Why didn't Lizzie have any suitors?

[snokkums]

One thing that I was thinking abaout. Why Lizzie never had any suitors. I mean, seems she was outgoing, involved with the church very much the socialable person. I kind figure with Emma, she was more of the recluse, so I can see why she wouldn't have any suitors, but Lizzie was very much out and about.

Maybe Andrew ran them off, perhaps?

[Barbara]

I guess it really makes you wonder what her personality was like. Usually,a woman that has some money attached to her,even if it through her father,would have a few fellas interested. So either her father was impossible to young men or Lizzie herself was very difficult to tolerate. You would think Dad would have been delighted to reduce the number of ladies in his house. Maybe,Emma had to give her approval,she raised Lizzie for quite awhile. The family dynamics must have been very unusual,not unlike many Borden families past and present.

[Shelley]

I think the simplest answer is the one Lizzie's teacher mentioned- Lizzie never had much interest like other girls in marriage or acquiring the attentions of a man. She was pretty enough to snag a beau if she had wanted one.

[snokkums]

I think it was Andrew that might have been the one to run them off. I think you are right thou, it would have been to Andrews benefit if Lizzie did have a beau. It would mean less women in the house. It would help him to if Emma had one. Less women in the house.

[snokkums]

I think it was both of you two have mentioned. I think Andrew and Lizzie both were hard to deal with and Lizzie wasn't that interested in snaging a man.

[nbcatlover]

Hetty, about Hetty Green, by Charles Slack had a section which made an impression on me. Hetty actively discouraged her daughter's suitors because she regarded them as fortune hunters. Hetty was concerned because the man who married her daughter would ultimately control a large part of her fortune. Hetty eventually let her daughter marry (around age 40) a lesser member of the Astor family after he signed a pre-nuptial agreement disallowing his ability to inherit his wife's money.

Perhaps Andrew's frugality made him discourage any suitors Emma or Lizzie attracted. Just as Andrew's conservative ways kept him from a home with electricity, a toilet, and a telephone, I believe Andrew would have disapproved of men who danced at society parties, spent their summer's yachting, and other activities Lizzie would have found attractive.

Weren't women still considered chattel of their fathers and husbands at this time?

[stuartwsa]

I've often felt instictually that Lizzie actually did have suitors, at least when younger.
I wonder if the new book due out from the FRHS will give us a little more information in this area?

[snokkums]

I am kind of surprised that Lizzie didn't have any suitors after the murdrers. Maybe the guys were kind of nervous about getting axed. You know make lizzie mad and there goes the axe.