Author: zogbie1

The Achilles Statue (Wellington Monument)

~ zogbie1 ~ 1 Comment

Achilles Statue Map 1Achilles Statue Map 2The Achilles Statue, or The Wellington Monument, is a bronze statue that rests in Hyde Park, London and was built by Sir Richard Westmacott in 1822. According to British History Online, its construction was subscribed by the ladies of England as a monument in honor of the Duke of Wellington and his military successes. It was received with a lot of controversy because it was the first nude statue to be put on public display in London. The statue features an entirely nude Achilles (save for a single olive leaf over his family jewels), his armor next to him, and his sword raised in the air preparing to strike. A writer of the Tour of a Foreigner in England wrote, “His [Westmacott’s] ‘Achilles,’ which has been erected as a monument to the Duke of Wellington, is merely a colossal Adonis.” Adonis is another character in Greek mythology, often used to describe handsome young men; he is a vegetation god that is eternally youthful and beautiful as well as a deity for life, death, and rebirth. I think the statement that Westmacott’s Achilles looks more like Adonis is fair, but this shouldn’t mean that Achilles wasn’t also a beautiful man–he was able to disguise himself as a girl on the island of Scyros. I think both Adonis and Achilles fall under the criteria of “pretty boys”.

In chapter 5 of Dorian Gray, Sibyl and Jim Vane approach the monument while in the middle of an argument. Jim claims that “as sure as there is a God in heaven, if he ever does you any wrong, I shall kill him” (Wilde). The people around them begin to stare and gape, “a lady standing close to her tittered” (Wilde). The argument continues on until they reach the Achilles Statue. When they fight in front of the statue, it is as if they are fighting in front of Dorian himself. Around all these wealthy people, people concerned entirely with appearance, Sibyl and Jim fighting in public further separates them from this society. They are crossing the public and private, by fighting about private matters in the middle of a public park, and these are two things that should remain entirely separate. Jim is embarrassing Sibyl with the ugliness of his words, because she is in love with Dorian. She immediately tells him, “Come away, Jim; come away” (Wilde) and leads him out of the crowd of people.

This relates to the themes in Oscar Wilde’s Dorian Gray in many ways. It speaks to this idea of translating people into art (what Basil wishes to do with Dorian) and capturing their beauty forever. The creation of the statue parallels Basil’s creation of Dorian’s portraits, in the sense that the beauty of these figures is being captured and translated into art, which will last forever, eventually outliving the people that inspired the art in the first place (something that perplexes and upsets Dorian). I think it’s easy to say that Dorian wishes to be Adonis, ever-youthful and beautiful, but I think that Dorian really wants to be Achilles, the statue itself. He wishes to be trapped in time, unchanging, unaging. This also relates to the theme of art, specifically the purpose of art, which Wilde addresses directly in this novel. Wilde, and other members of the aestheticism movement, are arguing that art shouldn’t have to serve a purpose, it should just be beautiful. The creation of the statue seemed to have to have been justified as a war monument for it to be able to be displayed, when it could have just been a work of art created solely to be looked on and enjoyed by the public.

2
Achilles Statue – Victorian Web

 

Sources:

“Achilles (The Wellington Monument).” The Victorian Web. The Victorian Web, 21 August 2006. Web. 16 December 2015. http://www.victorianweb.org/victorian/sculpture/westmacottr/2.html

Walford, Edward. ‘Hyde Park.’ Old and New London: Volume 4. London: Cassell, Petter & Galpin, 1878. 375-405. British History Online. Web. 14 December 2015. http://www.british-history.ac.uk/old-new-london/vol4/pp375405.

Wikisource contributors. “The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891).” Wikisource . Wikisource , 30 Sep. 2015. Web. 16 Dec. 2015.

 

Marble Arch

~ zogbie1

“At the Marble Arch they hailed an omnibus, which left them close to their shabby home in the Euston Road” (Wilde, Chapter 5).

