History Main / MalMariee

* ''Literature/MansfieldPark'': Mary Crawford's friend Mrs. Fraser (her maiden name is Janet Ross) married an old man for money and status, and Edmund writes in a letter to Fanny that she places her disappointment [in her marriage] not to faults of judgement, or temper, or disproportion of age, but to her being less affluent than many of her acquaintance.

This never works. The more he tries to keep her for his own, the less she wants to do with him -- and sooner or later some handsome young knight, poet, student or fairy will find a way to romance her.

The older spouse is highly ''protective'' and tends to be aggressive towards any other character who even so much as hints at interest in their spouse. He is also often [[DomesticAbuse harsh and cruel towards his young wife]] because he constantly thinks she's cheating. If she's not cheating, she very often will eventually [[SelfFulfillingProphecy because he suspects her anyway and his jealousy is disgusting]]. Or he can be absolutely clueless. The story may end with the young wife outsmarting her husband and being happy with her lover, but it can also end in long suffering or tragedy.

* ''Adventure under the Bed'' (a TV adaptation of Dostoyevsky's short story): Nadia is a 17-year-old girl married to an ugly, senile and very, very old man. Two men accidentally come into their flat (both looked for the flat in the top floor, and failed to notice there was another staircase). They hide under the bed, fearing they hear her husband coming and thinking he will deduce they are her lovers. Nadia's old husband knew her as a little girl and she was forced to marry him because her father owed him money. He's somewhat affectionate, but keeps apologizing for hurting her and wants to see her scars he's responsible for. He keeps drinking vodka during the evening and gets very lecherous and more and more repulsive. She's embarrassed by his behavior because of the witnesses under the bed. At the end of the movie, it's revealed that Nadia's actual young lover was hidden in a wardrobe.

** "Guigemar": Guigemar is a knight who mortally wounds a white hind, but is injured as well. The hind leaves a curse he can only be healed if a woman suffers for love of him while he suffers as much for her. He gets to a land where the lord has imprisoned his his young, beautiful lady wife out of jealousy. Worried she might cuckold him, he keeps her trapped in an enclosure with one entry that is guarded, but the place can also be approached from the sea, which is how wounded Guigemar gets there. Guigemar and the lady fall in love. Assured that their feelings are mutual, they consummate their love and spend some time in bliss. They are discovered and the lord forces Guigemar to return to his country. The lady is imprisoned within a marble tower and keeps longing for her love. She manages to escape and considers drowning herself in the sea. She then spots the same mysterious ship that had taken Guigemar away long ago and the ship brings her to Brittany, where she is taken captive by a Lord. She is eventually saved and gets together with Guigemar.
** "Laustic": There are two knights who live nearby one another in St. Malo. The first knight is older and has a beautiful, refined wife, and the other knight is known for his bravery and adventures. The young man is in love with his neighbour's wife and thanks to both his persistence and reputation, she gives in to his entreaties and falls in love with him. They are never able to meet because of her husband, but they are able to speak through windows over the courtyard and they toss presents to one another. One summer, the lovers rise at night, wanting to adore each other through the windows. The lady's husband gets angry because she's constantly out of their bed. She tells him she gets up to listen to the nightingale's beautiful song. The spiteful husband plans to capture and kill the bird. He does, throws the nightingale at her, staining her dress with its blood. The lady knows she can no longer rise to look at her beloved, and is worried he will not understand her absence. She sends her servant with the bird to the knight. The servant complies, and her beloved understands the message. He puts the bird in a small coffin, and carries it around with him from that day forever.

** In "The Miller's Tale", Alisoun is young, attractive, amorous and lustful, and a reputed beauty. John the carpenter is Alisoun's much older husband and he's constantly afraid that she'll cheat on him. The narrator says he's extremely jealous and very protective of her, but he's also very stupid and doesn't ''act'' like the obsessed, jealous spouse. He willingly takes young male boarders like Nicholas into his home, and he seems very devoted to his wife and concerned for her safety. Young Nicholas becomes Alisoun's lover and she is also courted by Absolom. When John hears Absolon serenading Alisoun outside their window in the middle of night, he only asks if she hears it, too. Poor stupid John ends up cheated on, tricked by his wife and humiliated in front of the entire town. It doesn't turn out that well for the other men involved either; Nicholas ''does'' get to have sex with Alisoun, but also gets a red hot bar of iron in the backside, and Absolom unwittingly kisses Alisoun's "nether eye" (and gets farted on). Alisoun is really the only person who comes out of it a clear winner.

* ''Literature/MansfieldPark'': Mary Crawford's friend Mrs Fraser (her maiden name is Janet Ross) married an old man for money and status, and Edmund writes in a letter to Fanny that she places her disappointment [in her marriage] not to faults of judgement, or temper, or disproportion of age, but to her being less affluent than many of her acquaintance.

