Theme Of Women In The Victorian Era

During the Victorian period, upper and middle class men and women existed in different spheres of life: the private sphere, and the public sphere. The private sphere, which included taking care of the home, entertaining guests, and raising children was dominated by women. Meanwhile men were superior in the public sphere, where they took part in politics and business. This lead to the archetypes of women being fragile and motherly, controlled by their emotions, and of men being rational and strong. Social norms, supported by laws, viewed women as “relative creatures” that were below men in the natural hierarchy and only defined in reference to men. These two ideas towards women created a gap of equality for women and constricted them to their sphere of domesticity. The suffrage movement, followed by the first and second waves of feminism gave rise to many civil rights for women, narrowing the gap of inequality. The quest for equality continues today, as these two spheres begin to merge, due to the rise in social media and the subsequent decreasing private life, and women gain more influence in the public sphere. While the forms of inequality are different and an issue for both genders, the Victorian ideas are still present and prominent today.

The female role was not greatly affected by reign of Queen Victoria, as the role of a woman was at home, being the perfect wife and mother to her husband and children, respectively. At a young age, women were groomed and taught only the essentials, such as being “innocent, virtuous, biddable, dutiful and be ignorant of intellectual opinion…” as well as “being able to sing, play an instrument and [to] speak a little French or Italian” (Thomas, Pauline Weston). These qualities were taught to women so that they may serve their husbands and create an atmosphere of comfort for her husband and family. A woman was not to create problems and to be able to run the house smoothly, so that the man may focus on his work and be able to return to his home and relax.

Imagine living in a time period where women were expected to less than men and everyone was separated by the amount of money they made. In the Tudor era also known as the Elizabethan era there was an unmarried woman on the throne in the Elizabethan England. The roles of women in this society were very limited. Men were the main ones allowed to work while it was a must the woman were housewives and mothers. Let’s not even get into how many kids women were expected to have.

In the early 1900s woman didn’t have many rights. In the Victorian time woman was put in and judge by their classes. In England Queen Victorian ruled the country. In this time child labor laws was horrible. The woman would have kids and they kids was working. At this time people was at an all-time low. If you didn’t have money you was needed to work cause your family would need the money. So you have 10 -14 maybe younger than that working in mills. And do wat they need to so they can live.

The ideal woman in Victorian Times epitomized the good and virtuous woman whose live revolved around the domestic sphere of the family and home. She was pious, respectable and busy with no time for idle leisure. Her diligent and evident constant devotion to her husband, as well as to her God. She accepted her place in the sexual hierarchy. Her role was that of a domestic manager: wives and mothers. By the time that the industrial era was well under way in Britain, the ideology that committed the private sphere to the woman and the public sphere of business, commerce, and politics to the man had been widely dispersed. Women had to fight for an education equal to that of men, many struggled for suitable,

In order to understand how women’s roles have changed over time, one must first look back to the nineteenth century, when brewing tension and a rigid social climate pushed some women to act differently than others. This is evident in Jane Eyre, in which Jane rises above the constraints placed on her gender. While living at Gateshead under her aunt’s supervision, Jane distances herself from being ladylike, responding to her aunt’s harsh words with sharp statements rather than submitting to her authority as her guardian. Jane also sought to further her education, studying hard to master every subject at the Lowood boarding school and conversing with her fellow student and close friend Helen,

Throughout the Victorian era, a woman’s sole purpose was to marry, produce children, keep the house clean and have dinner on the table by the time their husband returned from work. They were restricted to working tedious jobs at minimum wage until they were married and were not allowed to receive a real education. Once married, a woman was expected to become a fulltime mother and house wife tending to the needs in the home on command. All these lovely skills were that of the traditional Victorian women. They were pressured to express their femininity through their dainty attire, gentle mothering, social order and expressing the manners and obedience that was expected of them. All in all it was required that they be as little of an

the Victorian women's clothes were sexual , exposing her body to show woman's isolation from the world of work. The female body had to be delicate, beautiful and made to represent women's physical being rather than her mental sophistication as she was viewed to be an object of satisfaction rather than a human being that is actually equal to man. By wearing dresses that resembled their fragility, women became walking symbols of their social roles, wife, mother, domestic manager.

