Ideally MarriedLife in the Victorian era centered on marriage. Among the nobility, marriage was generally sought to increase status or wealth with a partner of the same social class. This also applies to the middle class, as does the use of marriage to enter into political or commercial alliances. The working class of the Victorian era had more practical reasons for marrying. Working-class marriages were more focused on finding a mate who could contribute to the household. Many men sought a strong woman whose talents would complement their particular profession and increase the amount of their earnings. Marriages rarely happen for love, although Queen Victoria's marriage to Prince Albert is an exception to this rule. Victoria was sure: she would only marry for love. The example of their marriage set the standard of ideal marriage across all social classes, which is still sought after to this day. Queen Victoria broke the standard marriage mold by marrying for love. There were, of course, political reasons why she had to get married. Indirectly, the "bedroom crisis" also once again raised the question of when and how Victoria could properly find a husband. As she herself sometimes admitted, living among people most of whom were much older than her was unnatural. Conservatives hoped that a husband could cause the “Whig Queen” to become less partisan. The Whigs were aware that without a husband, Victoria could not continue the royal succession. Victoria also had to find a husband from her own royal social class. Yet the future Tsar Alexander II was clearly an inappropriate choice; the same was true for a simple English subject. Here we see the class distinction in the choice of partner. ...... middle of paper ...... possibility of marrying outside of a particular class. These two novels, although they depart from the norms, show the influence of Queen Victoria in describing marriage for love and the model of domestic life. In the working class, marriage was above all a source of additional family income. Regardless, we can see how people in the Victorian era married conveniently. Works Cited Arnstein, Walter. Queen Victoria. New York: Palgrave Macmillian, 2003. Austen, Jane. Pride and prejudice. New York: Barnes and Noble Books, 2003. Brontë, Charlotte. Jane Eyre. New York: Barnes and Noble Books, 2005. Browning, Elizabeth. Aurora Leigh. New York: WW Norton and Company, 1996. Clark, Anna. The struggle for the knicker gender and the formation of the British working class. Berkley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1995.