Dandy and Dandyism

Dandy and Dandyism

The trial of Oscar Wilde

Oscar Wilde was involved in a homosexual relationship with Lord Alfred Douglas.

Douglas was the son of the Marquess of Queensbury – the man who provided the rules for professional boxing. The Marquess was outraged that Wilde would lead his son ‘astray’ and became determined to ruin the world famous playwright. He had originally planned to ruin the opening of The Importance of Being Earnest but Wilde got to hear of this and Queensbury was banned from attending. Instead he decided to leave a calling card on the notice board at Wilde’s gentleman’s club. It read, “ To Oscar Wilde, posing somdomite.” Wilde swore out a warrant for arrest of the Marquess of Queensbury on the charge of libel.

The result of all of this was a trial. The Marquess of Queensbury was represented by Edward Carson. Carson set out to prove that Oscar Wilde was, in fact, a homosexual and therefore that his client was not guilty of libel. Carson soon came up with the names of ten boys who Wilde had allegedly solicited for sex. He also obtained letters that Wilde had written to Douglas, revealing his feelings towards the Marquess’ son.

On the first day of the trial, Wilde attempted to have the proceedings overshadowed by his quick wit. But, over time, the dogged attacks by Carson wore him down. His humour was wearing thin. At one point the forty year old Wilde remarked to Carson, “You sting me and insult me and try to unnerve me; and at times one says things flippantly when one ought to speak more seriously.” When the trial concluded it was obvious that Queensbury had not committed an act of libel – Oscar Wilde was a homosexual. And so it was. The judge completely exonerated Queensbury, going further to actually state that he had been justified in calling Wilde a sodomite in public. Wilde’s friends urged him to get out of the country to avoid arrest on what was then the crime of homosexuality. Wilde’s pride, however, would not allow him to flee. He awaited arrest at the Cadogen hotel, confident that he could win. Yet, on the 5th of April the police did, indeed, arrive to arrest the world’s most famous playwright.

Wilde now faced a second trial to prove the charge of homosexuality. Now the truly lurid stuff started to come out. Hotel cleaners were called in to testify. Clerks told about the different male bed partners Wilde had been seen sharing rooms with. Despite this evidence the jury could not reach a decision. A second trial was ordered. Wilde was released on 5000 pounds bail on May 7th.

The second trial began on May 22. This time the jury was unanimous. Oscar Wilde was found guilty and sentenced to two years of hard labor at Pentonville Prison. At Pentonville Wilde found the going tough, almost unbearable. He was required to walk a treadmill for six hours each day. He became increasingly morose and unkempt. Jail officials feared that he was suicidal. Finally he was moved to Reading Jail. On May 18, 1897 he was released. But he was a broken man. Two and a half years after his release, on November 30, 1900 Oscar Wilde died while exiled in France. He was 46 years of age.

Famous words from Wilde’s discourse: "'The Love that dare not speak its name' in this century is such a great affection of an elder for a younger man as there was between David and Jonathan, such as Plato made the very basis of his philosophy, and such as you find in the sonnets of Michelangelo and Shakespeare. It is that deep, spiritual affection that is as pure as it is perfect. It dictates and pervades great works of art like those of Shakespeare and Michelangelo, and those two letters of mine, such as they are. It is in this century misunderstood, so much misunderstood that it may be described as the "Love that dare not speak its name," and on account of it I am placed where I am now. It is beautiful, it is fine, it is the noblest form of affection. There is nothing unnatural about it. It is intellectual, and it repeatedly exists between an elder and a younger man, when the elder man has intellect, and the younger man has all the joy, hope and glamour of life before him.”

The Picture of Dorian Gray

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À rebours by J.K.Huysmans

À rebours (translated into English as "Against the Grain" or "Against Nature") (1884) is a novel written by the French novelist Joris-Karl Huysmans.

It is a novel in which very little happens; its narrative concentrates almost entirely on its principal character, and is mostly a catalogue of the tastes and inner life of Jean Des Esseintes, an eccentric, reclusive aesthete and antihero, who loathes 19th century bourgeois society and tries to retreat into an ideal artistic world of his own creation.

À rebours contained many themes which became associated with the Symbolist aesthetic. In doing so, it broke from naturalism and became the ultimate example of "decadent" literature.

