Domesticity, as defined by The Merriam Webster, is “the state of being domestic; domestic or home life.” When someone mentions domesticity, an immediate association may be drawn to domesticated cats, dogs, or even simply animals people bring into our homes and domesticize. The household trains to be accustomed to home life, rather than life on the streets. We as people, generally, spend half our time in the home and half outside. Thanks to this we are often seen as domesticated creatures. However, as demonstrated clearly by through Dicken’s writing, as well as Cullwick’s, people can also become domesticized. During the Victorian Era, women left home rarely and were not seen as working people. Despite the limited exceptions most working women constrained to work inside homes other than their own. Hannah Cullwick’s relationship to domesticity is a complex one. Despite the fact that she was a working-class woman, who was employed by various different homes, she did not work in each of them for more than a limited amount of time.
Firstly, we
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Separate sphere ideology can very much be connected to this; what separate spheres are is that they are the domestic spheres that separate men and women. Men inhabit the public sphere, whereas women inhabit the private sphere, or sometimes referred to as the “proper sphere.” Hannah falls under a third sphere, I will refer to it as “Hannah’s Sphere.” Hannah’s Sphere, is different, whereas like the public sphere it is masculine, has conflict, and physical work; but like the “proper sphere” it is also feminine, consists of housework, and compassion. It is to say that in a binary society, such as Victorian England and even today, everyone placed themselves in one of the two, but Hannah did not care for that, she did as she pleased for her own self and was viewed as
However, it introduces the nineteenth century idea of “the cult of domesticity”. Historian Barbara Welter wrote an article on the idea in 1966 that explains this early nineteenth century ideology that a woman 's role at home should focus on: piety, purity, submissiveness, and domesticity (Welter 151). The cult of domesticity roughly breaks down to it being a woman 's duty to be respectfully religious, sexually pure before marriage, accepting of male dominance over women, and the overpowering idea that domesticity will preserve a woman from her own wandering
The introduction is followed by seven chapters that describe the manner in which women from Colonial to Antebellum lived and how their work in the home changed and was valued: "An Economical Society," "A New Source of Profit and Support," "How Strangely Metamorphosed," "All the In-Doors Work," "The True Economy of Housekeeping," "The Political Economy of Housework," and "The Pastoralization of Housework." The last chapter acts as the conclusion where she states how the Antebellum woman felt devalued in her role as housewife and that women today are still devalued in the home
... Separate sphere ideology was popular amongst men and women of all social classes, especially the middle class. It was defended by influential scientist of the age, and used a platform for anti-suffragist arguments. The ‘antis’ sought to maintain the social structure that had pulled them out of the dark georgian times, diminished the gap of social classes and kept women and children safe from the turmoils of commerce, government and defense. They saw the suffrage movement as a militant effort to destroy a woman's; femininity, innocence, dutifulness, position and integrity. The anti-suffrage saw the vision of women voting alongside the vision of neglected children and husbands. What they could not imagine is what reality is now for english women of the 21st century, which is that voting rights brought with it pride, freedom, equality, and new world of opportunities.
Many different classes of people existed in the Middle Ages. Each class had a certain and very different way of life than the other. Peasants in the Middle Ages had extremely difficult lives. Domestic life for the peasants during the Middle Ages was endured with many hardships and sacrifices, but in the end they were just everyday citizens doing what they had to in order to survive.
The author's thesis is that by examining the plight of widowed middle-class women a better understanding of Victorian era beliefs can be had. Victorians believed that there were separate spheres for the sexes, men had the public arena and women had the home. Victorians also believed that thrift was essential and poverty was always the fault of the poor individual, the poor could choose to better their situation. Not only is Curran looking to further the understanding of middle-class Victorian values but she is also trying to argue against the historical view that middle class women were cared for if widowed through either family generosity, their late husbands life insurance, or remarriage.
The Victorian era brought about many changes and the introduction of new things. One issue that stood out was “The Sex.” Many things evolved around this issue like changes in laws all over, it became a topic for literary poets/ writers and also for the woman question. This term means discrimination based on a person’s sex and during the 19th century this was a vast issue toward women. This all Started from the early Victorian era with queen victoria, who was the monarch of the united kingdom of Great Britain from 1837- 1901. Being the queen she played a very substantial role during this time. As a wife she showed a domestic side. She supported Prince Albert, had his children, became very submissive and devoted to her husband a family. This image she portrayed became a trend to the outside world. Most people looked at this as what the ideal woman was during this era.
“The Pastoralization of Housework” by Jeanne Boydston is a publication that demonstrates women’s roles during the antebellum period. Women during this period began to embrace housework and believed their responsibilities were to maintain the home, and produce contented and healthy families. As things progressed, housework no longer held monetary value, and as a result, womanhood slowly shifted from worker to nurturer. The roles that women once held in the household were slowly diminishing as the economy became more industrialized. Despite the discomfort of men, when women realized they could find decent employment, still maintain their household and have extra income, women began exploring their option.
