Female writers in the Victorian Era

The Woman Question

Education

In 1837, no universities were opened to women

Man for the field and woman for the hearth:

Man for the sword and for the needle she:

Man with the head and woman with the heart:

Man to command and woman to obey

Tennyson "The Princess" (1847)

In 1848, the first women's college was established in London

By the end of the Victorian era, women could earn degrees at 12 universities, and could study, just not at Oxford and Cambridge

Finishing Schools

The role of women

The Woman Question, and Female writers in the Victorian Era

women could not vote or hold political office (they petition Parliament for women's suffrage).

Married Women's Property Acts (1870-1908)

could own or handle their own property

Rights of Women

Employment for Women

Men could divorce their wives and wives could not divorce their husband

debate on issues of sexual inequality in politics, economic life, education, and social interactions.

Limited educational and employment opportunities

1857- The Divorce and Matrimonial Causes Act

a civil divorce court, allows deserted wives the right to her property

The Victorian Debate about Gender Equality and Roles

Angel in the House

by Coventry Patmore

See Hardy Jude the Obscure

Woman is her father, then her husband's property

1839- The Custody Act

gave mothers the right to petition for access to her minor children

John Stuart Mill

The Subjection of Women

A poem about courtship and marriage

Talks about the IDEAL happy marriage, and the IMAGE of a VICTORIAN WOMAN

Servants (housemaids), worked at factories, mines, as seamstresses

Argues that subordination of women is a form of slavery

Married Women's Property Acts

basic rights or women in marriage

He talks about how women should be virtuous wife and mothers in need of male protection (her father, and husband)

She should devote herself to her family, and her place is in the home

Women have greater strengths and capabilities than most men acknowledge

Underemployment drove some into prostitution

Some became writers

The New Woman

Term coined by Sarah Grand in 1894

Departed from the stereotypical Victorian woman

She is intelligent, educated, emancipated, independent, and self-supporting.

Governess- for unmarried middle-class woman

example Jane Eyre (1847)

explore women's role in society

These women are social reformers, novelists, suffragist, students, and professional women.

Opposed the idea that the home is a woman's only proper sphere

Charlotte Bronte's Shirley

Elizabeth Gaskell's Margaret Hale

Thomas Hardy's Sue Bridehead

Mid Victorian Era (1848-1870)

Expansion around the globe

increase in exported goods

Australia, Canada, and India

Advance Civilization

Religion

Missionary societies flourished, spreading Christianity

in India, Asia, and Africa

Charles Darwin "The Origin of Species (1859)

Debate about religious belief

evolution, and natural selection

Economic prosperity, he growth of the empire, and religious controversy

Factory Acts in Parliaments- restricted child labor, limited working hours, conditions of working environment improved

Victorian Era (1830-1901)

The Bronte Sisters

1867-Second Reform Bill

Right to vote to a section of the working class

Gothic romances

Victorian Female Novelist

defined the genre

1851- The Great Exhibition in Hyde Park

(The Crystal Palace)

Exhibits modern industry and science

Charlotte, Emily, and Anne

Curie, Ellis, and Acton Bell

Late Victorian Era (1870-1901)

Decay of Victorian Values

Elizabeth Gaskell

Beginning of the modernist movement in literature

Social topics/critic

Writers such as Thomas Hardy, Oscar Wilde, Joseph Conrad, and George Bernard Shaw

Mocked Victorian values

Values (Morals)

Conclusion...What have we learn???

The Age of the Novel (Literacy)

Industrialization

Urbanization

Imperialism

Rise in Science and Technology

Let's explicate (DISCUSS) this video

Advancement for women

The Novel was published in serial form

monthly magazines

Social Reforms

George Eliot

Middle-class

Female protagonist who defines her place in society

Writes about psychological fiction, and relationships

Early Victorian Era (1830-1848)

Quotes from Middlemarch

Owners

Laissez-faire- an economic theory of unregulated working conditions benefit everyone

Workers

Lived in slums- horribly crowded, unsanitary housing

Time of economy distress, time of troubles

Mines and Factories were unimaginably brutal for men, women, and children. (see EBB "The Cry of the Children"

Emigration of Irish workers in England

1830- The Liverpool and Manchester Railway opened

The 1st steam powered public railway line in the world.

Gap between the rich and the poor increased

"I do not like husbands"

Marriage "is a noose, you know

...and a husband like to be master"

(Chap 4)

The Class System

Upper-Class

Middle-Class

Working-Class

Struggle for self realization

1832- Reform Bill

Right to vote to all males owning property worth 10Ibs or more in annual rent.

Period of unemployment, desperate poverty, and rioting.

Horrible working conditions

Social conditions and relationships

Thomas Hardy

Hardy disagrees with the conventional marriage because it is not in harmony with human nature

Rural tragedies

Tragic heroines

Sue Bridehead is an enlightened liberal NEW WOMAN, and a victim of the oppressive Victorian double moral standard. She objects the view of marriage as a sacred institution.

Sources/ Wiki

http://courses.wcupa.edu/fletcher/britlitweb/jorcuttb.htm

Greenblatt, Stephen, Catherine Robson, and Carol T. Christ. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. New York: W.W. Norton, 2012. Print.

http://www.mccarter.org/education/mrs-warrens/html/9.html

http://www.victorianweb.org/gender/diniejko1.html