Marble Arch

John Nash built the Marble Arch in 1828 as the main entrance to Buckingham Palace. After the palace was extended in 1851, the entirety of the Arch was moved to its current place as an entrance to Hyde Park. The design of the arch was based after the Arch of Constantine in Rome, built for the emperor Constantine, as well as the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, to commemorate Napoleon. Both of these arches were constructed as ways to commemorate the military accomplishments of these emperors, and as Jim and Sibyl are walking under the Marble Arch in London to go home, he is thinking about killing Dorian Gray. Sibyl is something that Jim feels he has to wage a war over to protect.

All three of these arches were built for royalty. Historically, only members of the royal family can pass through the Marble Arch in ceremonial procession, but Jim and Sibyl leave from here to return to their “shabby home” on Euston Road (Wilde).

The wealthy areas around the Arch. Yellow and red indicate middle class to upper class.
The wealthy areas around the Arch. Yellow and red indicate middle class to upper class.
Where Jim and Sybil live. The purple and blue areas indicate moderate to extreme poverty.
Where Jim and Sybil live. The purple and blue areas indicate moderate to extreme poverty.

This reflects several themes present in Dorian Gray. The theme of the royal, the beautiful, the private, being apart of the common, the ugly, the public. Several times throughout the novel these two separate spheres overlap, and I think Jim and Sibyl’s moment at the arch is no exception. The public and private spheres are two things that highly contrast each other, and there are examples of other extreme contrasts in this scene as well. The Arch was built for royalty, but was places in a public park. Jim and Sibyl pass through a monument meant solely for the royal family, but they are a poor family living in a shabby home. They hail an omnibus; public transportation. They are also non-wealthy people walking in a park surrounded by the wealthy, contrasting with the crowd around them.

1b

Sources:

“Charles Booth Online Archive.” Charles Booth Online Archive. Web. 16 Dec. 2015.

“Marble Arch by John Nash (1752-1835).” The Victorian Web. Ed. Jacqueline Banerjee. Brown University, 21 August 2006. Web. 16 December 2015.

Wikisource contributors. “The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891).” Wikisource . Wikisource , 30 Sep. 2015. Web. 16 Dec. 2015.

Achilles Statue (Wellington Monument)

~ zogbie1

Achilles Statue (Wellington Monument)

Achilles Statue (Wellington Monument)

(Achilles Statue – The Victorian Web)

 

 

 

 

 

Achilles Statue Map 1 Achilles Statue Map 2 Achilles Statue Drawing

 

The Achilles Statue, or The Wellington Monument, is a bronze statue that rests in Hyde Park, London and was built by Sir Richard Westmacott in 1822. According to British History Online, it’s construction was subscribed by the ladies of England as a monument in honor of the Duke of Wellington and his military successes. It was received with a lot of controversy because it was the first nude statue to be put on public display in London. The statue features an entirely nude Achilles (save for a single olive leaf over his family jewels), his armor next to him, and his sword raised in the air preparing to strike. A writer of the Tour of a Foreigner in England wrote, “His [Westmacott’s] ‘Achilles,’ which has been erected as a monument to the Duke of Wellington, is merely a colossal Adonis.” Adonis is another character in Greek mythology, often used to describe handsome young men, he is a vegetation god that is eternally youthful and beautiful as well as a deity for life, death, and rebirth. I think the statement that Westmacott’s Achilles looks more like Adonis is fair, but this shouldn’t mean that Achilles wasn’t also a beautiful man–he was able to disguise himself as a girl on the island of Scyros. I think both Adonis and Achilles fall under the criteria of “pretty boys”. 

