# Her Master — The Subjection of Women character guide

> Her Master in The Subjection of Women by John Stuart Mill.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** her master, himself

**First appearance:** 0000-i

## Snapshot

The husband whose legal absorption of his wife's property, earnings, children, and body makes him, in Mill's accounting, a more total master than any slaveholder.

## Who they are

He is not a caricature of cruelty but the ordinary man the law arms with extraordinary power: to seize her wages, claim her children, compel her return, and demand the last familiarity regardless of her loathing. The narrator concedes most wives are treated better than slaves, then shows the law permits worse. His presence forces readers to see marriage's 'one person in law' as a one-way absorption.

## Relationships

### [The Romans](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_subjection_of_women_se/characters/the_romans)

_social_

Her Master is often discussed in relation to Roman legal and social structures that defined male authority.

### [Narrator](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_subjection_of_women_se/characters/narrator)

_psychological_

Her Master represents the oppressive patriarchal figure whose authority the narrator analyzes and challenges.

## In the story

### [Chapter II: The Marriage Contract and Legal Subordination](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_subjection_of_women_se/chapters/ii)

The husband is described as the legal master of the wife, with power over her property and person.

### [Chapter IV: The Benefits of Equality and the Influence of Women](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_subjection_of_women_se/chapters/iv)

Implied as the recipient of the power in marriage, which Mill describes as prone to abuse by even the most brutal men.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_subjection_of_women_se/characters/her_master
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_subjection_of_women_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_subjection_of_women_se/characters