The Victorian Dictionary

The Park (Hyde Park), Final Project

~ Lizzie Gruhl

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Hyde Park, one of the must see sites in London. Being one of the only places in London full of lush green as far as the eye can see it was a get away from the hustle and bustle of city life.

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The Park was first meant to be a private hunting ground for Henry VIII. In 1637 the Park was opened to the public by Charles I. During the Victorian Era, the Park was a place of leisure for the “fashionable world”. You could be at leisure in Hyde Park but not for long. According to W.S. Gilbert, one was to be on their toes in the Park where there was action on every corner. He says, “in the inner mind you must be observant, prepared to enjoy either the solitude of the crowd, or to catch the quick glance, the silvery music of momentary merriment, then have a few seconds of rapid, acute dialogue, or perhaps be beckoned into a carriage by a friend with space to spare.” A time in the Park was a social gathering of the most fashionable in London, including Queen Victoria herself. She hated London but loved to be in the Park (R.D.Blumenfeld). Max Schlesinger says” By far more interesting, and indeed unrivalled, is Rotten-row, the long broad road for horsemen, where, on fine summer evenings, all the youth, beauty, celebrity, and wealth of London may be seen on horse-back.” Hyde Park was inhabited by the beautiful people of London and it was readily seen by all who went there.

hydepark poverty map
Hyde Park was surrounded by Upper Class, Upper Middle, and Middle Class

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In Oscar Wilde’s The Picture Of Dorian Gray, the Park is talked about a few times. Lord Henry brings up the Park first in chapter three. Dorian begs the Lord to allow him to go with him as he wants to listen to him talk some more. Lord Henry responds:

“Ah! I have talked quite enough for to-day,” said Lord Henry, smiling. “All I want now is to look at life. You may come and look at it with me, if you care to.”

Readers of the Victorian era would make the connection to the active social area that was Hyde Park. Lord Henry, who had a view of life that fascinated Dorian Gray, wanted to observe the life that would inevitably be happening in the Park.

The Park is mentioned again in chapter four.Dorian is talking to Lord Henry again and mentions how the Lord has inspired Dorian to observe those in the Park, as he did in the chapter before. He also mentions the Park when he is talking about his new found love, an Actress named Sibyl Vane. He describes her as an extraordinary woman, different than those fashionable women who “ride in the park in the morning and chatter at tea-parties in the afternoon”. Lord Henry and Dorian believe that beauty is what one needs to strive for in life. The ever changing beauty of the actress night to night appeals to Dorian more than the fashionable and traditional women who socialize in Hyde Park.

The Park is mentioned another time in chapter five. Sibyl and her brother James are planning to go for walk. Sibyl suggests a walk in Hyde Park but James says “I am too shabby,” he answered, frowning. “Only swell people go to the park.” Hyde Park’s reputation and normal visitors would be known by the reader and this line would ring true to them. The line also lends itself to an overwhelming theme of the importance of beauty in the novel. It is important to multiple characters to look their best and to stay that way, including the park.

In chapter 11 the Park is brought up again. Basil had just been question Dorian about his morals and how much he has changed. He talks about a past liaison of Dorian’s named Lady Gwendolen. Lady Gwendolen was an upstanding citizen until Dorian. Now not ” a single decent woman in London now who would drive with her in the park” (chapter 11). Dorian has apparently influenced this woman so much that she would not be able to be in the upstanding place that is Hyde Park. Basil saying these words and with what we know about Hyde Park, we know that Lady Gwendolen must have changed in a way that made her unfashionable and not suitable for the Park.
Dorian is back in the Park in chapter 18. He has joined a shooting-party with some elites of London. As they were shooting a hare had run in front of them into a bush where Sir Geoffrey Clouston then decided to shoot. When the shot rang out there were two screams, the one of the hare and the other of a man. In the end of the chapter we find out the man is none other then James Vane. James Vane had been stalking Dorian to get revenge for his sister death.When the hare had run past and Geoffrey Clouston readied himself to shoot at it, Dorian tried to get Geoffrey to not shoot at it. He had appreciated the look of the hare and did not want that to be taken away. When Clouston thought that to be ridiculous and shot anyway we are reminded that Dorian’s appreciation for beauty is much different then many others in the story. Vane himself had mentioned earlier in the story that he was too “shabby” to be in the Park. In a way it’s as if the Park has taken an extreme measure to retain it’s beauty when the “shabby” Vane is shot and killed instantly. 
In chapter 19 Lord Henry brings up the Park again when speaking to Dorian. In the end of the chapter Dorian is obviously not himself and Henry invites him to lunch and a visit to the Park the next day. Dorian does not want to go and asks if he must. Henry comes back and says of course he must, because “the Park is quite lovely this time of year” (chapter 19). Instead of saying something perhaps about spending time together or meeting with old friends it’s about seeing the beauty in the park because that is the only reason Henry wants to be there, to take in the natural beauty of the Park. 
The Park meant a lot to Dorian and Lord Henry alike. Mostly because the beauty that was there. Not only was the park naturally full of beautiful sights but only the beautiful people of London were there and both of our beauty obsessed characters knew that. They spent their time there to appreciate as much beauty as they could within England. 

