Author: dannielle218

By choosing scandal as our topic we were allowed to express our individual interests in the assigned readings. Whether the scandal involves members of politics, the royal family, or simply the upper class, there was a scandal to write about. These scandals may have revolved around sex, money, and love. These scandals were not always publicly known but if they were, the reaction surrounding them may have differed from what was expected, wither way Victorian Scandal presents the many ideas surrounding Victorian Era.

Since the theme of our group was scandal, we thought this post would be relevant to both our theme and the pictures that were assigned. During the 19th century anything to do with sex was considered scandalous.

http://victorianscandal.wordpress.com/2012/09/14/a-picture-is-worth-1000-words/

Victorian Morality or Hypocrisy is one of the blog posts that our group choose because it portrays our group’s theme of Victorian scandal. This post describes a popular scandal that occurred back in the 18^th century involving Prince Albert Victor and his social standing in his kingdom.

http://victorianscandal.wordpress.com/2012/08/30/victorian-morality-or-hypocrisy/

When selecting from our various posts we wanted to select a post that truly fit our idea of scandal among members of Victorian society. The power that the royal family possesses leaves them particularly prone to these scandals, for this reason the “Illegitimate Sons and Daughters of the Royal Families” portrays the exact type of scandal they may have suffered.

http://victorianscandal.wordpress.com/2012/09/21/illegitimate-sons-and-daughters-of-the-royal-families/

In this post, Victorian scandal is extended to a contemporary audience. We chose it to show the differences and similarities in gender expectations as they pertain to sexual relations for the two eras. This post was also chosen for the modern interpretation on an otherwise historical perspective on Victorian scandal throughout the blog.

http://victorianscandal.wordpress.com/2012/09/17/httpwww-youtube-comwatchviljfvxad1_a/

We selected our final post “The Perks of Being Ruined” because the concept of being ruined during the Victorian era carried a particular shame to it, although many authors had the ability to shine an interesting light on the subject. In this post we dissected the poem by Thomas Hardy called “The Ruined Maid” in which the concept of being ruined in Victorian society may be evolving.

http://victorianscandal.wordpress.com/2012/09/26/the-perks-of-being-ruined/

Throughout the course of the past 6 weeks, our blogging style has changed- we have all grown more comfortable with reading older written works, then finding a way to apply it to our own topic. While we all have very different writing styles, we have come to mesh well together. Some blogs are written in an editorial style, in that they are formal and written without any sort of first-person aspect. Those posts tend to be the ones that have the most extensive research, as the writer seems to approach the blog post from a researcher’s standpoint. Other posts, like “The Perks of Being Ruined” are more casually written, and have to do more with interpretation of the writer’s literature than how it could apply to the theme of scandal in Victorian society. (However, Thomas Hardy’s poem happened to fit rather perfectly with our overall theme of scandal in general, as it was written about a prostitute’s descent/ascent into ruin.)  In the future, those of us who write more casually or in a blog-style fashion, will incorporate more research and historical aspects into their posts, and hopefully vice versa, so that we can all come to a more uniform overall style for our blog.

The ideas presented in Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell’s “Ruth” are claimed as shocking for her time, but what is the reasoning behind this? The idea of a woman either having an affair or sex before marriage was not taken lightly in Gaskell’s time. In the 18^th century women were intended to align with a particular mold of what could be considered a conservative woman. Also social class standing was a supreme ruler of the time period, reigning power over jobs, love, marriage, and child birth. These were some of the barriers that Ruth was set to face throughout her life. The connection shared between Ruth and Mr. Bellingham was considered far from acceptable due to her class standing. Unlike the idealized version of that Disney movies and romantic comedies of the past centuries have taught my generation, love was not the foundation of marriage, although this didn’t prevent Ruth from loving Mr. Bellingham. The struggles that Ruth was forced to face after her relationship with Mr. Bellingham may have been directly related to the social constraints put in place by society during her time, but they were not faced by Ruth alone. I believe this is why Gaskell chose such a character as Ruth, who with guilt and remorse for her actions, can still appear as a simple victim or potentially a heroin to society today.

Ruth’s so claimed indiscretion was so preposterous to those of her time, yet its commonality among society is what could truly be claimed appalling. The secrecy behind sex before marriage, adultery, and illegitimate children was profound in the 18^th century not only among the lower classes but also among the royals. Many members of the royal families including Kings were known to have several illegitimate children of which they kept terrifyingly secret to society. In fact it was so common that to this day there is a known society of individuals that call themselves, The Descendants of the Illegitimate Sons & Daughters of the Kings of Britain also known as The Royal Bastards. These members are required to present formal documentation to prove their ancestry of these illegitimate children spawning from royalty. Although their ancestors were probably mocked and shunned simply for where they came from, they are still the decedents of royalty. The list of royal family members is so long that it insinuates all royal families of the 18^th century more than likely produced at least on illegitimate child that was most likely hidden from society.

One of the most famous kings of England was “Henry VIII, who beheaded two of his six wives left four legitimate children and possibly four, but positively two, illegitimate children,” (Ryan). Another was King Henry’s predecessor “King Charles II who was known to have 13 known mistresses and between 14 and 17 illegitimate children,” (Ryan). “George III, whose long reign from 1760 to 1820 included 15 children by his German wife but also four illegitimate ones by a mistress, Hannah Lightfoot,” (Ryan). Then number of cases containing royal families with illegitimate children is truly alarming. In today’s society that would mean a larger royal family then any one truly knows, and possibly more heirs to the throne than imagined. Through truly none of the members of The Descendants of the Illegitimate Sons & Daughters of the Kings of Britain intend to declare in formal rights, I find it interesting that such shame can be placed on women like Ruth when its true commonality among royal familie

s is more apparent.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ryan, Bill. “The Royal Family Tree Sprouts Unofficial Limbs.” The New York Times. The New York Times, 03 Jan. 1993. Web. 21 Sept. 2012. <http://www.nytimes.com/1993/01/03/nyregion/the-royal-family-tree-sprouts-unofficial-limbs.html?pagewanted=all>.

