Victorian representation of the masculine is divided not only by class factors, but also by degrees of conformity gender and morality. , it is this conformity and morality that shapes the role of the male narrative in Victorian literature. In this essay I will examine the accepted norm of the Victorian man and those who transgress these norms in A Study in Scarlet (Doyle, 1887), The Moonstone (Collins, 1868), "The Harlot's House" (Wilde, 1882) and “Hermaphrodite” (Swinburne, 1863). By examining these texts through the lens of concepts of masculinity, I hope to show that the role of men in these selected Victorian narratives can be roughly divided into spectatorship and spectacle functions, prescribed by their relationship to gender norms. The spectacle can be the often showy, athletic, criminal or unchivalrous masculine, or the feminine masculine who transgresses or transcends gender to become divine, genius or supernatural. In this way, the normative masculinity in these texts is a masculinity of moderation, without indulging in animal masculinity, nor transgressing too far into the territory of the feminine. This normative masculine ideal serves as both the standard by which all other characters are judged and as a surrogate for the audience. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why violent video games should not be banned”? Get an original essay An understanding of the division and segmentation of masculinity is essential to understanding the masculinity of the characters in the Victorian texts discussed (Smart and Yeates, 1). As reimagined in A Study in Scarlet, "The Harlot's House" and The Moonstone, the spectator is a relatively conventional Victorian male figure who can pass judgment on the criminally subversive male spectacle. The Moonstone presents Franklin Blake as the moderate masculine in direct opposition to the bold and driven Godfrey, and, in A Study in Scarlet Watson, it is the moderate masculine observer who is allowed to pass judgment on the more brutal and the lowest in history. . Similarly, the narrator of "The Harlot's House" is a moderate, middle-class man who is judgmental about the debauchery he has sought. These moderate men, in their role as less muscular and less aggressive men, allow us to reimagine the typical Victorian man; a standard by which others can be compared and therefore condemned or revered. These texts highlight masculinity as inherently problematic with the folly of the male standard bearer evidenced throughout. These male characters are often fallible and vulnerable to deception and seduction from the criminal and feminine elements. The uncontrollable and base masculine is full of bravado and swagger, and poses a danger to the social fabric and it is only through the efforts of the moderate masculine and the transgressive masculine that these villains of the text can be controlled. Godfrey in The Moonstone is described as being bold, athletic and pleasant and is later, literally unmasked (Collins, 1113) as being deceptive and base in his motives. Collins reinvents the Victorian male hero into a character who, in contrast to Godfrey's greed, villainy, and "muscular Christianity" (Karpenko, 134), is more considerate, thoughtful, and less aggressive in his masculinity. The muscular masculine ideal is challenged in Collin's The Moonstone, with the characters who have the most notable positive impact being far from being muscular, heroic adventurers, but rather educated and calculating. The positive masculinity demonstrated by the character in the text is notnecessarily the typical “uncontrolled physicality” (Karpenko, 133) of the conqueror, the courageous Christian missionary or the adventurer, but it follows a more moderate, almost secular line. Similarly, A Study in Scarlet advocates a considered and less traditionally aggressive form of masculinity. The villains of the mystery are Stangerson, Drebber and the rest of the Morman colony, who do not adhere to Anglo-Christian morality. Besides Bringham Young, Stangerson and Drebber are the most demonized characters, even if they are not the perpetrators of the murders which constitute the crux of the mystery, but rather the victims. Their immorality and criminality are conflated with their religious ideology and the narrator of the second part and John Ferrier refer to Mormon polygamous marriages as "harems" (Doyle, 181), showing their contempt and condemnation of their way of life. The two murder victims do not kill anyone directly but participate in cultural and religious practices that result in the forced marriage and death of John and Lucy Ferrier. Stangerson and Drebber's eventual murderer, Jefferson Hope, is a stock male spectacle, giving in to his desire for revenge, but he is painted more sympathetically than his two victims because he adheres to social constructs such as chivalry