See, when I think of Regency Era books (Or Victorian or Lady-and-Lord books or whatever you call them), it's hard for me to think about women empowerment and girl power. It's not like the times were conducive to women's rights: Women belonged to their husbands and fathers; they had no legal recourse if their 'guardians' were abusive. Furthermore, Pride and Prejudice captured an important truth about society's expectations for the fairer half of nobility: One, they would marry well and two, they would stay pure (read: chaste) until they married. Any women who didn't comply with their rigid expectations of morality and frigidness were marked as "loose women" and "whores".
“But it was Eve who was vilified, never the serpent. Just as it was the lady who was ruined, never the man.” …show more content…
Sure, they elude to all the Lydia Bennet's who were not married to Wickham, but only briefly and never in very much detail. The heroines of the classics are always modest and chaste with pristine reputations. We are told they deserve love and happy-ever-afters with rich, titled husbands. Not much has changed in the world of literature since then; we (by we I mean society) still have a morbid fascination with virginity in our leading female characters.
But Lady Georgiana is not a virgin. She's beautiful, young, the daughter of a Duke- and she goes and ruins it all when she 'ruins' herself. at age 16. 10 years later, she realizes she can give her daughter respectability (and more chances to be happy) by marrying a peer. Although, she may be irreparably damaged in the eyes of some of the 'Ton', she still has her family, a large dowry, the goodwill of a man who owns 5 major newspapers and influence which she brandishes in the form of her
“But it was Eve who was vilified, never the serpent. Just as it was the lady who was ruined, never the man.” …show more content…
Sure, they elude to all the Lydia Bennet's who were not married to Wickham, but only briefly and never in very much detail. The heroines of the classics are always modest and chaste with pristine reputations. We are told they deserve love and happy-ever-afters with rich, titled husbands. Not much has changed in the world of literature since then; we (by we I mean society) still have a morbid fascination with virginity in our leading female characters.
But Lady Georgiana is not a virgin. She's beautiful, young, the daughter of a Duke- and she goes and ruins it all when she 'ruins' herself. at age 16. 10 years later, she realizes she can give her daughter respectability (and more chances to be happy) by marrying a peer. Although, she may be irreparably damaged in the eyes of some of the 'Ton', she still has her family, a large dowry, the goodwill of a man who owns 5 major newspapers and influence which she brandishes in the form of her