Culture Week 2

The Culture in whatever age we are dealing with, you have two options or two perspectives you can deal
with the culture of this era by:
First, you can deal with culture chronologically starting from 1700 to 1800, moving year by year by
whatever pattern in this year whether it was social, political, or technological. You deal with the year as
a whole. This is one perspective, to deal chronological.
other perspective is to deal with the social issues, with marriage, or with the industrial revolution. You
take the main facts or instance which happened in this age and we are spotting light on this era.
?How to make this silly topic interesting ‫الحضارة مادة مملة جدًا‬
We are dealing with a subject or a topic and make it like a story and analyze each chapter into certain
questions or points so you have to find the information for these points. You don’t expect me to read the
whole book. So, please concentrate on which topic I’m talking about in the lecture. As I said last lecture,
that most probably the exam will be MCQ. So, I’m asking about the details including dates and figures.
Starting from page 1 after the chapter you took with Dr. Zahra
In the early eighteenth century, the population of Britain was about six and half million, most of them lived in the
countryside and made their living from farming. Starting from the last two decades of the century ‫اخر عقدين من القرن‬,
however, Brittan was transformed by the industrial revolution.
‫؟ الثورة الصناعية‬18‫ايه الحاجة الفظيعة الي حصلت في القرن الـ‬
- Because of the industry revolution, most of the population, about six and half million, ended up
working on farming.
By the 1880's most people in Britain lived in towns and made their living from mining or manufacturing industries.
- Before the 1880’s, people lived on the country side. But after the Industry Revolution they came to
the town.
manufacturing‫ الي هي استخراج المعادن والـ‬mining‫ احني شغالين في الـ‬farming‫ بدل ما كنا شغالين في الـ‬transformation ‫وحصل‬ -
‫ الصناعة‬industries
From 1712 a man named Thomas Newcomen (1663-1729) made primitive steam engines for pumping water from
mines.
James Watt ‫ الي بتضخ المية من المناجم بعد كدا جه واحد بعديه الي هو‬steam engine‫ عمل الـ‬Newcomen ‫يبقي واحد اسمه‬ -
In 1769 James Watt (1736-1819) patented ‫ حصل علي برائة اختراع‬a more efficient steam engine.
a more ‫ وحصل علي برائة اختراع عشان عمل‬James Watt ‫ وجه بعديه‬Thomas Newcomen ‫ هو‬steam engine‫يبقي الي عمل الـ‬ -
.18‫ وبداية الـ‬17‫ ده في نهاية القرن الـ‬effective steam engine
‫؟‬Act of Union‫ أيه هو الـ‬.The Act of Union ‫ بنسميها‬1707 ‫حاجة مهمة حصلت في‬
Act of Union
- Act of Union is caused by England and the Scottish parliament led to the creation of the United
Kingdom of Great Britain in 1 May.
‫ ده‬.‫ بقي في بريطانيا العظمي‬may 1 ‫ من بعد يوم‬.‫ قبل كدا كان عندنا اسكتلندا وبريطانيا مع بعض‬.‫ بقي في بريطانيا العظمي‬Act of Union‫بعد الـ‬ -
.Act of Union‫نتيجة للـ‬
In 1707, the Act of Union was passed. Scotland was united with England and Wales (although many Scots bitterly
opposed the move). England became part of Great Britain. Meanwhile Britain built up a great overseas empire.
‫ خارج البالد‬overseas ‫من بعدها بريطانيا أنشأت مستعمرة كبيرة‬ -
- One of the features of this age is that the British society was divided into several classes.
The British society was divided into several classes. Owning land was the main form of wealth in the 18th century.
Political power and influence were in the hands of rich landowners.
At the top were the nobility‫النبالء‬. Below them where a class of nearly rich landowners called the gentry (elite).
In the early 18th century, there was another class of landowners called yeomen between the rich and the poor. ‫انا‬
‫صاحب ارض بس مش غني‬
 ‫ يعني صاحب اراضي بس‬yeomen‫ الي هم مالك االراضي االغنية وبعدين الـ‬the elite ‫ او‬the gentry‫ بعدين الـ‬Nobility‫يبقي انا عندي الـ‬ -
.‫مش غني‬
However, during the century this class became less and less numerous. ‫مع الوقت بدأت الطبقة دي تختفي‬
However, other middle-class people such as merchants and professional men became richer and more numerous,
especially in the towns.
landowners‫ الي هم الـ‬yeomen‫بدأ التجار يبقوا اغنية اكتر بعد الثورة الصناعية وبدأ يختفي عندي الـ‬ -
Below them were the great mass of the population, craftsmen and laborers. ‫الحرفيين والعمال‬
In the 18th century probably half the population lived as subsistence (remaining) or bare survival level.
