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June 2009
Cultural commentator John Ruskin comments on the ‘separate characters’ of men and women. Strict Victorian values dictated that the male’s role was in the outside world and the woman’s in domestic settings. There is no room for individuality, love or an upset order-like cogs in the machine men and women could function together if they kept their separate roles. In the article he describes this as an agreeable working relationship for men and women alike but Victorian literature sometimes contrasts with this view.
Ruskin describes the home as ‘the woman’s true place and power’, a place where she can be protected from all danger and temptation’. Anne Bronte’s poem certainly contrasts with this opinion as she uses the metaphor of a ‘caged dove’ to portray a Victorian woman’s place in society. Rather than place women on a pedestal as Victorian men such as Ruskin often did by ‘guarding’ her from the ‘open world, Bronte refers to the ‘poor’ caged bird who longs to spread her wings.
Through an ellipsis John Ruskin considers an alternative viewpoint. For a ‘true wife’, ‘home is yet wherever she is’. Her aura must be a ‘place of Peace’. He paints a rather different picture of the meek, mild, imprisoned woman we first believe he is describing...
