Masculinity in Modern Europe

Questions for Theme 2: The Moral Reform of Manliness

 

Tosh, ch. 6: "Authority and Nuture in Middle-class Fatherhood"

 

*1. What is an essential question about 19th-century masculinity that has been overlooked, and Tosh wants to address?

2. What were the father's primary concerns with respect to his children?

*3. What were two developments or trends that gradually undermined masculine authority in the home?

4. How does Tosh explain the growing popularity of boarding schools in Victorian England?

 

Tom Brown's Schooldays Part I, chaps 3-7

 

Notes: In English terminology, a "Tory" is a conservative, typically  a landowning family like Tom Brown's.  Squire Brown manages his estates and earns income through rents from farmers who lease land from him.  A "public school" like Rugby is actually a private school, but is "public" in the sense that it is an established institution (with a board of directors) and admits students from all over the country. 

 

5. Tom Brown's father is a conservative and wealthy landowner.  What is unusual about Squire Brown and his son?

*6. In Squire Brown's thinking, what is school for?

*7. Approximately how many boys are playing the football (Rugby) match?  What is the game like?

8. Compare Brooke's speech to the description of the Doctor's sermons.  What do they have in common?

 

Tom Brown's Schooldays Part I, chaps 8-9; Part II, chaps 1-4

 

*9. In the mind of the author (Hughes), what was good and what was bad about Tom and East's combativeness and rule-breaking?

*10. What are "Lesson 1" and "Lesson 2" that Tom learns from George Arthur?

11. In what ways is George Arthur's father a model of manliness?

 

Tom Brown's Schooldays Part II, chaps 5-9

 

*12. Why does the author (Hughes) think fighting is a good thing?

*13. In what ways do George Arthur and Tom Brown help each other develop into good men?

14. Explain the symbolism of the final cricket game, and the significance of Arthur's role in it.

 

Thomas Hughes, "Manliness of Christ"

 

*15. What is the quality that, above all, reflects Christ's manliness?

*16. What makes Christ different from other heroes, such as Capt. John Brown?

17. Compare this discussion to Hughes's novel, Tom Brown.  How is the concept of manliness similar, and how different?

 

C. Oldstone-Moore, ch. 9: "Patriarchs of the Industrial Age"

 

18. Why did Abraham Lincoln grow a beard?

*19. What are two key factors in the sudden shift to beards in the early 1850s?

20. What did men hope to express with their beards in that time?

*21. How could men explain away the significance of bearded ladies?