Social issues of American and English society in the second half of the 19th century in Edith Wharton's The Age of Innocence and John Fowles's French Lieutenant's Woman

Abstract

The bachelor work focuses on the British and American society in the second half of the 19th century. The issues of social classes and hierarchy, development and changes within them as well as the differences between particular classes are analysed and contrasted. Special attention is paid to the upper class's lifestyle, social status, and gender roles together with the questions of victorian rules and attitudes towards mores and sexuality. The ideologies of the way of life, social values, conventions and morality of the victorian society are presented on the novels The French Lieutenant's Woman and The Age of Innocence by John Fowles and Edith Wharton respectively.