Love And Marriage In The 18Th Century free essay sample

Essay, Research Paper Our purpose in this paper will be to analyse and discourse the different ways in which love and matrimony were dealt with during the 18th century and to what extent these two footings were linked together or considered as opposite. To carry through this affair we are traveling to concentrate our attending on several plants that are representative from this period and that reflect in an accurate manner the societal mores and more specifically, matrimony conventions and romantic love. Throughout this treatment we will be stressing the thought that matrimony is represented in these plants as an establishment wholly detached from love and that it pursues more than anything else economic intents and an lifting in the societal hierarchy. First of all we should account for the state of affairs of English adult females during the 18th century, that despite several societal betterments, continued holding less rights or freedom than work forces within the household and matrimony as an establishment. Patriarchal signifiers were still a deep-seated usage that ruled society, which was male-centered. Marriage was frequently forced on adult females as their lone manner of holding a recognized place in society, but at the same clip led them to slavery. Women? s belongings could be spent to the discretion of the hubby as she was considered, together with all that she owned, a ownership of the hubby. Significantly relevant is the fact that the convention of matrimonies arranged by parents was still widely accepted. Evidences of this facet can be found in Goldsmith? s work She Stoops to Conquer. At the really beginning of the drama Mr.Hardcastle expresses that he has already chosen a hubby for his immature girl: ? Then to be plain with you, Kate, I expect the immature gentleman I have chosen to be your hubby from town this really twenty-four hours. I have his male parent? s missive, in which he informs me his boy is set out, and that he intends to follow himself shortly after. ? ( p. 3 ) Mr. Hardcastle subsequently explains that he would neer command her girl? s pick, but in fact claims that Marlow? ( he ) ? s a adult male of first-class apprehension? ( p.4 ) , this significance that the immature gentleman should be the right option for her. Despite her initial dissension with the thought of this established brush with the immature male child, she eventually accepts the meeting after her male parent? s ecstasy of the immature adult male? s virtuousnesss. She so gleefully declares: ? My beloved dad, say no more ( snoging his manus ) , he? s mine, I? ll have him! ? ( p.4 ) . Subsequently on in the drama, Tony? s false waies lead Marlow and Hastings to the Hardcastle abode, where they believe they can lodge for a nice rate before go oning on to run into Mr. Hardcastle and his beautiful girl at his estate. This? hostel? is really Mr. Hardcastle sign of the zodiac, but the travellers do non recognize this since the sign of the zodiac unusually resembles an hostel. Hasting s is shortly informed of his error when he meets Miss Neville, but the twosome decides to go forth Marlow in ignorance for the clip being so that their programs for matrimony will non be frustrated by his indignation and embarrassment. In a similar manner, in the novel Mary the Wrongs of Woman, Mary Wollstonecraft exposes this same inclination of ordered matrimonies, where love is forgotten and merely the possible benefits that both parts can obtain from the brotherhood are taken into history. Hence, the manner in which Darnford asserts? my male parent and female parent were people of manner ; married by their parents? ( p.94 ) should non be taken as a dramatic statement for this affair was considered in the 18th century the usual process to follow. It is besides of import to note that Mary loses her instance because the justice considers that? it was her responsibility to love and obey the adult male chosen by her parents and dealingss, who were qualified by their experience to judge better for her, than she could for herself? ( p.199 ) . Therefore it is non stupefying that the thought of matrimony is frequently understood as a societal usage by and large detached from love. This withdrawal non merely concerns matrimony directed by person superior but besides the economical benefits taken out of it. We can put an illustration in Henry Fielding? s Joseph Andrews, and more exactly in the chapters mentioning to the narrative of the immature lovers Leonora and Horatio. With the visual aspect of Bellarmine, a all right? gentleman who owned a Coach and Six? ( p.135 ) , interrupting into Leonora? s life, she reconsiders her battle with Horatio, who had? non even a Pair? ( p.138 ) . Bing a immature and inexperient miss, Leonora asks her aunt for some piece of advice associating her love matter and this one answers that without any uncertainty she should get married Bellarmine as he possesses all that Horatio deficiencies, that is, all right apparels, good expressions, heroism and above all luck. ? I have lived longer in it than you, and I assure you there is non any thing worth our Regard besides Money: nor did I of all time know one Person who married from other Considerations, who did non afterwards heartily repent it. Besides, if we examine the two Men, can you prefer a sneaking Fellow, who hath been bred at a University, to a all right Gentleman merely come from his Travels? ? . ( p.138 ) . At first Leonora had appeared in the novel as a immature miss frantically in love with Horatio, and she even proclaimed that he was her lover or about her hubby ( p.137 ) . However, she does non doubt in accepting Bellarmine because of his affluent place and the pecuniary benefits she would acquire from the marriage, which would besides connote her lifting in the societal graduated table. Together with this, the idea of get marrieding Bellarmine provokes a certain feeling of pride that will take her to believe that she could go the enviousness of the remainder of society, although in the terminal her hesitation and folly will do her lose both suers: ? How huge is the difference between being the Wife of a hapless Counsellor, and the Wife of one of Bellarmine? s Fortune! If I marry Horatio, I shall prevail over no more than one Rival: but my marrying Bellarmine, I shall be the Envy of all my Acquaintance. What Happiness! ? . ( p.137 ) Marriage depending on pecuniary facets can be easy understood if we bear in head the function of adult females in the 18th century English society. We should see the instances of Leonora, ? Daughter of a Gentleman of Fortune? ( p.130 ) and Kate Hardcastle, who belongs to a high societal position, as exceeding. For both of them matrimony does non stand for the lone agencies of acquiring independency since they both have a certain luck that could enable them either to stay in the same societal position or get married some all right gentleman that could supply them a certain economic stableness. However, even among the wealthy, matrimony was chiefly a concern agreement. In a similar manner we should indicate at lower or in-between category circles. Here money was a? critical factor in acquiring a start in life by purchasing a store or get downing a concern? and it was besides? inevitable that fiscal considerations should go on to play a really big portion in matrimony programs? . In thi s sense we should now mention to Defoe? s Moll Flanders, where the heroine moves within this environment and comes to show: ? [ ] that matrimonies were the effects of politick strategies for organizing involvements, and transporting on concern, and that Love had no portion, or but really small in the matter. ? ( p.83 ) . Moll Flanders is a narrative about the development of a adult female from a low to a mid-class position. Since she was a kid her lone desire was to go a? dame? and her lone means to go up in the societal graduated table was to take advantage of the chances that life offered her, which are all summed up in one word: matrimony. Nevertheless, matrimonies took topographic point among people belonging to the same societal category and this is why Moll Flanders has to feign to be richer than she truly is in order to make her purpose. This can be observed in many different transitions all along Moll? s life, when she? [ ] took attention to do the universe take me as something more than I was? ( p.135 ) . It is clear that Moll? s thoughts on matrimony depend more on pecuniary personal businesss than in love 1s, and that her purpose in life is acquiring a better societal place. After her 2nd hubby dies, she goes to the Mint where she meets a new familiarity, a widow who would assist her to do her husband-to-be believe that she owns a luck of 1500 lbs, otherwise he would non accept her for non belonging to his same position. It is for this same ground that in She Stoops to Conquer, Marlow rejects Kate Hardcastle when he is still misidentifying her for a simple barmaid alternatively of a lady: ? But to be plain with you, the difference of our birth, luck and instruction makes an honorable connexion impossible ; and I can neer harbor a idea of scoring simpleness that trusted in my honor, or conveying ruin upon one whose merely mistake was being excessively lovely. ? ( p.42 ) However, the reader should non be mistaken by generalising matrimony as a term opposed to love. Pure love moved by passion and true feelings did be and non needfully linked to extram