ABSTRACT
In the burgeoning field of national identity studies, the work of scholars such as Benedict Anderson, Ernest Gellner, and Eric Hobsbawm has been frequently invoked. In short, most Punch cartoons of the 1870s feature Britannia as a noble guardian figure on the imperial and international stage. This chapter examines a group of political cartoons that appeared in the journal Punch in the 1870s and which featured Britannia in dress and activities contrary to the norm. As protector of the constitution Marina Warner was shown in eighteenth-century political cartoons as an abused maiden, who conveyed violated virtue, or as a less than virtuous woman, prostituted by wily politicians. Using the female body as an allegorical representation is nothing new; the practice dates back to at least the ancient Greeks and Romans. Pallas Athena is the Greek goddess of Wisdom and righteous warfare, and Britannia as Athena is typically represented as a powerful, often stern, figure clothed in drapery.
