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The Status of Women in Victorian Britain Was Very Different from The Masaryk University Faculty of Arts Department of English and American Studies English Language and Literature Klára Danielová Victorian Women and Their Representation in Selected Sherlock Holmes Stories Bachelor‟s Diploma Thesis Supervisor: PhDr. Lidia Kyzlinková, CSc., M.Litt. 2009 I declare that I have worked on this thesis independently, using only the primary and secondary sources listed in the bibliography. …………………………………………….. Klára Danielová 2 I would like to thank my supervisor, PhDr. Lidia Kyzlinková, CSc., M.Litt., for her patience and kindness with which she assisted me with writing my thesis. 3 CONTENTS Introduction ..................................................................................................... 5 I. Victorian Women ........................................................................................ 8 I.1 Victorian England and Her Women ............................................................ 8 I.2 Working-Class Women: The Issues of Class and Occupation .................... 9 I.3 Upper-Class Women: Their Home and Social Responsibilities .................. 11 I.4 The Middle Class and the Issues of Homemaking ...................................... 12 I.5 Free Time Activities and the Double Standard ........................................... 15 I.6 Women‟s Education: Prejudice and Development ...................................... 17 I.7 Married Women: Their Rights and Property ............................................... 20 I.8 Victorian Marriage: Making and Purpose ................................................... 22 I.9 Married Life: The Issues of Sex and Divorce ............................................. 23 I.10 Spinsters, Bachelors and Their Social Status ............................................ 25 II. The Representation of Women in Selected Sherlock Holmes Stories ... 27 II. I The Case of Arthur Conan Doyle and Detective Fiction ........................... 27 II.2 The Adventures of Doyle, Watson, Holmes and Their Women ................ 28 II.3 The Case of Middle-Class Women ............................................................ 32 II.4 The Problem of Women‟s Employment and Education ........................... 34 II.5 The Case of the Woman Criminal .............................................................. 37 II.6 The Problem of the Woman in Love .......................................................... 39 II.7 The Issues of Women of Property and Divorce ......................................... 41 Conclusion ....................................................................................................... 44 Bibliography .................................................................................................... 48 Appendix: The Stories Examined and Their Abbreviations ...................... 50 4 INTRODUCTION Sir Arthur Conan Doyle‟s Sherlock Holmes ranks among the most significant Great Detectives, and this character‟s adventures have been extremely popular since their first appearance. Apart from ingenious puzzles, the stories capture the atmosphere of Victorian England, her people and culture; and although nineteenth-century detective fiction is generally considered to have been written by men, for men and about men, in my thesis I try to demonstrate that it is also for women and about women. There is a considerable number of female characters depicted in the stories analysed and the reader can find many pieces of information on Victorian women and their lives at the end of the nineteenth century. My thesis is divided into two major parts. The first part is connected with the social history of the period, and as the main source of information I use The Victorian Home (1977) by Jenni Calder. In this part I examine England of the second half of the nineteenth century, the setting of most Doyle‟s stories. I focus on women and their social position and rights; I analyse differences between women of various social classes; I examine the prejudices women had to face and the acts of Parliament that considerably affected women‟s lives. The first part is further divided into ten subchapters in which I discuss the points mentioned above in greater detail. For example, I discuss lives of working-class women; I examine the effects of middle-class philosophy on the working class and why society considered working women a threat to the social order. I also deal with upper- class women and women of aristocratic background and contrast responsibilities of women in cities and in the country. In connection with middle-class women, I focus on the cult of domesticity and servants who helped confine women to the roles of 5 supervisors. I further discuss the concept of Victorian home; I analyse which free time activities were considered proper for women and I also examine the double standard for men and women as far as entertainment was concerned. I describe the kind of education girls received at home; I discuss the prejudice against female education in general and further education in particular. Various kinds of schools are described together with jobs that were believed suitable for women. Finally, married women‟s rights are analysed, and the issues of sex and divorce, and spinsters and bachelors examined. In the second main part of my thesis, I concentrate on the representation of women in Sherlock Holmes stories. I examine how women are portrayed and my aim is to find evidence for my points in the first part of the thesis and prove that the representation of women in the stories is fairly realistic and that the stories could serve as a source of information on Victorian women. All the short stories examined in my thesis are taken from the collection, Sherlock Holmes: The Complete Illustrated Short Stories (1985), published by Chancellor Press1. In greater detail, I analyse predominantly female characters from fifteen short stories. When I refer to those characters, I also use abbreviations of the stories titles as follows: “A Scandal in Bohemia” (SIB), “A Case of Identity” (CI), “The Adventure of the Speckled Band” (AOSB), “The Adventure of the Beryl Coronet” (BC), “The Adventure of the Copper Beeches” (CB), “The Adventure of the Crooked Man (CM)”, “The Adventure of the Dancing Men” (DM), “The Adventure of the Solitary Cyclist” (SC), “The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton” (CAM), “The Adventure of the Abbey Grange” (AG), “The Adventure of the Second Stain” (SS), “The Adventure of the Red 1The collection entry in bibliography starts with Doyle, Arthur Conan. When quoting the stories, I use the author‟s surname and page number from the collection in paranthetical reference. 6 Circle” (RC), “The Disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax” (DLFC), “The Problem of Thor Bridge” (TB), “The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire” (SV).1 The second part of my thesis is further divided into seven subchapters. First, I introduce Doyle and his detective stories, discussing real models for the main protagonists and the author‟s relationship to his detective. Next, I attempt to consider Doyle, Watson and Holmes and their relationships with women. I elaborate on details from Doyle‟s life that are captured in the stories. Then I focus on the representation of middle class-women, household servants and the cult of domesticity. Further, I examine the heroines and the jobs they do; I also discuss female education and intelligence. Female criminals, the frequent theme of blackmailing and elaborating on the myth of English women as incorruptible beings are the focus of the following subchapters as well as love and marriage and the social class and wealth in the choice of a future spouse. Finally, I explore the changes in society caused by new laws, with focus on the Women‟s property acts and divorce reform. In the conclusion I compare my findings from the first part with those of the second part, and I demonstrate how historical facts are represented in Holmes stories. I try to prove that the representation of women faithfully reflects the situation in Victorian England. 1 The list of the stories examined and their abbreviations is also provided in the Appendix, arranged in alphabetical order and stating the first publishing year. 7 I. VICTORIAN WOMEN I.1 Victorian England and Her Women Women in Victorian England were believed to be inferior to men; they “were subjected to their [men‟s] authority in many ways” (Fletcher 108) and their legal status was similar to that of children. Their fathers, husbands or other male relatives were their legal representatives and it was men who were in charge of women‟s property for almost all the nineteenth century. Women were not allowed to vote and were not legal guardians of their children. A Victorian woman “would be stoical, motherly, submissive and chaste” (Paxman 228); “[I]nnocence and inexperience and a cultivated fragility were the characteristic attributes of the Victorian girl” (Klein 264). The division of sexes was clear; men and women knew that their roles were different and accepted that they were, “even within marriage, obliged [them] to lead separate and unequal lives until they died” (Paxman 212). The man was the bread-winner; the woman was confined to domesticity. As domestic beings, most women were denied education because it was considered unnecessary. Women were not found in professions or skilled trade; if they worked, they worked in jobs where no higher education was required. At home they were expected to be amiable companions and not partners with whom men would discuss business or politics. The main role of every woman
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