George Mason University
Victorian Middle-Class Ideology in W. S. Gilbert’s Savoy Operas
Abstract
This thesis explores Victorian middle-class ideology through the lens of W. S. Gilbert’s Savoy Operas, focusing on three general categories: intelligence and aptitude, morality and gentlemanliness, and domesticity and steadfast love. Gilbert’s Savoy Operas portray these three areas in such a way as to promote middle-class superiority over the upper and working classes, effectively flattering the middle classes and strengthening their perceptions of being the bulwark of society. Additionally, Gilbert’s middle-class characters display qualities of the emerging professional ideal, which promoted a system of reward based on personal merit, and directly challenged the upper classes and the privilege and power that they possessed solely through birth.
Author and committee
dc:creator, dc:contributor.*- Author
-
- Clemmer, Erin T.
Subjects
dc:subject × 6Identifiers
dc:identifier.*- Identifier
- hdl:1920/5840
- OAI identifier oai:identifier
- oai:MARS:1920/5840