In “A Necessary Luxury: Tea In Victorian England,” by Julie E. Fromer, the role that tea played in England, during this time, is assessed and analyzed. In these first three chapters from her novel, the author lays out the role tea played by discussing: the history of tea and the representations of English national identity; the middle-class Englishness of drinking tea; as well as gender and middle-class domesticity at the tea table.
She begins by describing the role tea played in Victorian history and its impact on English national identity. “According to nineteenth-century tea histories and advertisements, tea helped to define English identity, character, and class values. Tea united the English people, temporarily erasing the boundaries …show more content…
Additionally, “according to nineteenth-century tea histories, tea constituted British national identity both metaphorically and bodily, contributing to the continued strength of Britain and its people” (Fromer 59).
She goes on to state how, “the crucial role of tea in the process of creating and strengthening the British Empire stemmed in part from its status as a commodity that crossed ideological boundaries. On the one hand, tea was an exotic luxury imported over vast distances from a culture that was very different from Britain. On the other hand, tea had become an irreplaceable necessity of English everyday life. The position of tea, straddling the boundaries between the ontological categories of luxury and necessity, was critical in the ideological development of an imperial nation” (Fromer …show more content…
In the next part of this argument, Fromer talks about the middle-class Englishness of drinking tea. To begin, she states that “by drinking tea, English men and women participated in creating a national identity that depended on middle-class morality and moderation: an identity that revolved around both good taste and thrift and that included an appreciation for luxuries tempered by a keen sense of domestic economy and household efficiency” (Fromer 69).
She proceeds by saying that by “adopting the practices of tea drinking as essential to middle-class identity, authors of tea histories emphasized the performance and stability of the middle class, linking middle-class moral values with a long tradition of tea drinking in England and with the ideals of the nation” (Fromer
She begins by describing the role tea played in Victorian history and its impact on English national identity. “According to nineteenth-century tea histories and advertisements, tea helped to define English identity, character, and class values. Tea united the English people, temporarily erasing the boundaries …show more content…
Additionally, “according to nineteenth-century tea histories, tea constituted British national identity both metaphorically and bodily, contributing to the continued strength of Britain and its people” (Fromer 59).
She goes on to state how, “the crucial role of tea in the process of creating and strengthening the British Empire stemmed in part from its status as a commodity that crossed ideological boundaries. On the one hand, tea was an exotic luxury imported over vast distances from a culture that was very different from Britain. On the other hand, tea had become an irreplaceable necessity of English everyday life. The position of tea, straddling the boundaries between the ontological categories of luxury and necessity, was critical in the ideological development of an imperial nation” (Fromer …show more content…
In the next part of this argument, Fromer talks about the middle-class Englishness of drinking tea. To begin, she states that “by drinking tea, English men and women participated in creating a national identity that depended on middle-class morality and moderation: an identity that revolved around both good taste and thrift and that included an appreciation for luxuries tempered by a keen sense of domestic economy and household efficiency” (Fromer 69).
She proceeds by saying that by “adopting the practices of tea drinking as essential to middle-class identity, authors of tea histories emphasized the performance and stability of the middle class, linking middle-class moral values with a long tradition of tea drinking in England and with the ideals of the nation” (Fromer