The Ideal of Womanhood
In the Victorian period, the lady played an important role as helpmate to her husband, providing him a refuge from the world of work and complementing his masculine attributes. She is shown as the weaker vessel, she always needed a man to “protect” her .At the same time, her role as nurturer, educator of her children and her appearance was regarded as a lady's natural duty for the Victorians.
I. Ideal Victorian Woman in her social and domestic character
The ideal Victorian woman was a busy figure who‘s strength come from her moral superiority. As long as the proper etiquette was followed, a Victorian woman was able to be considered a lady. The goal of a lady in this period was to serve others, and her etiquette and manners all helped her to do so. Anything that she did was to please her husband and society; “The role of the Victorian woman has long term been wrought in simple terms, always in reference to man, his demands and desires” ( Casteras 42) and these are just some of the etiquette rules that were provided to guide her along. A woman task was certainly located within the home and the domestic domain. Through the home, she influenced the moral strength of society; “She imperceptibly rises in the domestic circle, and become at once its cement and it charm” (Bayley 131). The lady is also a mother, the center of everything in her domestic character because she disperse loving , care to her children and educate them to become a nice gentleman or lady. For the urban middle classes, the rural area could be created as an ideal version of the family home (unchanging, traditional and morally pure to provide comfort). It was more difficult to preserve these ideas in the changing world of the Victorian city, because it is changing quickly. In particular, there’s restriction in women's behavior and the expectation that women would marry and go on to satisfy the ideals of true womanhood (they will be good wives and mothers, be pious and chaste, respectable
I. Ideal Victorian Woman in her social and domestic character
The ideal Victorian woman was a busy figure who‘s strength come from her moral superiority. As long as the proper etiquette was followed, a Victorian woman was able to be considered a lady. The goal of a lady in this period was to serve others, and her etiquette and manners all helped her to do so. Anything that she did was to please her husband and society; “The role of the Victorian woman has long term been wrought in simple terms, always in reference to man, his demands and desires” ( Casteras 42) and these are just some of the etiquette rules that were provided to guide her along. A woman task was certainly located within the home and the domestic domain. Through the home, she influenced the moral strength of society; “She imperceptibly rises in the domestic circle, and become at once its cement and it charm” (Bayley 131). The lady is also a mother, the center of everything in her domestic character because she disperse loving , care to her children and educate them to become a nice gentleman or lady. For the urban middle classes, the rural area could be created as an ideal version of the family home (unchanging, traditional and morally pure to provide comfort). It was more difficult to preserve these ideas in the changing world of the Victorian city, because it is changing quickly. In particular, there’s restriction in women's behavior and the expectation that women would marry and go on to satisfy the ideals of true womanhood (they will be good wives and mothers, be pious and chaste, respectable