Women of our time have change so much to compare to women in the past. I must admit in my experience, I have seen things that weren’t so great. Although as I look closer at others, women have become stronger, smarter, and proved themselves in so many ways. As I research about women from the Victorian Era and the present. I must say we are very lucky. Also upset for there are women out there that doesn’t understand that they think their lives are hard when women back then had worse. We get to be whoever we want to be to prove men that they are wrong. They challenged us in the past look what happened. We challenged them looked what happened as well. So we mostly ended up as equals. That’s great! Now

Wilde uses Lady Bracknell’s controlling and ruthless character to convey women’s powerful role as the moral guardians in Victorian society. From the moment she enters Algernon’s flat and offers her opinion on all matters from whether one should ‘live…or die’ to which side of ‘Belgrave Square’ is ‘unfashionable’, it is evident that Lady Bracknell holds the higher judgment. Her domineering authority is reinforced during Jack’s attempt to propose to Gwendolen, as Lady Bracknell bluntly orders him to rise from his ‘semi-recumbent posture’. Despite the fact that women were considered the weaker gender in the Victorian era, Jack is clearly and deliberately placed in the inferior position of power so as to highlight women’s influential role of picking their daughter’s husband. Through Lady Bracknell’s assumption of her role as a moral guardian,

From the very beginning, Lady Bracknell’s authoritative attitude towards Gwendolyn and Algernon shows the prominent place the family hold in an individual’s life. The complete control she exercises over her daughter’s life is particularly evident when she learns about Gwendolyn’s engagement to Jack. She then tells her: “Pardon me, you are not engaged to anyone. When you do become engaged to someone, I or your father . . . will inform you of the fact.”

Throughout the late 1800s and early 1900s, romanticism begins to fade, while the Victorian world begins to come into play. During this time, democracy and capitalism came together as one. Also, many poets described justice in two different aspects: spiritual and freedom. Carlyle believes capitalism should be replaced with a powerful individual whom is appointed (Ten Commandments) by God. However, Mill believes that a perfect society should be based upon individual freedom. Later in the Victorian period, the women of this period started to voice their opinions throughout Great Britain. These women started the Women’s Rights movement, and started joining the gentlemen by writing poetry through the two aspects of spiritual and freedom. So throughout

At the beginning of the Victorian Period, both single and married women’s rights were limited. The changes during this era in the identity of genders are represented in the characters the author Wilkie Collins describes. For example, Marian Halcombe is characterized as strong and predominant. She is Laura’s voice when regarding to her husband and protects her throughout the story. Although Marian knows her role as a woman in society, she disapproves with the beliefs of the era. On the other hand, Laura personalizes the conventional quiet woman that obeys customs. To emphasize this, in Collin’s novel, he lets the reader know that Laura is marrying the man that her father approved even though he is now dead. When she marries, her rights legally belong to her husband and is treated with the laws and customs of the Victorian era. Throughout this period, the distinction between classes was also notable. Comparatively, The Woman in White presents how the middle class as Laura and her uncle refer to the working class, Fanny the maid. Even though Fanny has always been their maid and is the only person they trust, they only communicate with her at their convenience. Moreover, Mr. Fairlie does not even call the maid by her name, but refers to her as “Young Person”. Certainly, the Victorian Period was a significant impact in the novel where

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,

What is the difference between a 21st century woman and a Victorian woman? Most women in the 21st century are exhilarating, lively, intelligent, passionate, and full of life, but who is to say that Victorian women were not? It is said that the typical Victorian woman must have “inherent qualities of femininity [such as:] emotion, passivity, submission, dependence, and selflessness” (Historical). Most of the Victorian women abode by these social standards and therefore could not speak their true thoughts or emotions. This is because they “were dominated by their sexuality, and were expected to fall silently into the social mold crafted by men, since they were regarded as irrational, sensitive, and dutiful” (Historical). A famous writer from that era, Charlotte Bronte, defied these social standards by creating characters and explaining, through them, her own thoughts and beliefs. The protagonist, Jane Eyre, was created to exemplify Bronte’s powerful emotions that would have been looked down upon in society. In Charlotte Bronte’s Victorian novel, Jane Eyre, Bronte uses constant description of fire to symbolize Jane’s emotions and her thoughts that could not have been expressed aloud. Bronte also uses fire to demonstrate the emotional aspect of Jane’s personal development throughout the novel. Overall, Bronte creates this symbol of fire to defy the social standards of typical and suppressed Victorian women by demonstrating their true passion and exuberant emotions.