Prereading the angel in the house
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The Victorian ideal for women was to be an "Angel in the House" - a pure, submissive, self-sacrificing figure. This concept comes from a 1854 poem by Coventry Patmore which describes the ideal wife as one who exists only to please her husband and takes responsibility for his mistakes. While seeming to elevate women by comparing them to angels, this ideal actually placed many restrictions on women and expected them to be subservient to men.
Prereading the angel in the house
- 1. The Angel in the House: The Ideal Victorian Woman The Victorian ideal of a woman was that of an angel in the house. The phrase Angel in the House comes from the title of a popular poem by Coventry Patmore, in which he holds up his angel-wife as a model for all women. Extract from The Angel in the House (1854) by Coventry Patmore Man must be pleased; but him to please Is woman's pleasure; down the gulf Of his condoled necessities She casts her best, she flings herself. How often flings for nought, and yokes Her heart to an icicle or whim, Whose each impatient word provokes Another, not from her, but him; While she, too gentle even to force His penitence by kind replies, Waits by, expecting his remorse, With pardon in her pitying eyes; And if he once, by shame oppress'd, A comfortable word confers, She leans and weeps against his breast, And seems to think the sin was hers; What does this tell us about how women and men should behave during this time period? In comparing women to an angel, do you think this is a way of elevating or restricting them? Explain.