The lack of options available to impoverished women is astounding and consistent throughout this novel. The Rise of Silas Lapham depicts young women as very constricted by society's expectation that a woman's identity and well-being is determined by her relations with men. Women are already more limited than men in their choice of lifestyle, and particularly those of a lower class standing are doubly oppressed. Miss Dewey is an exemplary character in the context of this phenomena. Her husband is an unruly sailor and makes her life chaotic. She has no father and an entirely disillusioned mother who drinks and spends all the money Miss Dewey tries to save. Both of these women depend on Silas for their necessities such as food and rent money, and seem to be incapable without him. Miss Dewey believes that if she could only divorce Hen (her husband) and then quickly move onto another man who has promised to marry her, her life would soon become more stable.
""I know it," said Miss Dewey. "If I could get rid of Hen, I could manage well enough with mother. Mr. Wemmel would marry me if I could get the divorce. He's said so over and over again."
"I don't know as I like that very well," said Lapham, frowning. "I don't know as I want you should get married in any hurry again. I don't know as I like your going with anybody else just yet."
"Oh, you needn't be afraid but what it'll be all right. It'll be the best thing all round, if I can marry him.""
She believes that marrying this man would fix all her problems. However, this dependence on a male figure seems to be limited in its effects. Having a husband seems to determine the ability to survive financially and acquire stability, but it does not necessarily help the characters progress socially.
Marriage is key for impoverished women, and it does not depend upon love, but it is imperative to survival. Pen marries for love and as a result her life is held in a rather precarious state. Her marriage does not allow her to progress socially despite her husband's descent from a more refined family than her own and they depart for an entirely foreign place, Mexico. The difference between marrying out of desire as opposed to marrying out of sensibility is very intriguing. Pen marries for more romantic reasons, and for what many consider the right reasons, but her life is incredibly unpredictable after her union. Miss Dewey feels the need to marry out of necessity with a desire for stability. Can we really fault a woman of a lower class for depending on a respectable marriage for survival? Who has the better deal, the woman who seeks sense and stability or the woman who has committed to love and instability? Do people of different classes marry for different reasons, and as a result are women of a lower class truly more oppressed than those that are socially above them?
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