Roxana`s Hardships as seen in Daniel Defoe`s Roxana Or The Fortunate Mistress - USD Repository
ROXANA’S HARDSHIPS AS SEEN IN DANIEL DEFOE’S
ROXANA OR THE FORTUNATE MISTRESS
AN UNDERGRADUATE THESISPresented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra In English Letters
By
FARELLA NAHARANI
Student Number: 084214125
ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAMME DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS FACULTY OF LETTERS SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY YOGYAKARTA 2013
ROXANA’S HARDSHIPS AS SEEN IN DANIEL DEFOE’S
ROXANA OR THE FORTUNATE MISTRESS
AN UNDERGRADUATE THESISPresented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra In English Letters
By
FARELLA NAHARANI
Student Number: 084214125
ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAMME DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS FACULTY OF LETTERS SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY YOGYAKARTA 2013
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He will be judged with an easy account And return to His people in happiness. (Al Inshiqāq 84: 8-9) Everything we do seriously will get success
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This undergraduate thesis is dedicated to: My dearest father and mother Alm. Suharsono & Kamijem, S.Pd My beloved Sister, Novita Sandra, S.Pd
And all of my friends
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
First of all, I would like to give thanks to Allah SWT for guiding me in every step of my life. I thank Allah SWT also for giving me thought, health, and strength so that finally I can finish this undergraduate thesis.
I sincerely thank and appreciate my advisor, Elisa Dwi Wardani, S.S.,
M.Hum. for her time, encouragement, understanding, and advice during my
undergraduate thesis writing. I also thank my co advisor,
for her willingness and thoroughness in reading my
undergraduate thesis.I would like to thank all of the lecturers and secretariat staff of English Letters Department for providing me the most excellent education and chance to improve myself. I thank also all library staff of Sanata Dharma University for helping me to find sources for my undergraduate thesis.
I am also deeply grateful to my father, Alm. Suharsono, my mother
Kamijem S.Pd, and my lovely sister Novi, my lovely brother Akbar, for all the
support, the patience, and the courage they give to me.My sincere gratefulness goes to my best friend, Desi, Siti, Fitri, Ifa
(English Letters’ 08), Kingkin. I thank all of them for giving me supports when
life gets rough. I thank them also for always giving me a lot of comfort when I feel so sad and hopeless.
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I would like to thank my friends: Rana, Sisil, Arin, CiCi, Cindy, Lia,
Susan, Mbak Lia, Mbak Rere (English Letters ‘05), and thanks for always
being a helping hand. I am grateful to be surrounded by creative positive people. I thank them also for every moment we laugh and cry together.
Farella Naharani
TABLE OF CONTENT TITTLE PAGE
CHAPTER II: THEORETICAL REVIEW
………………………………………………………………. xiii
CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION
……………………………………...... 1
A. Background of Study………………………………………......... 1
B. Problem Formulation…………………………………………..... 3
C. Objecti ves of Study…………………………………………….... 4 D. Definition of Terms………………………………………………. 4
…………………………… 5 A. Review of Related Studies…………………………………....... 5 B. Review of Related Theories…………………………………….. 7
………………………………………………………......... xii
1. Theory of Charac ter and Characterization…………………. 7
2. Theory of Feminism…………………………………......... 11
C. Review on Socio- cultural Historical Background……………… 12
1. Socio-cultural Historical Background of Victorian Era………………………………….………………………. 12 2.
Women in Victorian Era………………………………….... 14
D. Theor etical Framework………………………………………… 18
ABSTRAK
ABSTRACT
…………………………………………….................... i
DEDICATION PAGE
APPROVAL PAGE
…………………………………………………….. ii
ACCEPTANCE PAGE
…………………………………….................. iii
MOTTO PAGE
……………………………………………................... iv
………………………………………………….. v
………………………………………………. x
LEMBAR PERSETUJUAN PUBLIKASI KARYA ILMIAH
……..... vi
STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY
…………………………………… vii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
……………………………………………. viii
TABLE OF CONTENTS
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A.
Object of the Study…………………………………………….. 20
B. Approach of the Study……………………………………........ 21
C. Method of the Study……………………………………………. 22
CHAPTER IV: ANALYSIS
……………………………………………. 24 A. The Characteristics of Roxana…………………………………. 24 1.
