Parlor Games

Parlor games are directly linked to a social status—urban upper and middle class; a designated domestic space—the parlor; and a specific period in the history of Great Britain and America—the Victorian Era (1837–1901). A type of indoor activity designated for the pastime of adults, parlor games have been passed on to younger generations through several channels. Some of the classical games (like Charades, Tableaux Vivante, Blindman's Bluff, The Minister's Cat, etc.) are still played at various social gatherings, in youth camps, or during holidays spent with the family, especially at Christmas.

Another channel through which parlor games remained in our collective memory is the Victorian novel (e.g., Charles Dickens, the Brontë sisters, Lewis Carroll, etc.). Parlor games emerged as a form of entertainment for high society, which was endowed with spare time and wanting to avoid idleness, and also created a medium of communication between the family members and the outside world. Parlor games acted as a means to develop and assess the cognitive and perceptive skills of the players. This entry views the growth and decline of parlor games in the context of the social changes that led to the exclusion of the parlor (as a designated architectural space) from the city house.

It has been suggested that an important factor in the decline of the parlor in America was the ongoing interaction between urban and rural cultures. While people in the city considered the parlor a room that met the demands of society, country people tended to associate parlor with “waste, idleness, and excessive formality,” according to McMurry. Another factor that led to the decline of the parlor in the 20th century was the penetration [Page 470]of alternative forms of entertainment into the city house, especially the radio and television. This change brought about the confinement of family pastime into the living room, as well as to the gradual exclusion of extended social participation in the family's pastime. In short, the parlor became a practically useless space.