–109: has a brief introduction to realism).
Davenport-Hines, Richard, 1998, Gothic, Fourth Estate, London. The Prologue is very useful if you
don’t have time to read the whole book.
Stevens, David, (1995), The Gothic Tradition, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/intgenre/intgenre.html – introduction to genre theory.

Other useful resources

http://members.aol.com/franzpoet/intro.html
Web site on Gothic literature in England 1764–1840
http://www.engl.virginia.edu/~enec981/Group/title.html
Web site: The Gothic: Materials for study
http://members.aol.com/franzpoet/Gothicres.html
Notes on features of Gothic literature
http://www.litGothic.com/Authors/authors.html
List of resources; information on authors
http://www.brocku.ca/english/courses/2F55/romance.html
Romance genre
http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/books/genre/romance/novelromance/
Features of the Romance novel

Focus text
Barlow, Steve and Steve Skidmore (adapt.) 1999, Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte, Oxford Play Scripts,
OUP, London.

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 Teaching and learning sequence
Outcomes Content Activities/student products Resources

1. A student, through wide and close
study, responds to and composes
increasingly demanding texts for
understanding, for critical analysis
Cultural and historical The Victorian Age Library
context of the story
Students to undertake library research on Internet: The Victorian
Victorian life, including fashion, social mores, Web
role of women, marriage, class structures, English http://65.107.211.206

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and for pleasure in increasingly
politics, education, poorhouses, daily lives of
complex ways. Appendix 1 Research
members of different social classes
guide
Students learn to: Students make notes, using the research guide
• recognise the situational and
Students work on a social and political timeline
cultural elements that shape texts.
for Victorian times
Students learn about:
• the ideas, information and
perspectives presented in texts.

1. A student, through wide and close Read the play, Jane Eyre, Class reading of the play. Students should make Appendix 2 Reading
study, responds to and composes around the class notes at the end of each act to demonstrate journal
increasingly demanding texts for understanding of what is read and for quick
understanding, for critical analysis reference when completing responding activities
and for pleasure in increasingly later.
demanding ways.
Students learn to
• respond to … more sustained texts
• relate their responses to texts to
their developing moral and ethical
stances on issues.
Students learn about
• the role of context in shaping
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composition of texts.
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Outcomes Content Learning activities Resources

7. A student thinks critically using Close study of characters Character study Appendix 3 Character
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information, ideas and increasingly study
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Introduction to bias, argument In groups, students profile the characters of Mr

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complex argument to respond to

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and opinion Rochester and Jane Eyre THEN

and compose texts in a range of
contexts. in pairs choose a character or character group:
Students learn to • Mr Rochester • Mrs Reed
and children
• select and outline main ideas
• Grace Poole • Mary, Diana
• infer and interpret text
and St John Rivers
• recognise and explain differences
• Blanche and • Hannah
in shades of opinion
Lady Ingram
• compose texts to present
• Jane Eyre • Helen Burns
information, ideas and arguments.
• Mr Brocklehurst • Miss Temple
Students learn about
• Bertha Mason • Mrs Fairfax
• the ways bias, stereotypes,
perspectives and ideologies are • Adele Varens • Mr Briggs
constructed in texts, including the Still in groups, students compose a
codes and phrasings that signal representation of one of the above characters
them. through drawing and a collection of quotes from
9. A student questions, challenges the play which portray that character.
and evaluates assumptions in texts Quotes should be collected from the characters
and their effects on meaning. themselves, what others say about them and
Students learn to: stage directions.
• identify cultural elements Individual students write a journal entry for that
expressed in the language, character involving any event from the play.
structure and content of texts Explain your opinion / argue your point of view as
that character about your chosen event.
• engage with the details of a text to
respond and compose from a range
of social and critical perspectives.

