Show:
Laws and Acts
The Woman in White
Marriage
Gender Biases
Divorce
100
The purpose of the Act was to recognize civil marriages and to remove the power to administer marriages from the Church of England.
What is the Marriage Act of 1836?
100
The reason Sir Percival and Count Fosco refer to their wives as "angel."
In what way did Count Fosco and Sir Percival hold their wives to the standard of the "Angel in the House?"
100
The single legal body was the husband, the wife was subsumed.
Who was the single legal body a couple became when they got married?
100
Women could keep their earnings and own property by themselves, however they still had no legal identity from their spouse.
What did the Married Women's Property act change for women?
100
They were expensive when allowable.
What is one reason divorce was uncommon?
200
Either through a private bill passed by parliament, or by an annulment granted through the church of England.
Before the Matrimonial Causes Act of 1857, how could one obtain a divorce?
200
These two characters have a huge difference in ages and were not in a right and good marriage according to Victorian morals.
Why is it improper that Laura Fairlie is 21 and Sir Percival is 45?
200
Women caged in their beautiful homes, in their beautiful clothes and not allowed to do anything useful.
What is Victorian marriage?
200
"The Moral Guardian of society" was responsible for the education and care for children, the organization of her whole household and was literally a servant to her children and husband. She was to be a wife and mother.
What were the expectations of women in marriage and society?
200
The Church of England.
Who administered divorce until 1857?
300
This Act is still in force to this day.
What is the Married Women's Property Act of 1882?
300
Marian says, " I found her changed." "I miss something when I look at her- something that once belonged to the happy, innocent life of Laura Fairlie, and that I cannot find in Lady Glyde." (211)
What happens when marriage is based on a master and slave an unequal relationship?
300
A woman's legal rights and obligations were subsumed by those of her husband.
What is corverture?
300
The women was the property of her father, husband and even brother.
What is legal gender bias?
300
Matrimonial Causes Act in 1857.
Why was divorce moved from the courts run by the church?
400
What is a "sole feme?"
This type of woman could own property and sign contracts, she was considered a distinct legal person.
400
Sir Percival and Count Fosco did this because of the difficulty in obtaining a divorce.
Why did Sir Percival and Count Fosco fake Laura Fairlie's death?
400
A covered woman; a married woman
What is "feme covert"?
400
This permitted divorce with a double standard. The husband simply claimed adultery, however if a woman wanted a divorce she had to prove adultery was taking place.
What were the Matrimonial Causes Act of 1857?
400
England only allowed couples to separate with no remarriage or absolute divorce.
What is the law on divorce prior to 1857 in England?
500
During the Victorian Period, these four major laws changed the way marriages worked and had a huge impact on women.
What are the Marriage Act of 1836, Matrimonial Causes Act of 1857, The Married Women's Property Act of 1870, and The Married Woman's Property Act of 1882?
500
These plot points are legally inaccurate because neither of the Married Women's Property Acts had yet been passed.
What is inaccurate about Sir Percival altering the marriage agreement to inherit Laura Fairlie's 20,000 pounds after her death and Sir Percival attempting to force her to sign a legal contract?
500
This is why people were encouraged to marry at a younger age in the Victorian Period.
It was frowned upon to have children at a declining age,what was encouraged?
500
Fragile...Exotic...Flowers
What phrase did Mary Wollestonecraft use to argue that women were cherished but later raised an issue of rights and roles?
500
Bigamy, incest, desertion or cruelty.
What else did women have to prove on top of adultery to receive a divorce?