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Composition Conventions

Victorian letter-writing guides are very specific when it comes to instructing readers how to actually compose the letter. Instructions on how to write the letter explained every last detail, from the placement of the address so the many different phrases that could be used to end the letter. There were English Victorian guides as well as American Victorian guides. One American Victorian guide in particular written by Harvard professor Arthur Wentworth Eaton, laid out the exact measurements that a paper should be for different types of letters. This guide explained that a commercial, octavo, and billet were all sizes of paper that different letters could be written on. It said they each had different purposes. Later in on the guide, the source instructs that letters should always be written on standard white paper, or else it is considered sloppy or uneducated. It also noted that only black ink was permissible.

English Victorian guides told readers how to specifically write letters to lovers, friends, and other correspondents. They explain the things that should be found in each type of letter. “The model letters demonstrate the tonal and rhetorical attributes the manual recommends—sincerity and fidelity for men, reserve for women…”.

An English Victorian guide by Lewis Carroll explains that the first thing one should do when writing a letter is to write the address and place the stamp on the envelope, as well as the sender’s address and date on the letter. Handwriting must be neat and easily able to read. When writing a response letter, one should frame their letter by responding to the sender’s questions and remarks, and then move to your own topics. There are many more rules related to the content of the letter in this English guide. Victorians were very specific in how letters should be written.

A guide from America, “How To Write Letters: A Manual of Correspondence, Showing the Correct Structure, Composition, Punctuation, Formalities, and Uses of the Various Kinds of Letters, Notes, and Cards” by James Willis Westlake, includes some rules in regard to letter-writing in the American Victorian era. The heading should include where the letter was written and the date, and a period following it. This should go at the top but should not go past the third line of the paper. For informal letters, the heading can go at the bottom of the letter. Next comes the intro, where the address of the person receiving the letter is written, as well as their name. The beginning of the letter also begins here, where one addresses the person to whom the letter is being written. The place that the  address goes varies depending on what type of letter it is. The body comes next and should contain a margin with nothing written in it on the left side column. The paragraphs of the body should be separated when talking about different ideas. Following the body is the conclusion, where the letter is closed out. The signature should be there as well, and a person’s  whole name should be used if the letter is significant. These are located at the end of the letter, and should look aesthetic, on one to three lines. A period goes after the name.

Emily Dickinson defied Victorian letter writing conventions

Some writers of the Victorian era, however, chose to disregard these rules for writing letters. Emily Dickinson, a famous woman poet of this era, was one such person. For example, she didn’t write with a nice, pretty style. She wrote “often scrawled in pencil rather than ink, and consistently difficult to decipher”. She also didn’t pay attention to the rule about how to properly use punctuation. Instead, she used the punctuation marks she believed were appropriate for what she was writing. There were also several other rules in the Victorian letter-writing guides she did not follow.