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 Outcomes Content Learning activities Resources

4. A student selects, describes and
explains appropriate language,
forms, structures and features to
shape meaning with clarity and
coherence in a range of contexts.
The development of the
relationship between Jane and
Mr Rochester
Evaluation of that
relationship
Relationships and love
Close study of Jane and Rochester
Explore the relationship by experimenting with voice
and action according to the scripted dialogue and
stage directions. How will you represent emotion

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through tone of voice, facial expression and
movement?
Students (in pairs) use the play to explore details
of the first meeting of Jane and Rochester (Act II
Scene 2, p. 35–37) and act out this scene.
Selection of other scenes:
Act II Scene 4 p. 43–49
Act III Scene 2 p. 63–67
Act V Scene 2 p. 101–106
Write director’s notes for one scene.

1. A student, through wide and close
study, responds to and composes
increasingly demanding texts for
understanding, for critical analysis
and for pleasure in increasingly
complex ways.
4. A student selects, describes and
explains appropriate language,
forms, structures and features to
shape meaning with clarity and
coherence in a range of contexts.
Character study Letter 1 Use ideas and
information from
Letter writing Imagine you are Mr Rochester. Jane has been gone
previous two activities
for over a month and you have discovered she is at
Marsh End. Write a letter persuading her to return.
Use reason as well as expressing your emotions in a
way that is consistent with Mr Rochester’s character.
Letter 2: Jane’s reply
Imagine you are Jane and you have just received Mr
Rochester’s plea to return. Write a letter replying to
his invitation to return.
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Outcomes Content Learning activities Resources

9. A student questions, challenges Values arising in the play

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and evaluates cultural assumptions
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Students have already researched the historical

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in texts and their effects on

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and cultural context of the text’s content and its

meaning.
original form as a novel.
Students learn to
Library lesson using the Web (check Victorian
• identify cultural elements Web http://65.107.211.206/ and other library
expressed in the language, resources to explore these values further).
structure and content of texts
Students evaluate the web site to determine its Appendix 4 Evaluating a
including texts of cultural heritage
reliability. web site
• identify, explain and challenge
Compose a speech on one aspect of Victorian
cultural values, purposes and
values that you find interesting. The purpose of the
assumptions.
speech is to inform your audience about this
Students learn about particular aspect of Victorian culture and society and
argue for or against the appropriateness of this
• the ways in which particular texts
cultural value in your own contemporary society.
relate to their cultural experiences
and the culture of others.
2. A student shapes meaning through
different technologies.
Students learn about
• the ways in which modern
technologies of communication
are used to inform.

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 Outcomes
7. A student thinks critically using
information, ideas and increasingly
complex argument to respond to
and compose texts in a range of
contexts.
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8. A student demonstrates
understanding that texts are
reflections of personal and public
domains.
Students learn to
• relate the content and ideas in the
text to the world beyond the text
• draw conclusions about their own
values in relation to the values
expressed and reflected by texts,
and their response to them.
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Content
Marriage in the Victorian age Read the picture books and work on the
The play ends with Jane’s
marriage to Rochester.
Should Jane have married Mr
Rochester? Argue your opinion
with close reference to the text
(including quotations and
examples).
Write an EDITORIAL for
either a Victorian or
contemporary newspaper. Make
sure that your language choices
are consistent with the era of
publication of your newspaper.
Autobiographical elements in
the story
Learning activities Resources
See p. 119 of the play
activities in pairs. Jane Eyre for ideas:
• Is Mr Rochester a
good or bad man?
• Can his behaviour be
excused?
• What options are
open to Jane?
• Why does she make
the choices that she
does?
• Are her reasons
valid?
Refer back to author’s note, pp. 108–109
Divide the class into 6 groups and research
elements of Charlotte Bronte’s life to add to the
portrait of Bronte on pp. 108–109 of the play Jane
Eyre.
What incidents in Jane Eyre could be based on
Charlotte Bronte’s real life? Groups present their
findings to the class orally.
What changes did Bronte make? Why might she have
made these changes?
Creative writing
Students write a one-page piece (story, diary entry
for publication) on a past event in their lives.
Students write a reflective piece explaining what
changes they made to the actual events and why.
OR:
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own life. What changes did Bronte make to the
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character and why might she have done this?
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Outcomes Content Learning activities Resources

1. Gothic genre A range of reading and discussion activities for students Appendix 5
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to explore the use of a range of literary sub-genres in Introduction to genre
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Romance genre
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Jane Eyre. What aspects of these genres are evident in the

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Realism play Jane Eyre? What do they add to the story and the
reading process?

