Eng 463 Mary Elizabeth Braddon
From WolfWikis
Laura Gerardi
Contents |
class and money
Mary was a member of the lower middle class. Despite the norm for middle class women not to work, most ofher life was spent in the work force. At about the age of 15 she began work as an actress to help support her family who were nearing bankrupsee. Later she began her career as a writer, and despite her questionable past she became one of the most beloved of her day. The picture below is a drawing of a theater from the victorian period. Mary would have been acting in a place similar to this.
working life
Both of mary's parents had worked as writers for a sporting magizine, Pitmans. Her father also worked as a solisiter but was very unsuccusful, leaving the family very poor. Soon her parents divorced and Mary stayed with her mother. She started working, in order to help her mother with money. For a few years, Mary worked as an actress under the stage name of Mary Seyton but soon gave that up and started writing. She published her first novel "Three Times dead" in 1860, and it was the start of a long fruitful career. Through out her career she wrote 75 novels and several lesser works. The most famous of her novels were Lady Audley's Secret and Aurora Floyd. Mary is also responsible for founding "Belgravia Magizine" with the help of her future husband. The money that Mary made by writing was enough to support herself and her mother. She soon became one of the leading writers of her time. Although Mary only gets credit for 75 of her books, she actually wrote several others for the lower class under an annonamous name.
The subject of woman's work comes up often in her most famous novel "Lady Audley's Secret". Part of the underlying theme of this book is what one woman is willing to do, in order to avoid the harshness of the lower class, working world. The following is an excerpt from the text of "Lady Audley's Secret"
"I had to work hard for my living, and in every hour of labour- and what labour is more wearisome than the dull slavery of a governess?-- I recognized a separate wrong done me by George Talboys."(Lady, pg-353)
This picture is an artist rendition of a governess in the victorian period.
Science and the Urban World
Wikipedia describes a Barouche as :
"It was a four-wheeled vehicle with two double seats facing each other, a collapsible hood folding like a bellows over the back seat and an outside box seat at the front for the driver. It was drawn by pairs of high-quality horses and was used principally for leisure driving in the summer."
This is the main type of transportation that Sir Michael Audley uses in "Lady Audley's Secret".It is a vechal that would have been owned by upperclass famlies in the victorian period. Keeping horses was expensive. Because a barouche would be pulled by two to four horses, it was considered a luxery. M.E. Braddon describes it first in chapter seven; After a Year:
"...deeper dusk still when an open carriage and four drew suddenly up beneath the rocking sign-post. It was Sir Michael Audley's barouche which came to so sudden a stop before the little inn(lady,54)."
Above is a picture of a Barouche, circa 1897. and below is a modern example of a four horse team. It was ideal to have all the horse on your team same color and with similar markings.
Goverment and the Law
"Her mind had little power to realize anything but extreams. Her idea of poverty was something very horrible. An existance of beggary, with the chance of being called upon to do plain needlework for her daily bread, and with the workhouse at the end of the prospect. (Eleanor, 900)"
The above quote is from M.E. Braddon's novle Eleanor's Victory, volume 2. I gives you a taste of the way common people must have viewed the workhouse. Weather or not this view was correct, you can see that most people would prefer anything over having going to there. Workhouses were created in 1834 as a way to deal with people who could not provide for themselves and their famlies. The goverments goal was make the workhouse unplesent so it would be a last choice for poor famlies. They didnt want people to take the easy way out, but rather try and provide for themselves for as long as possible. Below is a picture of a meal time at a victorian workhouse. Although Mary never had to go to a work house, her parents did struggle with money and were close to bankrupse. The thought of going to live in one probably crosses their thoughts in her childhood.
Private Life: House, Food and Clothes
The above picture is an example of an upper middle class home in victorian Londan. Mitchell describes this type of house as being several stories high. The first floor would contain the servants entrance and is where the kitchen would be located. The upper levels Were nicer and included the front hall, sitting room, music room and bedrooms. Below is a picture of a typicalc Londan slum. Slums were dirty, crouded and proan to disease. This particular slum was demolished in 1860
In M. E. Braddon's novle "Lady Audley's Secret" The opening chapter, Lucy, describes the house of an upper class Man. The discription makes the house appear old and run down but this is probaly due it's owner being a long time widdow.
