Examples Of Prostitution In Victorian Society

     Upper society need to place the blame on someone for the corruption that prostitution has on men. There needed to be someone who was responsible for the to corruption; so lets blame it on the prostitutes. The book touches on this a couple of

In the 1700s women were supposed to play the role of doting woman standing by her man virtuous and loving. However, one can say that gender power dynamics could easily be turned when the idea of sex and prostitution in placed in the dynamics. The two texts to support this thesis will be Eliza Haywood’s short story Fantomina: Or, Love in a Maze. Being A Secret History of an Amour between Two Persons of Condition, and Lady Mary Wortley Montagu’s poem “The Reasons that Induced Dr. S to write a Poem called ‘The Lady’s Dressing Room’”.

Ultimately, the evidence shown above reveals the many apprehensions and difficulties women endured during the 19th century, and the implications of their actions. Through the above examples, it demonstrates that women must show certain etiquette among European society despite personal heritage. As well as one being innocent and denying social norms, there are limitations and one should be cautious to personal decisions. Similarly, young women should be more vigilant towards warnings of others and adult figures that offer helpful advice even if their nature is to be ignorant to rules. Given these points, James emphasizes in the novella ‘Daisy Miller’ the taboo of young sexuality during the Victorian era, and the strict social conventions and

Prostitution and venereal diseases created an identity crisis among the people of England, and even more so among those of the BEF. However, it is the origination of such crisis which historians begin to disagree upon. Until recently this aspect of war was a taboo subject that few were willing to tackle, but the few that do can be divided in

Victorian ideas about fallenness create the ideological assumptions behind the creation of the Contagious Diseases Acts. Through the control of sexuality, the Acts reinforced existing patterns of class and gender domination. They reflected an acceptance of male sexual license. The double standard allowed male access to fallen women and punished only the women.

The problem with the enforcement of the act was that police could arrest and inspect any woman that they suspected of prostitution, whether they were a prostitute or not. Ordinary women were sometimes suspected to degrading inspects by authorities and were humiliated and falsely held. The act were protested by various women’s groups that claimed that the act was attempting to control women’s bodies and that the government should go after the prostitute’s clientele rather than the prostitute. Prostitution was viewed by many of England’s religious and moral as an evil in society. “By 1850 prostitution had become ‘the Great Social Evil,’ not simply an affront to morality, but a vital aspect of the social economy as well.”

A woman in the Victorian era was good for few things – marriage being of the upmost importance. When married, a woman needed to pure of sexual experiences and desires, for only men had sexual needs to be fulfilled. If a woman were “ruined,” or not a virgin, she was unmarriageable. Few outlets were available unmarried women to survive, and many of them turned to prostitution. We shall see the image of a ruined woman presented by Christina Rossetti in “The Goblin Market,” and find the conflicting images of a prostitute in D. G. Rossetti’s “Jenny” and Thomas Hardy’s “The Ruined Maid.”

The patriarchal system of the Victorian Era severely limited women’s independence and control of their lives; a theme that dominates this text. Jane’s husband, John, the antagonist, represents the mores of their society, and treats Jane like a child. After returning to bed one evening, John questions her reasons awakening “ ‘What is it, little girl?’ he said. ‘Don’t go walking about like that-you’ll get cold’”

Social standing, and moral values were vital elements in Victorian society, and the fundamental doctrine of establishing this ideology, began at home. The home provided a refuge from the rigour, uncertainty, anxiety, and potential violence of the outside world. (P, 341) A woman’s role was to provide a safe, stable, and well-organised environment for their husbands and families. However, change was on the horizon with an underlying movement of business and domestic changes both home and abroad, with industrialization, and the suffragist movement. Women were beginning to gain autonomy and began to grasp their opportunities, thus significantly curtailing male supremacy and the definable acceptable ‘role’ of the woman.

Today women everyday throughout the world are scene as being the weaker, lesser gender. Women are seen as fragile, powerless, or delicate. Every day between media or simply walking around in society we hear statements like “well you are JUST a girl” or “you need to hurry up and find a good husband to take care of you” because women cannot take care of themselves. In the Victorian Era, women faced similar situation but the gender role was beginning to shift. Sexism was brought to light in this Era, and feminism begin towards the end of the Victorian Era.

