With the passing of the Hardwicke Marriage Act of 1753 marriage turned into an institution regulated by the government. Prior to the Act, it had been common practice for couples to privately exchange vows of marriage. These clandestine marriages were legally binding even if there had been no public announcement or ceremony of marriage. Therefore, a woman who became pregnant after these private exchanges was legally entitled to support from her husband for their children. The Hardwicke Marriage Act changed all of this, requiring a marriage license, parental permission for minors, ceremony in front of witnesses and an authorized clergyman, and recording the event into a marriage registrar.
Supporters of the Act argued that it would help improve the moral character of the country, prevent undesirable clandestine marriages between members of different social classes and keep wealth and inheritances within family lines. Women who supported the passing of the act felt that it assured women financial stability and that a woman's work was within the family.
Critics of the Act said that it punished women and their potential children for having sex outside of state-sanctioned marriage, leaving them with no way of supporting themselves. The father of these children now had no legal or monetary responsibilities towards his children and was not bound to them in any way. In fact, illegitimate births more than doubled during the second half of the century. Early feminists of the time argued that the government was trying to police female virtue and change sexual practices, leaving women with no financial support for themselves outside of getting married. They felt that economic independence could not be achieved because there was no profitable work available for women, especially of the upper and middle classes.
As you read the texts for Wednesday, think about the choices women in the later eighteenth century had to make. Should they focus on the difficult task of trying to get an education and find profitable work, enough to support herself and any results of her sexual freedoms? Would a patriarchal society even accept the idea of educating women? Or would it have been a more realistic decision to accept a smart marriage and have financial security? Did the Hardwicke Marriage Act turn marriage, virginity and children into commodoties? Is marriage better off as a public or private matter?
Welcome to the course blog for English 427 (Later Eighteenth-Century Literature) at the University of Illinois at Urbana/Champaign.
Contributors
Castle of Otranto Backgrounds and Context
Third Assignment
Unit 7: The Sublime
Unit 6: Rights of Women
Unit 5: Slavery and Abolition
Unit 4: Children's Literature
Unit 3: The Theater
Unit 2: Folklore and Fakery
Unit 1: Empire and Exploration
Independent Units
Course Readings
- Butler, Arts in the Age of Revolution
- Cowper on Omai
- Boswell on Johson, Omai, and savages
- Burney on Omai
- Brooke, Preface to The Excursion
- Johnson, Rambler No. 4
- Johnson, Rambler No. 23
- Johnson, By the River at Stowe Mill
- Sterne, The Northwest Passage to the Intellectual World
- Sterne, Obadiah's Cow
- Sterne, True Shandeism
- Sterne, Uncle Toby and the Fly
- Frye, "Towards Defining an Age of Sensibility"
- The Bard. A Pindaric Ode (Thomas Gray)
- Joseph Warton's Dying Indian
- Gray's Elegy 1751
- Gray's Elegy 1768
- Gray's Elegy modern edition
- Mary Jones, Holt Waters (1750)
- Minds of Winter (Seward and Stevens)
Second Assignment (due 2/18)
First Assignment (due 2/2)
The First Map
Map of Western North American, c. 1785
7 comments:
The Hardwicke Marriage Act sounds like a not so subtle attempt to regulate women's sexuality. Forcing women to marry (usually a marriage that was approved or selected by the families and probably not based on real affection) locks them into abstinence until marriage because if a child results, there would be no government-required support from the father. This act solidified the ideal of women being virgins on their wedding night and made it a necessity for women in order to protect themselves from the possibility of being left with an illegitimate child and thus lost forever as far as society was concerned. Also, the distinction of public and private life is shattered by this act because the previously private affairs of marriage and sexuality become a government sanctioned contract. This act, and others like it from the 19th century, did much to limit woman's ability to gain respect and equality.
It was rather distressing seeing how some of the issues of being a female writer seem to be present in popular culture. I would venture to say that females have more literary force than they did in the 18 th century. If you look at hollywood films then traditional position of woman is still upheld. The discussion of a woman needing to be physically described to be interesting struck me in comparison to how woman appear on film. TV shows still have fat husbands with exceptionally good looking woman. The standard for female perfection is still present. The Idea that a woman stands up to more scrutiny is also true on film. A woman must be beautiful where as men in film can be strange looking.
It was a problem that weighed on many women's hearts during that time. In order to get stability it was required for them to get hitched, which is why we see the frivolous forms of education that were being forced on women. These schools were not intended to make their students strong independent thinkers. What it did was train women how to become desirable. It taught them grace and manners, how to play instruments for entertaining there husbands, and many other pointless skills to make them the "perfect wife". In the end this act forced many women into a corner, and caused them to bade their lives on vanity instead of mental strength and independence.
I would say to what all have posted so far: "Yes, exactly!" I will also add this:
Jane West makes an important distinction in The Advantages of Education about what the motivation for women should be in their pursuits, be they academic or of a moral nature. Rather than seeking to better oneself for the sake of being better able to snag a virtuous and wealthy husband, the idea is to do things so that your peers will like you. This is very much like the mentality of Rousseau's thoughts about morality as they apply to rearing children. This suggest an approach that only asks for women to be viewed on equal standing as men, that their pursuits are equally valid and motivated by the same reasons. This kind of equality seems generally accepted as the goal of most mainstream brands of feminism.
It seems unfair to expect women to be 'perfect women' all the time. Because, let's face it, man or woman, nobody's perfect.
However, it seems that men of the times expected women to act like perfect goddesses for them. And anything less was unacceptable for marriage.
Wollstonecraft says ultimately, that type of thinking will lead to disappointment, and thus an unhappy marriage. "Obliged to renounce all humanizing affections, and to avoid cultivating her taste, left her perception of grace and refinement of sentiment, should sharpen to agony the pangs of disappointment." Not only will the men be disappointed, but the women will be disappointed too.
Wollstonecraft is making a statement not necessarily about the Marriage Act, per se, but more about the attitude men had at the time. The Act is something of a manifestation of this rather limited attitude on women's rights.
Even though in the realm of education currently women are not as eagerly seeking their "MRS.", there is still a pressure in early education to force gender roles on children. Moreover the The Hardwicke Marriage Act does not simply apply to the women of the past. The institution of marriage is still highly public and restricted and requires such extensive preparation though the law such as prenuptial agreements to protect (traditionally) the rights of the wife in case of a divorce.
To answer one of the questions, yes I think the act turned marriage, virginity and children into commodities, but they were a few of the only "bargaining chips" that were available to women attempting to marry into a good marriage.
I'm just going to go ahead and take a feminist stand on the issues, as it appears everyone else has, too. I believe women should have the right to an education as well as the right to gain independence and forge a life for themselves. It is completely unfair that women should be subjected to laws such as the Hardwicke Marriage Act because it basically demotes them to simple, dependent beings.
With that being said, society of the time (18th century) did not allow much room for woman's independence, as seen by the marriage act and others like it. Society was set up so that it was difficult for women to financially support themselves or their children. Even those who were able to gain independence were often cast in a negative light by the public. Despite these hardships, women such as the writers we read today were able to make an impact and help forge the way towards equal rights. Girl power!
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