Mothers of the Victorian Period Essay -- literature literary criticism

M other(a)s of the Victorian Period There is no inquiry in the fact that motherhood has changed throughout history in the flair that it is practiced and perceived. Although hard to classify motherhood as an easy toil in any time period, mothers of the Victorian period were among those who have had it the hardest. For example, Natalie McKnight, motive of Suffering Mothers in Mid-Victorian Novels, states When I first began studying the lives of Victorian women, I sympathized with the many women who suffered through the agonies of labor only to die shortly after the baby was born. As I continued my research, I began to feel to a greater extent sympathy with those who survived (McKnight 1). Victorian mothers were put under tremendous pressures and expectations when it came to mothering their children. Prior to this time, mothers raise their children based on what felt natural and instinctive. Moving into the mid-nineteenth century, however, mothers were expected to attach to conduc t and medical books for wives, mothers, and modborns, as well as use vernal products on the market for mother and baby. The duties that were placed upon the woman were to maintain and break-dance the childs complete physical, mental, and spiritual health, pretty much without the assistant of the father (McKnight 2). Mothers took care of domestic matters and their children, while men were free to concentrate on on work and public affairs (Shiman 35). Motherhood, thereby, had come to be a skill that had to be learned rather than acquired by observing other women who had been mothers. In a broader sense, men, women, and children each had their own sphere. Within the privacy of their home, members of the dwelling were divided into groups between children and other members of ... ... of failure deemed them as an unfit parent. In addition, the mothers of the nineteenth century were basically trying out a new form of parenting on their own without the aid of any previous mothers to exact them. Although motherhood will never be easy, Mid-Victorian mothers suffered in their attempts to be what company at the time considered the maternal ideal. Works Cited Gorham, Deborah. The Victorian Girl and the maidenly Ideal. London Croom Helm, 1982. Kane, Penny. Victorian Families in Fact and Fiction. London Macmillan, 1995. McKnight, Natalie. Suffering Mothers in Mid-Victorian Novels. New York St. Martins, 1997. Shiman, Lillian Lewis. Women and Leadership in Nineteenth-Century England. London Macmillan, 1992. Thaden, Barbara. The Maternal Voice in Victorian Fiction Rewriting the Patriarchal Family. New York Garland, 1997.