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Victorian Morality Social Class Not dependent on amount of $$$ Income Birth/family connections Class revealed in: Manners Speech patterns Clothing Education Values Social Class Each class had it’s own standards People were expected to conform to rules for their specific class Wrong to behave above or below your class A married woman’s class came from her husband Courtship NO DATING!! 19TH century courtship terminology “making love” “lover” Working men and women had more freedom in their courtship “walking out” Simple announcement of marriage – no permission needed Courtship Rural areas Sex is okay as long as the couple intended to marry – many of them did as soon as the woman got pregnant! Marriage The law determined who could marry and how marriages were conducted Affected a woman’s legal status! “Husband and wife were ‘one person, and that person is the husband.’” Victorian Morality Prudery, hypocrisy, sexual repression, rigid social control “Hard work a moral good in itself; if wealth followed, it was a fitting recognition of man’s virtue.” (13) “Respectability” often more important than class line Qualities of the “Respectable” Punctual Early rising Orderly Concerned for little things* Self-denial Self-control Initiative Constructive use of leisure time Prudent marriage Qualities of the “Respectable” Good men were chivalrous even though they made women responsible for defending their own sexual morality Kept quiet about pre-marital or extramarital affairs Guides for young women advised them to ask about personal habits and medical history of potential husbands Victorian Feminine Ideal Stereotyped roles are class bound Respectable woman = no paid work Pure woman = home centered life “Man for the field and woman for the hearth; Man for the sword, and for the needle she; Man with the head, and woman with the heart; Man to command, and woman to obey; All else confusion.” - Tennyson Victorian Feminine Ideal Respectable girls should know NOTHING about sex or sexuality until their wedding night Since almost all Victorian women were chaperoned at all times, men could assume that an unchaperoned female walking alone was sexually available