EN333: DAY 2

What you need to know before we get going

THE NUTS & BOLTS

Who are the sensation novelists?• Braddon, Collins, Reade, Wood

Some more popular authors too• C. Bronte and Dickens

WHAT BROUGHT IT ON

Rose to popularity in Great Britain in mid 1800’s

Response to “novel of manners”• Propaganda?• Middle-class guide books• Live the “proper” British lifestyle

Pair-Share: What are some Victorian norms and

values?

LET’S COMPARE

With the person next to you, create a Venn

Diagram for life in 1860 vs. life in 1950.

Men: industrious, bread winners

Women: “angel in the house”

ANGEL IN THE HOUSE

Remain in the homeTend to domestic duties

• i.e. order around the staff

Be polite

Be calm

Dote on husband

BUT…

Overabundance of single women• More women than men born in previous generation• By 1891, 882,000 excess women (Kramer, David. "George

Gissing and Women's Work: Contextualizing the Female Professional." English Literature in Transition, 1880-1920 43.3 (2000): 317.)

Not independently wealthyCame from modest homesModerate educationForced to work

• Menial and low-paying

SURPLUS WOMEN

INDEPENDENCE!Many liked it

• Took the opportunity to improve employment prospects and other advancements for other women

Pair-Share: What might be some other advantages and disadvantages of being a single women in the 1860’s be?

THE OPPOSITION

Fuddy-duddiesWomen with jobs AND independence from men?!?!Can’t let women enjoy the single lifeWhat to do?

• Use literature

LIT OF THE EARLY-MID 1800’S

Plot focused around angelic-looking and acting women• Keeping house• Tending children• Doting on husband

Submissive

Never angry

Polite

Fashionable

SO NOT REALITY

Literature could not dispel all crime form the worldSensation novels turned the notion of “angle in the house” upside down

FOR NEXT CLASS

Respond to the discussion on the wiki

Be sure to have read Maniac ch. 1-3

for Feb. 3