1. Wide reading Victorian book box Appendix 6

Victorian wide reading
For pleasure and Realism:
extension Tess of the D’Urbervilles
Great Expectations
Jane Eyre
Oliver Twist
Gothic / romance:
Wuthering Heights
Jane Eyre

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Appendix 1
Research guide
Use the resources of the library to research the following questions.
1. When did Queen Victoria reign?

2. Describe how society was organised in the time of Queen Victoria.

3. How important was marriage for women at the time?

4. How was England ruled during Victorian times?

5. What were the major changes to Victorian society during this period?

6. How important was education ? Who was actually educated and why?

7. Outline a typical day in the life of the following :

(a) an upper-class woman or man

(b) a middle-class woman or man

(c) a working-class woman or man.

8. Identify the main political changes of the time.

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Appendix 2
Guide to reading journal
You will read the play Jane Eyre around the class. As you finish reading each act, make notes, using the
following questions as a guide. These notes will help you with tasks later in the unit.

ACT 1
• What is Jane’s position in the Reed family?
• Why does Jane dislike the Red Room?
• Why do you think Mrs Reed is so eager to send Jane away?
• What is your opinion of Mr Brocklehurst? Give reasons and examples.

ACT 2
• How is mystery created in Scene 1?
• What was your reaction to Mr Rochester in Scenes 2 and 3? Give examples and reasons.
• Look at the last four exchanges between Mrs Fairfax and Jane on page 41, then re-read pages 46
and 47. What do you think is going on in this house?
• Comment on the relationship between Jane and Mr Rochester. What do you think will happen to
them?

ACT 3
• What is your opinion of Mr Rochester disguising himself as a gypsy? Why does he do this?
• Explain in your own words how Bertha Mason came to live in the attic at Thornfield.
• What is your opinion of Mr Rochester at the end of this act? Explain.

ACT 4
• What do we learn about Jane’s character in this act? Give examples.
• Do you think Jane and Mr Rochester will be happy together? Why?

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Appendix 3
Character study
When exploring your chosen character(s), consider the following:
• Create a profile of your character which includes physical characteristics, beliefs, attitudes,
behaviour – give examples and quotes.
• To what social class do they belong and how does this affect their behaviour?
• In what scenes do they appear in the play? Look at when they first appear - what are your first
impressions? Do these impressions change?
• What role do they play in the plot?
• What role do they play in relation to Mr Rochester and Jane Eyre? What aspects of the charaters
of Jane and Mr Rochester are made clearer through their interaction with your character? give
examples and quotes.
• What is your opinion of this character? Give reasons?
Compose a visual representation of this character which includes a collection of quotations. Your
representation can be a collage, a mind map, a graphic, a drawing, or any combination of these.
Choose a moment in the play that interests you and which involves your character and either Jane or Mr
Rochester or both. As your character, write a journal entry about that event. Make sure you use your
character’s voice and express the opinions and feelings that belong to your character. You should
incorporate some quotations into your piece of writing. Write about 300 words (one A4 page).

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Appendix 4
Evaluating a web site
Log on to the Victorian Web: http://65.107.211.206/
Click on any icon that appears to relate to the topic you have chosen to research and view the
information on the screen. Where does it lead you? How useful is the information you find? Are there
any further links you can pursue? How useful are these in helping you find information about Victorian
England?
What graphics appear on this web page? Describe them in your notes. What purpose do the graphics
serve ? Do you like the inclusion of graphics? Explain.
How much time did you spend searching this web site for information relevant to your needs? Do you
think you could have found this information elsewhere? If so, where? Would it be quicker to get the
information from other sources apart from the web?
How reliable is the information on this web site? How do you know whether it is accurate? Who
composed the site? What are his or her credentials? Would you have thought to question its reliability if
you had not been asked to? Why / why not? Would other sources of information be more or less accurate?
Explain your opinion.
List the strengths and weaknesses of this site for the purposes of research on Victorian Literature.

