HistoryTube
  • Blog
  • YouTube
    • Ancient America
    • Ancient China
    • Ancient Egypt
    • Ancient Rome
    • Holocaust
    • Tudors
    • World War I
    • World War II
    • History Meets English
    • History Meets Geography
    • History Meets Reality TV
    • History Meets Science
    • Royals
    • Time Team
    • YouTube Channels
    • Bettany Hughes
    • Tony Robinson
    • Lucy Worsley
  • About Me
    • Portfolio
  • Privacy Policy
  • Contact Me

History Docs

Need a Documentary for a Class?  Check out my reviews!

Pride and Prejudice - Having a Ball

12/14/2022

0 Comments

 
This one is a definite fun and frivolous documentary.  It is also a history meets reality TV documentary.  It is also a History Meets English documentary.  Today I will introduce to you Pride and Prejudice: Having a Ball.

Over 200 years ago, Pride and Prejudice was published.  It was one of Jane Austen’s most beloved novels.  To appreciate and understand the novels in the world Jane Austen lived in, a group will perform an experiment.  They will recreate a regency ball.  What would have really happened at the ball?  This is a way to help understand what Jane Austen was trying to say.  This group will recreate the sites and sound of the ball and will reveal the hierarchies involved in the Regency Era.

The setting for the ball is the home of Jane Austen’s brother Edward Austen and for one night a regency ball will be thrown.  The participants will eat the food Austen would have enjoyed.  Dressed in the way Austen would have dressed and listened to the music from the Austen family music book. 

Elizabeth Bennett is a nobody who is wooed by Mr. Darcy a wealthy owner.  Their love story takes place at a ball.  The experts came together to recreate the regency ball.  No detail is too small to look at.  This helps fill in the details of what Austen would have experienced in a real regency ball.  Jane Austen recreated her world in the novel.  She provides a critique on the world around, a world that the modern mind finds challenging to understand.

Pride and Prejudice kick off with the arrival of Bingley.  Bingley brought his friend Mr. Darcy and, in their world, they were young men looking for young women who could bear them sons.  However, contact with the opposite sex was strictly controlled, except on the floors of the ballroom.  Dancing provided the ritual of courtship.  The first ball of the book was held in the assembly rooms which would have been a more public event, where anyone could come.  The Netherfield ball was a more private thus a more exclusive event.  In a public ball, a lady could dance with anyone.  The Netherfield ball however was very different because only the higher classes were invited to those balls.

Dancing was central to the ball.  The dancers would have been very well trained in dancing, something that would not have crossed the modern mind.  A dancing master would have given Elizabeth Bennett and her sisters a few dancing lessons.  Dancing was central to the courtship of Elizabeth Bennett and Mr. Darcy.  In the novel, Mr. Lucas commented that the pair were well matched because of how well they danced together.  If you refused a dance that meant you were not dancing at all that night.

Not only did Austen write about the world of dancing, and she also wrote about the clothing of this world.  Clothing dictated people’s social class.  In the countryside, the women would have made or altered their own clothes.  The cut of your cloth indicated who you were in society.  Darcy would have been dressed in more expensive fabrics and his clothing was tailored to his specifications.  Clothes were expensive, so they were altered over the years and passed down to a younger family member.

The conditions of a regency ball will be recreated at Edward Austen’s house.  Edward Austen was Jane Austen’s brother and he had money.  He had a grand house called Chawton House and this house had a ballroom.  Mr. Bingley would have had a similar ballroom in his house at Netherfield and he would have lit his room with thousands of candles and mirrors to reflect the light.  The ball would have been a place where conspicuous consumption could be displayed.  The candles alone would have been expensive, which would have caused Mr. Bennett fits.

