Jack The Ripper, reality and fiction, a landmark of London

Par gary johns dans Classe de 2nde le 9 Août 2022 à 16:00

A) Click on the link to this website and complete part A of the worksheet

Jack : a London landmark

B) Look at these pictures. Where do they come from ? Who is the woman character depicted ? Listen to the audio to find out

Jack : a London landmark

Télécharger « Jack in fiction audio »

C) Read the texts. Fiction or reality ?

Women doctors in the 19th century ?

In 1865, Elizabeth Garrett Anderson became the first woman in Britain to qualify as a physician and surgeon after exposing a loophole in the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries’ admissions process, passing her exams first time. No hospitals would admit her as a Doctor, including Westminster – the then Chair of Medicine Dr Basham had denied her entry to study at the Hospital school in 1861²– and so, she set up her own practice on Euston Road, London, run by women, for women. She became an inspiration for women everywhere, proving their worth in the medical profession. Her life was one of many pioneering firsts, including becoming the first female Mayor, the first female Dean of a medical school, and the first woman to ever sit on a school board of governors in Britain. Her example went a long way to liberalising admission policy at medical schools across the country: in 1876, an act was passed forcing the British Medical Register to accept women. By the 1880s there were already some (but not many) female doctors working in the hospitals of London. By 1914, there were over 1000 female doctors in England.

Doctors as suspects in the case of "Jack The Ripper" ?

In 1888 many British citizens were prepared to believe that a doctor "had blood on his hands".

Doctors moved freely in the criminal districts of major cities. They needed corpses for medical research and this stimulated a vibrant clandestine market in dead bodies for dissection. And their callous treatment of defenceless female patients - especially the forced examination of prostitutes - had made them popular folk devils. Doctors may enjoy a healthy reputation today, but in the 1880s, many Britons were all too receptive to accusations that the Ripper was a member of the medical profession.

One of the first medical doctors to come under suspicion was Dr D'Onston Stephenson. He was believed to have contracted venereal disease from prostitutes and to be a Satanist - giving him the perfect motive for removing his victims' internal organs. Stephenson was also a magician, which served to explain his regular escape from detection.

The American quack-doctor Francis Tumblety was named as a suspect by one senior Victorian policeman - and, given that Tumblety was a violent misogynist with a penchant for collecting body parts, that's hardly a surprise. He escaped to the USA before the police could arrest and interview him. The British police asked for his extradition but the US government refused because, they said, there was not enough evidence against him.

Queen Victoria's surgeon Sir William Gull, who had been close to the monarchy since the early 1870s, has also been cited as a Ripper suspect, either as a lone assailant or as part of a wider conspiracy to protect the Queen's grandson Albert.