Patriarchy and the (late)Victorian Middle-Class Family Reconsidered
Abstract
RESEARCH OBJECTIVE: The aim of the article is to examine the relations within an upper middleclass
family – as depicted by Virginia Woolf in a collection of autobiographical essays, Moments of
Being – and compare these against the patriarchal model. The ultimate aim is to expose and locate,
as early as the last decade of the Victorian era, the signs that a transformation was about to occur.
THE RESEARCH PROBLEM AND METHODS: The Victorian paradigm of the patriarchal roles
of pater familias and mater familias has been analyzed. In conformity with philological methods,
appropriate literary evidence is provided.
THE PROCESS OF ARGUMENTATION: The article first focuses on the concept of the Victorian
pater familias and mater familias. It presents an analysis of the Stephens family who feature in Moments
of Being. A traditionally conservative perspective with regard to the male family members is
juxtaposed with the contrasting viewpoint voiced by the author of the collection.
RESEARCH RESULTS: The analysis of the autobiographical essays reveals certain shifts in the
roles of the Victorian pater familias and mater familias in late-Victorian times. Furthermore, certain
rifts in familial relations are uncovered and investigated with reference to differing attitudes to the
issue of female education.
CONCLUSIONS, INNOVATIONS, AND RECOMMENDATIONS: The analysis exposed several
fissures in the patriarchal model and located these at an earlier date than commonly accepted. It
also demonstrated that the first signs of the transformations that would occur in British society were
particularly noticeable in the novel attitudes to the question of female education. This may encourage
further research of contemporary perspectives on institutional instruction.
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