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Abstract: »While many scholars have written on women and marriage in nineteenth-century British history and fiction, this dissertation, The Law and the Lady: Consent and Marriage in Nineteenth-Century British Literature, is the first to apply consent theory to those unions. Modern consent theory dictates that for individuals to consent, they must be autonomous, capable, educated, mature, and volunteering, and they must express consent with opportunities to retract those expressions. This dissertation asserts that because nineteenth-century British women usually lacked these components, their marital consent was partial, illegitimate, or absent. Fiction frequently equivocated about this social problem of contemporary female marital consent. Conservative novelists trained female readers to accept their "consent" to marital patriarchy, but progressive novelists enabled readers to live vicariously through freer heroines, in order to provoke grassroots consent reform. Thus, contemporary scholars in cultural and psychological studies should more frequently question those women's behaviors and motivations.
Surface and close readings of fiction primarily inform this dissertation, aided by feminist historicism, legal studies, political science, philosophy, nonfiction studies, and biography. After an opening theoretical and historical chapter on women, consent, and marriage, three chapters and three literary case studies in the body expose laws dictating female marital consent. When taken together in this trajectory, these chapters and literary case studies form a meta-narrative about a heroine's consent dilemmas throughout childhood and adulthood: 1) courtships and the social law of female modesty in Charlotte Brontë's Shirley, 2) engagements, the social law of female acquiescence, actions for breach of promise of marriage, and marriage settlements in Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, Elizabeth Gaskell's Wives and Daughters, and Wilkie Collins's The Woman in White, 3) weddings, Lord Hardwicke's Act, and the Marriage Act 1823 in Susannah Frances Reynolds's Gretna Green, 4) marriages and William Blackstone, Matthew Bacon, and Matthew Hales' legal theories of coverture and abuse in George Eliot's "Janet's Repentance" and Daniel Deronda, George Egerton's "Virgin Soil," and John Galsworthy's The Man of Property and In Chancery, 5) separations and restitution of conjugal rights in Anthony Trollope's Phineas Finn and Phineas Redux, and 6) divorces and the Matrimonial Causes Act 1857 in Ellen Price Wood's East Lynne, George Moore's A Mummer's Wife, and Thomas Hardy's Jude the Obscure.« (Source: Thesis)

Contents:

	Acknowledgements (p. ii)
	ABSTRACT (p. vi
	Chapter 1. Women, Consent, and Marriage in Nineteenth-Century British Literature and History (p. 1)
		Women and Marriage in Nineteenth-Century England (p. 4)
		Women, Marriage, and the Law in Nineteenth-Century England (p. 9)
		Consent Theory (p. 14)
		Women and Marital Consent in Nineteenth-Century England (p. 17)
		Women and Marital Consent in Nineteenth-Century British Literature (p. 21)
		Methodology (p. 23)
	Literary Case Study of Caroline Helstone's Courtship: Charlotte Brontë and Female Modesty (p. 33)
		Female Modesty in Print (p. 36)
		Shirley and Female Modesty (p. 40)
	Chapter 2. Fiancées and Engagements: "You Must Give Me Leave To Judge For Myself" (p. 47)
		Consent and Proposals in Nonfiction (p. 54)
		Pride and Prejudice and Female Acquiescence (p. 58)
		Jilts (p. 63)
		Actions for Breach of Promise of Marriage (p. 65)
		Wives and Daughters, Jilts, and Actions for Breach of Promise of Marriage (p. 68)
		Marriage Settlements (p. 73)
		Marriage Settlements in Print (p. 76)
		The Woman in White and Marriage Settlements (p. 78)
	Literary Case Study of Lady Arabella Montagu's Wedding: Susannah Frances Reynolds and Clandestine Marriage (p. 87)
		Clandestine Marriage (p. 89)
		Gretna Green and Clandestine Marriage (p. 93)
	Chapter 3. Wives and Marital Abuse: "Nothing That She Could Allege Against Him in Judicius or Judicial Ears" (p. 100)
		Coverture, Marital Abuse, and Class (p. 103)
		Physical and Emotional Marital Abuse (p. 110)
		"Janet's Repentance" and Physical and Emotional Marital Abuse (p. 111)
		The Marital Rape Exemption (p. 116)
		Daniel Deronda and the Marital Rape Exemption (p. 123)
		"Virgin Soil," The Man of Property, In Chancery, and the Marital Rape Exemption (p. 128)
	Literary Case Study of Lady Laura Kennedy's Separation: Anthony Trollope and Restitution of Conjugal Rights (p. 137)
		Restitution of Conjugal Rights (p. 138)
		Phineas Finn, Phineas Redux, and Restitution of Conjugal Rights (p. 140)
	Chapter 4. Femes Sole and Divorce: "If Your Don't Want To Live With Him Any More You Have A Right to Leave Him" (p. 153)
		Divorce (p. 160)
		Divorce in Nonfiction (p. 163)
		East Lynne and Divorce (p. 167)
		A Mummer's Wife and Divorce (p. 174)
		Jude the Obscure and Divorce (p. 181)
	Works Cited (p. 191)
	Vita (p. 213)

Wikipedia: History of Europe: History of England / Victorian era | Literature: English literature / George Eliot, Daniel Deronda; George Egerton, Virgin Soil (short story); John Galsworthy, The Forsyte Saga | Sex and the law: Rape / Marital rape, Rape in England