Men at work and play: The late Victorian adventure story

This project explores how the Victorian middle- and upper-middle class gentleman attempted to construct his role through the avenues of work and play. However, these prove to be flawed attempts and the Victorian gentleman is simply an empty concept that tries to accommodate a constantly fluctuating middle-class Victorian masculinity. Work served as a key building block for Victorian masculinity since men were expected to produce. Play has dual meanings. The Victorian gentleman was engaged in playing a part, complete with expected behaviors and attitudes. However, he also played literal games and his performances in sports helped him to earn a place as a gentleman. Work and play, though, were subject to sliding criteria. Because these issues were so engrained in Victorian culture, they found their way into literature. As a result, they surface in works like the Sherlock Holmes stories, Dracula, and The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Both the villains and the heroes often expose these concepts as flawed, so the stories serve as good cultural reflection of the tenuous position of the Victorian middle- and upper-middle class gentleman and the flawed attempts at producing a solid, middle-class masculinity as embodied by the gentleman.