and monogamy which are considered moderate and supportive. the text, with Watson pleasantly describing it after Hope's apprehension (Doyle, 231). The case of Jefferson Hope demonstrates how the degree to which the aggressive masculine can be tempered is indicative of its acceptability in the narrative. The text even gives Hope, a murderer, the dignity of dying, however painfully, without having to face the consequences of his actions and before he can be brought before the justice system (Doyle, 255). Hysteria, which is most associated with the feminine, is a common trait of gender-transgressive male characters. Holmes in A Study in Scarlet is driven to hysteria when confronted with a failure in his own deductive reasoning, which leads him to become anxious and aggravated (Bragg, 9). This nervous energy makes him a more feminine character than the swaggering Gregson or the cursed Lestrade. These conventionally male characters watch Holmes put on an emotional and nervous spectacle until he is able to reestablish his understanding of the mystery (Doyle, 131). Similarly, Ezra Jennings in The Moonstone is driven to tears when recounting Candy's illness and is visibly emotional and sentimental in a way that is not associated with Victorian masculinity (Karpenko, 133). Jennings is aware of his transgression and reflects on it, saying: “Physiology says, and rightly says, that some men are born with a feminine constitution – and I am one of them! (Collins, 930). Jenning's emotional vulnerability and feminine qualities give her an additional otherness that makes her medical and deductive genius another aspect of her unusual and transcendent identity. As Watson and Blake watch with interest, they are merely spectators to the female spectacle before them, like the narrator of "The Harlot's House," positioning himself outside the action, but inexplicably drawn into it; Jennings makes an unusual proposition that Blake cannot resist, Holmes appeals to Watson's need for danger, and in "The Harlot's House" the lure of the spectacle of prostitution and debauchery fascinates and attracts the narrator's voyeuristic impulses ( Fong, 200). The male intellect is a preoccupation of A Study in Scarlet with Holmes putting aside all typically masculine concerns and focusing on the pursuit of knowledge relating to criminology. He explains his dedication to criminology to Watson: “Iconsiders that originally a man's brain is like a small empty attic, and that you must fill it with the furniture of your choice. A fool absorbs all wood of all kinds that he comes across. " (Doyle, 29 years old). This quest for knowledge is all-consuming and leaves no room for the pursuit of normative masculine goals. The legacy of Poe's Dupin from "Murders in the Rue Morgue" as a precursor to Holmes of Doyle is perhaps not only that of a particular type of deductive reasoning, but also that of a sexual and gender ambiguity (Bragg, 6) which contributes to the subversiveness and eccentricity of Holmes' The Spectator of Wilde. presents himself in the form of the narrator and provides us with a text dealing with the male gaze and the vision of the female spectacle in "The Harlot's House". The narrator contemplates the spectacle of prostitution and voyeuristically satisfies his curiosity with his "love" (Wilde). , 25). His use of the plight of lower-class women for entertainment purposes removes him from the unfolding scene. He is the observer and when his companion is drawn into the action, he is incapable of action. His voyeurism is his companion's downfall, but he, still a spectator, emerges from the experience relatively unscathed by showing the privilege his masculinity gives him. We can compare Wilde's narrator to other observers and spectators like Watson, who has nothing to lose in A Study in Scarlet and a whole host of male characters in The Moonstone, who emerge from the text unscathed. They are removed from the scene in a manner typical of the gentleman spectator. The gentleman spectator often has very little idea of ​​the repercussions of his actions in "The Harlot's House" and The Moonstone. Often the male characters, defined in this essay as the spectators, act on their own whims without thinking of the greater repercussions on others. Among the male spectator, there is often a lack of awareness or attention towards those who have less action than them, as demonstrated on several occasions by Franklin Blake, perfectly unconscious, who has no idea of ​​Rosanna's affection for him and the reason for Rachel's dissociation with him. The abilities of the transcendent masculine and the male spectator are essential to solving the mysteries at the heart of A Study in Scarlet and The Moonstone. The homosocial friendships present in the texts are part of the reinvention of the Victorian masculine ideal. The Victorian male, as a lone