.‫ اغلبية الشعب كان عايش عشان ينجوا بس‬18‫في القرن الـ‬ -
Gin drinking‫ هي الـ‬18‫من الحاجات الي كان واضحة اوي وكان المجتمع في بريطانيا بيعاني منها في القرن الـ‬ -
Gin drinking was one of the vices from which early eighteenth-century England suffered. It was cheap and it was
sold everywhere as you did not need a license to sell it.
‫ بتاعت العصر ده‬features‫يبقي دي من الـ‬ -
Many people ruined their health by drinking gin. Yet for many poor people drinking gin was their only comfort.
The situation improved after 1751 when a tax was imposed on gin.
.‫ لما تم فرض ضريبة علي شراء الخمر‬alcoholic drinking‫احني بعدنا عن الـ‬ -
.‫ بتاعت العصر‬features ‫ وعن‬classes‫ وعن الـ‬Act of Union‫ و‬industry revolution‫يبقي احني اتكلمنا عن الـ‬
.‫ ودي هنمر عليهم خالل الترم‬dates ‫ بيديني‬15 ‫ لصفحة‬5 ‫من صفحة‬
quotes ‫ في الكتاب هنالقي عندي‬.18 century‫ في الـ‬how woman was treated ‫ و‬Marriage ‫ ده هنتكلم عن الـ‬chapter‫احني في الـ‬
th

‫ وطبعا مش هتحفظ الكوتيشن ولكن‬.‫ وبيبدأ يشرحها‬poets ‫ او‬writers ‫ دي بتبقي بتاعت‬quotes‫ الـ‬elaboration for these quotes ‫وبيعملي‬
.‫ و نعمله شرح‬comment ‫هنتعلم ازاي نقرأه ونعمله‬
Woman in the 18th century
‫ عندي اول حاجة‬17 ‫في صفحة‬
Epistles on Women, Lucy Aikin (1781-1864) gave a terrible picture of the status of eighteenth-century
British women
: quotation‫خالصة الـ‬
p.28
British Women witnessed a very tragic and humble status during the eighteenth century. Woman herself came to
adopt man’s negative view of the female.
.18‫مفيش حد يقدر ينكر بمدي سوء معاملة المرأة في القرن الـ‬ -
Woman came to see herself as just a stereotype, a piece of property for man. She accepted the docile rule
designed for her by man.
Historical and critical studies show that woman in eighteenth-century England was treated in the same way
children were treated, at least in so far as her mental faculties and knowledge are involved.
- they treated women as if they had a shortage in mind. She can’t be treated as an adult. They treated
her as a child because she doesn’t have knowledge.
That is why, as one historian states, “Englishmen were proud of their reputation for treating their womenfolk with
'lenity‫ تسامح‬and indulgence ‫' الرأفة‬, but they were even more proud of their determination to exclude them from all
authority, domestic and otherwise.
.‫الرجالة مبسوطين انهم بيعاملوا المرأة بتسامح ألنهم بيعاملوهم كا اطفال مش عشان بيحترموهم وكان بيعاملوهم كا ملكية للرجال‬ -
That is because authority requires higher mental faculties and knowledge of the world, things which women, as
Englishmen at that time believed, lacked. They treated women with lenity because they believed that women
were just child-like.
some kind of knowledge and specific ‫ الزم يكون عندها‬politics life ‫ او‬social life‫ تشارك في الـ‬woman‫عشان الـ‬ -
.features
p.19
During the eighteenth century, woman was considered man’s property. Man, whether a husband, father, or
brother, was considered superior to woman and it was he who had the right to decide the fate of his wife, sister,
or daughter. Even literally, English laws supported this attitude.
For example, Judge Buller declared in 1782 that it was “perfectly legal for a man to beat his wife, as long as he used
a stick no thicker than his thumb”
.‫يعني القانون بيديك حق انك تضرب المرأة طالما معاك عصاية متكونش اتخن من إبهامك‬ -
Marriage in the 18th century
Now, we come to the institution of marriage in England during the eighteenth century. It should be mentioned
from the very beginning that marriage for the English woman in the eighteenth century meant the total
subordination of the female sex.
- After marriage, the man has a power over his wife.
P.20
By marriage, the husband and wife are one person in law; that is, the very being, or legal existence of the woman
is suspended during the marriage, or at least is incorporated and consolidated into that of the husband: under
whose wing, protection and cover, she performs everything. Once a woman got married, she became in the
custody of man ‫ ;تحت وصاية الرجل‬she not only gave up “her liberty, she also gives her husband the absolute right of
causing her to live in what place, and in what manner and what society he pleases, all her goods and above all, she
surrenders to him her person. ‫بتسلم نفسها لزوجها‬
- Women didn’t have the right to decide anything.
