In Thomas Hardy's novel, Desperate Remedies, in the beginning we learn that Cyntherea had to end her relationship with Ambrose Graye, because she was going to be with her cousin who she had prior flirtation with but he had left and went to India and now he was to return (9). Another relationship between cousins in this novel is with Edward Springrove and Adelaide Hinton who have been engaged for quite sometime (122). Why in the Victorian is it okay for first cousins to marry? If cousins could marry what other relatives were allowed to marry. Were cousins marrying each other okay with the church?

Cousins' marrying in the Victorian was not the first time the idea was raised. In the 1650's, The Quakers decided not to allow marriage between cousi

In the Victorian, courtship was considered more of a career move than a romantic interlude for a young man, as all of a woman's property was reverted to him upon marriage. Marriage was encouraged only in one's class. To aspire higher, one was considered to upstart. To marry someone of lesser social standing was considered marrying beneath oneself (Hoppe 2). Cousins' marrying one another was a way to marry someone in the same social standing and to keep property in the family.

English Literature. Eds. M.H. Abrams and Stephen

Hardy, Thomas. Desperate Remedies. 1871. New York:

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Approximate Word count = 708
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)