After the death of Sibyl Vane, Lord Henry sends Dorian Gray a book that so rapidly consumes him that he begins to blur the lines between fiction and reality. About the book and Dorian’s perception of it, Wilde writes, “The hero, the wonderful young Parisian, in whom the romantic temperament and the scientific temperament were so strangely blended, became to him a kind of prefiguring type of himself. And, indeed, the whole book seemed to him to contain the story of his own life, written before he had lived it” (Wilde 91). Through Lord Henry’s book, Dorian finds a connection between the beautiful hero’s story and his own. He begins to act like the hero in the book, but with the caveat that unlike the hero, Dorian’s own looks go untarnished. Without fully realizing it, Lord Henry, who is often so quick to advise Dorian, teaches him how to behave through his book. In a similar vein, John Addington Symonds in his work “A Problem in Greek Ethics” writes about the Dorians, an ancient Greek peoples, “… The lover taught, the hearer learned; and so from man to man was handed down the tradition of heroism, the peculiar tone and temper of the state to which, in particular among the Greeks, the Dorians clung with obstinate pertinacity” (Symonds). Lord Henry, who loves Dorian, provides him with a role-model, the hero of the book, and Dorian latches onto it unceasingly.

Through Dorian’s name, Oscar Wilde creates a connection between the character and the ancient Greeks, and this connection is only strengthened with the addition of Lord Henry’s teachings. Dorian looks upon the book Lord Henry gives him as a document of his own life. He takes Symonds’ idea about the Dorians and brings it a step further, to the point that instead of merely learning from it, Dorian lives his life as art. This imitation comes directly after Sibyl’s death, a scene that Dorian relates as “her finest tragedy” (Wilde 75), which already shows his inability to distinguish between reality and art. He becomes a character in his own life, and as he becomes more and more engrossed in his own story he alienates those around him.

An interesting aspect of Flora Tristan’s discussion about Victoria prostitution was her own involvement in the story that she wrote. Instead of simply speaking with prostitutes, she goes a step further and explores late-night, underground London, entrenching herself within an environment that becomes openly hostile towards her. I found it depressing that she had to be accompanied by two men “armed with canes” in order to feel remotely safe, and even then the trio was still berated. It must have taken an impressive amount of courage to willingly submit herself to the things that she saw in the “finishes”, and her account is all the more powerful because of it. Instead of hearing stories told from others, we get a first-hand tale of wild masochism and debauchery fueled by an economic rift between classes. The oppressive male gaze is dominant throughout the entire article, and I think that this relates towards Thomas Hood’s “The Bridge of Sighs”, in which his gaze is so prominently focused on.

Hood’s poem however has a different overall tone to it. The men in Tristan’s critique all exert their power over women, while Hood uses his gaze as a way of imagining what the object, a young dead woman, of his poem’s life was like before her death. While he focuses specifically on her body, he also imagines her family life in a way that seeks to humanize rather than sexualize her. Like Tristan, he laments the fate of the prostitute and considers the situation that has caused her to kill herself. Instead of blaming prostitutes, Tristan and Hood blame the society that has effectively forced these women into their profession without choice. Both the article and the poem critique the societal double standard as they relate to men and women (specifically lower-class women) and try to humanize those whose actions have been impressed on them by a ruling, male majority.

Governesses in Victorian times fulfilled a crucial role that came out of a need for a cheap, albeit formal system of education. Many families could not afford to send their daughters away to school, and so the occupation arose as an alternative. This is stated in more specific terms in the article, “Hints on the Modern Governess System”, where it’s written, “The policy of the world is to take advantage of want. It became apparent that a whole family of daughters might be taught by one of these single women, struggling for bread, for less than it formerly cost to send one girl to school. Where competition was so great, there was no difficulty in driving a bargain” (567). This bargain, while on one hand allowing more young women to improve themselves through the teaching of governesses, also resulted in a lowering of salary for many of these teachers. The article refers to this in very economic terms that almost serve to disconnect the reader from the idea that the governesses were often paid next to nothing for their services. In connection with this, the article continues by deploring the treatment of governesses. In their positions, governesses were often treated as subservient to everyone in the house hold and they were seen as living a distinctly solitary life. Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre sheds some light on this matter, and the eponymous Jane is able to exemplify the role of governess while also transcending some of the boundaries that these women faced.

