Ambition in the 19th Century Novels Essay Example

In the 19thC, people expressed ambition in various ways, as exhibited in works of literature of the time. During that era, people were willing and ready to use any means that were available to achieve their dreams relating to wealth, political status, social class, or elements in the society that they fancied. Some of the works of literature that have expressed ambition in the 19thC are "The Red and The Black," "Great Expectations," "The Idiot," and "Madame Bovary."

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People regarded marriage as one way through which an individual would gain a higher social status. Hence, they strived to marry to achieve the class. In the novel "The Red and The Black," for instance, Julien was so ambitious to change his social status that he resolved to find a spouse. Through marrying, Julien aimed to impact a total change in his social life. Additionally, marriage enabled individuals to attain freedom to material possession. In the novel, Julien aims to acquire leadership, and have material possession. As a result, he was optimistic to emerge a hero in his society. He, therefore, considered having an affair with Madame de Renal (Shmoop Editorial Team para.6). Ambition was evident in Julian's life, shown by his moves to climb up the social ladder and gain a status that people regarded superior.

One of the ways that people considered successful to gain material wealth was the right choice of a spouse. Males, especially, strived to marry ladies from prominent families as a means to benefit from the lady's paternal wealth. For example, in "Great Expectations," Pin expresses excellent expectations in life. Despite being an orphan, and living with his sister, he envisioned becoming a wealthy and much responsible person in future (Topham para.6). Like in the expectations of most individuals in the nineteenth century, Pip fell in love with one beautiful girl that he thought was capable of making him rich and full of expectations that would make his life transform.

Despite the amount of wealth and money that some characters in "Great Expectations" such as Magwitch had, they were still not happy in life. Magwitch, for instance, was among the corrupt characters in the novel - he used dirty means to acquire his wealth. The story portrayed the ambition of gaining wealth and fame to dominate societies. Therefore, people could even obtain material possession through improper ways such as corruption. The great expectation was a greater vocation of both space and time about the nineteenth century as it appears in the novel based on the characteristic of most of the characters in the novel. The novel made it clear that despite the amount of money or wealth that a person had, it needed more for the person to feel sad.

Elsewhere, in "The Idiot," people in the 19thC are also portrayed to consider marrying a prominent lady as a means to riches. To illustrate, Ganya, the main character in the art, is quite ambitious, as evident in how went about his issues. While in the office of General Epanchin, he made several attempts to marry different individuals. In the first place, he decided to marry Nastasya precisely for money. Unfortunately, the marriage attempt failed due to a lack of confidence and self-organization (Dostoevsky para. 3). Most of the characters in the novel, in one way or the other, have tried to live in the periphery of their lives even though their hopes fail. However, their failures did not hold them back. For example, out of Ganya's optimism, he made another ambitious attempt to marry Aglaya. That time around, it was out of pure love that he had for her that he made efforts to settle down with her. Unfortunately, he was not lucky enough to win her heart. According to the novel, Ganya in the novel is a character whose main ambition in life is to become a person unusual, unique and someone who is incredible in what he does.

Ideally, people valued a good life and equated it to success and higher social position in their communities. In some cases, people would consider marrying a person whose past life is undesirable, with hopes to better their future as a couple. In "Madame Bovary," Charles Bovary targeted to marry Emma, despite her otherwise objectionable past life and character (Gupta 2).

Conclusion

Despite the unkind and unhappy marriage that is full of hardship and sufferings, Emma was still ambitions that someday things shall be better with time. She believed, and she was sure that she would give birth to a boy-child whom she also hoped to help her overcome the many challenges that she was facing. She was also hopeful that with time, she would be able to gain her freedom and prosper in her later life. Initially, Emma was so ambitious to get true love from all the three men that she interacted with during her life before she could make a wrong choice to enter into a marriage she is not able to get the type of freedom that she needs and she has no option but to stay in. From all the above cases, people in the 19thC seemed to be ambitious, and that enabled them to achieve their goals, thereby matching their desired statuses.

Works Cited

Dostoevsky, Fyodor. "The Idiot Summary," 2019. Retrieved from https://www.sparknotes.com/lit/idiot/summary/

Gupta, Ankita "A thematic study of the Sentimental Education and Madame Bovary by

Gustave Flaubert" Veda's Journal of English Language and Literature-JOELL 3.2(2016):28-30.

Shmoop Editorial Team. "The Red and the Black." Shmoop. Shmoop University, Inc., 11 Nov. 2008. Web. 29 Jan. 2019.

Topham, James. "Great Expectations' Review," 2017. Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/great-expectations-review-739948