This dissertation examines the narrative treatment of matchmakers in British marriage plots across the nineteenth century. In an era of increasing state control over marriage and the rising ideology of romantic marriage, the matchmaker represents the communal courtship practices of the past. As such, she offers both a threat to the emerging status quo and a reminder of the persistence of superseded cultural forms in the modern marriage system. Simultaneously, she constitutes an image of female creativity and authority that speaks to concerns about the professionalization of novel-writing and the place of women writers within that profession. Through this focus on the neglected figure of the matchmaker, this dissertation reveals the essential resonances between these attempts to construct marital philosophies and the professional authorship of the marriage plots that espouse them. In the fiction of Jane Austen, Harriet Martineau, Anthony Trollope, and Henry James, matchmakers point to the competing doctrines of romantic fulfillment, personal liberty, domestic womanhood, and authorial prestige at play in the most prevalent genre of the Victorian era, the marriage plot.
","abstract_html":"<p>This dissertation examines the narrative treatment of matchmakers in British marriage plots across the nineteenth century. In an era of increasing state control over marriage and the rising ideology of romantic marriage, the matchmaker represents the communal courtship practices of the past. As such, she offers both a threat to the emerging status quo and a reminder of the persistence of superseded cultural forms in the modern marriage system. Simultaneously, she constitutes an image of female creativity and authority that speaks to concerns about the professionalization of novel-writing and the place of women writers within that profession. Through this focus on the neglected figure of the matchmaker, this dissertation reveals the essential resonances between these attempts to construct marital philosophies and the professional authorship of the marriage plots that espouse them. In the fiction of Jane Austen, Harriet Martineau, Anthony Trollope, and Henry James, matchmakers point to the competing doctrines of romantic fulfillment, personal liberty, domestic womanhood, and authorial prestige at play in the most prevalent genre of the Victorian era, the marriage plot.</p>","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Cusick, Colleen"],"institution":"The Graduate School and University Center of The City University of New York","degree_name":"Doctor of Philosophy","degree_level":"Doctoral","degree_discipline":"English","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":[],"advisors":["Talia Schaffer"],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":["Rachel Brownstein","Richard Kaye","Caroline Reitz"],"year":2016,"date_issued":"2016-06-03T07:00:00Z","date_published":"2016-06-03T07:00:00Z","updated_at":"2026-07-24T02:00:04Z","subjects":["Literature in English, British Isles","Women's Studies","Victorian Studies","Romanticism","Narrative Studies","Genre Theory","History of Marriage","Theory of the Novel"],"languages":[],"rights":[],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/1263","outbound_label":"Repository record","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor.advisor","label":"Advisor","values":["Talia Schaffer"]},{"key":"dc:contributor.committeemember","label":"Committee Member","values":["Rachel Brownstein","Richard Kaye","Caroline Reitz"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Cusick, Colleen"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date.available","label":"Dc Date Available","values":["2018-04-22T07:00:00Z"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["English"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Doctoral"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Doctor of Philosophy"]},{"key":"thesis:institution_name","label":"Thesis Institution Name","values":["The Graduate School and University Center of The City University of New York"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Literature in English, British Isles","Women's Studies","Victorian Studies","Romanticism","Narrative Studies","Genre Theory","History of Marriage","Theory of the Novel"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/1263"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["This dissertation examines the narrative treatment of matchmakers in British marriage plots across the nineteenth century. In an era of increasing state control over marriage and the rising ideology of romantic marriage, the matchmaker represents the communal courtship practices of the past. As such, she offers both a threat to the emerging status quo and a reminder of the persistence of superseded cultural forms in the modern marriage system. Simultaneously, she constitutes an image of female creativity and authority that speaks to concerns about the professionalization of novel-writing and the place of women writers within that profession. Through this focus on the neglected figure of the matchmaker, this dissertation reveals the essential resonances between these attempts to construct marital philosophies and the professional authorship of the marriage plots that espouse them. In the fiction of Jane Austen, Harriet Martineau, Anthony Trollope, and Henry James, matchmakers point to the competing doctrines of romantic fulfillment, personal liberty, domestic womanhood, and authorial prestige at play in the most prevalent genre of the Victorian era, the marriage plot.
"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Playing with Matches: Matchmaking as Authorship in the Nineteenth-Century Marriage Plot"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor.advisor":["Talia Schaffer"],"dc:contributor.committeemember":["Rachel Brownstein","Richard Kaye","Caroline Reitz"],"dc:creator":["Cusick, Colleen"],"dc:date.available":["2018-04-22T07:00:00Z"],"dc:description.abstract":["This dissertation examines the narrative treatment of matchmakers in British marriage plots across the nineteenth century. In an era of increasing state control over marriage and the rising ideology of romantic marriage, the matchmaker represents the communal courtship practices of the past. As such, she offers both a threat to the emerging status quo and a reminder of the persistence of superseded cultural forms in the modern marriage system. Simultaneously, she constitutes an image of female creativity and authority that speaks to concerns about the professionalization of novel-writing and the place of women writers within that profession. Through this focus on the neglected figure of the matchmaker, this dissertation reveals the essential resonances between these attempts to construct marital philosophies and the professional authorship of the marriage plots that espouse them. In the fiction of Jane Austen, Harriet Martineau, Anthony Trollope, and Henry James, matchmakers point to the competing doctrines of romantic fulfillment, personal liberty, domestic womanhood, and authorial prestige at play in the most prevalent genre of the Victorian era, the marriage plot.
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