Alan Campbell's Blackmail

             In The Picture of Dorian Gray, Dorian’s old associate, Alan Campbell, was called to “clean up” the mess which was Basil Hallward’s death. We know little of Alan Campbell, other than he no longer associates Dorian due to the former seeking to salvage whatever reputation he had left. He was also a chemist and it was this talent that Dorian called on to hide Basil’s death and to remove evidence.

            Alan of course refused to do as his former acquaintance requested, stating “I entirely decline to be mixed up in your life. Keep your horrible secrets to yourself.” In the end, Dorian sought to blackmail him in order to get the chemist to comply. The audience never finds out exactly what Dorian had blackmailed him with, but it made him become “…ghastly pale, and he fell back in his chair. A horrible sense of sickness came over him. He felt as if his heart was beating itself to death in some empty hollow.” The secret that Alan Campbell kept was horrible to his character and would have ruined him. He did whatever it took for Dorian Gray to keep it a secret. Though his secret is never revealed, we are made aware of how important it was that this secret was to never have been revealed. In the end, “Alan Campbell had shot himself one night in his laboratory, but had not revealed the secret that he had been forced to know.”

            Wilde had written Alan Campbell’s blackmail in possible reference to what became known as the “blackmailer’s charter” in response to the Labouchere Amendment. The Labouchere Amendment in 1885 was a law that made “gross indecency”, or homosexuality, a criminal act punishable by time in prison. Because of this law, many male prostitute sought to blackmail their male customers into paying them money to keep their identities hidden from society. This certainly ties in with Alan Campbell and the secret that he so desperately tries to keep. 

Victorian Etiquette Lessons

            http://www.mccord-museum.qc.ca/en/keys/games/17

            Do you think you know enough Victorian Etiquette in order to avoid becoming a social faux pas? During the Victorian Era, social etiquette was of highest importance. Victorians were quite the social butterflies, holding balls, dinners and gatherings for different occasions. An individual’s reputation was dependent upon how they acted in these social situations.

            The McCord Museum’s interactive online game tests your knowledge of Victorian Social etiquette. It takes you through 4 different social scenarios and asks you questions depending on your gender. Here we can see the differences in the social expectations of men and women of that time period.

            The Four scenarios in this interactive game are An Evening Dinner at Home, A Fancy Ball, A Voyage By Train and depending on the gender chosen, A Promanade In the Park for females or At the Gentleman’s Club for males. Each scenario begins by asking what the appropriate dress for the occasion is. If you pick the correct answer, the people in the questions move and do the correct action. If you pick the wrong answer, the people in the game do humorous things. You cannot move on to the next question until you answer it correctly.

            After you have chosen the appropriate clothing for your scenario, you are given scenarios in which you must pick the right social action. For women, their behavior is dependent to their relationship with men. If they wanted to greet others in society, they could not do so without the proper introduction or escort by their husbands or an appropriate gentleman. They were also to be modest in clothing and supposed to excel in the art of listening, conversation and entertain guests by playing on the piano. They were to be polite and altruistic to others in society.

            Men were expected to behave in a different way. They were to be chivalrous in their relation to women. If a woman requested something of a man that was within reason, he should be able to comply. If a woman were to politely decline his invitation, he would take the rejection and not hold any ill will towards her. Men had a bit more freedom than women in terms of being able to do things on their own. However, if they were guests, they were still subject to their host’s prompts. For example, if they wished to smoke a cigar in the parlor, they would have to wait for the hostess to take them there.

Final Pros and Cons

Pros: Educational, Humorous, Accurate portrayals of social etiquette for each gender, Portrays how the genders are dependent upon each other, Gives reason for why a question is wrong.

Cons: Flash player constantly crashes

The Importance of Religion in the Victorian Era

I think that in order to have a full understand of the material we have been reading, and to be able to get a good grasp in order for analysis, we must take a step back and come to a realized understand of the day to day life of those who not only wrote the works we are studying, but the lives of those that these works were made for.

