From Social Obligation to Political Resistance: Marriage and Motherhood in British Women’s Literature (18th-21st Centuries)
Introduction
British women writers from the late 1700s to the Modern era have intricately explored marriage and motherhood in their novels. Rather than using marriage as a mere plot device, they framed it as a social issue—an oppressive inevitability. This paper examines the British woman’s subjective identity beyond marriage and motherhood by analyzing selected texts from British women writers across centuries. These novelists challenged the notion that motherhood defines womanhood by depicting strong-willed, courageous women who, despite societal pressures to marry, forged and maintained their individual identities.
Historically, unmarried and childless women were deemed incomplete and unworthy of respect. This paper confronts that absurd belief through characters who defy conventional ideals of wives and mothers, demonstrating resolve, individuality, and conviction. In contrast, some characters succumb to societal expectations, reinforcing patriarchy. This study compares these two archetypes, tracing their causes and effects. Additionally, it explores the authors’ personal lives—their marriages and children (if any)—to analyze the interplay of reality and fiction in their novels, applying Elaine Showalter’s theory of the “woman novelist’s heroine” and the “woman novelist’s hero.”
Research Questions
- How have British women writers depicted marriage and motherhood in their texts, and what social issues have they highlighted concerning motherhood?
- How have these writers portrayed strong-willed, independent women, and how do such depictions challenge traditional gender roles and the idea that motherhood is the essence of womanhood?
Research Objectives
- To analyze selected texts by British women writers, identifying their portrayals of marriage and motherhood and the social critiques embedded within them.
- To examine the representation of independent women in British women’s writing and assess how these characters subvert traditional gender roles and the glorification of motherhood.
Literature Review
Friedan (1963), a leading second-wave feminist, exposed the patriarchal narrative that confined women to the roles of wives and mothers in The Feminine Mystique. She argued that women could pursue careers like men and that marriage and motherhood should be voluntary, not obligatory.
In Austen and Brontë’s England, maternal mortality rates were alarmingly high, yet women were expected to bear children regardless of health or choice. A single woman in her thirties was deemed unlucky; a childless woman, unworthy. Unsurprisingly, British female novelists frequently addressed marriage and motherhood. While feminism improved women’s status over time, even in the 20th and 21st centuries, women are often defined by their relationships—as daughters, wives, or mothers—rather than as individuals. British women writers used fiction to defy these patriarchal constraints, crafting characters who resisted societal norms.
Simone de Beauvoir (1949) argued in The Second Sex that women have historically been cast as the “Other,” subordinate to men. Men dictated women’s roles—including the expectation that they prioritize child-rearing and domestic duties—without women’s input. Beauvoir emphasized that this male-dominated worldview was mistaken for universal truth.
Kathleen Anderson’s Marriage and Domesticity in Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice examines Austen’s nuanced critique of marital norms. Rachel Ablow’s Motherhood in the Novels of Charlotte Brontë explores how Brontë’s orphanhood shaped her portrayal of motherhood in Jane Eyre and Villette. Emily Horton’s analysis of Doris Lessing’s The Fifth Child highlights maternal ambivalence, challenging idealized notions of motherhood. Anna M. Kędra-Kardela’s study of Zadie Smith’s White Teeth analyzes motherhood through the lens of race and identity.
While existing scholarship extensively discusses marriage and motherhood in British literature, the political dimensions of these institutions remain underexplored. This gap allows my research to investigate how marriage functioned as an act of political resistance for many British writers and characters.
Theoretical Framework
Elaine Showalter (1977) categorizes female heroines into two types: rebellious figures who defy norms and docile ones who conform while addressing collective women’s issues. The former serve as role models; the latter, as stand-ins for sisters and friends. Given the scarcity of female friendships in early literature, women writers often used characters to express suppressed desires. This paper applies Showalter’s framework to British literary characters, focusing on marriage and motherhood.
Analysis
Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice (1813)
The novel’s opening line underscores marriage’s centrality. In Austen’s era, marriage entailed women surrendering autonomy, property, and legal personhood to their husbands, who could abuse them with impunity. For women, accepting or rejecting a proposal was often their sole act of agency.
