The Fallen Woman

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The Fallen Woman

• A Presentation By
• Whitney Cooper
• December 6, 2005

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The Fallen Woman

• The fallen woman was, historically, a woman
  descending from lower class orientations who
  sacrificed her moral purity in exchange for
  money, shelter, and sometimes love. She was seen
  by the upper class as a woman who had lost her
  way by virtue of her soul becoming tainted
  through actions that violated the rules of decent
  society, specifically prostitution.

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• "Once a woman has descended from a pedestal of
  innocence, she is prepared to perpetrate every
  crime" Outcasts from society, ultimately reduced
  to "the most abject poverty and wretchedness
  subjected to the most loathing and painful
  diseases, their fate could only be premature old
  age and early Death"

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Characteristic of the Fallen Woman

• The majority of prostitutes maintained their
  occupation out of necessity for self- support
  and/ or familial support.
• Many were orphans, thus giving them few options
  for self- support.
• Most did not have money, proper clothing, or
  receive extravagant gifts like their
  counterparts, the courtesan.
• They also experienced frequent abuse and assault
  from customers, the police, or brothel owners.
• They tended to live in communal living areas
  known as brothels, generally located in boarding
  rooms above bars.
• Prostitution was viewed by the lower classes as a
  means for a woman to gain more social and
  economic independence.
• The women were generally between the ages of 18
  and 22.

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Roots of the Fallen Woman as an Archetype

• The concept of the fallen woman, by way of
  literal prostitution, was introduced during the
  Victorian Era through authors such as Henry
  Mayhew, Charles Booth, and Josephine Butler.
• Mayhew and Booth explored urban problems through
  surveys and personal interviews that revealed the
  physical environment of the urban poor, including
  prostitutes.
• Butler studied the double standard of sexual
  morality, as well as the well- being of
  prostitutes through political activism related to
  the Contagious Diseases Prevention Act of 1864.

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Purpose in Literature

• Prostitutes were often utilized as the victims of
  circumstance, especially in sentimental
  literature.
• The fallen woman was an archetypal representation
  of the stratification between the pure, Victorian
  way of life and the corrupted and unclean way of
  life brought on by the Industrial Revolution.
• As a result of the Victorian emphasis on female
  purity and innocence, the fallen woman was viewed
  as one who was in need of moral cleansing.
• In reality, the fallen woman generally left her
  life behind in search of independence. She
  offered a sexual outlet for the middle class male
  who, as a result of the Victorian emphasis on
  female purity, often was deprived at home.
• The fallen woman has characteristically been used
  as a foil within novels.

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Literature

• Thomas Hardy The Ruined Maid Tess of
  DUrbervilles and The Trampwomans Tragedy In
  Far from the Maddening Crowd
• Thomas Hood The Bridge of Sighs
• Charles Dickens Oliver Twist

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Examples of the Fallen Woman in Literature

• Tess in Tess of DUbervilles
• One recurrent theme in association with the
  archetype of the fallen woman is the irony of her
  morality, despite the immorality of er actions.
  They are generally viewed as superior to the
  lower class by virtue of elements such as
  education, but beneath the upper classes.
• Tesss character embodies this concept, as she is
  described as, Intelligent, strikingly
  attractive, and distinguished by her deep moral
  sensitivity and passionate intensity .
• Tess also exemplifies the characteristic social
  superiority to the lower class, but inferiority
  to the upper class. She is in between, both
  socially and culturally. Thus, Tess is a symbol
  of the unclear and unstable notions of class in
  nineteenth-century Britain, where old family
  lines retained their earlier glamour, but where
  cold economic realities made sheer wealth more
  important than inner nobility.

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• she is the myth of the human who suffers for
  crimes that are not her own and lives a life more
  degraded than she deserves.

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Portrait of the Fallen Woman
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Credits

• Slide 1 Picture (http//www.gober.net/victorian/p
  hotos/)
• Slide 2 Picture (http//www.mtholyoke.edu/courses
  /rschwart/hist255-502/courtesans/fallenwoman.html)
  
• Slide 3 Quote (Walkowitz, Judith. Prostitution
  and Victorian Society. Cambridge, Univ. Press,
  1980. 39)
• Slide 4 Picture (http//www.myholyoke.edu/courses
  /rschwart/hist255-502/courtesans/image.html)
• Slide 5 Photograph 1 (http//www.spartacus.school
  net.co.uk/jmayhew.html), Photograph 2
  (http//booth.lse.ac.uk/static/a/images/2i.jpg),
  Photograph 3 (http//athena.english.vt.edu/jmoone
  y/3044bio5a-g/butler.html)
• Slide 6 Picture (http//www.myholyoke.edu/courses
  /rschwart/hist255-502/courtesans/image.html)
• Slide 7 All Book Cover Copies (http//www.amazon.
  com)
• Slide 8 Movie Cover Picture (http//www.amazon.co
  m), Quote (http//www.sparknotes.com)
• Slide 9 Quote (http//www.sparknotes.com)
• Slide 10 Paintings Links (http//www.gober.net/vi
  ctorian/photos), (www.victorianweb.org/gender/fall
  en.html) , (www.sndc.demon.co.uk/erye.htm)
• Other Links Used (http//www.wikipedia.com,
  http//www.google.com, http//www.bartleby.com/101
  /654/html), (http//www.gober.net/victorian/report
  s/prostit.html), (http//www.myholyoke.edu/courses
  /rschwart/hist255-501/courtesans/fallenwoman.html)