Nineteenth Century Thought (9 page)

ANNOTATIONS

21.
     
More
highly ornamented males:
This hypothesis of Darwin is based on
observations alone, hence the conjectural nature of the idea. Mark in the para
words such as 'chance,' 'might have been developed,' 'small and graduated
steps' and 'it is probable.'

22.
     
Fulvous:
Reddish yellow.

He
who admits the principle of sexual selection will be led to the remarkable
conclusion that the cerebral system not only regulates most of the existing
functions of the body, but has indirectly influenced the progressive
development of various bodily structures and of certain mental qualities. Courage,
pugnacity, perseverance, strength and size of body, weapons of all kinds,
musical organs, both vocal and instrumental, bright
colours
, stripes and marks, and ornamental appendages have all been indirectly gained by
the one sex or the other, through the influence of love and jealousy, through
the appreciation of the beautiful in sound, colour or form, and through the
exertion of a choice; and these powers of the mind manifestly depend on the
development of the cerebral system.
²³
 
* * *

The
main conclusion arrived at in this work, namely that man is descended from some
lowly-organized form, will,
I
regret to think, be
highly distasteful to many persons. Bur there can hardly be a doubt that we are
descended from barbarians. The astonishment which I felt on first seeing a
party of
Fuegians
²⁴
on a wild and broken
shore will never be forgotten by me, for the reflection at once rushed into my
mind-such were our ancestors. These men were absolutely naked and bedaubed with
paint, their long hair was tangled, their mouths frothed with excitement, and
their expression was wild, startled, and distrustful. They possessed hardly any
arts, and like wild animals lived on what they could catch; they had no
government, and were merciless to everyone not of their own small tribe. He
who· has seen a savage in his native land will not feel much shame, if forced
to acknowledge that the blood of some more humble creature flows in his veins.
For my own part I would as soon be descended
 
from that heroic little monkey, who braved his dreaded enemy in order to
save the life of his keeper; or

ANNOTATIONS

23.
    
Cerebral
system:
This provides scope to Darwin to reach the highly
problematic area of feelings.
Also,
mark that Darwin's attitude is
totally atheistic which enables him to see the brain as a physical organ open
to the evolutionary process in nature.

24.
    
Fuegians
:
The
natives of the islands Tierra del Fuego near South America.

from
that old baboon
²⁵
, who, descending from the mountains, carried away
in triumph his young comrade from a crowd of astonished dogs-as from a savage
who delights to torture his enemies, offers up bloody sacrifices, practices
infanticide without remorse, treats his wives like slaves, knows no decency,
and is haunted by the grossest superstitions.

Man
may he excused for feeling some pride at having risen, though not through his
own exertions , to the very summit of the organic scale; and the fact of his
having thus risen , instead of having been aboriginally placed there, may give
him hopes for a still higher destiny in the distant future. Bur we are not here
concerned with hopes or fears, only with the truth as far as our reason allows
us to discover it. I have given the evidence to the best of my ability; and we
must acknowledge, as it seems to me, that man with all his noble qualities,
with sympathy which feels for the most debased, with benevolence which extends
not only to other men but to the humblest living creature, with his godlike intellect
which has penetrated into the movements and constitution of the solar
system-with all these exalted powers-Man still bears in his bodily frame
²⁶
the indelible stamp of his lowly origin.

ANNOTATIONS

25.
       
Old baboon:
Old
world monkey.

26.
       
Bodily frame:
Darwin's
terms being biological, 'bodily frame' is descriptive to the extent of being
literal. This reflects the power and appeal the scientific perspective enjoyed
in the nineteenth century.

Born
in London in 1806, John Stuart Mill is rightly considered the exponent of
utilitarianism, a doctrine quite progressive and 'modem' in its time.
Utilitarianism helped Mill criticize his society for its fixed notions of
morality and right conduct as also emphasize the need to stretch social thought
to the existing levels of economic development. This put him in direct
opposition to the supporters of tradition.

Mill
was primarily a thinkers and philosopher. His writings on economics placed him
on higher pedestal than that on which abstract philosophers and preachers of
the day stood. In fact, Mill never preached or sermonized- he only argued and
questioned. More effective than the assertion-oriented writings, Mill's
interventions greatly disturbed the existing trends. Of specific interest for
us is the
caricaturistic
presentation of
utilitarianism by Charles Dickens in
Hard Times
where the doctrine is
judged against the Christian value of simplicity and deprivation. We have to
consider whether Mill advocated 'heartlessness' and cold calculation of a
manufacturer or reasoned against the traditional idea of want and suffering as humanly
enriching and 'ennobling’. If the former were the case, why should Mill have
engaged himself with the issue of women's place and role in society? This would
be clear from the
 
extract
 
given
 
on
 
the
 
position
 
of women
 
under
 
the
 
title
 
'The

Subjection
of Women.'

