All the Wrong Reason to Marry
The work that will be discussed in this essay is the “The Importance of Being Ernest” and it was written by Oscar Wilde. The topic of marriage in this play involves the manipulative desires and dishonest values of marriage. The female characters in this story including Cecily, Gwendolen, and Lady Bracknell are all guilty of scheming and controlling marriage. The desires and mentalities of these women are identical to the women of the Victorian Period. The men in this play are also guilty of the manipulative desires for marriage. Oscar Wilde’s work is an aggression on Victorian Society because marriage was used as a social convenience. Oscar Wilde gives foreshadowing in the beginning of the play of what he has in mind about marriage. “Good Heavens! Is marriage so demoralizing as that?” (Wilde 1762) This essay will be proving the critique of marriage being used as a social tool.
During the Victorian Period, women did not have a choice of their role in society and there rights were very limited. The main factor was the lack of education that was available for women. The only education a woman could receive was to become a teacher or a nurse, but this extremely limited. The majority of women were taught to get married, have children, and be a housewife. Women were born and raised to have children, be a wife, and rely on men for everything and anything. Married during this time were cont...
When describing women during this time period Wilson says, “They were non-people, being the same legal status as American slaves, regardless of social class” (Wilson, The Victorians, pp. 306). One extreme double standard could be seen within British prostitution. Wilson said that it was “taken for granted” that British soldiers and sailors would need prostitutes. Yet, no matter how many men indulged in these acts only the women were seen as diseased and sources of contamination that needed regulated (Wilson, The Victorians, pp. 308. Women began to take notice, and they were not having it and they began to take action. The women of the upper middle class started the nineteenth century women’s movement. These women would go on to forever alter the lives of their sisters and daughters by advocating for equal educational rights, equal parental rights, and for political suffrage (Wilson, The Victorians, pp. 312). Not only did they advocate for these rights, their campaigning invoked change to begin. Wilson says, “The Women’s Suffrage Movement could be seen as the final confirmation of the haute bourgeoisie, not the first blast on the trumpet of revolution” (Wilson, The Victorians, pp. 313). Throughout the period Women gained more and more rights and they eventually would have created a great deal of change in the lives for every women who was to come
Reagin, Nancy. “Historical Analysis: Women as ‘the Sex’ During the Victorian Era.” Victorian Women: The Gender of Oppression. Pace University, n.d. Web. 23 Feb. 2014.
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.
Basically the Victorian era sucked for women. During the beginning they were expected to be smart, but to not have an opinion. They were to be beautiful, yet act and appear virginal. Women were also
Women were expected to set the example for their children, satisfy the needs of their husbands, and it was unheard of for women to express their sexual desires. During this time women were placed into two categories, they were either virgins or married, any woman who did not fit into either of these categories was considered a whore and this meant she was essentially useless. “If a woman went into a hansom alone with a man who was neither her father, nor her husband […] her reputation was irretrievably lost” (Swisher, 181). This shows that even though people did not know the whole story, they judged others by the appearance of things. Most of the Victorian culture was centered on these things that women were expected to do or not to be seen doing. Scientists believed that men were the active ones who were supposed to use all of their energy, while women were sedentary and were supposed to conserve energy. “According to Wollsto...
Society at this time was dominated by men, making women live extremely challenging and limited lives. The position and status of a woman ultimately depended on that of her husband. She was not given many rights unless it was allowed by her husband. Women had to withstand arranged marriages and there were times they encountered abuse from their spouse. What many people do not see in this society is that women longed for their own empowerment and they wanted to be given the opportunity to create their own success in life without being overshadowed by their husbands. Women were supposed to be seen and not heard. They did not carry a voice in this society. This was a way of life for women "the relations of the sexes were restructured to one of
In conclusion, the woman of the Victorian Era had her role in life planned out from before she was born. Although it was a dreadful role these women carried it out in a way that shows their purity of the heart and willingness to do so many of things for others and for little return. They were truly a remarkable testament to hard work and ingenuity of the time that even the men of the time could have learned from.