* ''Literature/CodexAlera'': Caria is married off to Gaius Sextus, First Lord of Alera in a political arranged marriage. She is fifty years younger than her husband and they have a loveless, SexlessMarriage. Her husband doesn't treat her well and ignores her, so this trope lacks the jealousy part. In the spirit of the trope, she ends up having an affair with a charismatic and handsome man Attis who is manipulating her. [[spoiler:It's revealed Caria has been poisoning her husband for years, using her medical knowledge from the Academy.]]

* The 1900 torch song "A Bird In a Gilded Cage" is about a sad life of a beautiful woman who has married an old guy for money instead of for love and actually left someone young she loved.

* ''Theatre/LaMandragola'', Creator/NiccoloMachiavelli's raunchy sex comedy, revolves around Callimaco, a wealthy playboy, and his desire to seduce Lucrezia, the beautiful young wife of Nicia, an elderly citizen of Florence who fancies himself a scholar but is really a conceited fool who (for whatever reason) is also unable to get Lucrezia pregnant. While Lucrezia's virtue is a serious hindrance to Callimaco's desire at first, eventually she is persuaded to sleep with him under pretense that this is necessary to cure her of infertility. Even though Callimaco confesses that the "cure" was a scam, her first night with Callimaco changes Lucrezia's mind and she takes an active role in fooling Nicia so she can enjoy her adulterous relationship with Callimaco.

* Creator/JosephSheridanLeFanu's novella ''The Room in the Dragon Volant'': Richard Beckett, a wealthy young Englishman travelling to Paris, makes the acquaintance of the elderly Comte de St. Alyre and his strikingly beautiful young wife Eugenie. As he is increasingly enamoured by Eugenie, he learns that the Comte (who is not much to look at) is a mean old miser who only married Eugenie for her inheritance, which he wants in order to pay his gambling debts. Determined to deliver Eugenie from her unhappy marriage to a miserly old tyrant, Beckett resolves to elope with her. Subverted, as only then does he find out harshly that the Comte and his wife are in league with each other and [[spoiler:confidence tricksters who have been setting him up to be robbed and murdered for his money.]]

* ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'': Lady Lysa Tully is married off to elderly Lord Jon Arryn, a man decades older than her. Their marriage forges a useful alliance during the war and Lord Arryn needs a young woman to give him an heir. They have a loveless marriage because Lord Arryn is distant, Lysa has had many failed pregnancies and stillbirths, and she has never stopped loving her first love Petyr Baelish who was her father's ward. Later at court, Lysa and Petyr begin a secret affair (though he doesn't love her back) and Petyr even convinces her to poison her husband.

* ''Literature/CodexAlera'': Caria is married off to Gaius Sextus, First Lord of Alera in a political arranged marriage. She is fifty years younger than her husband and they have a loveless, SexlessMarriage. Her husband doesn't treat her well and ignores her, so this trope lacks the jealousy part. In the spirit of the trope, she ends up having an affair with a charismatic and handsome man Attis who is manipulating her. [[spoieler:It's revealed Caria has been poisoning her husband for years, using her medical knowledge from the Academy.]]

* Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu's novella ''The Room in the Dragon Volant'': Richard Beckett, a wealthy young Englishman travelling to Paris, makes the acquaintance of the elderly Comte de St. Alyre and his strikingly beautiful young wife Eugenie. As he is increasingly enamoured by Eugenie, he learns that the Comte (who is not much to look at) is a mean old miser who only married Eugenie for her inheritance, which he wants in order to pay his gambling debts. Determined to deliver Eugenie from her unhappy marriage to a miserly old tyrant, Beckett resolves to elope with her. Subverted, as only then does he find out harshly that the Comte and his wife are in league with each other and [[spoiler:confidence tricksters who have been setting him up to be robbed and murdered for his money.]]

%%* EmilieAutumn's "Marry Me" is all about this; "God he's ugly but fortune is ours".
%% Zero-context examples are not allowed.

The older spouse is highly ''protective'' and tends to be aggressive towards any other character who even so much as hints at interest in their spouse. He is also often [[DomesticAbuser harsh and cruel towards his young wife]] because he constantly thinks she's cheating. If she's not cheating, she very often will eventually [[SelfFulfillingProphecy because he suspects her anyway and his jealousy is disgusting]]. Or he can be absolutely clueless. The story may end with the young wife outsmarting her husband and being happy with her lover, but it can also end in long suffering or tragedy.

* Song "A Bird In a Gilded Cage" is about a sad life of a beautiful woman who has married an old guy for money instead of for love and actually left someone young she loved.

* EmilieAutumn's "Marry Me" is all about this; "God he's ugly but fortune is ours".

