Discussion Questions for Groups 2 and 3

 

Each of the scenes in the videos suggests that while Victorian women dreamt of having a life of power or freedom (whether achieved through marriage and motherhood, sexual liberation, or using their beauty to manipulate others), the roles allowed to them as women in a patriarchal society had certain inescapable consequences.
Those consequences are also depicted in several of our class reading assignments. Consider the following questions for comparing the film clips to our readings from the Norton Anthology.

Compare the relationship between William and Kitty Gilbert in Topsy-Turvy to the marriage of Angela and Gilbert in Virginia Woolf’s "The Legacy." How does each woman initially feel about her husband and her role as wife? How does each woman communicate with her husband? What does each husband discover about the marriage? What do the film and short story suggest are the consequences for women of the nineteenth-century domestic ideal?

Compare Lizzie and Laura of Christina Rossetti's "Goblin Market" to Leonora Braham and Jessie Bond in Topsy-Turvy ("The Actress" clip). How would you compare their desires and dreams for the future? What are the hardships and temptations they face? How do their respective stories reflect the struggles and thwarted desires typically resulting from the social roles Victorian women were expected to fill? How would you compare the dream of female power expressed in Leonora's song as Yum-Yum (at the end of the clip "A Woman's Dream Vs. Her Reality") with the type of heroism Lizzie exhibits in "Goblin Market." Are either of these fantasies of female empowerment viable responses to the restrictions Victorian women faced?

Compare the scene between Rose and her mother in Titanic to Laura's bedroom conference with her mother on p. 2429-2430 of Katherine Mansfield's story "The Garden Party." How does each mother respond to her daughter's trouble? What kind of behavior does each mother expect from her daughter? How are these expectations related to the expectations Victorian culture held for women? Compare Rose's corset with Laura's hat as symbols of the gender roles the two girls were expected to fulfill.

How have the restrictions of nineteenth-century gender roles affected Anglo-American culture today? Are nineteenth-century constructs of femininity still operative today?