Class and Gender in Victorian England: The Diaries of Arthur J. Munby and Hannah Cullwick
Author(s)
Davidoff, Leonore
Abstract
A detailed study of one source-the diaries of A. Munby and his servant/wife H. Cullwick-is used to help in understanding the interaction of gender and class divisions in nineteenth-century England. It is argued that his world view was laid down in childhood, in the pattern of childcare and the use of servants to do the dirty work of the house, and the physical aspects of child care. This situation produced certain expectations when he was an adult; images of subordination and domination became attached to specific groups, especially towards women. Symbolic themes of whiteness and blackness, masculinity and femininity, size, spatial patterns, and body types were all part of this symbolic order which was particularly centered on definitions of sexuality. Mr. Mumby, by virtue of his economic resources and status, was able to manipulate this symbolic order, both in fantasy and reality. A. J. Munby, whose nineteen-year relationship with H. Cullwick culminated in their marriage, created a situation where he was able to live out many of these fantasies. In both photography and poetry as well as in his detailed diary he shows how this symbolic order was made manifest. The diary of H. Cullwick gives rare insights into the meaning of domestic service in general and the relationship of subordination in both class and gender systems in particular. The contradictions such a relationship entailed for both participants throw further light on the maintenance of the system, its weaknesses, and the forces for change inherent within it.