The Victorian Era was marked by the Church of England, first brought about by King Henry VIII in order to gain more political power. The Church has continued to grow, and now is in a position of power that can not be separated from it original religious role and its new political role. The Church began to be viewed as tyrannical, and many smaller churches began to form in a sort of rebellion against the high church. Thus, the Church was plunged deeper into politics, waging a a war via campaign against the proper English church, and the havoc being caused to the immortal soul by the smaller churches.

Funding for the High Church of England came from wealthy families who would buy into the church, which only led to the more political standing of the church. With such an indistinguishable role in society, no one could get away from the Church. The Church was in politics, in the palace, and in the homes of every British citizen. One must take this into consideration when reading.

"A Shroud as well as a Shirt": An outcry against Victorian working conditions

Victorian working conditions were brutal. This is a point that is rarely debated, as we can easily see in history books the horrors the workers had to endure to survive. But during this time, it was expected. Not accepted, but expected. There was intense outcry against the working conditions from those who were employed in factories and such, but their protests were drowned out by the money of consumers. In Thomas Hood's "The Song of the Shirt," the reader is presented with a song sung by a worker in a factory; a song that is overheard, yet directed at the male consumers that they supplied with shirts.
The entire poem is a blatant cry for help from the woman singing, but she realizes the futility of her calls. She provides the reader with passages describing the intense, mind-numbing work and the harsh reality of the poverty that she lives in, even though she's always working.
She describes her harsh hours, working "While the cock is crowing aloof" until "the stars shine through the roof!" (Lines 10 and 12). This is implicating the length of the workday, essentially sunrise to even after sunset, leading the reader to believe 12-16 hour work days (potentially even more!). With such a long work day, I wouldn't be too surprised if people fell asleep or passed out from exhaustion, which the singer hints at:


"Work — work — work,
Till the brain begins to swim;
Work — work — work,
Till the eyes are heavy and dim!

                                                       (16-19)

The work is mind-numbing and lures the worker into a lethargic state. But not only is there danger from accidents through this, but from crippling exhaustion. The singer is close to death; she does not fear it. In fact, she actually compares herself to the haggard shape of death saying that "[she] hardly fear[s] its terrible shape, / It seems so like [her] own (35-36). And for what? Why does she put herself in such a position where she works so close to death? 

And what are its wages? A bed of straw,
A crust of bread — and rags.
That shattered roof — this naked floor — 
A table — a broken chair — 
And a wall so blank, my shadow I thank
For sometimes falling there!

                                                (43-48)

She works for practically nothing beyond her own means of survival. The prospect of Victorian factories is dreary - there is no chance of any sort of upward mobility for her. But I don't think she actually is looking for that sort of upward mobility, she just wants a chance to breathe, relax, and eat a little more than the scraps she's given. She's extremely practical and easy to please.

The most compelling part of the poem is when the singer turns away from describing her conditions and addresses an invisible audience: the men who purchase the shirts she makes.

"Oh, Men, with Sisters dear!
Oh, men, with Mothers and Wives!
It is not linen you're wearing out, 

But human creatures' lives!

                               (25-28)

She's directly addressing the men who have the ability and money to indulge themselves on the shirts she makes. She's inviting them to imagine that she was some sort of familial relation to them - if she was, would they stand the condition that she was in? Would they accept the horror of her work day? They aren't just shirts that they're wearing, but the lives of the women who poured themselves into the creation of it. If the men were related to the women working, they wouldn't have allowed it; why do they allow it in the circumstance that it is in? She's protesting for the humanity of herself and her fellow women. It's inhumane. She's trying to invoke the feelings of men needing to protect vulnerable women through her song.

Granted, the song goes unheard, but Hood's poem did not. He drew the eyes of many people to the conditions of the women in factories and hopefully made a difference in their lives with his poetry.

Rejoice! VictorianWeb.org has the answers!