wolf, is an incomplete and ineffective entity, while with the companionship of another man he is capable of almost impossible feats. The moderate man's inability to decode the mystery is illustrated by Franklin Blake's confusion until he is drawn into a collaboration with Ezra Jennings and Watson's displacement until he takes a room with Holmes in Baker Street (Buchanan, 20). As part of this collaborative effort, the subdued masculine man tethers the alienated and transcended masculine to reality, particularly in A Study in Scarlet, with Watson proving to be the essential moral character who controls Holmes' antisocial and apathetic behavior ( Buchanan, 20). The role of the moderate man as audience surrogate is firmly established by his role as narrator in the four texts analyzed. The only exception to this rule is the contribution of The Moonstone's narrator, Miss Clack. However, Miss Clack is written as a caricature of the Christian woman, written from a very Victorian male perspective. The folly of her feminine behavior is repeatedly ridiculed during her narrative, and she is oblivious to the ridiculous nature of her actions. Just as Miss Clack judges her fellow men, Betteredge, as the moderate male narrator of The Moonstone,passes judgment on the women of his house. The women he knows are divided into three categories: those who are his social superiors, those for whom he has paternal feelings, and those he considers cruel and stupid. Even those toward whom he shows fatherly compassion are considered inferior to him. Moonstone's Betteredge isn't the only one with his critical male gaze. “The Harlot’s House” is a poem that deals solely with the male narrator’s judgment of the woman. He is the observer, the standard by which the virtues of the “harlot’s house” are judged like “the dead” dancing with “the dead” (Wilde, 25.26). Prostitution is the spectacle, and he is the spectator. The moderate man is capable not only of judging the women and feminines of his sphere, but he is also capable of condemning those judged to be more brutal, aggressive or criminal in their masculinity. The criminal and corrupt male's status as "other" to the male spectator or gentleman such as Watson, Blake and Betteredge is often achieved through the transgression of gender norms or through the exercise of traits of muscular masculinity aggressive for immoral purposes. Unlike the transgression of Sherlock Holmes and Ezra Jennings, male criminals such as Stangerson and Drebber in A Study in Scarlet and Godfrey in The Moonstone reject the Victorian notion of chivalry and take advantage of women rather than protect them. The deceptive and brutal nature of criminal characters leads them to take advantage of the feminine to achieve their own ends. This transgressive and criminal behavior allows the male spectator to judge and condemn them. The otherness of the criminals in both novels often depends on their distancing themselves from the accepted duties and characteristics of the masculine. Unlike transcendent characters who also go against masculine norms and become godlike or otherworldly, criminal or immoral characters use their gender transgressions for personal gain and gratification. The social dysfunction and otherness that result from the otherness of genius and the divine figure. turns out to be a necessary consequence of their unusual qualities. Hermaphroditus is denied true allegiance to either gender, Ezra is shunned because of his manners and heritage (Collins, 918), and Holmes alienates almost everyone except Watson because of his arrogance and its emotional volatility (Bragg, 11). Failure to respect the norms of society seems in all of these characters not a matter of reluctance but a matter of incapacity, they are simply outside the norms of society by the very nature of their being. These characters, however, are allowed to be transgressive because of their godlike (Buchanan, 22) or genius qualities which are also demonstrated in the male viewer's reverence for Holmes and Ezra. The other masculinity, the masculinity that is allowed to stray into the territory of the feminine, gains permission through the spectacular nature of its abilities. In “Hermaphroditus,” the titular character is seen as sexless and transcendent, associated with Greek mythology. and their kingdom of gods (Morgan, 322). The masculine homoeroticism and intersexuality that runs through the poem support the idea of ​​the sublime nature of transgression of gender norms. The transgression of heteronormative values ​​in Swinburne's poem is sensual and sublime; in fact, it is this transgression that makes Hermaphrodite desirable and divine in the Victorian Hellenic tradition (Morgan, 317). The Victorian Hellenic tradition often uses homoerotic and queer themes to better emulate the aesthetic of ancient Greece (Morgan, 317). As in the.