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Punch Magazine, 1890

                Commentary on the Text

 

It is impossible to explore the subject of Victorian womanhood without encountering something about the Angel in the House—the ideal of femininity to which all Victorian women were trained to raise their eyes and strive to emulate. The cartoon in the July 12, 1980 issue of  “Touching Reciprocity between Husband and Wife,” is suggestive of matrimonial idealism, and a reader might expect to find, above that title, a picture of a contented, submissive lady interacting with her beloved husband. However, the cartoon actually depicts a woman who is anything but contented and reflects Victorian society’s growing awareness of the disparity between real-life wives and the ideal Angel in the House.

The woman in “Touching Reciprocity between a Husband and Wife” is quite literally “lifting a burden”—the caption beneath the title reads “Edwin carries his Angelina’s parasol, and Angelina carries her Edwin’s sketching materials.” Evidently the woman in this cartoon is meant to represent ideal Victorian womanhood: even her name, Angelina, is suggestive of the Angel in the House concept.  However,  this is ironic. By Victorian standards Angelina should be well-contented and happy (she is married to a gentleman and is blessed with the privilege of accompanying him on a pleasurable outing), but her face, which is firmly set in a mask of glum endurance, and her body language (she is slumped over as she walks as if she is tired and her load is too heavy for her) suggest that she is not enjoying this opportunity to serve and help her husband by carrying his things for him. 

It is as if the artist is poking fun at the Victorian ideal of the Angel in the House by placing a picture of such undisguised misery over the words “Touching Reciprocity.” The idea of the Angel in the House—the submissive woman who bears household burdens cheerfully and without complaint, comes across in this cartoon as slightly absurd. To make the scene even more ridiculous, Angelina’s Edwin is seen traipsing proudly three or four paces ahead of her, comfortable and pleased with himself as he enjoys the shade of his wife’s parasol.  Clearly, the cartoon is reflective of a growing consciousness in Victorian society that the ideals it had held to for so long were not as attainable or even as desirable as it had once thought. The fact that the cartoon appeared in such a widely-read publication as is evidence that people in the 1890s were not taking these ideals as seriously as they might have fifty or seventy or a hundred years earlier. Martha Vicinus examines some of the driving forces behind this alteration in perspective and considers the political and social changes it brought about:

“The suffrage movement, educational reform, the campaign against the Contagious Diseases Acts and the fight to distribute birth control information all contributed to the downfall of hypocrisy and rigidity. By the 1880s the perfect lady could no longer hold her own unchallenged. Women increasingly demanded and gained constructive and useful roles in society . . . Social attitudes were also changing . . . In popular literature independent women became heroines for the first time” (Vicinusxv).                                                                                                                                                                                      

In short, “Touching Reciprocity between Husband and Wife” is a reflection of the new ideas about womanhood and idealism that were beginning to emerge toward the end of the nineteenth Century. The Angel in the House was becoming more human and was gradually gaining the ability to speak and act for herself.

                Works Cited

 

                For Additional Reading

 

Caine, Barbara. Victorian Feminists. New York: Oxford UP, 1992.

 

Cerasco, G A., ed. "Marriage and Divorce." The 1890's an Encyclopedia of British Literature, Art, and & Culture. New York & London: Garland, 1993.

 

Levine, Philippa. Feminist Lives in Victorian England. Massachusetts: Basil Blackwell, 1990.

 

Rees, Barbara. The Victorian Lady. London and New York: Gordon and Cremonesi Publishers, 1977.

 

Vicinus, Martha. The Widening Sphere. Bloomington and London: Indiana University Press, 1977.

 

 

 Comments:

 

Matt Frey 4/3/2008

 

    My first thoughts when looking at the picture were of how dismal that the wife looks.  From what I can gather through the imagery, it is a nice sunny day, hence the parasol, and the husband looks quite happy.  My thought is that maybe this is a take on how marriages were held in that society, kind of a behind the back type of cynicism.  The time in history, when the Angel in the House, was the way of thinking, I believe is being mocked in this image.  The wife, who has been shoveled, you know what, all of her marriage, and perhaps all of her life, and is getting fed up with it.  At this point in a marriage I believe that there needs to be some sort of communication in order to attain or keep true happiness.  With the woman scowling behind her husbands back or even if she isn’t scowling and is just extremely unhappy with her station in life, it is quite obvious that she is unhappy, don’t you think?  I wonder if this image is maybe the artists’ way of telling his viewing public that they need to shape up and pay attention to what their wives are thinking.

    The image of the man is showing, in my opinion, the ignorance and disregard for his wife’s well being.  In today’s society, men who hold the door for their women and other such acts are considered to be old fashioned.  Is this truly what it means to be old fashioned?  I don’t want to be considered old fashioned if that means that I make my fiancé carry all of my belongings, while I hold her umbrella to keep the sun out of my eyes.  That is just ridiculous.  So I wonder if this image is just simply an artists rendering of a comical, or what they think is comical, situation, or if it is truly a much deeper commentary on marriage and the social norms of the time.

Kevin Korpal 4/3/2008

    This picture made me laugh right away. The absurdity of it is appalling. If only Edwin were carrying Angelina's parasol along with his own things. That would make the scene more appropriate. The way it is drawn, however, sheds light on the problem of the hypocrisy in gender roles in 19th-century England. I liked the insight into how to woman should have viewed being in the man's presence as an honor. Again, how absurd is that. The woman is clearly miserable, yet the man is oblivious to that fact. His obliviousness shows just how much he truly must care about Angelina. Any man who has not been indoctrinated with the theory that women are inferior to men would see the obvious misery on Angelina's face and, at the very least, try to assuage the misery. A woman in today society would have dropped the man's belongings and refused to be his slave. This is, of course, assuming she hadn't flat refused to carry the man's things in the first place. The cartoon is a scathing portrait of marriage and the roles women were relegated to in that institution.

    The author(s) of the commentary did a great job pointing out Angelina's name and its significance. The Angel in the House was a virtually impossible ideal to expect women to uphold. This cartoon criticizes the notion that women should be relegated to household activities only and be subservient to men. This cartoon effectively conveys a message of female discontent and possible future rebellion against the impossible ideals placed on the shoulders of women.

                Project Group Members

Member Name	University	Course
Stephanie Allison	Western Washington University	Eng 310
Ruby Andrews	Western Washington University	Eng 310
Jackson Armstrong	Western Washington University	Eng 310