Elizabeth Bennet embodies Showalter’s “role model”: outspoken and principled, she refuses Mr. Collins, declaring, “I had not known you a month before I felt that you were the last man in the world whom I could ever be prevailed on to marry” (Austen 190). In contrast, Charlotte Lucas represents the “companion” archetype, marrying Collins for security, fearing spinsterhood’s stigma.
Austen, like Elizabeth, never married—yet her heroine ultimately conforms to societal expectations. Showalter notes that rebellious heroines were often “punished” or tempered by their endings to appease critics.
The Brontë Sisters
In Wuthering Heights (1847), Isabella Linton escapes marital abuse—a bold commentary on women’s legal vulnerability. Though a secondary character, her flight makes her a “role model” for abused women.
Jane Eyre (1847) marries Rochester only after achieving equality: “I care for myself. The more solitary, the more friendless, the more unsustained I am, the more I will respect myself” (Brontë 344). Notably, Emily Brontë never married; Charlotte wed late in life, suggesting their heroines’ compromises were concessions to literary acceptability.
Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Aurora Leigh (1856)
Marian Erle, a rape survivor, rejects Romney Leigh’s proposal, asserting her independence and prioritizing her child. Browning’s refusal to “punish” Marian for her defiance was groundbreaking.
Angela Carter’s The Bloody Chamber (1979)
Carter’s feminist retellings subvert fairy-tale tropes. In The Snow Child, the Countess resents her husband’s desire for a girl, embodying Showalter’s “companion” archetype. The story critiques marriage’s oppressive realities.
Zadie Smith’s On Beauty (2005)
Kiki Belsey confronts her husband’s infidelity and societal expectations of mothers: “I can’t make friends? Y’all have your life and I have no life?” (Smith 216). Her defiance underscores the persistent struggle for female autonomy.
Conclusion
British women writers’ characters function as either role models or relatable confidantes—sometimes both. While many authors tempered their heroines’ rebelliousness with conventional endings, this likely reflected the era’s constraints. Notably, 19th-century British women’s struggles mirror those of women in present-day patriarchal societies like Pakistan, where marriage remains an oppressive institution. These narratives offer both caution and hope, illustrating resilience against systemic oppression.
Works Cited
Ablow, Rachel. “Motherhood in the Novels of Charlotte Brontë.” Women’s Studies, vol. 29, no. 5, July 2000, pp. 487–501.
Anderson, Kathleen. “Marriage and Domesticity in Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice.” Journal of Literary Studies, vol. 31, no. 3, Sept. 2015, pp. 1–12.
Austen, Jane. Pride and Prejudice. Readings, 2016.
Barrett Browning, Elizabeth. Aurora Leigh.
Beauvoir, Simone de. The Second Sex. Editions Gallimard, 1949.
Brontë, Charlotte. Jane Eyre. HarperCollins, 2011.
Brontë, Emily. Wuthering Heights. Barnes & Noble, 2015.
Carter, Angela. The Bloody Chamber. Penguin Classics, 2015.
Friedan, Betty. The Feminine Mystique. W. W. Norton & Company, 1963.
Horton, Emily. “Maternal Ambivalence and Post-Feminism in Doris Lessing’s The Fifth Child.” Journal of Commonwealth Literature, vol. 50, no. 2, May 2015, pp. 217–30.
Kędra-Kardela, Anna M. “The Maternal Body in Zadie Smith’s White Teeth.” Journal of Commonwealth Literature, vol. 48, no. 1, Mar. 2013, pp. 5–18.
Showalter, Elaine. A Literature of Their Own: British Women Novelists from Brontë to Lessing. Princeton University Press, 1977.
Smith, Zadie. On Beauty. Penguin Books, 2005.
Batool Rao
The writer holds a B.A. (Hons.) in English Literature from Government College University, Lahore, and an M.Phil. in English Literature from Forman Christian College University, Lahore. She is currently serving as visiting faculty at COMSATS University Islamabad, Sahiwal Campus.
