What Was Seen as the Main Purpose of Art in the Eighteenth Century?
In the Eighteenth Century, women had few legal rights, particularly in regards to marriage. Equally their legal condition was similar to that of children, women were fully under the control of their male parent or guardian until they married, when control was passed on to their husband (Blackstone: 1788). If a adult female never married, she would have to depend upon the hospitality of her male person relatives every bit she did non have any rights to own property of her own, a theme frequented in Austen's writing, such as Lady Susan and also Pride and Prejudice. This theme is discussed directly in Pride and Prejudice with the entailment of the Bennet estate. An entailment occurred when a land-owning family had no male person heirs and the deed of the land did not specify that the land could be passed on to a female heiress. In this case, as with the Bennets, the land would go to the nearest male relative upon the death of the state-owning male person. We see this in Pride and Prejudice with the manor being entailed to Mr. Collins. Upon Mr. Bennet's death, the Bennet women would take no legal merits on their estate, which is one of the main reasons that Mrs. Bennet is so anxious to see her daughters married.
Financially, unmarried women were slightly better off than married woman. If a adult female was not married and had a modest or large fortune, she had control over her finances and the assart immune to her by her parent or guardian. As shortly as she married, "the husband had the disposal of the whole income of the Wife's Lands" and of her existing fortune too (Chapone, 16). Indeed, even in matters pertaining to her coin or lands after her decease, the husband had a direct say in the matter. The married woman "[could]not make a volition without her husband's assent" and every bit such anything in the will was likely to exist dictated by her husband (Businesswoman and Feme, 236). We can see here that women had no legal rights over their ain property in regards to finance or land, but the full legal ability was placed in the hands of their husbands, or parents if the woman was single.
The fact that women were extremely reliant on men for whatsoever legal status, belongings claim, or admission to their wealth, was a fact that pushed many women to marry young. The age of consent at the time was xiv for boys, and 12 for girls, though typically women were between 16 and 20 when they married (Blackstone, 35). Noble women would often be betrothed at a young age to a human being they had never met or a distant enough relation that it was notwithstanding considered legal and the family was able to use the alliance to grow their estates. This is seen in Mr. Darcy'southward supposed betrothal to his cousin Anne.
This is just a brief outline of the lack of legal control that women had during this time period. For the purpose of this web log, I chose to focus on legal issues that would have encouraged women to seek husbands, but besides included some of the legal rights afforded to single women. It is clear that in either case, women were reliant on their male guardian for admission to property and wealth — fifty-fifty if that wealth or property was their ain by police force, they had no real rights to it without the consent of their male person guardian. As stated in "A Treatise of Law and Disinterestedness:" "The Law of Nature" at the time "hath put her [the married woman] under the obedience of her Husband, and hath submitted her will to his" (Baron and Feme, seven). We see this not merely in the woman's lack of legal ability over finance or belongings, simply her complete dependence upon men to improve her state of affairs and grant her some legal control over her life, notwithstanding limited that may be.
By: Emily Elsasser
Works Cited:
Austen, Jane.Pride and Prejudice. New York: W. W. Norton & Company Inc., 2001. Print.
Austen, Jane.The Annotated Pride and Prejudice, (Interactive Edition). Ed. David Chiliad. Shapard. New York: Random Business firm, 2012. E-volume.
Blackstone, Sir William, and Trusler, Rev. Dr. John. "A Summary of the Constitutional Laws of England, being an abridgement of Blackstone's Commentaries." Eighteenth Century Collections Online. London: 1788. Gale. Spider web. eighteen Jun. 2016.
Baron and Feme. "A Treatise of Police and Disinterestedness, Concerning Husbands and Wives." Eighteenth Century Collections Online. London: 1738. Gale. Web. 14 Jun. 2016.
Chapone, Sarah. "The Hardships of the English Laws. In Relation to Wives. With an Explanation of the Original Curse of Subjection Passed Upon the Woman." Eighteenth Century Collections Online. London: 1735. Gale. Web. 15 Jun. 2016.
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