Author: Autumn H

Prostitution in London

~ Autumn H ~ Leave a comment

Unlike society, Flora Tristan and Thomas Hood both have immense sympathy for the prostitute. Tristan argues that women’s dependencies on men is one of the main reasons prostitution, not only exists, but increases each year. Unlike society, Tristan has sympathy for the prostitutes because she realizes they are the aftermath of such rigid social rules for women. In “The Bridge of Sighs,” Hood describes a prostitute’s deathly jump of a prostitute to redefine her not as some awful outsider of society but a person in order invoke sympathy for her.

Tristan begins her argument with the repeated phrase, “I understand” in regard to dangerous jobs for men such as a sailor or a soldier. The phrases is repeated three times to emphasize its reduction in regard to prostitution: “But I cannot understand the prostitute, surrounding herself, destroying both her willpower and her feelings; delivering her body to brutality and suffering and her soul to scorn!” The line directs her to her main argument: a prostitute’s job can not only lead to physical death but a “moral death” as well, making it a far worse labor than a soldier or sailor.

Tristan feel strong sympathy for prostitutes because she believes women were pushed into this role due to inequality. She describes a prostitute as a woman who has been “pushed” from society because she does not have the same opportunities as men: “Yes, if you allowed her to have the same education, the same occupations and professions as the man, she would not be assailed by poverty more often than he.” Women, of course, were restricted to the home where they were to find a husband otherwise they would have no income. Even when married, the woman only existed in regard to her husband, in which her body became his property.

Once a woman is driven to prostitution, her body becomes a toy to the man. Tristan describes one amusement of the men: “One of the favorites is to make a girl dead drunk and then make her swallow some vinegar mixed with mustard and pepper; this drink almost always gives her horrible convulsions, and the jerkings and contortions of the unfortunate thing provoke laughter and infinitely amuse the honorable society.” The diction “honorable society” is meant as sarcasm, how can men possibly be “gentlemen” with this sort of behavior? How is it the woman’s fault? At the end of her essay, Tristan brings up the numbers: 80,000 to 100,000 women live by prostitution; 15,000 to 20,000 die each year and: “Every year an even greater number come to replace those whose frightful lives have ended.” More and more are become prostitutes.

Hood begins his poem with the mention of a prostitute’s death: “One more Unfortunate… / Gone to her death!” (1 and 4). He capitalizes unfortunate to suggest how it is a name for a prostitute, defining her as someone to feel pity for. He asks for someone to care for her: “Take her up tenderly, / Lift her up with care;” (5-6). This reminds me of the amusements mentions in Tristan’s article. Hood is trying to emphasize that the prostitute is human to and needs care, not someone you can just spit on or do whatever you will to.

To emphasize the sex worker’s humanity, Hood tries to think of her family. He asks: “Who was her father? / Who was her mother? / Had she a sister? / Had she a brother?” (36-39). These lines all rhyme together making the questions rush into each other. Hood is pondering the life the prostitute must have had before she worked on the streets. After all, the sex worker probably had a similar life to other middle-class women in London.

What is most irksome is Hood’s understand that the prostitute’s death was probably better than her life. As stated before, about a quarter of prostitutes die each year. Hood suggests their death is their only chance at peace: “Glad to death’s mystery, / Swift to be hurled– / Anywhere, anywhere / Out of the world!” (67-71). The repeated “anywhere” emphasizes the prostitute’s desperation to leave this cruel world and how can you not pity that?

Hood and Tristan both make good cases on why to sympathize with prostitutes. Tristan focuses more on the social and economic issues that cause the creation of the prostitute. Hood focuses on the emotionally of the prostitute to bring her back to a human level into society. Both pieces complement each other well.

Women and Liberty

~ Autumn H ~ 6 Comments

“Hints on the Modern Governess System” describes the role as a governess as an opportunity for lower class woman, but an opportunity for loneliness. The beginning suggests that the role of a governess would suit women because women were born for a quest for knowledge. The author refers to Genesis and the fall as women’s first documented quest for knowledge. It from this quest that men have punished women for suppressing women’s natural thirst, but this issue is slowly turning when more women remain single rather than get married (568). The increase in single women ignited the governess system because “Women must have bread as well as men…They found, if they would not sink in the scale, they must work with their heads, and not with their hands” (569). The role of the governess simultaneously for a task that allowed single, poor women to leave the home, while keeping wealthier women in the home to learn and eventually become wives. The idea of middle class women being able to learn from home was admired by the author. The author seemed to appreciate the governess role for that regard, but deemed the governess as a lonely job.

Charlotte Bronte seems to be playing with this scenario at extremely exaggerated levels to stress the importance for women to leave the home in Jane Eyre. Jane is happy to be able to. She becomes the governess to Adele in the Thornfield estate. Jane feels like she has a purpose and thus does not feel lonely nor misses ‘a home’ which she reveals to Mr. Rochester when he catches her walking the grounds at night and he says to her: “I should think you ought to be at home yourself” (183). Jane likes being away from home which is contrasted to the screams she hears from the attic. As the novel goes on, and the Mrs. Rochester is still missing, the screams suggest the wife’s desperation to escape the home. This idea opposes the argument in Fraser’s Magazine. Women like to be away from home and if they are not able to, they will feel trapped and are held as prisoner. Society wants women to remain in the home, but women do not feel the same.

