Critics of the breach of promise suit, on the other hand, insisted that these suits commercialized courtship in a damaging fashion: "Clearly these women were not claiming these men as husbands; rather, they were simply claiming compensation."(23) Such a suit was further described as a "machine for the display of avarice on the part of hungry spinsters and designing widows."(24) It distinctly undermined the moral superiority women were to represent, just as Pickwick's breach of promise suit,
Bardell vs. Pickwick, challenges the moral superiority of the women involved.
The misunderstanding leads to the famous breach of promise suit of Bardell vs. Pickwick. Mr.
Justice Starleigh, the judge who presides at the trial of Bardell vs. Pickwick.