Alright, so maybe not in this second half of the semester, but certainly in the first, we came across many poems that were not as clear as we would have hoped. Well, there is now a solution! www.Victorianweb.org is filled with a seemingly endless glossary of scholarly analysis on Victorian poems, literature, and life. There are also sections for readers to sumbit evidence that would dispute the article they read, making the entire experience well rounded. The articles follow not only well known analysis of pieces, but often shed new light on the subject matter. A few great articles to read that pertain to this course are:


http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/crossetti/scholl.html - A different look on Goblin Market and just why the fruit was forbidden, and by whom.


and


http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/rb/porphyria/best1.html- A striking essay that attempts to prove that, had Porphyria paid attention to the warning signs, she may still be alive today.

The Dangerous of Beauty- Lessons to be learned from Porphyria's Lover

 Robert Browning's poem “Porphyria's Lover” is often analyzed and understood to be a poem about a man and his domination of his lover, which is the rightful opposition for male and female relationships of the time. ( Although the dominance in everyday Victorian life was no where near as extreme as the dominance portrayed in Browning's poem. )

However, there is another message that is often over looked, which is a simple message of social cometary, meant to be viewed as warning to all females of the time: Your sexuality will be your downfall.

From the very beginning we are introduced to a woman who is, surprise surprise, NOT afraid of her sexuality. She freely lets down her hair and approaches her lover, and is even forward enough to take his hand and put it on her waist. It is Porphyria's confidence and familiarity with her won sexuality that leads her to Death's door in the form of ultimate dominance at the hands of her secret lover. But the warning lies within how he chose to assert himself.

I found
A thing to do, and all her hair
In one long yellow string I wound
Three times her little throat around,

Yes folks, you read it right. He strangles his lover with her own hair! The epitome of female sexuality, the purest symbol of femininity is what is used to kill Porphyria. It is in this simple act, these four simple lines, that Browning reveals his warning: Your sexuality will be your downfall.

But, we have to ask ourselves why this is? Why was female sexuality so frowned upon? Was it because we as females are too simpleminded to know the dangers our own bodies can cause? Or is it because men are too weak to withstand the sight of something to simple as a woman's golden locks? Perhaps it is because our strength lies in what makes us feminine;our beauty, and men know that they stand no chance against us should we decide to use it against them. So, they try to make us fear ourselves, otherwise, the world as men knew it, the world of male dominance they were so accustomed to, would crumble at our dainty little feet.

Victorian Gender Roles as seen through Porphyria's Lover

Robert Browning's Porphyria's Lover is a rather morbid tale of a woman who rides in late at night to her lover, who she is possibly living with at this point.
Immediately, we can see the issue quite clearly; she's out late at night attending to her own business, independent of her lover/husband, and quite free to do whatever she likes, whereas the man is at home, tending the hearth, eagerly awaiting her return. This seems as if it's a flip-flop of what was generally expected in Victorian society's social spheres. The man is supposed to be the dominant figure, while the woman is submissive to her man's will. Browning makes the swapped roles quite clear when the woman arrives home (if her being out by herself wasn't enough):

She put my arm about her waist,
And made her smooth white shoulder bare,
And all her yellow hair displaced,
And, stooping, made my cheek lie there,

                                     (16-19)

In these lines, we can see how dominant she is; she's controlling his body and making him do things. He's showing his submission to her by allowing her to place his arm around her waist and making his cheek lie on her shoulder. This is the exact opposite of what one would expect to see in the typical Victorian home. And we can implicitly feel how sullen the narrator is that she's so independent and in control of the situation.
Once Porphyria confesses her love for the narrator, she finally expresses the kind of dependence the narrator desires. In this moment, the narrator decides that he wants to maintain that sort of dependence forever. He strangles her, effectively freezing her in time. After this, we can see the reestablishment of the social norms:

