Havelock Ellis’ Sexual Inversion was written long after, and obviously makes reference to, The Picture of Dorian Gray, but the imagery that Wilde uses is reflected in Ellis’ description of the sexually inverted boy. There are moments when the resonance in ideas and language is practically uncanny. The third paragraph in Chapter IX of Dorian Gray describes Dorian’s rising infamy in London as well as how that infamy is undermined by his beauty. In the excerpt from Ellis, he is interviewing H.C., a young male sex worker who goes by the name Dorian Gray. Ellis’ description of H.C. is eerily similar to how we read Dorian described early in the novel. The more encompassing connection however, is that for both of them, their outward beauty is a tool and a mask that allows them to commit many sins with seemingly little reproach. Despite his profession in the sex work industry, which even to this day is considered “sinful” and morally corrupt, H.C. is described by Ellis as having the “beauty of an angel” and his voice the “purity of a clarinet.” These kinds of descriptions are commonly reserved for people — particularly women, which connects this to some of the other readings about Urnings having a feminine spirit — who are considered morally and spiritually pure. Similarly, on page 91, Dorian is described as having “the look of one who kept himself unspotted from the world.” His beauty is so pure in fact, that “his mere presence seemed to recall to them the innocence they had tarnished.” These two young men are able to operate, somewhat, successfully as “sinners” because their outward “purity” makes their critics doubt themselves rather than doubt the beauty of the boys.
19th Century Gender
Female Body as Commodity
Tristan begins her chapter on sex workers of London in the Victorian Period with an explanation of why they exist in the first place. Her argument is that all sex work is survival sex work. She says that their existence stems from the inequality of the sexes, particularly in England. The culture that places stigma on pre-marital sex for women, but does not instill that stigma for men invites this job as a remedy. It means that men can seduce or abuse young women with no risk to themselves, but at the cost of destroying those women’s lives. A woman must marry in order to assure a living for herself , because she is not allowed the same “occupations and professions” that allow for a living wage. However, in doing so she gives up her existence. Tristan describes this as choosing “between oppression and infamy.”
Tristan also blames the materialism and capitalism of an industrialized England. The more money accumulated by the upper classes, the poorer the poorer classes get. The more money these men get, the more they have to spend on the sex workers that they are creating by exploiting the poor classes that they come from. She describes seeing in a “finish” a beautiful Irish girl, who later that night she saw on the floor, her dress ruined, because people kept throwing drinks on her. She also describes seeing men create orgies in these finishes, in clear view of others, because they paid so much money that they should have that right. Tristan is describing a market of women’s bodies; where, rich men use them as things to consume and throw away, a growing symptom of the wastefulness of the industrial age. The actual humanity of these women do not matter, and is in fact ignored. When a sex worker is found struggling for breath after a john abuses her for allegedly giving him a disease, the man is not charged with any crimes towards the woman, but rather a crime for disturbing the peace of the neighborhood.
Hood’s poem, describing the body of a sex worker who committed suicide by jumping into the river, takes a stance on the “purity” of this woman. The speaker says to think “Not of the stains of her, / All that remains of her / Now is pure womanly.” And in the final stanza says “Owning her weakness, / Her evil behaviour, / And leaving, with meekness, /Her sins to her Saviour!” The implication of these words is that only through death could this woman receive any kind of forgiveness. She has done the noble thing by taking herself out of this world and placing her soul in the hands of God. Tristan says in her essay “To brave death is nothing; but what a death faces a prostitute! […] moral death all the time, and scorn for herself! I repeat: there is something sublime in it, or else it is madness!” The poem sees something sublime in her death, but sees her life as pitiful. It demands respect for her dead body that she would not have been given in life.
Prostitution and Blame in Victorian London
Flora Tristan views prostitution in England during the Victorian Period as something like a disease, a “diabolical debauchery” that women were forced into by economic necessity, hunger, and inequality between the genders.
Tristan uses forceful language to express her disgust at the way prostitutes conduct their daily business and are forced to live their lives, as well as the lack of “commiseration for victims of vice” through the church or society. She also blames England’s greed (primarily the growing market economy/ public sphere) and corruption alongside rigid gender expectations. With growing poverty came a need for women to provide for themselves in any way they could. The “love of money” breaking down the young man’s wants for domestic affection or compassion further aggravated treating the women like animals. Overall, Tristan does not blame the women for their profession, saying that they are “driven to” it, placing her ire toward English society.
Victorian Opinions on Abortion
Abortion is a topic that has been argued both for, and against, for hundreds of years; nowadays the argument is pro-life versus pro-choice. The article that I read on Lee Jackson’s “Victorian Dictionary” is basically a very long rant that negates the practice of abortions. Augustus Gardiner, a physician in 1894, is the author of such an article. From the very first line we see his viewpoint on the topic of abortion; “Of all the sins, physical and moral, against man and God, I know of none so utterly to be condemned as the very common one of the destruction of the child while yet in the womb of the mother.” The article then goes on to talk about all the places in the world that practice infanticide and the reasons for such a practice. He mentions places like Greece and China and Sparta, places that practice infanticide due to deformities or religious practices, etc. These places are meant to serve as juxtaposition to England because the women in England were getting abortions due to “selfish” reasons. Gardiner states that the women would rather face “the heinousness of the sin; the possibility of death immediate and painful; the likelihood of prolonged illness and future debility; [and] the chance of a blighted being constantly before the sight…” rather than have their children. Gardiner really plays on the ethos of the people of the time by focusing on the fact that killing a child is an act against God.
The only credibility Gardiner has is that fact that he is an actual physician who probably encounters women seeking abortions on a daily basis. Unfortunately, it is known that the Victorian era was a time when women were seen as property whose only real purpose was bearing children and staying at home to cook and clean and raise those same children. Though I am not condoning abortions, I feel as though the women who were brave enough to seek abortions or even desperate enough to attempt to do it themselves were really women speaking out and taking back a piece of themselves that was given away the second they said, “I do.” Gardiner also contradicts himself at times. He states, “we can forgive the poor, deluded girl-seduced, betrayed, abandoned-who, in her wild frenzy, destroys the mute evidence of her guilt…But for the married shirk, who disregards her divinely ordained duty, we have nothing but contempt…” If abortion were truly evil then wouldn’t it make sense that it would be a sin to every woman who had one? Not just the married ones? This quote further supports my idea that his real anger is directed at the married women who did not really exist in the eyes of the law and of men.
Works Cited
“Victorian London – Sex – Abortion – Opinions.” The Conjugal Relationships as Regards Personal Health & Hereditary Well-being. Victorian London Dictionary. Web. 14 February 2016.
Lee Jackson’s Abortion Article: Here
Exploring the Victorian Lady’s Dressing Room
My entry from Lee Jackson’s “Victorian Dictionary” relates to feminine attractiveness in the Victorian Era. Taken fromThe Lady’s Dressing Room, the excerpt provides a preface to the author’s advice on how to retain beauty. It was intended for a specific audience: married women committed to charming their husbands.
The text is from 19th Century French etiquette author Baroness Staffe’s work. The translator, Lady Colin Campbell (Gertrude Elizabeth Blood) was a journalist and writer. She was also involved with a few divorce scandals, which is interesting when paired with the text’s intended audience. I’m still not sure whether or not it should be read as satire, and couldn’t find much additional info online for it.