THE WOMAN QUESTION
A constellation of questions 1581/ 1719 :
1. Status in marriage? 2. Education?
3. Occupation/Vocation/Profession? (Wife? Mother? Governess? Nurse?)
4. The Vote (1867: J. S. Mill)

A. ELLIS: The Women of England
[A conduct book: women's guide-book]
1584 /1721-2: Separate Spheres (Publ./Priv)
1584 /1722:Womanly influence
1585 /1722-23--Education: moral, (cultivation of the heart) BUT Evangelical (cultivation of the HEART, tenderness, feeling) not moral philosophy (cultivation of moral judgment and moral independence).

[RETURN TO DICKENS'S HARD TIMES] influence of Ellis

273:
Rachel: compassionate angel, content worker
[Query: Good workers are those who know their Providentially appointed station?]

Sissy: "happy" with "happy children"
Louisa: no re-marriage; but loved by others' children, and learning compassion and aesthetics.
[Query: Simple, loving, domestic women are rewarded; intelligent, rebellious women must be domesticated?]

The writer and the reader:
Like Louisa (Sissy?), do our duty, which is?]

B. ELIZABETH BARRETT BARRETT = EBB = ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING :

"The Cry of the Children" (1843)
How can women intervene in the public sphere?
POETRY OF THE HEART (sentimental, private):
e.g. Laeticia Elizabeth Landon (L.E.L.), Erinna: "O heart of mine! My once sweet paradise/Of love and hope! How changed thou art to me!"
or
Protest for the under-represented?
-- 1843 Report of the Royal Commission on the Employment of Children and Very Young Persons in Mines and Factories
--Medea (Euripides)
--young/old; nature/humanity
--Little Alice : death=peace and pleasure
--the Wheels: eternal, monotonous, noise
--God: made man in his own image
--child's heart/commercial throne
1847 "Ten Hours" Factory Act [EBB's poem drew a lot of public attention to the problem of child labor and contributed to the public outcry that led to the passage of this Parliamentary Act.]