I propp'd her head up as before,
Only, this time my shoulder bore	50
Her head, which droops upon it still:
The smiling rosy little head,
So glad it has its utmost will,
That all it scorn'd at once is fled,
And I, its love, am gain'd instead!	55

In this scenario, the narrator is making her head lie upon his shoulder, the direct opposite of what was previously made. She, now, was reliant on him, and he was in control of her. This, according to the narrator, is how the relationship between and a man and woman should be. There is not a mutual domination; only the man has the power to decide what happens. He reinforces his belief that what he did was right, ending the poem with a reference to a power higher than social influences: God. He says that, "God has not said a word!"(60), effectively providing proof that this is what God wants. He didn't object to what the man did because it was right. And if it's good enough for God, it's good enough for him.

" I ain't nothing without my man!"- Social Commentary and Women's Rights in ALT Mariana

      Alfred Lord Tennyson's poem “Mariana” is yet another Victorian poem about an embowered woman.While we are never told of the exact circumstances through the poem itself, we know of the sad occurrences due to the origins of the poem; Shakespeare’s “Measure by Measure.” With her family being lost at sea, Mariana is abandoned by her betrothed because she has no dowry. She is left to rot like the building around her, weeping day in and day out over her dreary circumstances The poem continues to tell of her loneliness while she awaits each day for her love to appear. However, as we see through the repeated refrain, he never comes. Over the passing of time, again and again we hear the cries of Mariana:

       She only said, ‘The day is dreary, 
           He cometh not,’ she said; 
       She said, ‘I am aweary, aweary, 
           I would that I were dead!’

      But why is it that Mariana is trapped and left to rot? Why does she only sit a lament? The answer is simple. The poem is meant to warn every lady in the Victorian era of the extent of their worth, that without a man to define them, they are nothing.

      Now, dear reader, you may be thinking that there are many unmarried, unspoken for ladies getting by much better than Mariana herself. Why, even the many fallen woman we have been introduced to have fared far better than our poor embowered lass. But the situation is that even fallen women are defined by men, and what they do for the men they serve.

      All in all, Mariana proves to be a pivotal look into the social cometary of the Victorian Era, Women's rights, and the place in the anti-feminist world of the 19^th century. Unless a woman was serving a man, be it as dutiful daughter, humble wife, or secret lover, she had no place in the world.

Without a clue: Growing-up stories of the 19th and 20th centuries

What youthful hubris and exuberance! “Clueless,” like Emma, is a social commentary about maturing, social class and privilege! Modeled on Jane Austen’s novel Emma of 1815, “Clueless” from 1995, offers a playful view of the human condition – growing toward maturity, lonely adults finding love, tangling and untangling convoluted feelings, and gaining a clear view of formerly misread relationships. Shakespeare would appreciate the laughter, tears, and human condition of “Clueless.”  In the story lines for “Clueless” and Emma, the protagonists are young women, in the later part of their teen years, entertaining themselves by matchmaking and otherwise interfering in others’ lives while thinking quite well of themselves.  Emma and Cher are light-hearted, a bit too self-satisfied, good-hearted if misguided, and have a lot to learn about themselves, other people, and social interactions and grace.

This contemporary version of Emma includes a motherless upper class teen girl, a gruff father, a teen with dull wit but appreciative heart and hidden talent (Travis), teen age capers to fumbling lovers, and even a bumbling robber.  All the while, the main characters, Cher and Josh circle closer and closer toward one another. The key that unlocks the door blocking their connection is Cher’s inveterate focus on the superficial – what looks good, gains attention and status, and, importantly, what keeps her in control and feeling safely ensconced in her position. 

 “Clueless” streamlines the plot to fit the time limits of a film and keeps the focus on teenage issues.  In fitting the story to film “Clueless” omits some of the characters from Austen’s novel.  Here is the film’s major character line up compared to the Austen novel:

·        Cher replaces Emma as the protagonist.  She is still the motherless daughter of a fairly ineffectual father; she alternately lovingly accommodates and manipulates her doting though distracted father.  She likes control and influence and appears bored if she doesn’t have some project or activity to stir her interest.  She does not prepare for school as Emma did not much care to read and improve herself through learning or self reflection. 

