ROLE OF VICTORIAN

WOMEN
through the female characters in the novels Oliver Twist and Alice
in Wonderland by Antonio Pinta
 CONTEXT

QUEEN Period led by a woman. She was totally against

VICTORIA the suffragette movement

New types of work and new forms of urban

INDUSTRIAL
life relegated Women to the private sphere of
the house and home NATION

“The Angel of The House” - "passive, meek,

charming, graceful, gentle, self-sacrificing, pious,
and above all -pure" (Ren, 2061).
“The angel, the demon, the old maid,
and the fallen woman”

- Auerbach, P.63
IMPORTANCE OF
SOCIAL CLASS

THE ISSUE OF
PROSTITUTION
01 OLIVER TWIST
By Charles Dickens
 AGNES
- Mother of Oliver Twist, who dies giving birth to
Oliver.

- She was a mistress who got pregnant and “the

scandal of her being pregnant but not married
made her die in disgrace“(Ayres, p. 115).

- Describe as "weak and erring" (Dickens,

p. 511).

- “To be sexual, or show that you are sexual, when

not having a husband, was not acceptable in
Victorian society” (Ayres, p. 133).
 NANCY
- She was a prostitute.

- Described as “a fallen woman but there is

goodness in her”(Ayres, p. 120)

- Nancy is the reason why Oliver can return to a

normal life and acts as a surrogate mother for
Oliver.

- Although she is a strong and good person, she has

a low social status.
 ROSE
- Orphan like Oliver but was adopted by Mrs
Maylie.

- Described as “young, beautiful, frail, mild, gentle,

pure... sweet, pleasant, charming, coy and blessed.
She even possesses the right physiognomy.... and
she is performing domestic tasks for the
gratification of others" (Ayres, p. 118).

- She has high status and a respected family,

surrounded by good people.

- Rose has a surname unlike the others.

02 ALICE IN WONDERLAND

By Lewis Carrol
 THE DUCHESS
- She is seen "tossing the baby violently up and
down" (Carroll, 50).

- Sings a lullaby :"Speak roughly to your little

boy,/and beat him when he sneezes: /He only does
it to annoy,/Because he knows it teases..." (Carroll,
p.64).

- She is aggressive, rude and unwelcoming to Alice.

- Represent a subversion of the ideal role of Victoria

ideal mother.
THE DUCHESS’S COOK

- Working class woman.

- Described as "throwing everything within her

reach at the Duchess and the baby---the fine-irons
came first; then followed a shower of saucepans,
plates, and dishes" (Carroll, p.63).

- The voice of the abused workers.

THE QUEEN OF RED
HEARTS
- The most powerful female figure in Wonderland.

- She is is tyrannical and treats her people badly.

- Is she the opposite of what the patriarchal society

of the time expects from a woman?

- A depiction of Queen Victoria.

 ALICE
- A child of great ingenuity and courage.

- She is adventurous and curious.

- She appears in Wonderland, a place of her own

making.

- Her attitudes can also be seen to go against the

traditional "fear of a woman acquiring knowledge,
particularly as a threat to patriarchy" (Aikens,
29).

- She becomes the woman she really wants to be,

and not the woman society expects her to be.
WORK CITED:
Ren, Aihong. 2014. “A Fantasy Subverting the Woman's Image as “The Angel in the House”. Theory and
Practice in Language Studies. Volume 4, no 10: 2061-2065.
https://www.academypublication.com/issues/past/tpls/vol04/10/11.pdf

Auerbach, N .Woman and the demon: The life of a Victorian myth. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1982

Dickens, Charles. Oliver Twist. London: Penguin popular classics, 1994

Ayres, Brenda. Dissenting Women in Dickens’ Novels- The Subversion of Domestic Ideology. London:
Greenwood press, 1998

Carroll, Lewis. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Class. Barnes & Noble, 1865
Thanks