The nuptial contrasts are the poles / on which the heavenly spheres revolve.
- Coventry Patmore, "The angel in the House"
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The theory of separate spheres cultivated in the Victorian Era by aid of proponents such as Queen Victoria, John Ruskin, Coventry Patmore, and John Stuart Mill, to name a few. This page will explore the toxic effects of the theory of separate spheres through the lives of men and women, specifically with the concepts of gender and nation.
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The Theory of Separate Spheres
Gender equality existed in 19th-century England. You're probably thinking, What? That's crazy. I thought women didn't have the right to vote, and they were basically the property of their husbands. You're right, but it's not the kind of equality where women usurp thousands of years to makeup for lost time; it's the kind of equality that relates to the theory of separate spheres. What did equality look like in Victorian Era Britain? John Ruskin can tell you exactly what it should look like.
Credit: The School of Life
From this video we learn that Ruskin's political theories were influenced by his eye for detail. He contemplated much of his time over why the world looked so ugly. His frequent trips to beautiful Venice were retreats from dismal industrial life in London. This carries over into his views on women's place in Victorian society; his views on capitalism reflect his desire for a proper place for every worker, therefore extending to every woman. Take a highly-intelligent man, for example. Ruskin would argue that this man would not be so suitable to work in the underground mines where work is produced by hand. His role would better suit a faculty position at a university to spread his wisdom and knowledge (psst, this man is Ruskin, a professor at Oxford). Ruskin enjoyed drooling over beautiful architecture with pristine balance, which is exactly how he preaches gendered ideology in his essay, "Of Queen's Gardens."
Pictured on the right is one of Queen Victoria's private gardens. From the title, Ruskin dedicates this essay to eloquent beauty found in the balance of architects well-praised for their thoughtful design. He finds aesthetic balance in every staircase and fountain. This symmetry falls in line with the theory of separate spheres regarding gender roles. A list below shares how he defines men and women:
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Man's Sphere
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Women's Sphere
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The theory of separate spheres essentially carves the home to be the only sanctuary for the woman to survive in. The home is a man's place to protect, and the home is a woman's place to serve. Ruskin calls it the "place of Peace" free "from all terror, doubt, division" (661). While the home is supposed to be a safe place, it's a place of privacy in that domestic abuse can happen behind closed doors without any penetration from the outside world. This is what Ruskin fails to mention, how the home needs to be protected from the evils of the world within the walls, not just what's outside. There's little room for error on both spheres, yet there are countless examples of men and women breaking this balance throughout literature.
Caroline Norton: Victim of unbalanced spheres
Research provided by Lynn Renee Wingert of Iowa State University suggests that domestic violence during the Victorian era was not limited to lower-class victims; middle- and upper-class victims were swept under the rug because of their class status and reputations. One example is found in the life of Caroline Norton. Born in 1808, her father died when she was only 8 years old, which left her with financial instability. As a result, she had to marry young, in order to ensure she had a prosperous adulthood, to parliament member George Norton. Her marriage was "an extremely unhappy one" in that "Caroline was the victim of regular and vicious beatings" ("Caroline Norton (1808 - 1877)"). Let's look back to Ruskin's list for each gender's sphere. I would argue that George's vicious behavior would go against guarding the woman, according to his sphere.
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As for Caroline, George's violence violated her sphere's rule of being "protected from all danger and temptation" (Ruskin 661). You may ask yourself at this point, Where's the balance in this situation? Why does Caroline fall victim to abuse if the "heavenly spheres revolve" in perfect unity (Patmore 660). This is where toxic masculinity comes into play. At some point in Caroline and George's marriage, Caroline violated her sphere's rule of being "enduringly, incorruptibly good" (Ruskin 661), therefore causing the need to rectify whatever behavior she displayed that George believed violated this rule. Additionally, I must refer to my previous argument that Ruskin failed to apprehend in that violence inside the home is not accounted for in his gender descriptions, leading to the motivation for George to defend his behavior in the name of regulating the separate spheres.
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characters in The importance of being earnest: Victims of Unbalanced Spheres
Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest is a comedy detailing the dramatic lives of Jack and Algernon's duality in pursuing marriage. They both live though alternate personas so they don't have to subject to Victorian social constraints. Jack pursues his second life as Ernest to escape his responsibilities of taking care of Cicely and to create a better life for himself. Jack was abandoned as an infant in a black, leather handbag on a train station. His social status according to this beginning is not so great. To maintain his reputation, and to impress his future wife Gwendolen Fairfax, he uses Ernest to create a high name of honor and dignity. If he were to impress Gwendolen with his true upbringing he would fail significantly, an error to be avoided at all costs under Ruskin's suggestions. Algernon pursues his second life as Bunbury so he can party on the weekends and not have to use his "energy for adventure, for war, for conquest" as suggested by Ruskin's proposed guidelines for masculine behavior. Both of these men get caught for their duality and prove that men are capable of making bad decisions, therefore causing instability in the separate spheres.