Although the conditions of women improved a little in the eighteenth century, women “continued having less
rights or freedom than men within the family and marriage as an institution. Patriarchal forms were still a deep-
rooted custom that ruled society, which was male-centered.”
- Even according to the church, the man has the power to rule everything.
Once a woman got married, all her property legally went to the guardianship and care of her husband , since “she
was considered, together with all that she owned, a possession of the husband.”
- After marriage, the woman gives her husband her property. If a poor man married to a rich woman,
whatever she owns will go to her husband.
The English law itself defined the subordinate status of a wife. In her extensive study of eighteenth-century
English women, Bridget Hill (a critic) refers to the common rules stated by judges and men of law in the
eighteenth century.
p.21
‘By marriage’, wrote Blackstone in 1753, ‘the husband and wife are one person in law: that is, the very being, or
legal existence of the woman is suspended during the marriage, or at least is incorporated and consolidated into
that of the husband.’ So, when a woman married, she was placed, along with underage children, ‘in the same legal
category as wards, lunatics, idiots and outlaws.
Woman as a wife was so miserable that she often regretted being ever got married.
…‫ليه بيتجوزوا اصال؟ بيدينا مثال‬
p.22
A wife called Grace Allanson, “reflecting on her unhappy marriage, told her servant ‘That if she might have but
bread and water to live on, she was happy if she could but be quiet with it.”

The English law was very clear in defining how to deal with woman’s property after her marriage. After marriage,
a woman lost all access to her own property which legally passed to her husband. She had no right to do as she
willed with her money since she now had a husband to whom such a husband passed.

The personal property of the wife, Blackstone wrote, ‘becomes absolutely her husband’s which at his death he
may leave entirely away from her’.
.‫ ممتلكات المرأة مش بترجعلها تاني‬، ‫يعني حتي بعد موت الزوج‬ -
If the husband at the time of marriage had outstanding debts, they were a first charge on the personal property
his wife brought him
.‫ هياخدوها من ممتلكات المرأة الي راحت لزوجها‬.‫يعني لو الراجل عنده ديون هي كمان الي هتدفعها‬ -
Any personal property acquired by the wife during marriage, unless it was specified that the ‘gift was to her
separate use’, passed automatically into her husband’s hands.
.‫ غير كدا هو بياخدها‬، ‫الحاجة الوحيدة الي مش بياخدوها هي الحاجة الي الزوجة بتستخدمها أستخدام شخصي‬ -
How did a man during the 18th century choose his future wife?
P.23
Did love and mutual understanding take a part in his choice? Of course, not. But how did a man choose his future
wife at that time? Did love and mutual understanding play a role in his choice, like we see in the world of today? In
the eighteenth century, Englishmen generally attempted to find certain qualities in their future wives.
According to the standards of the eighteenth century, the ideal wife should be:
1. A maid, yet willing to become a mother.
2. Young, yet full ripe. A fair one, and yet black. ‫في عز شبابها‬
3. The white side turned to me, black unto other.
4. Silent, yet one that no-good tongue lacks.
5. Rich, only to contentment, not to excess.
6. Wise, not to teach, but her own wants to know.
7. Holy, striving with lover her faith to express.
8. Well, born, yet not so high to set me low.
- These are the standers for the English man to choose his wife
A quick look at this list of qualities indicates that in the eighteenth-century woman’s purity or chastity was the
most essential requirement. Although, men sought for women of wealth and wisdom,
- He’s searching for money and kids
they would never have accepted a woman who had been touched by other men, or had been known for her affairs
with other men.
.‫الزم تبقي حسنة السمعة‬ -
p.24
Thus, in the eighteenth century, marriage and love were two opposite terms. Generally, as the literary works of
that time reveal, marriage was “an institution completely detached from love and that it pursues more than
anything else economic purposes and a rising in the social hierarchy”
- marriage in the 18th century was completely away from love.
- He’s searching for a rich woman from the other class to develop his own status. He will take her own
money and her own class, and give her nothing.
After marriage, a woman’s property became her husband’s. Even if she had been a working woman, after
marriage, a woman’s property became her husband’s. Even if she had been a working woman, her husband would
have the right to receive her own wages.
