Have you ever read a Jane Austen novel and wished you had lived in her world? Ever watched Downton Abbey and thought you were born in the wrong time period? Media has portrayed a highly romanticized version of the Victorian Era and leaves out some of the rather unpleasant parts of Victorian lifestyle. Here a just a few reasons why living in Victorian times actually would have sucked.
1. Sanitation
Think about this. Vaccines weren’t as available or effective as they are today. The population was infested by diseases such as cholera, typhoid, and the flu. Ever heard of Typhoid Mary? She infected a presumed 51 people with typhoid without knowing it. Immigrants flooded major cities causing urbanization, leading to ridiculous amounts of infection and disease. Doctors didn’t start washing their hands or instruments until Edwin Chadwick’s Public Health Act of 1875. Sewage drains overflowed and leaked through pipes, sewage gasses were released through toilets, baths, and sinks into households, and decaying excrement was occasionally thrown into the streets. “Improvements” were made by Joseph Bazalgette, a government engineer; however, these “improvements” were basically depositing sewage into the River Thames (which was used for drinking purposes).
2. Medical Practices
The main medical practice people associate with the Victorian Era is leeching. I do not know a single person who would willingly have leeches put on their body. One common “disease” in the Victorian Era was hysteria. Supposedly caused by the uterus and ovaries, any woman who felt sick or had thoughts and feelings “outside of her position” was thought to have hysteria. One common procedure used to treat hysteria was to put leeches on your vagina. Ladies, I don’t think any of us even want to think about this. Dr. Weir S. Mitchell was the leading doctor in hysteria treatment. One treatment developed by Dr. Mitchell was the “rest cure”; they locked the “infected” woman away in one room and kept her in there alone, or with her baby in some cases, until she was “cured”. It was basically prison without the bars. Charlotte Perkins Gilman wrote a short story on her experience with the rest cure. The woman ends up going insane rather than being “cured” (I suggest everyone read it; it depicts how women were actually treated in Victorian times).
3. Corsets
Corset-wearing was brainwashed into girls at a young age with the process beginning around age 11. They prohibited women from doing ordinary tasks, from getting in and out of carriages to just walking. Small couches were kept at the tops of stairs in case a woman fainted after climbing stairs from not being able to breathe. A corset could exert up to 88 POUNDS of pressure on internal organs. In extreme cases, the uterus would actually be pushed out through the vagina.
I’m pretty sure if I went back in time to the 1800s, I would be locked up in an insane asylum for being an opinionated woman. I like the romanticized version of the Victorian Era as much as the next guy, but stories from Jane Austen and the Brontë sisters, and shows like Downton Abbey give a romanticized depiction of how life was then. Now don’t get me wrong, I enjoy Pride and Prejudice, Jane Eyre, and Downton Abbey (more than I’d like to admit), but the truth about living in Victorian times is not quite as romantic as media depicts it to be.
