Analysis Of Elopement In High Life

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Recommended: Gender roles during the Elizabethan Era

Female seducers are depicted in a variety of manners. Women were particularly vilified if they were married to another man or had children prior to escaping with her lover. “Elopement in High Life,” is an article that demonstrates how harshly a woman could be criticized for eloping with her lover. Lady Charlotte Wellesley is described as a “miserable woman,” who “is 28 years of age, and the mother of four children, whom, with her husband, who is only 36 years old, she has thus inhumanely abandoned for ever” (“Elopement in High Life”). Lady Wellesley 's is given a dishonorable reputation because she transgressed the ideals of womanhood and motherhood, although this was not the first stain placed onto her family in the court of public opinion. …show more content…

The case of Bedford versus McKowl is a case of a widowed woman suing the man who seduced her daughter over “lost services.” The Bedford versus McKowl case demonstrates the hypocrisy of the Regency era 's expectations on women and men. “The defendant was a married man; he had been for ten years separated from his wife, and instead of imposing himself for a single man upon the plaintiff 's family, he stated fairly his situation, and the young lady went off with him with a full knowledge of it” (“Court of Common Pleas”). The defendant 's lawyer “contended that his conduct was not so atrocious as what appeared in most cases of this kind.” A man in Regency England has the ability to be separated whereas a woman could not claim such a status or have the means of filing for …show more content…

When Lydia runs away with Wickham, she puts her family 's reputation and social status in jeopardy, especially by going to London rather than Gretna Green. If there is one social faux pas worse than eloping, it would be running off with a man without the intention to marry. What 's worse is that Lydia does not seem to realize that she 's being taken advantage of. “Wickham 's affection for Lydia, was just what Elizabeth had expected to find it; not equal to Lydia 's for him” (Pride and Prejudice 323). Lydia 's youth and parental negligence stifled her understanding of the dangers of a man like Wickham, and because of her defiance, Wickham becomes the only option that Lydia has left for a semi-respectable

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