The Oppressive Institution of Victorian Sexual Morality As Represented by the Women of Wildean and Shauvian Drama Emily Webb SUNY Geneseo

Proceedings of GREAT Day

Volume 2013 Article 3

2014 The Oppressive Institution of Victorian Sexual Morality as Represented by the Women of Wildean and Shauvian Drama Emily Webb SUNY Geneseo

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Emily Webb

hrough their various portrayals of women in ual crimes of men, British journalist and renowned late nineteenth-century drama, Oscar Wilde social activist W.T. Stead observed how the criminal T and George Bernard Shaw demonstrate dis- charges against the playwright for his acts of gross parate approaches towards the dispute against Victo- indecency exposed the discriminatory moral values rian sexual morality as informed by their respective that are promoted in Victorian society (Foldy 129– views of contemporary social convention. In the 130). When reflecting on the public conviction of wake of the social purity movement that strove to Wilde in 1895 for his crimes of sodomy, Stead tries outlaw male lust, Wilde explores the sexual politics to rationalize Wilde’s lewd homosexual exploits and in the seduction of his female protagonists—spe- argues that: cifically Mrs. Arbuthnot in A Woman of No Importance (1893) and Lady Windermere in Lady Windermere’s If the promptings of our animal nature Fan (1892)—in such a way that suggests the futility are to be the only guide, the punishment of an ethical hierarchy which condones the sexual of Oscar Wilde would savour of per- transgressions of men at the expense of feminine secution, and he might fairly claim our purity. As a major proponent of the Fabian social- sympathy as the champion of individual- ist movement, Shaw was an advocate of women’s ism against the tyranny of an intolerant rights; an influence causing him to further denounce majority…If Oscar Wilde, instead of in- this degradation of women under corrupt patriar- dulging in dirty tricks of indecent famili- chal authority through the development of his au- arity with boys and men, had ruined the thoritative female characters, such as Vivie Warren lives of half a dozen innocent simple- in Mrs. Warren’s Profession (1893) and Gloria Clandon tons of girls, or had broken up the home in You Never Can Tell (1897). Both characters claim of his friend by corrupting his friend’s dominance over men in both the domestic and pub- wife, no one could have laid a finger lic spheres. While Wilde merely exposes the double upon him. The male is sacro-sanct: the standard of sexual morality as his female protago- female is fair game. (Stead 491-2) nists risk public shame for their susceptibility to male Although he regards Wilde’s homosexual transgres- vice, Shaw actively condemns oppressive notions of sions as abnormal conduct, Stead asserts that the so- proper womanhood to promote sexual tolerance in cial persecution of such deviant behavior ultimately Victorian society through various representations of sheds light on the accepted standards of Victorian the self-respecting woman. morality that tolerate the equally lecherous crimes Without compromising his reputation as a notori- of heterosexual men. Indicating the oppressive de- ously extravagant dandy whose penchant for hedon- mands for female purity within patriarchal society, istic pleasures was tolerated in nineteenth-century Stead claims that the established hierarchy of sex- high society, Wilde tested the hypocritical moral hi- ual morality would typically overlook similar acts erarchy that social purists strove to reform through of sexual deviance that are committed by men and his own transgressive behavior. Though Wilde re- rather exploit women. As he inadvertently called fused to support a movement that outlawed the sex- into question this double standard of Victorian

