The Middle-class Family Values In The Eyes Of Early And Middle Victorian Writers

The Victorians had a strong awareness about family, which is the recognition of whose own cultural identity. Especially in the mid-period, from Queen Victoria to the lower classes advocated family moral values actively,Home Sweet Home is the family ideal. The Industrial Revolution’s impact on the family and the leading role of the utilitarian ideology to the family values, that maked the decent appearance behind the dark side:the unequal status between men and women, the double moral standards, ignoring the issue of children and so on. For the Victorian writers, they both agreed and criticized about the mainstream middle-class family moral values. As the Victorians, they endorse the sacred view of a family and agreed the desire of the family and the role of the family showed. Facing to the family morality which was guided by utilitarian ideology, such as the utilitarian marriage, utilitarian education, double moral standards, they presented the different degree of criticisms. This dissertation selected three writers from early and middle time of the Victorian era, Charles Dickens, Charlotte Bronte, George Eliot. Starting from the two aspects about their identity and questioned the concept of the family. The point about questioned on family morality divided into two parts:marriage, outlook on women and think about the plight of women and children. The concept of the family between the male writers and the female writers had biggish difference. Dickens questioned the concept of middle-class families to focus on the impact of the industrial revolution, the destruction of the family and utilitarian concept of family. Charlotte Bronte and George Eliot were not only critical of the utilitarianism impacted on the family, also criticized the inequality of the status between men and women in traditional thought. They were both thinking about how to get out from the dilemma which suppressed themselves.