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Name : Gausvami Surbhi A.
Assignment
Topic : “Obstacles for women writers in Victorian age.”
Paper: Victorian Literature
Roll No. :
24
Submitted to
: Dr. Dilip Barad, M.A. Department of
English
MKBU University.
Email id: gausvamisurbhi17@gmail.com
Batch Year:
2016-18
Introduction:-
Victorian
age symbolized by the reign of British monarch queen Victoria. Women did not
have any right to vote, sue, or own property. They were considered inferior to
men. In Victorian era women were seen as belonging to the domestic sphere. They
have only domestic duty. Their prime concern is to serve their husband and
children and this stereotype required them to provide their husband with a
clean home food on the table and to raise their children women have less rights
in this era. When a Victorian man and woman married, the rights of the woman
were legally given over to her spouse. In addition to losing money, Victorian
wives became property of their husband. They could not do anything they like
without their husband’s wish.
Rights
and privileges of Victorian women were limited. And both single and married
women had hardships to live with. Victorian women had disadvantages both
financially and sexually enduring inequalities within their marriages and
social statuses. Men were provided with more stability. Financial status and
privilege. Women endured their husband's control cruelty targeted
against their wives including sexual violence, verbal abuse and economic
deprivation. While husbands were allowed to have affairs with other women. For
them there was no question of character,
“Dag achhe hai”
for them. The ideal Victorian
woman was pure, chaste, refined and modest.
“Chaste and
modest wives”
We find great paradox in Victorian period.
That all higher class women, those who belonged royal family live very luxuries
life. Even there was rule of queen Victoria. While middle class and lower class
woman suffered a lot as being woman of this era.
* Poets and
novelists of Victorian Era:
“This which is the age of so many things of enlightenment of
science of progress is quite as distinctly the age of female novelists… The
vexed questions of social morality the grand problems of human experience are seldom
so summarily discussed and settled as in the novels of this day which are
written by women”
[Margaret Oliphant, novelist, 1855]
The
list of 19th century novelists and poets is long. Jane Austen, Charlotte,
Bronte, Elizabeth Barrett, Browning, George Eliot, Christina Rossetti and many
other women took up their pens to become serious contributors to what had been
a male dominated literary scene. Many of these women used writing to tackle
complex political and social issues.
Novels
and poetry had long been popular genres for female writers. But many such works
had been belittled as comparatively trivial and insignificant. Women continued
to produce vast numbers of sentimental and sensationalist romance novels
throughout the century in response to huge public demand making it difficult
for women as a group to achieve recognition as serious writers. Furthermore, strict
gender roles made it difficult for women to justify a literary career.
* For women
writers in Victorian era :
“What was the definition of women in the Victorian era ?”
The novel concentrate on the role of women in the Victorian era
and their rise of the new
women. It is a semi biography and closely reflects the society of that time. The novel takes us
through the life of a low class woman struggling to create her identity in a make dominant, misogynistic
world.
In the 19th century women in
general had the same rights and duties but there was a very fine line dividing the lower class from the
middle class and middle
class from the upper class. In general women had very little rights regarding education,
marriage and properties. They were considered their husband’s property. Charlotte Bronte depicts
all three classes of women
and their rights and duties profusely in her novel “Jane Eyre”
By
becoming professional writers, they challenged the notion of the domestic
sphere and the idea that women were mainly supposed to be wives and mothers as
a result, women writers had the ability to empower other women and influence
the course of history.
19th
century society known as the Victorian period, regarded men as the superior sex
and women as inferior. There were many women that challenged these beliefs and
among them were women writers. They faced numerous obstacles’ when they stepped
out of their spheres by becoming professional writers. Critics and men such as
John Stuart mill declared that women could never be innovators and therefore
they would always fall into the category of imitators. In general, women were
commonly thought to leak certain characteristics that made a good writer. The
reason for that is that women were usually categorized into either angelic
beings or monstrous beings. It was believed that they could not feel passion,
ambition anger or honor. Infect critics commonly” did not believe that women
could express more than half of life”. However there were many women writers that
challenged these views and among them wear the Bronte sisters.