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sexual morality through his criminal acts of homo- As she tries to inform Illingsworth about the reper- sexual lust, Wilde further evaluated the need for a cussions of his lecherous actions that defamed her universal code of ethics in contemporary society in reputation, Mrs. Arbuthnot notes how the depraved the dramatic action of his societal comedies. This dandy continues to thrive in high society despite his code unfolds through the discourse of his morally similar sexual transgressions. Establishing her status dubious characters that uphold arbitrary decorum as a tragic character, Mrs. Arbuthnot acknowledges among the privileged class. the paradoxical hierarchy of moral values, which denounce her submission to male vice while con- Translating this marginal evaluation of the doning such acts of impurity among men, as she la- hypocritical hierarchy of Victorian ethics into the ments her ostracism from society. Though she first sexual politics between the men and women of his mourns her scorned existence outside of high soci- modern plays, Wilde constructs brief moral conflicts ety, Mrs. Arbuthnot refuses her son’s plea to marry for his female protagonists that merely assess the op- her vindictive seducer for the sake of salvaging her pressive demands for female purity under depraved reputation and insists that, patriarchal authority. While examining the evolution of his righteous female characters, Gregory Mackie I am disgraced; he is not. That is all. It is claims that Wilde portrays the dramatic action of his the usual history of a man and a woman plays only to analyze the moral outlooks of these as it usually happens, as it always hap- women. Mackie further states that, pens. And the ending is the ordinary ending. The woman suffers. The man The process of moral evaluation, how- goes free. (Wilde 161) ever, is limited by its being confined to a field of binaries and dualistic terms, While providing keen insight into the discrimina- and character development in these tory code of ethics imposed upon men and women, comedies is ultimately subject to a rela- Mrs. Arbuthnot seems to come to terms with her tively firm ethical. (and verbal) typology. status as a “fallen woman” who exists outside of this (Mackie 157) paradoxical moral hierarchy when she rejects social expectations of convenient marri age to reclaim her As the playwright assesses the moral position of purity. Despite the fact that her enlightened char- his female protagonists, Mackie argues that Wilde acter chooses to preserve her dignity over her so- limits the development of these characters within cial reputation, Arbuthnot ultimately evades taking a binary code of ethics in such a way that refrains an active stance against the degradation of women from obstructing the hypocritical hierarchy of sexu- at the hands of patriarchal sexuality and allows acts al morality. In exploring the perspective of a victim of male vice to persist through the social construct of male vice through the scorned Mrs. Arbuthnot’s of sexual morality. Thus, Wilde refrains from dis- social struggles in his play A Woman of No Importance turbing the rigid social structure, which perpetuates (1893), Wilde restricts her bout of moral enlighten- these discriminatory standards of feminine purity, ment to the dualistic expectations of female purity through the fleeting moral conflict of his female and male depravity as she endures public condem- protagonists and, in turn, only exposes the sexual nation for her weakness in the face of seduction. double standard in Victorian society. When she confronts her depraved seducer, Lord Ill- ingsworth, after experiencing years of public shame, In order to maintain this arbitrary decorum within Arbuthnot pleads that he leave their love child in her high society, Wilde further evaluates the paradoxical custody and bemoans that, nature of contemporary moral values through the witty discourse of his male and female characters I have had twenty years of sorrow, and I that provokes the vexing moral dilemma of his fe- have only had one thing to love me, only male protagonists. Analyzing the stylistic function of one thing to love. You have had a life the playwright’s dramatic language, Mackie decon- of joy, and pleasure, and success. You structs the epigrammatic dialogue shared between have been quite happy, you have never his male and female characters and asserts that: thought of us. (Wilde 139) 16 https://knightscholar.geneseo.edu/proceedings-of-great-day/vol2013/iss1/3 2 Webb: The Oppressive Institution of Victorian Sexual Morality as Repres

The structure of the epigrams that ap- While her righteous character struggles to commit pear in both dramatic dialogue and lists her own sexual transgressions against her husband of maxims is a matter of balance and for fear of social condemnation, Lady Windermere hierarchy, of setting contrasting terms internalizes this lexical opposition between the po- such as goodness and badness, virtue larized concepts of virtue and etiquette and fur- and vice, truth and lies, in opposition ther perpetuates Darlington’s notion of the worth- to one another, while maintaining the less ethical hierarchy that condones male depravity. structure of an ethical hierarchy that Although she moves to disrupt this moral double gives such oppositions their meaning. standard that often admonishes the sexual deviance (Mackie 156) of women rather than men, Lady Windermere refrains from challenging its oppressive structure in While juxtaposing the notions of good and bad patriarchal society by reassessing her personal code through the epigrammatic language of his morally of ethics once the play’s dramatic action reaches its dubious characters, Mackie claims that Wilde estab- abrupt resolution (Wilde 88). Through the marginal lishes equilibrium among such disparate concepts in development of his female protagonists’ moral con- this lexical opposition in an attempt to affirm the flict as represented in the epigrammatic dialogue of presence of a hypocritical moral hierarchy in Vic- his male and female characters, Wilde preserves the torian society. In his first play Lady Windermere’s Fan arbitrary decorum within Victorian high society that (1892), Wilde exemplifies this balanced contrast upholds this hypocritical hierarchy of sexual moral- through the clever exchange between the morally ity. upright Lady Windermere and the seemingly nefari- ous dandy, Lord Darlington, prompting the moral While Wilde merely tested the paradoxical construct conflict of his female protagonist and testing the of nineteenth-century Victorian morality through paradoxical expectations of sexual purity. When his own criminal acts of sexual deviance, George Lady Windermere expresses her belief in a univer- Bernard Shaw worked to overturn oppressive de- sal standard of moral conduct for a presumably hy- mands of ideal womanhood that derived from this pothetical case of male infidelity, Lord Darlington binary code of ethics as a result of his social activ- contests the absolute division between purity and ism. As a major proponent of the Fabian Socialist depravity in society and jokes that, “It is absurd to movement, Shaw expounded his belief that the ele- divide people into good and bad. People are either ment of humanity molds both men and women into charming or tedious” (Wilde 43). As he mocks the functioning members of society who make equal institution of Victorian morality through his witty contributions to its development. While the play- discourse with Lady Windermere, Lord Darlington wright believed in the human potential of both men undermines contemporary moral values through the and women in improving society, Sally Peters states dual disparity between ethical behavior and social that Shaw urged for the establishment of equal bearing that is posited in these epigrams and sug- rights among the sexes and explains that, gests the futile existence of this moral binary. Once Lady Windermere must choose between the forbid- [Shaw] asserted that ‘the denial of any den love of Lord Darlington and her duty to her al- fundamental rights’ to a woman is really legedly adulterous husband, she finds herself caught ‘a violation of the soul’ […] He saw his in this discrepancy of proper moral conduct and work as that of guiding the Fabians to- soon begins to question social demands for female ward a new society to benefit both men purity as she laments, and women. (Peters 19) And yet which is the worst, I wonder, In his public advocacy of such feminist principles, to be at the mercy of a man who loves Shaw denounced the lack of female involvement in one, or the wife of a man who in one’s the public sphere at the expense of social reform own house dishonours one? What wom- and, in turn, worked to subvert patriarchal edicts an knows? What woman in the whole of ideal domesticity and sexual purity that were in- world? (Wilde 73) flicted upon women. Demonstrating his adherence

