The marriage plot, which gave so many of the great 19th-century novels and 20th-century movies their structure, has been eulogized countless times. It is impossible, the theory goes, for a marriage plot to have real stakes in this era of no-fault divorces and women’s economic liberation. The marriage plot is effectively dead. In the 21st century, Mr. Rochester isn’t going to lock his mad wife in the attic; he’s going to send her to an institution and quietly get a divorce, and there goes the plot of Jane Eyre. Today’s Lizzie Bennett doesn’t need to worry about being put out on the street if she doesn’t marry rich. She can get an office job. Not everyone agrees that the marriage plot’s coffin...
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