The ideas presented in Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell’s “Ruth” are claimed as shocking for her time, but what is the reasoning behind this? The idea of a woman either having an affair or sex before marriage was not taken lightly in Gaskell’s time. In the 18^th century women were intended to align with a particular mold of what could be considered a conservative woman. Also social class standing was a supreme ruler of the time period, reigning power over jobs, love, marriage, and child birth. These were some of the barriers that Ruth was set to face throughout her life. The connection shared between Ruth and Mr. Bellingham was considered far from acceptable due to her class standing. Unlike the idealized version of that Disney movies and romantic comedies of the past centuries have taught my generation, love was not the foundation of marriage, although this didn’t prevent Ruth from loving Mr. Bellingham. The struggles that Ruth was forced to face after her relationship with Mr. Bellingham may have been directly related to the social constraints put in place by society during her time, but they were not faced by Ruth alone. I believe this is why Gaskell chose such a character as Ruth, who with guilt and remorse for her actions, can still appear as a simple victim or potentially a heroin to society today.

Ruth’s so claimed indiscretion was so preposterous to those of her time, yet its commonality among society is what could truly be claimed appalling. The secrecy behind sex before marriage, adultery, and illegitimate children was profound in the 18^th century not only among the lower classes but also among the royals. Many members of the royal families including Kings were known to have several illegitimate children of which they kept terrifyingly secret to society. In fact it was so common that to this day there is a known society of individuals that call themselves, The Descendants of the Illegitimate Sons & Daughters of the Kings of Britain also known as The Royal Bastards. These members are required to present formal documentation to prove their ancestry of these illegitimate children spawning from royalty. Although their ancestors were probably mocked and shunned simply for where they came from, they are still the decedents of royalty. The list of royal family members is so long that it insinuates all royal families of the 18^th century more than likely produced at least on illegitimate child that was most likely hidden from society.

One of the most famous kings of England was “Henry VIII, who beheaded two of his six wives left four legitimate children and possibly four, but positively two, illegitimate children,” (Ryan). Another was King Henry’s predecessor “King Charles II who was known to have 13 known mistresses and between 14 and 17 illegitimate children,” (Ryan). “George III, whose long reign from 1760 to 1820 included 15 children by his German wife but also four illegitimate ones by a mistress, Hannah Lightfoot,” (Ryan). Then number of cases containing royal families with illegitimate children is truly alarming. In today’s society that would mean a larger royal family then any one truly knows, and possibly more heirs to the throne than imagined. Through truly none of the members of The Descendants of the Illegitimate Sons & Daughters of the Kings of Britain intend to declare in formal rights, I find it interesting that such shame can be placed on women like Ruth when its true commonality among royal familie

s is more apparent.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ryan, Bill. “The Royal Family Tree Sprouts Unofficial Limbs.” The New York Times. The New York Times, 03 Jan. 1993. Web. 21 Sept. 2012. <http://www.nytimes.com/1993/01/03/nyregion/the-royal-family-tree-sprouts-unofficial-limbs.html?pagewanted=all>.

The Victorian Era is highly known for its strict social code and the sense of strong morality, yet not all members of British society followed the strict social code. Included in this social code was the marriage between a man and a woman, as well as the idea of marrying within a particular social class. The upper class consisted many individuals of nobility, and those considered to come from wealthy families. These families were held to the highest standard as a means to maintain their social standing. Yet when a particular member of this social class disobeys the well established social code, they may face a less severe reaction.

A well known scandal that arose in the 18^th century involving Prince Albert Victor who was the eldest son of the Prince of Whales, making him Queen Victoria’s grandson. He was engaged to Princess Mary of Trek, yet his involvement in the Cleveland Street Scandal, spoke differently about not only his sexuality but also about his social standing.

In 1889 Detective Inspector Frederick Abberline led a bust of a gay brothel at 19 Cleveland Street. During the 18^th century brothels were very common, yet still illegal, an fell under the realm of socially unacceptable. The Cleveland Street brothel was infamous for its clientele that included many upper class gentlemen, including Prince Albert. The possibility that many upper class individuals involved may be classified as homosexual causes an even larger uproar. Yet his name was never mentioned during the trials, nor was his name ever tarnished. Many of his friends and family attested to his heterosexuality. So what is the understanding to be acknowledged from the scandal?

Those who are intended to be of an upper class, may not always be of the same image they appear to portray. They are those who by society are held to what can be known as the highest social code, yet the evidence presented shows lower moral value behind closed doors. Then one must ask, what is the psychological effect of being involved with the upper class? Can the fact of being welcomed to many privileges, but not being socially able to indulge make an individual succumb to secrecy? Can idea of privilege can be a desire as well as prison?

Paterson, Mike. “London Historians’ Blog.” London Historians’ Blog. N.p., 19 Feb. 2011. Web. 30 Aug. 2012. <http://londonhistorians.wordpress.com/2011/02/19/the-cleveland-street-scandal-rent-boys-and-the-gpo/>.