Our class’s discussions on the fallen woman stereotype reminded me of the Madonna-whore dichotomy, which originated as a psychological complex but now finds itself a place in media and literature. The Wikipedia page has helpfully informed me that the Madonna-whore dichotomy appeared in Vertigo (1958, dir. Alfred Hitchcock). What I’m more interested in is how the stereotype played itself out in the depictions of mothers and “fallen women” in the Victorian era. The mother figure was meant to be virtuous and sexually pure, despite having children, and the fallen woman figure was a woman who had fallen from grace and turned to sex work rather than fulfilling her domestic duties. The fallen women is often portrayed as dark or covered in shadow, while the mothers wear white clothes and are bathed in light.
Here, the fallen woman has thrown her family into disarray, accompanied by the vibrant but brutal hues of the room and clothing.
In considering the differences between the mothers and the fallen women, one must also remember that mothers frequently faded into the background in portraits taken of them, most memorably with the proliferation of “ghost mother” photographs which literally erase the identity of the mother. While the fallen woman is condemned, she is also the center of attention rather than being forced to be overshadowed.
Victorian Visual Culture 
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