From Restoration comedy to The Beggar's Opera, She Stoops to Conquer and The School for Scandal: examine key plays alongside the history and conventions of Restoration and 18th-century theatre.
Kathryn Hughes explores the repressive and often contradictory expectations of women in middle-class Victorian society while examining how women such as Florence Nightingale and Elizabeth Barrett-Browning managed to challenge those expectations. [7:39]
A collection of illuminated manuscripts from the 8th to 15th centuries from the British Library. Access the entire collection of 3,000 and read the individual information about each one. A truly beautiful display.
Professor Kathryn Sutherland discusses the importance of marriage and its relationship to financial security and social status for women in Jane Austen's novels. [1:28]
Professor Kathryn Sutherland considers Jane Austen's portrayal of female characters and her harshly moralistic outlook. [2:26]
Professor Kathryn Sutherland considers the depiction of public and private spaces in Jane Austen's novels. [2:58]
Professor Kathryn Sutherland discusses Jane Austen's ground-breaking use of social realism and her focus on the mundanity of everyday life. [5:19]
Professor Kathryn Sutherland explores Jane Austen manuscripts, discussing the significance of her dense handwriting and lack of punctuation. [3:06]
Professor John Bowen explores the character of Bertha Mason in Jane Eyre, revealing the depths of her character and the context in which Charlotte Bronte created her. [4:26]
Professor John Bowen explains how Charlotte Bronte combines fairytale, Gothic techniques, and realism to give Jane Eyre its unique power. [5:05]
Professor John Bowen explores the central role of women in "Jane Eyre" and the unique role of the governess in 19th-century society. [6:32]
Have you ever wondered why birds sing or how they communicate? The Language of Birds explains the hows and whys.
Read about the early attempts to find a way through the Northwest Passage. Included are portraits and early maps of the explorers.
In Oliver Twist, Dickens paints a vivid picture of London's criminal underworld, a subject he harnesses both to excite the reader and to explore the effects of social deprivation. [8:10]
Simon Callow discusses Charles Dickens's performances, his abilities as an actor, and the impact of his readings upon his audiences and the wider public. [2:32]
These activities encourage young people to join the debate about how to stage and cast Othello. They will debate the pros and cons of different productions and plan how they would stage the play if they could do so themselves. Included are discussion questions, primary sources, links for extended reading, and activities.
This summary of sources is a quick and easy way to explore the contexts for Hamlet - from ideas on mortality and revenge to traveling players, melancholy, and madness. It will help you make thoughtful connections between the play and the contexts in which it was written, performed, and interpreted. Included are ideas for activities and a PDF with related information.
In these activities, students will conduct a close linguistic exploration of the Romeo and Juliet text, which considers the central and deadly role that words play in the lovers' fate. They will also engage in broader tasks that contextualize the play in terms of its relationship to its main source, Brooke's Romeus and Juliet, and the fashion for sonnet writing in the 1590s. Included are discussion questions, primary sources, a compare/contrast chart, and activities.
Professor John Bowen and Ann Dinsdale discuss the poor sanitary conditions in Haworth in the 19th century and the mix of rural and industrial influences on the Bronte sisters and their writing. [4:04]
Professor John Bowen and Ann Dinsdale discuss the fantasy worlds of Gondal and Angria, created by the Bronte children, and the lasting influence of these on the sisters' later novels. [7:16]