Reading Sherlock Holmes, you can really see the importance of London in each of the short stories. When I think of mystery I think of the novels and shows that are located in cities like New York and even London.   Cities have everything, the culture, the atmosphere, there is never a dull moment. In “The Red-Headed League”, it mentions many parts and aspects of London. He mentions the underground, tube stops and other parts around London like St. Paul that actually make you feel like you are there.

Having these crimes in a city won’t be as bizarre if it was located in the suburbs. Not a lot of crimes happen in suburbs, but in cities crime happens frequently and it makes sense that Holmes would be a detective in a city like London. Being in London you can see how busy the city actually is and how vibrant it is. Holmes’s mentions, “It is my belief, Watson, founded upon my experience, that the lowest and vilest alleys in London do not present a more dreadful record of sin than does the smiling and beautiful countryside.”  It kind of feels like no matter where you are their will be crimes happening, but you won’t get that many weird cases in the countryside like you would in the city.

A lot of characters stand out in Sherlock Holmes. They all have their different personalities that make them, them. In cities you get so many different cultures and personalities that there is never a dull moment and you can see that through these short stories. But the main character is Sherlock Holmes and I can’t picture him anywhere else rather than London. He is a quirky, intelligent, motivated guy and his personality wouldn’t fit in the countryside.

As we all know Charles Dickens talked a lot about 19^th century problems that exist in London in his text. In Oliver Twist we know he talks about social injustice, poverty, etc.  One passage that stood out to me talked about workhouses and the life like in these conditions.

“So they established the rule that all poor people should have the alternative (for they would compel nobody, not they) of being starved by a gradual process in the house, or by a quick one out of it. With this view, they contracted with the waterworks to lay on an unlimited supply of water, and with a corn-factor to supply periodically small quantities of oatmeal, and issued three meals of thin gruel a day, with an onion twice a week and half a roll on Sundays. They made a great many other wise and humane regulations . . . kindly undertook to divorce poor married people . . . instead of compelling a man to support his family, as they had theretofore done, took his family away from him, and made him a bachelor! There is no saying how many applicants for relief, under these last two heads, might have started up in all classes of society, if it had not been coupled with the workhouse; but the board were long-headed men, and had provided for this difficulty. The relief was inseparable from the workhouse and the gruel, and that frightened people.” (Dickens, p. 37).

This passage talks about the conditions of the workhouse Oliver was sent too. When I was reading this, I felt bad for Oliver and what he would have to go through. The “being starved by a gradual process in the house, or by a supply of water”, the workhouse is a painful experience no matter what the speed is.  Reading this you don’t want a kid to experience this type of labor. That’s why I feel bad for him, no kid should be experiencing what he is going through.

During our trip we talked a lot about the workhouses during this period. Workhouses were created to stop laziness and work can lead to success. Husbands and wives were separated like he stated, “instead of compelling a man to support his family, as they had theretofore done, took his family away from him”. When they come to work to support their family they are separated doing the exact opposite on what they should be doing.  He wasn’t exaggerating on anything and was actually stating the truth. The tone Dickens uses might come off in a mocking way, but in reality, he is showing his frustrations of the society his is living in. Throughout this whole novel not just this passage he calls out his frustrations and protest against what is happening in London.

Reading Night Walks you can sense how night life is a completely different in London. Reading this it seams like I’m reading what London is hiding through the day. Dicken’s kind of  goes into detail about the people who are homeless trying to find shelter anywhere they can and what they do at night. But reading this I think it goes into Dickens relationship with the city at night and just looking at his surroundings.

You can sense the loneliness of the night when he mentions, “We lost a great deal of companionship when the late public-houses turned their lamps out”. When the lights of the city die down the loneliness can start to creep in because everyone is at home sleeping. It could also mean that they are forgotten. In the daytime the streets are busy with people, you forget the surroundings around you.  “London would sink to rest. And then the yearning of the houseless mind would be for any sign of company, any lighted place, and movement”.

Throughout the whole essay he mentions a lot of places in London.  In this essay, you can really put a picture in your head of him walking through the streets of London at night and what he was seeing and feeling. “Between the bridge and the two great theatres, there was but the distance of a few hundred paces, so the theatres came next, Grim and black within, at night, those great dry Wells, and lonesome to imagine with the rows faded out, the lights extinguished”, you can really put a picture in your mind at what he is looking at and feeling. I think of London as this dark lonely night.

