An Analysis of Marriage Laws in the Nineteenth Century British Novel

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In this project, paying particular attention to Hardwicke Marriage Act (1753) and Lindhurst Act of 1835, and making a close examination of the primary sources on those Acts, I tried to identify the point at which the socio-cultural discourses surrounding marriage in the 18^<th> and 19^<th> century should come across the novelistic discourses of the time, and thus proved that the 19^<th> century British novel habitually resorted to the rhetoric of relative/other in order to fulfil their marriage plots. In addition to this rhetorical strategy, there were new and inspiring viewpoints for analytical approaches to some 19^<th> century British novels, for instance, 'female autobiography', 'supplement', 'disinherited country house', 'illegitimacy', which I employed to excavate further readings of Jane Eyre, Lady Audley's Secret and The Mayor of Casterbridge, and thereby exploiting new possibilities of the novels.