Broken Engagements

This insightful exploration in Broken Engagements examines the interplay between legal history and societal attitudes towards femininity across two centuries.

In Broken Engagements, the author delves into the complex ideals of femininity that emerged during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, particularly through the lens of broken engagements. By intertwining a historical analysis of the legal remedies available for breaches of promise with literary depictions from renowned authors like Dickens and Wodehouse, the book provides a rich exploration of how societal attitudes towards female identity evolved over time. The narrative highlights the common law action for breach of promise, which gained prominence in the mid-seventeenth century but became a significant topic of discussion and legal scrutiny by the nineteenth century.

The book meticulously traces the rise and eventual decline of this legal action, which became defunct by 1940, revealing the profound societal shifts that rendered it inconceivable for respectable women to pursue such cases in court. The author investigates the reasons behind this dramatic transformation, linking the prominence of the breach-of-promise action to changing perceptions of women’s roles in society, their sexual relations, and family dynamics. This connection underscores the intertwined nature of the breach-of-promise suit and Victorian ideals of femininity, illustrating how these concepts shaped legal practices and societal expectations.

Broken Engagements adopts an interdisciplinary approach, surveying three significant periods: the early nineteenth century, the high Victorian era, and the post-Victorian period. By analyzing over two hundred and fifty real-life breach-of-promise cases alongside literary and cinematic interpretations, the book reveals the profound impact of courtroom dynamics on the representation of women in literature and film, ultimately exposing the contradictions inherent in the legal system regarding women's rights and identities.