Educated…………………………………………………….. 25 2. Admirable……………………………………………........... 29
3. Indepen dent…………………………………………............ 30 B.
The Women’s Life in England in 1800s as Seen Roxana’s Characteristics………………………………………………...... 33 C. Roxana’s Characteristics and the Description of Women’s Life Which Show Roxana
’s Hardships in 1800s…..……………….. 38
CHAPTER V: CONCLUSION
……………………………………....... 45
BIBLIOGRAPHY
………………………………………………………. 48
APPENDIX
…………………………………………………………....... 51
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ABSTRACT
FARELLA NAHARANI. Roxana’s Hardships as Seen in Daniel Defoe’s
Roxana Or The Fortunate Mistress. Yogyakarta: Department of English
Letters, Sanata Dharma University, 2013.Each person ever experiences hardships in their life. Hardships emerge in many aspects of life, including a woman ’s life. In 1700s-1800s in England, women experience hardships because of the patriarchal society, the marriage, and the prostitution. This study analyzes how an upper class woman experiences hardships, in a novel entitled Roxana Or The Fortunate Mistress, written by Daniel Defoe.
There are three problems in this study. The problems are: (1) What are Roxana’s characteristics?, (2) How is the life of women in England in the 1800s through Roxana’s characteristics described in the novel?, (3) How do Roxana’s characteristics and the description of life of women in 1800s in England show Roxana
’s hardships at that time? This undergraduate thesis is a library research. The main data were taken from the novel Roxana Or The Fortunate Mistress written by Daniel Defoe. The secondary data were taken from some supporting books and articles from internet. In order to analyze the problems, the writer applied feminism approach. Feminism approach is considered appropriate to be applied to this topic because this study focuses on revealing women hardships in England.
The result of this analysis discovers that Roxana’s characteristic is described as an educated, admirable, and independent woman. Next result of the study is about the description of life of women in England in the1800s through Roxana’s characteristic. This study shows that women only learn reading, writing, dancing, and running a household. Furthermore, the last result shows Roxana’s hardships by connecting the analysis of the characteristics and the description of life of women in Victorian era. Roxana experiences hardships as the effect of patriarchal society, marriage arrangement, and prostitution. To deal with the hardships, Roxana chooses to be a mistress to gain independence.
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ABSTRAK
FARELLA NAHARANI. Roxana’s Hardships as Seen in Daniel Defoe’s
Roxana Or The Fortunate Mistress. Yogyakarta: Jurusan Sastra Inggris,
Fakultas Sastra, Universitas Sanata Dharma, 2013.Setiap orang pernah mengalami penderitaan. Penderitaan terjadi di banyak aspek kehidupan, termasuk dalam kehidupan wanita. Di Inggris tahun 1700-1800, wanita mengalami penderitaan karena masyarakat patriakhal, pernikahan, dan pelacuran. Studi ini menganalisis bagaimana wanita dari kelas atas mengalami penderitaan, dalam sebuah novel yang berjudul Roxana Or The Fortunate Mistress yang ditulis oleh Daniel Defoe.
Terdapat tiga masalah dalam kajian ini: (1) Apa saja karakteristik dari Roxana?, (2) Bagaimana kehidupan wanita di Inggris pada tahun 1800 dilihat dari karakteristik Roxana yang dideskripsikan di novel?, (3) Bagaimana karakteristik Roxana dan pendeskripsian wanita di tahun1800 di Inggris menunjukkan penderitaan Roxana di masa itu?
Skripsi ini merupakan studi pustaka. Data utama diambil dari novel
Roxana Or The Fortunate Mistress yang ditulis oleh Daniel Defoe. Data yang lain
diambil dari buku-buku pendukung beberapa artikel dari internet. Untuk menganalisis masalah penulis menggunakan pendekatan feminisme. Pendekatan feminism dirasa tepat untuk diaplikasikan karena kajian ini mengungkap penderitaan wanita di Inggris.
Hasil analisis menunjukkan bahwa karakteristik Roxana didiskripsikan sebagai seorang yang terpelajar, dikagumi, dan mandiri. Hasil selanjutnya adalah tentang pendeskripsian kehidupan wanita di Inggris tahun 1800 dilihat dari karakteristik Roxana. Kajian ini menunjukkan wanita hanya belajar membaca, menulis, menari, dan mengurus rumah tangga. Selanjutnya, hasil terakhir menunjukkan penderitaan Roxana dengan menghubungkan analisis karakteristik dan pendeskripsian kehidupan wanita kelas atas. Roxana mengalami penderitaan sebagai efek dari masyarakat patriakhal, perjodohan, dan pelacuran. Untuk mengatasi penderitaanya, Roxana memilih menjadi seorang wanita simpanan untuk memperoleh kebebasan.
