‘[T]he chains that gall them’ – Marital Violence in the Novels of Florence Marryat

This chapter focuses on Florence Marryat's treatment of marital violence. It argues that Marryat went further than any other contemporary novelist by using her literary platform to make a uniquely radical protest against the widespread practice of wife-beating. It also shows how attempts to undermine Marryat exemplify the prevailing belief that wives should suffer in silence, rather than challenge the ideology that demanded their subordination. Marryat was prepared to include graphic descriptions of marital violence in her novels. When Marryat adapted her novel for the stage in 1880, she took for herself the role of Hephzibah, thereby reinforcing her link with the character and her opinions, and also broadcasting her message to a much wider audience. Marryat's final novel on the theme of marital violence was the one that received the harshest criticism – mainly because it was her most avowedly personal story.