Mill's
writings constitute an important part of English radicalism. Unlike the
twentieth century, the nineteenth century in England was deeply concerned with
the plight of women, the poor in general and the underprivileged. The
nineteenth century offered tough resistance to the powers that be, and dealt
telling blows at what are considered the master classes and presented a radical
transformation paradigm. There is no wonder that such radicalism bears a close
link with the literature of the period- particularly fiction and general
prose-writings. English radicals left an indelible mark on the psyche of the
country's middle class in the nineteenth century.

Mill's
thought covered a wide range of subjects. Some important books written by Mill
include
A System of Logic
(1843),
Principles of Political Economy
(1848),
On Liberty
(1859),
Considerations of Representative Government (1861)
and
Subjection of Women
(1869).

The
object of this Essay is to explain as clearly as I am able, the grounds of an
opinion which I have held from the very earliest period when I had formed an
opinion at all on social or political matters, and which, instead of being
weakened or modified , has been constantly growing stronger by the progress of
reflect ion and the experience of life: That the principle which regulates the
existing social relations between the two sexes-the legal subordination of one
sex to the other-is wrong in itself,
¹
and now one of the chief
hindrances to human improvement; and that it ought to be replaced by a
principle of perfect equality, admitting no power or privilege on the one side,
nor disability on the other.

*
* *

Some
will object that a comparison cannot fairly be made between the government of
the male sex and the forms of unjust power which I have adduced in illustration
of it, since these are arbitrary, and the effect of mere usurpation, while it
on the contrary is natural. But was there ever any domination which did not
appeal natural to those who possessed it? There was a time when the division of
mankind into two classes, small one of masters and a numerous one of slaves,
appeared, even to the most cultivated minds, to be of natural, and the only
natural, condition of the human race.
²
No less an intellect, and one
which contributed no less to the progress of human thought, than Aristotle,
held this opinion without doubt or misgiving; and rested it on the same
premises on which the same assertion in regard to the dominion of men over
women is usually based, namely that there are different natures among mankind,
free natures, and slave natures; that the Greeks were of a free nature, the
barbarian races of Thracians and
Asiatics
of a slave
nature.

ANNOTATIONS

1.
      
Wrong
in itself:
A typical nineteenth century assertion from one deeply
committed to equality in society. Not to be confused with the moralist notion
of wrong.

2.
      
The
only natural condition of human race:
That is how the issue of
master-slave relationship has
so
far been addressed in history. For
Mill, like all others, this is a socially constructed idea.

But
why need I go back to Aristotle? Did not the
slaveowners
of the Southern United States maintain the same doctrine, with all the
fanaticism with which men cling to the theories that justify their passions and
legitimate their personal interests? Did they not call heaven and earth to
witness that the dominion of the white man over the black is natural, that the
black race is by nature incapable of freedom, and marked out for slavery?
some
even going so far as to say that the freedom of manual
labourers is an unnatural order of things anywhere. Again, the theorists of
absolute monarchy have always affirmed it to be the only natural form of
government, issuing from the patriarchal
³
, which was the
primitive
 
and spontaneous form
 
of society,
 
framed on the model
 
of the
paternal,
 
which
 
is anterior to society itself, and, as they
contend, the most natural authority of all. * * * So true is it that unnatural
generally means only uncustomary, and that everything which is usual appears natural.
⁴
The subjection of women to men being a universal custom, any departure from it
quite naturally appears unnatural. But how entirely, even in this case, the
feeling is dependent on custom, appears by ample experience. Nothing so much
astonishes the people of distant parts of the world, when they first learn
anything about England, as to be told that it is under a queen: the thing seems
to them so unnatural as to be almost incredible. To Englishmen this does not
seem in the least degree unnatural, because they are used to it; but they do
feel it unnatural that women should be soldiers or members of parliament. In
the feudal ages
⁵
, on the contrary, war and politics were not thought
unnatural to women, because not unusual; it seemed natural that women of the
privileged classes should be of manly character, inferior in nothing but bodily
strength to their husbands and fathers.

ANNOTATIONS

3.
      
Patriarchal:
From
father. Authority of the male parent in the family-structure.

4.
      
Unnatural
... uncustomary ... usual appears natural:
Custom clouds the
vision of society. According to Mill, a distinction should be made between what
appears
and what
is.

5.
      
The
feudal ages:
Feud al systems emerged in history in many parts of
the world in the era of land-based production. Old kingship supported by Divine
Power was a manifestation of feudalism. Feudal powers constituting the nobility
headed by a king denied freedom to people and treated them as subjects. Feudalism
and medievalism go hand in hand in Europe. We can feel the presence of all
these shades of meaning in Mill's comment.

The
independence of women seemed rather less unnatural to the Greeks than to other
ancients, on account of the fabulous Amazons
⁶
(whom they believed to
be historical), and the partial example afforded by the Spartan women
⁷
;
who, though no less subordinate by law than in other Greek states, were more
free in fact, and being trained to bodily exercises in the same manner with
men, gave ample proof that they were not naturally disqualified for them. There
can be little doubt that Spartan experience suggested to Plato, among many
other of his doctrines, that of the social and political equality of the two
sexes.

