ELAINE SHEFER

Art Department
University of Haifa

THE VICTORIANS loved euphemism. In art, real meanings were of-
ten hidden under symbols that discreetly cloaked subjects of a delicate
nature. One such symbol was the bird in the cage. To Victorian spectators,
it was recognized as a symbol linked to the history of sexuality, familiar to
them by their exposure to both seventeenth-century Dutch and eighteenth-
century French genre paintings, in which such meanings were evident. ¹
This association helped them to understand how the bird in the cage
worked in their own paintings and how sexual meanings were linked to the
cultural values of their own time.

These meanings, however, more than coincided with the social/sexual
structure of Victorian society, a structure that based itself upon gender dif-
ferentiation. Within the framework of a specific set of gender distinctions,
these paintings actually constructed meanings, morals, and values through
various symbols. Sir John Everett Millais Waking, also known as Just
Awake (fig. 1), of 1865, is one example of the use of the symbol of the bird
in the cage. In keeping with the poignant title of the painting, a young girl
is awakened apparently by the early morning song of the bird, at which she
stares in wonderment, questioning. Her awakening was meant to be mean-
ingful, not only to her, but to the Victorian viewer as well. Millais has

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