Jane Austen For Dummies (29 page)

A
dowry
is the amount of money that a woman brings to the marriage. Not that men were money grubbers, but when a young man looked for a wife, in addition to personal attraction, he hoped that the bride could bring some money with her to supplement what he had to offer. The dowry, if wisely invested, could significantly help the young married couple and their children; the husband might even be able to use some of the dowry money to buy more property to add to his estate. Wise investment of the wife's dowry would improve the lives of generations to come.

Why all this worry about money? Birth control didn't exist in Austen's day (other than separate bedrooms). So when a gentleman asked a lady for her hand, it was expected that he would be able to support her and their ever-growing family.

In some cases, the couple had to postpone their marriage until the man could secure more money. After all, that day and age weren't a time when genteel couples could decide to be a two-income family, with the wife having her own career and sharing in the household upkeep! In Austen's work, the insufficiency of the gentleman's finances to marry occurs most dramatically in
Persuasion
.

Although the legal and financial rights of a married couple were really the husband's rights, the gentleman still had to be sure that he selected the right woman. The selection process was especially important for the wealthy young gentleman, or the heir to or owner of a great estate, who faced the same problems as the wealthy heiress: beware the fortune hunter. For example, in
Pride and Prejudice,
young women danced pirouettes of admiration around the handsome and wealthy Darcy, so he needed to be sure that he selected the right woman to become the mistress of his incomparable estate.

A wealthy young gentleman like Darcy was in the marriage-market for not only a well-meaning wife, but also one who could bear a male heir and, if possible, a spare so that his property could be passed down within the immediate family. Frequently, the distribution of property was stated in documents that went back many generations. If the property was designated to go to males, sons were important. So a woman knew she was destined for pregnancy, possibly many pregnancies until a son was born, to ensure that the property stayed in the family. (For more on property inheritance, see Chapter 10.)

Jane Austen saw two phenomena resulting from both the need for sons and the lack of effective birth control. In her youth, her brother Edward was adopted by their father's cousin and his wife, Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Knight II. Wealthy but childless, the Knights wanted their extensive property to remain within the family, even through cousins. But the need for sons also led to the early deaths of wives. Because of primitive and unsanitary birthing conditions, the infant mortality rate was high, as was the death rate of wives from childbirth problems, whether in quest of an heir or not. Austen's wealthy brother Edward and his wife, Elizabeth, had 11 children, including 6 sons. Poor Elizabeth, age 35, died in 1808 shortly after the birth of child number 11 (son number 6). They really could have stopped sooner to ensure an heir. Is it any wonder that hearing of her niece Anna Lefroy's miscarriage, Austen wrote to her sister, “Poor Animal, she will be worn out before she is thirty.—I am very sorry for her. . . . I am quite tired of so many children” (Letter, March 23-25, 1817). Austen, herself, referred to her books as her children. The birthing process for books was much safer.

Once in a while society produces someone to go against the flow: an independently wealthy single woman who doesn't choose to marry. How might she be independently wealthy? Her mother may have left her daughter a large amount of money that is secured in such a way as to allow her to remain singleFor instance, the only Austen character who doesn't have to marry to continue her high standard of living is Emma Woodhouse, from
Emma,
and she is introduced as “Handsome, clever, and rich” (l:1). She has £30,000 to her name and no brothers. Her sister is married to a gentleman-lawyer, whose bachelor brother, Emma assumes, will leave his estate to his eldest nephew. So Emma can stay in her lovely home for the rest of her life. In fact, Emma even says she has no desire to marry. In real life, Austen's good friend Alethea Bigg of Manydown never married. While the reason remains unclear, she came from a wealthy family — probably wealthier then Emma's — and certainly did not need a husband to enable her to live well.

Emma is so unique in Austen's gallery of heroines that she's the only heroine whose name is also the title of the novel in which she appears. (So if you wish to impress your friends, say that Emma is the
eponymous
heroine, which means having the name that is used as the title or name of something else.)

Sometimes gentlemen also chose not to marry. In literature as in life, the man may not meet the right woman or for some reason, be averse to marriage. Readers never learn the reason that old Uncle Dashwood in
Sense and Sensibility
remained a bachelor. Some men simply waited for “Miss Right.” Mr. Knightley was 16 when Emma was born. Knowing that his younger brother was married with sons, Mr. Knightley probably felt under no pressure to marry for inheritance's sake: Donwell Abbey, his estate, would remain in the Knightley family by going to his brother's eldest son. But Mr. Knightley's not being averse to marriage is hinted at when he tells the bossy Mrs. Elton that the only woman who will ever be able to invite guests to Donwell is “‘Mrs. Knightley;—and , till she is in being, I will manage such matters myself'” (E 3:6). Emma eventually becomes Mrs. Knightley.

