Analysis Pages
Historical Context in The Old Nurse's Story
Victorian England and the Gothic Tradition: The reign of Queen Victoria provided a period of relative peace and prosperity for England. The majority of people remained religious Christians in some form despite advances in science and technology questioning previously held beliefs. One way this manifested was writers’ experimenting with different themes in literature from the past, pushing back on the popular romantic texts that had espoused human virtue, beauty, and power. A reaction to traditional romanticism, Gothic literature, a genre under which “The Old Nurse’s Tale” falls, saw an increase in popularity throughout the 19th century. Some tropes of the style that also appear in the story are aristocratic decay, ghostly apparitions, and psychological explorations of unstable characters.
Historical Context Examples in The Old Nurse's Story:
The Old Nurse's Story
🔒"and that if ever they gave her help, or food, or shelter, he prayed that they might never enter heaven...." See in text (The Old Nurse's Story)
"as she was called in those days, Miss Grace, for she was the younger sister...." See in text (The Old Nurse's Story)
"but just lived to see her dead baby, and have it laid on her breast, before she sighed away her life...." See in text (The Old Nurse's Story)