Going to the almshouse and the museum today really gave me more insight into the way people lived throughout the Victorian period. It’s been interesting to see the outside of houses, the communities people lived in, and hear about the living conditions, but it really was another thing entirely to be standing in a room that people lived in, surrounded by the things that they would have used in their daily lives. It really helped me to better understand many of the characters, because how we live our daily lives, I think, has a huge influence on who we are and how we view things. I think the tour and museum today was especially helpful since technology has made our lives so different than the characters we read about in Victorian literature, but on the other side of the coin our lives are also very similar. Seeing the rooms at the museum helped me to better vusualize the setting and the characters, much like I can already do with characters in literature set closer to this time period. It made the setting and struggles of the characters more tangible. And I found the information about how people lived fascinating!