My birthday is on Monday so today I am in a mood of recollecting that life is short and we should live it to the full. In honor of the “life is short” bit, I have come up with a slightly depressing list (don’t worry – I will post a happier one tomorrow). The Victorians were a special breed and this list looks at 10 aspects of life from the Victorian era that are creepy. Note that the focus is entirely on Victorian England. Be sure to post any we have missed in the comments.
.jpg)
The Victorian upper class (and later middle class) had no televisions to entertain them, so they entertained themselves. One of the popular forms of entertainment was for friends and family to dress up in outrageous costumes and pose for each other. This sounds innocent – but just think: can you imagine your grandmother dressing up as a greek wood nymph posing on a table in the living room while everyone applauds? No. You can't. The idea is, in fact, creepy. But for the Victorians, this was perfectly normal and fun.
Poorhouses were government-run facilities where the poor, infirm, or mentally ill could live. They were usually filthy and full to the brim of societies unwanted people. At the time, poverty was seen as dishonorable as it came from a lack of the moral virtue of industrialism. Many of the people who lived in the poorhouses were required to work to contribute to the cost of their board and it was not uncommon for whole families to live together with other families in the communal environment. In the Victorian era life didn’t get much worse than that of a poorhouse resident.
London during the Victorian era was famed for its pea-soupers — fogs so thick you could barely see through them. The pea-soupers were caused by a combination of fogs from the River Thames and smoke from the coal fires that were an essential part of Victorian life. Interestingly London had suffered from these pea-soupers for centuries – in 1306, King Edward I banned coal fires because of the smog. In 1952, 12 thousand Londoners died due to the smog causing the government to pass the Clean Air Act which created smog free zones. The Victorian atmosphere (in literature and modern film) is greatly enhanced by the thick smog due and this creepy environment made possible the acts of people like Jack the Ripper.
English food can be creepy at the best of times, but especially so in the Victorian era (disclaimer: England currently produces some of the finest food in the world). The Victorians loved offal and ate virtually every part of an animal. This is not entirely creepy if you are a food fanatic (like me) but for the average person, the idea of supping on a bowl of brains and heart is not appealing. Another famous dish from the Victorian era was turtle soup. The turtle was prized above all for its green jello-like fat which was used to flavor the soup made from the long-boiled stringy flesh of the animal. Due to dwindling numbers, turtles are rarely eaten nowadays, though it is possible to purchase them in some states of America where they are plentiful.
In a time when one in four surgery patients died after surgery, you were very lucky in Victorian times to have a good doctor with a clean theatre. There was no anesthesia, no painkillers for after, and no electric equipment to reduce the duration of an operation. Victorian surgery wasn’t just creepy, it was outright horrific. Here is a description of one surgery:
The assembled crowd of anxious medical students dutifully check their pocket watches, as two of Liston's surgical assistants – 'dressers' as they are called – take firm hold of the struggling patient's shoulders.The fully conscious man, already racked with pain from the badly broken leg he suffered by falling between a train and the platform at nearby King's Cross, looks in total horror at the collection of knives, saws and needles that lie alongside him. Liston clamps his left hand across the patient's thigh, picks up his favorite knife and in one rapid movement makes his incision. A dresser immediately tightens a tourniquet to stem the blood. As the patient screams with pain, Liston puts the knife away and grabs the saw. With an assistant exposing the bone, Liston begins to cut. Suddenly, the nervous student who has been volunteered to steady the injured leg realises he is supporting his full weight. With a shudder he drops the severed limb into a waiting box of sawdust.