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Man for the hearth and woman for the field man to command and woman to obey (The Princess). This poem, by Tennyson, which noted the restrictive lifestyle led by many women, is one view of the Victorian Era. Women, during the late nineteenth century, were expected to follow strict rules of deportment; their lives were based around their family and home; great emphasis was placed on materialism, appearances and the opinions of others. Many historians believe that in some ways, the Victorian Era was, for women, a time of little or no identity. However, other historians disagree. While they maintain that the Victorian Era imposed upon women a lifestyle that was very restraining and limiting, it was also a century of empowerment. More and more women were speaking up against social inequality and sexism; the suffrage movement was gaining strength; and, by the beginning of the twentieth century, more rights had been granted to women than ever before. To these historians thinking, rather than a period characterized by loss of identity, it was an era dedicated to finding one. This difference in views was most usually characterized by what class the historian focused on. Those who looked only at the middle to lower class found the former assumption to be most accurate; those who, however, examined the upper and more affluent classes agreed with the latter. The majority of literature written about Victorian women focuses on the lower and middle classes, as they represented the majority, though by no means the most powerful, of Victorian society. Women at Home in America, which focuses completely on the Victorian middle class, states that woman at the time took up residence as the angel in the house (Women at Home xi). The author, Ellen Plante, goes on to suggest that the main aim of Victorian women was to take care of their husbands, giving them the physical comfort necessary to allow them to perform well as citizens outside the home (Women at Home 32). In later chapters, she talks about the glorified domestic scene, what Betty Freidan once referred to as the artificial pedestal of the Victorian woman (Feminine Mystique 340). Women at the time, who were expected to oversee every small aspect of their home, as its appearance reflected greatly upon them, were confined to the home and to a private life by the rigid boundaries of their role (Women at Home 38). Essentially, throughout the rest of the book, discussing motherhood and social engagements, she grants the Victorian woman no identity, limiting her being to merely the caretaker of others. While she focuses mainly on everyday life rather than going deeper into the effects thereof, which causes her research to be somewhat shallow, the general conclusion she reachesof the Victorian female as a woman who often sacrificed hopes and dreams, ambitions, talents to devote herself fully to home [and] family (Women at Home xiii)reflects the theory of self-enfacement. Another historian who also carries this view of Victorian women is the aforementioned Betty Freidan. While her book, The Feminine Mystique, explores the social problems of the women of her time, her analysis of the problem that has no name goes back directly to the theory of identity crisis for the Victorian woman. She talks about what many historians view the females of the nineteenth century as experiencing. Society encourages women to ignore the question of their identity says they can answer the question Who am I? by saying Toms wife Marys mother (The Feminine Mystique 126). She also talks about the sexual sell and how materialistic obsession can lead to a loss of identity (The Feminine Mystique 298). This sense of materialism was an enormous part of the middle class during the Victorian Era, and, as Freidan believed, caused women to devote a large amount of their energy and creativity into buying products. According to The Feminine Mystique, consumerism gave women a false sense of purpose, causing their search for a true sense of identity to end before it had begun (The Feminine Mystique 301). Of course, Freidan is not speaking directly to the Victorian female, and so much of what one gathers from her writing comes from inference and application, making her a less-than reliable source. Other historians took the opposite view when approaching the Victorian Era. For example, when writing about women in the 1800s for an anthology, Coline Jenkins-Sahlin chose to focus on such powerful feminists as Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucretia Mott and Mary Ann McClintock. In her article, she speaks of Stanton, Motts and McClintocks work on the Declaration of Sentiments, the first decisive record of the feminist goals. She elaborates most upon Stantons life, painting a portrait of a liberated, intelligent young woman, determined to experience all the world has to offer. Nowhere does Jenkins-Sahlin betray any weakness in Elizabeths character, any of the purposeless, self-effacing qualities of traditional Victorian woman. To Jenkins-Sahlins mind, it was in the latter half of the nineteenth century that a growing number of women [took] to the streets and risk[ed] their lives and reputations to ensure their rights (33 Things 22). Admittedly, Jenkins-Sahlins heroines are of the aforementioned affluent classStantons father was a prominent judgebut her research is flawless and her passion real, giving a very different view of the Victorian woman than presented by Betty Freidan and Ellen Plante. Victorian Women Poets: Writing Against the Heart espouses a similar view as does the article by Jenkins-Sahlin. Angela Leighton, who wrote the book, considers the women writers of the Victorian Era and their strong personality in literaturea personality that certainly couldnt be erased for the household pedestal. In her work, she focuses on the force of femalesparticularly female writersduring the late nineteenth century. These writers did not limit themselves to the appropriate feminine sphere, instead pushing boundaries to achieve genius; looking beyond the acceptable domestic romances they were supposed to convey to produce works that stood the test of time. While not strictly related to the womens movement, these females embodied everything the suffragettes stood forbreaking out of the mold; freedom; the search for equality and brilliance in a mundane, domesticated world. According to Leighton, feminist theory, in all its diversity seems to return (Victorian Women Poets 5). Once again, the writers she examines are mainly from the wealthy class, following the trend found in the Victorian rights movement. And her research is too narrow to be fully applied to a wide sphere. But the message she sends is the same as Jenkins-Sahlin: Men, their rights and nothing more; women, their rights and nothing less (33 Things 22). Like every story, there are two sides to the much-debated Victorian woman. Some historians maintain she was a wife and mother; the secret support for others; the silent, absent generation. Others believe her to have been a fiery feminist who changed the world and left her mark permanently on the past, present and future. And while these views differed depending upon which social class the author examined, whether one of these theories is more correct than the other is difficult to determine. It takes different people to make up a world and different ideas to create an era. Perhaps both the angel in the house and soldier of equality existed in the heart of every Victorian womena mixture of the two which was, in the end, its own identity. Works Cited Friedan, Betty. The Feminine Mystique. 5th ed. New York City: W.W. Norton & Company Inc., 1963. Jenkins-Sahlin, Coline. "The Women's Declaration." 33 Things Every Girl Should Know About Women's History. New York City: Crown, 2002. 14-22. Leighton, Angela. Victorian Women Poets: Writing Against the Hea |