(from Wikipiedia)

J. K. Huysmans, an important figure in the Aesthetic and Decadent movements, exemplified a style of homosexuality at a pivotal moment in the emergence of a gay identity.

He was born Charles-Marie-Georges Huysmans on February 5, 1848, in Paris, the only child of a French mother and Dutch father. He earned his degree under a private tutor, studied law at the University of Paris, and worked as a civil servant in the Ministry of the Interior, where he remained for thirty-two years.
A cosmopolitan man of refined taste and sensibility, Huysmans admired the descriptive writing of Charles Dickens, but practiced a poetic novel, a form known in France as the prose poem. This genre, which typically emphasized sensation and an elaborate or exotic setting, was perfectly suited to his elegant style and rich vocabulary.

Victorian Art

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Tales of Ratiocination (Detective Fiction) by Poe

Part of the genius of Edgar Allan Poe is that he exceeded in a number of different types of endeavors. In addition to his reputation as a poet, his originality in his literary criticisms, and the perfection he achieved in creating gothic tales of terror and science fiction, he is also acknowledged as the originator of detective fiction. Poe invented the term "Tale of Ratiocination." The ratiocination, however, is not just for the detective; Poe does not allow the reader to sit back and merely observe; the process of ratiocination which he sets up is also intended for the reader, as well as for the detective. In fact, the story becomes one in which the reader must also accompany the detective toward the solution and apply his own powers of logic and deduction alongside those of the detective. This idea becomes very important in all subsequent works of detective fiction. That is, in all such fiction, all of the clues are available for the reader, as well as the detective, to solve the crime (usually murder), and at the end of the story, the reader should be able to look back on the clues and realize that he could have solved the mystery. A detective story in which the solution is suddenly revealed to the reader is considered bad form. Poe, then, introduces one of the basic elements of the detective story — the presentation of clues for his readers, and in addition to the above, Poe is also credited with introducing and developing many other of the standard features of modern detective fiction.
For example, M. Auguste Dupin is the forerunner of a long line of fictional detectives who are eccentric and brilliant. His unnamed friend, who is a devoted admirer of the detective's methods, is less brilliant but, at times, he is perhaps more rational and analytical than Dupin is. He never, however, has the flashes of genius that the detective exhibits; instead, he begins the tradition of the chronicler of the famous detective's exploits — that is, he mediates between reader and detective, presenting what information he has to the reader, while allowing the detective to keep certain information and interpretations to himself. This technique has since been employed by numerous writers of detective fiction, the most famous being the Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson combination. Almost as popular are the well-known novels of Rex Stout, dealing with the eccentric Nero Wolfe and his sidekick, Archie Goodwin, further examples of Poe's methodology. In all the cases that these detectives attempt to solve, the eccentric detective has a certain disdain, or contempt, for the police and their methods, and this has also become a standard feature of many detective stories, along with the fact that the head of the police force feels, as he does in "The Murders in the Rue Morgue," that this amateur detective, while solving the murder, is a meddler.
Poe is clearly responsible for and should be given credit for giving literature these basics of the detective story as a foundation for an entirely new genre of fiction: (1) the eccentric but brilliant amateur sleuth; (2) the sidekick, or listener, or worker for the clever detective; (3) the simple clues; (4) the stupidity or ineptitude of the police; (5) the resentment of the police for the amateur's interference; and (6) the simple but careful solution of the problem through logic and intuition.

(http://www.cliffsnotes.com/WileyCDA/LitNote/Poe-s-Short-Stories-Summary-Analysis-and-Original-Text-Tales-Of-Ratiocination-Or-Detective-Fiction-Introduction-to-The-Murders-in-the-Rue-Morgue-and-The-Purloined-Letter-.id-145,pageNum-54.html )

