CONTEXT: THE VICTORIAN ERA The Awakening CONTEXT: THE VICTORIAN ERA

women’s role: Women’s role was wife, mother and housekeeper. Women lost ownership of their wages, physical property, and all other cash generated once married. When married, the rights of the woman were legally given over to her spouse. Under the law the married couple became one entity where the husband would represent this entity, placing him in control of all property, earnings and money.

Ownership Victorian wives became property to their husbands, giving them rights to what their bodies produced; children, sex and domestic labour. Marriage voided a woman’s right to consent to sexual intercourse with her husband, giving him ‘ownership’ over her body. Discussion of pregnancy was unacceptable.

SIGMUND fREUD (1856 – 1939) Freud divided the mind into the conscious mind (or the ego) and the unconscious mind. Oedipus Complex Penis envy

Charles Darwin (1809 – 1852) Darwin established that all species of life have descended over time from common ancestors. Introduced the scientific theory that this branching pattern of evolution resulted from a process that he called natural selection, in which the struggle for existence has a similar effect to the artificial selection involved in selective breeding.

Karl marx (1818 – 1883): Marxism is a method of socioeconomic analysis that analyzes class relations and societal conflict using a materialist interpretation of historical development and a dialectical view of social transformation.

Women’s Suffrage (1840 – 1920) Women's suffrage in the United States was the right of women to vote . The demand for women’s suffrage began to gather strength in the 1840s. It was granted nationally in 1920.

existentialism Søren Kierkegaard (1813 – 1855) is generally considered to have been the first existentialist philosopher, though he did not use the term existentialism. He proposed that each individual—not society or religion—is solely responsible for giving meaning to life and living it passionately and sincerely, or "authentically".

Existentialism: nietzsche Nietzsche was one the first philosophers considered fundamental to the existentialist movement. He focused on subjective human experience rather than the objective truths of mathematics and science, which they believed were too detached or observational to truly get at the human experience. He wrote, “God is dead.”

EXISTENTIALISM Existentialism is a philosophy concerned with: finding self and the meaning of life through free will, choice, and personal responsibility. The belief is that people are searching to find out who and what they are throughout life as they make choices based on their experiences, beliefs, and outlook. An existentialist believes that a person should be forced to choose and be responsible without the help of laws, ethnic rules, or traditions.

Aphrodite The goddess who was born of the sea. The Greek goddess of love, beauty, pleasure, and procreation.