History 364-0-01: Gender and Sexuality in Victorian Britain; Northwestern University, Fall 2014

Sex and Murder

1. What was it about the Ripper murders that so captivated the Victorian public?
2. What motivated Stead to devote so much energy and print to the Ripper murders? Did he have any agenda(s) ancillary to the capture of the murderer?
3. Did the Pall Mall Gazette coverage of the murders promote public hysteria? How?
4. What are some common social themes between the Ripper murders, “Modern Tribute,” and Jekyll & Hyde? What was the relationship between fiction and reality during the time of the Ripper murders?
5. How did the Contagious Diseases Act and the Criminal Law Amendment Act influence the coverage of the Ripper murders? Did they play any role in the murders themselves?
6. According to Showalter’s arguments, what ideas and social forces made the Ripper murders possible? Does she believe that these have changed? Do you agree?
7. It was asserted that “no true Englishman could commit such savage crimes” as the Ripper murders. In what ways were notions of race central to contemporary ideas about the Ripper murders?
8. How would you characterized contemporary attitudes about the victims of the murders? Do you think the coverage of the murders in the Pall Mall Gazette was appropriately sympathetic?
9. Why did some Victorians, including Stead, see the Ripper murders as part of a broader social, political, and moral crisis? Do you agree with their analyses?
10. Why are “Ripperology” and “Ripperature” still active fields?