Shades

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Frances receives a letter from Victor who is clearly seeking to know whether or not she is pregnant. Her reply is deliberately ambiguous but it drives Victor into a decision to use his influence to recruit people from St Matthias for the mines. In the meantime, while Frances is ill, Helmina takes her place at Nolovini, hoping that her isolation with Walter would cement their friendship.

The Victorian Age — named after Queen Victoria who ruled the British Empire for 63 years (1837-1901) — was marked by a deeply conservative morality. Indeed, it was a morality which covered every facet of society from sexual mores to codes of dress.

The Victorians were essentially middle class English, caught up in a very strict religion. They were wealthy but believed their wealth came as a blessing from God.

But what God gives, He can also take away. If that were to happen, the Victorians believed they would be plunged back into abject poverty.

To avoid such a catastrophe, the Victorians followed a puritan way of life. Anything that brought sin upon their heads was to be avoided.

The ultimate sin lay in unbridled sexuality. Avoidance of temptation therefore lay at the forefront of their morality.

For the Victorians, the purpose of marriage was primarily for the bearing of children and to prevent husbands from burning up with sexual desire. Sex for the wife was therefore a duty and was not meant to be pleasurable. It was, however, something that was strictly to be confined to marriage.

Sexual rules were therefore simple: there could be no sex until after marriage. Even kissing was considered dangerous.

A woman who lost her virginity outside of marriage was regarded as "fallen" and therefore a harlot. Indeed, few men would seek a marital alliance with such a person.

Since middle class Victorian women were not expected to work, a good marriage was therefore essential to them. A "fallen" woman, however, had little marital prospects and was therefore doomed to a life of poverty.

On the other hand, couples did engage in sex outside of marriage but, if they were found out — usually by an unexpected pregnancy — it was expected that they would immediately marry. Indeed, not to marry would bring humiliation to the whole family.

Should a father even suspect that a prospective marital partner was having sex with his daughter, he was justified in forcing the young man into marriage.

The Victorians were also noted for their dress codes. Men always wore long pants, polished shoes, jacket, tie and hat on almost all occasions.

Women ensured that almost every part of their bodies was covered: long-sleeved dresses with the lace overlapping the wrist, high collars and wide skirts which reached to the ankles. Corsets were popular as a means of keeping the waistline narrow.

Men were never to be seen nude or semi-nude in front of a woman. Women were in fact expected to avert their eyes even if the man was merely without his shirt.

Women were certainly never to be seen nude or semi-nude in front of a man, even if that man was her husband. Sex within marriage therefore happened in the dark and usually fully dressed in bed-clothes. The woman's night-dress might be rolled up but not removed!

When it came to sea-bathing, separate areas were designated for men and for women. Women were often taken out into the breakers on board bathing booths on wheels, so that the men would not even see them alighting into the water.

Even so, the ankle length skirts of their bathing costumes were weighed down with lead pellets lest the skirt float and reveal even so much as the woman's legs under the water.

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Read the notes in the left column before answering the questions below:

Why does Frances deliberately not tell Victor whether or not she is pregnant? (4)

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Frances wants to keep Victor worrying. She wishes to force him to share the distress and suffering that he had inflicted on her by forcing sexual intercourse onto her, thus causing her both shame and worry.

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What words tell us that Frances is NOT pregnant. (4)

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". . . wept with weary relief that they had been reprieved, exempt from what they'd done" and "that instant of potential procreation had been barren".

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Why does Frances appear to regret not being pregnant? (The answer is complicated, so don't go for the simple reply.) (10)

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Frances saw their act of sexual intercourse as a grievous sin. The good of the child, however, would have wiped away the sin of the action. When she discovered that she was not pregnant, she was of course relieved — and yet it meant that there was now no forgiveness for the sin they had committed. This is a philosophy which would have sprung right out of the writings of St Augustine — a 6th century Christian bishop. He argued that sexuality — even in marriage — was sinful. When it resulted in a pregnancy, however, then the good of the child balanced off the sinfulness of the sexual act.

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Why is Walter tempted to open her letter to Victor? (4)

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Walter wants to know — does he not? — what it is that is troubling Frances. He probably wants to know once and for all whether or not she had had sexual intercourse with Victor because, if she had, then she now belongs to Victor. In that case, Walter must step back and let her go.

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After receiving the letter, why does Victor decide to use his influence to recruit people for the mines? (5)

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Victor had been waiting anxiously for news from Frances telling him whether or not she was pregnant. Her letter, however, was deliberately ambiguous. She told him that she was sick but didn't explain the nature of her illness, allowing Victor to jump to the conclusion that she was indeed pregnant and therefore suffering from morning sickness. Victor presumably concludes that she is indeed pregnant which meant that he needed money quickly for he would soon have to support a wife and child — and he certainly did not wish his standards (and therefore his reputation) to diminish. Recruiting for the mines was an easy option to bring in mega-bucks.

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