Mrs Nelly Dean

Thread revival.

I've been thinking about Mrs Nelly Dean. I know in other countries (e.g. France and Germany) they used to call unmarried women Madame or Frau instead of Mademoiselle or Fräulein when they got a bit older, but in Britain there was not really any stigma in staying a Miss. It may have been because the 20th century wars killed so many men. I think maybe Nelly Dean was called Mrs because she was a mother substitute to Hareton and then Cathy. It seems she gave up the chance of marrying and having children of her own in order to look after other people's children. It would be somewhat tactless to draw attention to it by calling her Miss.

I believe in the days when families kept servants, it was standard to refer to the cook or housekeeper as "Mrs" whether or not she was married. And there was certainly stigma attached to being an old maid.

In Restoration comedies, all women were Mrs - presumably pronounced Mistress.