arital dealingss. She Stoops to Conquer sets this illustration on the figures of Hastings and Neville. The immature lovers are genuinely in love although they are still conditioned by money in a manner. They have to conceal their love from Mrs. Hardcastle, as she is the owner of Neville? s gems, and to obtain her wealth, Constance must get married whomever Mrs. Hardcastle pleases, unless the adult male refuses. To maintain the money in the household Mrs. Hardcastle wishes for Neville to get married her boy Tony. However, the lovers proclaim several times their love ignoring money. During a conversation that both clasp, Miss Neville states she would instead get married him one time she owns all her gems so that they can procure their hereafter: ? The blink of an eye they ( gems ) are put into my ownership you shall happen me ready to do them and myself yours? . But Hastings exclaims: ? Die the baubles! Your individual is all I desire? ( p.19 ) . Even when the immature lady assures tha t? in the minute of passion, luck may be despised, but it of all time produces a permanent penitence? Hastings insists on allowing their feelings flow: ? Perish luck. Love and disdain will increase what we possess beyond a sovereign? s gross. Let me predominate? ( p.56 ) . Mary narrates a similar narrative in Mary the Wrongs of Woman. Peggy is married to Daniel, a crewman. Money was non involved in their matrimony but pure love and passion. When Daniel dies Peggy is forced to populate on his rewards and subsequently on she has to gain a life by making some difficult physical work. She laments the loss of her hubby non because of the work she has to make now to prolong the household for? it was pleasant to work for her kids? ( p.132 ) but because of her broken bosom without his dear. ? Capital of rhode island to hold let him come back without a leg or an arm, it would hold been the same thing to her # 8211 ; for she did non love him because he maintained them # 8211 ; no ; she had custodies of her own. ? ( p.132 ) . However, it should non be striking that 18th century adult females looked for hubbies as a agency of lifting their societal place and their wealth, as they barely had any other manner of obtaining it, ignoring love. And this is Moll? s declaration: ? [ ] I was resolved now to be married or nil, and to be good married or non at all. ? ( p.77 ) . Working adult females were non accepted by society and the lone occupations that they could acquire were those connoting difficult physical work ( servitude ) or harlotry. Besides, the legal system in this period did non let adult females to inherit anything when the partners died, all the money go throughing from male parent to son/son-in-law. Moll Flanders chose her life as a cocotte and states that it caused her all the wretchedness and devastation she will endure subsequently on in her life: ? Well, allow her life have been the manner it would so, it was certain that my life was really uneasy to me ; for I liv? vitamin D, as I have said, but in the worst kind of prostitution, and as I cou? vitamin D expect no Good of it, so truly no good issue came and all my seeming prosperity wore off and ended in wretchedness and distruction. ? ( p.138 ) . Her pick of traveling to whoredom, nevertheless, was merely because she felt the demand to last. All of Moll? s subsequent sexual dealingss will hold a pecuniary dimension. Moll does non even seek to do a differentiation between sex and money and takes for granted that you must do a fiscal appraisal before traveling to bed with anyone. Sexual activity is hence a dealing or instead an investing. In this sense she adds up whether she has more money or less after each relationship throughout her life. In the first periods of her life she exploits her gender for the intent of net income. Subsequently on, when her beauty vanishes, she has to travel towards offense as her lone agency of life. Therefore we could state that her life moves at the same time between two degrees: the sexual and the fiscal. While Moll makes her pick of life, Mary Wollstonecraft shows in Mary the Wrongs of Woman, the wretchedness of adult females who prostituted themselves because they did non hold any other option. Jemina is a clear illustration who, after holding been raped by her maestro at the age of 16, will be used by work forces for the remainder of her life. She plants as a retainer, becomes a kept woman and so a washwoman to last because she has no other pick. She feels so a slave without any control over her ain organic structure, condemned to stay inactive in this societal place. When speaking about her occupation as a washwoman she affirms: ? [ ] that this was a misery of state of affairs peculiar to my sex. A adult male with half my