According to Joanne Bailey, “whatever work wives did, husbands-controlled material resources, the work that was
done and the profits that labor brought” (Bailey 4). In fact, the idea that a wife was considered the personal
property of her husband negatively affected laboring women. Legally, a man had the right to have his wife’s
earnings. This actually discouraged married women from working because they knew that what they earned
inevitably went to their husbands.

How did a woman choose her husband?

But how did a woman choose her husband? In most cases, a woman actually did not choose her husband. It was
her father who performed that task for her, since he, as a man, had knowledge of the world and of what was
proper for his daughter.
After interviewing a suitor, the father, if he found the suitor suitable as a match to his daughter, he informed her
of his decision to accept him as her husband. Moreover, the English woman at that time accepted this sort of
arrangement. She realized that it was her father who could choose a good man for her.
- She didn’t have the power to say no.
Oliver Goldsmith’s novel The Vicar of Wakefield as well as his play She Stoops to Conquer are good examples of
such formula.
Another example is traced in the novel Mary and the Wrongs of Woman, by Mary Wollstonecraft in which love is
completely absent. When Dartford says that "my father and mother were people of fashion; married by their
parents" (94), she is expressing what was common in the English society at that time.
‫ بتاعته حاول تاخد‬novel‫ هيقولك فيه فوالن في الـ‬marriage‫ علي الـ‬.‫ من الـمحاضرة علي كل حاجة بناخدها‬example ‫نحاول واحني بناخد ناخد‬ -
‫مثال علي كل حاجة‬
One evidence that woman was harshly and unjustly treated by the English law is traced in how a woman was
punished for misbehaving with her husband, or for committing a crime in relation to him:
 In the eye of the law, ‘if the baron ‫ الزوج‬kills his feme‫ زوجته‬, it is the same as if he had killed a stranger, or any
other person.
- According to the law at that time, if a man killed his wife, it is okay. it is as if he killed a strange
man.
 but if the feme kills her baron, it is regarded by the laws as a much more atrocious crime; as she not only
breaks through the restraints of humanity and conjugal affection, but throws off all subjection to the authority
of her husband’
- So, even the law was partial ‫متحيز‬to the man.
Thus, eighteenth-century England seem to have been a patriarchal society in which man was considered superior
to woman and in which inequality of man and woman was a major aspect.
Eighteenth-century English law also defined the responsibilities of parents for their children and how to deal with
family problems. To be sure, the law gave the husband absolute freedom to deal with his children and raise them
up as he liked, regardless of his wife’s opinion.
.‫مش هيبقي ليكي رأي في تربية والدك‬ -
The wife possessed no legal power in relation to her children but was entitled only to ‘reverence and respect’
.‫بس مطلوب من االطفال أنهم يحترموا أمهم‬ -
Wife-Beating
Moreover, a husband was given the right to punish his wife, children, and servants for misbehavior. The law even
allowed man to correct misbehavior through beating, but not through violence.
Although the law did not allow a husband to beat his wife harshly, and stated that he could beat her only mildly, it
did not prevent woman from her husband’s harshness. On the contrary, it gave man the green light to beat his
wife, taking such law as an excuse.
- He has the right to beat and punish her and take this law as an excuse.
p.29
Wife-beating was common during the eighteenth century. Daniel Defoe, the great English novelist who wrote the
first English novel, Robinson Cruse, was an eyewitness to such incidents, particularly among the lower classes. He
asserted that “the practice of wife-beating was so common among the ‘meaner sort of people, that to hear a
woman cry murther now, scarce gives any alarm.
- because of the crowded places they can hear the cry of any women after they have beaten by their
husband and even scars are witnessed for this harsh treatment.
Hill gave many anecdotes and real stories which are related to wife-beating among the working class:
Wife-beating among the labouring class, it is suggested, was often occasioned by hard times. At such times ‘the
failure of either spouse to live up to his or her prescribed duties’, wrote John Gillis, ‘might spark off violence’, and
he instanced a wife’s failure to have a meal prepared and ready on the return of her husband at night.
.‫ بأي سبب زي مثال ليه محضرتش االكل عشان يرجع بليل يالقيه‬for any reason ‫يعني بيتلكك عشان يضرب مراته‬ -
Hill believes that wife-beating also existed among the upper classes.
‫ضرب الزوجة كان موجود في الطبقات العليا برضو‬ -
That very few cases of wife-beating among the upper classes came to light was not evidence that men of the
upper classes treated their wives gently and properly:
 ‫ ال مش معناه انهم بيعاملوا زوجاتهم‬treated their wives gently ‫مكنش عندنا حاالت كتيرة في الطبقة العليا ولكن ده مش معناه أنهم‬ -
.‫بالحسني‬
It was only in exceptional circumstances that wife-beating in the upper classes came to light.
