Essay on Marriage in Pamela and Fanny Hill

Sex, therefore, became solely for reproduction in the Victorian Era. Upper class families showed their refinement by not having children, and not having sex. But while the upper classes were showing their good breeding, the lower classes continued to have children. Children were needed in the lower classes because they were assets. Children helped in the house and contributed to farm work, so parents needed to reproduce, unlike parents of the upper class, who had no use for children and saw them only as a liability.

After marriage, the husband was considered lord and master of the family. But not all the women were meek and submissive. By the 1700's, the woman’s status had rapidly improved in colonial America. A wife and child made as much as a man did. Although women did not have equality with men, their status greatly improved from their status in Europe. A woman’s station in life was determined by the position of their husbands or fathers. The women of the poorest families, compiled to work in the fields, stood at the bottom of the social ladder. One of the surest signs of the accomplishments a family had made, was the exemption of their women from the fields. Before 1740, girls were trained in household crafts and the practical arts of family management. But afterwards they began to study subjects that required reading and studying such subjects as grammer and arithmetic. The women of the upper classes occupied themselves mainly with planning the work of the home and with supervising the domestic servants. Along with these tasks the women also baked, nursed, and sewed. But there were many social restrictions placed on the women of that time. One such restriction was that a wife, in absence of her husband, was not allowed to lodge men even if they were close relatives. For

Tempting as it is to forget the similarities, which were many, and stress the differences, the important characteristic of colonial women’s lives was alike, whatever the region: an adult woman’s status was everywhere determined by her marital state. In the Chesapeake no less than in New England, a woman was seen chiefly as an adjunct of her husband. Her social standing depended on her husband’s position in the colonial hierarchy: her primary role in family and community was as mistress of his household. Granted, the same was true of her English contemporaries. But two major differences separated the women of the Old World from those of the New. First, because of later marriage and longer widowhood, seventeenth-century English women most likely earned wages and lived independently of a paternal or marital household for a period of time at least as long as the terms of their marriages. In other words, they spent as much of their adult lives outside a marital household as inside one. Few American women had similar experiences: demographic constraints precluded long-term, independent lives in the colonies. Second. English women actively engaged in a market economy, exchanging goods and services with neighbors and working in shops alongside their husbands and fathers. The economic life of seventeenth-century English

Due to a woman’s legal status as a minor, she could not own or control much of what was essential in life, such as a house or land. Even when a woman was associated with a man, “married women's lives throughout much of the nineteenth century were limited to staying home and caring for the children, tending to household chores, and working at menial jobs” (“Women’s Movement”). There were not many opportunities outside of housework for women; moreover, education was very limited until around the 1840’s (“Women’s Movement”). The funds a woman had were also attached to her husband. Families often paid men a dowry when they married off their daughters (Marshall).

in Thomas). She had to make sure her house was fitting for her family. This because she is seen as incapable to do what a man can. Therefor women are seen powerless and powerless is defined as according to Merriam-Webster as “lacking the authority or capacity to act.” She is also not allowed to cheat but a man was. Victorian men kept paramours, yet in any case they expected their wives or special woman to be dedicated whatever their own particular crimes. On the off chance that a woman took another man it was not allowed. In the event that it did get to be open learning she would be cut by society. But a man can do as he pleases. Also, It was a double-dealing period when connections were very counterfeit. Until late in the century in 1887 a wedded lady could claim no property. At that point in 1887 the Married Woman 's Property Act gave ladies rights to possess her own particular property. Formerly her property, habitually inherited from her family, fit in with her spouse on marriage. She turned into the property of the man. Amid this time if a wife divided from her spouse she had no privileges of access to see her kids. A separated lady had no possibility of acknowledgement in the public arena once more.

In the 18oo’s, everything that a woman could do was dictated by the man in her home. They were treated as property, first of their father, then to the man they would marry. A woman’s only life goal was only ever to get married. Marriage was the only way for a woman to keep wealth (until 1839, when the Married Women’s Property Acts allowed women to be legally separated from their husbands) was through the marriage of a wealthy gentleman, despite everything else. Once married, women were expected to stay home and care for their children. Women would also rarely escaped their lives in order to attend to their guests and the state of their home. Women were easily separated into three classes: the

During the Enlightenment and Revolution era, women did not have equal rights like men. All over the world women were expected to do certain things and act a certain way while not doing others. A woman is mocked and ridiculed if she does not follow these standards.Women’s roles were based around duty and obligations; thus, their rights were not political, gleaning from their roles as housewives (Give Me Liberty!, 242). The roles of women between the 16th to the 18th centuries were mainly to be housewives and were seen inferior compared to men. Throughout time, they gained a greater variety of job opportunities as well as increased education, and the women’s roles still did not carry the same weight as the men’s.

