Victorian Women

A Victorian Woman was meant to be seen and not heard. Her life was dedicated to finding a suitable suitor to marry to.  She would then live her life inside as a homemaker and up bringer for her children. . The qualities a young Victorian woman needed were to be innocent, virtuous, biddable, dutiful and be ignorant of intellectual opinion. 

As such pressure was put on a Victorian woman to get married and to settle down very early I can understand how humiliated Miss Havisham would have been after being jilted at the altar. She would have been seen as an embarrassment and so staying inside away from the rest of society may have been the only way she could cope with this tragic life shattering event.

Satis House

To comprehend the characters I’m creating in more depth what I thought would be useful is to look more into their surroundings.  In Satis House, Dickens creates a magnificent Gothic setting. Satis house is a decaying, dark yet grand mansion. Miss Havisham has stopped the clocks in this gloomy house, determined to wallow in the moment of her heartbreak. Estella of course is brought up in this disheartening home and perhaps it’s one of the many elements that have contributed to her ruthless nature.

Here's a few images that I visulise Satis house to be like ...

 

Victorian Earings

As my final images will only be head/mid shots I want to focus on earings when it comes to choosing my jewellery for the shots.

I have some dangly glitzy earings, sort of similar to the ones shown below (without the pearls) and so I feel they’re too modern. To make them look more suitable for the Victorian era i've stuck pearls in the centre, and this is what i'll use for my final images.

More Victorian Make-up ...

A paragraph from Madeline Marsh's book titled Compacts and Cosmetics successfully defines "The classic image of Victorian beauty" - "A peaches and cream complexion, cherry ripe lips, a pair of sparkling eyes fringed by soft, fluttering lashes- was expected to be natural, a gift from God." Women were expected to achieve all of this without the use of cosmetics. It was said that the benefits of cold water, early rising, fresh air and temperance were the ways to have the perfect complexion.  Really?! 

Secret make-up was introduced and an innumerable amount of home-made recipes for whitening and preserving the skin were appearing in domestic manuals. I find it fascinating that cosmetics were considered indecent. Although applying cosmetics in today's society is a common practise, women still seem to be judged if they are caked in the stuff!

For both of my interpretations of Estella and Havisham its unquestionable that I'll use make-up, although the trick for these make-up looks is to make it seem as if no make-up has been applied ... This is definitely a vital technique im going to need to perfect as a make-up artist.

Miss Havisham Sketch

After watching the video I previously posted it inspired me to sketch my own version of how I envisage Miss Havisham. 

This is quite a rough sketch but it has all the elements I want to include within my final image of Miss Havisham. The bridal flowers, veil, skeleton structure, dark sunken eyes and cracked dry lips. All of which I intend to replicate on my chosen model.

The relevance of Charles Dickens novels in modern society

This video I found very interesting as it talks about why the themes within Great Expectations are still relevant in today's society, and how the story still appeals hugely to people to this day. It was also interesting to see the actors in costume but out of character. This enabled me to take a closer look, especially at Gillian Anderson as Miss Havisham to purely focus on her styling and make-up for the role. 

Estella sketch

This is just a quick sketch that I decided to do. Incorporating the popular fashionable Victorian hair style we learned in our technical sessions. 

This sketch is how I imagine my final interpretation of Estella to look like. I want her beauty to still shine through even though she has a beaten face...