Judah Norman

Catherine Emanuel

Rise of the Woman Writer

23 November 2020

The Use of Marriage to Obtain Stability

The late 18th century and early 19th century was an era in which marriage was essentially a business occupation, especially for women. Themes of this are shown in The Romance of the Forest by Anne Radcliffe, Emma by Jane Austen, and Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë. In a time when class, patriarchal economics, gender, and hierarchy left women dependent on a man taking them as a wife, finding a suitable husband could be stressful and even chaotic as seen, for example, throughout the many incidents resulting from Emma Woodhouse’s matchmaking endeavors for Hariett Smith. For some, however, it is a peaceful and relieving transition from pawnage, or social, economic, and circumstantial instability. Some instances include when Harriet secures social stability upon marrying Mr. Martin in Emma, when Jane gains economic stability after marrying Mr. Rochester in Jane Eyre, and when Adeline escapes circumstantial instability and pawnage after marrying Theodore in The Romance of the Forest. Of course, because these are novels, the women of these stories stereotypically have a happy union with their partners, however, this does not denote the fact that such scenarios as these certainly occurred during the time. Thus, the effects, in this sense, that class, business, economics, hierarchy, and gender roles on women’s views and functionality within marriages can be thoroughly examined in addition to how the female protagonists in these novels saw it as a way to gain stability and romantic satisfaction.

The class and hierarchy system between the 1790s-1850s limited the amount of independence women had within the social realm depending on the caste under which they fell, especially for those in less fortunate circumstances than the average middle class. In Demographic and Sociological Indicators of Privatisation of Marriage in the 19th Century in Flanders, Koen Matthijs states that “Bastard children, abandoned children, step-families, cohabitation and barbarian ways were thrown on the dung heap of society” (Matthijs 377) and “...the fact that a married woman had to go to work indicated that the husband had a low income and 'therefore' a low family status.” (Matthijs 394-395). The marriages of Jane Eyre, Harriet Smith, and Adelaide can be analyzed in how women, particularly those with no true knowledge of their socioeconomic backing, essentially relied on marriage to secure a solid placing within the social hierarchy of the period.

In Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre, class plays a significant role in Jane’s life as an orphaned child, governess, and wife. Esther Godferey makes note in “Jane Eyre”, from Governess to Girl Bride that “Though Jane for a time is raised among the middle class with the Reeds, they make her different social position clear” (Godfrey 856) and they, along with Mr. Brocklehurst at Lowood, use it as a justification for their abuse toward her. Jane’s automatic low status due to orphanage results in severe mistreatment from many of her acquaintances of higher social classes. At Gateshead, her cousin, John Reed, even snarkingly says to her “...you are a dependent, mamma says; you have no money...you ought to beg, and not live here with gentlemen’s children like us...” (Brontë 957). Godfrey also suggests that the heavily modest and submissive indoctrination she receives from her time at Lowood affects how she interacts with those of a higher status both as a governess and as a fiance and wife, particularly when she still refers to Mr. Rochester as “sir” or “master” instead of his first name even after they have been engaged. (Godfrey 865) Her marriage to Mr. Rochester is, in a sense, the thing that saves her from low society and the turmoils that come with it for she achieves social and economic security - economic because of the inheritance her father, John Eyre, left for her - in addition to blissful relationships who cares about her. For Jane, class is an overarching obstacle that she overcomes via marriage.

Harriet Smith in Jane Austen’s, Emma, shares a similar situation to that of Jane Eyre. Class is a major factor in Emma’s attempts to match Harriet with a suitable husband. Matthijs’ claims on marrying down in the class system or being a working wife are shown within Emma’s views on Mr. Martin. Emma suggests that Mr. Martin “...will be a completely gross, vulgar farmer - totally inattentive to appearances and thinking of nothing but profit and loss” (Austen 33), thus, Hariett should remove from her mind the very thought of wedding him. After the debacle with the failed match attempt between her and Mr. Elton and the rejection toward her true marriage interest, Mr. Martin, Harriet worries that she “...shall never marry” (Austen 319) and, thus, shall neither find love nor a solid social standing, which proves to be even more problematic at the moment considering that up until the end of the story, her true status is unknown. Once the information surfaces that she is actually within the same class as Mr. Martin, Harriet is able to freely marry him and - although it is not an aristocratic status - gains a stable position within her class system along with a satisfactory marital union.

Although class does not play as large of a role in The Romance of the Forest until more toward the end of the story, - mainly due to the fact that it is more of a gothic novel about survival - it can be argued that it influenced how the La Mottes, the Marquis, and Theodore treated Adeline. Class could have even affected the way her father, who came from a “...reputable family, but of small fortune...” (Radcliffe 26), treated Adeline by sending her a way to a convent after the death of her mother, supposedly due to an unsatisfactory financial standing to be able to single handedly support his own daughter. When Pierre planned to sell her to Phillipe, Marquis de Montalt, Adeline’s class most likely played two roles: one in the sense that Pierre inferably thought her of a lower status, thus, an appropriate sacrifice to save his family from being outed by the Marquis, and the other in the sense that Philipe knew that she was the heiress to Henry de Marquis and his “...discovery of Adeline’s birth excited apprehension for his own life [and] he did not hesitate to repeat the crime...” (Radcliffe 210) of attempting to murder her to gain the inheritance. Finally, when her relation to Phillipe and Henry de Marquis is revealed and she receives her inheritance, she is placed within the same social status as Theodore by the time he asks for her hand and, of course, are able to live happily together.

