7 Best period dramas set in the Victorian era

Period Dramas, whether films or TV shows, take us back in time as we witness the lives and struggles of people in different eras. When we talk about British period dramas, these films depict the lives of people living during the reigns of different monarchs and the changes in the lives of common people based on the country's economy. This is mostly recorded in the art of that era, which serves as a clear reflection of the times.

The period dramas, through their unique narratives, showcase the challenges faced by people, such as the struggles of women, farmers, and nobles. Here’s a list of 7 period dramas that depict the life and times of people living in the Victorian Era, which was between 1837 and 1901, the years of Queen Victoria’s reign.

Disclaimer: This entire article is based on the writer's opinion. Reader's discretion is advised.

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7 Best period dramas set in the Victorian era

7) The Young Victoria

Let’s start the list of period dramas with a film focused on the early years of Queen Victoria’s reign. The Young Victoria stars Emily Blunt as the heiress presumptive. The film begins by depicting how Victoria found herself between two sides that wanted control over her.

The film also depicts Victoria and Albert’s relationship and the challenges they encountered. It also showcased how Victoria devoted herself to serving her people during her early reign. While it is a dramatization of Queen Victoria’s story, this is one of the period dramas that also tries its best to depict factual information.

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6) Alice in Wonderland

Based on Lewis Carroll’s novel of the same name, which is regarded as one of the popular books of Victorian literature and later became one of the best period dramas that narrates the story of Alice, who fell through a rabbit hole and finds herself in Wonderland with different types of magical creatures.

The story narrates Alice’s adventures in Wonderland as she finds herself in the middle of the fight between the red and white queens, where Alice takes the white queen’s side and defeats the Jabberwock, resulting in the defeat of the red queen and freeing the people of Wonderland from her threats.

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5) Bram Stoker's Dracula

Discussing the Victorian Era without mentioning the Gothic genre, the most prominent literary genre that emerged during this time, would result in an incomplete list of period dramas from the Victorian Era. This Dracula film, starring Winona Ryder, Gary Oldman, Keanu Reeves, Anthony Hopkins, and many other A-list Hollywood actors, is among the finest period dramas.

It narrates the tale of Oldman’s Vampire, who falls for Ryder’s Mina, who he thinks is Elisabeta, and tries to entice her by terrorizing her friends and close ones until her fiancé, Jonathan, brings Van Helsing with him to hunt down the Vampire.

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4) Far from the Madding Crowd

Thomas Hardy’s first literary success has been turned into films several times. This film depicts the struggles of the farming community during the reign of Queen Victoria through themes of love and betrayal, making it one of the best literary pieces and period dramas.

It tells the story of Carey Mulligan’s Bathsheba Everdene and her neighbor, Gabriel Oak, a farmer, and how fate always seems to bring them together as they criticize and solve each other’s problems until Bathsheba falls for him. Amid the challenges faced by the farming community, this period film creates a love story filled with intense drama arising due to the circumstances and human nature of the characters.

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3) Lady Macbeth

The next in the list of period dramas is Florence Pugh’s Lady Macbeth, which revolves around the story of Pugh’s Katherine Lester. She is an unhappy woman who is bound in a loveless marriage and has to listen to either her husband or her father-in-law. With no freedom in her life, she never leaves her home until one day when her husband and her father-in-law both leave for work.

She gets a chance to feel the freedom and also gets smitten by a man named Sebastian, who works on their land. The story later depicts how Katherine commits crimes not to return to the life she was living, and ends up alone again.

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2) Little Women

This Academy Award-nominated film is one of the best period dramas, which narrates the story of Jo March and her sisters. It depicts how Jo achieved her dream of becoming a writer in an era where men dominated most of the professional world. However, she defied these gender norms from a very young age and even rejected her childhood friend Laurie’s proposal.

The film depicts how women end up sacrificing so much to achieve their dreams. Jo tells her mother that she hates it when people only see women as beautiful creatures but disregard their talent, ambition, and all the things they can achieve, but later ends up confessing that she sometimes feels lonely as she has given up everything to achieve what she has today, even Lauri’s love.

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1) Jane Eyre

This Gothic fiction, one of the most popular period dramas, depicts the story of Jane Eyre from her becoming orphaned at a young age through her adulthood to falling in love with Mr. Rochester. Jane’s life hasn’t been an easy one, as since childhood, she has been tortured by her cousin and her aunt and in school until she became the governess in Thornefield Hall.

She finds herself being attracted to the owner of the estate, but mysterious secrets from Rochester’s past and Jane finding out more about her family lead them away from each other. However, ultimately, they do end up together after several challenges in their lives.

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