Anderson’s assessment stems from the fact that men found obedience to be a desirable female quality during the eighteenth century. Moreover, according to feminists, society during that time was designed for the pleasure and benefit of men alone. While Feminist criticism works well with Charlotte Temple, it is evident that another concept also deserves attention. Although the majority of novel seems to focus on women, chapters two through five connect almost exclusively to economics. The significance of economics and social class in these opening chapters implies that Charlotte is not only victimized due to her gender, but also due to her class. During the first few chapters, the importance of money and gender are revealed. Mr. Lewis exploits and then proceeds to blackmails Mr. Eldridge for money, thus sending him into financial tragedy. This short background story sets up the theme of class struggle for the novel.

Austen explains that being born a woman in such a society suggests that even less alternatives on whom to get married to or not to get married to, or how to establish the nature of a person’s life. Furthermore, the way in which the society weakens and controls women is useful in explaining Mrs. Elizabeth Bennet 's panic concerning the marriage of her beloved daughters, as well as why such marriages should always entail both financial and practical considerations. Coming from noble

In the Victorian period “…the childless single woman was a figure to be pitied.” (Abrams. 2001). It was considered to be outside of social hierarchy not to be a part of the domestic scene for women, “domesticity and motherhood were portrayed as sufficient emotional fulfilment for women.” (Abrams. 2001). In reality this was not the case and the role of motherhood and domesticity clearly did not sufficiently fulfil a woman’s emotional desires and requirements, situated in a suppressed, dominant patriarchal society ruled by men. In fact patriarchal society subjugated the role of women; they were seen as lesser than, and required to stay on the domestic

The 18th century was a period of slow change for women’s rights in England. The Enlightenment and Industrial Revolution were coterminous at this point in history and brought the new thoughts about women’s rights to England in the late 1700s. In the 1700s women were not as concerned with voting as they were with divorce, adultery, and child custody rights. However, as the population of single women grew throughout the 18th and 19th century the concern for more rights for women became prevalent (Wolbrink, 4 Nov. 2011). By 1851, 43 percent of women in England were single and began to campaign frequency and sometimes forcibly for their rights (Wolbrink, 4 Nov. 2011). Reformer

In the 18th century wealthy white men ruled England. The upper class men ruled society, and married for a woman’s reputation and her dowry. Marriage is a business arrangement and women have to maintain an upstanding reputation. Hogarth’s engravings depict the roles that gender and class plays in society.

The year was 1912 in London, England. Women lived at the mercy of their fathers, brothers, husbands and bosses; clearly a patriarchal society. Women’s lives consisted of keeping house and raising children and caring for their families. Those who worked outside of the home were limited to menial labor, earned significantly less than men, and surrendered their earnings to their husbands. Any inheritance of real estate or money a woman may have received was given to her husband and, most often, she had nothing to say about how it was managed or spent. A woman could not vote or run for office, and received little support, should she desire an education other than a ‘finishing school.’ (Clearly,

Driven by clear moralistic intentions, he wrote the epistolary novel Pamela as a realistic sentimental parable based on an exemplary adventure. The initial area of conflict is defined morally, in foreground being the rich seducer whose mother dies, Mr. B. and his maid, Pamela Andrews. Richardson made in this way a sentimental tearful prose. The evolution of the plot is reproduced firstly by long letters of Pamela to her parents and by their responses. Dialog items, indeed reduced, are also introduced in these fictitious letters. The style is constantly punctuated by moralizing judgments and appeals to virtue, strongly standing out the echo of Puritan moral propagated by Richardson. Basic terms of conflict result from the aggressive behavior of the master tempted to seduce the maid and her worthy resistance, although she was in love with him. Sentimental parable has a happy ending. Converted to virtue by the young girl, Mr. B. who repents for his intentions, he proposed her a marriage. The victory of a simple and pure person just emphasizes once again the cautionary lesson from this work. The story is complex: the main heroine is Pamela Andrews, a beautiful 15-years-old who was working as a maidservant in Bedfordshire. She was an innocent, pious and virtuous girl. After the death of Lady B, she remained due to her wish as a servant in the house. Mr. B, the new country landowner master after his mother death, started to make advances towards the young servant. He tried to seduce against her will and wanted to pay her to keep the secret about his mistake, but Pamela refused and told the stories of his attempts to the housekeeper, Mrs. Jervis. One night he was hidden in her room and tried to kiss and after this event the poor girl decided to go back to her impoverished parents to preserve her virtue. He proposed her to marry the chaplain from Lincolnshire, Mr. Williams, but she refused and was decided to go

Roxana or The Fortunate Mistress raises the question of how Roxana can be fortunate since the very word mistress is indicative of a ruined woman. Although their behavior and values directly contrast with one another there are parallels in their situations that are interesting. Richardson's Pamela is a sixteen-year old servant girl who exhibits a remarkable and persistent virtue that creates awe and disbelief. She is a paragon of thoughtfulness, kindness, honesty, forgiveness, intelligence and above all chastity.