Woman Dialogue: A Debate Between

¶ … Woman

Dialogue: a debate between Miss Nunn and Miss Bennett on the nature of love, marriage and courtship

Both Miss Nunn and Miss Bennett were inclined to enjoy a long and hearty walk, even under the weight of compulsion. Sadly, Miss Bennett's horse was otherwise occupied by her family, and Miss Nunn had no access to an animal on her own, but the day was fine, so they headed gladly out into the green and mud of the English countryside. "Now what is this nonsense," said Miss Nunn, who was disinclined to mince words and waste time, when the two women were quite assured they were alone, "about a woman desiring a man, with a good income, property, etc. You and your sisters could do quite well on your own -- you are just too wedded to your love of a life upon the land, and if you only moved to London, you could have quite the independent life. Why be a slave to a man?"

Why be a slave to the marketplace?" asked the erstwhile Miss Bennett. "Why sacrifice the only time I shall have on earth to laboring indoors, in a close and unhealthy school or store, while men as well as women of property spend their days improving their minds with books, their health with sport, and their soul with sisterly commiseration with those they love? I grant that the working life is better than a life of spinster-like dependency, living in a hovel in the home of married relations, like my poor sister Mary shall no doubt be reduced to, lacking your enterprise, Jane's good temper, or Lydia's looks. But living a working life is usually no better for a woman than it is for a man -- both a poor married life or a poor working life is a tyranny, whether under the thumb of an employer or an oafish husband."