 

Works Cited

Brontë, Charlotte. Jane Eyre. Ed. Richard Nemesvari. Toronto: Broadview, 1999. Print.

“Hints on the Modern Governess System.” Fraser’s Magazine November 1844: 567-577. Print

‘Man-Woman’

~ Autumn H ~ Leave a comment

Browsing through Lee Jackson’s “The Victorian Dictionary,” I found an article under Women’s Sexuality about a “Man-Woman”.  The article, titled “Hatton Garden. Extraordinary Case – A Man-Woman,” was written and published in 1835 as an investigative report. The article, essentially, tries to investigate a transgendered woman who goes by the name, Bill Chapman. Bill Chapman dresses in male clothes, is a ballad singer, and lives with Isabella Watson whom are “considered to be man and wife.” Bill is arrested for tricking the inspector into believing Bill is a man (at least it is suggested). Just from the article title alone, the author seems amazed by such a person. It seems there wasn’t a word for “transgender” so the very concept seemed very confusing, the author acts as if he has come across an important discovery for which he calls a “creature” in the first sentence. The author does not seem to condemn Bill Chapman, but just seems very confused on how to react or call him which reflects the time’s slim understanding of transgender people.

The characters in the article dehumanizes Bill because they are unsure what to call him since they cannot accept his identified gender. As I mentioned before, the author calls Bill a “creature.” The inspector, Oakley, calls Bill a thing: “…although the thing before them, that called itself Bill Chapman, was attired in man’s apparel, he had ascertained that it was a woman.” Because there is no word for transgender, the author and characters of the article don’t even identify Bill as human with their mention of “it,” “creature,” and “thing.” They dehumanize Bill in their lack of accurate diction.  Oakley then attaches the pronoun, she, to address Bill before revealing he’s known Bill for ten years. Oakley did not realize Bill was a woman until recently which (it is suggested) is what leads to his arrest.

Transgender people were not only neglected under any form of gender identification, they were also outside the law. Bill is arrested for “being a common cheat and impostor, and creating a disturbance.” When comparing this statement to Oakley’s long-belief that Bill is a man, it seems Bill is arrested because Oakley felt tricked.  Yet, Bill did not break any law as Mr. Bennet states: “I know of no law to punish her for wearing male attire.” However, this does not mean society accepted transgender people. As Oakley points out, he would like to punish Bill, but he has no valid reason to do so. Bill and transgender people are so outside of society there is no law against their choice in attire.

To even make the reporter’s account of the story more unreliable, the author points out that the reporter got the height of Bill and Isabella wrong. This odd note at the bottom emphasizes how confused society was of transgender people.

Yet, we still have this confusion of transgender people today because the English language lacks gender-neutral pronouns. I found this piece very intriguing because of that correlation. Even take the last line of the article, “…although this strange being had lodged for a number of years at the house alluded to, it was never known it was a woman, though at the same time it was never supposed that the creature was a man.” I often find people calling a transgendered person a “he/she” because a gender-neutral pronoun is uncommon. The lack of inclusion of queer people in society is still very relevant today.

Work Cited

“Sinks of London Laid Open.” Victorian London Dictionary. Web. 13 February 2016.

http://www.victorianlondon.org/index-2012.htm

Introduction & Wit

~ Autumn H ~ 1 Comment

Hi, my name is Autumn Holladay. I am an English major with minors in Creative Writing and Film & Video Studies with a concentration in production. My favorite authors are T. S. Eliot, William Faulkner, Carson McCullers and Robert Penn Warren.

Pride and Prejudice mocks James Fordyce’s Sermons for Young Women, even though the text had some value to the principles of the time. First off, as a way of introducing the text in PAP, Mr. Collins picks out the Sermons to read to the Bennet family, yet, can only read three pages before Lydia interrupts him and offends him: “I have often observed how little ladies are interested by books of a serious stamp, though written solely for their benefit…there can be nothing so advantageous to them as instruction” (Austen 103). Austen comments on this belief through Mary Bennet: the only sister who reads such conduct books and, ironically, is the sister with the least amount of suitors. Both Mary and Mr. Collins study conduct books and apply them to the real world, in which the conduct codes ultimately fail. Mary has read that a lady should be accomplished in music and the arts. She applies this code by singing and playing the piano at Bingley’s ball, yet it does not work out. She takes it too far and the audience is bored; Mr. Bennet must tell her to stop. The code does not work in a real world setting.

James Fordyce was a clergy man like Mr. Collins who tried to seek fortune in London. The Sermons include an essay meant to dissuade women from making witty remarks since men would be less likely to marry because “every wit is a critic by profession” and thus would not make a peaceful marriage (400). As an argument against this, Elizabeth’s wit is what attracts Mr. Darcy to her first, rather than her looks or her accomplishments. In fact, out of all of the Bennet sisters, Elizabeth has three marriage proposals from: Mr. Collins, Mr. Wickham and Mr. Darcy and is the wittiest of the sisters. Her wit also leads her to decline all of them before agreeing to Mr. Darcy. From this point, it seems clear Pride and Prejudice works as an argument against such Lady Conduct books.