Thomas Hardy's Views on Marriage

Thomas Hardy's Views on Marriage

Thomas Hardy lived in a time when marriage was the expected practice for young men and women. He had a very distinct view of the institution and the implications that came along with it. He himself was married twice in his long life, both times not very happily, and had progressive views about the union of the sexes, most particularly regarding divorce. His ideas and opinions are not too carefully concealed in his literary works, though he contested that he kept his own views out of his fiction.

In order to understand Hardy and his views on marriage, we must first understand the time in which he lived. The Victorian society held rigid views on marriage and the role of women in life. Most women regarded marriage as a fixed fact of nature. It was a fundamental part of their life plan, as was childbearing. In the mid-19th century, reproduction was considered a woman's only correct occupation. On average, women of all classes married between the ages of 23 and 26, men between 25 and 30.

Marriage and divorce legislation regulated the relations between men and women. During the 19th century there were great changes made to matrimonial law; however, marriage laws still continued to grant more rights to men than to women. Under the common-law doctrine of couverture, when a woman married she lost her independent legal personality as a femme sole (single woman) and became a femme couvert (covered woman). Men could divorce their wives solely on the grounds of adultery, but women were forced to show proof of cruelty, bigamy, incest, or bestiality along with infidelity. Husbands could beat to death their wives and get only a minimal prison sentence, but wives were considered reprehensible for kill...

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... should rule marriage. If two people have similar interests and work well together, they should be united by marriage in order to enjoy the physical pleasures of a relationship in a socially acceptable way. However, if two people should grow apart and be utterly miserable with one another, Hardy believes that the practical course is separation and divorce.

Bibliography

Christ, Carol T., ed. The Norton Anthology of English Literature: The Victorian Age. V. 2b, 7th ed. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2000.

Millgate, Michael. Thomas Hardy: A Biography. New York: Random House, 1982.

Mitchell, Sally, ed. Victorian Britain: An Encyclopedia. New York: Garland Publishing, Inc., 1988.

Page, Norman, ed. Oxford Reader's Companion to Hardy. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000.

Perkin, Joan. Victorian Women. New York: New York University Press, 1993.