WomeninVictorianera(维多利亚时代的女性).ppt

What kind of woman do you become ? What kind of wife do you hope to have ? 王熙凤 薛宝钗 林黛玉 The Angel in the House The phrase “Angel in the House” comes from the title of an immensely popular poem by Coventry Patmore, in which he holds his angel-wife Emily up as a model for all women. Believing that his wife was the perfect Victorian wife, he wrote “The Angel in the House” about her (in 1854), which became increasingly popular through the rest of the 19th century and continued to be influential into the 20th century. The following excerpt will give us a sense of the ideal woman and the male-female relationship presented by Patmore’s poem: Man must be pleased; but him to please Is woman’s pleasure; down the gulf Of his condoled (同情或悲伤) necessities She casts her best, she flings herself. How often flings for naught, and yokes Her heart to an icicle (感情淡薄的人) or whim, Whose each impatient word provokes Another, not from her, but him; While she, too gentle even to force His penitence (apology) by kind replies, Waits by, expecting his remorse, With pardon in her pitying eyes; And if he once, by shame oppress’d, A comfortable word confers, She leans and weeps against his breast, And seems to think the sin was hers; Or any eye to see her charms, At any time, she’s still his wife, Dearly devoted to his arms; She loves with love that cannot tire; And when, ah woe, she loves alone, Through passionate duty love springs higher, As grass grows taller round a stone. Initially this ideal primarily expressed the values of the middle classes. However, with Queen Victoria’s devoting herself to her husband Prince Albert and to a domestic life, the ideal spread throughout the 19th century in Britain. Angel or Slave? Young Queen Victoria Alexandrina Victoria (1819 –1901) was the Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 1837 to 1901. Her reign lasted 63 years, the longest of any monarch in history. The time of her reign is known as the Victorian period,