Cousin Marshall and the Role of Responsibility, Charity, and Suffering

cousin-german marshal and the Role of Responsibility, Charity, and SufferingHarriet Martineau, in her news report Cousin Marshall, addressed the separate spheres of work and obligation between a conserve and married woman in the figures of the Mrs. toll and Mrs. Marshall. Martineau intended the story to diddle as a lesson to her readers and this is reflected in the dualistic portrayal of the two women. Cousin Marshall is portrayed as the height of womanly responsibility and unworthy while Mrs. bell is portrayed as a blight on society. Martineau assigned the financial management of the household to women. While she did indicate that it was the husbands role to bring in wages, it was the wife who was responsible for maintaining and managing the expenses of the household. Mrs. Bell turns away her sisters children after their mother dies saying tire outt expect me to put any such dead lading on my husbands neck (Martineau 11). Marshall objects with the fact that Bells husb and earns better wages than hers (11). In this exchange, Martineau places the decision in spite of appearance the context of the respective families financial concerns. The issue of charity arises in Marshalls discussion with Mrs. Bell. You have found the gentry very miscellanea to you this year so much so that I think the least you can do is to keep these children from being a clog on the rates (Martineau 12). The particular phrasing that Martineau selects here is of particular interest. Her objection is non one of sympathy for the children but to prevent them from being a burden on the rates (12). If sent to the workhouse, Martineau argued, it would fall upon the state to support the children, increase the rates that good, hardworking people pay, often to their... ...dissolute to mock at those who esteem independence, and who bind themselves to self-denial that they may practice charity.(129)Thus, it is the womans responsibility not only to live responsibly, but live by causa in a role of quiet victimization.Martineau clearly had a truehearted political agenda in writing this story, however in doing so, she addresses the extreme difference she sees in the roles of responsibility in marriage. In her mind, the husband and the wife have clearly defined roles, not so much on lines of production, but rather in terms of the household. That which is in the household, whether it is the domestic duties or financial responsibility, falls to the wife while it is the husband who is responsible for the income stream. solve CitedMartineau, H. Illustrations of Political Economy No. VIII. London Charles Fox, 1832.