Vanity Fair Military Wives: Here We Go A Marching :: Victorian Era

amour propre Fair Military Wives Here We Go A MarchingIn reading William Thackerays novel, Vanity Fair, it was very surprising to gain vigor that it was customary for soldiers wives to follow and ac federation their husbands controls when they went off to engage in combat. It seems rather odd when Amelia, on her honeymoon, boarded the ship (provided by His Majestys government) that would consider the troop on to Brussels. There is quite a big production as crowds gather and cheered as the bands played God Save the King, while officers waved their hats and the crowd rushed about. It did not seem possible that a major bout was going to take place in which many of the men would never again return to London. According to Andrew Uffindells Women of Waterloo, many soldiers were wed, but only half-dozen or sometimes four in each company were permitted to take their wives with them on active service. After the men had marched off to fight, the ladies who appeaseed goat in Brusse ls suffered appalling mental tortures as they awaited watchword of the fate of their loved ones (Uffindell). After the Battle of Waterloo, many distraught British wives roamed the bloody battlefield in a state that sometimes border on madness.In Godfrey Davies book, Wellington and His Army, the practice of allowing women to follow after their husbands regiments goes so far back it is nearly untraceable. The number of women who might go abroad with the army was unlimited for officers, but limited for men (Davies 130). The majority of schooling available is about the wives whose husbands were in the infantry much less is cognise about the cavalry and artillery. Soldiers wives were restricted, or supposed to be restricted, to six per company and these were chosen by lot on the evening before the regiment left its depot (130). Approximately, there were twenty or thirty married women per company and each would draw a piece of paper on which was written To go or Not to go. The ones f orced to stay behind were deeply sorrowful.This does not appear to be the case, however, with the famous ladies of Vanity Fair. What is startling is the general attitude of these British wives during this time of the war. The Duke of Wellington was star the war against Napoleon and yet the entire party seemed entirely at ease the business of life and living, and the pursuits of pleasure, especially, went on as if no give up were to be expected to them, and no enemy in front (Thackeray 286).