·        Dione fulfills the role of Mrs. Weston; the difference is that she is a peer not governess.

·        Tai is the contemporary for Austen’s Ms. Smith.  In the film, Tai’s accent pegs her as a working class girl going to school in upscale Los Angeles.  She becomes Cher’s ‘project’ as Ms. Smith was Emma’s.  Cher aims to improve Tai’s speech, looks, reputation and prospects, and ultimately instruct her how to present herself to get what she wants (well, what Cher wants for Tai).

·        Reverend Elton, the self-satisfied and self-aggrandizing rector becomes Elton the teenager who only wants to date girls that he considers his social equals and whom he likes, that is Cher and not Tai.

·        Frank is named Christian and he is gay, not a man with a hidden engagement; nevertheless, he is ‘hiding in plain sight.’  His parents divorced and he spends six months with each, unlike Frank who was stepson to Emma’s former governess (no governess in this story).

·        Josh replaces Mr. Knightley. He is Cher’s former step-brother, and as an ‘older’ male, Cher’s father considers him to be part of the family.  He balances loving Cher with a keen awareness of her flaws. He cannot escape chastising or at least challenging her worst behavior (with anticipation for better days).  Unlike Mr. Knightley, Josh is closer in age to Cher with only a few years difference (maybe 4 or 5?).  Josh is less polished and finished than Austen’s Mr. Knightley which makes him an acceptable love interest in contemporary thinking. 

·        Murray is boyfriend to Dione, Cher’s best friend.  (Replacing Mr. Weston of Austen’s novel).

·        The well-to-do farmer, Mr. Martin, becomes Travis, the skate-boarding outsider (in Cher’s judgment) who loves Tai for who she is as Cher finally realizes.   

The film impressively captures the essentials of Austen’s novel.  Like Emma, Cher begins to awaken to her thoughtless imposition of will on others. One example occurs when Cher’s ‘project’ (Tai) becomes self-confident after a scary and very public incident makes her the center of attention among the high school students.  Cher is dismayed to find herself dismissed by Tai who is now making her own social engagements that do not include Cher.  Finding herself no longer the adored, idolized center of Tai’s attention, Cher is left to wonder what has happened, paralleling Emma’s dismay in the novel when she confronts her own meanness to Miss Bates at the Box Hill picnic and realizes that she must attempt to make amends. 

Added to the film characters are two lonely, stereotyped middle-aged teachers that Cher and Dione connive to connect romantically.  Implausible as the scenarios are, the effort succeeds.  In a foreshadowing of the future for Cher and Josh, the two teachers wed before the film ends and Cher catches the bouquet.

One may find the film “Clueless” to be a thoroughly entertaining presentation of a classic tale of misguided meddling and social intrigues and of good succeeding over bad as Cher realizes how much she cares for Josh and Tai gains confidence and realizes she really likes Travis and not the boys Cher selected for her.  Viewing the film, one thinks of Virginia Woolf’s character, Mrs. Dalloway, who, delighted with the day and its events, says as she starts off one morning, “What a lark!”

The Love for Nature as Seen in William Wordsworth's "Lines Written in Early Spring"

William Wordsworth has essentially been recognized as being a lover of nature in almost all of the poems we studied this year. In his poem entitled "Lines Written in Early Spring", Wordsworth lies in a grove, surrounded by his beloved nature, but can only think sad thoughts. "In that sweet mood when pleasant thoughts (3) Bring sad thoughts to the mind. (4) He quickly thinks about what man has done to man, meaning what man has done to nature to turn it into an industrialized nation.

