Love, Consent, and the Sexual Script of a Victorian Affair

Abstract

ABSTRACT: Issues of consent are inherent within romantic relationships and reveal a great deal about the wider societal norms that help to shape the behaviour of lovers. This paper examines a clandestine love affair between two young adults in Victorian Dublin in the early 1840s.  We employ sexual scripting theory to help us to understand how factors such as gender and social status influence the dynamic between the two lovers.  The principal source for our study is an exceptionally detailed diary recording the affair, kept by a wealthy 21 year old law student named James Christopher Fitzgerald-Kenney. His diary includes transcriptions of correspondence with Mary Louisa McMahon – a lady’s companion to his grandmother, Lady Riverston - giving us an extraordinarily detailed account of the relationship as it unfolded between 1840 and 1841.  We argue that by looking at this unusual affair we can learn much about how couples might negotiate consent to physical intimacy during the nineteenth century and reflect further upon contemporary debates over the issues of gender, power and consent.

Suggested key words: love, consent, sexual scripting theory, gender, social class, Dublin

LENGTH: 9,819 words (excluding notes); notes comprise 2,110 words.

FIGURES: 5 images