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Jack The Ripper's Attitude Towards Women

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Jack The Ripper's Attitude Towards Women
‘There are lots of unsolved crimes, but none has aroused the allure of Jack the Ripper’.

The murders of Jack the Ripper stirred controversy and emotion at the time and continues to stimulate fascination within society, not only because of the vicious nature of the crimes but also due to the impact the Jack the Ripper murders had on society. The crimes by Jack the Ripper highlighted a number of differing views towards women prevalent in 19th Century London. In late 19th Century there was a changing attitude towards women, causing ambiguity in the views of women at the time. Through the use of primary documents, this essay intends to illustrate the view of women in late 19th Century London. These views of women were highlighted at the time
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Every artifice is used to make the unsuspecting girl believe that she is in a good place with a kind mistress…The girl is tempted to drink, and by degrees she is enlightened as to the nature of the house. It is a dreadful awakening. What is she to do? In all London she knows no friend—no one to whom she can appeal. She is never allowed to go outside alone. She dare not speak to the policeman, for he is tipped by her mistress. If she asks to leave she is told she must serve out her term, and then every effort is redoubled to seduce her. If possible she is made drunk, and then when she wakes she discovers her ruin has been accomplished. Her character is gone. Hopeless and desperate, without money, without friends, all avenues of escape closed, she has only one choice. "She must do as the others do"—the great formula—or starve in the …show more content…
 L. Perry Curtis, Jack the Ripper and the London Press, London, 2001.

 James A. Huston, ‘Clarifying “sources” for clarity in teaching’ The History Teacher, Vol.22, 1989, pp. 139-144, p. 139.

 Judith Walkowitz, ‘Jack the Ripper and the myth of male violence’, Feminist Studies, Vol. 8, 1982.


Websites

 William Acton, Prostitution Considered in its Moral, Social and Sanitary Aspects 2nd Edition, 1870, at www.victorianlondon.org (under crime: prostitution: attitudes toward) accessed 16 September 2007.

 Eliza Lynn Linton, The Girl of the Period at http://www.wwnorton.com/college/english/nael/victorian/topic_2/linton.htm, accessed 16 September 2007.

 George du Maurier, English Society, New York, 1897, at http://www.victorianweb.org/art/illustration/dumaurier/22.html, accessed 15 September

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