Wordsworth's connection with nature in this poem is very evident. This bond is strengthened because he puts himself in the middle of nature as he describes the scene around him. He loves nature so much that he personified it and gave it the ability to make decisions and experience nature. "The birds around me hopped and played, (12) Their thoughts I cannot measure: -- (13) But the least motion which they made, (14) It seemed a thrill of pleasure. (15) To Wordsworth in this poem, nature does everything right and it is man who has failed by turning it into an industrialized place (or so the reader can imply). He can see where man is taking the world from a beautiful, elegant, naturalistic place, to a industrial society.

Wordsworth is so infatuated with nature that he feels like it is his obligation and responsibility to think of what mistakes humanity has done to harm nature. "Have I not reason to lament (26) What man has made of man? (27) He is very thoughtful of nature in this poem because he realizes that this might be the last thing left in life that is beautiful to him. Pretty soon it could be taken over by factories. Here, the reader can see his true feelings about the rural life and how he doesn't want it to be changed by the development of manufacturing.

An Interactive Timeline for British Literature

Did you ever wonder what was going on in the world when a work of fiction was published, hoping that the information would offer an avenue for understanding the prose or poetry and its effect on readers? This interactive timeline from Glencoe/McGraw Hillprovides a thought provoking view of the evolution of literary genres and the political and historical British and world context in which they developed (see link/URL below).

For a snapshot of the 19th century period when Jane Austen’s novel Emma was published, simply move the guide across the timeline toward 1815. Seeing the literary works in context highlighted the creative changes occurring in literature during the period. It positions the evolution of Austen's writing, for instance, the five years before Emma, saw the publication of the Grimm brothers dramatic fair tales for children, the first historical novel (by Sir Walter Scott), and a short three years after Emma came the first science fiction with Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, then Lord Byron’s Don Juan.

The timeline concisely illustrates the 19th century political turmoil and military conflict, Britain’s empire expansion ,and world developments (War in Africa, Napoleon’s defeat at Waterloo, Greek revolt against Turkey, revolt in Venezuela, Britain and the U.S. conflict - War of 1812). As an overview, the it shows a Britain in flux even as it was at the height of its empire. No wonder writers were creating works about change, science, and social upheaval versus stability.

This timeline tool is quick and an enlightening way to frame British literary works and see the evolution of genres. For university level study, it has minor limitations; they do not interfere with its benefits. (It is a reference tool for 12th grade users by a text book publisher), and as a consequence its structure and content locus on 12th grade curriculum content.

It is an engaging look at British literature. http://glencoe.com/sites/common_assets/languageart/grade12/brt_timeline/timeline_content.html

"We Never do Work when we're Ruined": Country Girl to Fallen Woman

 

 

 If you looked upon a farm during the Victorian Era, you would most likely see similar labor as to what is being done now. Men and women mainly of lower and middle class worked sun up till sun down tending to their crops and animals. Clearly, this is a laborious job that requires hard work and dedication.

Upon looking at the poem “The Ruined Maid” by Thomas Hardy (1901), we can see a farm girl, given the named Melia, transform into a fallen woman. An unnamed friend of hers, who also worked on a farm, spots her in town and notices her transformation. She now has “gay bracelets and bright feathers three” (7) and dresses in “fair garments” (4).

Significantly, the friend of Melia’s wishes to be like her because she believes that prostitution represents freedom and an easy life.  She has seen her friend become a fallen woman, and notices that she is dressed well and has a completely new body. He hands “were like paws then, [her] face [was] blue and / bleak,” but now, he friend is “bewitched by [her] delicate cheek” (13-15) (my italics).

We also see, in the last stanza of the poem, that Melia’s friend is envious of her new life. She now wishes that she “feathers, a fine sweeping gown / and a delicate face and could strut around Town” (21-22). 

One can see that women believed that prostitution provided and escape from physical labor. This escape from labor is then replaced with paid sex and several other advantages. Fallen women get leisure time, nice clothing, better food, jewelry, a much nicer home, and no physical labor.

For more information on fallen women during the Victorian period visit:

http://www.victorianweb.org/gender/fallen.html