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THIS WEEK IN HOUSEHOLD WORDS
One of Our Legal
Fictions
"One of Our Legal Fictions" appeared in the April 29, 1854,
issue of Household Words. This impassioned piece discusses
the plight of an unhappily married woman, abused by her husband
and separated from her children, yet with no legal recourse
to protect herself. The article, by Eliza Lynn, is based on
the celebrated case of Caroline Norton, who separated from her
husband in 1836. Norton herself wrote numerous pamphlets urging
changes in the laws relating to divorce, married women's property,
and custody of children, and her campaign was at least partially
responsible for several changes in the law.
Although the situation is clearly quite different from that
depicted in Hard Times, the article's discussion of
marriage laws and the difficulties of obtaining a divorce or
legal separation shed some light on Stephen Blackpool's marital
situation. Dickens uses Stephen as a mouthpiece for a denunciation
of the then-current laws of divorce. Moreover, in the Household
Words text Dickens includes asides about the disadvantages
suffered by women under the laws of the time—asides that clearly
resonate with this article and that were omitted from the text
of the first volume edition.
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