Florida State University Libraries Electronic Theses, Treatises and Dissertations The Graduate School 2018 Evolving Constructions of Love and Marriage in Austen, Eliot, and Wilde Paula Jean Anderson Follow this and additional works at the DigiNole: FSU's Digital Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected] FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES EVOLVING CONSTRUCTIONS OF LOVE AND MARRIAGE IN AUSTEN, ELIOT, AND WILDE By PAULA JEAN ANDERSON A Dissertation submitted to the Department of English in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2018 Paula Jean Anderson defended this dissertation on January 18, 2018. The members of the supervisory committee were: Candace Ward Professor Directing Dissertation Aimee Boutin University Representative Barry Faulk Committee Member Eric Walker Committee Member The Graduate School has verified and approved the above-named committee members and certifies that the dissertation has been approved in accordance with university requirements. ii To all who strive for greater understanding and humanity in a world sorely in need of both iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS My deep appreciation to Dr. Candace Ward for directing the research and composition of this dissertation; for sharing her keen understanding and original interpretations of the authors, literary works, and philosophies of love and marriage contained herein, and for consistently blending thoughtful critique with heartening encouragement and welcome humor. Her guidance has proven that the pursuit of higher education can be a true pleasure. Sincere gratitude is due Dr. Barry Faulk, whose wealth of scholarly insight clarified the vital importance of being earnest in enriching a thesis and acknowledged the greater power of an ever- evolving reality over an ideal, always, in literary representations of loving partnerships, particularly when analyzing the life, loves, and artistic works of a man of such importance as Oscar Wilde, who cared for men but repeatedly wrote about a good woman. For his continued commitment to my academic efforts, my thanks to Dr. Eric Walker, whose scholarly understanding of Jane Austen’s life, literary works, seminal contribution to the development of the English novel, and insistent argument for companionate marriage, which serves as the springboard for this argument, cannot be overstated. For Dr. Aimee Boutin’s early faith in my premise, practical research suggestions, and structural direction, I am very appreciative. Her initial defense of my original vision clarified my goals and served as a sound foundation for years of study and composition. Heartfelt thanks also to Dr. John Fenstermaker, my academic mentor, for long and unwavering encouragement, and to Ms. Janet Atwater for invaluable moral support and technical expertise. While the pursuit of higher knowledge is individual, realizing the goal is communal. I thank all who have steadfastly supported my efforts, my son and daughter first and foremost, who shared the sacrifices required. They have been and will always be my greatest inspiration. I hope to be as gracious and loving in my encouragement of their dreams as they have been of mine. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract .......................................................................................................................................... vi INTRODUCTION ...........................................................................................................................1 Evolving Realism .................................................................................................................2 Chapter Outline ....................................................................................................................4 Summation ...........................................................................................................................8 CHAPTER 1: INITIATING THE CONVERSATION, CHALLENGING THE STATUS QUO: JANE AUSTEN ...............................................................................................................................9 Historical Overview: To Early Nineteenth Century ............................................................9 Introduction .......................................................................................................................21 Biography ...........................................................................................................................27 Works .................................................................................................................................32 Summation .........................................................................................................................72 CHAPTER 2: DEEPENING THE CONVERSATION, CHALLENGING THE VICTORIAN IDEAL: GEORGE ELIOT .............................................................................................................75 Historical Overview: Mid-Nineteenth Century .................................................................75 Introduction ........................................................................................................................81 Biography ...........................................................................................................................84 Works .................................................................................................................................91 Summation .......................................................................................................................134 CHAPTER 3: EXPANDING THE CONVERSATION, CHALLENGING THE SEXUAL NORM: OSCAR WILDE ............................................................................................................137 Historical Overview: Late Nineteenth Century ...............................................................137 Introduction ......................................................................................................................145 Biography .........................................................................................................................157 Works ...............................................................................................................................165 Summation .......................................................................................................................202 CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................................205 REFERENCES ............................................................................................................................216 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH .......................................................................................................222 v ABSTRACT British literature of the long nineteenth century, exemplified by three authors who lived and wrote in England from the late eighteenth to the turn of the twentieth centuries, was deeply focused on understanding human relationships and increasing equality between the sexes. From the novels of Jane Austen in the late Romantic period, through George Eliot’s Victorian novels, to the prose and plays of Oscar Wilde written on the cusp of a new century, constructions of love and marriage matured within and throughout the authors’ life experiences and art, affecting and reflecting cultural changes in all levels of English society but most notably through the changing mores of the rising middle class. Attesting to their lasting universality in depicting male and female emotions, social standards, and cultural goals, the written works of Austen, Eliot, and Wilde influenced a century of contemporary readers and continue to draw audiences for their timeless understandings of, and insightful approaches to, human relationships. Through detailed analysis of the authors’ selected works, with references to contemporary and modern critical interpretations, I will focus on these ever evolving individual and collective constructs of love and marriage, from Austen’s practical approach to love and sometimes deceptively witty arguments for equal partnership in marriage, through Eliot’s complex studies of individuality and redefined concepts of marriage, to Wilde’s insistence that love, marriage, and partnership be redefine by and true to self, despite pressure to conform. Throughout this detailed study of increasing realism in English society and fiction, changing gender roles and rights, developing relationships between the sexes, and the evolution of conceptions of love, the institution of marriage, a partnership between and within the sexes, this dissertation will focus on the long-term effects of the literary contributions of Austen, Eliot, and Wilde to ever evolving constructions of love and marriage in nineteenth-century England and their enduring effects on the Western World. vi INTRODUCTION The poet and the novelist write largely out of personal experience, and must give expression to the effects of their own history. What they have seen and felt, gives shape and tone to what they write; that which is nearest their own hearts is poured forth in their books. To ignore these influences is to overlook a better part of what they write, and is often to lose the explanation of many features of their work. (Cooke 3) Jane Austen, George Eliot, and Oscar Wilde, authors whose creative lives spanned England’s long nineteenth century, followed highly individual literary paths