I Actually Think The Best Way For Soma To "avenge" On RCiel Is For Him To Find Out The Twins' Issues,

The reality of living in a Workhouse in the Victorian era

For a while there I misunderstood the notion of a workhouse versus an orphanage in “Black Butler/Kuroshitsuji.” I mistakenly took them the same. Though both institutions were wretched and subjected to cruelty and hierarchy, workhouses don’t exist anymore. Whereas orphanages are still relevant and still part of the modern society (fortunately or unfortunately). Poorhouses already existed in England throughout the centuries. The first workhouse was built in 1835 in Abingdon, Oxfordshire under the Poor Law Amendment Act. They officially closed in 1930 after the Local Government Act in previous year. Though a few still thrived till the 1960s. These were now converted to hospitals and care homes. Their existence coincided with the growing number of paupers living in England in the Victorian era.

There were several ways of accommodations for those “too poor” during that time. From doss houses to temporary lodging houses, anonymous living quarters, to living in a workhouse to, last but not the least, staying on the streets. London was a filthy, stinking witness to those who couldn’t afford the standard of living either by chance or intent (the sick, the old, the alcoholics, prostitutes, the orphans, the jobless, etc.). The Southwell Workhouse was said to be one of a kind as it was the model workhouse, lovingly well maintained by its inmates. In fact, one can visit it and be informed of the life living in that kind of institution.

In the manga and anime (Chapter 35: In the Afternoon, The Butler, Executor/Book of Circus, Episode 10) Yana T painted an ideal picture where her troupe of Noah’s Circus Ark first-stringers had a “better life” in a workhouse after living roughly on the streets. Joker went on to become Baron Kelvin’s butler/personal assistant and Beast and the rest as the domestic help until they were asked to form a circus group. Joker still believed that children still resided in the workhouse until he fell into a harsh realisation during the course of Ciel and Sebastian’s summary execution that the doctor, with the permission of the Baron, made an experiment on the remaining children.

In reality, this was quite the opposite. According to Hallie Rubenhold’s recollection of the forgotten victims of Jack the Ripper, “The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper,” Londoners would rather stay for a night on Embankment or camp on Trafalgar Square than be stuck in a grim workhouse. She recounted the tale of an old couple whose husband was used to be working in a theatre as a musical director when an injury occurred, found himself soon to be jobless. They couldn’t pay the rent and lost the privilege to live in dignity.

“The thought of throwing themselves upon the mercy of their local workhouse was too shameful and frightening even to consider.”

They opted to live on the street sleeping on one of the stone benches of the square.

Families were also separated once entering the premises of a workhouse. Furthermore, to be able to stay in a Victorian workhouse one should be willing to work, demeaning it might be, in exchange for lodging and nutrition.

The original scheme of classification of inmates categorized females under 16 as 'girls' and males under 13 as 'boys', with those aged under seven forming a separate class. It probably came as a surprise to the Commissioners that, by 1839, almost half of the workhouse population (42,767 out of 97,510) were children. ( x )

The men, women, and children were all housed separately. Children were only allowed to spend a brief amount of time a week with their parents. However, most children in a workhouse were orphans.

Men and women (inmates) were expected to work 10 hours a day seven days a week. It was so demeaning that people chose it as a last resort.

Both men and women had to work doing something called oakum. This was a task where old ropes were unpicked for many hours at a time, so that the threads could be mixed with tar on board ships to waterproof sailing vessels.

… Men were expected to stone breaking, grinding corn, work in the fields, chopping wood. While women did the laundry, cleaning, scrubbing walls and floors, spinning, and weaving.

… Girls had some lessons, but generally they were taught needlework and other domestic skills so that they could become a maid or servant at the age of fourteen. ( x )

One famous inmate of St. Asaph Union Workhouse, Henry Morton Stanley, who found the missing explorer Dr. David Livingstone, only had this description for his former accommodation: “A house of torture.”

One way or another, Yana T’s imagined ending of her own version of a workhouse was not that far off. Ciel looking at the ruins and then having a breakdown.

grell redraw :-p

Ciel going for a midnight snack

That Butler, Escorting

Lineart and coloring: Nami

Original art: Toboso Yana, Kuroshitsuji: Chapter 145

Redraw from manga inspired by Violet Evergarden style.

After losing unlimited access to Phantom sweets O!ciel needs to collect his daily dose of sugar himself.

And if you don't give him a treat he'll call Sebastian.

The only right costume for Snake is a Medusa from Greek methodology and you can't convince me otherwise. (Also I've subconsciously drawn him in mark brunet artstyle...)

They just love each other

saw this hanyuansu and really wanted to draw meirin in it

I don't even think it was very badly framed in the manga, I think the poll is mostly misogyny and racism speaking. She's a woman who is an antagonist, it doesn't matter if she was 100% right in refusing to be treated like less than a human because of her caste.

Being 2nd least liked for this is batshit crazy.

I feel a bit sorry for Mina for getting 2nd place in the disliked poll. She didn't do anything bad, she was just not on the protagonists side and her becoming frustrated with her eternal thankless servant position made Soma sad. The narrative also framed her poorly for being an ambitious lower-class woman but if you really look at the things she said and did... I'd do it too, if I were her. She doesn't owe her loyalty or kindness to Soma just because he had a crush on her??

guys. he's in his blanky.