Who gets divorced in Australia?. Gender, social determinants and initiation of separation

The result-a work that retains dramatic excitement despite an abundance of doctrinal lectures by its virtuous characters-demonstrates how assumptions about gender delineate the parameters of novelistic action. From Clarissa and Pamela through Evelina and Cecilia to Wollstonecraft's Mary, novels titled with women's names abound in the eighteenth century. In most of them, including even Wollstonecraft's, the heroines react-sometimes ingeniously and courageously-to situations created by men. Anna St. Ives generates situations to which men must react. Initially she allows herself to be courted by Coke Clifton, a man chosen for her by others. Even this acceptance of outside influence, however, stems from her own determination to make Clifton into a man who will contribute greatly to social good. Meanwhile, Frank Henley, son of her father's steward, loves her. She leads him to confess his love, acknowledges hers for him, kisses him (extraordinary behavior for an eighteenth-century heroine), and persuades him to join her in improving Clifton's character ...»