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Appendix 5
Introduction to genre
Genre is a French term for a literary type or class. Whilst the novel itself constitutes a genre, as distinct
from poetry or drama or the short story, novels can also be divided and classified into sub-genres. These
might include the fantasy novel, the realist novel, crime fiction, science fiction, the thriller, Gothic
fiction etc, all of which employ specific generic devices. In other words, these sub-genres conform to
patterns in content, style, structure, characterisation, atmosphere, and so on, which enable us to
categorise them into separate groups. Of course, this practice is somewhat false, since most texts would
include features from a range of sub-genres. For example, Jane Eyre contains elements of Romantic,
Gothic and Realist fiction.
These activities require you to research the elements of different genres – Romance, Gothic and Realism.
These genres were popular during the nineteenth century (as they are today), and it was during this time
that the novel developed as a literary form. The activities below can be undertaken in groups or
individually. Each group or individual should research one genre then report the findings back to the
class.

A. What you already know

Spend about 20 minutes on this activity.
• As a class brainstorm all the different genres you can think of.
• Allocate a different genre to each group. Each group must create a visual representation, on a large
sheet of paper, of as many elements of that genre as they can think of. For example, a western
might contain drawings of horses, hand guns, cowboys, saloon bar doors, a cactus etc.
• Each group show their creations to the rest of the class and briefly explain what each item
represents and where they think their knowledge of the genre comes from.
• Pin the sheets to the classroom wall.

B. Researching features of genre

Find out what you can about the literary genres of Realism, Gothic or Romance. Here are some notes to
get you started:

1. Realism
(see Fuery and Mansfield, 1997, pp. 102–109)
Realism is probably the most widely read and understood form of writing in English literature. Realism
purports to represent the world as it is and the daily life experiences of ordinary people. Realism rose to
prominence in the nineteenth century and was often set in contrast to the extraordinary experiences of
extraordinary characters in romance fiction. Realism reflects the dominant intellectual beliefs and
influences of the nineteenth century.
(a) Realist texts focused on the social. This is founded in the belief that we are defined by our social
group, which is determined by money, class, power, and often gender and ethnicity. The rise of
capitalism in the nineteenth century saw a concurrent rise of a monied middle class whose access
to political and economic power gradually increased. Nineteenth century realist texts tended to
present a middle class view of the world – that is, the ordinary lives represented in texts were
those of the middle classes.

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(b) Realist narratives are often set against the background of broader historical events, such as
colonialism, the rise of certain classes and war.
(c) Realist texts are grounded in the idea that the world can be understood and analysed by
systematic, objective observation and description. Realist texts are seen to present a truthful
record of reality.
Find out what else you can about nineteenth century Realism.

2. Gothic
The first Gothic novel in English was probably The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole (1764), which
was characterised by sensationalism, melodrama and the use of the supernatural. It was most popular
between 1764 and the mid-nineteenth century. Gothic novels usually include:
• creepy landscapes, for example dark, misty moors, windswept hillsides with craggy trees, darkness
and storms, isolation
• ruined castles or old, stately homes with spires or turrets, winding staircases, dark passageways,
attics, locked sections of the house
• a sense of unrestricted space juxtaposed with claustrophobic confinement
• extreme and often sensational situations and characters - obsessions, heightened awareness,
unnatural fears
• a hero with a dark, mysterious past which seems to haunt him
• a heroine who is often passive and persecuted
• links between love and death
• a plot which often involves melodramatic aspects of romance where the heroine is forced apart
from her true love in extreme circumstances
• something supernatural, mysterious or inexplicable which is happening in the background and
impacts directly on the situation of the heroine and her true love.
Find out what else you can about the Gothic genre. The following web sites might be useful:
http://members.aol.com/franzpoet/intro.html
Web site on Gothic Literature in England, 1764–1840
http://www.engl.virginia.edu/~enec981/Group/title.html
Web site on the Gothic: Materials for Study web site
http://members.aol.com/franzpoet/Gothicres.html
Notes on features of Gothic literature