After serving at Lowood for eight years, Jane, who feels stuck at the school, finally wants to leave. However, because she is an orphan and has no friends or relations outside of the school, finds this rather difficult. Instead of asking for outside help, she creates an advertisement for her services as a governess and is quickly offered a position. This new occupation pays twice as well as her teaching job at Lowton and she is able to attain at least a little bit of the freedom she had desired. However she soon grows restless in her new position. The house where she serves, Thornfield, is a much quieter place than she had expected. Jane says, “It is in vain to say human beings ought to be satisfied with tranquility: they must have action; and they will make it if they cannot find it. Millions are condemned to a stiller doom than mine, and millions are in silent revolt against their lot” (Bronte 178). Speaking as Jane, Bronte gives a voice to all of the governesses who became stuck in their positions.  At this point Jane has left one unfulfilling situation only to find another. Fortunately for her however, everything changes when Mr. Rochester arrives. Unlike the governesses in “Hints on the Modern Governess System” who are often treated as subservient beings, Jane becomes an object of attention for Mr. Rochester and he begins to treat her with more respect and interest than anyone else in the house. This turn in Jane’s life is a display of Bronte’s knowledge of the governess life. Jane feels the weight of the problems expressed in “Hints on the Modern Governess System” but she is able to avoid the full brunt of their effects, and therefore we see her role as a governess as a largely positive one. Through this, Bronte is able to both reveal issues within the governess system and applaud it for its positive facets.

Works Cited

Brontë, Charlotte. Jane Eyre. Peterborough, Ont.: Broadview, 1999. Print.

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

Lee Jackson’s Victorian Dictionary contains a multitude of passages that deal strictly with the “proper” diet of a woman living in the Victorian era. In The Lady’s Dressing Room, Baroness Staffe lays out her comprehensive ideas on what exactly a woman of the time should and should not eat. She writes, “In order to avoid growing old (that bankruptcy for the sex!), nourish yourself with food, light, but nutritious and varied, according to the seasons” (Staffe 254). Here Staffe is promising the maintenance of youth, or at least the appearance of youth, by proposing a simple dietary regimen. This promise of youth is problematic because she immediately aligns it with women by saying that aging is the ultimate bane of the sex. She isn’t validating her diet by its health benefits but by how it will keep dieters looking young, and therefore more palatable for a male audience.  She goes on to describe a meal that is so sparse, it should hardly count as a meal at all. She recommends only a glass of milk for the first course of the day, followed by “an egg and a vegetable” (254) for the second breakfast. Finally she proposes to dine at six at night, and to “not have too great a number of dishes”.  With a meal plan like this it’s shocking that any women survived the Victorian era at all. Staffe values fruits and vegetables, which is commendable, but she goes on to so urgently detest other foods on the bases that they will somehow mar the complexion, that her overall premise is laughable.  After discussing a woman who lived almost solely off oranges for forty years she writes, “I cannot say I advise such a diet, but certainly the prettiest women are generally as frugal as camels in their food” (259).

Staffe urges moderation but then goes on to cite and commend various women who eat nearly nothing, in apparent contrast with some of her earlier advice.  She operates under the guise of a helping hand; she offers her ideas as a way of attaining beauty and youth, and while she has a few sound concepts, the rest of her advice is so unhealthy that it taints everything else written. Her ideas are often contradictory, and as a result, the only logical conclusion that can be gleamed from her advice is that while she may view her proposed diet positively, it would be both difficult and unhealthy to implement it in Victorian times. The result is a telling piece of indoctrination that tries to compel its readers through manipulation and fable rather than solid rationale.

Works Cited

Staffe, Baroness. “Feminine Diet: Nourishment.” The Lady’s Dressing Room. Victorian London     Dictionary. Web. 14 February 2016.

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