What can this recreation tell us about Jane Austen’s world?  How can a recreation give us additional insight into Pride and Prejudice?  Watch the rest of this episode to find out more about a regency ball and the world of Jane Austen.
​
This would be a good episode to show in an English literature class to help students understand Jane Austen and Pride and Prejudice.
0 Comments

Jane Austen - Behind Closed Doors

2/10/2021

0 Comments

 
Lucy Worsley explores how the houses Jane Austen moved around to impacted her work.  Severton, Bath, Lyme, and the various houses live on in her novels.  Although many of the houses Jane lived in or visited don't exist any more their spirit still lives on in her novels.

Worsley kicks off the episode with visiting Severton and the site of the Jane Austen's childhood home.  She talks about how she grew up.  The people she met and the story with Tom LeFroy.  Growing up, good conversation revolved around music and books.  She talks about how her brother was adopted by a rich family and how that impacted Jane's life. 

Jane was the poor relation in the family as her, her father, her mother and her sister moved around to various houses.  She was expected to earn her keep by entertaining the family when they stayed with the rich relations.  The family moved around to various homes after her father retired, eventually stayed in Bath.  After her father died, her brother took her, her mother, and sister in.  Worsley also takes care to discuss Austen's loves and her career as a writer as well as where she wrote her novels.

I know this is a history blog, but documentary would be very appropriate for an English Literature class, especially if there is a sub in the room.  Even if you don't use it in class, then you can share it with a student who is doing a paper on Jane Austen.

For use in the classroom: just highlight, copy and paste into a word document or a google document for use in the classroom.  You can easily format these questions to your specifications.

The Video is available at this YouTube Link.

Jane Austen Behind Closed Doors Questions:
  1. Where did Jane Austen originally grow up?
  2. What was her father’s occupation?
  3. How did Mr. Austen supplement the family income?
  4. How young did Jane Austen start writing?
  5. What was a big part of Austen’s social life?
  6. Who did Jane meet at Deane House?
  7. What was all the rage at the time?
  8. Where did the Austen’s vacation on the seaside?
  9. Where did the Austen’s permanently move?
  10. Where didn’t Jane and her mother want to live in Bath?

Jane Austen Behind Closed Doors Answers:
  1. Where did Jane Austen originally grow up? - Steventon
  2. What was her father’s occupation? - Rector at the church
  3. How did Mr. Austen supplement the family income? - Farming and Boys boarding school
  4. How young did Jane Austen start writing? - 11
  5. What was a big part of Austen’s social life? - Music
  6. Who did Jane meet at Deane House? - Tom LaFroy
  7. What was all the rage at the time? - Home Theatricals
  8. Where did the Austen’s vacation on the seaside? - Lyme Regis
  9. Where did the Austen’s permanently move? - Bath
  10. Where didn’t Jane and her mother want to live in Bath? - Trim Street
0 Comments

    Author

    I'm a librarian with an active imagination who likes to create.  Genealogist and Researcher.

    Like what you see?  Don't forget to smash the bookmark button!

    Blogs posted five days a week for the school year September-May and for summer blogs posted three days a week June-August!

    If you can, try to purchase these documentaries to support these historians!  If you can't purchase, subscribe to their channels or podcasts!

    Worksheets

    My Teachers Pay Teachers Store!  Worksheets available as a Word Document.

    Lulu Store

    I am also on Lulu!  If you're interested in genealogy I have several books available!

