Please enable JavaScript.
Coggle requires JavaScript to display documents.
Dracula Context- Marriage (Laws and views (After 1823 a male could marry…
Dracula Context- Marriage
Courtship
Coming out
Coming out meant young women had completed her education and was officially available on the marriage part- typically came out when she was 17 or 18
Courtship advanced by graduations, with couples first speaking, then walking out together and finally keeping company after mutual attraction had been confirmed
From young age women groomed for role of dutiful wife and mother
Social Events
Upper classes held their social events throughout the season which ran from April to July
Lower classes had opportunities to socialise at Sunday Service, church suppers and holiday balls
Care was taken at public affairs as not to offend a possible suitor or his family
She never approached people of higher rank unless being introduced by mutual friend
A single woman never addressed a gentleman without an introduction
She couldn't receive a man at home if she was alone. Another family member had to be present in the room
No impure conversations were held infront of a single woman
No sexual contact was allowed before marriage. Innocence was demanded by men from girls in his class, and most especially his future wife
Intelligence not encouraged nor was interest in politics
Working towards marriage
Love at first site and marriage within a week was a possiblity
Usually a young man was for some time attentive to a woman before dreaming of marriage- allowed parents to decide what they thought of him as well as allow the woman to understand them
Mystery towards sex played a huge part in courtship in the past a woman ankle was carefully hidden from view
First duty of accepted suitor
Once the man had made up his mind he would often ask his father for financial assistance
The man would have to go to the woman's father or guardian and request permission to marry
If guardians refuse then the suitor would have to try to win the fathers approval or the woman would have to go against her parents and marry anyway
Laws and views
After 1823 a male could marry as young as fourteen without parental consent and a girl at 12
Most girls marry between ages of 18 and 23
Illegal to marry deceased wife's sister but you could marry first cousins the attitude towards first-cousin marriages changed by the end of the century
Most middle class women during the Victorian era, married by the time they were 25, the ideal age to commit oneself to matrimony being 20
If they had not managed to attract a husband by the age of 30 normally they would not find a husband at all
Marriage in the Victorian era, was usually very much a case of giving up the little independence a woman had in order to become her husband's servant
Marriage was also a means of securing financial security
Ideal marriage was one in which the woman stayed at home, taking care of it, and making everything nice for when her husband came back after earning the family's income.
Perfect wife not supposed to trouble husband with domestic troubles, or worries about the children- expected to deal with that on her own and present an image of surrender, piety and submission to her husband
If he wanted to have sex she would have been expected to make herself available at once- she was never supposed to desire or even want sex.
Marriage encouraged only within one's class. To aspire higher one was considered an upstart . To marry someone of lesser social standing was considered marrying one beneath oneself