In general, the prostitutes in John Cleland’s Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure (1748), Fanny Hill included, have few individual characteristics: different eye colors, degrees of “plumpness,” and beauty traits such as Emily’s even white teeth (96) hardly vary the novel’s depiction of what may be described as the stereotypic prostitute. The repeated portraits of fair-skinned Englishwomen who are incapable of pregnancy, immune to disease, and “sexually responsive far beyond the call of . . . professional duty” become “the eighteenth‑century version of the centerfold” (Markley 348), verbally airbrushing both the prostitutes’ looks and the harsh realities of their working conditions in order to stimulate a male readership that has a libidinal investment in the novel’s sexual fantasy. The novel’s prostitutes, then (with the notable exception of Phoebe), possess a remarkable “sameness,” as Fanny herself notes about the employees of Mrs. Cole’s brothel, in terms of “sex, age, profession, and views” (93). On the other hand, the men in Cleland’s novel present the reader with a range of physical traits, class positions, and identities; I argue that the figure of the standardized prostitute serves to mediate between these men in order to calibrate them according to their penis size and sexual performance.

During Victoria’s reign there were changes of great importance economically, socially, and technologically. London had a rapid growth from a 2 million to a 6.5 million population by the time of Queen Victoria’s death, due to a significant change. As a result of the industrialization, instead of a life based on ownership of lands, England was transformed to a modern economy. Based on trade and manufacturing they changed from an agrarian society in 1800’s with 75% rural to an industrial society by the 1900’s with a 75% modern urban economy. Socially, there were extreme discriminations especially between men and women. Consequently, women were not eligible for a higher education, employment and were denied the right to vote. Gradually and by the end of Victoria’s reign, women won significant political and legal rights. These included a greater access to education, the custody of children, economic independence and were able to work under fair conditions. Definitely, the Victorian Period was an era of dramatic changes that highly developed England’s power and

In the Victorian era, the status of women in society was extremely oppressive and, by modern standards, atrocious. Women had few rights, in or outside of the home. Married women in this period relied on men almost completely as they had few rights or independence. With this mindset in focus,

In Victorian Britain, monumental changes were occurring in regards to class structure and gender ideals due to social and economic changes sparked by the Industrial Revolution. These changes caused a new image of masculinity to emerge. The concept of masculinity came to embody a new ideal, self-made man, measured by advances based on personal success rather than birthright(M19). It was expected that men were to exude manly toughness and independent spirit while providing the financial support and leadership for the household(m19). Beyond these basic characteristics, Elizabeth Gaskell’s construction of the ideal man incorporates a fusion of gender traits as strengths of masculinity, notably her emphasis on “manly nurturance” and “tenderness” as seen in her novel Mary Barton(wcm334). While the evolving social structure of 19th century Britain was a cause for the increasing emphasis on manliness, it was also the source of challenges faced by working class men as they struggled to achieve and maintain this new sense of masculinity. By analyzing Gaskell’s Mary Barton and additional texts from the period, supplemented by contemporary analysis of the concept of masculinity, this paper provides insight into the constructions of masculinity in working class men of Victorian society and discusses the struggles workers faced as they strove to achieve manhood amidst the changing social climate.

North and south is considered as the significant piece of Victorian literature, written by Elizabeth Gaskell. Elizabeth Gaskell was a novelist and short story writer. Her stories usually have a contemporary attitude she emphasized more on the women’s role, complex and realistic female characters. North and south is considered as her best known work .It features a strong lead female ,a mature love story and relevant social and political explanation about industrialization and class conflict present in mid-19th century in England. Through, North and south, Elizabeth Gaskell challenges the limiting gender roles of the Victorian era , by giving her heroin , Margaret both the feminine qualities of virtue and selflessness and Masculine qualities of independence and action . Gaskell perfectly balances her heroin between feminine and the masculine world as to not to appear “unwomanly” and subtly influence the readers and call for changing gender norms.