The Victorian era was an extremely difficult time for women in Great Britain. They were subject to gross inequalities such as, not being able to; control their own earnings, education, and marriage. As well as having a lack of equality within marriage, women had poor working conditions, and an immense unemployment rate as well. Not only was the fact that women were viewed as second-class citizens and had limited rights compared to men during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries a major problem, but women were also held to a much different standard, and expected to carry out many
In Oscar Wilde’s drama The Importance of Being Earnest, he uses light-hearted tones and humor to poke fun at British high society while handling the serious theme of truth and the true identity of who is really “Earnest.” Truth as theme is most significantly portrayed through the women characters, Gwendolen and Cecily but to present serious themes comically, Wilde portrays women to be the weaker sex of society, despite the seriousness of the subject—the identity of the men they want to marry.
The Victorian Era started when Queen Victoria took the throne in 1837 and ended roughly the day she died in 1901. Victorian England “was a strictly patriarchal society” (Yildirim 2). It is common knowledge that during the Victorian era men and women had their own specific roles. It is also common knowledge to know that men had complete legal and economical control over the women (Mitchell 1, 142). Women were expected to stay at home to keep house and take care of the children.
The industrialization of the nineteenth century was a tremendous social change in which Britain initially took the lead on. This meant for the middle class a new opening for change which has been continuing on for generations. Sex and gender roles have become one of the main focuses for many people in this Victorian period. Sarah Stickney Ellis was a writer who argued that it was the religious duty of women to improve society. Ellis felt domestic duties were not the only duties women should be focusing on and thus wrote a book entitled “The Women of England.” The primary document of Sarah Stickney Ellis’s “The Women of England” examines how a change in attitude is greatly needed for the way women were perceived during the nineteenth century. Today women have the freedom to have an education, and make their own career choice. She discusses a range of topics to help her female readers to cultivate their “highest attributes” as pillars of family life#. While looking at Sarah Stickney Ellis as a writer and by also looking at women of the nineteenth century, we will be able to understand the duties of women throughout this century. Throughout this paper I will discuss the duties which Ellis refers to and why she wanted a great change.
Two hundred years ago, during the reign of Queen Victoria in England, the social barriers of the Victorian class system firmly defined the roles of women. The families of Victorian England were divided into four distinct classes: the Nobility or Gentry Class, the Middle Class, the Upper Working Class, and lastly, the Lower Working class . The women of these classes each had their own traditional responsibilities. The specifics of each woman’s role were varied by the status of her family. Women were expected to adhere to the appropriate conventions according to their place in the social order . For women in Victorian England their lives were regulated by these rules and regulations, which stressed obedience, loyalty, and respect.
In life women had only one main goal; to marry. Prior to a woman’s marriage, a woman would learn the basic necessities and qualities of a typical Victorian Woman. She would learn ideals such as cooking, cleaning, weaving, raising children and plenty more. If a woman was well of in the financial aspects, she likely did not have to learn much or work as hard other women due to having maids at hand. Women at the time were typically unable to better educate themselves beyond minimal knowledge of household duties because in essence men ruled society. “A woman was inferior to a mam in all ways except the unique one that counted most [to a man]: her femininity. Her place was in the home, on a veritable pedestal if one could be afforded, and emphatically not in the world of affairs” (Altick, 54).
The literary titles by Frances Power Cobbe, Sarah Stickney Ellis, Charlotte Bronte, Anne Bronte, John Henry Cardinal Newman, Sir Henry Newbolt, and Caroline Norton reveal society's view on women and men during the Victorian era. Throughout the Victorian era, women were treated as inferior and typically reduced to roles as mothers and wives. Some women, however, were fortunate to become governesses or schoolteachers. Nevertheless, these educated women were still at the mercy of men. Males dominated the opinions of women, and limited their influence in society. From an early age, young men were trained to be dominant figures and protectors over their home and country. Not until after World War I would women have some of these same opportunities as men.
Lady Bracknell represents the typical aristocrat who focuses the idea of marriage on social and economic status. She believes that if the men trying to marry these girls are not of proper background, there is no engagement. Through this major exaggeration, Wilde satirically reveals the irrational and insignificant matters that the upper class society uses to view marriage.