This presentation briefly explores the intersection of 19th century etiquette texts, fashion, and social performance as explored in Eliot's Mill on the Floss.
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Etiquette
1. Fashion
&
Social Performance in
The Mill on the Floss
Megan K. Mize
An Elegant And Precise Examination Of The Role Of Fashion Within A Polite Society, As Explored By G. Eliot
2. Etiquette Texts
✤ Emerging middle class sought models
of “appropriate” behavior
✤ 1850s on: etiquette books claimed to
codify rules of a polite society
✤ Based upon the norms of the
supplanted 18th century aristocratic
society
✤ “There were particular ways of doing
everything in the [Dodson]
family...” (Eliot 86).
3. The lady's guide to perfect gentility, in manners, dress, and conversation ... also a useful instructor in letter writing,
toilet preparations, fancy needlework, millinery, dressmaking, care of wardrobe, the hair, teeth, hands, lips, complexion,
etc.
Emily Thornwell
1856
✤ Chapter I: Agreeableness and Beauty of Person
✤ Chapter II: Gentility and Refinement of Manners in
all the Relations of Home and Society
✤ Chapter III: How to Combine Elegance, Style, and
Economy
✤ Chapter IV: The Art of Conversing with Fluency and
Propriety
✤ Chapter V: The Whole Art of Correct and Elegant
Letter-Writing
✤ Chapter VI: Elegant Fancy Needle-work, Knitting,
Netting, Crochet, Embroidery
✤ Chapter VII: The Art of Millinery and Dress-Making
4. The Etiquette of Fashion
Women’s fashion constantly evolved, while adhering to strict rules of propriety
5. Clothing In
Mill
✤ 1820’s- 30’s
✤ Context Determines Costume
✤ Aunts Glegg and Pullet
✤ Consciousness of Class and
Taste as Represented through
Appearance
6. Other Costuming Elements
✤ Fair Coloring: Skin and Hair
✤ Hair Styles: Curling
✤ Hair Pieces: “Fronts”
9. Nature vs Construct
✤ Castiglione: Effortless Grace
✤ 19th Century Evolution
✤ “It is a pathetic sight...” (Eliot
98-99)
10. Fashion & Reflexivity
✤ Individual Appearance Reflects
on Group Status
✤ Gender Roles
✤ Contemplation of Female
Figure
11. Conformity & Agency
Maggie cuts her hair in response to social pressures
This Moment Demonstrates The Ability To Act, While Highlighting The Extreme Difficulty Of Such Subversion
12. Further Discussion
As such texts also existed for men, to what extent might a man control the
construction of his identity via costuming? Were men equally constricted by
contemporary fashions? How does Mill address the relation between men,
appearance, and social status?
13. Bibliography
Eliot, George. The Mill on the Floss. Ed. Oliver Lovesey. Ontario,
Broadview Press, 2007. Print.
Thornwell, Emily. The lady's guide to perfect gentility, in manners, dress, and
conversation ... also a useful instructor in letter writing, toilet preparations,
fancy needlework, millinery, dressmaking, care of wardrobe, the hair, teeth,
hands, lips, complexion, etc. New York, Derby & Jackson. 1856. Print.