Domesticity In Victorian England Essay

The Victorian period brought enormous changes into the United Kingdom’s social and economic systems. The industrialisation prompted the growth of towns and cities, and as a consequence, society needed to adjust to these new circumstances. Class and gender were still lead by rigid hierarchies, although by the late Victorian period there were more and more voices appealing for an improvement of workers’ rights and gender equality by proto-feminist movements. Therefore, there were hints of what was to come in the decades to come. Still, social hierarchies were still the norm, and most individuals’ whole lives would be determined by factors such as their surname or their income. The Victorian obsession with class and gender meant that it would be captured in the period’s narratives. This is clearly recognizable in Wilkie Collin’s Basil and Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest. However set these hierarchies might have seemed to be, Sascha Auerbach points out in one of his articles how there is a ‘fluidity of class and gender identities and their relationship to morality and domesticity in Victorian England.’ We will examine

The questioning of social norms can be seen in the passage in which Gwendolen asks Jack to marry her. It was also Jack’s intention, but her forward and brave attitude comes across as modern, and even nowadays it is not the usual move for a woman to ask a man to marry her. In this way, Wilde is breaking the rules. Another example would be when Gwendolen and Cecily overcome their rivalry when they realise they both have been fooled by the two male characters. This kind of sisterhood could be seen as positive when it comes to gender roles, as many times women were represented as people that would pit against each other. This favourable representation is a test of gender rules because it challenges the idea that is usually given about