Hard Times - unwise marriages

[Spoiler alert]

Apart from the purposes of education and the unfair treatment of workers by factory bosses, one of the themes of this book is the injustice of not being able to put an end to a mistaken marriage. This seems to be a common theme in Victorian literature. Stephen Blackpool is married to a drunken wreck, but because he is such a decent man, he cannot abandon her and set up home with the love of his life, Rachel. Louisa has unwisely married a man thirty years older than her, whom she does not even like, mainly to help her brother. I wonder how those two sub-plots are going to work out. Is Bounderby going to die or undergo a fabulous Scrooge like transformation? Is Stephen's ball-and-chain going to do the decent thing and expire, leaving Stephen and Rachel a chance of happiness, before they finally grow too old to become a family? Bounderby seems due a meeting with his mother, who will correct a few of his misapprehensions regarding his upbringing. No doubt this will leave him shaken and force him to re-examine his values, but I cannot see how it can change him into so much a better man that Louisa would want to share her life with him. Bounderby cannot divorce his wife because he has no grounds. Unless Dickens can pull a rabbit out of a hat, it looks like there is going to be a somewhat downbeat ending.