Richardson, Property, and the Virtuous Female

99 Pages·2017·0.49 MB·English

by  Audrey Evelyn Tinkham

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Masters Theses Graduate School
5-2002
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Audrey Evelyn Tinkham
University of Tennessee - Knoxville
Follow this and additional works at: https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_gradthes
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Tinkham, Audrey Evelyn, "Richardson, Property, and the Virtuous Female. " Master's Thesis, University of
Tennessee, 2002.
https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_gradthes/2187
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To the Graduate Council:
I am submitting herewith a thesis written by Audrey Evelyn Tinkham entitled "Richardson,
Property, and the Virtuous Female." I have examined the final electronic copy of this thesis for
form and content and recommend that it be accepted in partial fulfillment of the requirements
for the degree of Master of Arts, with a major in English.
Misty G. Anderson, Major Professor
We have read this thesis and recommend its acceptance:
Judy M. Cornett, Nancy M. Goslee, John P. Zomchick
Accepted for the Council:
Carolyn R. Hodges
Vice Provost and Dean of the Graduate School
(Original signatures are on file with official student records.)
To the Graduate Council:

I am submitting herewith a thesis written by Audrey Evelyn Tinkham entitled
"Richardson, Property, and the Virtuous Female." I have examined the final electronic
copy of this thesis for form and content and recommend that it be accepted in partial
fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts, with a major in English.

Misty G. Anderson____________________
Major Professor

We have read this thesis
and recommend its acceptance:

Judy M. Cornett_____________________

Nancy M. Goslee____________________

John P. Zomchick___________________

Accepted for the Council:

Anne Mayhew_______________________
Vice Provost and
Dean of Graduate Studies

(Original signatures are on file in the Graduate Student Services Office.)
RICHARDSON, PROPERTY LAW,
AND THE VIRTUOUS FEMALE

A Thesis
Presented for the
Master of Arts
Degree
The University of Tennessee, Knoxville

Audrey Evelyn Tinkham
May 2002
ii
Copyright © 2002 by Audrey Evelyn Tinkham
All rights reserved.
iii

DEDICATION

For JCS
In Memoriam
iv

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Many thanks to Misty Anderson for her unflagging assistance in the preparation
of this thesis and for being a superlative mentor. Many thanks, also, to Judy Cornett for
her generous support and assistance with legal research, and to Nancy Goslee and John
Zomchick for their gracious encouragement, guidance, and support throughout my years
at UTK. Special thanks to the Masters in English Class of 2002, who made my
experience here an unforgettable joy.
v

ABSTRACT

This thesis explores the literary, legal, economic, and cultural mechanisms at
work in the eighteenth century formulation of feminine gender ideology as it pertains to
the negotiation of settlements for married women's separate property. Within a feminist-
historicist critical framework, fictional narratives of the eighteenth-century reveal a
tension between economically-motivated self-interest and an ideology of sentiment, a
tension that is related to the modern reluctance to discuss prenuptial agreements. The
marriage contract itself as interpreted by eighteenth-century social theorists allows and
encourages the creation of gendered spheres of activity and distinctly gendered
behavioral models. The eighteenth century's distinctive configuration of these models is
closely tied to the rise of Britain's commercial economy and its increasing reliance on
paper currency and speculative forms of investment. The cultural ideology of gender
roles is also engaged in a reciprocal relationship with the law so that changes in married
women's separate property laws are seen to be implicated in and influenced by the
production of fictional narratives such as Samuel Richardson's epistolary novels, Pamela
and Clarissa. This thesis outlines women’s legal status in marriage and the laws
regulating marriage, along with the legal remedies available to women who were in a
position to protect their individual property rights upon marriage. Allusions to those laws
in Pamela and Clarissa provide a framework for Richardson's formulation of the ideally
virtuous female, a gender ideal that is implicated in a cultural association between
economically-motivated self-interest and an absence of virtuous sensibility.
vi

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION....................................................................................1
THE NATURE OF CONTRACT............................................................................................3
POLITICAL ECONOMY AND THE NOVEL..........................................................................13
LAW, LITERATURE, AND SUBJECTIVITY.........................................................................19
CHAPTER 2: PROPERTY LAW AND THE ENGLISH FEME..............................23
DOWRY AND DOWER.....................................................................................................25
CONTRACTS FOR MARRIED WOMEN'S SEPARATE PROPERTY.........................................30
EARLY TRENDS IN PRECEDENT......................................................................................33
CHAPTER 3: "I COULD NOT SPEAK, MIGHT I HAVE HAD THE WORLD":
PAMELA'S MODEL CONDUCT.................................................................................37
CONDUCT BOOKS...........................................................................................................38
PAMELA.........................................................................................................................42
CHAPTER 4: "TAKE MY ESTATE, SIR": CLARISSA, OR THE CHASTE
PROPRIETRESS............................................................................................................58
LORD HARDWICKE'S MARRIAGE ACT AND COMMERCIAL ECONOMY............................58
CLARISSA.......................................................................................................................64
CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION.......................................................................................80
BIBLIOGRAPHY...........................................................................................................84
VITA.................................................................................................................................90
1

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

Prenuptial agreements in contemporary American society present an ideological
puzzle of sorts. Regardless of education, socioeconomic status, ethnicity, or even gender,
a young person contemplating marriage is not likely to engage fondly in talk of prenuptial
contracts or even to suffer the mention of the subject without a shudder, a sigh, perhaps a
bitter protestation that “true love” surely does not reside in the individual who puts
economic interests ahead of—or even alongside of—matters of the heart. Prenuptial
agreements are thus stigmatized in our society to the detriment of those who persuade
themselves or allow themselves to be persuaded that the affective bond with a future
spouse must not be tainted by lucre nor jinxed by the mere suggestion that some event
may part them—and their fortunes—before death. This stigma is perhaps a result of the
direct association of prenuptial agreements with divorce, which is still considered by
some to be an irrefutable indication of profound personal failure of will, identity, and
humanity. Oddly enough, the precursors to modern prenuptial agreements, or “marriage
settlements,” evolved in Britain in the eighteenth century when divorce was almost
unheard of, highly scandalous, and obtained only by a few members of the aristocracy via
parliamentary decree (Stone, Broken 11). Marriage settlements were common, indeed
even indispensable for many in the days when marriage literally meant “until death do us
part.” So how did the contemporary “prenup” become synonymous with divorce, greed,
mercenary self-interest, and cynicism toward romantic love? What is the relationship
between the cultural stigma of prenuptial agreements and the laws that recognize them?