The Victorian Era and the French Lieutenants Woman Essay Example for Free

The Victorian Era and the French Lieutenants Woman EssayThe French Lieutenants Woman is a 1981 film of historic fiction, contrasting present day relationships, morality and industry with that of the Victorian era in the 1850s. It is an adaptation of a novel by John Fowles, the script was written by Harold Pinter.The setting is in England, Lyme and London specifically, where Charles, a Darwinian scientist is courting the daughter of a wealthy businessman. The film depicts Charles as somewhat of the laughingstock with the inscrutable citizens of Lyme who regard his profession as folly. His future father-in-law offers him a position in his shipping company which is expanding to Liverpool and Bristol. The scenery in this portion of the film depicts frantic building going on in the background fitting with the period of the Industrial revolution.The film within a film concept has two actors playing the characters in the film The French Lieutenants Woman but also follows the actors relationship with each new(prenominal). This presents a contrast between the present day (1981) with the Victorian era. In her explore on the Victorian era in the film, the actress Anna states that in 1857 there were over 50,000 prostitutes in London.Sarah Woodruff, the French Lieutenants woman, is witnessn as a morally deficient woman, likened to a prostitute, and goes to get for a rich and pious woman. This woman, Mrs. Palfrey (I think) describes Sarahs actions of walking in the under cliffs and staring out at sea to be sinful. She states there is a vast disparity between those people from the country and those from London and says there are gross disorders in the streets.This division between what is acceptable in Lyme versus London is seen when Charles is present for tea leaf with his fiance and Mrs. Palfrey, and is scolded for his servants attraction to a country girl. There is an obvious division between the upper and lower carve up which is depicted in Mrs. Palfreys tr eatment of her servants and Sarah.The wise relations between male and female in the Victorian era are depicted in Charles behavior towards his fiance, for example he asks permission to see her alone in the conservatory. The treatment of women during this period is demonstrated in Sarah Woodruff, that she is labeled a whore, when in fact we find out later, she was as much a virgin as Charles former fiance.Charles falls in love with Sarah Woodruff, offering to pay for an asylum for her treatment. He ends his engagement, and interestingly he has to appear in a court and be labeled a scoundrel. When Sarah Woodruff disappears, he looks in London, waiting as the factory women get out of work at 500 p.m. Presumably, according to the history of this era from the Longman Anthology, most workers would have gone to work as early as 400 a.m. that morning (1826). The faces of the women provide a affecting message of the working conditions of that period. Charles also goes to a prostitution are a searching for Sarah. He does not find her there, but earlier in the film he had asked her why she didnt just leave Lyme and all the condemnation and accusations of the townsfolk. Sarah stated that if she went to London, she knew what she would become. In the film there are beggars in the streets and London is depicted as a dreary place to live.Sarah Woodruff, turns her name around to become Mrs. Roughwood and Charles eventually finds her.The contrast in this film is interesting as both actors sleep with each other though they both apparently have committed relationships. In the end, the male actor seems ready to forsake his marriage for a relationship with the actress, Anna. He mistakenly calls out Sarah when she leaves, so it appears he was having difficulty separating fact from fiction.This film was accurate historically in my opinion, with what I have read this term in the Longman Anthology which states that in the Victorian era working conditions necessitated reform in the 184 0s (1793). The Atlas of Literature describes London in the period in which this film is set as education and beggary, great spaces and cramped crooked streets, leisure and brute work, families and orphans (96).This film did an excellent job of contrasting the idle rich in the country and the upper class in London. There was a snobbery that was emphasized, using the servants versus their masters. The condemnation of Sarah Woodruff as a fallen woman was contrasted by the facts that later came out. The stark contrasts in England during the Industrial revolution were evident in this film and I felt it was an interesting piece of historical fiction.Works CitedBradbury, Malcolm, ed. The Atlas of Literature. invigorated York Stewart, Tabori and Chang, 1998.Damrosch, David, ed. The Longman Anthology of British Literature. New York Longman, 2000.The French Lieutenants Woman. Dir. Karel Reisz. Perf. Jeremy Irons and Meryl Streep. United Artists, 1981.