 

Work Cited

Blumenfeld, R.D.B. “Diary: June 27, 1887”. Victorian London. Lee Jackson. Web. 17 December 2015.

http://booth.lse.ac.uk/cgi-bin/do.pl?sub=view_booth_only&b.l=3&b.d.l=3&b.p.x=8532&b.p.y=9481&b.p.w=500&b.p.h=309&b.p.l=4&b.p.p.l=5&b.t.w=128&b.t.h=96&b.v.x=259&b.v.y=150

<http://www.victorianlondon.org/entertainment/hydepark.htm>.

https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Picture_of_Dorian_Gray_(1891)/

abortion in London

~ Ashley Schluter ~ 3 Comments

Abortions – opinions
“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. So utterly repugnant is it, that I can scarcely express the loathing with which I approach the subject” (Gardner, 1894).  This quote is one that we could easily hear about this topic today, anywhere in the world. I had not known before that abortion had been such a hot topic for such a long time. I will not tell you my own views as I want to remain unbiased, however, most people do have an opinion on the matter.  “Jardien * (* Jardien, “Etude Medico-1ega1e sur l’infanticide.) reports that in thirty-four cases of criminal abortion, where their history was known, twenty-two were followed, as a consequence, by death. In fifteen cases, necessarily produced by physicians, not one was fatal” (Gardner, 1894). The author of this article is clearly against abortion, even in extreme cases he offers a secondary choice. With this statistic though, she offers a scientific reason why. The maternal death rate for abortions was high. This statistic references both clinical abortion and criminal abortion. That is another interesting fact I learned about the topic. I didn’t know that the Mother could be charged as a criminal for non-clinical abortions. I also learned, before these other facts, a little bit of the history of abortions and infanticide. “At Athens it was particularly girls and those of the inferior classes that  were condemned to death. The ancient Norwegians followed the same custom with regard to females when there were too many in the same family.
On the coast of Guinea, in Peru, and among the Hottentots, in a case of twin pregnancy, the feeblest was put to death, and in preference, the girl, when the sexes were different.
In Madagascar ,and New Granada and Greenland, when the mother died during or after confinement, her living child was buried with her.
In case of famine or misery in China, New Holland, Kamtchatka, they killed their children, as they formerly did in Athens” (Gardner, 1894). I learned a lot about this very touchy subject. Although it has not changed my own views it has surly lent a much deeper connection to the recent events of two very separate time periods. To have a hot topic which spans so vastly over the years is fascinating to me. I find this important because it lends a feeling of how things have and haven’t changed in the world. It also gives insite into how many places treated and viewed children, women, and body rights.

Gardner, Augustus. “Victorian London – Sex – Abortion – Opinions.” Victorian    London – Sex – Abortion – Opinions. 1894. Web. 27 Aug. 2015.

 

Katelynn Vyas Post # 2 “Ragged Schools”

~ Katie Vyas ~ 3 Comments

Author Lee Jackson in the article “Ragged Schools” from “The Victorian Dictionary” applicably quotes Victorian author and social commentator Charles Dickens in regard to the social plight of London and the construct of the “Ragged School” system, in an editorial from London’s Daily News. Although London was viewed as the “capital city of the world” paradoxically it was “a vast hopeless nursery of ignorance, misery and vice: a breeding place for hulks and gaols.” “Ragged Schools” were nondenominational, funded by a variety of charities and other “benevolent individuals.” They were few and far between. Those compassionate individuals who committed themselves to this construct had the notion that working class men and woman could be “reclaimed” from the “wretch and filth” of London’s industrial complex. Their goal was to save future generations from similar plights. It is important to note that prior to this time all students paid a tuition fee for attending school and few could afford the luxury (Jackson).

In his article, Jackson further notes that in 1844 the first attempt to provide academic instruction to the working class poor of London’s East End was initiated by a “society called the Ragged School Union” and notes that immediately afterward “two hundred of these schools were opened.” Jackson utilizes the “Jurston Street School to illustrate a typical ‘Ragged School’.” It “opened on Sunday evenings,” had an “average yearly attendance of 250 children” and was serviced by “25 teachers.” Jackson again provides a superb example of how the system worked by introducing Mr. Ainslie, a former student of a school in Windsor. Accordingly, Ainslie “had himself been a bad and abandoned man, who was reclaimed, and who now sat there, with his dirty face, teaching and doing more good than thousands of other of ten times his capacity.” Clearly, London’s “Ragged School System” provided a free education to the East End’s working class children while enabling them to overcome the economic, social and political hardships of the industrial society in which they lived (Jackson).

 

Jackson, Lee. “Dictionary of Victorian London – Victorian History – 19th Century London –Social History.” Dictionary of Victorian London – Victorian History – 19th Century London – Social History. Yale University Press, 3 Oct. 2014. Web. 26 Aug. 2015.<http://www.victorianlondon.org/index-2012.htm>.