Editing Our Mutual Friend (section)

===Marriage===
In ''Our Mutual Friend'' Dickens explores the conflict between doing what society expects and the idea of being true to oneself. With regard to this the influence of the family is important. In many of Dickens's novels, including ''Our Mutual Friend'' and ''[[Little Dorrit]]'', parents try to force their children into arranged marriages.<ref name="California Press 1967"/> John Harmon, for example, was supposed to marry Bella to suit the conditions of his father's will, and though, initially, he refused to marry her for that reason, he later married her for love. Harmon goes against his father's wishes in another way when, by taking the alias of John Rokesmith, he refuses his inheritance.<ref name="California Press 1967"/> Bella is also swayed by the influence of her parents. Her mother wishes her to marry for money to better the fortunes of the entire family, although her father is happy with her marrying John Rokesmith for love. Bella's marriage to Rokesmith goes against what is expected of her by her mother, but eventually her mother accepts the fact that Bella has at least married someone who will make her happy. However, later on in the novel, Bella accepts the everyday duties of a wife, and seemingly gives up her independence.<ref name=Shuman1995>{{cite journal |last=Shuman |first=Cathy |title=Invigilating Our Mutual Friend: Gender and the Legitimation of Professional Authority |journal=Novel: A Forum on Fiction |volume=28 |issue=2 |date=Winter 1995 |pages=154–172  |jstor=1345509 |publisher=Duke University Press |doi=10.2307/1345509 }}</ref> Yet she refuses to be the "doll in the doll's house";<ref name=Dickens1989ed /> and is not content with being a wife who rarely leaves her home without her husband. Furthermore, Bella reads up on the current events so that she can discuss them with her husband, and is actively involved in all of the couple's important decisions.

Lizzie Hexam also objects to the expectation of marriage to Eugene Wrayburn, because she sees the difference in their social class status. Without marriage, their connection risks her reputation. She does not aspire to marrying Wrayburn even though she loves him and would be elevated in society simply by marrying him, which almost any woman would have done at the time.{{citation needed|date=April 2018}} Lizzie feels that she is unworthy of him. Wrayburn, however, feels that he is unworthy of such a good woman. He also knows that his father would disapprove of her low social status.<ref name="California Press 1967"/> She goes against expectations when she refuses to marry Bradley Headstone. He would have been an excellent match for her by social class, according to norms of the time, however, Lizzie does not love him.<ref name="California Press 1967"/> She unselfishly does what others expect of her, like helping Charley escape their father to go to school, and living with Jenny Wren. Marrying Wrayburn is the only truly selfish act Lizzie commits in ''Our Mutual Friend'', out of her love for him, when he made up his mind to ask her.