With the power of wealth and concentration of industry, the tremendous development in machinery, and power to drive machinery; with the improvement of the tools of labor, so that they are wonderfully tremendous machines, and with these all on the one hand; with labor, the workers, performing a given part of the whole product, probably an infinitesimal part, doing the thing a thousand or thousands of times over and over again in a day-labor divided and subdivided and specialized, so that a working man is but a mere cog in the great industrial modern plant; his individuality lost, alienated from the tools of labor; with concentration of wealth, concentration of industry, I wonder whether any of us can imagine what would be the actual condition of the working people of our country to-day without their organizations to protect them.
the best of toys, clothes and education and it was absurd to even consider the
“Wife beating” was a prominent occurrence in Victorian times. It is socially acceptable and may be seen as a characteristic of the lower classes, but “wife beating” is prevalent in all classes. In William Montagu’s social investigation Round London: Down East and Up West, he tells of women in the hospital: “Sometimes as many as twelve or fourteen women may be seen seated in the receiving-room, waiting for their bruised and bleeding faces and bodies to be attended to […] In nine cases out of ten the injuries have been inflicted by brutal and perhaps drunken husbands” (Montagu). Many incidents of domestic violence in Victorian times are influenced by alcohol. But “wife beating” is present in all classes, not just the lower classes as Montagu portrays. Caroline Norton, a Victorian author in mid nineteenth century England, commonly writes of her husbands continuous “wife-beating.” Her husband being a member of parliament is obviously not lower class. Yet she writes of his “physical violence” towards her and how the servants restrain him from “inflicting serious damage” (Norton 1). Sir Pitt also beats his wife also even though he is considered upper class.
In the Victorian Society, class was heavily emphasized and was strictly sanctioned based on wealth. Because of the Industrial Revolution the proportions of each class were changing. A growing middle class led to a desire to climb the social ladder. Previously, kings and knights were seen as upper class individuals and all of these noblemen held gentile qualities due to the feudal code. This led to the association of the upper class to gentlemen. This association led to the common misattribution that in order to be a gentleman one must be from the upper class. Authors such as Charles Dickens and Samuel Smiles made the claim that this misattribution of class and qualities was leading to the downfall of true gentile qualities. The Victorian Society
Brenda Allen explained that this meant, “Underlying these attitudes is the idea that women belong in the private domain of society, where they should maintain the household and raise children” (pg. 44). This quote is stating that back in time, women should of stayed out of society or more so in a “private society” to be stay at home moms. The women’s right movement was so that women could step out of these spheres and become equal in society. Spheres to me, was a great word to describe how it was for men and women before this movement. They had different expectations, views and even rules. Men were considered dominant and women were in a different place. A quote I found that also described perfectly how men and women were seen back then was a quote from an article called, “Women Get the Right to Vote” by Kate Tuohy. This article stated that, “There are two great oceans; in one is the black man and in the other is the women”. I love this quote because it’s to the point of how there were two completely separated places and it gives a good
Throughout the Victorian Era, the standard of occupations were distinctly divided based on class. These social classes that divided the caliber of work in occupations were: the upper class, middle or working class and the lower class. Occupations that required skilled labor and unskilled labor each employed people in separate classes. Men and women within each class had different jobs in accordance with the type of work in their social class. (Victorian Web.)
“There's a sanctity in this relation of life," said Mr. Bounderby, "and - and - it must be kept up."
During the time that Charles Dickens lived, which was during the Victorian Age (1837-1901), “...1837 ( the year Victoria became Queen) and ends in 1901 in ( the year of her death),” (UNLV 1). It is important to realize that the Victoria’s reign over Britain is the second longest reign in British history, lasting for 63 years, only behind that of the current Queen Elizabeth. Many historians consider 1900 the end of the Victorian Age, “...since Queen Victoria’s death occurred so soon in the beginning of a new century,..” (UNLV 1). Even though Charles Dickens was born in 1812 and died in 1870, the Victorian Age is time period which most, maybe all, of his literature were published/read in. This era is often considered as “prudish, hypocritical, stuffy, and narrow-minded” (UNLV 2), because during this time, there were classes animosities between the “common man” and that of what was considered the “gentleman”, which was like as if they were two different species (Orwell 3.5). The advancement in literature during this period also was important, “...primarily financial, as in Charles Dickens’s Great Expectations…marrying above one’s station, as in Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre...[it] may also be intellectual or education-based,” (UNLV 4). Without the literature advancements, the Victorian Age wouldn’t have made such an impact on the world as it did literary-wise.