Class and socioeconomic backing create a whirlwind of tension and unstable events for the women of these three works often because at the start of the novels, such information is at the time a mystery and their marriage to a male character unravels the truth of their lineage while providing them with a sense of security in the social realm. While class and hierarchy are factors that determine if and how a woman gained stability and satisfaction in marriage, other components include economics and business, especially in an era where women had such limited employment opportunities and could only be a governess or a wife. This could also point back to Koen Matthijs’ notion in Demographic and Sociological Indicators of Privatisation of Marriage in the 19th Century in Flanders that women who worked while married were seen as indicators that the family is poor and of low income anyway (Matthijs 394-395). Moreover, women were often pawns within the marriage pool being used and moved around as a way to save the estate of their families or associated acquaintances.

One example of women who faced pawnage and lack of employment opportunities is Adeline, who has been “...condemned to perpetual imprisonment, and imprisonment of the most dreadful kind, or to the vengeance of a father, from whom [she has] no appeal.” (Radcliffe 27) and is moved around all of her life from her first home to the monastery, to the house where the La Mottes find her, to the La Motte family, to Pierre’s family, up until she finally marres Theodore. She has no opportunities in life for employment or or pursuit of her own living since she is always in someone’s custody and was on the verge of being used as a sacrifice when she is almost sold to Philippe Marquis de Montalt (Radcliffe 92). Her marriage to Theodore is the moment when she can finally be at ease and no longer must be used to save anyone at her own expense, thus, she finally gains circumstantial and economic stability.

Jane Fairfax and Jane Eyre, like Adeline, are also orphaned at young ages. Even though Jane Fairfax is in the custody of an upstanding family and received a very decent education, her status as an abandoned child and “...the very few hundred pounds which she inherited from her father [makes] independence [for her] impossible” (Radcliffe 154). The plan for Jane is that when she comes of age, she will become a governess until she is able to marry, however, Mrs. Elton seizes the opportunity to use this to her own advantage and pride - this could be seen as Mrs. Elton's form of using Jane as a “pawn” - similar to how Emma used Harriet in her matchmaking attempts. When offering Fairfax with an available governess position Mrs. Elton “...would not take denial. She would not let Jane say ‘No...’” (Radcliffe 356) and when Jane finally relents and agrees to pursue the job, she does not express much enthusiasm. Jane Eyre, on the other hand, is also met with persistent urgency, particularly from St. John. He orders her to give up German and learn Hindustani, asks her to go with him to India, and even insists that they marry. Jane discusses the matter later with Diana who warns Jane that “St. John...would urge [her] to impossibilities; with him there would be no permission to rest during the hot hours; and...whatever he exacts, [she forces herself] to perform” (Brontë 931). To St. John, Jane Eyre was a mere tool in his missionary work and marriage would have made her a secure tactic within his plans.

It is also important to note that private engagements and weddings also played a role in the pawnage of women. Frank Churchill’s reasoning behind his behavior in Emma is to maintain the secrecy of his engagement to Jane Fairfax, who suffers a great deal emotionally under these conditions and feels “...the engagement to be a source of repentance and misery to each: she dissolved it” (Radcliffe 413). In this case, Jane is a pawn used for Frank to save face until an appropriate time to announce their engagement. In the case of Mr. Rochester’s secret marriage with Bertha and private wedding with Jane, further analysis of pawnage through privatization can be prefaced using Matthijs’ following description of private weddings: “...the marriage ceremony in the 19th century involved witnesses. These witnesses were there to control and verify the proceedings...during the 19th century only men could be witnesses...This is now further examined as an element of privatisation...of the marriage ceremony” (Matthijs 391). Jane mentions to the reader that “The were no groomsmen, no bridesmaids, no relatives to wait for or marshal: none but Mr. Rochester and I” (Brontë 840) and it is later revealed that Rochester’s imperativeness for Jane and him to be wed centered around his attempt to keep his first wife, Bertha, - a creole woman with a family genealogy of mental illness - a secret. His plans are foiled when a London solicitor interrupts the ceremony to announce that Rochester’s current marriage to Bertha is the reason for why the wedding must not happen. After the truth of her existence is revealed, Rochester sternly and frustratingly states that Jane is the kind of wife he “... wished to have...this young girl who stands so grave and quiet at the mouth of hell, looking collectedly at the gambols of a demon” (Brontë 845). In this sequence of events, Jane is a pawn in Rochester’s endeavors to trade a burdensome marriage with one that seemed more tolerable and even blissful.

