Social+Context


 * 1879
 * European social norms still largely influenced by England
 * Queen Victoria set a standard of middle-class propriety
 * social life based in the home
 * family unit held up as the ideal
 * men held up as the superior being in the household
 * Popular art & literature extolled the calm household under the benign authority of the male
 * Charles Dickens writing novels that exposed the bare and brutal underside of Victorian life
 * disregard of the poor
 * blatant class inequalities
 * exploitation of domestic servants and manual laborers
 * limited education
 * alcoholism
 * poverty
 * abuse

 Women
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">did not have the right to vote (until 1913)
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">could not borrow money
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">could not own property
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">generally educated at home, if at all
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">not prepared for careers