The World of the Play: Micro View

1.) Marriage Rights

In 1890, Florence Fenwick Miller (1854-1935), one of the first women to qualify in medicine, described woman's position succinctly:

"Under exclusively man-made laws women have been reduced to the most abject condition of legal slavery in which it is possible for human beings to be held...under the arbitrary domination of another's will, and dependent for decent treatment exclusively on the goodness of heart of the individual master. (From a speech to the National Liberal Club)"...

If a woman was unhappy with her situation there was, almost without exception, nothing she could do about it. Except in extremely rare cases, a woman could not obtain a divorce and, until 1891, if she ran away from an intolerable marriage the police could capture and return her, and her husband could imprison her. All this was sanctioned by church, law, custom, history, and approved of by society in general. Nor was it the result of ancient, outdated laws: the new (1857) divorce act restated the moral inequality. Mere adultery was not grounds for a woman to divorce a man; however, it was sufficient grounds for a man to divorce his wife.

http://www.hastingspress.co.uk/history/19/overview.htm

Marriage is a major theme within this play. The women are constantly fantasizing about their future husbands. Women during the 19th century are dependent on men from their fathers to their future husbands. Marrying and having children is the most important thing a woman can do during this time.

2.) Education
A lady's education was taken, almost entirely, at home. There were boarding schools, but no University, and the studies were very different. She learned French, drawing, dancing, music, and the use of globes. If the school, or the governess, was interested in teaching any practical skills, she learned plain sewing as well as embroidery, and accounts.
http://www.english.uwosh.edu/roth/VictorianEngland.htm

Cecily has a governess of her own in the play and when we meet her, she is studying her German. Women's education was not as highly valued as a mans but still necessary to become a decent wife.

3.) Religion
Victorian England was a deeply religious country. A great number of people were habitual church-goers, at least once and probably twice, every Sunday. The Bible was frequently and widely read by people of every class; so too were religious stories and allegories.
http://www.english.uwosh.edu/roth/VictorianEngland.htm

Religion is mentioned frequently throughout the play because of the men requesting to be christened, a practice that is done to children. This seems to saterize the depths of what men will do, in that, they will go through religious ceremonies to keep their lies.

4.) Social Class

Working class - men and women who performed physical labor, paid daily or weekly wages.

Middle class - men performed mental or "clean" work, paid monthly or annually.

Upper class - did not work, income came from inherited land and investments.

Typical Incomes (annual)
Aristocrats £30,000
Merchants, bankers £10,000
Middle-class (doctors, lawyers, clerks) £300-800
Lower middle-class (head teachers, journalists, shopkeepers, etc.) £150-300
Skilled workers (carpenters, typesetters,etc.) £75-100 Sailors and domestic staff £40-75 Laborers, soldiers £25
http://www.english.uwosh.edu/roth/VictorianEngland.htm

Social class is a huge factor in this play because the majority of the characters are in the upper class. It shows the concerns of the upper class is more about their social life and marriage than compared to those of the working class.


5.) Liberal Unionism

The Liberal Unionists were a British political party which split away from the Liberals in 1886, and had effectively merged with the Conservatives by the turn of the century, the formal merger being completed in 1912.

http://knowledgerush.com/kr/encyclopedia/Liberal_Unionist/

The reason for the split in the Liberals was the conversion of Gladstone to the cause of Irish Home Rule. The 1885 General Election had left Parnell's Irish Nationalists holding the balance of power, and had convinced Gladstone that the Irish wanted and deserved Home Rule. Some Liberals believed that Gladstone's Home Rule bill led to de facto independence for Ireland, and the dissolution of the United Kingdom, which they could not countenance. Seeing themselves as defenders of the Union of Britain and Ireland, they called themselves Liberal Unionists.

http://www.economicexpert.com/a/Liberal:Unionist:Party.html

The liberal unionist are significant to the play because Jack associates himself as a Liberal Unionist. This gives insight to the depths of Jacks character and his political views.

6.) Opening of London's underground Railway

London was the birthplace of underground mass transportation, and in the 1890s it remained the center of rapid transit technology. On November 4, 1890, the City and South London Railway had inaugurated the world's first electrically powered subway. Originally intended for cable power, the City and South London converted to electricity at the last moment, and its design resembled a toy train set more than a major urban railway.The new underground was only three miles long, going from the Monument in the city to Stockwell on the south bank of the Thames River, and its two tunnels had a diameter of just ten feet two inches. Its four-car trains were tiny, seating no more than 96 riders, and they averaged just 13 miles per hour. Passenger accommodations were not ideal, either. Angry riders complained that the carriages were stuffy and uncomfortable.
http://www.city-journal.org/article02.php?aid=1393

The opening of this railway could have possibly been a means of transportation for many of Algernon's "Bunburying" schemes.

7.) Jack the Ripper
Most middle-class and wealthy Londoners were blissfully ignorant of conditions in Whitechapel until the autumn of 1888, when Scotland Yard realized that a serial killer was loose in the area, and Fleet Street helped create the legend — and even the name — of the knife-wielding "Ripper." Until the brutal slayings ended some two and a half years later, sensationalistic coverage of the Ripper was relentless, his exploits recounted by reporters and artists in a manner that exposed the squalor of Whitechapel to a fascinated audience — and shaped London's perception of the East End.
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1807923,00.html

Since the characters were in the upper class, a criminal of this nature would be the perfect thing to gossip about. They do not seem interested in the natures of the poor but a criminal such as Jack the Ripper would only spark many debates and conversations about the working class and their lifestyle in London's slums.

8.) Communication

By 1878 Britain had constructed two overland and one maritime telegraph links to India, part of a network that by the end of the century had reached almost every corner of the world. Related to the telegraph, but far more practical on a personal level, was the telephone, developed by the Scotsman Alexander Graham Bell in 1876. By 1887 there were 26,000 telephones in use in Britain (and 150,000 in the United States) and multiple switchboards had been installed in most major towns and cities.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/victorians/victorian_technology_04.shtml

Communication is significant to this play because they claim their imaginary family and friends have contacted them and use it as a way to escape from their normal everyday life.

9.) Fashion

Women's dress in the 1890's continued to be built in a sturdy, heavy, upholstered style, but the silhouette changed to that of an hour glass. Female bodies were corseted to a small waist, and then padded in the buttocks, hips, bosom and sleeves to exaggerate the apparent wasp-waisted effect…Men's Dress in the 1890's took a turn towards greater formality and dandyism in Europe, and went in the opposite direction in the U.S. where the popular mode was brightly colored sportswear.

http://www.costumes.org/classes/fashiondress/TurnoftheCentury.htm Fashion is a main importance to the characters in the play because of their high social status.

10.) Nightlife Many clubs are for gambaling and betting purposes: many for dancing; some for sunday theatricals and recitals: some, under the name of the club, carry on what is a practically a "disorderly" house: on these the police are always making raids; but driven out of one place the people only flock to another...These young men gradually drifted into clubs; it became necessary to belong to one or two clubs...Another cause of the desertion of the club is the increased popularity of the restuarants. They are more expensive than the club; but they are bright and lively. Ladies can, and do, go to these restaurants without reproach..

London in the Nineteenth Century by: Walter Besant

London night life was a common activity for most of the main characters in the play. Algernon refers to not wanting to dine with LadyBracknell because of the women he will be seated by at the resturant. He explains that women are always flirting with their husbands. This is significant because as explained by Besant, women are becoming part of daily nightlife and are enjoying it.