"It was very old, and very irregular and rambling. The windows were uneven; some small some large, some with heavy stone mullions and rich stained glass; others with frail lattices that rattled in every breeze; others so modern that they might have been added yesterday. Great piles of chimneys rose up hereand there behind the pointed gables, and seamed as if they were so broken down by age that they must have fallenbut for the straggling ivy which, crawling up the walls and trailing even over the roof, wound itselfabout them and supported them"
Family and Social Rituals
In was considered innapropriate for a man to approach a young lady that he had not been properly introduced to. If he wanted to meet her then he must ask a mutuial friend to introduce them. After that he was free to talk to her when in public social settings. A you woman would always be chaperonde when in public. It was the chaperone's job to protect the young woman from advances by inproper men, and to guide her in her choices. Courting and marriage was generally between two people of the same occupation or social class.
Many women also carried fans when out at social gatherings. This is illustraited by the woman inthe picture above. It is said that women could use the fans a a subtle way of flirting in public. Various sources give diffrent versions of how this could be done. Below is one example.
Fan fast - I am independent.
Fan slow - I am engaged.
Fan with right hand in front of face. - Come on, follow me.
Fan with left hand in front of face. - Leave me.
Fan open and shut. - Kiss me.
Fan open wide. - Love.
Fan half open. - Friendship.
Fan shut. - Hate.
Fan swinging. - Can I see you home?
Drawing fan across forehead. - We are watched.
Letting fan rest on right cheek. - Yes.
Letting fan rest on left cheek. - No
Education
Little is known about Mary's schooling except that she was privatly educated. Private schools varried greatly i the victorian period, so this gives us little insite into the education she recived. In Mitchell it states that "Private schools were owned by a single proprietor and provided almost any kind of education" Private schools tended to be cheeper than public schools because anyone could set one up and teach in it. However we can be sure that She was taught to read and write well, thus becoming a great author.
Health and Medicine
victorian asylum
Lady Audley's Secret is very intertwined with health and medicine. It is conserned particulary with mental illness. Mental illness began to get some understanding durring the victorian perion. It was discovered that kindness and relaxation could help in reducing mental stress. Asylums were built so paietnts could have more freedom and enjoy time out side as well as having human interaction. Paients could have nice rooms with their own belongings rather than being straped to a bed. In some cases people actually got better and were alde to leave.
In Lady audley's secret, the main character is trying to hide the shamful secret that her mother in insane and that she herself can also feel the sickness coming on. Her sickness leads her to an attempted murder, lying, and the abandoment of her child. When she confesses, she is taken to a very nice assylum where she is able to keep her own cloths and other trinkets. It is also implied that she will be treated very kindly and can live a semi normal, but safe life. It is interesting to note that M.E. Braddons husband, John Maxwell, had a wife befor her, who was in a lunatic aslyum. Mary and her husband couldn't be married until his first wife passed.
"you think I am mad like my mother, and you have come to question me, she said. You are watching for some sign of the dreadful taint in my blood.(lady, 381)"
Leisure and Pleasure
Long walks were a typical passtime for women of the victorian day. They were a chance for social gathering and exersize. Their are many examples in Mary Elizabeth Braddons works of women doing just this. They often take turns obout the garden or will go for longer walks if they have friends to accompany them.
Faith
"Victorian Morality"
"...the decision to marry, definrd a woman's entire future. Marriage established her rank, role, duties,social status, place of residence, economic status, and way of life...And owing to the code of chaperonage, she had to make her decision with very few opportunities to gain firsthand information about her prospective partner.(Mitchell, 268)" Mary married later in life. Her life was very diffrent from most women of her time. She had a job as an actress, she lived with a a man whom she hadent married yet and who in fact was married to another woman. When his wife died in 1874, ohn Maxwell and mary were married. they had 12 kids. Six were from his first marriage and six they had together.
England and Empire
References
Mitchell, Sally. Daily Life in Victorian England. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1996
Braddon, Mary. Lady Audley's Secret. Great Britan: Oxford Press, 1998
"Barouche." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 10 March. 2007 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barouche>.
"courting" The victorian Period. 13 April. 2007 <http://members.aol.com/alfson102/courting.htm>
"Braddon" Sensation Press. 19 April. 2007 <http://www.sensationpress.com/braddonindex.htm>
"victorian era"Wikipedia, The free encyclopedia. 14 april. 2007 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victorian_era>
"Mary Elizabeth Braddon." The Literary Encyclopedia. 19 April. 2007 <http://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=5053>
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