Austen also would have heard of a gay man, John Chute, who owned a wonderful neighboring estate, The Vyne, and died without issue. (He was the lover of Horace Walpole, who wrote the first Gothic novel,
The Castle of Otranto,
and who designed the famous Strawberry Hill castle.) Because none of John's siblings had any surviving children, the Chute estate went to a male relative whose mother was a Chute, Thomas Lobb. The Lobbs moved to The Vyne, changed their surname to Chute, and became great friends with the Austens. Jane Austen danced at many a ball with their son, Tom, and her brothers hunted with the Chute males on the estate for two generations (brother James and his son, James Edward).

Some women never find Mr. Right. The same was true in Austen's day just as it is today. But in Austen's day, the need to marry was so strong for gentry women that those who were never asked to marry were likely connected by a common denominator: the lack of sufficient dowries. This may account for Jane Austen's not marrying. But she may have remained single by preference, as well. This, like many parts of her life, remains a mystery. Her sister Cassandra was engaged, only to have her fiancé, Tom Fowle, die of fever. She never sought to develop another relationship, remaining true to Tom Fowle even in death. Austen's letters include several unmarried females. But the reasons for their being so are not explored. Unless they were wealthy, one can assume they lacked the required dowry.

In
Pride and Prejudice,
Mr. Collins tells Elizabeth Bennet after she has rejected his proposal that “‘In spite of your manifold attractions, it is by no means certain that another offer of marriage may ever be made you. Your portion [the amount she will get for her dowry] is unhappily so small that it will in all likelihood undo the effects of your loveliness and amiable qualifications'” (1:19).

The insufficient dowry dilemma weighs heavily on the sisters in “The Watsons” — a fragment that Austen began and never finished back in 1805. The sisters are the daughters of a retired clergyman who hasn't much money and who's very ill. While one sister has married, some of the remaining sisters actually plot against each other because they're so desperate to marry. Of course, where Austen left off the manuscript, the text indicated that the heroine, the lovely 19-year-old Emma Watson, may become the object of the affections of two men, dowry problem notwithstanding. But this was the exception to the rule.

In some cases, women did reject legitimate and eligible proposals. Not loving the proposer is obviously one reason! And when the woman was, herself, rich, she could afford to be choosey. Austen, herself, advised her wealthy niece, Fanny, “Anything is to be preferred or endured rather than marrying without Affection” (Letter to Fanny Knight, November 18–20, 1814). In this case, Fanny was contemplating an imminent proposal from a highly serious young man about whose Evangelicalism she had reservations. Fanny waited until 1820 and married a baronet, becoming Lady Knatchbull. (For information on Anglican Evangelicalism, see Chapter 13.)

Another heroine, Anne Elliot in
Persuasion,
rejects a proposal from the eldest son of a prosperous gentry family because she's still in love with someone else (1:4).

Unless a woman from the gentry married or had her own comfortable income allowing her to live well as a single woman, like Austen's friend Alethea Bigg, the single woman risked living in genteel poverty. This means that she still associates with the gentry, but lives in a second-class way. For example, Miss Bates in
Emma
is the daughter of a clergyman, and thus she is a gentlewoman. But she lives with her widowed mother in genteel poverty: They reside in the village in an apartment above a business. Likewise, such women's association with the gentry put them in a second-tier group. Thus, when the Coles have their dinner party, Miss Bates is invited only for the after-dinner entertainment (E 2:8).

Jane Austen knew what genteel poverty was. At Mr. Austen's death in 1805, the three Austen ladies — Mrs. Austen and her two adult, unmarried daughters, Cassandra and Jane — lost Mr. Austen's clerical pension (which ended when he died) and basically relied on the kindness of sons/brothers. They lived a semi-nomadic lifestyle, moving here and there at relatives' homes, until in 1808, son/brother Edward came across with the Chawton cottage. This nomadic life existed even with Mrs. Austen's sons chipping in to help their mother and two sisters.

The eldest Miss Watson and her sister live with her ailing, elderly father in genteel poverty. Jane Austen knew what that was. When her father retired from the clergy toward the end of 1800, he turned over the rectory house, where the family had lived, to his eldest son.