industry, and, I may state, abilities, could hold procured a nice support. [ ] whilst I, [ ] was cast aside as the filfth of society. Condemned to labor, like a machine, merely to gain staff of life, and barely that [ ] ? ( p.115-116 ) In this paragraph Jemina explains that after being obliged to keep an illicit sexual intercourse she lost her virtuousness and with it all her rights as a adult female in society. This leads us a to the inquiry of adult females? s virtuousness and how to continue it. Virtue was one of the chief qualities a adult female should possess in order to acquire married. This thought of celibacy and feminine pureness was so strong that at the terminal of the century it was normally believed that nice adult females had no sexual desires at all. In this regard, immature, inexperient and chaste characters like Fanny Goodwill ( in Joseph Andrews ) are opposed to others like Mary, who acts upon her ain sexual desires, or Moll, who is depicted as basking her trade at least during a period of her life. Thus, Moll makes no opposition to her suers, non even with her first lover, the immature brother, who cutely persuades her to hold a sexual relation with him: ? For God knows that I made no opposition to him while he merely held me in his weaponries and kissed ; so I was excessively good pleased with it to defy him much? ( p. 46 ) . Therefore the societal and sexual mores between adult females and work forces were non equal when applied to both parts individually. For case, the disparity between male and female celibacy can be clearly observed in Joseph Andrews. Thus, when Joseph, a retainer, appears in the novel supporting his virtuousness and celibacy from the progresss of Lady Booby, the whole scene becomes a lampoon. And the Lady even talks about the non-existence of adult male? s virtuousness: ? Did of all time Mortal hear of a Man? s Virtue! Did of all time the greatest Man make-believe to any of this Kind! Will Magistrates who punish Lewdness, or Parsons, who preach against it, do any scruple of perpetrating it? And a Boy, a Stripling have the Assurance to speak of his Virtue? ? ( p.80 ) The dual criterion that demands celibacy on adult females but non on work forces, together with the subjugation over adult females, who were considered as a mere ownership of their hubbies, induces Mary to declare that when one? is born a adult female? one is? born to endure? ( p.181 ) . This leads us to the decision that matrimony in the 18th century did non travel together with love, furthermore they were considered opposed footings most of the times. ? A adult female would merely be expected to keep ; yes, hardly allow a subsistence, to a adult female rendered abominable to accustomed poisoning: but who would anticipate him, or believe it possible to love her? ? ( Mary the Wrongs of Woman, p. 154 ) . The relevancy of this comment lays in the word picture Mary gives of her matrimony. She describes the deficiency of love that runs through it, at the same clip transforming it into a general declaration that concerns every matrimony in that period. The statement made by the lady who o wns the store where Mary hides from George Vernables is besides noteworthy, as she does non believe that Mary can acquire off from her hubby because? when a adult female was one time married, she must bear everything? ( p. 170 ) . All in all we could reason our essay stating that through all the illustrations we have analyzed, the separation between love and matrimony is clear. In most of the instances adult females found in matrimony the lone possible flight from the patriarchal signifiers embodied in the male parent? s figure. It was besides the lone means to accomplish a higher place in the societal graduated table and a certain economic independency and stableness. However, the being of ordered matrimonies and accordingly the deficiency of love, turned marriage into a prison where adult females were locked. A male-ruled universe transformed adult females into practical slaves that had no rights, and the instances where matrimony was the consequence of a true and passionate love can be counted for as exceeding. Q Wollstonecraft, M. , Mary The Wrongs of Woman ( 1976 ) Oxford World? s Classics. Q Fielding, J. , Joseph Andrews ( 1999 ) Penguin Classics. Q Defoe, D. , Moll Flanders ( 1978 ) Penguin English Library. Q Goldsmith, O. , She Stoops to Conquer ( 1991 ) Dover Thrift Editions. Q Stone, L. The Family, Sex and Marriage in England 1500-1800, ( 1979 ) Pelikan Books. Q Ty, E. Unsex? vitamin D Revolutionaries: Five Women Novelists of the 1790? s. ( 1993 ) University of Toronto Press, Toronto. q Spencer, J. , The Rise of the Woman Novelist: From Aphra Behn to Jane Austen ( 1987 ) Basil Blackwell, Oxford.