To understand in depths the dynamics of gambling in Victorian literature, though, we will have to reverse the tape a bit more and reach the time of Elisabeth I, which authorised lottery for the first time in the country. Since then, gambling became not only a way for the people to divert themselves but also a way to raise funds for different needs of London and England. A hundred years later, Charles II, celebrating, ‘threw the dice himself… and lost his 100 pounds’. At that point, after a number of political and economic earthquakes, London was blowing the steam off in a number of peculiar and even scandalous ways. Charles the Second himself was a very known gambler and passionate lover, married to Catherine of Braganza for only political reasons. He is known for his final words to his brother, which were related to his mistresses and courtiers. And while Charles II maybe brought it to the extreme, if you are also a lover of gambling, you might be interested in our page about best blackjack sites per example.
Gambling – From the Beginning to the Victorian England
And while you might be thinking that we are straying away from the subject of our article, we are just trying to introduce you to life before the Victorian Era. At the end of the 18th century, Fanny Burney described, indirectly, of course, the gambler as someone who expresses his emotions freely with the help of the dice and cards. In the time that we have as a main topic, gambling was at first oriented mainly in London. A number of Gentlemen’s clubs were present and, obviously, only the people that come from money had access to them. These men, and eventually women had enough to spend for gambling and had enough time to do so, without the burden of housework or kids to weight on their shoulders. Also, for certain cultural periods, they had the opportunity to misbehave. Something that they wouldn’t and couldn’t have the indecency to do outside the game of cards. Henry Blyth, in his ‘Hell and Hazard’, talked about:
‘At a time when the poor were existing on wages that could be counted in shillings per week rather than pound, and women could be employed at a penny an hour in the Welsh coal-mines, Harry Hastings lost more than one hundred thousand pounds in the two-and-a-half minutes in which it took to run the Derby.’
From the time of Austen, we read about the spoiled son that gambles everything he has on horse rides (Mansfield Park), about the impeccable gambling rooms in Bath (Northanger Abbey), but back then, somehow, the main character never had the fault of being a gambler. In the Victorian era, the dices were rolling more or less the same way. Although, the difference between the classes was even more underlined. Poor people were playing low-stakes and low-culture games, while the aristocracy was, what we call today, high-rollers. This had its impact on literature as well, of course. We will deviate from the topic for just a moment, and to show you the possibilities that you have when it comes to gambling in the United Kingdom. And although it will not really be in a Victorian mood, you can check if any of the top poker sites fits your taste.
Gambling as a Vice in Victorian Literature
They are few studies on gambling in the 19th century and the ones that are present are heavily contradictory. It is stated and accepted that this type of amusement was somehow controlled and innocent. But in the novels of this time, it is often that the main character or the closest ones lose hefty sums, destroy relationships, enter conspiracies, cheat and even die, led by ‘this vice, this worst vice…’. Many authors use the games of luck or skill to point out certain qualities or the lack of them. Like impulsiveness or overthinking, aggressivity or calmness, weakness or strength etc. Hardy, per example, uses scenes of gambling to picture a certain conflict, without using the banal methods of verbal or physical fights. This, especially back then, was reflecting reality outrageously well since men and lovers, wives and mistresses to be on the same table was not a rare sight. Gambling debts stay in the roots of lies too, as shown by Hardy in his A Laodicean, where Dare cons Paula with a telegram, requiring money but from someone else’s name. In this piece, Hardy involves a lot of scheming and lies. A purer example is met in Tess D’Urberville, where the father of the poor soul while drinking and gambling in a doubtful place, discovers what blood goes thru his veins and gives a flying start to the misery of his daughter.
Another point to be made is how often, authors of the era were using gambling and related metaphors to depict the rotting society, the corruption or the faults in a sphere. On the other side, George Eliot, maybe the leading writer in the Victorian lit, uses gambling in a more unexpected way. Thru it, she piles some sort of compassion to her characters. You can spot this way of writing if you read Daniel Deronda. A different approach was used by her in the book Silas Marner, where gambling was disgraced. George Moore, influenced by his studies in France maybe, inclines to the use of gambling in the same way Hardy did. Dickens in his Hard Times identifies the personages with the help of gambling too. We are almost reaching the end of our article, but if you got inspired by all the talk about gambling, you can check our trusted UK roulette sites.
As you can see, most authors in the Victorian literature depicted gambling as a sin. As a vice that was in contrast with the desired social culture – rational, educated and prestigious. It was a thing that made the most respected gentlemen to show his worst sides. Unfortunately, there are not enough studies on the effect of Victorian gambling on society and on literature, of course. You can find a number of studies for the 20th century both in England and in other countries, but the end of the nineteenth century is in the shadow. Still, the era remains one of the most cherished periods, which gave a lot of food for thoughts. Victorian literature used gambling in more ways than before and authors turned it into a helper to express emotions, or to invoke such. The relationship between people and dice was always peculiar and risky. But let’s face it, there is no better way to underline the character of a man than to show his behaviour with a losing hand of cards!