Bronte
sisters novels addressed many of the issues that society in the 19th
century faced. Especially issue regarding gender equality and they showed world
that women did indeed have passion and were not inferior to men. There were
separate spheres for man and woman being a woman was considered to be a career
in itself and therefore, their highest goal was to become mother and a wife. In
addition the concept of
“Angel in the house”
“Household fairy”
Become very popular.
It was
believed that women were small and weak because of female body. This claim was supported
by Victorian physicians and anthropologists. Women that had passion. For
learning and going more knowledge were looked down on and were in the danger of
being known as “Bluestocking” This was the name given to women who had devoted
themselves too enthusiastically to intellectual pursuits. And blue stocking
were considered unfeminine.
However there
were women in this period that fought against the injustice that they faced one
such woman was “Barbara Leigh smith Bodichon” in 1857, “women and work” She wrote
“crises are heard on every hand that women are conspiring that women are
discontented that women are idle, that women are overworked and that women are
out of their sphere, God only knows what is the sphere of any human being women
writers that wrote about gender quality were challenging the structure of the
male dominated society that they lived in. As a result many of their novels can
indeed be interpreted as feminist novels.
In the 19th century
men dominated the world of often referred to as the age of the female novelist.
There were several women novelist such as Jane Austen, George Eliot, Elizabeth
browning, Mary Shelly, and the Bronte sisters. Women writers faced many
obstacles when trying to write novels. Since girls were restricted from reading
various types of literature. As a result the range of novels offered to men were far more than offered to girls.
For eg. novels offered to men not to women were adventures novels with strong
spirited heroes. If a girl showed passion or behaved badly she was considered
to be heinous. However if a boy behaved badly he was just exhibiting his
masculine traits.
These novels
came to be known as didactic fiction novels that reinforced gender roles. A
good example of writers of didactic fiction is Maria Edgeworth. Another author
who wrote didactic fiction was Christina Rossetti. Many of her works, such as
“speaking likeness” that was published in 1874, serve as a warning that a girl
can only reach salvation through” the death of desire.” Overall didactic
fiction was used by parents as a tool to educate girls.
This created
a difficulty for women writers, For they supposed to follow certain rules when
writing novels and there were limits to what was considered socially
acceptable. Nevertheless, there were writers such as Bronte sisters, Elizabeth
Gaskell and George Eliot that deliberately went against these rules. and
through their characters they proved that woman called be passionate and
strong. In a way these female authors themselves challenged the norm by
entering the public sphere when they decided to become writers.
However if a woman wanted to be a writer she
had to understand that her priority was to be a woman and that was always supposed
to be her main profession. Therefore, her career as a writer always come second
to that, even though men could make it their first and foremost carrier because
of that self sacrifice not self sufficiency was the mark of professionalism for
women.
Hence women
often used a male pseudonym to escape the limit that were placed on them. Such
was the case for George Eliot and Bronte sisters. Anne Bronte went under the
name “Action Bell” and her novels were published by T.C. Newby, a minor
publisher. The reason for publishing under pseudonyms was so that they could
cross over the boundaries that had been laid on women writers.
Furthermore
they wanted to be valued and ranked on the same level as men, Women writers were judged for being
women usually, because of the stereotype that women were inferior and not as
intellectual as men. For instance George Eliot was afraid to make her gender
known when she noticed that the tone of the criticism changed when the
discovery was made that career. Bell was in fact a woman. However as novels by
women became more common, men had to acknowledge that there were women that had
a great talent for writing fiction.
* Conclusion
:
It can be
conclude that women in 19th century were supposed to behave according to
tradition be gender roles. Therefore Women faced the struggle of expressing
their take self and the women who challenged the notion of gender, were in the
danger of being isolated and viewed as monstrous. As a result women who stood
up against patriarch society showed remarkable courage and endurance.
*Citation:
popularromanceproject.org/victorian-women-writers/
https://en.wikipedia.org
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