The Power of Character

THE POWER OF CHARACTER THE POWER OF CHARACTER: MIDDLE-CLASS MASCULINITIES, 1800–1900 David Tjeder Akademisk avhandling som för avläggande av filosofie doktorsexamen vid Stockholms universitet, offentligen försvaras i G-salen, Biologihuset, Frescati, fredagen den 9 maj 2003, klockan 10.00. ABSTRACT Tjeder, David, The power of character: Middle-class masculinities, 1800–1900. 320 pp. Department of History, Stock- holm University. Stockholm. ISBN 91–7265–633–6. This is a study of continuity and change in middle-class conceptions of ideal manhood. My theoretical cues are the notions of the male as an unproblematised and genderless norm, masculinity as homosocial, and George L. Mosse’s use of countertypes. Notions of passions, youth, and character were important throughout the century. If young men could learn to master the dangerous passions especially in the precarious period of youth, they would develop character. If men instead gave in to the passions, they would fall and become countertypes. Meanwhile, young men lived according to another notion, that young men should have their fling. The meaning of manhood also changed over time. In the decades around 1800, manhood meant to lead a life which would be beneficial to society as a whole. Another ideal, that of the man of the world, was founded on urbane manners as a tactic to further one’s career. By mid-century, the ideal of the self-made man came to the fore. The homosocial world of business was now seen as a good way to mould manly characters. In the last decades of the century, moralists criticized the sexual double standard and male sexuality. To remain chaste until marriage became a central mark of manhood. Autobiographers, however, reveal that to many men, Don Juan was a hero rather than a villain. The notion that men were genderless and that masculinity was not a subject of discussion cannot be sustained. Masculinity was indeed the subject of intense discussions. Meanwhile, neither moralists nor autobiographers shed critical light on married, adult men. The problem was how young men should best be guided into an adult position of legitimate power; that position of power in itself was not problematised. While most masculinities were homosocial, this was not exclusively so. Countertypes were more complex than what Mosse allows for. Men who had taken ideal manhood too far could be countertypes, and at times men endorsed ideals which meant unmanliness to moralists. Keywords: Masculinity, masculinities, gender, power, middle class, passions, character, self-made man, sexuality, prostitution, homosocial, the male norm, George L. Mosse, advice manuals, autobiographies, alcohol, gambling. David Tjeder, Department of History, Stockholm University, S–106 91 Stockholm, Sweden. © David Tjeder 2003 Art direction Jesper Weithz/Revoluform Set by Petter Hellström Distribution: www.tjeder.nu Printed by Författares Bokmaskin, Stockholm 2003 ISBN 91–7265–633–6 CONTENTS Abbreviations used in footnotes 11 Preface 13 1. Setting the scene 17 Introduction 17 • The male norm 17 • Masculinity as homosocial 21 • Countertypes 21 • Timespan 23 • Sources and method 24 • Advice manuals 24 • Autobiographies 27 • Illustrations 29 • The middle class 30 • Earlier research 32 • Manliness and masculinity 33 • Structure of the pre- sent study 34 Part I: Continuity 2. The making of men: Passions, youth, and character, c. 1800–c.1900 39 Introduction 39 • The threat of passions 39 • The fragility and dangers of youth 44 • Youth and passions 46 • Youth and the making of men 47 • Youth and the moment of choice 50 • Character and the middle class 56 • Character and masculinity 57 • Character as essence and artifice 60 • Character, youth, and education to domination 61 • Conclusion 62 3. The threat and lure of countertypes: When passions rule the man, c.1800–c.1900 65 Introduction 65 • The history of the fallen man 66 • From drinking and gambling to the drinker and the gambler 73 • When passions rule the man 75 • Countertypes and class 79 • The lure of countertypes 85 • Countertypes and masculine domesticity 90 • Conclusion 92 4. Youth and having one’s fling: Student culture and masculinity, c.1800–c.1900 97 Introduction 97 • Youth revisited 99 • The young man’s entry into university: Newly won freedom 101 • Student culture and alcohol 104 • The brother’s toast 112 • The passion of violence 116 • Pranks and the philistine 122 • Wit and education to domination 124 • Conclusion 125 Part II: Variations and transformations 5. Servants of the public good: Masculinities in the decades around 1800 133 Introduction 133 • Nationalism and the ‘crisis’ of masculinity 135 • Christianity and the ideal of perseverance 138 • Countertypes and the problem of self-interest 140 • The disciplined return of the Viking: göticism 143 • Romanticism and the poet as hero: The example of Atterbom 147 •Per- sistence of the ideal of usefulness 148 • Usefulness and autobiography 150 • Conclusion 157 6. The art of pleasing: The man of