Department or Program
History
Abstract
This paper uses scandals involving sexual transgressions as a way to study social norms, values, and the impact of their disruption on the upper class, whose position in society made them especially vulnerable to public disgrace. Court reporting made secrecy impossible; newspapers pounced on the sordid evidence from trials involving sexual transgression, specifically adultery and homosexuality, and circulated it. Previous scholarship has dealt with either divorce trials and their disruption of public and private spheres or homosexuality scandals and their threat to masculinity. My thesis brings this scholarship together to question the broader impact of scandals on society. By examining editorials about these trials, I explore how scandals necessitated punishment of transgressors in order to protect vulnerable moral codes and the sense of superior morality integral to British national character.
Level of Access
Restricted: Campus/Bates Community Only Access
First Advisor
Shaw, Caroline
Date of Graduation
Spring 5-2014
Degree Name
Bachelor of Arts
Recommended Citation
Spence, Rachel, "Sex Scandals in Victorian Britain: Moral Codes and National Reputation in Crisis" (2014). Honors Theses. 100.
https://scarab.bates.edu/honorstheses/100
Number of Pages
106
Restricted
Available to Bates community via local IP address or Bates login.