In Manners Makyth Man, Reverand E.J. Hardy said “Sweetness is to woman what sugar is to fruit. It is her first business to be happy - a sunbeam in the house, making others happy. True, she will often have ‘a tear in her eye’, but, like the bride of young Lochinvar, it must be accompanied with ‘a smile on her lips,” (Haluk). Women in the Victorian Era were expected to be everything a man wasn’t. They were expected to grow up with no education but of that which taught them how to be a young lady. From the moment a young girl was born, she had her whole future and personality already planned out for her; she would be ignorant, docile, domestic, nurturing, and one day, beautiful in all ways without meaning. In the novel Great Expectations, Dickens …show more content…
Havisham and her broken heart, Estella and her inability to love, Biddy and her eagerness to learn, and Mrs. Joe Gargery: a woman that acts as if everyone is indebted to her, there would be no Great Expectations. Charles Dickens portrays some of the women in Great Expectations according to how they were stereotyped in society, but a majority are false representations of what the common woman was like in the Victorian Era, just as women today are stereotyped as one thing when they are really another.
The ideal woman in the Victorian Era was created around the belief that women were fragile dolls that could be manipulated and toyed with due to their inferiority to men. “By law, a woman was the property of her father, husband or even her brother,” (Haluk). Women were not allowed to be their own person. They could not own property (Thomas) or do anything outside of the home without their “owner” or another married woman (Hughes). They had to do all the work in the home and even though they were not labeled this way, many could be considered slaves to the men in their household. Others were trophies that their husbands wanted to keep polished. A woman also needed to be “innocent, virtuous, biddable, dutiful and ignorant of intellectual opinion,” (Thomas). Women in the Victorian Era were expected to be
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Joe and Miss. Havisham are terrible representations of a Victorian woman. “A woman was literally the servant of her children and husband, and she was required to be domestic, nurturing and docile,” (Haluk). In Mrs. Joe’s home, she is the boss and takes great pride in the fact that she raised Pip by hand and has threatened to do the same to her husband. This shows that Mrs. Joe is quite the opposite of what the everyday Victorian woman was like in the home. Instead, Mrs. Joe is more like some women today where it is not unacceptable for a woman to order around her children and husband . Miss. Havisham didn't take care of Estella the way most mothers would have. “Or,’ said Estella, ‘-which is a nearer case-if you had taught her [Estella], from the dawn of her intelligence, with your utmost energy and might, that there was such a thing as daylight, but that it was made to be her enemy and destroyer, and she must always turn against it, for it had blighted you and would else blight her-if you had done this, and then, for a purpose, had wanted her to take naturally to the daylight and she could not do it, you would have been disappointed and angry,” (Dickens, 326). Instead of nurturing her and teaching her what love feels like, she showed her what pain was and created a weapon that would kill any man she touched. In chapter eight of Great Epectations, Miss. Havisham says to Pip, “You are not afraid of a woman who has never seen the sun since you were born,” (Dickens, 60).
An imagine Charles Dickens has left in my mind is Miss. Havisham. I see this faceless, all bone, yellow skinned lady wearing one shoe and a wedding dress. Miss. Havisham was originally described on page 47 and she was described as a weary, wore down woman and I was having fun imagining this peculiar lady. I see her like Maleficent, because she was written as very boney, again on page 47. I just imagine her cheekbones being very prominent, like Maleficent. I also see her like looking kind of deranged because on page 47 Dickens wrote; "She uttered the word with a eager look, and with a weird smile". I think the weird smile part is what lead me to believe she looks deranged. I can't see her face, but I can see her features like; sunken eyes, that
During the nineteenth century, women had few rights, and were often objectified by men. An ideal woman was subservient to her husband, had plenty of children, and was not expected to work outside the home. As the Victorian era progressed, some women
The Victorian Era women was vastly different than the female we think of nowadays. Women during that time were expected to fulfill more of a domestic and motherly role, one that stayed at home and took care of the house. They were confined within the private sphere of the world while the men toiled away in the public sphere. The ideal Victorian women was described as:
In the early nineteenth century, women were expected to be, “‘angels in the house,’ loving, self-sacrificing, and chaste wives, mothers and daughters or they are… ultimately doomed” (King et al. 23). Women of this time were supposed to be domestic creatures and not tap so far into their intellectual abilities (King et al.). The role of women in the nineteenth century is described:
The Victorian Era was known for its propriety, and for its social standards that could be as strict as the caste system in India. Citizens in England of low social regard faced many prejudices and limitations that could be almost insurmountable to overcome. Much like the caste system, people considered to be the dregs of society were often alienated and had little room for opportunity. In Charlotte Bronte’s novel Jane Eyre, the main character, Jane, suffers social prejudice because she is a simple governess, revealing much about the social stigmas about the working class during the Victorian Era. Jane’s social status limits her not only from being with the one she loves, but also hinders her endeavor to achieve true autonomy.
