Religion as an Important Part of Elizabeth Gaskell (Essay Sample)

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Religion was an Important Part of Elizabeth Gaskell’s Writing and Life as well as a Prominent Fixture in Victorian Culture.
Introduction
Religion is a social aspect of a given group of people having a common belief about some supernatural being .The being is attributed some characters that are beyond the understanding and interpretation of normal human beings. They are believed to control life before and after death, they are believed to confer punishment to those who act against the set code of conduct in the society. Religion exists in different forms; including tradition believe in the spirit and other supernatural beings. The modern aspect of religion shows that there are some guidelines on why people should pray and show respect to a supernatural being .The guidelines are given in the Bible for Christians to enable them show respect to God. A doctrine like the Koran contains the guidelines for believers of Allah. This paper will discuss the role of religion in Victorian Gothic literature showing how the author is represented during this era of the writing.
In the writings of Elizabeth Gaskell, the inclusion of religion as part of her literature served purposes as follows, it served as an alarm to enable the people get a clear understanding of what they were expected to do verses the activities that they were not expected to engage in. The people could be taught the norms of the religious acts by following its doctrines. It enabled people to make informed decisions concerning their duties. It served as an eye opener to the people who practiced Victorian culture. They could make few mistakes in conducting their daily affairs as they followed the principles of religion in conferring judgments in different scenarios. This enabled the people of Victoria behave and act towards the decisions made by their fellows in a respectful manner. They also showered respect to the teachers of the law as was desired by the doctrines of religion. Those who violated the doctrines of religion in the Victoria were considered outcasts in the society and were considered guilty of such offences (Gaskell 32).
The behavior of the people of Victoria was shaped by religion as they considered unruly revivals as being the betrayers of their societal welfare (Gaskell 35). This scenario was observed among the females in Ulster who behaved unruly towards their societal members. The believe that’ hysteria’ was a special character in women and that it made them weak in the mind was discarded by Elizabeth.
The writings of Elizabeth Gaskell about "Lois the Witch" in eighteen fifty nine(1859) which was launched in Ulster, portrays her as a defender of the women in her society .She claimed that, it was wrong for the people in a given society to judge women as being weak in their mind and body as a result of ’hysteria’. Despite the male superiority in her society, she still stood by her arguments that people were alike despite their gender differences. She faced hostilities especially from the male members of her society but she was determined to pass the message to the society about the role of giving all the societal members an equal chance to deliver to their societies. Through her, the society gained an insight of the role of women in the society. She acted as the director of women’s’ interest in a pro male society .Through this she influenced women to join fields like politics, where they previously shunned away from. Most of her supporters engaged in politics after she had encouraged them to do so. From then women could represent their interests through the government. They demanded for alteration of some oppressive rules that infringed the female members in the society. This was made possible by amending formerly oppressive rules that infringed women interest including lack of representation in political positions. Her contributions in the field of history were of landmark in Ulster as she still remains the first woman to official condemn the female oppression in the world societies giving an illustration in literature writings that toughed directly on the oppressive views that her societal members held against woman. H...