Short Stories Essay

Authors Avatar

Short Stories Essay

The short story today is now accepted as a genre in its own right; short stories are now in an equal place along with poetry, plays and novels. Before the nineteenth century, short stories were very unpopular and seemed very poor in comparison to the novel. Despite being around for many hundreds of years, short stories only became known and more popular in the 1800s.

The increase in popularity in the nineteenth century was due to changes in cultural, political and social lives. The nineteenth century was an extremely quick and dramatic change in lifestyle for the people in Northern Europe. Before the industrial revolution people usually worked themselves on the land, these were known as the ‘peasants’. At that time there were some trades around the most common were blacksmiths, wheelwright and carpenters. The working conditions were terrible there wages were at minimum and they worked extremely long and difficult hours.

Technological advances changed everything, the invention of the internal combustion engine made lots more work for everyone. Factories were being opened everywhere providing jobs for more and more people. The rural population found themselves moving into the cities to find work. This meant factory owners paid their employees very little and expected them to work long, tiring hours. Unsuitable working conditions lead to people demanding better conditions. Working conditions improved as well as health care.

As time went by factory schools began being built and some children were allowed to be educated basic literacy and numeracy. At the beginning of the nineteenth century the importance of reading was perceived only in terms of the moral education. By the mid 1800’s, reading became a lot more valued and helped individuals learn for themselves. After the industrial revolution printing became easily accessible, newspapers and magazines were then in demand because people could read them.

Join now!

Short stories then became present in magazines and newspapers. This was great news for authors, a good way to earn money and build up audiences. The attitude to reading soon changed, it became a social event large groups of people would get together and read.

In this essay I will talk about 3 short stories. The Signalman written by Charles Dickens, The Speckled Band written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and The Red Room written by H G Wells.

A kind, friendly man was just taking a walk around the countryside when he spots a ...

This is a preview of the whole essay