Separation between love and marriage in Mary, the wrongs of woman, she stoops to conquer and Moll Flanders. Our aim in this article will be to analyze and discuss the different ways love and marriage were approached during the eighteenth century and to what extent these two terms were linked to each other or considered opposed. To make this argument we will focus our attention on some works that are representative of this period and which accurately reflect social mores and, more specifically, marriage conventions and romantic love. During this discussion we will underline the idea that marriage is represented in these works as an institution completely detached from love and which pursues economic purposes and the raising of the social hierarchy more than anything else. First we must account for the situation of English women during the 18th century, who despite numerous social improvements, continued to have fewer rights and freedoms than men within the family and within marriage as an institution. Patriarchal forms were still a deeply rooted custom that governed society, which was male-centered. Marriage was often forced on women as the only way to have a recognized position in society, but at the same time it led to slavery. The woman's assets could be spent at the husband's discretion since she was considered, together with everything she owned, a possession of the husband. Of notable importance is the fact that the convention of arranged marriages between parents was still widely accepted. Evidence of this aspect can be found in Goldsmith's work She Stoops to Conquer. At the beginning of the play Mr.Hardcastle states that he has already chosen a husband for...half of paper...and stability. However, the existence of arranged marriages and consequently the lack of love transformed marriage into a prison where women were locked up. A world ruled by men transformed women into virtual slaves without rights, and cases in which marriage was the result of true and passionate love can be considered exceptional. Works Cited Wollstonecraft, M., Mary The Wrongs of Woman, Oxford World's Classics. (1976) Defoe, D., Moll Flanders (1978) Penguin English Classics. (1999) Goldsmith, O., She stoops to conquer Dover, Thrift editions. (1991) Stone, L. The Family, Sex and Marriage in England 1500-1800, (1979) Pelikan Ty, E. Unsex'd Revolutionaries: Five Women Novelists of the 1790's. University of Toronto Press, Toronto. (1993) Spencer, J., The rise of the female writer: from Aphra Behn to Jane Austen Oxford Press (1987)