    Archives

    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020

    Categories

    All
    1065
    1066
    1900's Island
    Abandoned
    Abraham Lincoln
    Africa
    Alexandria
    Alex Langladas
    Alfred The Great
    Amazon River
    America
    Ancient Egypt
    Ancient Rome
    Ancient World
    Ancient Worlds
    Andes Mountains
    Angkor Wat
    Anne Boleyn
    Athens
    Australia
    Austria
    Bath
    Battleships
    Beatrix Potter
    Bernadette Banner
    Bettany Hughes
    Biographics
    Biographies
    Bismarck
    Britain
    Caitlin Doughty
    Caligula
    Cambodia
    Castles
    Central America
    Charlemagne
    China
    Christmas
    Cleopatra
    Cornwall
    Dam Busters
    Dame Patricia Routledge
    Dan Snow
    Denmark Strait
    Edwardian Farm
    Edwardian Home
    Edward The Confessor
    Egypt
    England
    Ethiopia
    Experimental History
    Exploration
    Farm
    Fashion History
    First Nations
    Flintstones
    France
    Franz Joseph
    French Revolution
    Full Steam Ahead
    Genealogy
    Genetics
    Geographics
    Geography
    Georgian Period
    Germans
    Germany
    Greece
    Greeks
    Gus Casely Hayford
    Gus Casely-Hayford
    Hastings
    Helen Castor
    Helen Of Troy
    Henry VIII
    Hidden Killers
    Highway
    History
    Holocaust
    Home
    Hood
    Ice Cream
    Immigration
    Irish Palace
    Jago Cooper
    Jane Austen
    Japan
    Joann Fletcher
    John Gater
    Judith Flanders
    Kathleen Martinez
    Kew Gardens
    King George III
    Knights Templars
    Korea
    Lady Jane Grey
    Leyte Gulf
    Lincoln Highway
    Lithuania
    Lost Kingdoms
    Lost Legions
    Lucy Worsley
    Lusitania
    Mammoths
    Marco Polo
    Marie Antoinette
    Mary Beard
    Mary Boleyn
    Maryland
    Medieval Period
    Meet The Romans
    Mick Aston
    Middle Ages
    Minoans
    Monarchy
    Musashi
    Napoleon
    Neil Oliver
    New Zealand
    Nicholas II
    Paul Mearns
    Pearl Harbor
    People Of The Clouds
    Peter Ginn
    Phil Harding
    Pompeii
    Portsmouth
    Prince Philip
    Prince Regent
    Prussia
    Pyramids
    Queen Elizabeth II
    Queen Luise
    Queens
    Railroads
    Reality TV
    Ronald Hutton
    Royal Fibs
    Royal Myths
    Royal Secrets
    Royalty
    Royal Women
    Russia
    Russian Revolution
    Ruth Goodman
    Salem
    Serbia
    Simon
    South America
    Spain
    Sparta
    Spy
    SS Atlantic
    STEAM
    STEM
    Stewart Ainsworth
    Stonehenge
    Stuart Peachy
    Suzannah Lipscomb
    Tales From The Green Valley
    The Family
    The Vikings
    Time Team
    Time Travels
    Time Walks
    Tirpitz
    Titanic
    Tom Pinford
    Tony Robinson
    Top 10
    Tracy Borman
    Trains
    Trojan War
    Tudor
    Tudor Monastery Farm
    Tudors
    Turn Back Time
    United-states
    USS Indianapolis
    Varus
    Victorian-bakers
    Victorian-bakers
    Victorian-farm
    Victorian-farm
    Victorian-home
    Victorian-pharmacy
    Vikings
    Warsaw Ghetto
    Wartime Farm
    White Palace
    White Star Line
    Who Do You Think You Are?
    Wilhelm Gustloff
    William The Conqueror
    Winston Churchill
    Witches
    Witch Hunting
    World War I
    World War II
    YouTube

    Privacy Policy

    HistoryDocTube will not collect any personal information and will not sell any personal information to a third party.  We will not request any personal information. 

    ​The purpose of this blog is to share information on what can be used in a classroom, private school, or home school setting as well as serve as a portfolio of my personal and professional work. 

    The reviews are my opinions and should be treated as such.  I just want to provide a tool for teachers to select documentaries for their classrooms.

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
  • Blog
  • YouTube
    • Ancient America
    • Ancient China
    • Ancient Egypt
    • Ancient Rome
    • Holocaust
    • Tudors
    • World War I
    • World War II
    • History Meets English
    • History Meets Geography
    • History Meets Reality TV
    • History Meets Science
    • Royals
    • Time Team
    • YouTube Channels
    • Bettany Hughes
    • Tony Robinson
    • Lucy Worsley
  • About Me
    • Portfolio
  • Privacy Policy
  • Contact Me