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to Fabian Socialist doctrine, Shaw promoted the Though the insincere gentleman tries to appeal to gradual reform of social demands for proper wom- her pragmatic personality with his forthright terms anhood through his many works of modern drama, of a marriage of convenience, Vivie rejects this call which scrutinized such discriminatory standards of to her feminine duty of submissive domesticity so Victorian morality in support of his campaign for that she may focus on advancing within the working sexual equality. world and achieve her own economic means among her male counterparts. When she later faces much In the development of his provocative “discussion scrutiny from Praed and Frank Gardener for her plays,” Shaw openly condemns social conventions austere, unromantic character, Vivie dismisses their of ideal womanliness through the final resolution insistence on her necessary sentimentality and do- of their dramatic action that spawns from the moral mesticated nature as a woman and asserts that, conflict of his defiant, authoritative female characters. As expressed in his essay, “The Womanly Wom- You are welcome to any illusions you an,” Shaw argues that patriarchal expectations of fe- may have left on these subjects: I have male responsibility within the domestic and public none. If we three are to remain friends, I spheres deprive women of their individual rights as must be treated as a woman of business, equal members of society and maintains that, permanently single [to Frank] and permanently unromantic [to Praed](Shaw 86) Therefore Woman has to repudiate duty altogether. In that repudiation lies her Resisting the male influences that intrude upon her freedom; for it is false to say that Wom- space within the public sphere, Vivie discredits their an is now directly the slave of Man; she expectations of her responsibilities as a pious, deli- is the immediate slave of duty. (Shaw 44) cate woman and a doting wife by upholding her pro- clivity for self-reliance in such a way that contests By urging Victorian women to renounce their sense Victorian standards of love and marriage. She may of noble, self-sacrificing duty and assert their own not seem to triumph over patriarchal authority as she independence under patriarchal authority, Shaw fos- continues to fulfill her noble duty as a businesswom- ters the concept of an empowered, self-reliant woman under the dominant males of the working world. an who thrives in contemporary society. He further However, unlike her mother, who engaged in sordid illustrates this concept through the strong-willed fe- business after enduring the oppressive demands for male characters in his plays who thwart standards of proper womanhood, Vivie still asserts her independ- proper womanhood. In attributing typical masculine ence so that she may achieve her own respectable traits to the determined character of Vivie Warren means for economic success. Rather than limit the in his play Mrs. Warren’s Profession (1893), Shaw con- development of his female protagonists to the bi- structs the image of his autonomous female protag- nary of Victorian morality as illustrated in Wilde’s onist as she establishes her position within the patri- plays, Shaw fully explores their moral conflict to the archal public sphere in such a way that undermines point where their characters subvert the social con- expectations of her rightful duty to the household. struct of ideal womanliness and claim dominance After the influential Sir George Crofts offers her within patriarchal society. financial stability and high social standing through marriage, Vivie declines his proposal along with the Despite the fact that he portrays several of his fe- extravagant leisure of privileged high society when male protagonists in a conventional domestic role as she states, they fulfill their supposedly feminine duties of self- sacrificing love and sexual purity, Shaw manages to I am much obliged to you for being so permutate his conception of the independent, au- definite and business-like. I quite appre- thoritative women through the dramatic action that ciate the offer: the money, the position, unfolds within the domestic sphere in order to close- Lady Crofts, and so on. But I think I will ly scrutinize and subvert such patriarchal standards say no, if you don’t mind. I’d rather not. of ideal femininity. When he considers the helpless (Shaw 74) circumstances of ideal Victorian wives within the