THE ROLE OF WOMEN IN THE VICTORIAN AGE

In the Victorian era women were seen as pure and clean. Because of this view, their bodies were seen as temples which should not be adorned with jewelery nor used for physical exertion or pleasurable sex. The role of women was to have children and tend to the house in contrast to men, according to the concept of Victorian masculinity. Although, women had been discriminated simply because of their sex; they did not stop fighting for their rights. In fact, women like Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott were involved in the Antislavery Crusade in the 19th century. Stanton along with Mott marked history by starting a reform about women's rights at the Seneca Falls convention in 1848. Stanton fought for her rights and changed the perspective of many egotistical people not only through her logic, but with the rights that our founding fathers had given us through the Declaration of Independence. Fortunately, she made a positive impact for women in history giving us equal rights and most importantly the right to vote. Women like Margaret Fuller was one of first women to take advantage of her rights by shining her potential and becoming the first woman literary editor. Even though women were given rights; they still struggled for their independence. The ideology of women being seen as their husbands' "property" was also reflected in the household. For instance, women could not manage their own sexual activity or had any protection against physical abuse.
WOMEN AS GENERALS OF HOUSEHOLD
The first mention of a woman being described as the general of a household was in 1876 by Isabella Beeton in her manual Mrs Beeton's book of Household Management. Here she explained that the mistress of a household is comparable to the Commander of an Army or the leader of an enterprise. In order to run a respectable household and secure the happiness, comfort and well-being of her family she must perform her duties intelligently and thoroughly. For example, she has to organize, delegate and instruct her servants; she has to be the "sick-nurse" who takes care of ill family members. This requires a good temper, compassion for suffering and sympathy with sufferers, quiet manners, love of order and cleanliness; all qualities a woman worthy of the name should possess in the 19th century. A very special connection existed between women and their brothers. Sisters had to treat their brothers as they would treat their future husbands. Also, it was difficult to establish a reputation. For example, if one person in a family did something horrible, the whole family would have to suffer the consequences. Women as generals of households were very common. Women always were basically the generals of a strict and proper household.
WOMEN'S WORK
Large numbers of working class women worked in factories or in the garment industry or in laundries or at various other jobs. From the mid-1850s nursing became a respectable occupation for women. In England nursing schools were started to give women a proper training. Women were increasingly employed in offices in the later part of the century, the invention of the typewriter led to an increase in office jobs for women, as they were found to make better typists than men. When the telephone was invented they were employed as telephone switchboard operators. Some women broke into professions like medicine, law, and journalism.
WOMEN AND SEX
Victorian society preferred to avoid talking about sex. Although this is difficult to do, sexual activities were highly regulated in Europe by church and state law. Sexuality, viewed by the doctrines of medieval church, was considered as a gift from God; they followed the teachings of St. Paul and encouraged a life of chastity. Church law also ruled out sexual activities between the same genders and placed sexual limitations on married couples. Sexual relations were solely for the purpose of reproduction; therefore the church opposed sexual relations for the intentions of solely obtaining pleasure. As for adultery, courts treated women and men differently. They typically granted more severe consequences to female adulterers than to males. Courts argued that it was not right that a woman's child from a father not her husband should inherit her husband's property. Women were thought to be emotional, not intelligent and in charge of the household.
WOMEN AS EDUCATIONAL INEQUALS
In the early part of the Victorian era, girls of the upper and middle class were educated mainly in fashionable 'accomplishments' like French, drawing, painting, singing, dancing, etc. However, in the later part of the century girls education was taken more seriously and schools were started which offered girls an education broadly modelled on that of boys of the same class, with an emphasis on academic subjects and outdoor games. The expansion of the educational system for poor children meant that both boys and girls of the working class were guaranteed a basic education. From the 1870s, women's colleges were started in places like Oxford and Cambridge, which offered female students an education on a par with men's, though it wasn't until the 20th century that they gained full acceptance by the universities.
REFORMING DIVORCE LAW
Great changes in the situation of women took place in the 19th century, especially concerning marriage laws and the legal status of women. The situation that fathers always received custody of their children, leaving the mother completely without any rights, slowly started to change. In fact lots of imporatnt reforms and acts were made. For example was gave women limited access to divorce and was extended access to children to all women in the event of separation or divorce. Also while the husband only had to prove his wife's adultery, a woman had to prove her husband had not only committed adultery but also incest, bigamy, cruelty or desertion. An important change was caused by an amendment that made a woman an independent and separate person. From 1886 women could be made the sole guardian of their children if their husband died.
SECOND-CLASS CITIZEN
Even if Britain's head of state was a woman, Queen Victoria, women could not vote. But for much of the Victorian era neither could most men. The franchise was extended to include most men in towns and some countrymen in 1867, which doubled the electorate. However, agricultural labourers did not get the vote until 1884. Many women did not consider the vote to be of much importance anyway and some men were opposed to the idea of women getting involved in politics. They thought women would be better occupied concentrating on improving healthcare, education, and social services.

Silvia Licciardi, Eleonora Lenci