Rape in Victorian England. How did it affect women's marriageability, marriages, offspring?

by hotbutteredtoast

Specifically I'm wondering if 1) a single woman was raped (clearly against her will) and the community knew, would it change her marriage prospects all other things being equal? 2) How would a husband and the rest of her family change their treatment of a married woman who was raped? 3) What would happen in both cases if a child was produced as a result?

glashgkullthethird

Tess of the D'urbervilles by Thomas Hardy, a book written in the late Victorian period to criticise the morals of the time, may be of some use here. Spoilers if you haven't read it, but it's not great anyway, unless you think that Virgil's Eclogues are better than than his Aeneid and your favourite part about the Iliad are the pastoral scenes on Achilles' shield. In the book, the peasant Tess gets raped by Alec at the end of Phase One. This results in a child who is not able to be baptised and who dies shortly after birth. Later on in the book, she falls in love with and marries Angel, a wealthy son of a clergyman. Soon after the marriage, Tess tells Angel of the rape, to which Angel responds badly, eventually leaving her and travelling to farm in Brazil, before they reunite right at the end, just before her execution for her murdrr of Alec. Thomas Hardy's fictional society believes that Tess, someone deflowered, as essentially spoilt goods in the eyes of contemporary society. From here, he criticises the morals of his society.

According to Margaret Higonnet, the contemporary reaction to the character and story of Tess was mixed. She quotes Hardy's autobiography, where some described her character as a 'little harlot'. Some contemporary critics believed that what happened to her was deserved as well - RH Hutton describes her as 'not faithful to her pure instinct'.

The text itself had to be edited as well, so that the nature of the rape was heavily masked to even be published. It was mostly criticised on moral grounds.

From the example of Tess of the D'urbervilles, both from the text and from the contemporary reaction, we can perhaps deduce a couple of things. The actual rape and defloration of Tess was perhaps enough to sully her image in the eyes of society both in the novel and in literary circles in late Victorian Britain. This was therefore enough for her marriage to fall apart and for her estrangement, a marriage Angel regrets. This reaction was supported by a set within its contemporary readers. So, to answer your question, a rape would clearly affect marriage prospects, especially for a wealthier class and a child would not be given the same rights as a child born in wedlock.

Sebatinsky

Not a direct answer to your question, but you might be interested in Judith Walkowitz's book City of Dreadful Delight: Narratives of Sexual Danger in Late-Victorian London.

omegasavant

Follow-up: would there be any way for a woman in this situation to abort the fetus?