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When Gwendolen and Cecily first encounter, they make assumptions about each other based on class. Gwendolen comically remarks that her "first impressions are never wrong" (Wilde 850). This easily relates to Ruskin's rule about women being "incapable of error," yet Gwendolen is horribly wrong about Cecily's status since she owns a wealth of 130,000 pounds. In addition to this rule, Gwendolen's mother, Lady Bracknell, hides the truth about knowing Jack's real identity. Both of these women fail to meet the sphere's requirements for proper, womanly behavior. It's also important to point out that Lady Bracknell has been given the power to assess whether or not Jack is a fitting husband for her daughter. This gives her a lofty position in which she better fits the qualifications for the man's sphere.
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Continuation of unbalanced spheres in 20th-century Britain
By the 20th-century, Britain had become the world's greatest power. Its empire had over 20% of the world's land and 23% of the world's population according to Professor Vernon Bogdanor of King's College in London. As a result many agreed that Britain truly was the most powerful empire in the world. More of this will be explored in the above Postcolonial Britain page, but for now, we'll focus on the decline of a powerful nation during the 20th-century. When World War I wrecked havoc across Europe, post-war anxieties grew about the state of men returning, creating fear over their violent tendencies coming back home after carrying guns in their hands for several years. The article below published by Cambridge University Press by Clive Emsley explores more about the "moral panic" that was created by these post war anxieties, especially regarding shell-shock and emotional distress and how it affected men returning from war.
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Gender roles were reversed during the first World War. Government propaganda encouraged men to enlist in the army because it was their masculine duty to protect civilians. The propaganda posters below are great depictions of the sphere's influences at this time. In the first poser, women are seen as docile creatures who need to look after their children while their brave men go off to protect them against their enemies. The second poster influences guilt over men who don't sign up to fight in the Great War, or for those who didn't do anything of valor while they were fighting. The third poster suggests that only fit men will be able to enlist in the army, promoting ideals that encouraged strong masculinity. The British nation as a whole had, until this time, conquered the world as its greatest power, and wanted to continue pursuing this power by dominating the spheres and spewing out its toxic, gendered tropes to encourage men and women to support the war efforts.
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Credit: "Women of Britain Say "Go!"
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Credit: What Did You Do in the Great War, Daddy?
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Credit: "There Is Still A Place in the Line for You. Will You Fill It?"
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Siegfried Sassoon: Victim of Unbalanced Spheres
Siegfried Sassoon fought in the Great War and held strong views about how the war affected men on the front. His poem "Glory of Women" reveals the toxic environment the men were in, as well as showcasing what Sassoon thought about the women at home. Relating back to Ruskin's list, Sassoon should have devoted his energies "for adventure, for war, for conquest" with the demand to "encounter all peril and trial" (661). This places a lofty position on every man fighting to protect Britain without consideration for mental health. Symptoms of shell-shock proved that men, too, were subject to emotional trauma like women allegedly only suffered from under the spheres' realm. Sassoon probably expected better support from the nation as a whole, but mothers were merely "knitting socks to send to [their] sons]" (line 13). He defiantly wrote a letter to his commanding officer, stating "I believe that the war is being deliberately prolonged by those who have the power to end it" (149). This article from Poetry Foundation sheds light on his acclaim as a writer, saying that many believed Sassoon "displayed little patriotism." From a masculine-sphere perspective this can be seen as an attack on his lack of masculinity.
Works cited
Bassano, Alexander. Queen Victoria. 31 Dec. 1886.
Bettmann. “Siegfried Sassoon.” English Heritage: Blue Plaques, English Heritage, www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/blue-plaques/siegfried-sassoon/.
Bogdanor, Vernon. “Britain in the 20th Century - Progress and Decline: The Character of Twentieth Century Britain.” Britain in the 20th Century: Progress and Decline. 18 June 2019, London, Museum of London, www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/britain-in-the-20th-century-progress-and-decline-the-character-of-twentieth.
Downey, William, and Daniel Downey. John Ruskin. 29 June 1863.
