Happiness in marriage is entirely a matter of chance. 카지노 게임 컬렉션 Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice
카지노 게임 컬렉션Marriage,카지노 게임 컬렉션 writes Martha Bailey, 카지노 게임 컬렉션is the central theme and conclusion of Jane Austen카지노 게임 컬렉션s novels.카지노 게임 컬렉션 From her first published book, Sense and Sensibility, to her last, Persuasion, Austen카지노 게임 컬렉션s plots centred on the intricacies of marriage, from engagements and financial settlements to clandestine weddings, adultery and illegitimate children.
Dr. Bailey has long been a Jane Austen fan. 카지노 게임 컬렉션In law school, I re-read all her novels when I was supposed to be studying for exams!카지노 게임 컬렉션 These days, she teaches contracts and modern/Canadian family law at Queen카지노 게임 컬렉션s Faculty of Law. When she decided to take a closer look into the laws of marriage in Regency England, she found some illuminating things that helped her gain a deeper understanding of Jane Austen카지노 게임 컬렉션s work 카지노 게임 컬렉션 and her world. Dr. Bailey recently presented her findings at an Austen conference in Louisville, Ky., last month, 카지노 게임 컬렉션Living in Jane Austen카지노 게임 컬렉션s world.카지노 게임 컬렉션
Marriage, for women living in that world, was a career choice, and one that had to be made wisely. Proper young women could be governesses or they could be wives. A very few could become novelists, but even Austen herself would never live off her earnings as a writer. Men from impecunious families had a few more career choices 카지노 게임 컬렉션 such as the church and the army 카지노 게임 컬렉션 than did women.
In Austen카지노 게임 컬렉션s world, marrying for money alone was not good, but marrying when neither partner had a fortune was imprudent. Marrying solely for love? Unheard of.
In her paper, 카지노 게임 컬렉션The Marriage Law of Jane Austen카지노 게임 컬렉션s World,카지노 게임 컬렉션 Dr. Bailey explores the business of marriage and explains the legal precedents to some of Austen카지노 게임 컬렉션s storylines. For instance, in Pride and Prejudice, clandestine marriage to a young bride is a major plot point, first in the story of George Wickham카지노 게임 컬렉션s planned elopement with Georgiana Darcy (then aged 15), and then in Wickham카지노 게임 컬렉션s marriage to Lydia Bennet, aged 16. And while their ages were a factor in both families카지노 게임 컬렉션 objections to the unions, each woman was, in fact, over the age of consent by law.
However, as Dr. Bailey writes, 카지노 게임 컬렉션The problem with such marriages was that they took place over the often well-founded objections of the family. Legislators sought to prevent all such problematic marriages by imposing rules against private ceremonies.카지노 게임 컬렉션
Lord Hardwicke카지노 게임 컬렉션s Act (1753) required public church announcements (called banns) of intended marriages, to allow, in part, for objections to be raised. The act allowed for special licences without the reading of the banns, but these required parental consent in the case of minors. When Wickham and Lydia elope, much of the book카지노 게임 컬렉션s tension comes from the couple카지노 게임 컬렉션s unknown whereabouts. They could have crossed the border to Gretna Green in Scotland (the act only applied to marriages in England). Or they could have set up house in London, and had their banns read without the knowledge of Mr. and Mrs. Bennet. In the end, Lydia Bennet becomes Mrs. Wickham after a financial agreement is brokered (by Mr. Darcy). The cost of a legitimate marriage, even to a despicable groom, was much less than the cost of a young woman카지노 게임 컬렉션s reputation (and to her sisters카지노 게임 컬렉션 future marriage prospects.)
Dr. Bailey also challenges a few misconceptions about British law that both the modern reader may make 카지노 게임 컬렉션 and that Austen herself may have made. A favourite book of Dr. Bailey카지노 게임 컬렉션s, plucked from the shelves of the Lederman Law Library, is the 1836 tome The Laws of Adulterine Bastardy. This volume, among others, helped her to untangle the nuances of the plot of Sense and Sensibility. In this work, a girl, Eliza Williams, is said to be the result of 카지노 게임 컬렉션a guilty connection.카지노 게임 컬렉션
Readers of Sense and Sensibility have long understood this to mean that Eliza was an illegitimate child. And while Georgian society took a wholly disapproving view of children born out of wedlock, the laws of the time (without the benefits of modern science to determine paternity) needed much more evidence to rule that a child was illegitimate. Jane Austen herself might have been surprised at the legal presumption of legitimacy of her fictional Miss Williams.카지노 게임 컬렉션
