The Honor of Dueling in Eighteenth Century England In 1752 an anonymous author warned readers of a world of chaos and indecency: “Our Roads would assume a Face of War […] The timid Scoundrel would no longer hesitate to commit a scandalous Breech of Trust he before thought of with trembling: And the libidinous Villain destroy with Boasts the Peace and Honour of Families, by the insidious corruption of Maids and Matrons” (A Hint on Duelling 8). The author contends in A Hint on Duelling, In a Letter to a Friend that the described turmoil would be the catastrophic result of ending the practice of dueling. Dueling is, for the author, a necessary form of social control. In Henry Fielding’s novel Tom Jones, the title character Jones also finds dueling …show more content…
For Jones, his “Wounds of Honour” are as important as the physical wounds inflicted by Northerton (248). Without repairing his status of honor through the performance of a duel, he cannot be accepted by the men in the military. The lieutenant reminds Jones: “You must be a man of Honour, if you will be in the Army” (249). Jones is conflicted about his need to preform his honor and his moral obligations as a Christian. Jones thinks to himself: “Is not Revenge forbidden by Heaven? – Yes, but it is enjoined by the World. Well, but shall I obey the World in opposition to the express Commands of Heaven?” (251). This conflict reveals that preforming honor through the duel is a social construction because it is mandated by man and not the divine. The idea that dueling as a social performance of honor is also reflected in A Hint on Duelling, In a Letter to a Friend. For the author, like Fielding’s lieutenant, men in the army must duel. Dueling is a requirement of men in the military because honor “forbids them to associate with those among them of whose Courage there is any room to doubt” (A Hint on Duelling 14). In the army, for men to preform their honor they must force all other men to preform their honor. To duel another man in the army, is simply “complying with Military Custom” (14). At the time dueling was a necessary part of the social script for men in the military. It is important to note the gendered nature of the duel as a performance of honor. Dueling was a social expectation of men and not of women. Dueling was, thus, a performance of gender as much as it was a performance of honor. One could prove his masculinity in addition to his honor through dueling. Personal prestige and status can therefore be maintained through dueling because it is a socially constructed performance of