Love and Marriage in Renaissance Literature

Love and Marriage in Renaissance Literature

In medieval Europe, the troubadours (poets of the southern part of

France), like Guilhem IX, or Cercamon, first began to write poems

about humble men falling in love with women who were admirer and

adored by their lovers. Furthermore, intense love between men and

women became a central subject in European literature, like between

Tristan and Iseult, Lancelot and Guinevere, or Aeneas and Dido. But it

was not question of marriage. Actually, marriage and love did not

match very well together but then Renaissance literature developed the

concepts of love and marriage and recorded the evolution of the

relation between them. In the Renaissance poetry, Donne, in The Good

Morrow, celebrate love and sexuality in marriage. However, the aspects

of love and marriage were not always linked in life but they became to

unify first in literature. Actually we could notice that there were

two sides in marriage and one of these sides was linked with love --

and this part became more and more important.

Indeed, we can to distinguish the two different sides of marriage in

the Renaissance period. Indeed, it was both secular and sacred -- this

could appear paradoxical, because these two words seem to be

contradictory. On the first hand: Secular, because it served as a

union of two parties which searched for the acquisition of money or

properties. Indeed, like in the Middle Ages, property right was very

important. Besides, because of this right, the younger of the sons for

example had to marry a woman who possessed lands because, land

descended to the eldest son, so the younger often received nothing.

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linked with love. But little by little theses two themes gathered.

Indeed the word Renaissance represented the rebirth of art and culture

it comes from the French word which comes from the Italian word

'rinascita' which has the same meaning. So the development of

Renaissance literature occurred in parallel with the development of

social and cultural features. Furthermore, literacy and life always

exchanged influences, so to better understand marriage and love in

Renaissance, the most pertinent mean would be to study Shakespeare's

plays and comedies. Indeed, his period marked a time where marriage

was an important aspect of people's life and Shakespeare managed to

depict the important elements of marriage: the ancient and material

elements but above all, love and relationship that developed between

men and women.