Coursework help!

[lulu]

Hi everyone.

Sorry if I've posted this in the wrong place, but I really need some help.

I've got an essay due in on Wednesday, with the title 'What insights into Victorian Culture do we get by studying the press speculation in 1888 regarding the identity of 'Jack the Ripper?''

I really need some help as I'm absolutely stuck. Basically, I've had a lot of time off this year because I suffered a miscarriage, and missed most of my history lessons. I have the notes, but there really wasn't a lot for this section of the course and I can't ask my tutor for help as he is away! It probably sounds like I'm being a bit thick, but I've got so much to catch up on and so many essays and resits to be done by Wednesday that I'm having a bit of a panic. History isn't my forte anyway, it's just part of a combined module I have to take in order to get enough credits for my course this autumn.

Thanks in advance!

[Roy Corduroy]

Hi, Lulu,

This is gonna be a piece of cake !

First, simply go the Introduction. (look left of here) Read the Significance and Importance paragraph. That will get you started. Next, go to this essay. It is quite detailed, but also sums things up nicely at the end.

http://www.casebook.org/dissertations/rippercussions.html

You should have no problem,

Roy

[Mike Covell]

Sounds like you've had a rough year! Good luck with the coursework, there is plenty on this site to help you!

[lulu]

Thanks - all that information is a great help! I'm feeling a lot better about it now.

[Limehouse]

Hi Lulu. I think the words that jump out in the title of your essay are 'Victorian culture' and 'speculation'. I would focus on assumptions, expressed in the press, that the killer could not possibly be an English gentleman, but must be foreign and/or Jewish. You could also look at notions of mental instability of the time and you could certainly investigate the duel reactions of horror/excitement that surrounded the murders. I would recommend the book 'City of Dreadful Delight' by Judith Walkowitz.