Punch, 34 (June 5, 1858):232
he mid-nineteenth century campaign for reform of the Divorce Laws and the varied successes achieved by proponents of the cause are satirized in the
cartoon "The Great Boon," appearing in 1858,Punch Volume 34.
Nearly eight years before the first petition for female suffrage was
presented to Parliament, John Leech portrays easier divorce, ("the great
boon" for women), as counter-effective and undesirable from the female
perspective. The act of divorce which feminist advocate John Stuart Mill
claims is "the least concession in a system where 'a woman is denied any
lot in life but that of being the personal body-servant of a despot,'" does
not seem to please 'Superior Being's' wife who is visibly shedding tears as
she holds her head in her hands. Leech sarcastically comments on the
position in which women now find themselves. Fighting to ease the divorce
process and regulation in order to relieve themselves of poor domestic
situations may not be such a "great boon" after all, because the divorce
law has made divorce suits brought by husbands increasingly facile. While
John Leech might smirk, the reader should ask whether the greater readiness
of Victorian divorce creates a less painful situation? While the woman in
Leech's cartoon may not be sorry to be rid of spousal company, divorce in
the Victorian era carries with it greater ramifications. As Baron Bramwell
asserts: "A mother's rights over her children are nil." Legally she is
devoid of any claim to her children even in the event of her husband's
death within the confines of marriage, (excepting a guardianship deemed
acceptable by her husband's last will and testament); if the circumstances
of separation are hostile, the mother loses custodial rights and remains at
her ex-husband's mercy with reference to visitation rights and religious
upbringing.
[Victorian initial "T" by Harlan Wallach ©copyright 1994.]