The Literature of Love Context: Victorian Literature Flashcards
Queen Victoria
1837-1901
Victoria became an icon of late 19th C middle-class femininity and domesticity
She came to represent a kind of femininity which centred on the family, motherhood and respectability
Model for marital stability and domestic virtue
“The mother of the nation”
Separate spheres
Domesticity and motherhood seen by society at large to be sufficient emotional fulfilment for females
Women in the private sphere of the home and the hearth
Men in the public sphere of business, politics and sociability
Queen Victoria came to represent a type of femininity that centred on family, motherhood and respectability
Victoria seen to be the very model of marital stability and domestic virtue
However, marrying for love was an ideal rather than a reality at the time
It became important to unify “suitable” families through marriage in order to protect business interest, inheritance and status
Women had no say in whom they would marry
Women in particular were governed by a strict set of moral codes and rules for behaviour
When was the Victorian period?
1830-1901
Industrial Revolution
New factories and industries emerged
The wealth of Britain began to be founded more on industry than landowning
Rise of middle class self-made men, challenging the power of the aristocracy
Social tensions increased
Scientific discoveries
Beginning of the suggestion that man evolved for animals
This challenged the biblical account
Charles Darwin’s book, “The Origin of the Species” (1859) recorded this
Science and religion conflicting
Modesty and respectability
Strict standards
Conversations of a sexual nature were taboo
Conservative dress for women
No sex outside marriage
Women weren’t supposed to enjoy sex
The prudery of the Victorians is often thought to show a desire to conceal our animalistic origins or as a reaction against Darwinism
Urban populations
Drastically increased
Many writers wrote about the threat to nature and the loss of more innocent ways of life
Constraint and escapism
A common theme in the portrayal of women’s lives
Separate spheres
Strict division of roles between men and women
Public sphere=male
Private sphere=female
Women idealised as “angels of the house”
Queen Victoria promoted this idea
Victoria was the “mother of the nation”
Expectations of women
Women expected to be obedient, virtuous and pure
Women who challenged this stereotype were often viewed as freakish and a threat to social order
Class divisions
Growing class tensions between the rich and the poor as divisions between the classes widened during this Era
Marriage
Was seen as binding for life
Divorce would have been viewed as disgraceful for both parties