He describes these people as “houselessness”, instead of calling them homeless or poor.  I also observed in the beginning that he talks like he is houselessness, but in the beginning of the essay he talks about only being an “amateur of houselessness”. I wonder why he picks the word houslessness instead of homeless, poor, etc. Also, he describes himself as houselessness. Maybe it is just someone who isn’t at home?

Dicken’s mentions Convent-Garden Market where, “men and boys lying asleep under them”. The people who don’t have homes find a way to get by sleeping under wagons. Also, he mentions “children who prowl about this place; who sleep in the baskets, fight for offal, dart at any object they think they can lay their thieving hands on”. London is a big city which has poverty. Every city has it pros but it also has its cons. Children are in poverty trying to do everything they can to stay alive is a sad sight to see.

He really creates a detailed story of what he is seeing through the streets of London.

Two art works that stood out to me in the Gustave Dore’s illustrations. The first one is “A Ball at the Mansion House”.Gustave Dore put a lot of effort with the little details in this print. The women’s dresses and the small details of layers and decorations make them look elegant and expensive. It really show you what social class they are in. The chandeliers have a lot of detail and even the walls with the columns.  This image makes me feel smug for some reason. Just the way they present themselves with their posture and their facial expressions.

Another print that stood out to me was the print of a mother and her kids in poverty. They look like they are trying to sell items to get money. This print is darker then the “A Ball at the Mansion House”. The lines are really close together making the image darker and dull. He made this print darker to show the poverty in London and not all things are great. There are families who have to make their own work, so they can get by. The people in this image are slouching/slumping, they look tired and upset. The women is resting her elbow and you can tell be her facial expression she is looking lost. There is a man looking down on her. He doesn’t look like he is in poverty by this top hat and coat. It looks like to me he is shaming her.  Looking at this image it makes you feel sad for them. There is nothing happy about this image at all. There are two kids wrapped up in a blanket looking cold, just wanting a place to stay.

Comparing the two you can see the difference between the two. You can tell that it is about two different social classes by the way they look. But with the body language they have really speaks volumes. In art it is hard to express feelings through paintings especially black and white. He did a good job of using the body language to show you what they are feeling.

These  images are the difference between two social classes. The lower class needs to create work so they can live day to day. They have no days off. Whereas middle/upper class can go to balls and not worry about money. He showed that by the lightness of “A Ball at the Mansion House” and the darkness in the other image.

I have heard a lot about Pride and Prejudice, but this is the first time that I have picked up this book. Reading it for the first time was an experience. It took me awhile to understand what I was reading and what it was about.

One topic that caught my attention was how social class played into this society. The majority of the adults were invested in their social class and took pride in it. Mrs. Bennett wanted her daughters to marry rich. Right in the beginning Mrs. Bennet was excited to here that Mr. Bingley was moving into the estate near them,

“A single man of large fortune; four or five thousand a year. What a fine thing for our girls” (Austen 6).

It shows how social class is important in this society. Mrs. Bennett this whole book wanted her daughters to marry into a wealthy family. Reading this book, it looks like to me that the older generation of Mrs. Bennet & Lady Catherine took social class seriously.  Whereas Elizabeth didn’t care, she just wanted to be with someone who has a good personality.

Lady Catherine really showed her social class through her words,

“Not so hasty, if you please. I have by no means done. To all the objections I have already urged, I have still another to add. I am no stranger to the particulars of your youngest sister’s infamous elopement. I know it all; that the young man’s marrying her was a patched-up business, at the expense of your father and uncles. And is such a girl to be my nephew’s sister? Is her husband, is the son of his late father’s steward, to be his brother? Heaven and earth! —of what are you thinking? Are the shades of Pemberley to be thus polluted?” (Austen 346).

Lady Catherine takes pride in her social status and finding out that Elizabeth was “thinking” about marrying Mr. Darcy her nephew. Lady Catherine was upset because the Bennet’s don’t have many connections. Also Mr. Darcy’s friends are wealthy, and they will have strong opinions about the marriage. The underline of this I believe is that Lady Catherine doesn’t want her to marry him because she wants her daughter to marry him.  She is using Wickham and Lydia’s elopement to try to scare Elizabeth away. Lady Catherine doesn’t want to be associated with Wickham and if Elizabeth marries Mr. Darcy they will have a connection and she doesn’t want her reputation  to be ruined.

Austen did a good job of tying in social class of the older generation into a generation that some just want to marry someone that they love.