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About this quote

What does it mean?
A man proposes marriage based on legal heirship, promising the woman will retain her title.
In plain terms
He offers to marry her so she stays a lady despite her status.
What can you take from it?
Marriage can restore or preserve social standing.

Where it applies

  • arranged marriage
  • inheritance disputes
  • social climbing

Putting it to work

  • plot resolution
  • historical fiction
  • dialogue

Questions to consider

  • Is love enough for marriage?
  • How does law protect status?

Another view

It treats women's status as dependent on male inheritance.

More from Alfred (Lord) Tennyson

  1. 'If I come dressed like a village maid, I am but as my fortunes are: I am a beggar born,' she said, 'And not the Lady Clare.'

    Permalink to quote #125
  2. And one said smiling 'Pretty were the sight If our old halls could change their sex, and flaunt With prudes for proctors, dowagers for deans, And sweet girl-gr…

    Permalink to quote #127
  3. She clad herself in a russet gown, She was no longer Lady Clare: She went by dale, and she went by down, With a single rose in her hair. The lily-white doe Lor…

    Permalink to quote #124

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