QUESTIONS

Clara GilDaniela MateusJuliana Florez

How did the red house paintings portray women?

What does the painting of the woman in the

tombstone show?

Which was the role of woman during the Victorian period?

What happened at the end of the Victorian period?

How did science change the perception of religion?

The red house is a building of extraordinary architecture and significance. Is the only house commissioned created and lived in by William Morris. At this house the women were portrayed by the ideal men had about them. It seemed that the paintings in this house reveal stereotypical values gender values. The most famous paintings of this house were made by Dante Rossetti. The main subject he portray in his artwork was the way he envisioned the woman in his life.

The painting shows the duality between religious beliefs and science. This is shown with 3 symbols which are:- The blue butterfly it means

eternal life and resurrection. It’s a symbol of Religion.

- The bones: it is a way to show that life has an end. It’s a symbol of science.

- The woman: it shows the questioning of the Victorian society about what to believe, religion or science.

At the time women had no voice at all. For example women had limited access to education, they couldn’t vote or hold public office and couldn’t own any property. Prostitution itself grew because they didn’t have jobs to apply to. Lower-class women worked in difficult industrial conditions in mines. On the other hand, women gain some rights such as gaining access to education.

The final decade of the Victorian period marked a high point, both of English industry and imperial control, and of challenges to that industry and imperialism. Due to scientific discoveries, there was a change in religious believes and values, they adopted a aesthetic moral. This period of time was called the naughty nineteen's.

In England itself debates about religion grew in intensity. By the mid of Victorian period the church of England had evolved into three factors: a low church, a board church and a high church. As a primary drive behind the industrial revolution, rationalist thought established religious beliefs. Groups like the utilitarian Benthamities arrived and saw traditional religion like antiquated superstition. Also new discoveries in the science led to a new mode of reading the bible.