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CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION A. Background of the Study At some point in this life, each person will experience happiness and
sadness. They can live happily with their family. The other way, they experience pain, suffering, and hardships of some form or another. They need to overcome the problem, so that they prove to be strong. Even it might be complicated, people still have to continue their path in life because they cannot under the same
circumstances. Life story is influenced by society and history. Sometimes, life
story becomes the idea in writing literary works. Literary works give a lesson for the reader because the authors create the story from a reality that happened around them.
Literature can enrich us with knowledge, as it is written in Henry E. Jacobs and Edgar V. Roberts‟s Fiction: An Introduction to Reading and Writing, “Literature can enrich us to develop a perspective of the events that occur around us and the world at large…(1989: 2)”. Literary work can widen the reader‟s views of the world.
“Literature represents „life‟; and „life‟ is in large measure, a social reality…” which is written in Wellek and Warren in their Theory of Literature (1956: 94). In this book, they explain that each poet is also a member of society, and the events happen around her society can define her knowledge of the world.
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2 People can learn about the condition of the society by reading related literature. One of the writers that represent the society is Daniel Defoe.
Daniel Defoe was born in 1660, at the city of London, and died in the age
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of seventy one on April, 24 , 1731 and was buried in Bunhill field the dissenter‟s burial ground on city road, which can still be visited today. His chief works are:
Robinson Crusoe (1719), Moll Flanders (1722), A Journal Of The Plague Year
(1722), Colonel Jack (1722), Roxana or The Fortunate Mistress (1776). Most of his novels focus on the reflection of Victorian society. In this study, the writer analyzes one of his novels entitled Roxana or The Fortunate Mistress Defoe‟s Roxana or The Fortunate Mistress is an interesting novel to study.
It is because there are two contrary statements about this novel. Virginia Woolf stated about feminism in her essay on Defoe‟s Roxana or The Fortunate Mistress.
Woolf states that the first praise Defoe‟s sympathetic representation of the situation of woman and later become a greater importance in the feminism context (Woolf, 1998: 313). On the other hand, Leroy W Smith said that this novel is a pornographic literature (Smith, 1972: 165).
Roxana is the main character of Roxana or The Fortunate Mistress novel.
th She is an upper class woman who lives in the 18 century society of England.
Women at that time are under men domination. Economic hardships of Roxana are getting harder since her husband wastes their money. Meanwhile, her husband is irresponsible with the family. After her husband leaving, Roxana
‟s family becomes poor so that she cannot afford proper food and shelter for her children.
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3 She must try to overcome hard life and deprivation. Consequently, she chooses to be a mistress and unmarried woman.
Roxana‟s hardships will become an interesting topic to discuss. The writer can see many cases and facts of upper class women hardships in England through the story of Roxana‟s experience. The background of Roxana Or The Fortunate
Mistress is a fact of the bad experience of upper class women as the victims of
patriarchal society, past marriage, and prostitution. Roxana or The Fortunate
Mistress also contains a female character that can be used to reveal the struggle of
women against marriage, men‟s rule, and she chooses to be a mistress gaining independent. Hopefully this study can give a greater understanding of how Roxana chooses to be a prostitute to get a freedom. Based on the state above, the writer chooses
Roxana’s Hardships As Seen Daniel Defoe’s Roxana Or The Fortunate Mistress on the topic of study.
B. Problem Formulation 1.
What are Roxana‟s characteristics?
2. How is the life of women in England in the 1800s seen through Roxana‟s characteristics described in the novel?
3. How do Roxana‟s characteristics and the description of the life of women in the 1800s in England show Roxana
‟s hardships at that time?
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C. Objectives of the Study
Based on the problem formulation above, there are three objectives of the study. The first aim is to find out the characterizations of Roxana. The writer will collect the characterizations of Roxana based on her experiences, thought, and attitude. The characterization of Roxana is useful for knowing her ways to face her problems and interact with other characters.
The second aim is to relate with the socio-cultural historical background, specifically regarding women in England at that time. The third aim is after gathering all information needed, the writer going to reveal the capabilities of women to struggle from several hard life in the 1800s in England.
D. Definition of Terms
1. Hardship Hardship means (something <http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/hardship?q=hardship>
CHAPTER II THEORETICAL REVIEW This chapter discusses theories that support the analysis of the thesis. This
chapter is divided into three parts. They are review of related studies, review of related theories, and theoretical framework. Firstly, review related studies discuss some related comment and criticism on the same topic with this research. Secondly, review of related theories discusses some related theories used in this research.