Emsley, Clive. “Violent Crime in England in 1919: Post-War Anxieties and Press Narratives.” Community and Change, vol. 23, no. 1, 2008, pp. 173–195., doi:10.1017/S026841600800670X.
English Heritage. “House Beautiful.” House Beautiful, 30 June 2017, www.housebeautiful.com/uk/lifestyle/news/a1943/queen-victoria-osborne-house-garden-terrace/.
Getty. “German Troops Entering Poland after a 'Blitzkrieg' (Lightening War ) Which Swept into Poland on September 1, 1939.” The Telegraph, Telegraph Media Group, 3 Sept. 2014, www.telegraph.co.uk/history/world-war-two/6086350/4TH-SEPT-World-War-2-Britain-takes-up-the-Nazi-Challenge-to-save-liberty-itselfWor.html.
Hayter, George. “Caroline Norton.” Wikipedia, 30 Mar. 2014, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caroline_Norton#/media/File:Caroline_Norton_(1808-77)_society_beauty_and_author_by_GH,_Chatsworth_Coll..jpg.
“John Stuart Mill.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, 1884, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C., www.britannica.com/biography/John-Stuart-Mill.
Marcus, Joan. “The Importance of Being Earnest: Show Photos.” Broadway.com, Broadway.com, www.broadway.com/shows/importance-being-earnest/photos/the-importance-of-being-earnest-show-photos/158616/show-photos-the-importance-of-being-earnest-david-furr-santino-fontana.
Marcus, Joan. “The Importance of Being Earnest: Show Photos.” Broadway.com, www.broadway.com/shows/importance-being-earnest/photos/the-importance-of-being-earnest-show-photos/158615/show-photos-the-importance-of-being-earnest-santino-fontana-charlotte-parry-sara-topham-david-furr.
Marsh, Jan. “Gender Ideology & Separate Spheres.” Victoria and Albert Museum, Victoria and Albert Museum, 2016, www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/g/gender-ideology-and-separate-spheres-19th-century/.
PA. “Thousands of Irish Volunteers Fought with the British Army in the First World War.” The Telegraph, Telegraph Media Group, 3 Aug. 2014, www.telegraph.co.uk/history/world-war-one/11006013/The-First-World-War-still-touches-Britain.html.
Patmore, Coventry. “The Angel in the House.” The Norton Anthology of English Literature, edited by Catherine Robson, 10th ed., E, W. W. Norton & Company, 2018, pp. 659–660. The Victorian Age.
Ruskins, John. “Of Queen's Gardens.” The Norton Anthology of English Literature, edited by Catherine Robson, 10th ed., E, W. W. Norton & Company, 2018, pp. 660–662. The Victorian Age.
Sargent, John Singer. “Coventry Patmore.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc, 1894, National Portrait Gallery, London, www.britannica.com/biography/Coventry-Patmore.
Sassoon, Siegfried. “Glory of Women.” The Norton Anthology of English Literature, edited by Jahan Ramazani, 10th ed., F, W. W. Norton & Company, 2018, pp. 148–151. The Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries.
“Siegfried Sassoon.” Poetry Foundation, www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/siegfried-sassoon.
The School of Life. POLITICAL THEORY - John Ruskin. YouTube, YouTube, 24 Apr. 2015, www.youtube.com/watch?v=x40l1ov8hfA.
“There Is Still a Place in the Line for You. Will You Fill It?” Europe Centenary, europecentenary.eu/1914-the-first-steps-of-war-propaganda-the-british-case-and-the-romanian-approach/.
What Did You Do in the Great War, Daddy? Parliamentary Recruiting Committee, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_propaganda_during_World_War_I#/media/File:Daddy,_what_did_You_do_in_the_Great_War?.jpg.
Wilde, Oscar. “The Importance of Being Earnest.” The Norton Anthology of English Literature, edited by Catherine Robson, 10th ed., E, W. W. Norton & Company, 2018, pp. 823–867. The Victorian Age.
Wingert, Lynn Renee. “Battered, Bruised, and Abused Women: Domestic Violence in Nineteenth-Century British Fiction.” Iowa State University, Retrospective Thesis and Dissertations, 2007, pp. 1–8.
“Women of Britain Say ‘Go!".” British Library, British Library, www.bl.uk/collection-items/women-britain-say-go.
Bettmann. “Siegfried Sassoon.” English Heritage: Blue Plaques, English Heritage, www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/blue-plaques/siegfried-sassoon/.
