Social Changes

1. Social Changes Mid-Nineteenth Century

2. Premarital Sex and Marriage • The nineteenth century saw a shift from lengthy courtships and marriage for economic purposes to romantic love. • However, marriage for money remained important for the Middle Class.

3. Girls Love life was supervised by the mother. Virginity was guarded. Expected to be faithful after marriage. Boys Watched as well. Adolescence brought sexual experience. Romantic Life – Middle Class

4. Illegitimacy Explosion • 1750 to 1850, saw an increase in births outside of wedlock. • 1:3 in large western cities. • Mostly found amongst the Working Class. • Regions located away from Industrial cities often remained under the control of religious morality and parental pressures.

5. Illegitimacy and family stability • Pregnancy lead to more marriages. • This in-turn led to the establishment of the Working Class two-person household. • Lack of economic pressures allowed marriages to become more stable.

6. Prostitution • In Paris held 950,000. London 55,000 or 1 for every 12 men. • The Middle-Class advocated for reforms versus prostitution, yet it was their men that motivated it. • Wives = Money, Family and Security. • Prostitutes = Sexual fantasy and debauchery. • Transitional Occupation.

7. The Dark Side of Sex • My Secret Life – ‘’Walter,’ (circa 1888) comprised of eleven volumes that described, in vulgar detail, the sexual adventures of an upper Middle-Class man in urban society. • Middle Class money in this case allowed for the purchase of sex.

8. “Jack the Ripper” • Serial killer that terrorized the Whitechapel district of London, killing 5(+) prostitutes in 1888. • Murderer was never located or arrested.

9. The Nemesis of Neglect? • Was this a sign of the times? • According to reformers, industrialization had led to social decay, class division and prostitution.

10. Gender Roles and Family Life • After 1850 many wives stayed home managing the household and children. “Separation of Spheres” (only retail shops allowed couples to work together) • Poor families did not have this luxury. • Women’s equality declined in society. • “In law husband and wife are one person, and the husband is that person”

11. Women Strike Back! • Middle Class women campaigned for equal rights. (property rights, better employment) • Working Class women controlled her demanding household, husbands earnings, bought food… • Expected to pamper the husband.

12. Importance of Love in Marriage • Affection and sexual attraction dwarfed finances. • Mr., Mrs., and Baby by Gustave Droz – promoted sexual happiness in marriage and denounced the view of the wife as an angel. • The pleasing of a woman’s sexual needs became important and allowed for women to become satisfied with their role as mother and homemaker.

13. The Children • Love and concern grew for children. • Breast feeding increased • Fathers played with their children • Limit the number of children so as have better care for them and improve their economic position. (6-4-2) • Were children too coddled? (MC vs. WC)

14. Prevailing thoughts • Emotional characteristics were passed down to children. • Masturbation was viewed with horror. • Father-Son relationships were important (too much affection or too little?) • Sigmund Freud: Oedipal complex – a son instinctive competition with the father for the mother’s love and affection.

15. Realism • While Romanticism sought to escape reality, Realism promoted it. • In the visual arts and literature refers to the general attempt to depict subjects "in accordance with secular, empirical rules“, as they are considered to exist in third person objective reality, without embellishment or interpretation.

20. Literature • Honore de Balzac • Gustave Flaubert • Charles Dickens • Emile Zola • Henrik Ibsen