Thirdly, theoretical framework explains how the theories in this research support the analysis.
A. Review of Related Studies
There are some criticisms addressed to Daniel Defoe‟s Roxana or The
Fortunate Mistress . The first criticism that will be discussed is a comment of Anna
Fioravanti, on Review on Lady Roxana, She gives a reason why this novel is a special book for her.
Obviously, prostitution is not to be encouraged (men and women would be agree that) It‟s the way Defoe deals with his character that makes the book “special”. A man whose description of a woman is based on being positive all time. She is as beautiful as an gel. She is pure it‟s others who make her guilty!
She is intelligent and able to improve her abilities (Roxana becomes very good in administrating her fortune, ability which is particularly important considering her century and the central role given to economics). (www.Thefword.org.uk/reviews/book/roxana.live)
6 Fiorava nti shows how Defoe‟s novel has impressed her. It is because the novel can give a special influence over the reader. Moreover, she finds, it is very i mportant because she has the opportunity to see and understand women from male‟s point of view. Fioravanti is also interested in how the author writes about the character, Roxana. Defoe is a man of eighteenth century. He writes about a woman who is involved in the hard life and hard situations. However, Defoe just comments and judges the actions in general but never judges the character, Roxana.
The second criticism comes from
Virginia Woolf’s essay on Defoe, published
in the Common Reader, first series (1925), which is included in the novel. She praises the Defoe‟s sympathetic representation of women. This is the aspect of his work, which gives a greater contribution to modern feminist context.
Roxana, a lady of the same profession, argues more subtly against the slavery marriage. She had started a new thing in the world. But Defoe is the last writer to be guilty of bald preaching. Roxana keeps our attention because she is blessedly unconscious that she is any god sense an example to her sex and thus, at liberty to town that part of her arguments is of an elevated strain which was really not in my thoughts at first at all (Woolf, 1998: 315) Tholonia in the article “Bond” also pays attention to the character of Roxana. She focuses her discussion to Roxana‟s perspectives about marriage.
Daniel Defoe was much concerned on the status of woman at that time. Defoe‟s study, Treatise Concerning the Use and Abuse of Marriage Bed, deals with the moral, sexual and legal realms of marriage. Women do not have more rights than children or lunatics in London society in eighteenth century(1727:163).
7 Another criticism comes from Lora David and Carrie S. Bryant(2002: 175) in
“Make Your Way as A Women Eighteenth-Century England” essay, both seniors at University of Michigan. They state that Daniel Defoe's novel Roxana is (for the most part) a woman of wealth and independence. Her wealth is acquired (to a large degree) through her dealings with the men in her life. She has strong business sense, sexual awareness and financial standing. It is for this reason that Roxana chooses to remain single. In contemporary law, gender and marital status determines a person's legal profile. Being a married woman effectively eliminates the woman's status as an individual under the law-legally, the married woman is essentially subsumed into her husband. Specifically, she virtually loses her right to own and control property. It is for this reason that Roxana has no desire to be married. She argues that a wife has nothing of her own, but a mistress has what is hers as well as what her lover has(www.umich.edu/~ece/student_projects).
This writing has some similarities with some studies above, but still this writing has different focus to explore from those studies. The previous studies discuss about the character and representation of upper class woman, marriage, and independent woman, this writing focuses on Roxana. She lives in patriarchal family.
She has arranged to marry her parent‟s chosen husband. Roxana was fifteen years old when she got married with a Brewer. Based on the analysis of her characteristics and the description of woman
‟s lives1800s in England the writer can understand woman‟s hardships that exist in the novel.
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B. Review of Related Theories 1. Theory on Character and Characterization
The character has the important role in literary works. It helps us to understand about what happen in literary work. The characters are the person in the story that interpreted by the readers with their moral and emotional qualities. The author can describe the characters based on their motivation and the action in the story. According to Abrams in A Glossary of Literary Terms(1993: 24), stated that:
Characters are the person in a dramatic or narrative work, who is interpreted by the reader as being endowed with moral, dispositional, and emotional qualities that are expressed in what they say: the dialogue, and by what they do: the action. A character remains stable or changes, the reader of traditional and realistic work expect “consistency”-the reader should not suddenly break off and act in a way not plausibly grounded in his or her temperament as we have already come to know it. The quotation above shows that characters are the figure presented in the work of literature. It is the most distinctive feature that any other intrinsic elements because characters have emotional features. Emotional features cannot be separated from the characters because characters are usually human beings playing their own roles in the story.
