Social Views in Victorian Poetry and Prose

Although many Victorian authors were of the middle and upper class, many tried to write about experiences from the perspective of lower class citizens. Interestingly, though Augusta Webster and James Kay-Shuttleworth were of similar stations in life (one married a Cambridge professor, and the other was a doctor), and both wrote about the problem presented to lower class citizens in which they were "stuck in a rut," the two authors have very different outlooks concerning social discrimination, and while one concentrates on the unstoppable degeneration of a woman, the other presents a proposal for the regeneration of the impoverished.

The narrator of Webster's A Castaway focuses on the unsettling fact that a fallen woman can never regain an acceptable reputation in society, whereas in the excerpt from Recent Measures for the Promotion of Education in England, Kay-Shuttleworth's aim is to persuade readers to accept the fact that education is the key to social progress and prosperity, and that with an education, one has the means to contribute more to society. In this case, though Kay-Shuttleworth's intentions are commendable, he is overly optimistic in assuming that he can change society's view of the poor, ignoring the fact that society is not willing to accept a rapid change in its conventions. For this reason, Webster's poem about a hopeless prostitute is the more realistic of the two pieces, because she uses emotions, often displayed by the narrator's musings, to convey the prostitute's lack of faith in society, even though hers is a work of fiction, whereas Kay-Shuttleworth's piece uses evidence and is part of a persuasive essay designed to propel society toward the accomplishment of his ideal.

Like Kay-Shuttleworth, Webster's narrator experiences poverty. Although, the former was in charge of educational reform in the early nineteenth century, he only experienced poverty second-hand, and therefore can only describe that which is visible. Webster's narrator experiences hardships herself. Therefore, she is more aware of what goes on in the undesirable facet of society, and is able to display everything she sees and feels about her station in life. On the other hand, even though Webster writes from the point of view of a lower class citizen, Webster herself led a successful life, as did Kay-Shuttleworth, so both authors would have only been exposed to destitution second-hand. As is the job of the poet, Webster manages to put herself, and the reader, in the position of the prostitute, thereby effectively appealing to the reader's emotions and senses. In the tradition of essayists, Kay-Shuttleworth uses common knowledge and examples to prove his point, appealing to the logical and ethical side of his readers, in the optimistic assumption that they even have those valuable characteristics. The two present similar problems, but in the two common, contrasting facets of Victorian thought- Scientific and artistic.

The excerpt from Kay-Shuttleworth's Recent Measures for the Promotion of Education in England begins by describing the literacy rate in Victorian England. He argues that if the poor were well educated, then they would be able to rise out of the trappings of their class, and that, being surrounded by the plague of society, one becomes almost incurable. Thus, the cure is education, which would prompt self-realization among the poor. Using a well-known fact to appeal to the rationale of his audience, and "Providence" to appeal to the religious facet of Victorian society, he states:

It is indeed generally known that even the art of reading has been acquired by a portion only of the rising population, and by a smaller part of the adult working class; and that, as respects the rudimentary knowledge which might develop the understanding, and afford the labourer a clear view of his social position, -its duties, its difficulties, and rewards, -and thus enable him better to employ the powers with which Providence has gifted him, to promote his own comfort and the well-being of society, he is generally destitute, and, what is worse, abandoned to the ill-regulated and often pernicious agencies by which he is surrounded. (Kay-Shuttleworth 16)

In contrast to Kay-Shuttleworth's claim that education is the cure for society, Augusta Webster's narrator is an educated prostitute. However, she is still a prostitute, and, according to Victorian "law," once one has become a "fallen woman," or "castaway," one has no hopes of regaining admission into proper society:

...Some ways can be trodden back,

but never our [prostitutes'] way, we who one wild day

have given goodbye to what in our deep hearts

the lowest woman still holds best in life,

good name...(Webster 438-442)

Once a young girl who " 'Studied French an hour'" (Webster 2) and " 'Read Modern History'" (Webster 3), Webster's prostitute grew up in a certain degree of affluence, which seems to have lasted until sometime after the death of her mother. Not only was she an educated member of the middle or upper class, but she also taught in a convent, "a dull home but peaceful, where I [the narrator] felt / my pupils would be dear young sisters soon" (Webster 350-351). Her fall from society's grace came when she became pregnant while working as a maid, possibly with the child of her employer, and after the death of her child, she refused the money offered by its father, entrenching herself further into poverty and forcing her to work (as a prostitute) for a living.

