Heiresses as Prey: Trollope’s Not-Cinderellas

Some of Anthony Trollope's female characters find that money does not smooth the pathway to marital bliss.

Many 19^th century novels centering on the marriage plot feature Cinderella-like stories in which a penniless young woman meets and marries a wealthy man.¹ However, there is also a rich vein of not-Cinderella stories featuring young women who are treated as prey because of their money. While the Cinderella stories often resemble each other, the not-Cinderella stories unfold in a variety of different ways, each of which illuminates a grim possibility for young women whose marriages are complicated by cash.

Anthony Trollope, Charles Dickens, and Arthur Conan Doyle each featured a different type of not-Cinderella story. I’ll start with this post on Trollope’s stories of rich women who are treated like big game trophies and address the other authors in later posts (Sherlock Holmes here and Dickens here).

This post is about not-Cinderellas, but before I move on, I can’t resist inserting an illustration of Cinderella (1919) by Arthur Rackham.

The Legal Problem for Women: Coverture

The legal backdrop for Trollope’s stories of heiresses stalked for their money was the concept of coverture, as explained in Blackstone's Commentaries on the Laws of England:

By marriage, the husband and wife are one person in law: that is, the very being or legal existence of the woman is suspended during the marriage, or at least is incorporated and consolidated into that of the husband: under whose wing, protection, and cover, she performs every thing; … and her condition during her marriage is called her coverture.²

Under this principle, with only minor exceptions, a woman’s property would become her husband’s upon marriage. Thus, the incentives for men to court wealthy women for their money were enormous. People still marry for money today, but nobody now expects to acquire their prospective spouse’s entire fortune upon completion of the marriage ceremony.

The Most Hunted Woman in England

Trollope’s best-known heiress is Martha Dunstable, described by one character as “the richest woman in England.”³ She has inherited hundreds of thousands of pounds and is still unmarried at 30, perhaps because she is far too intelligent to fall for any of the many predators who trail after her. Trollope uses imagery from both the hunting field and the naval world to illuminate her predicament. She is “quite accustomed to being the target at which spendthrifts … shoot their arrows”; “many pirates had endeavoured to run her down while sailing in the open waters of life.”⁴ The narrator continues the privateering metaphors in describing the reflections of one of Miss Dunstable’s many suitors as he decides to persevere in the face of an initial rejection: “Why should he give over the chase because the rich galleon had escaped him on this, his first cruise in pursuit of her?”⁵

Giovanni Boldini, Signora Diaz-Albertini (1909). Although the Signora lacks Miss Dunstable’s “red cheeks, a large mouth, big white teeth, a broad nose, and bright, small, black eyes,“ they share a look of wealth and power.

In Trollope’s novel Dr. Thorne, Frank Gresham is instructed that he “must marry money” to rescue his family’s fortunes. He is dispatched to his aunt’s home, Courcy Castle, so that he can strike up an acquaintance with Miss Dunstable, who is visiting there.⁶ Although Frank loves another woman, he and Miss Dunstable develop a friendship. When Frank ultimately proposes to Miss Dunstable under compulsion from his aunt, Miss Dunstable is so upset that her friend has joined the parade of insincere lovers that “two big slow tears escaped from her eyes,” and she remarks, despairingly, that her various admirers “gloat[] over me as the bird of prey gloats over the poor beast that is soon to become carrion beneath its claws … you little guess what a woman situated as I am has to suffer.”⁷

After yet another mercenary proposal arrives for Miss Dunstable, she remarks in mingled sadness and resentment, “As for my expecting the love of a man who condescends to wish to be my husband, that, of course, would be monstrous. … Of course I am not such an ass as to expect that any gentleman should love me.”⁸

A Daughter’s Hand, A Father’s Purse

Miss Dunstable, witty as she is, presents an interesting contrast with another of Trollope’s great heiresses, Gertrude Tringle, the center of a subplot in Ayala’s Angel. Sir Thomas Tringle, the family patriarch, is described as “the man of millions.”⁹ His elder daughter, Augusta, marries a penniless gentleman with a seat in parliament, Mr. Traffick, who then freeloads off Sir Thomas despite receiving £120,000 with his bride.

The younger daughter, Gertrude, initially engages herself to a gentleman, Frank Houston, who is in search of an income. Gertrude doesn’t really love Houston, or even have any understanding of what love is, but she is attracted by the fact that he is “young and good-looking…. very presentable, [] not at all bald, and [] just the man for a girl to like as a husband.” When Gertrude’s father makes clear that he will not support the marriage (“He only wants to get my money”), Houston, who doesn’t really love Gertrude, breaks off the engagement, leaving Gertrude in humiliation: “I am unable to persist in seeking the honour of your hand in opposition to the absolute and repeated refusals which I have received from your father.”¹⁰

Gertrude, wanting the attention that comes with marriage, immediately engages herself in secret to another man, Captain Batsby. Here again, neither of the pair really cares that much about the other. Gertrude wants to marry, and she lacks the judgment to understand the source of her suitors’ attraction to her; Batsby thinks that a rich wife would be a worthy acquisition, and Gertrude is – nice enough. In a great comic episode, Gertrude and Batsby run away together to be married at Ostend – but are caught by Gertrude’s irate father before they can wed. Sir Thomas, Gertrude’s father, huffs at Gertrude: “I can understand him, fool as he is. There is something for him to get…. As for you, I cannot understand you at all. What do you expect? It can't be for love of a hatchet-faced fellow like that, whom you had never seen a fortnight ago.”¹¹

Giovanni Boldini, Portrait of Mme. R.L. (1901) (detail)
Gertrude is described as a “stout, healthy girl,” but few 19th century portraits convey the “stout” concept. She does love her clothes, as this Mme. R.L. does - more on this in the appendix below.