The characters in a story can be found by the interpretation of the readers according to their conceptions of the characters. The characters can be described through the behaviour and action in the play. The writer tries to understand the characters in the story by the dialogue of the characters in the play. The dialogue in the story can influence the behaviour and the action to the character itself.
9 It is impossible to separate character from characterization. Ordinarily, characterization is the process by which the author creates a character. It is the process in which the author reveals the traits of a character. Hugh Holman and William Harmon in A Handbook to Literature (1986: 81) clarified that there are three basic methods of characterization as quoted below.
a. The explicit presentation of a character by the author through direct explanation, whether in a block‟s introductory or throughout the work which is illustrated by action
b. The presentation of the character in action, therefore the reader will be able to conclude the attributes of character from actions c. The presentation from within a character, without comment on character by the author, of the impact of actions and emotions on character‟s inner self, with the expectation that the reader will come to clear understanding of attributes of the character.
Furthermore, the theory on characterization explains how the characteristics of the characters are described. According to M. J. Murphy in his book entitled
Understanding Unseens: An Introduction to English Poetry & English Novel for
Overseas Students (1972: 161-173), there are nine ways for an author can apply to
present the characterization of character in literary works to make the character understandable to the reader.
a. Personal Description The author describes character‟s appearance in details such as skin colour, body shape, the clothes used by the character.
b. Character as Seen by the Author
10 The author uses another character‟s point of view to describe the character. What people in the story think about a certain character can be significant for reader to picture the image of the character.
c. Speech The author can give insight into the character in literary work through what the character says. Whenever a character speaks in conversation, we can see his personality from the opinion that he gives.
d. Past life The past events of a character can help the reader to understand what shape the character to behave in such way.
e. Conversation of Others The readers should pay attention through the conversation of other characters and the things they say about the character. The author gives clue to understand a character‟s personality from other‟s conversation and their opinion about him.
f. Reactions The author helps the reader to recognize a person‟s character by the reaction he gives toward the various situation and events.
g. Direct Comments The author gives direct comment on person‟s character.
h. Thoughts The author can give the reader a direct knowledge of what a person is thinking about.
11 i. Mannerism
The author can convey something about a person by describing his mannerism or habits.
By analyzing how the character described by other people, observing the description about the past life, the reader may also understand the personalities given by the author. There can be more than one method used by the author and it is intended to make the reader think that it is the author creation of real people.
Thus, a character‟s characteristics can be studied from the features shared by the character or actions that are found in the story directly or indirectly, in coordination with other elements in the story.
2. Theory of Feminism
The emancipation on women is related to the women movements which bring the idea of feminism. Feminism is about the struggle to fight the patriarchal society.
According to Humm, a p atriarchy is “a system of male authority that oppresses women through its social, political, and economic institutions” (1992: 159).
Feminism appears as the responses toward gender inequalities (women are assumed as a second-class inferior and the first-class superior is men). Moreover, gender inequalities are the result of gender difference. In gender difference, difference is “a necessary polarity between men and women, and between women.” For example, usually a man‟s body is stronger than a woman‟s, this results gender difference that a man is strong and a woman is weak. However, although men and
12 women are different, they are equal. The differences between them are meant for them to complete one another (Humm, 1992: 27).
Terrey in
Women’s Studies Encyclopedia (Vol.I) states that feminism means a
belief and a commitment to equal right and opportunities for women (1989: 139). It explains the goal of feminism is to gain similar right and opportunities for women.
It can be assumed from the quotation above that the subject matter of feminism is the idea about gaining the equality among men and women. Women tend to have rights to do what they want to do and responsible for their own choice. Therefore, studying the feminism in which the literary work is created is necessary.
C. Review Socio-cultural Historical Background 1. Socio-cultural Historical Background of Victorian Era
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Daniel Defoe is one of the late 18 century England's first true novelist and famous author. One of his great novels is Roxana Or The Fortunate Mistress. Roxana
or The Fortunate Mistress is written in 1776, which is considered as the late
th18 century Victorian age. This is the reign when many artistic styles. Literary schools, as well as, social, political, and religious movements developed. It was a time of prosperity, broad imperial expansion, and great political reform. <http://victoriapast.com/LifeofVictorianWomen/Lifeof VictorianWomen.html>
, Richard N. Current and friends (1965) explained
American History: A Survey
about the social system during The British Empire. The British Empire inherited a basic system of social institutions; that is the class structure, the community, and the
13 family. The most visible inheritance is the class distinction in the society; there are the working class society and the middle class society. The working class society is the community that works as farmers (Current, 1965: 17).
