Michele's Humanities Blog

When searching for an image of Sherlock Holmes for this blog post, I came across many different ones. Most show Sherlock Holmes as a single minded detective, with an insatiable curiosity. Always wearing the trench coat, and hat often carefully examining something closely just as in the image that I chose. This image comes from one of my favorite episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation of all time,titled “Elementary, Dear Data”. Data being the android that he is, reads and memorizes all of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s works. While attempting to take part in a fun holodeck program with his friend Geordi as Watson to his Sherlock. Of course he recognizes the story almost immediately and takes the fun out of it. In an attempt to help Data truly understand the human aspect of the Sherlock Holmes stories, Geordi instructs the computer to create a character capable of defeating Data. Somehow this instruction along with a power surge sets Professor Moriarty free, thus actually granting a computerized being that which Data has always longed for humanity, and an understanding of human emotion.

I do not know about you, but I for one would not want to be tasked with stealing a body from the grave. I am not usually a skittish person by nature, but dealing unnaturally with the dead, is not something I would want to do. The task alone would make it creepy, but the setting too lends itself to a good scare. Of course it takes place under the cover of darkness so that the men stealing the body would not be seen, but the driving rain and the loss of a light source other than the flashes of lightning just adds to the suspense. Now I can not say for sure exactly what I would do if I was forced to ride with a dead body riding in the seat next to me, falling on top of me with every little bump and turn in the road. I do know however that if that same body somehow changed form and went from being a small woman to a much larger man in the time that the trip back took, I would definitely be looking into a new line of work and quick.

When I spent some time really examining this photograph it was actually pretty difficult to wrap my head around the stark differences between Victorian times, and what a group of people at the beach look like today. While the women are covered from head to toe, I do not really think that this was taken during the fall or winter time, because the boys are in their shirt sleeves. It would not be uncommon for females of all ages to be well covered, no matter what the temperature may have been. If the women were to actually want to go swimming they would have to have somewhere to change discreetly into their bathing attire, most likely their undergarments, and be deposited into the water without anyone being able to see them uncovered. The trouble involved in this alone probably made swimming an unwelcome activity for most. I will say though that this beach is not one that I would necessarily want to visit. There was no white sugar sand, and clear blue water. It was more rocky and the water is most likely cold any time of year, so I guess other than fresh air and a picnic lunch, I would not want to spend any time at the beach.

Ironically enough some of the most popular freak show attractions during Victorian times were things like “The Stoutest Lady Alive”, or “American Midgets”. Both of these attractions would still draw a crowd today. As a matter of fact they still do. Only now instead of being part of a circus act, or hidden away and only viewed when someone buys a ticket, now they are ever present on reality television daily. With shows like “My 600 pound life” and “Little People, Big World” drawing viewers on networks daily, it really is hard to believe that we as a society have progressed at all. I guess the upside would be that these people are paid quite well to put their lives on display for the rest of the world, and at least if people are disgusted by them, or even laugh at them when they watch, these people do not ever have to know about it.

During the Victorian era the spread of Imperialism was of the utmost importance. For the good of the Empire expansion was necessary, or at least that was what many believed. In “Rikki Tikki Tavi” Rudyard Kipling explores the spread of imperialism to other parts of the world. He shows how imperialism is necessary, and good, at least in the eyes of some. That even though there are animals who already inhabited the garden and the house, they were better off when Rikki Tikki Tavi came to be in the garden as well. His strength and skill helped to keep them safe from the cobras, or in this case native rebels. Kipling obviously felt strongly that the British Empire was doing the rest of the world a favor, by moving in and taking over, because of course only the civilized English knew what was best for everyone.

As a child, I remember watching Walt Disney’s version of “Alice in Wonderland” and thinking that the mad tea party was just that…a crazy, mixed-up silly party.  Never in a million years would I have thought that the Mad Tea Party was actually a euphemism for the modern political system.  With the Mad Hatter and the March Hare each representing the two main political parties.  Where both parties say what we the voters want to hear, but never actually do anything, and where they continuously tell any outsiders who may want to join them there’s no room.  Every time Alice tries to understand what is going on, she is either attacked on a personal level, or told that she does not belong.  Of course any outsiders are never welcomed, because they upset the status quo.

In Lewis Carroll’s “The Walrus and the Carpenter”, we see a beautifully crazy warning about how allowing factory owners to use up our children is a horrible idea.  Carroll was trying desperately to get people to see that even though times may have been hard, sending our children out to work at such young ages, and allowing them to work in unsafe conditions was the worst thing that they could possibly do. The Walrus is meant to represent politicians or big-time factory owners who will tell us what we all want to hear.  They will cry with us, and tell us how very sorry they are when something happens to our children, but then in the next breath ask if we have any other children that we might allow them to employ.  The carpenter represents labor class workers, who were also more than willing to use up and discard children in order to make their lives easier.

In Christina Rossetti’s “Goblin Market” the fruit merely refers to intimacy or personal knowledge of an individual.  Which would be extremely tame by today’s standards.  This could obviously include sexual intimacy, but even the appearance of any personal knowledge would be inappropriate. In today’s society saving one’s self for marriage is not such a popular notion, as it should be.  Rather than simple intimacy instead, the fruit could possibly in today’s society refer to exposure to sexual deviancy.  While I am quite sure there are many people out there who have perverse unhealthy views of sexuality, that is definitely not something that I feel that the majority of society even wants to acknowledge, much less be exposed to.  It is definitely not something that I feel our youngsters should be allowed to explore, especially before they are old enough to know themselves and make an honest decision about what they are truly comfortable with.

Let us just say that I personally am not cut out for life as a Domestic Servant, no matter the day or time.  During Victorian times a domestic servant would not necessarily be safe or have a guaranteed job.  If either the Master or Mistress of the house, or even one of the children decided to make trouble for a servant that servant could find themselves out the door, with no references, or any future job prospects.  A lot of the time the servants would not truly earn anywhere close to a living wage, forcing them to find other avenues of gainful employment, which were not always ideal.  Having to keep up after my own family is more than enough of a daunting task.  I definitely would not want to have another family’s needs that I would have to place before myself and my family at all times.  At least when my children are acting like spoiled brats and expecting me to pick up after them, I can remind them that that is not what I was put on this earth for.  Plus I am far too opinionated to keep my mouth shut, and just take whatever is dished out.

Philanthropy actually got its start during the Roman Empire.  It became a part of the feudal system, and people who were better off financially were expected to contribute to the lives of those less fortunate than themselves.  At least this way no one could say that
“someone really should do something about that” but not actually do anything.  Most people who had the means to help wanted to do something to help those less fortunate than themselves, but they did not really know how to accomplish this.  It was not until the Victorian era that charity organizations were developed to streamline and help make sure that needs were actually being met.  Most charity organizations naturally were born from the church itself.  Before long, however, charity works soon fell to the state to make sure that its people were being benefitted in the best way possible.   Which leads us to the welfare system that is in place today, and does not necessarily benefit the ones who truly need it.