“Whenever I marry,” she continued, after a pause which none interrupted, “I am resolved my husband shall not be a rival, but a foil to me. I will suffer no competitor near the throne; I shall exact an undivided homage: his devotions shall not be shared between me and the shape he sees in his mirror.”
– Charlotte Bronte
Jane Eyre, Chapter 17. So what makes a good marriage? For the very vain and shallow Blanche Ingram it is a passive husband, who worships her beauty and submits to her control and domination. Her husband, above all, must not must not be her rival or compete with her. No prize for guessing who’ll wear the trousers with Blanche!