Generally, the members of the society in Victorian era are divided into two big classes according to their wealth and social status. The Rich were known as Middle Class and the Poor were mentioned as Lower Class. Each of them has their own life style and the way of thinking (Clark, 1972: 44). In the former reign, the classes are divided into three classes namely Upper Class contains noble people, Middle Class contains of rich people, and Lower Class contains of poor people. Yet, there was a churning upheaval of the old hierarchical order, and the middle classes were steadily growing. The Middle class contains of the noble people and rich people and there is no Upper Class. Middle Class is the combination of nobility and an emerging wealthy commercial class. By the end of the century, it was silently agreed that a gentlemen was someone who had a liberal public (private) school education (preferably at Eton, Rugby, or Harrow), no matter what his antecedents might be <http://www.victoriapast.com/LifeofWoman/LifeofVictorianWoman.html> The Victorian Era was also a time of tremendous scientific progress and ideas.
Darwin took his Voyage of the Beagle, and posited the Theory of Evolution. The radical thought associated with modern psychiatry began with men like Sigmund Freud toward the end of the era, and radical economic theory, developed by Karl Marx, and his associates, began a second age of revolution in mid-century. The ideas of Marxism, socialism, feminism churned and bubbled along with all else that
14 happened <http://www.victoriapast.com/LifeofWoman/LifeofVictorianWoman.html>. The ideas of scientific and some movements such as Marxism, Socialism, and Feminism are also grown rapidly in this time.
2. Women in Victorian Era
The life of women in Victorian Era was generally focused on Family commitments. Women were seen as temples of love and purity and so, could not be used for physical exertion or pleasurable sex. The only role of women in the Victorian era was to get married and had to be innocent, virtuous, biddable, and dutiful. The young women were mainly educated in accomplishments like French, drawing, painting, singing, dancing-everything which helped them to get a perfect match<http://www.victoriapast.com/LifeofWoman/LifeofVictorianWoman.html>.
Ashley in her essay (2005) “Women's Education” explained women education in the 17
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and 18 century England: During the 17th century, only the daughters of the wealthy or nobility could get an education. By the mid 17th century young women were allowed to go to school with their brothers. Sometimes if you were from money you would be placed within a household of a friend and within the household and you would be taught various things. Some of the things you would learn would be to read and write, run a household, and practice surgery…..Common studies women learnt were French, needlework, geography, music and dancing.
Studying anything else was thought to be unnecessary and hurtful to the mind of women. In the 17th and 18th centuries schooling was focused on how to govern a household and how to behave properly within the social class in which her marriage placed her. A lot of the focus was to teach women how to run a household.
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From the explanation above, the writer can see that during 17 and 18 century, only the middle class girls can go to school. They learn to read and write and they learn language like French and needle work, music and dancing.
A Hundred Years Ago: Britain in the 1880s in Words and Photographs book,
Colin Ford and Brian Horrison stated that the highest class was the Nobility and Gentry, who inherited their land, titles, and wealth. To the outsider, it might seem as if women of this class did very little--but their work was very important and sometimes very hard, as they were expected to manage the home and the household. As EttyRaverat, who was a young woman in the late 1800s, said, "Ladies were ladies in those days; they did not do things themselves, they told others what to do and how to do it" (Horrison and Ford: 1983, 226). From the statement above, the writer see the upper class women are expected to manage the home and household. They have no duty outside home. They have some servant to help cooking and cleaning the house. The upper class women only command the servants doing what and how to do the household.
Moreover, Lucy Bushman writesan article entitled “Family Life in the 18th Century”(2008),she stated that women and men of the upper classes did not marry for love. Instead, they married strictly for financial and social reasons. Women who wished to continue living within a wealthy household simply did not marry a man of the middle or lower class . From Lucy‟s statement, the writer can see that the upper class men and women marry for financial supported and social status not for love. They want to live in prosperity.
16 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.com/Outreach/ss10/files/middleupper.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 girl's 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. .
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
17 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 woman's 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 another's 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 wife's 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
18 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
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 Daughters"(1998: 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.
D. Theoretical Framework
This part provides the foundations to answer the three problems in the Chapter
I. From the theoretical framework, the writer tries to define on how the related study
19 and theories are applied to analyze the object of the study.As stated in the previous subchapter, the theories that will be used are the theory on character, characterization, and the feminism.