w oman’s w orld in the 19th century portrait of miss margaret henderson by john william...
TRANSCRIPT
Woman’s
World
In the 19th Century
Portrait of Miss Margaret Henderson by John William Waterhouse, 1900
“Victorian”
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Keira Knightley in Pirates of the Caribbean
The Corset
Camille Clifford
• Corsets, crinolines, hoopskirts exaggerate hips, breasts, waist
• Impede movement,
breathing
• Foster unrealistic
image of woman’s
body
Cutaway view of crinoline, Punch, 1856
Idealization of Woman as Angel/Goddess/Fairy/Moth
er
• Paradox of ideal vs. real
• “The Angel in the House” (Coventry Patmore)
• “Blessed Damozel”
• “Lady of Shalott” (Alfred Lord Tennyson)
Emily Patmore, “The Angel in the House” by John Brettx
Goddess
The Blessed Damozel by Dante Gabriel Rossetti
Fairy
Midsummer’s Eve by Edward Robert Hughes
Angel
Angel by Abbot Handerson Thayer, 1889
Mother
Woman’s highest calling
Mother and Child by Lord Leighton
Influence of
Queen Victoria 1819-1901
• Icon of femininie domesticity
• Devoted wife to Albert and mother of nine
• Retreated to seclusion at Albert’s death in 1861
Portrait of Queen VictoriaSir Francis Grant, 1843
Impact of Industrial Revolution
“Separate Spheres”
Social theory enforcing gender polarity
Home Work Place
Separate Spheres
• Men are rational, independent, competitive, and aggressive
• Women are emotional, maternal, domestic, and dependent.
• Men leave home to work: “public sphere”
(business & politics) • Men have permission for moral laxity• Women rule the home and are confined to it: “private
sphere”• Role of helpmeet, domestic manager, moral exemplum• Home is haven from factory, firm, “world”• Plush décor reflects cocooning
• All wealth owned, inherited, or earned went legally to husband until 1882
• Divorce extremely rare
for woman to secure • Inheritance through
male line• Until 1891, runaway wife
could be arrested and imprisoned• Husband could divorce for adultery; wife could not.
Marriage
1850 Wedding Attire Victorian wedding attire
AccidentalPregnancy
• Birth control literature
illegal• Activities heavily chaperoned--unwed pregnancy in upper
class rare • Domestic servants often seduced by employer (typically
expelled from house)• Infant abandonment/murder common• Unwed mother could sue father in court for child support
Richard Redgrave’s The Outcast 1851
Careers
• Low-paid jobs only
• 1851, 43% of British women over 20 had no husband (30% single, 13% widowed)
• 90% of these worked
19th century milliners
“Upper” Work
• Upper” tradeswomen in
towns: milliners &
dressmakers
• “Upper” servants of the
wealthy: governesses,
skilled cooks, housekeepers, senior parlour-maids, head house-maids and lady's maids
“Lower” Work• Lower working classes:
– began work age 8-12– Worked until marriage if . . .– All earnings belonged to husband
• “Lower” street hawkers: flowers,
sweets, seafood, and fortune-telling• Lower servants of middle class: kitchen-maid, scullery-
maid, laundress, nursemaid, housemaid• Single “maid-of-all-work”: 14-16 hours/day
Domestic Servants• Largest category of woman’s work--50%
1880-1890
No job-No family• Charity of wealthy benefactors or church
• Prostitution
• Begging
• Workhouses
• Suicide
Watts’ Found Drowned
The Lady of Shalott by John William Waterhouse
Acknowledgements• Young servant: www.history.powys.org.uk
• Wedding gowns: www.victoriana.com
• Milliners: www.bbc.co.uk/history/society_culture/welfare/womens_work_02.shtml
• Hunt’s “The Awakening Conscience”: www.csun.edu/~jaa7021/h498/part3.htm
• Corsets: www.staylace.com/gallery/index.html
• Crinoline: www.pemberley.com/janeinfo/victcfsh.html
• Camille Clifford: www.staylace.com/gallery
• Queen Victoria: www.victorianweb.org
• Servants: www.sensibility.com/vintageimages/victorian/
• Leighton Mother: www.victorianartinbritain.co.uk/leighton_mother.htm
• Pirates of the Carribean: www.erasofelegance.com
• Hughes: www.denison.edu/art/fairy
• Waterhouse’s Portrait of Miss Margaret Henderson: http://.cgfa.sunsite.dk/
• Thayer Angel: www.fineartcompanyltd.co.uk