Bogdanor, Vernon. “Britain in the 20th Century - Progress and Decline: The Character of Twentieth Century Britain.” Britain in the 20th Century: Progress and Decline. 18 June 2019, London, Museum of London, www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/britain-in-the-20th-century-progress-and-decline-the-character-of-twentieth.
Downey, William, and Daniel Downey. John Ruskin. 29 June 1863.
Emsley, Clive. “Violent Crime in England in 1919: Post-War Anxieties and Press Narratives.” Community and Change, vol. 23, no. 1, 2008, pp. 173–195., doi:10.1017/S026841600800670X.
English Heritage. “House Beautiful.” House Beautiful, 30 June 2017, www.housebeautiful.com/uk/lifestyle/news/a1943/queen-victoria-osborne-house-garden-terrace/.
Getty. “German Troops Entering Poland after a 'Blitzkrieg' (Lightening War ) Which Swept into Poland on September 1, 1939.” The Telegraph, Telegraph Media Group, 3 Sept. 2014, www.telegraph.co.uk/history/world-war-two/6086350/4TH-SEPT-World-War-2-Britain-takes-up-the-Nazi-Challenge-to-save-liberty-itselfWor.html.
Hayter, George. “Caroline Norton.” Wikipedia, 30 Mar. 2014, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caroline_Norton#/media/File:Caroline_Norton_(1808-77)_society_beauty_and_author_by_GH,_Chatsworth_Coll..jpg.
“John Stuart Mill.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, 1884, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C., www.britannica.com/biography/John-Stuart-Mill.
Marcus, Joan. “The Importance of Being Earnest: Show Photos.” Broadway.com, Broadway.com, www.broadway.com/shows/importance-being-earnest/photos/the-importance-of-being-earnest-show-photos/158616/show-photos-the-importance-of-being-earnest-david-furr-santino-fontana.
Marcus, Joan. “The Importance of Being Earnest: Show Photos.” Broadway.com, www.broadway.com/shows/importance-being-earnest/photos/the-importance-of-being-earnest-show-photos/158615/show-photos-the-importance-of-being-earnest-santino-fontana-charlotte-parry-sara-topham-david-furr.
Marsh, Jan. “Gender Ideology & Separate Spheres.” Victoria and Albert Museum, Victoria and Albert Museum, 2016, www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/g/gender-ideology-and-separate-spheres-19th-century/.
PA. “Thousands of Irish Volunteers Fought with the British Army in the First World War.” The Telegraph, Telegraph Media Group, 3 Aug. 2014, www.telegraph.co.uk/history/world-war-one/11006013/The-First-World-War-still-touches-Britain.html.
Patmore, Coventry. “The Angel in the House.” The Norton Anthology of English Literature, edited by Catherine Robson, 10th ed., E, W. W. Norton & Company, 2018, pp. 659–660. The Victorian Age.
Ruskins, John. “Of Queen's Gardens.” The Norton Anthology of English Literature, edited by Catherine Robson, 10th ed., E, W. W. Norton & Company, 2018, pp. 660–662. The Victorian Age.
Sargent, John Singer. “Coventry Patmore.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc, 1894, National Portrait Gallery, London, www.britannica.com/biography/Coventry-Patmore.
Sassoon, Siegfried. “Glory of Women.” The Norton Anthology of English Literature, edited by Jahan Ramazani, 10th ed., F, W. W. Norton & Company, 2018, pp. 148–151. The Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries.
“Siegfried Sassoon.” Poetry Foundation, www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/siegfried-sassoon.
The School of Life. POLITICAL THEORY - John Ruskin. YouTube, YouTube, 24 Apr. 2015, www.youtube.com/watch?v=x40l1ov8hfA.
“There Is Still a Place in the Line for You. Will You Fill It?” Europe Centenary, europecentenary.eu/1914-the-first-steps-of-war-propaganda-the-british-case-and-the-romanian-approach/.
What Did You Do in the Great War, Daddy? Parliamentary Recruiting Committee, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_propaganda_during_World_War_I#/media/File:Daddy,_what_did_You_do_in_the_Great_War?.jpg.
Wilde, Oscar. “The Importance of Being Earnest.” The Norton Anthology of English Literature, edited by Catherine Robson, 10th ed., E, W. W. Norton & Company, 2018, pp. 823–867. The Victorian Age.
Wingert, Lynn Renee. “Battered, Bruised, and Abused Women: Domestic Violence in Nineteenth-Century British Fiction.” Iowa State University, Retrospective Thesis and Dissertations, 2007, pp. 1–8.
“Women of Britain Say ‘Go!".” British Library, British Library, www.bl.uk/collection-items/women-britain-say-go.