‘Full Sixteen and Never Yet Had Those’: Representations of Early or Delayed Menarche

Abstract

Although an allowance of a year or two either side of the normal expected age of menarche of 14 was not seen as problematic, if a girl was to begin to menstruate at a much earlier or later age, that was a cause for concern. This chapter moves on to explore the literary representations of early and delayed menarche within a society which associated this event with a change of status from a child to a potentially marriageable young woman, and considers the ways in which representations of menarche occurring at an inappropriately early or late age demonstrate the significance that this culture attached to this timing.