Consent and Marriage in Nineteenth-Century British Literature Heather Lea Nelson Purdue University
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Purdue University Purdue e-Pubs Open Access Dissertations Theses and Dissertations Spring 2015 The Law and the Lady: Consent and Marriage in Nineteenth-Century British Literature Heather Lea Nelson Purdue University Follow this and additional works at: https://docs.lib.purdue.edu/open_access_dissertations Part of the English Language and Literature Commons, History Commons, and the Women's Studies Commons Recommended Citation Nelson, Heather Lea, "The Law and the Lady: Consent and Marriage in Nineteenth-Century British Literature" (2015). Open Access Dissertations. 525. https://docs.lib.purdue.edu/open_access_dissertations/525 This document has been made available through Purdue e-Pubs, a service of the Purdue University Libraries. Please contact [email protected] for additional information. THE LAW AND THE LADY: CONSENT AND MARRIAGE IN NINETEENTH-CENTURY BRITISH LITERATURE Submitted to the Faculty of Purdue University by Heather Nelson In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy May 2015 Purdue University West Lafayette, Indiana ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Thank you to the professionals who assisted me with this dissertation: Emily Allen, dissertation committee chair; Pat Boling, Maren Linett, and Joe Palmer, dissertation committee members; Anne Humpherys; Rebecca Probert; and Jill Quirk. Thank you to my family and friends who supported this dissertation and me, especially: Amber Befort; Megan Bolick; April Burke; Courtney Conn; Sarah Cooper; Laci Cornelison; Christina Dodd; Bee Erickson; Olivia Garnett; Betsy Harpe; Stacey Kolomer; members of my dissertation and writing groups, particularly Elizabeth Cuddy, Laura Eidam, Lydia Magras, and Nancee Reeves; Lori Messinger; Garrett Nelson; Patty Nelson; Carrie Olsen; Jerry Olsen; Ross Olsen; Stephanie Orstad; Mr. Pugsley; Katie Taylor; Krystal Taylor; Boo Tyson; Kristi Wilson; and Stacy Wurtz. Thank you to the library staff at: Clemson University, the College of William & ii Mary, Duke University, Kansas State University, North Carolina State University, Purdue University, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and the University of North Carolina at Wilmington. Thank you for dissertation support from: Interdisciplinary Nineteenth-Century Studies (Graduate Student Travel Grant, Spring 2015) and Purdue University (Bilsland Dissertation Fellowship, 2014-2015; Department of English Graduate Student Travel Grant, Spring 2015; Purdue Research Foundation Research Grant, 2013-2014; iii Department of English ABD Conference Travel Grant, Fall 2012; and Graduate School Summer Research Grant, Summer 2012). iii iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ABSTRACT ....................................................................................................................... vi CHAPTER 1. WOMEN, CONSENT, AND MARRIAGE IN NINETEENTH- CENTURY BRITISH LITERATURE AND HISTORY ................................................... 1 Women and Marriage in Nineteenth-Century England ................................................. 4 Women, Marriage, and the Law in Nineteenth-Century England ................................. 9 Consent Theory ............................................................................................................ 14 Women and Marital Consent in Nineteenth-Century England .................................... 17 Women and Marital Consent in Nineteenth-Century British Literature ...................... 21 Methodology ................................................................................................................ 23 LITERARY CASE STUDY OF CAROLINE HELSTONE'S COURTSHIP: CHARLOTTE BRONTË AND FEMALE MODESTY ................................................... 33 Female Modesty in Print .............................................................................................. 36 Shirley and Female Modesty ........................................................................................ 40 iv CHAPTER 2. FIANCÉES AND ENGAGEMENTS: "YOU MUST GIVE ME LEAVE TO JUDGE FOR MYSELF" .............................................................................. 47 Consent and Proposals in Nonfiction ........................................................................... 54 Pride and Prejudice and Female Acquiescence ........................................................... 58 Jilts ............................................................................................................................... 63 Actions for Breach of Promise of Marriage ................................................................. 65 Wives and Daughters, Jilts, and Actions for Breach of Promise of Marriage ............. 