3. Romance
Romance fiction usually involves two people meeting, falling in love then something forcing them apart.
Eventually they reunite and live happily ever after. Of course, romantic novels are more complex than
this; for example, the main characters are usually extraordinary in some way (very beautiful, rich, famous,
engaged in unusual careers etc.) and settings are often exotic.
Find out what else you can about Romance fiction. These web sites might be useful:
http://www.brocku.ca/english/courses/2F55/romance.html
Romance genre
http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/books/genre/romance/novelromance/
Features of the Romance novel

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C. Genres in Jane Eyre

(a) You will have worked out by now that Jane Eyre contains elements of all three literary genres.
The next step is for you to provide evidence from the play or novel for as many of the features of
each genre as you can. Create a grid or mind map to record your evidence for each feature.
(b) In groups or as a class, discuss the following questions.
• In what ways does the text represent reality?
• Whose reality does it reflect?
• What purposes do the different generic components serve? For example, what is the purpose of
the Gothic and Romance elements?
• What cultural assumptions and values are imbedded in the text? How do the generic
conventions help reinforce these assumptions?
• Did the text fulfil your expectations of the genres it includes?
• Did you find you resisted or criticised any aspects of the text? Why?
• Which parts of the text seemed obvious because of your knowledge of the genres at play?
• What predictions were you able to make as you were reading the text? Were your predictions
accurate? If you had been told the text was a Gothic romance, would your predictions have
been more accurate? What sort of reader does the text assume you are (class, gender, ethnicity,
age)?
• What language features did you notice? For example, what vocabulary do you associate with
Romance, Gothic or Realism?
• What knowledge does the text take for granted?
• Of what other texts does it remind you?
(c) There are lots of theories about the purpose and effect of genre. Many suggest that our
understanding of genre, our familiarity with the various conventions of the different genres, are a
shortcut form of communication. We know how to read a text, what to expect from it, how to
respond to it, as soon as we recognise the genres within it. Genre analysis, like that which you
have been doing in this section of the unit, can help us to recognise and understand the ways in
which events in the world are reduced, by the mass media, to rigid formats of news, itself a genre,
so that we fill in the gaps or make links between cause and effect that might not necessarily be
there.
Select a news story from a daily newspaper or TV news report.
• Create a list of features of the news story genre.
• Analyse the news story by asking the questions listed in activity (b).
• Rewrite the news story as a Gothic or Romance story. Keep all the “facts”.
• Each group now pass their story on to another group for generic analysis (using the questions
in activity (b) again.
• As a class talk about how your knowledge of genres influences the way you read and the
meanings you gain from your reading. Write your thoughts about the purposes of genre in
your learning log.

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Appendix 6
Victorian literature: Wide reading
Choose a novel from the book box (or select your own from the library and check with your teacher).
After you have read the novel, choose one of the following ways of responding to it.

1. Monologue
Choose a protagonist from your selected novel and compose a monologue outlining the dilemma facing
you at the climax of the novel. Present your monologue to the class.

2. Writing
Write another chapter, to be included in your chosen novel, that may or may not change the plot. Your
chapter can be added at any point in the novel. Make sure you keep the writing style consistent with the
rest of the text and do not introduce any new characters.

3. Review
Write an review of your novel for a specific publication (e.g. Spectrum section of the weekend Sydney
Morning Herald, a book of reviews for teenage readers, Who magazine etc. )

4. Design
Design a cover for a new edition of the novel. Your design (including the blurb, author information and
visuals) is aimed at teenage readers.

5. Interview
Construct either a radio or television interview involving two minor characters from your novel. Have
them talk about some of the issues or the behaviour of the main characters.

6 . Letter
As the author of your novel, write a letter to your publisher outlining the value of your work and why it
deserves to be published.

7. Comic strip
Construct a comic strip of a chapter of the novel you have chosen.

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