Socio-cultural Historical Background of Victorian Era
Moreover, from the documents of history site 2000 it is clearly explained about women. Women typically did not work outside the home. They were expected
to focus on her family. Families tended to be large, and it was common for a woman to
have five
or more
children. www.bcpcc.comOutreachss10filesmiddleupper.html
In the essay about an upper class girls in the 1800 century “The Marriageable
Mind” 2001 written by Prof. David Porter, he stated that a girls education often included basic reading and writing as well feminine activities such as needlework and
dancing. Girls might also read Shakespearean plays and poetry. During earlier times, even these most basic academic skills were not commonly taught to middle-classes
girls. However, when young aristocratic men went on the grand tour they met young French women who could have conversations about music, art, and literature. By
comparison, English gentlewomen, seemed dull and uninteresting because they could only talk about balls and fashion. As a result, British mothers thought it wise to
educate their daughters enough to compete with these French women in the marriage market.
www.umich.edu~ecestudent_projectsgrowing_uptitania-edu.html .
In Everman in European ed. Vol 1, The Preindustrial, Millenia book, Mitchell and Deak stated that during the seventeenth, eighteenth, and the nineteenth centuries,
“England is known as free of sexual irregularly than any other country in the world. In the seventeenth century, there is unquestionably a greater laxity of moral in this
respect, but at no time as the excess license associated with the restoration period in England 1981: 219
”. As the statement above, the writer can see that free sex and
prostitution widely spread in England, especially in the big city such as London. Therefore, the moral value in England during at that time is unquestioned.
Florence Fenwick Miller 1854-1935, a midwife turned journalist, described womans position:
Under exclusively man-made laws women have been reduced to the most abject condition of legal slavery in which it is possible for human beings to be
held...under the arbitrary domination of anothers will, and dependent for decent treatment exclusively on the goodness of heart of the individual master. From
a speech to the National Liberal Club
The writer can see that women have few choices and completely controlled by the men in their lives. Every man had the right to force his wife into sex and
childbirth. He could take her children without reason and send them to be raised elsewhere. He could spend his wifes inheritance on a mistress or on prostitutes.
Prostitution quickly became an alternative for some upper class women in the 1800s. Lucy Bland‟s essay 1992 entitled “Feminist Vigilantes of Late-Victorian
England” outlines some of the extreme measures women would take in order to survive, as well as the animosity that surfaced as a result of these actions. The writer
sees that women at that time have limited choice; they choose to be a prostitute or mistress in order to survive and fulfil their needs.
In “ Historical Brief-Lives of Women in the early 1800s” essay, Smith 2002
writes an article about women„s lives in England.
Daily life for women in the early 1800s in Britain was that of many obligations and few choices. Some even compare the conditions of women in
this time to a form of slavery. Women were completely controlled by the men in their lives. First by their fathers, brothers and male relatives and finally by
their husbands. Their sole purpose in life is to find a husband, reproduce and then spend the rest of their lives serving him. If a woman were to decide to
remain single,
she would
be ridiculed
and pitied
by the
community http:staff.washington.educgiacomicoursesenglish200historica
lbriefswomen.html .
In Women and Prostitution : A Social History book, Vern and Bonnie
Bullough stated that the upper class women were probably came to the profession as a mistress or whore for reasons of economic hardship, they were able to turn beauty
or talent to advantage 1987: 38. Donna J. Guy writes about the history of prostitution worldwide in her article
entitled Stigma, Pleasures, and Dutiful Daughters1998: 181, Guy states that prostitution is linked to religious beliefs, family survival, and patriarchy authority.
However, women choose prostitution to find independence, provide an income or control their own sexuality.
From Guy‟s statement, the writer sees that structural classes marginalize women. Family is based on patriarchy system. The husband is
more dominant in the family. The upper class or lower class women have low status so that many of them enter into prostitution. For helps the family economically, an
upper class woman chooses to be a mistress or courtesan. The reason for an upper class woman who is left by her husband is to find an independence and control own
sexuality.