Middle-Class Women, Tea Drinking and Victorian Cultural Paradigms: Domesticity, Stability and Respectability

Abstract

The cultural practice of tea drinking played an important part in the Victorian lifestyle. Inside a Victorian house, the roles of husband and wife were clearly established through (un)written rules, and men and women were expected to behave in certain ways. Organizing and conducting a tea drinking party, as well as coordinating the setting of the table for a private family tea gathering, or just for the purpose of having one or two guests over tea, was the task of Victorian wives. Our paper attempts to identify the functions of the Victorian cultural practice of tea drinking. We shall approach the ritual of tea drinking as a sign of the Victorian (male) expectations concerning the image of the ideal Victorian wife by analysing several literary fragments from three Victorian novels: “David Copperfield” (1849) and Dombey and Son (1846-1848) by Charles Dickens and Thomas Hardy’s “Jude the Obscure” (1895).

Cuvinte-cheie: practică culturală, luarea cheaiului, paradigme culturale victoriene, domesticitate, stabilitate, respect

REZUMAT

Practica culturală a consumului de ceai a jucat un rol important în stilul de viaţă victorian. În interiorul unei case victoriene, rolurile soţului şi soţiei erau clar stabilite prin reguli (ne)scrise, în sensul că bărbaţii şi femeile trebuiau să se comporte în anumite moduri. Organizarea şi desfăşurarea unei petreceri cu consumarea de ceai, precum şi servirea mesei pentru o reuniune privată în familie sau, pur şi simplu, pentru a avea unul sau doi invitaţi la ceai, era sarcina care cădea pe umerii soţiilor în epoca victoriană. În articol, încercăm să identificăm funcţiile practicii culturale victoriene de consum a ceaiului. Abordăm ritualul consumului de ceai ca semn al aşteptărilor victoriene (masculine) cu privire la imaginea soţiei victoriene ideale, analizând mai multe fragmente literare din trei romane care aparţin perioadei menţionate: „David Copperfield” (1849) şi „Dombey and Son” (1846-1848) de Charles Dickens, şi „Jude the Obscure” (1895) de Thomas Hardy.

LANGUAGE OF PUBLICATION

English

UDC: 821.111-31.09:008(420)

REFERENCES

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Hardy, T. (2004). Jude the Obscure. Dover Publications.

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Dictionaries

Childs, P., Fowler, R. (2006). The Routledge Dictionary of Literary Terms. Routledge.

Corpus

Dickens, C. (2004). David Copperfield. Penguin Books.

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Received: March 15, 2014 | Reviewed: March 26, 2014 | Accepted for publication: March 27, 2014

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