This relates to the themes in Oscar Wilde’s Dorian Gray in many ways. It speaks to this idea of translating people into art (what Basil wishes to do with Dorian) and capturing their beauty forever. The creation of the statue parallels Basil’s creation of Dorian’s portraits, in the sense that the beauty of these figures is being captured and translated into art, which will last forever, eventually outliving the people that inspired the art in the first place (something that perplexes and upsets Dorian). I think it’s easy to say that Dorian wishes to be Adonis, ever-youthful and beautiful, but I think that Dorian really wants to be Achilles, the statue itself. He wishes to be trapped in time, unchanging, unaging. This also relates to the theme of art, specifically the purpose of art, which Wilde addresses directly in this novel. Wilde, and other members of the aestheticism movement, are arguing that art shouldn’t have to serve a purpose, it should just be beautiful. The creation of the statue seemed to have to have been justified as a war monument for it to be able to be displayed, when it could have just been a work of art created solely to be looked on and enjoyed by the public.

Sources:

http://www.british-history.ac.uk/old-new-london/vol4/pp375-405

http://www.victorianweb.org/victorian/sculpture/westmacottr/2.html

London Bridge

~ zogbie1

London Bridge

London Bridge was designed by John Rennie and completed in 1831. The construction of the bridge cost about 2 million pounds, spanning 928 feet long and 54 feet wide. The bridge accumulated a lot of foot traffic and public transportation such as omnibuses. According to The Victorian Web, it was estimated that 22,000 vehicles and 110,000 pedestrians crosses London Bridge daily. According to Old Bailey Online, there are countless documentations of crime on and around London Bridge, the most common crime being theft. With all of these people moving around in one 54-foot wide place it makes sense that one of the biggest crimes that occurred on the bridge was theft. This is theft of all kinds, the most common being pickpocketing, but it expanded to larceny, highway robbery, animal theft, and so on. The bridge was flanked by wharves, which are just places for boats to dock and unload their shipments, on either side. In Conan Doyle’s story, “Twisted Lip”, these wharves are the places that hide the opium den, “vile alley lurking the high wharves which line the north side of the river to the east of London Bridge” (128). The bridge gives the reader the geographic location of the opium den, on the east side of the bridge (east being where the poorer people live). “Between a slop-shop and a gin-shop, approached by a steep flight of steps leading down to a black gap like the mouth of a cave, I found the den of which I was in search” (128), a slop-shop is a shop where cheap, ready made clothes are sold and a gin shop is a liquor store. The reader already knows that this is a poor area. The image of “the mouth of a cave” gives the story a dark, grimy tone, and because it wasn’t hard for John to find, it makes me think that this is common knowledge, that if one is looking for an opium den, all you have to do is go to London Bridge.

30

 

Waterloo Place

~ zogbie1

Waterloo Place

 “And before he had time to speak she had slipped away, and the omnibus was turning ruthlessly down Waterloo Place.” “In Dull Brown”, Evelyn Sharp, 185

 

The story is all about transition, or attempted transition. Waterloo Place is only mentioned once in the entirety of the story, because it only needs to be mentioned once. The landmark itself acts as the transition between Jean leaving the bus for her stop at Picadilly Circus and him staying on the bus to wait for his stop, which comes later. Waterloo Place itself is a transitional place because of its reconstruction and it being almost a bridge between Regent Street and St. James Park. Edward Walford states in his article, “Waterloo Place and Her Majesty’s Theatre”, which can be found on British History, that around “the year 1815, some low and mean houses that stood between the market and Pall Mall were demolished…in order to form the broad and spacious thoroughfares of Lower Regent Street and Waterloo Place.” It now contains many statues and war memorials, such as “the Duke of York’s Column, the Guards’ Memorial, which was erected from the designs of Mr. John Bell… three bronze figures, representing a Grenadier, a Fusilier, and one of the Coldstream Guards” (Walford). Towards the East of the square is Her Majesty’s Theatre, or the Opera House, and “and extends north and south from Charles Street to Pall Mall” (Walford).

 

waterloo1

 

Waterloo Place used to be a poverty stricken area before it was entirely erased and rebuilt, all traces of filth and socioeconomic struggle conveniently removed from the architecture, designed by a Mr. Nash. As it’s shown on the Charles Booth online archive, in the years between 1898 to 1899, Waterloo Place was surrounded by middle class, upper middle class, and wealthy people.