68 Marriage Settlements ................................................................................................... 73 Marriage Settlements in Print ....................................................................................... 76 The Woman in White and Marriage Settlements .......................................................... 78 v LITERARY CASE STUDY OF LADY ARABELLA MONTAGU'S WEDDING: SUSANNAH FRANCES REYNOLDS AND CLANDESTINE MARRIAGE ............... 87 Clandestine Marriage ................................................................................................... 89 Gretna Green and Clandestine Marriage ..................................................................... 93 CHAPTER 3. WIVES AND MARITAL ABUSE: "NOTHING THAT SHE COULD ALLEGE AGAINST HIM IN JUDICIOUS OR JUDICIAL EARS" ............................ 100 Coverture, Marital Abuse, and Class ......................................................................... 103 Physical and Emotional Marital Abuse ...................................................................... 110 "Janet's Repentance" and Physical and Emotional Marital Abuse ............................. 111 The Marital Rape Exemption ..................................................................................... 116 Daniel Deronda and the Marital Rape Exemption .................................................... 123 "Virgin Soil," The Man of Property, In Chancery, and the Marital Rape Exemption 128 LITERARY CASE STUDY OF LADY LAURA KENNEDY'S SEPARATION: ANTHONY TROLLOPE AND RESTITUTION OF CONJUGAL RIGHTS ............... 137 Restitution of Conjugal Rights ................................................................................... 138 Phineas Finn, Phineas Redux, and Restitution of Conjugal Rights ........................... 140 CHAPTER 4. FEMES SOLE AND DIVORCE: "IF YOU DON'T WANT TO LIVE WITH HIM ANY MORE YOU HAVE A RIGHT TO LEAVE HIM" ......................... 153 Divorce ....................................................................................................................... 160 Divorce in Nonfiction ................................................................................................ 163 v East Lynne and Divorce ............................................................................................. 167 A Mummer's Wife and Divorce .................................................................................. 174 Jude the Obscure and Divorce ................................................................................... 181 WORKS CITED ............................................................................................................. 191 VITA ............................................................................................................................... 213 vi ABSTRACT Nelson, Heather. Ph.D., Purdue University, May 2015. The Law and the Lady: Consent and Marriage in Nineteenth-Century British Literature. Major Professor: Emily Allen. While many scholars have written on women and marriage in nineteenth-century British history and fiction, this dissertation, The Law and the Lady: Consent and Marriage in Nineteenth-Century British Literature, is the first to apply consent theory to those unions. Modern consent theory dictates that for individuals to consent, they must be autonomous, capable, educated, mature, and volunteering, and they must express consent with opportunities to retract those expressions. This dissertation asserts that because nineteenth-century British women usually lacked these components, their marital consent was partial, illegitimate, or absent. Fiction frequently equivocated about this social problem of contemporary female marital consent. Conservative novelists trained female vi readers to accept their "consent" to marital patriarchy, but progressive novelists enabled readers to live vicariously through freer heroines, in order to provoke grassroots consent reform. Thus, contemporary scholars in cultural and psychological studies should more frequently question those women's behaviors and motivations. Surface and close readings of fiction primarily inform this dissertation, aided by feminist historicism, legal studies, political science, philosophy, nonfiction studies, and biography. After an opening theoretical and historical chapter on women, consent, and vii marriage, three chapters and three literary case studies in the body expose laws dictating female marital consent. When taken together in this trajectory, these chapters and literary case studies form a meta-narrative about a heroine's consent dilemmas throughout childhood and adulthood: 1) courtships and the social law of female modesty in Charlotte Brontë's Shirley, 2) engagements, the social law of female acquiescence, actions for breach of promise of marriage, and marriage settlements in Jane Austen's Pride