The Moderate Victorian Male Spectator in A Study in Scarlet, The Moonstone, "The Harlot's House" and "Hermaphroditus" Morgan Pinder College

The Victorian depiction of the masculine is divided by not only class factors but also by degrees of gender conformity and morality, it is this conformity and morality that shapes the role of the masculine narrative in Victorian literature. In this essay I will be examining the accepted norm of the Victorian male and those who transgress these norms in A Study in Scarlet (Doyle, 1887), The Moonstone (Collins, 1868), "The Harlot's House" (Wilde, 1882) and "Hermaphroditus" (Swinburne, 1863). By examining these texts through the lens of concepts of masculinity I hope to show that the role of men in these select Victorian narratives can be roughly divided into the functions of spectator and spectacle, prescribed by their relationship to gender norms. The spectacle can be the often showy, athletic, criminal or unchivalrous masculine, or the feminine masculine who transgresses or transcends gender to become god-like, genius or otherworldly. In this way the normative masculinity in these texts is one of moderation, neither indulging in animal like masculinity, or transgressing too far into the territory of the feminine. This normative masculine ideal serves as both a standard by which all other characters are judged and an audience...