Women in the Victorian era were supposed to be passive, pure, and idle; were not to be well educated; and were expected to marry. Throughout Brontë's novel, Jane Eyre learns the realities of these social expectations and directly and indirectly speaks against them.
Despite being under the rule of a female monarch, women faced many inequalities and suffering during the Victorian age. Examples of these inequalities include not having the right to vote, unequal educational and employment opportunities. Women were even denied the legal right to divorce in most cases. As the Norton Anthology states, these debates over women’s rights and their roles came to be known as the “woman question” by the Victorians. This lead to many conflicting struggles, such as the desire by all for women to be educated, yet they are denied the same opportunities afforded to men. While these women faced these difficulties, there was also the notion that women should be domestic and feminine. There was an ideal that women should be submissive and pure because they are naturally different. The industrial revolution introduced women into the labor workforce, but there was still a conflict between the two identities; one of an employed woman, and one of a domestic housewife.
Charles Dickens, “Great Expectations” follows a boy named Pip through a journey of meeting new people around the town and also is considered an Orphan. There are a lot of characters that are introduced like Miss Havisham who always wears a wedding who shows up a lot in the book. Pip changes a lot through the novel with wanting to be a gentlemen but has made a lot of mistakes and blames it on his sister Mrs. Joe who raised him by hand. The women seem to be different from the men in this novel with different roles they play so I’m going to show they are different.
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,
During the Victorian Era in 1837 the period that was ruled by Queen Victoria I, women endured many social disadvantages by living in a world entirely dominated by men. Around that time most women had to be innocent, virtuous, dutiful and be ignorant of intellectual opinion. It was also a time associated with prudishness and repression. Their sole window on the world would, of course, be her husband. During this important era, the idea of the “Angel in the House” was developed by Coventry Patmore and used to describe the ideal women who men longed. Throughout this period, women were treated inferior to men and were destined to be the husbands “Angel in the House”.
and I, but to obey our instructions. We are not free to follow our own
One may infer that Dickens may have been attempting to acknowledge the birth of female freedom, due to the industrial revolution, by way of the female characters' actions within Great Expectations. Considering that he creates such verbal execution performed by many of the female characters within the novel suggests that women were usually treated as equals, this not being the case. By allowing these women to be verbally and physically abusive, Dickens may have been presenting the distorted idea toward female criminals and violent women.
Throughout the novel, maternal female characters are rarely present, especially in biological mothers. In most of Dickens’ works, he has a “tendency to categorize women exclusively as virgins or mothers, angels or whores” (Hartog 248). This juxtaposition is seen when the adored female characters, such as Biddy and Clara, exist next to Mrs. Joe, Molly, Mrs. Pocket, and Miss. Havisham. All the latter characters are meant to be mother figures in their respective families. Despite their intended purpose, none of these women have any maternal qualities. During the early chapters in the book, Mrs. Joe lists “all the times she had wished [Pip] in [his] grave” (Dickens 28). Miss. Havisham raises Estella, not as a daughter but as a tool for revenge to as “she tears [Pip’s] heart to pieces” (Dickens 240). The biological mothers prove just as
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.
The correct portrayal of women in literature is highly significant as women have been marginalized throughout history. Although Charles Dickens wrote powerful and dominant female characters in his novel Great Expectations, Dickens’ portrayal of female strength is unsympathetic considering the period when he wrote this novel. During the Victorian Era, women never had dominance in situations and had less rights than men. In this case, Dickens alienated the female characters by writing them with characteristics that imply a negative connotation to the readers. Negative characteristics are still important for the development of a character, of course, but the Dicken’s depiction submits that women victimize Pip. The patriarchy and power in relationships are contrasted by the powerful female characters. Furthermore, the differences between men and women in Great Expectations are connected to social constructs rather than biological development. In addition, each female character have a significant impact on the male protagonist, Pip. Each female character is also shown negatively on how each of them is “redeemed” as the plot advances.