Manners, Wealth and Status in Rebecca Rushs Novel Kelroy :: Rebecca Rush Kelroy Essays

Manners, Wealth and Status in Rebecca Rush's Novel Kelroy "A novel of manners" this is how the novel Kelroy is described by Kathryn Derounian in her article "Lost in the Crowd: Rebecca Rush's Kelroy (1812)." Throughout the novel, characters such as; Mrs. Hammond, Mr. Manley, Mr. Kelroy, and especially the Gurnet family, show how people are treated differently regarding their wealth, status and mannerisms. Kelroy shows us these relationships and how one is viewed solely on the way in which they present themselves. Culture, at the time Kelroy was written, was much different than culture today. Most women in the early eighteenth century served an ornamental function rather than a domestic function. Most of the women in Kelroy were the ornamental type. The men in the eighteenth century married, not for someone to cook and clean for them, but to have someone pretty and proper to attend social gatherings with. Rush shows some of this culture when she describes Lucy and Emily at a gathering hosted by Mrs. Hammond: The two sisters were dressed exactly alike in white satin and silver. Their fans, gloves and shoes were also white; and the delicacy of their complexions, contrasted with the simple elegance of their attire, and heightened by the glow of youthful animation, rendered them lovely beyond description. (Rush 15) This shows the importance of appearance in this time period. It was typical for wealthy women to dress so elegantly at parties or other social events. This description of attire also shows, to some extent, the practice Mrs. Hammond used in the exaggerated display of her daughters. Not only did the young ladies need to dress elegantly to obtain a wealthy husband, they also had to have appropriate manners. Mrs. Hammond, after the death of her husband, devoted her life to educating her daughters in how they are to properly conduct themselves. Her reasoning for this was a typical one: to make others believe they were an established family of wealth. Mr. Marney's story is a bit different although his goal was similar.