‫فيه حاالت معينة هعرف منها‬ -
That it was confined to the lower classes seems doubtful. Among the poor who often lived in very close proximity
to neighbours, wife-beating must have been far more difficult to conceal than among the upper classes.
‫وجود الحاالت في الطبقة العليا صعب ألن عكس الطبقة السفلي أنهم ساكنين جنب بعض وتقدر تسمع صرخات الزوجة وتشوف الجروح بتاعتها في‬ -
.‫الطبقة العليا مش هتقدر تسمع وال تشوف حاجة‬
On the other hand, Bailey argues that there is “detailed information about wife-beating in matrimonial litigation,
‫الخصوبة الزوجية‬
- Once we have any issues between us as a husband and wife, I will hit you.
its legal status, the advice supplied to husbands about correcting their wives, and references to domestic violence
in popular literature [which] have all inspired studies of wife-beating”
In one view, male violence was an accepted, or at least, expected, feature of married life, and considered a rational
response to female disobedience.
- as expected from the very beginning from this feature of the 18th century that we can’t
respect violence. it’s not strange.
There is, nevertheless, evidence that husbands’ potential to beat their wives was legally, socially and culturally
controlled. Wife-beating paralleled public violence in that it was tolerated when it corrected inappropriate
actions, was exercised in a limited way and monitored by neighbours, friends and family.
other historians argue that contemporaries viewed wife-beating as abnormal, irrational behaviour, which
represented unmanliness.
it is not accepted .‫ هو بيعكس مجتمع ذكوري ولكنه مش مقبول‬.‫من خصائص العصر هو ضرب الزوجة‬ -
Both views about wife-beating infer an unchanging male desire to use violence against women.
- it is a deep desire inside men to use violence against woman at that time.

What could a woman do if her husband turned out to be the worst on earth?
What could a woman do if her husband turned out to be the worst on earth: beating her, drinking, bankrupt,
deserting her, filthy, betraying her, etc.? Unfortunately, “legal exit for a woman from marriage was virtually
impossible” In other words, divorce was not allowed, except “by proving a marriage invalid”
.‫قانونًا معندهاش أي أمل‬ -
After the Restoration, however, divorce was possible “through a private Act of Parliament”
divorce ‫البرلمان بقي متاح اننا نعمل فيه‬ -
Ironically, such an act was ratified for the sake of giving man, not woman, a way out of a marriage he no longer
desired.
‫ يعني هم‬.they don’t have divorce ‫ مكنش عشان المرأة ولكن عشان الراجل ألن طبقًا للكنيسة‬divorce ‫يعني حتي لما البرلمان أقر ان فيه‬
woman‫عاملين القانون ده عشان لما الرجل ميبقاش عنده رغبة في تكملة الزواج مش عشان الـ‬
Evidence is that, under this Act, a man could divorce his wife if he proved her adultery ‫ الزنا‬and betrayal. ‫الخيانة‬
“The main purpose behind a divorce obtained by private Act of Parliament was the ‘safe-guarding inheritance of
property and family succession endangered by a wife’s adultery’
- Why the man wanted to divorce his wife? To take her all property. Once I prove that my wife
is betraying me, I can get a divorce and take all her money.
This was completely different with woman. If a wife proved that her husband had committed adultery and
betrayed her, this would not have been considered an excuse for a woman to get a divorce:
For a wife wishing to divorce her husband, the grounds were not only more complicated but there was no certain
definition of what they included. Adultery by itself was not sufficient. To it had to be joined other grounds such as
bigamy‫تعدد الزوجات‬, rape ‫اغتصاب‬, incest‫تزوج االخت‬, or sodomy ‫قوم لوط‬.
- If a man only betrayed his wife, she cannot get divorced.
- For a woman to get divorced, betrayal must be joined by bigamy, rape, incest, or sodomy.
these are the only cases for a woman to get divorced.
- Even after she can prove these acts, the cost of getting a divorce is very expensive and
lengthy process.
But it was also a means open to men rather than women: for most married women there was no way of obtaining
a divorce. In a century and a half there were only four cases in which a private Act was passed at the instigation of
a wife. Only in 1801 was a successful suit brought by a woman.
.‫ انا هطلب منكم حاجتين‬.33 ‫ لحد صفحة‬17 ‫الكالم ده احني كدا اخدنا من صفحة‬
1- Make research about women in the 18th century. The common features of woman in the 18th
century
.summary ‫ وتعملولي عليه‬chapter‫تاني حاجة الزم تقرأوا الـ‬ -2

‫وبيتم ختام المحاضرة الثانية هنا‬