But,
it will be said, the rule of men over women differs from all these others in not
being a rule of force: it is accepted voluntarily; women make no complaint, and
are consenting parties to it. In the first place, a great number of women do
not accept it. Ever since there have been women able to make their sentiments
known by their writings (the only mode of publicity which society permits to
them), an increasing number of them have recorded protests against their
present social condition: and recently many thousands of them, headed by the
most eminent women known to the public, have petitioned Parliament for their
admission to the Parliamentary

Suffrage
⁸
.
The claim of women to be educated as solidly, and in the same branches of
knowledge, as men, is urged with growing intensity, and with a great prospect
of success; while the demand for their admission into profession and
occupations hitherto closed against them, becomes every year more urgent.
Though there are not in this country, as there are in the United States,
periodical Conventions and an organized party to agitate for the Rights of Women,
there is a numerous and active Society organized and managed by women, for the
more limited object of obtaining the political franchise.
⁹

ANNOTATIONS

6.
      
Fabulous
Amazons:
Warrior women. Stronger than men, Amazons were
supposed to (this is why they are called 'fabulous') have lived at some places
in the ancient world.

7.
      
Spartan women:
Women
in the Greek state of Sparta.

8.
      
Parliamentary suffrage:
The
right to vote in parliamentary elections. Such a right was denied to women in
the nineteenth century.

9.
      
Political franchise:
Right
to vote in elections.

Nor
is it only in our own country and in America that women are beginning to
protest, more or less collectively, against the disabilities under which they
labour
. France, and Italy, and Switzerland, and Russia now
afford examples of the same thing. How many more women there are who silently
cherish similar aspirations, no one can possibly know; but there are abundant
tokens how many would cherish them, were they not so strenuously taught to
 
repress them as contrary to the proprieties
of their sex.

*
 
*
 
*

All
causes, social and natural, combine to make it unlikely that women should be
collectively rebellious to the power of men. They are so far in a position
different from all other subject classes, that their masters require something
more from them than actual service. Men do not want solely the obedience of women,
they want their sentiments. All men, except the most brutish, desire to have,
in the woman most nearly connected with them, not a forced slave but a willing
one, not a slave merely, but a favorite. They have therefore put everything in
practice to enslave their minds. The masters of all other slaves rely, for
maintaining obedience, on fear; either fear of themselves, or religious fears.
The masters of women wanted more than simple obedience, and they turned the
whole force of education to
effect
their purpose. All
women are brought up from the very earliest years in the belief that their
ideal of character is the very opposite to that of men; not self-will, and
government by self-control, but submission, and yielding to the control of
others. All the moralities 10 tell them that it is the duty of women, and all
the current sentimentalities 1 1 that it is their nature, to live for others;
to make complete abnegation of themselves, and to have no life but in their
affections.
¹²

ANNOTATIONS

10.
   
Moralities:
Moral
principles; systems of morality.

11.
   
Sentimentalities:
Soft
feelings and emotions, as of love or friendship.
 
Read something feminine (opposite of
masculine) in them. Sentimentalities also signify the opposite of harsh reality
and tough attitude.

12.
   
Affections:
Sentiments.

And
by their affections are meant the only ones they are allowed to have-those to
the men with whom they are connected, or to the children who constitute an
additional and indefeasible
¹³
tie between them and a man. When we
put together three things-first, the natural attraction between opposite sexes;
secondly, the wife's entire dependence on the husband, every privilege or
pleasure she has being either his gift, or depending entirely on his will; and
lastly, that the principal object of human pursuit, consideration,
 
and all objects of social ambition, can in
general be sought or obtained by her only through him, it would be a miracle if
the object of being attractive to men had not become the polar star of feminine
education
 
and formation
 
of character. And, this great means of
influence over the minds of women having been acquired, an instinct of
selfishness made men avail themselves of it to the utmost as a means of holding
women in subjection, by representing to them meekness, submissiveness, and
resignation of all individual will into the hands of a man, as an essential
part of sexual attractiveness. Can it be doubted that any of the other yokes which
mankind have succeeded in breaking, would have subsisted till now if the same
means had existed, and had been as sedulously used, to bow down their minds to
it? If it had been made the object of the life of every young plebeian
¹⁴
to find personal favour in the eyes of some patrician, of every young serf
¹⁵
with some seigneur
¹⁶
, if domestication with him, and a share of his
personal affections, had been held out as the prize which they all should look
out for, the most gifted and aspiring being able to reckon on the most
desirable prizes; and if, when this prize had been obtained, they had been shut
out by a wall of brass from all interests not centering in him, all feelings
and desires but those which he shared or
 
inculcated; would not serfs and seigneurs, plebeians and patricians
¹⁷
,
have been as broadly distinguished at this day as men and women are?
and
would not all but a thinker here and there, have believed
the distinction to be a fundamental and unalterable fact in human nature?

ANNOTATIONS

13.
   
Indefeasible:
Not
liable to be defeated or annulled.

14.
   
Plebeian:
A
commoner of low ordinary rank.

15.
   
Serf:
A
slave bound to the land of his master. A peasant-slave.