The degenerate spouse: Eugenics and divorce in Arabella Kenealy's The Marriage Yoke (1904) and Gabriele Reuter's 'Eines Toten Wiederkehr' (1901)

Summary: George Eliot wrote Janet's Repentance to support Barbara Leigh Smith's campaign for freer access to divorce, inspired by stories of abused wives like Caroline Norton. Eliot was distressed by women trapped in marriages due to misogynistic divorce laws, deciding to write about middle-class drinking and marriage featuring Robert Dempster and Janet. Eliot's scene counterbalances common figures of drunken wives portrayed by popular authors, examining the impact on the intelligent and caring wife married to a drunken husband.