A Clutter of Thoughts on Victorian England, or at least on the Private/Public .

In Summerscale’s The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher, the most enjoyable part was the details revolving around the crime of the young Francis Saville Kent. It seemed to me that many of her details were trivial to the novel, making it very difficult to read. However, despite the tangents on what Dickens and other novelists had to say, Summerscale did provide a basic detective story that showed the truth behind Victorian life.

To begin, the Kent’s seemed like a perfect family, as there was no sign of any impropriety or abnormality. We are presented with the day to day activities of the family, and are expected to think nothing but good thoughts of the family. Yet, as the story progresses, we learn about Mr. Kent’s first wife who was mentally ill and the desperate attempt for Mr. Kent to keep that part of his life secret as he and his family moved from place to place. It was not until the death of his first wife, that Mr. Kent would not have hide from the true nature of his now dead wife. This becomes an example of how the public and the private life remained separate or at least people tried to keep them separate.

When the class first began, we were asked our opinions on what we thought were characteristics of the Victorian Era. Due to our lack of familiarity, or at least my own lack of familiarity, we found ourselves focusing on the more “proper” characteristics with the frilly dresses and corsets. However, as we continued to read, we found that these proper characteristics seemed to correlate with the “public life” of Victorian England, as we saw many of the main characteristics who had dual natures.
The most obvious example of this would be Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde. While they were both the same person, they both had different personas, one that remained a proper public figure (Dr. Jekyl) and Mr. Hyde, the private and anything but appropriate figure. By the end of the novel, we see that Dr. Jekyl goes as far to kill himself to prevent for the exposure of Hyde’s true identity, and the humiliation that Dr. Jekyl would face from society.

It’s interesting to see that through all of the things we have read, there is some sort of identity crisis that the main character or narrator goes through. There is a sense of belonging that the Victorians wanted within society, and yet at the same time, there was always something hindering the Victorian from fully emerging within the Victorian ideal. We looked at Mowgli who wanted to be a part of the jungle, but could not because of his human characteristics and his human nature. We see Sherlock Holmes, a wonderful detective who has the ability to solve crimes from his pure geniousness and yet he remains a heavy drug user.

What I am eventually getting to is the fact that, no one really seemed to be what they were. It’s a pretty scary thought if you think about because you cannot really trust anyone, or expect them to be whole heartedly good. It is a common battle that we even in today’s society must continue to fight, as we are caught between our own public and private spheres. Every day we take on different personas, as students, teachers, brothers, sisters, employees, boyfriends, girlfriends and etc. But how many of us act the same in every persona that we take?