The Falling Angles Tracy Chevalier

The Falling Angels is written by an American historical novelist Tracy Chevalier. It is story about Victorian life, more specifically, it describes the lives of two middle-class families, the Coleman and the Waterhouse, for a period of nine years. These two families are very different in their behavior as much as in their social class. The Colemans represent an upper social class, and according to their way of living, they are modern and open to fit on gathering new experiences. The Waterhouses represent a middle class and they are more likely an old fashioned family. They live strictly according to the rules of Victorian age and Catholic Church. There is also mentioned the third class, the lowest one, and it is only about one family member. The story begins on January 1901 in the morning after Queen Victorias death and Tracy Chevalier probably choose this as a reason because she wanted to write about a period of change in humans lives when old-fashioned and traditional values are exchanged for some new and modern ideas. The death of Queen Victoria represented a new age and power of Church was slowly weaken. It is common knowledge that people are afraid of something new and unfamiliar. Every new age is considered as some kind of treat for the society, only because it is unknown. Tracy wanted to knock down that social barrier and to show people that there is nothing wrong in experiencing something new, because we wont wholly develop our character if we dont gather and experience new ways and if we dont open our minds. The action of the story took place throughout years from 1901 to 1910 and it was being told by all family members from three different classes. In the first chapter those who tell story are members from the upper class, then members from middle class and last is a boy from grave diggers family, lowest class. The author choose this sequence of the book probably becaus e she wanted to stress the advantage of upper class over the middle and the lower class in Victorian age. Book looks like a diary and when you read it, you have feeling that all characters tell only you their stories, which attracts your full attention and you have feeling like you are involved in their lives. This is also another example of how great writer Tracy is.

Throughout book, Tracy wanted us to notice several facts which remarked Victorian society. They are: Relationship between mothers and daughters in Victorian age. This relationship depends on social class. In higher class, the relationships are lower and weaker. Mothers and daughters were not connected and attached to one another. Daughters were being raised by servants and maids, but mothers spent their free time in thinking about clothes and being beautiful. Mothers didnt know their daughters and vice versa. Relationship between husband and open-minded wife and husband and domestic wife. From early stage of life women were raised to believe only in fact that only men must be please, no one but them. Women should have been robots and felt nothing. An educated women were able to see that injustice and tried to fight against. Most husbands didnt like the idea that their wives have rights and to become independent. Men were frightened and they were much more insecure and their relationships raised and fell every day. With an angels in the houses, men were secured and their relationship did not have any ups and downs. If we show that on a blackboard it will be same constant, same direction. Character of a woman in the Victorian and Post Victorian age in general. Women didnt have suffrage rights, the right to sue, or even to own some property, during the reign of Queen Victorian. But, while women had to participated in the paid workforce in Industrial Revolution, the feminist ideas spread among the educated female middle classes and the womens suffrage movement gained in the last years of the Victorian age. Levels of thinking of an educated and a non-educated women. In Victorian age women were not educated, just few of them. Because it is being considered that women could get everything from their husbands and learning was just waste of time, even though they had plenty of it. An educated women were open-minded and wanted to explore theirselves and thought that they deserved more than society gave to them. A non-educated women thought they should have stayed and home, took care about house and family, and as much as they could to be obedient, but they refused to be good they would have made sins and God would punish them. Rising from the ashes and awakening new hopes is the best description of women suffrages movement. For the first time in history women stood up and were foughting

for their rights, for their voices to be heard. This also represents the end of the Victorian age and new hopes awakened. This novel would not be so good as it is if there are not elements which are connected with everyday life, even today. They include: Growing friendship from an early stage of life to adolescence. This part is connected with children from the book, Maude, Lavynia, Simon and Ivy May. Writer showed them as pure, innocent as well as their friendship. Even today the best friendship is considered to be one from childhood, because children are unable to hurt each other and to do injustice as adults do. Mothers behavior influences the character and personality of the child. Even though Kitty didnt pay much attention to Maude and she grew up on her own, she became very similar to her mother. At the end she wanted to go to University and in one point when she was younger she mention that she does not know if she want to get married and have kids. Lavynia was the same as her mother from the beginning. Her whishes were to be beautiful, get married, have children and to be as much as possible good Christian woman. She did not prefer education and expressing herself as person. Child neglect because of learning how to express yourself as a person. This point is very sad and it should not be like this. In the novel, Kitty Coleman neglects her daughter, Maude, only because of her wish to find what she likes and what makes her full-scale person. Kitty is bored with her life and she does not fit in profile of classic Victorian wife, so in some way she punishes her own daughter and blames her for living life in a cage. She admits from the beginning to end that she is not good mother to Maude, and that she does not deserve such things to be done to her. Maude was little bird who needed her mother to show her world around and her mother just flied away living her to live on her own, alone. Tracy was very objective through the whole book and she only criticizes bad things and praises good manners. In every character she put something which you can criticize and praise. There is no one she prefers more. That is good because on that way she showed us that every man and woman have both sides it only depends which side they will choose to deal with. She also criticises the social classes. She showed us that people in upper classes neglected all moral and

ethics standards and beliefs. Somehow she at the fist prefers middle class showing them as pure and good and domestic giving them white and house in their last names, Waterhouse but on the other hand she critices their wrong opinion when it comes to the knowledge and education. The third class, the lowest one does not even have a last name. That shows how little rights they had, no matter if they are men or women. I found this book very interesting and I would recommend it to everyone. You can learn a lot about people who lived in the Victorian age but even about people today, especially about women. Men would see how much they are wrong regarding women as their servant and how women fell when they are neglected by their men. Mothers would see how their children feel when they do not get their attention and their love. Women who do not want to educate themselves would see which are consequences of not being able to live on your own.