Toward the end of The Romance of the Forest, Adelaide is no longer taking the fall to save her peers and has a fortune to support the two of them. Toward the end of Emma, Jane Faifax can rest from the stress of her secret engagement and is set in a stable socioeconomic position with Frank. Toward the end of Jane Eyre, Jane is wed with the one male figure in her life that genuinely cares for her and is also economically stable through her marriage into a higher class in addition to her father’s inheritance. These final marriages provide economic stability to these women and relieves them, in a way, from constantly being used as a tool. However, in addition to this, for some of the women in these novels, specifically Emma Woodhouse and Jane Eyre, a slight shift in gender roles accompanies the class and economic components of their victory in gaining stability through marriage.

The gender hierarchy of the late 18th and early 19th centuries definitely contributed to the need for women to marry if they could not work independently as a governess. Adeline, for instance, had all her life been at the mercy of male authority such as her father, the ruffians at the abandoned cabin, Pierre, - although he exercised more concern for her well-being - Philipe Marquis de Montalt, and Percy and his family as she is repeatedly relinquished from the custody of one person to another over the course of her life. However, Jane Eyre and Emma Woodhouse experience instances where the odds have tipped in their favor contradicting the gender caste system of their time. In Emma’s case, this happens when Mr. Knightley decides to move into her house even though he has the larger estate and made mention of men usually wanting to give their wives a better home than the one from which they came. The reason behind this decision was to keep from uprooting Emma from her father, Mr. Woodhouse, who does not have such tolerance for change. “Mr. Woodhouse taken from Hartfield! - No, he felt that it ought not be attempted” (Radcliffe 419). Yet, it is also important to take into account Knightley’s slight jealousy earlier in the novel when he thinks Emma has feelings for Frank Churchill, one example of such being his chides toward Frank when Emma admires his penmanship (Radcliffe 276). Moving in with her could inferablystem from his desire to not lose her heart just as he feared that he almost did, in which sense, Emma has somewhat of an upper hand in the relationship. Nonetheless, each partner is romantically satisfied and stable within the societal ranking of their marital status.

In “Jane Eyre”, from Governess to Girl Bride, Esther Godfrey explores how the age difference between Jane and Mr. Rochester is the main factor that contributes to the temporary swap of gender roles at the end of the story. In chapters 37 through 38, Rochester suffers from wounds that resulted from his attempts to save Bertha from the fire that consumed the Thornfield estate. When Jane comes to visit and he learns of her encounters with St. John, Rochester is put in a position where he is now physically and economically subordinate to Jane. As suggested by Godfrey, “Rochester speculates that Jane has likely met a man her own age. The sexual threat of the younger woman builds with additional fervor...Jane's new power here is clear to Rochester and the reader,” (Godfrey 866) and she proceeds to toy with his emotions in order to secure this upper hand before finally accepting his hand in marriage (Godfrey 867). Rochester’s physical impairment also helps in this shift of gender roles. When Jane confirms that she will happily marry him, he insists that he is crippled and old for a young woman such as Jane, to which she rebuttals saying she sacrifices nothing except “...famine for food, expectation for content” (Brontë 953). Jane was once subservient to him and under his care, but in the current state of their relationship, he is under hers since she is the younger and able-bodied partner. Jane’s temporary phase of authority eventually concludes when Rochester heals from his wounds. As stated by Godfrey, “Jane joins the middle class, where gender divisions seem more stable. Rochester likewise is avowed as patriarchal authority; his sight and power are renewed just in time to see the baby boy...” (Godfrey 868), but Jane is content now that their relationship has reached a state of balance and bliss.

In a society that essentially centers the foundation of a woman’s standing around the acquisition of a husband, the women of the late 1700s and early 1800s, depending on their circumstances leading up to engagement, viewed marriage as somewhat of a safe haven that would lift them out of the challenges they faced before then. Orphanage, unidentified socioeconomic heritage, and limited economic opportunities often left the main women protagonists of The Romance of the Forest, Emma, and Jane Eyre in positions that relied upon an occupation of a governess or a suitable hand in marriage. Fortunately, in the end as for many women of the time, Adelaide, Emma Woodhouse, Hariett Smith, Jane Fairfax, and Jane Eyre achieve a secure position within society in addition to harmonious relationships with their husbands. 

Works Cited

• Austen, Jane. Emma. Penguin Classics, 1996. Print.

• Brontë, Charlotte. “Jane Eyre.” The Norton Anthology of Literature by Women: The Traditions in English, by Sandra M. Gilbert and Susan Gubar, 3rd ed., vol. 1, W.W. Norton & Co., 2007, pp. 636–958.

• Godfrey, Esther. “‘Jane Eyre’, from Governess to Girl Bride.” Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900, vol. 45, no. 4, 2005, pp. 853–871. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/3844618. Accessed 21 Nov. 2020.

• Matthijs, Koen. “Demographic and Sociological Indicators of Privatisation of Marriage in the 19th Century in Flanders.” European Journal of Population / Revue Européenne De Démographie, vol. 19, no. 4, 2003, pp. 375–412. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/20164243. Accessed 21 Nov. 2020.

• Radcliffe, Ann. The Romance of the Forest. Gothic Digital Series @ UFSC, 2015. https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/78554212.pdf. Accessed 21 Nov. 2020.