* ''Theatre/LaMandragola'', Creator/NiccoloMachiavelli's raunchy sex comedy, revolves around Callimaco, a wealthy playboy, and his desire to seduce Lucretia, the beautiful young wife of Nicia, an elderly citizen of Florence who fancies himself a scholar but is really a conceited simpleton who (for whatever reason) is also unable to get Lucretia pregnant. While Lucretia's virtue is a serious hindrance to Callimaco's desire at first, eventually she is persuaded by her own husband to sleep with him under pretense that this is necessary to cure her of infertility. Even though Callimaco confesses that the "cure" was a scam before having sex with her, the lengths everyone went to get what they wanted and changes Lucretia's mind and she now takes an active role in fooling Nicia so she can enjoy her adulterous relationship with Callimaco.

* "A Bird In a Gilded Cage":

[[folder:Theater]]

** In "The Miller's Tale", Alisoun is young, attractive, amorous and lustful, and a reputed beauty. John the carpenter is Alisoun's much older husband and he's constantly afraid that she'll cheat on him. The narrator says he's extremely jealous and very protective of her, but he's also very stupid and doesn't ''act'' like the obsessed, jealous spouse. He willingly takes young male boarders like Nicholas into his home, and he seems very devoted to his wife and concerned for her safety. Young Nicholas becomes Alisoun's lover and she is also courted by Absolom. When John hears Absolon serenading Alisoun outside their window in the middle of night, he only asks if she hears it, too. Poor stupid John ends up cheated on, tricked by his wife and humiliated in front of the entire town.

* Some of Jean de la Fontaine's adult-oriented poems use this trope as the plot:

* ''Literature/EffiBriest'': ZigZaggedTrope. Effie Briest, a 17-year-old girl, is married off to a 40-year-old guy who was once romantically interested in her mother, Baron von Instetten. She feels neglected by her constantly busy husband and frowned upon by the local gentry; and worse, the unsettling house where they live is allegedly haunted by the ghost of a Chinese Man, and not even the birth of a daughter improves her spirit. Her husband is never downright abusive and feels in his own way fond of her. She starts having an affair with Major Crampas, but she can't stand that she has to lie. She's relieved when her husband is transferred to Berlin, giving her a chance to break off the affair. Six years later she seems to be finally happy with her family but her affair with Crampas is discovered by Instetten who, despite still loving her and not being angry with Crampas, feels obliged to respect the codes of society: he divorces her and prevents her to see their daughter and kills Crampas in a duel. Effi lives her final years alone and gravely ill until her death.

* ''Theatre/LaMandragola'', Creator/NiccoloMachiavelli's raunchy sex comedy, revolves around Callimaco, a wealthy playboy, and his desire to seduce Lucretia, the beautiful young wife of Nicia, an elderly citizen of Florence who fancies himself a scholar but is really a conceited simpleton who (for whatever reason) is also unable to get Lucretia pregnant. While Lucretia's virtue is a serious hindrance to Callimaco's desire at first, eventually she is persuaded to sleep with him under pretense that this is necessary to cure her of infertility; even though Callimaco later confesses that the "cure" was a scam, Lucretia has completely changed her mind and now takes an active role in fooling Nicia so she can enjoy her adulterous relationship with Callimaco.

[[caption-width-right:350:Blind Januarie helping his wife May into the tree where her paramour Damyan awaits her]]

->He's got no faloorum, he's lost his ding-doorum
->So maids when you're young never wed an old man

->When he went to sleep, hey ding-doorum down
->When he went to sleep, me being young
->When he went to sleep, out of bed I did creep
->Into the arms of a handsome young man

[[folder:Live-Action Television]]
* ''Adventure under the Bed'' (a TV adaptation of Dostoyevsky's short story): Nadia is a 17-year-old girl married to an ugly, senile and very, very old man. Two men accidentally come into their flat (both looked for the flat in the top floor, and failed to notice there was another staircase). They hide under the bed, fearing they hear her husband coming and thinking he will deduce they are her lovers. Nadia's old husband knew her as a little girl and she was forced to marry him because her father owed him money. He's somewhat affectionate, but keeps apologising for hurting her and wants to see her scars he's responsible for. He keeps drinking vodka during the evening and gets very lecherous and more and more repulsive. She's embarrassed by his behaviour because of the witnesses under the bed. At the end of the movie, it's revealed that Nadia's actual young lover was hidden in a wardrobe.

-->City girls just seem to find out early,
-->How to open doors with just a smile,
-->A rich old man and she won't have to worry,
-->She'll dress up all in lace and go in style.
-->Late at night a big old house gets lonely,
-->I guess every form of refuge has its price,
-->And it breaks her heart to think her love is only,
-->Given to a man with hands as cold as ice.