 

Waterloo Place 1898-99

Jean wants to keep her origin a secret from him just like Waterloo Place wants to keep its origin secret from all of London It doesn’t want anyone to know that it came from slums and poverty and was torn town and rebuilt into wealth and stature.

Websites used:

 

The Act of “Frigging” in Victorian London

~ zogbie1 ~ 3 Comments

The very first article from The Victorian Dictionary that I read caught my eye because of it’s title: “Masturbation — warnings against”. Naturally, I had to read it and had to know everything about how masturbation was treated in Victorian London. It was both hilarious and disturbing to me that the act of “frigging,” as it was lovingly called, was treated as a literal disease that could possibly kill you. It also, strangely enough, only seemed to be an ailment that infected men, so naturally women had to be the cause of it, because women don’t masturbate (you can’t hear it, but this is sarcasm). My favorite part of this reading was when the narrator discusses a book he’s found that describes “the diseases caused by sacrificing to Venus” (Jackson). I love that, “sacrificing to Venus,” because it literally makes the act of “frigging” yourself seem like some kind of pagan mistake that you have to sell your soul in order to achieve. This is hilarious. He goes on to say, “The illustrations in the book, of faces covered with scabs, blotches, and eruptions, took such hold of my mind, that for twenty years afterwards, the fear was not quite eradicated” (Jackson). They literally make you afraid to touch yourself.

This article, aside from introducing me to the word “frigging”, along the many others that discuss sexuality on this site, made it very clear to me how the Victorians (especially the more formal, upper class) viewed sex and sexuality. It was a disease given to you by “loose, bad women” (Jackson) that you shouldn’t act on because if you do then you will literally die. It was dangerous and life threatening, and something that, if participated in, would lead to your eventual placement in a “madhouse” (Jackson). The Victorians were so dramatic. Maybe if they frigged themselves a little bit more then they’d be a lot more relaxed, and it would have saved a lot of time and energy that they were wasting blaming things on women (and Venus) that weren’t even their faults in the first place.

(http://www.victorianlondon.org/sex/masturbation.html)

Intro Post

~ zogbie1 ~ 3 Comments

My name is Emily Zogbi, I’m a junior and an English major with a minor in WGS (with the intention of getting two other minors in Communications and Creative Writing, but that is TBD). The extent of my knowledge about Victorian London consists of Sherlock Holmes and smog. I found it interesting that London was (is?) considered a “Modern Babylon”, but no city is “perfect”,  no matter how much it resembles a Renaissance. Where there is capitalism there is poverty and where there is poverty, their are people who are benefiting from that poverty (rich, aristocrats, etc.).

I hadn’t realized how much of a barrier between the north and the south the Thames created until they built the Westminster and Blackfriars bridges that connected them and “turning up its nose at the south bank was a luxury London could no longer afford” (Robinson). Those bridges, I would say, were the real start of this Modern Babylon, and allowed for the inclusion of almost all the people to participate in the modernization of the city. The advancement of technology, like trains, made London and it’s improvements accessible to more than just the aristocrats. However, this did not mean that there was an eradication of class struggle. The migration of the working class to the “railroad suburbs”, “left only the poorest in the East End and, by 1880, it had become a hellish slum, notorious for its poverty, vice and violence” (Robinson).

Another thing that stuck out to me was the mention of “slum clearance”, when wider roads had to be built to make room for the literal expansion of London: “Wider roads were also required, prompting the first phase of slum clearance. Around 120,000 people ultimately lost their homes” (Robinson). While London still eventually became overpopulated, this means to me that within capitalism, “prosperity” can’t happen without the displacement of poor people (Gentrification, anyone?). While the industrial revolution, the age of invention, the cool fashion, etc., is all very glamorous, it doesn’t change the grim parts of Victorian London, and I didn’t really expect it to.

Robinson, Bruce. “London: ‘A Modern Babylon’” BBC News. BBC, 11 Feb. 2011. Web. 25 Aug. 2015.