THE VICTORIAN ERA OSCAR WILDE AND THE IMPORTANCE

THE VICTORIAN ERA, OSCAR WILDE AND “THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST”

THE VICTORIAN ERA

MEN’S CLOTHING Stove-pipe pants Cravats Facial hair mustaches mutton-chop sideburns Piccadilly Weepers full beards Van Dykes (worn by Napoleon III)

Cravats

mutton-chop sideburns

LOVE AND DATING Victorians romanticized love as well as tragedy Respected courtship and love, despite strict moral codes and etiquette

LOVE AND DATING Men and women were expected to conduct themselves properly (with innocence) Women were chaperoned Dances served as a woman’s coming out to society

LOVE AND DATING Invented new ways to court (flirt) Items of apparel (fans, gloves, handkerchiefs) were given meaning Love tokens Objects given as gifts (flowers, painted miniatures, gems) Love letters and cards

'The delight of the average hostess's heart is the well-bred man, unspoiled by conceit, who can always be depended upon to do his duty. He arrives in good time, fills his card before very long, and can be asked to dance with a plain, neglected wallflower or two without resenting it. He takes his partner duly to the refreshmentroom after each dance, if she wishes to go, and provides her with whatever she wishes. Before leaving her, he sees her safe at her chaperone's side. ' -Mrs. Humphry Manners for Men (1897)

‘Sweetness is to woman what sugar is to fruit. It is her first business to be happy— a sunbeam in the house, making others happy. True, she will often have "a tear in her eye", but, like the bride of young Lochinvar, it must be accompanied with "a smile on her lips. " Girls and women are willing enough to be agreeable to men if they do not happen to stand to them in the relation of father, brother, or husband; but it is not every woman who remembers that her raison d'être is to give out pleasure to all as a fire gives out heat. ’ Rev. E. J. Hardy, Manners Makyth Man, 1887