The industrial revolution provides a change in class
and home structure that makes society re-evaluate masculinity and femininity-
male and female roles. People start migrated away from country and farming to cities and factory work. This change eventually created a middle class. Naturally this change lends to other change in the home, particularly male and female roles.
What is a 'fallen woman'?
A
fallen woman is a Victorian woman with sexual experience. In almost every
situation, a fallen woman has a "sexual trespass that produced her
fall" (Auerbach 30). Fallen woman are popularly prostitutes, which were
very common during the Victorian era. The fallen women is the opposite of the
ideal women. However, the husbands of ideal women will still turn to fallen
women for sexual experiences. Ideal women are regarded as innocent and angelic
and society teaches that they need to be kept that way and often that excludes
them from any sexual experiences, even after marriage. Although the majority of
prostitutes' clients are "bachelors postponing marriage... middle-class
youths... soldiers and sailors...and so on" (Tosh, "Historians with
Masculinity", 182). Men also turned to homosexuality but although the
"'gay life' was very widespread...it remained firmly out of sight"
(Tosh, "Historians with Masculinity", 182). Due to sexual promiscuity
through prostitutes STDs spread through society. In 1864 the first Contagious
Diseases Act was enacted. This law held women responsible for the spread of
STDs; therefore, doctors could legally examine any woman, or mechanically rape
her, upon suspicion.
What is a 'new woman'?
The
Victorian new woman has multiple identities. She is a "feminist activist,
a social reformer, a popular novelist, a suffragette playwrite, a woman
poet" (Ledger 1). This feminine character was just rising in the Victorian
Era- it becomes much more popular and developed after the Victorian era. She is
often just a woman wanting to become independent of men and willing to step
outside conventions of the ideal woman. Lady Audley in Lady Audley's Secret by Braddon encompasses elements of a new
woman. Lady Audley is abandoned by her husband--he goes off to make a fortune
in Australia, but we do not know if he will return. So Lady Audley takes
matters into her own hands and decides to leave her child with her father and
make a new life for herself. She changes her name and becomes a governess. She
then advances through society using her beauty and masked intellect, eventually
marrying a rich old widower. However, her first husband returns and discovers
her so she pushes him down a well. Lady Audley is an ideal woman up front, but
is willing to step outside those limitations to use her intellect and strive to
make a better life for herself and become independent of her first husband and
child--these are attributes of a new woman. (Braddon).
The Lady of Shalott
"The
Lady of Shalott" by Tennyson shows us an ideal woman trying to break away
from conventions. The Lady of Shalott stays inside the house and is very
innocent and delicate. In a painting rendition by John Waterhouse, she is with
her knitting work in front of her while looking through the mirror, a very
domestic activity. So she fits this ideal domestic and feminine role. However,
she decides that she is "half sick of shadows" and breaks away from
the confinement of the house and feminine role (Tennyson 71). In consequence of
breaking away from this tradition a curse comes upon her and she dies before
she ever gets to Camelot. Through "The Lady of Shalott" we see the
tension of the limiting feminine ideal in society and women trying to break
away from that ideal.
Femininity: 'Ideal woman'
Traditionally
femininity equated a picture of a "fragile heroine, pure and innocent,
more attached to virginity than to life" (Basch XV). In the Victorian era,
there emerged three different types of women: the ideal woman, the new woman,
and the fallen woman. Traditional femininity is representative of the ideal
Victorian woman. The Angel in the House
by Coventry Patmore became a defining poem for the ideal woman. An ideal woman
pleases men and to please "is a woman's pleasure," she is also
"too gentle even to force," and when the man does something wrong she
is expected to give pardon before he asks and then weep as if "the sin was
hers" when he asks for the pardon (Patmore 2, 9, 16). The home was
supposed to be feminine, a place for "nurture and love" (Tosh,
"A Man's Place", 47).
One affects the other
Sloan
points out that the "fantasy of ideal femininity...also entails a very
problematic fantasy of ideal masculinity, a fantasy which would have generated
at least as much ideological tension for Victorian men as it did for Victorian
women" (53). Therefore, as the roles of masculinity are being re-defined, the roles of femininity are being re-evaluated also. They do not act independently of one another.
Ulysses: two roles of masculinity
In
“Ulysses” by Tennyson we examine two different male roles through the father
and the son. The father's role is an adventurer, explorer and fighter. This is
a common role for Victorian men because they were charged with the
responsibility to explore colonies and claim land for the glory of the empire.
The father craves "to sail beyond the sunset, and the baths/ of all the
western starts, until [he] die[s]" (Tennyson 60-61). Socially this is an
accepted male duty and role. This role is contrasted with the role of the son.
The son's role in "Ulysses" is to stay at home and rule the land.
There is a lot of tension about the son's duty because it could be interpreted
as a feminine role. The son must "through soft degrees/ subdue [the
people] to the useful and the good" (Tennyson 37-38). Men are
traditionally supposed to be hard, not fulfilling the "offices of
tenderness" (Tennyson 41). It is also a very domestic and feminine role to
stay at home and take care of things while the father, or man, goes off to
gather glory and riches. However, socially ruling is an acceptable role for a
man. Queen Victoria claimed that in order to be a good women--to be
"feminine and amiable and domestic"--women were "not fitted to
reign" (Victorian Era LII). Therefore, she let her husband, Albert, rule
the country for the short time he was alive. She was very submissive to his
will and opinion and more took upon herself the domestic mother role (Victorian
Era LII). Therefore, this tension built in "Ulysses" starts to expand
our view of the male roles that are socially acceptable.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)