Victorian era

First of all allow me to announce my absolute annoyance at english. It is the one subject that requires you to find your own material that you must be able to answer a question on under exam conditions. It is the one subject that forces you to go out and find some barmy old codge's opinions on a matter no one cares about and regurgitate that opinion under exam period. It is the one subject which bestows upon you the task of memorizing quotes from a book that quite frankly is an uninteresting read. It is the one subject that has an exam based purely around one question, and there's no safety net; either you get it, or you don't. Most importantly, it is the one subject that actually is compulsory, and must be counted towards your HSC, despite being....'unique' ('abnormal').

But that's not what I'm here to talk about. Instead of the frustrating exam techniques that you have to endure, I'm going to have a go at the texts they force you to read. Well...fine, I'll be unbiased. They don't FORCE you to read them, but lets just say that if you don't read them then you're future career would possibly involve touching waste matter with your bare hands. Now, I don't particularly care for classical books, so I can't really generalise this for ALL books over the Victorian period, but let's just compare the lovely novels gifted to us for our preliminary and HSC examinations.

North and South:

• Main male character: Mr. Thornton. He is a generally unemotional person. Exceedingly rich, until his demise at the end of the book, and generally treats everyone else like a person would towards leeches that were suddenly discovered on one's own backside. He is shown to have snobbish tendencies, is handsome and constantly reassures his mother that he could never fall in love with a middle class girl.
• Main female character: Margaret Hale. She is a strong woman. One which defies the societal expectations for her gender, and is admired by many for her incredible strength and courage in a highly patriarchal world. She is initially repulsed by Mr. Thornton's violence towards one of his employees.
• Main female character's mother: Mrs. Hale. She is a relatively strong woman. Complains a lot. Exaggerates a lot. And then dies. Not much to say here..
• Main female character's father: Mr. Hale. Weak in character. Unable to stand up to others, tries to avoid confrontation and tends to just lay back and do whatever comes to mind. Doesn't  really up hold the values of this era as he is not a dominating person.

Pride and Prejudice:

• Main male character: Mr. Darcy (here girls swoon and faint). He is described to be rich and handsome, but his character leaves much to be desired. In his first arrival he looks down upon everyone save for Mr. Bingley's sisters and refuses to dance. Emotionally traumatised - has a cool sob story about his dad and some soldier guy. Constantly reassures himself that he would never fall for a middle class girl.
• Main female character: Elizabeth. Smart, funny, blah blah blah. Basically Margaret Hale in terms of defying social expectations. Hates Mr. Darcy's guts at the beginning of the book. Is admired for her compassion. Boring.
• Main female character's mother: Oh who gives a crap what this batty old person's name is. Over-exaggerates. 'Oh Mr. Bennett how you vex my nerves' or something along those lines. Most annoying character in the history of novels. Nevertheless, is a strong woman, and dominates her husband.
• Main female character's father: I forget. This guy is a cool dude. He is pretty much the one character who I like. Not many things to draw between him and Mr. Hale, apart from their laidbackness and his willing to be dominated by his wife.

No similarities at all. In both books the main female and male characters meet. Decide they hate each other. Fall in love. Skip off together into sunset with smiles so big they'd make hemorrhoids go away and never want to come back.

Seriously. Didn't the people of this era get bored? Were Jane Austen and Elizabeth Gaskell really so bored that they couldn't think of any other plot? Did the board of studies just enjoy reading a book twice, but with different word usage?

It's just plain confusing. Personally, I loathe English with a great passion. Oh well. Now to read letters to alice.

Bloody. Hell.

This is bollocks.