ABSTRACT
Ellis set out to show women ‘the trials of married life’ and how to come to terms with them. Silence enabled a wife to triumph over her husband; when he rebelled against married life being so cramped and confined, the wife should not answer back and he would soon feel he was being cowardly and tyrannical. Middle-class women considered themselves more upright and less corrupt than either the upper class or the working class, and many did philanthropic work. Women were encouraged to hide their affections for a man before marriage, and even in marriage to conceal their bodies and bodily functions and hide or feign sexual pleasure with their husbands. Elizabeth Gaskell, married to a Unitarian clergyman, saw marriage as a working partnership between individuals with different tastes and inclinations. The Gaskell marriage was not without tensions, but it endured with affection and respect to the end.
