Female income
Posted by Arnessa on November 22, 1997 at 11:06:08:
In response to Dowries, written by Jessamyn on November 22, 1997 at 00:11:39
] I'm no expert, but I don't think dowries worked this way any more by the ninteenth century. I think a woman had a certain amount of money settled on her, and that was her "fortune." If you married her, it became yours (because a married woman didn't own property, her husband did). If she didn't marry, well, she had to live off it.
Well, let's take the case of the Bennets for example. Each girl had 1000 pounds (in the 4 percents) from their mother's fortune, we know. (at least before the whole Wickham thing happened). But does not Mr. Bennet say he wishes he had saved more so he could have added to their fortunes?
Or even at the beginning of S&S, the Dashwoods father, it is said, had hoped to economise for his daughters' sake, but he only had Norland for a short time before he died himself. So let's say he hadn't died so soon, that he had lived to see Elinor married. Does the money he had set aside for her in his will automatically become her husband's after her marriage, or does she still have to wait until his death?
Geez, I feel like Fanny Dashwood now, but all this money stuff is interesting.
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