{"id":1117,"date":"2016-10-12T05:22:00","date_gmt":"2016-10-12T05:22:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/?p=1117"},"modified":"2016-10-13T12:49:20","modified_gmt":"2016-10-13T12:49:20","slug":"assumed-power","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/2016\/10\/12\/assumed-power\/","title":{"rendered":"Assumed Power"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Screen<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

There are many objects not immediately noticed in the piece of artwork, <\/span>Debut in the Studio. <\/span><\/i>Through an examination of this work, and a couple of poems read in class, I have come to see the way in which male dominance was accepted as a cultural normality during the Victorian Era. A man\u2019s desire of a nice, virginal woman is suggested in this etching. A couple of objects in the work resemble angels. Angels generally represent purity, they can represent the dead, and they can represent holiness and faith. When looking at the etching, I noticed that at the top left there is what appears to be a doll hanging from the curtains (I\u2019m not actually sure what this is supposed to really be). This doll is a stark white color which reiterates much of what we have talked about in class about the symbolism of this bright, however, quite eerie, color. <\/span><\/p>\n

I see another angel towards the middle of the picture though looking at the picture in a literal sense, one sees that this purported angel is actually just the curtains and the tie that holds them together. Christina Rossetti\u2019s poem, \u201cIn an Artist\u2019s Studio\u201d relates greatly to this piece of artwork. The word angel is included in this poem; Rossetti writes, \u201cA saint, an angel \u2014 every canvas means \/ The same one meaning, neither more or less.\u201d \u00a0Earlier in the poem the author writes, \u201cOne face looks out from all of his canvases.\u201d In the etching, one can see that the focal point is the half clothed woman who is in the middle of the left side of the work. Everyone is looking at her, including the male artist. When one examines the man\u2019s sketch though, he or she sees that a different woman is drawn. The \u2018one face\u2019 that Rossetti has written about is collective, it is woman\u2019s face. There is significance in the fact that the artist is looking at one woman while drawing another, even though, both of these women look strangely similar. Their cherubic faces and shockingly white skin exemplify all that a woman of the Victorian Era should be. The angelic features make them desirable character\u2019s in this man\u2019s story. By creating an image where the man is focusing on two very similar-looking women, it is as if he is lusting over their similar features. These attributes are the women\u2019s purity, and heavenly bodies. The man focuses more on those rather than the distinguishable traits that make each woman herself. This man allows himself, whether he realizes it or not, to see the woman as less than human thus asserting and displaying the control he (and other males in the Victorian era) have, and has over females. <\/span><\/p>\n

A second observation of this work that demonstrates man\u2019s great power over women is shown through the placement of subjects in the artwork. Despite there being five women (including the angels) and only one man, the man has the whole right side of the work for himself and his sketch. The man has so much space all for himself, while the women are cramped! The power that these men believe that they posses is further displayed in Robert Browning\u2019s poem \u201cMy Last Duchess.\u201d In this poem the main subject, a man takes control over his now former wife by hiding a picture of her behind a curtain. He is the one who draws the curtain, but only when he pleases. Browning writes, \u201c […] since none puts by \/ The curtain I have drawn for you, but I […]\u201d The man has control over who sees the painting of his wife, and the man in the etching has control over what he wants his women to look like as he is the artist (although I\u2019m not sure that the women in this work can get any more white and similar-looking than they already are.)<\/span><\/p>\n

Both poems and this artwork demonstrate the interesting gender power dynamics of this era. The fact that none of these works blatantly tells readers or viewers that men are in charge, shows that that role a man has, one of power, is just accepted. No one is repudiating the assumptions that these poems, and this etching are making.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Ramus, Edmond. \u201cDebut in the Studio.\u201d\u00a0Trout Gallery,\u00a0<\/i>http:\/\/www.troutgallery.org\/<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There are many objects not immediately noticed in the piece of artwork, Debut in the Studio. Through an examination of this work, and a couple of poems read in class, I have come to see the way in which male dominance was accepted as a cultural normality during the Victorian Era. A man\u2019s desire of … Continue reading Assumed Power<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2956,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[111380,111423,135948],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1117","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-360-victorian-sexualities","category-fall-2016","category-trout-gallery-collection"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1117","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2956"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1117"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1117\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1117"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1117"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1117"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}