Information on Victorian-era psychology of women?

[queen_mab]

I'm not sure that my question is appropriate for the community, but I sure hope it is, as I'm struggling with it and pretty desperate to find answers in the form of resources

Comments

[cuddyclothes]

Try "The Yellow Wallpaper." It's a novel, can't remember by who, about a woman who is stuck in a room with yellow wallpaper.

[orange_fell]

Heh, we had the same thought.

[orange_fell]

Have you read Charlotte Perkins Gilman's "The Yellow Wallpaper" (1892)? It's a short story, but it ties in extremely well with what you're doing, and I would bet that by looking up modern literary criticism of the story, you could find some relevant Victorian sources on women's mental health.

[lanalucy]

You might try to find a copy of The Pearl. Not the Steinbeck one. It's ostensibly an erotica serial, in that it was printed at the time in little booklets every month (or something like that.). Erotica may not be your thing, but it was written at the time, and there are assumptions made in the writing about women that might be illuminating. It's also kind of funny. lol

[gehayi]

I don't know where the OP is located, but I'd advise them not to if they're in Australia. Australia already prosecuted a Tasmanian politician for downloading The Pearl. Under Australian law--which deals with written portrayals of children as well as visual ones--it counts as child pornography; it deals with prostitution, and the age of consent for females then was...twelve.

[lanalucy]

Hmm. Interesting. Maybe it's been too long since I last read it. I don't remember any children in it.

[six_dollar_baby]

Seconding The Yellow Wallpaper, and also:
Kate Chopin: The Awakening
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Awakening_%28Chopin_novel%29

Henry James: Portrait of a Lady and What Maisie Knew
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Portrait_of_a_Lady
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/What_Maisie_Knew

John Stuart Mill: The Subjection of Women
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Subjection_of_Women

[donutgirl]

How about Freud? Freud is working in Vienna during this era, not England, but he is VERY interested in the question of female psychology, wrote a TON about it, all of which is available in English, and he was very influential throughout Europe.