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household, Shaw upholds that these women must womanliness in such a way that suggests the rightful assume a matriarchal position over their domestic independence of women through their matriarchal domain in order to reclaim their dignity and reasons authority acquired through domestic duty. that, “The self-respect she has lost as a wife she regains as a mother; in which capacity her use and Though both playwrights illustrate patriarchal de- importance to the community compare favourably mands for proper womanhood that are upheld with- with those of most men of business” (Shaw 40). By in Victorian society, Oscar Wilde and George Ber- attaining authority within a household that thrives nard Shaw convey their divergent perspectives on on their self-sacrificing duty, Shaw argues that wom- the social construct of sexual morality through the en can undermine the oppressive standards of ideal different magnitudes of dramatic action that devel- domesticity that demean their natural womanhood op the female protagonists in their respective works. and regain a sense of autonomy and self-worth Considering his own immoral behavior as a sexu- through their dominance. In the development of his ally deviant dandy within high society during the late female protagonist Gloria Clandon in his comedic nineteenth-century, Wilde restrains the moral con- play You Never Can Tell (1897), Shaw illustrates this flict of the righteous women in his plays—specifi- notion of female empowerment through domestic cally Mrs. Arbuthnot of A Woman of No Importance duty while her strong-minded character works to (1893) and Lady Windermere in Lady Windermere’s elicit her command over the institution of Victo- Fan (1892). He maintains arbitrary decorum in the rian marriage. As she struggles to protect her strong paradoxical hierarchy of ethics that condones male convictions against the affection of the lustful bach- depravity and merely exposes the double standard elor, Mr. Valentine, Gloria laments her lack of moral of Victorian sexual morality. Conversely, Shaw fully strength after she kisses him and admits that, “I am explores the social struggles of his strong-willed, au- one of those weak creatures born to be mastered tonomous female characters, such as Vivie Warren by the first man whose eye is caught by them; and in Mrs. Warren’s Profession (1893) and Gloria Clandon I must fulfil my destiny, I suppose” (Shaw 86). By in You Never Can Tell (1897), to subvert discrimina- conceding to her presumably natural sentimentality tory expectations of ideal womanliness and further as a woman overcome by passion, Gloria appears encourage social reform for women’s rights. While to revoke her self-reliant feminine identity and suc- Wilde eludes a disruption of the established ethi- cumb to patriarchal expectations of passive woman- cal hierarchy—which would overlook his crimes hood as she reluctantly pursues this love affair with of gross indecency in a heterosexual context—by her male counterpart. Once she learns that Valen- confining the development of his female protago- tine earns meager wages as a dentist, Gloria aggres- nists within the oppressive binary of sexual morality, sively embraces her suitor and takes it upon herself Shaw actively thwarts patriarchal demands for femi- to propose marriage when she declares, “Now let nine purity and noble domestic duty in developing us have no false delicacy. Tell my mother that we various portrayals of authoritative women who gain have agreed to marry one another” (Shaw 122). dominance in the domestic and public spheres in or- Knowing that the irresistible bachelor actually holds der to promote equality among the sexes. weak economic standing, Gloria moves to acquire control over Valentine through marriage so that she Works Cited may reclaim her self-respect as a morally upright, Foldy, Michael S. The trials of Oscar Wilde: deviance, autonomous wife within their household. Although morality and late-Victorian society. Wiltshire: she seems to compromise her self-reliant character Redwood Books, 1997. Print. in assuming the oppressive domestic duty imposed upon women, Gloria ultimately redeems the weak- Mackie, Gregory. “The Function of Decorum ness of her own principles as she gains dominance at the Present Time: Manners, Moral over this financially unstable patriarch and asserts Language,and Modernity in ‘an Oscar Wilde her independence. Thus, Shaw resolves the moral Play’.” Modern Drama 52.2 (2009): 145 – 167. struggles of his authoritative albeit conflicted female Web. 10 November 2011. protagonists who face oppressive demands for ideal

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Peters, Sally. “Shaw’s life: a feminist in spite of himself.” The Cambridge Companion to George Bernard Shaw. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1998. Web. 10 November 2011. Shaw, George B. “Mrs. Warren’s Profession.” Plays by George Bernard Shaw. New York: Penguin Group, 2004. 30 – 98. Print. Shaw, George B. “The Womanly Woman.” The Quintessence of Ibsenism. London: Walter Scott, 1891. 31 – 45. Web. 10 November 2011. Shaw, George B. You Never Can Tell. New York: Brentano’s, 1905. Print. Stead, W.T. “The Conviction of Oscar Wilde.” The Review of Reviews June 1895: 491 – 492. Web. 19 November 2011. Wilde, Oscar. “A Woman of No Importance.” The Best of Oscar Wilde. Ed. Sylvan Barnet. New York: Penguin Group, 2004. 102 – 173. Print. Wilde, Oscar. “Lady Windermere’s Fan.” The Best of Oscar Wilde. Ed. Sylvan Barnet. New York: Penguin Group, 2004. 38 – 99. Print.

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