the world and the spectre of effeminacy, c. 1790–c.1860 159 Introduction 159 • The dandy 165 • The man of the world and charismatic power 167 • The spectre of effeminacy 169 • Manhood in crisis 173 • The waning of the man of the world after mid- century 178 • The man of the world and autobiography 180 • Conclusion 196 7. When character became capital: Manhood and economic success, c.1850–c.1900 199 Introduction 199 • Business as a way to mould men 201 • Success as a means to power and indepen- dence 203 • Self-making as homosocial 206 • Changing standards of unmanliness 208 • Early propo- nents of self-making 209 • The need to discipline the will to riches 211 • The criticism of self-making 213 • The self-made man and Swedish society 218 • The self-made man and autobiography: businessmen’s testimony 220 • Self-making in autobiographies by the Bildungsbürgertum 225 • Conclusion 230 8. Don Juan’s problematic masculinity: Male sexuality, prostitution, and the seducer, c.1870–c.1900 233 Introduction 233 • The seducer, prostitution, and the double standard 235 • Moralists’ attack on the double standard 237 • Don Juan before the 1880s 244 • Don Juan as a manly model 238 • Don Juan and erotica 251 • 1. The reduction of masculinity to the search for sexual enjoyment 252 • 2. Female passivity as erotic 252 • 3. The military metaphors of seduction 253 • 4. An explicit and emphatic misogyny 256 • Don Juan and autobiography 258 • Conclusion 268 9. Conclusions 271 Introduction 271 • The male norm 272 • Masculinity as homosocial 281 • Countertypes 283 • The intricacies of men’s lives 286 • Conclusion: The constant crisis of masculinity 286 Summary 289 References 293 Index of names 315 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Cover illustration Anders Zorn’s paitning ‘A Toast in the Idun Society’ (1892). Oil on canvas. Harald Wiselgren gives a speech, a glowing cigar and a glass of alcohol in his hands. The men in the background are librarian Hans Hildebrand, the physician Axel Key, the politician C. F. Wærn, and A. E. Nordenskiöld, the polar scientist. Wieselgren him- self was a librarian with rather excessive alcohol habits – he jokingly claimed to aid the temperance movement by limiting its supply through his own consumption – even while his father Peter was one of the pioneers of the strivings for sobriety in Sweden. The painting reveals the homosocial club of the late-nineteenth-century Bil- dungsbürgertum. The National Museum NM 3374; photography by Erik Cornelius. P. 52. Otto Stiernhielm, copperplate to the cover of Georg Stiernhielm, Herkules, 1658. Here from Svenska folket genom tiderna, vol. 5, p. 135. P. 52. Drawing from the cover of Nathanael Beskow, Till de unga, 1904. KB. P. 54. Wood engraving from Bengt Carl Rodhe, Första Läsåret, 1889, p. [2]; not paginated. UUB. P. 55. ‘Den breda och smala Wägen’. Lithograph, 1856. From the collection of lithographs at UUB, the Department of maps and illustrations, vol. 2, number F k o58. P. 71. Fredrik Boye, engraving from an original lithograph by Jules David, from Den Dygdiges och Den Lastfulles Vandel och Öden, 1838, not paginated. UUB. P. 71. Fredrik Boye, engraving from an original lithograph by Jules David, from Den Dygdiges och Den Lastfulles Vandel och Öden, 1838, not paginated. UUB. P. 78. ‘Om det är sannt jag pröfvar då jag har druckit ut, Att ångrens hundar skälla vid njutningarnes slut.’ Lithograph, possibly by C. F. M. Darell, late 1830s. From the collection of lithographs at KB; currently being re-catalogued. 7 P. 83. Reinhold Callmander, untitled lithograph from Komiska stentryck, vol. 2: Scener ur Stadslifvet, 1861, not paginated. KB. P. 93. Wood engraving from Swenska Nykterhets-Sällskapets Meddelanden 1868:10, p. 271. KB. P. 106. Conny Burman, ‘Studentprofvet’, lithographed drawing from Karrikatyrer, 1890, not paginated. KB. P. 114. Hjalmar Mörner, ‘Får jag den äran att proponera.’ Hand-coloured lithograph from Mörner, Stockholmska scener: tecknade och lithografierade af Hjalmar Mörner, 1830, not paginated; here photographed from the collection of lithographs in UUB, the Department of maps and illustrations, vol. 5, number 10456. Pp. 120-121. Four engravings by C. G. V. Carleman, from Anders Johan Afzelius, En Students Missöden, 1845, not paginated; plates 5, 8, 11 and 12. KB. P. 137. Engraving, possibly by Olof Årre, from the cover of Johan Fischerström, Tal Om de Medel och Utvägar, genom hvilka Styrka, Manlighet och Härdighet kunna hos Svenska Folket befrämjas, 1794. UUB. P. 144. Carl Wahlbom, etching for Per Henrik Ling’s Asarne, in Teckningar ur Asarne, componerade och etsade af C. Wahlbom, 1834. Here from Svenska folket genom tiderna, vol. 11, between pp. 340 and 341. P. 148. J. G. Sandberg, portrait of P. D. A. Atterbom, 1810s. Oil on canvas. Original at Gripsholm castle; here from Svenska folket genom tiderna, vol. 8, p. 197. P. 177. Lithograph from the cover of Gottfrid Imanuel Wenzel, Den äkta gentleman- nen, 1845.

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