Since A Castaway is a monologue, the entire poem consists of a life story the prostitute herself tells it. Webster purposefully chose to give her narrator a high degree of intelligence, as is displayed by her speech, which is not written in a dialect, and by her ability to recognize society's problems.

Kay-Shuttleworth suggests that society would be improved if there were "school-houses with well-trained masters...to rear the population in obedience to the laws, in submission to their superiors, and to fit them to strengthen the institutions of their country by their domestic virtues, their sobriety, their industry, and forethought,-" (16), but he does not acknowledge the fact that society is never willing to accept vagrants as contributors to a better society, no matter how educated those vagrants happen to be. This is especially evident in England's way of dealing with criminals - by sending them to colonize other continents so they cease to plague England's society. An education does not have the power to erase class lines or to make society forget the mistakes of individuals.

In support of Kay-Shuttleworth's claim that education is capable of keeping the unfortunate from a complete degeneration, Webster's prostitute is, in her own eyes, a step above others, because she is not "drunk on the streets, ply not for hire / at infamous street corners with my likenesses" (Webster 47-48). She knows, and has experienced herself a better life, and so, even though she has been reduced to prostitution, she believe herself to be among the most moral of prostitutes, if that is indeed a possibility in the Victorian mindset. She is also a testament to the truth of one of Kay-Shuttleworth's closing statements that "sufficient intelligence and information to appreciate these causes [of poverty] might be diffused by an education which could easily be brought within the reach of an entire population, though it would necessarily comprehend more than the mere mechanical rudiments of knowledge" (18), because she never wonders why she has been reduced to vagrancy. In fact, she gives a detailed account of her "fall." A less educated person's monologue would have consisted of complaints about her situation in life because it would be uncomfortable, not because of its unfairness.

Webster's narrator points to one of the main problems with Kay-Shuttleworth's claim that education will improve society: While he is a major promoter of education for all of England, one can assume that he is only talking about males. He does not specify gender in his essay, except in addressing teachers as "masters" but it is doubtful that he means for an education to be extended to women, and if he does, it is doubtful that women would gain more rights as a result of widespread education. In describing perfectly the uselessness of teaching women, Webster's narrator criticizes the role of women in society as non-intellectual beings:

Well, well, the silly rules this silly world

makes about women! This is one of them.

why must there be a pretence of teaching them

what no one ever cares that they should know,

what, grown out of the schoolroom, they cast off

like the schoolroom pinafore, no better fit

for any use of real grown-up life. (376-382)

Both Webster and Kay-Shuttleworth's depictions of English society are accurate, but only Kay-Shuttleworth offers a solution to the moral and economic deficiency. Although his general idea is a valid one, his reasons for giving the poor an education, that is to make them more loyal citizens, is less admirable. If he had argued that an education would allow a man to earn more money and/or respect, then his idea would have been well founded. Instead of offering a solution to fix lower class problems, Webster recognizes problems that span across the classes, and like the prostitute, the reader is left feeling that any large measure of social progress is hopeless. Her narrator is one proof that an education would not improve the living or social conditions to which England's underprivileged grew accustomed. Education only makes the social injustices seem more unjust, because an educated person is more likely to be aware of what is missing in his life - Ignorance is bliss.

Works Cited

Kay-Shuttleworth, James. "Recent Measures for the Promotion of Education in England." Rpt. in Victorian Literature 1830-1900. Eds. Dorothy Mermin and Herbert Tucker. Harcourt College Publishers: USA, 2002. 16-18.

Webster, Augusta. "A Castaway." Rpt. in Victorian Literature 1830-1900. Eds. Dorothy Mermin and Herbert Tucker. Harcourt College Publishers: USA, 2002. 938-945.