-->'Tis sad when you think of her wasted life,
-->For youth cannot mate with age,
-->And her beauty was sold,
-->For an old man's gold,
-->She's a bird in a gilded cage.

[[folder:Theatre]]

* ''Literature/EffiBriest'': ZigZaggedTrope. Effie Briest, a 17 years old girl, is married off to 38 years old Baron von Instetten. She feels neglected by her constantly busy husband and frowned upon by the local gentry; and worse, the unsettling house where they live is allegedly haunted by the ghost of a Chinese Man, and not even the birth of a daughter improves her spirit. Her husband is never downright abusive and feels in his own way fond of her. She starts having an affair with Major Crampas, but she can't stand that she has to lie. She's relieved when her husband is transferred to Berlin, giving her a chance to break off the affair. Six years later she seems to be finally happy with her family but her affair with Crampas is discovered by Instetten who, despite still loving her and not being angry with Crampas, feels obliged to respect the codes of society: he divorces her and prevents her to see their daughter and kills Crampas in a duel. Effi lives her final years alone and gravely ill until her death.

* In the story of Paolo e Francesca in canto V of the ''Literature/TheDivineComedy'''s Inferno, Francesca was wedded for political reason to Giovanni Malatesta (also called Gianciotto or "Giovanni the Lame"). While in Rimini, she fell in love with Giovanni's younger and handsome brother, Paolo, who was married as well. They managed to carry on an affair for some ten years, until Giovanni ultimately surprised them in Francesca's bedroom, killing them both.

* Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu's novella ''The Room in the Dragon Volant'': Richard Beckett, a wealthy young Englishman travelling to Paris, makes the acquaintance of the elderly Comte de St. Alyre and his strikingly beautiful young wife Eugenie. As he is increasingly enamoured by Eugenie, he learns that the Comte (who is not much to look at) is a mean old miser who only married Eugenie for her inheritance, which he wants in order to pay his gambling debts. Determined to deliver Eugenie from her unhappy marriage to a miserly old tyrant, Beckett resolves to elope with her. Subverted, as only then does he find out harshly that the Comte and his wife are in league with each other and [[spoiler:confidence trickster who have been setting him up to be robbed and murdered for his money.]]

** "The Merchant's Tale": Old Januarie is deceived by his young wife May and her lover Damyan after Januarie suddenly goes blind. Januarie is over sixty and May not yet twenty. Both names are very symbolic: Januarie is as bare and unfruitful as the winter month, and May is youthful and fresh and associated with spring. Januarie marries May largely out of lust. It is not known why May accepts his offer; however, he is a rich man and above her social class. Damyan, a squire of Janiarie's court, falls in love with May and she reciprocates. Januarie loses his sight, and his blindness increases his possessiveness and jealousy toward his young wife May. The lovers manage to sneak up to the branches of a pear tree in May's garden and begin to make love right above her husband's head. An enraged god Pluto restores Januarie's sight, but goddess Proserpina allows May to outwit him by explaining that she was merely struggling with Damyan in the tree because she had been told that it would magically restore Januarie's sight. The fooled Januarie and May continue to live together, and quite happily. May tells Januarie that he may be mistaken on more occasions, indicating her infidelity will go on.

The Mal Mariée (French for "badly married") is a young woman unhappily married to a much older man. Merely being a bit older isn't enough and there has to be a significant age difference. She is almost always innocent and beautiful, and was likely married against her will. He is probably ugly, probably cruel, and definitely [[GreenEyedMonster obsessively jealous]]; he often keeps her imprisoned (most iconically, [[GirlInTheTower in a tower]]) to avoid her interacting with other men.

The older spouse is highly ''protective'' and tends to be aggressive towards any other character who even so much as hints at interest in their spouse. He is also often [[DomesticAbuser harsh and cruel towards his young wife]] because he constantly thinks she's cheating. If she's not cheating, she very often will eventually because he suspects her anyway and his jealousy is disgusting. Or he can be absolutely clueless. The story may end with the young wife outsmarting her husband and being happy with her lover, but it can also end in long suffering or tragedy.

* The Music/{{Eagles}} song "Lyin' Eyes" has this trope as part of the story. Young city girls marry rich old guys to have an easier life... but they pay an ugly price.

-->Given to a man with hands as cold as ice.''

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The Mal Mariee (French for "badly married") is a young woman unhappily married to a much older man. Merely being a bit older isn't enough and there has to be a significant age difference. She is almost always innocent and beautiful, and was likely married against her will. He is probably ugly, probably cruel, and definitely [[GreenEyedMonster obsessively jealous]]; he often keeps her imprisoned (most iconically, [[GirlInTheTower in a tower]]) to avoid her interacting with other men.