After that, Batsby tries a formal request for Gertrude’s hand, but is informed by the still-angry father that he is welcome to take his daughter, but without money: “You are two fools …. I will not give a sixpence towards supporting you in your folly.”¹² And in a final effort, Batsby appeals to Mr. Traffick to help him persuade Gertrude’s father to loosen the purse-strings – and Traffick agrees to advise Sir Thomas to endow Gertrude with between 60 and 100 thousand pounds! Given how much Sir Thomas despises the freeloading Traffick, you can imagine how that turns out.

Not a Bride, But a Prize

While there is a tragic element to Miss Dunstable’s understanding that men pursue her only for her money and not for herself, there is even more pathos in Gertrude, who lacks the understanding to perceive that her lovers care less for her than for her father’s millions. I won’t provide spoilers, since these novels are well worth your time (and discussed further in the appendix below). But what I’ve said above should be enough to demonstrate that money, the lack of which could destroy a Victorian woman’s marital prospects, could also be a misfortune if too abundant.

In a few weeks, I’ll take up Dickens and Doyle on their versions of not-Cinderella.

Appendix of Books Discussed and Quoted in this Post

Note: this appendix is mainly for people who think that they might want to read some of the books (or who have read them and want to see if we agree about them!).

Novels Featuring Miss Dunstable

We first learn of Miss Dunstable in Doctor Thorne, the third novel in Anthony Trollope’s six-book Chronicles of Barsetshire series. The main plot of Doctor Thorne revolves around Mary Thorne, the illegitimate niece of the titular Doctor Thorne. She is among the cleverest, most interesting heroines in Victorian literature. Mary has been brought up in close proximity to the family of the local squire, Mr. Gresham – indeed, in such close proximity that she and Mr. Gresham’s heir, Frank Gresham, have fallen in love. As indicated above, however, Frank is instructed that he “must marry money” and is packed off to Courcy Castle in pursuit of Miss Dunstable and her bank account. Neither Frank nor Miss Dunstable has any interest in such a match, though, and Miss Dunstable becomes a cheering section trying to support the relationship between Frank and Mary as they encounter many obstacles. In addition to this main story line, this novel also includes an important subplot about the ill-fated Scatcherds, a family in which both the industrialist father and the pampered son suffer from life-threatening alcoholism.

Miss Dunstable’s story continues in Framley Parsonage, the fourth book in the Barsetshire series. Here again, her doings are not the principal plot, but she is an influential character. The book features Mark Robarts, the vicar of Framley, who, through ambition and bad judgment falls into debt and the disfavor of his patroness, Lady Lufton. The novel also focuses on the fate of Mark’s penniless sister, Lucy Robarts, and her love affair with Lady Lufton’s son, Baron Lufton – a match that is frowned upon by Lady Lufton. Lucy’s story is a Cinderella story – one of the two mentioned in footnote 1 below. Although Miss Dunstable is only an entertaining side character in this novel, she continues to appear in the Barsetshire series through the end, although I have only quoted from Doctor Thorne and Framley Parsonage.

These two novels are among Trollope’s most entertaining. I highly recommend them both.

Ayala’s Angel

Ayala’s Angel is a late novel focusing on Ayala Dormer, a young woman whose parents die just as she is passing from childhood to adulthood. It is my favorite Trollope novel, and I’ve written a few paragraphs about Ayala’s story here on the Trollope Society USA website. In addition to Ayala’s story, it also features her older sister, Lucy, who loves a penniless sculptor; and the three Tringle children, whose errors of judgment in matters of love provide a wonderful comic backdrop. The Tringle patriarch, Sir Thomas, utters some of Trollope’s very best one-liners.

I mentioned in the painting caption above that Gertrude loves her clothes. After she has run away with Batsby, and believes herself to be safely out of reach, she writes to her mother with the following requests:

Could you send me the green silk in which I went to church the last two Sundays, and my pink gauze, and the grey poplin? Please send two or three flannel petticoats, as I could not put them among [Batsby’s] things, and as many cuffs and collars as you can cram in. I suppose I can get boots at Ostend, but I should like to have the hat with the little brown feather. There is my silk jacket with the fur trimming; I should like to have that.

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1. Examples include the two elder sisters in Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice and Lucy Robarts in Anthony Trollope’s Framley Parsonage.

2. Bk. I, ch. 15.

3. Anthony Trollope, Framley Parsonage, ch. 39.

4. Anthony Trollope, Doctor Thorne, ch. 18; Framley Parsonage, ch. 17.

5. Doctor Thorne, ch. 18.

6. Doctor Thorne, ch. 4.

7. Id., ch. 20 (emphasis supplied).

8. Framley Parsonage, ch. 24.

9. Ayala’s Angel, chs. 39, 56.

10. Id., chs. 14, 42.

11. Id., ch. 48.

12. Id., ch. 57.