Marriage was very different in the 1400s than it is today. In the 21st century, it is hard to comprehend what kind of marriage traditions they had in the 15th century. While many people toady marry for love, in the Renaissance Era, marriages were primarily arranged by the families. In addition, when a couple did marry the ceremonies and customs were also very different. When looking at the various marriage customs of the renaissance era, there are a few major ones that stand out. First, on average, the bridges were fourteen years younger than their grooms and more than three-fourths of the woman would get married before they reached the age of nineteen. On occasion, a woman would not get married until she was they were in their early twenties,
but that was very rare. Secondly, before the couple could get married, it was mandatory to receive the blessing of the priest. If he did not approve, the marriage would not take place. In today’s society, this life changing decision is made between the two lovers. They choose when to get married, where to get married, and even who will marry them. Last but not least, the bride would wear a veil when she was getting married. That is something that has stayed a tradition throughout the years but the meaning of the veil has changed. For example, in the 15th century the bride would wear a veil to symbolize their purity. It was also worn to protect the bride from the people’s glare who opposed the wedding. An arranged marriage is when the bride and groom get selected to be married by a third party. In Romeo and Juliet, act three scene four Juliet is forced to marry Paris even though she is in love with Romeo. Although most people think arranged marriage is out of the question today, it is still common in South Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. In the 15th century marrying for love was a passionate and daring move. Marriages were arranged so both families could acquire money and land. It is very clear that the marriage ceremonies of today and the marriage ceremonies in the 1400s were very different. Today the wedding ceremony is very cheery and it even has some humor in it depending on the couple who is getting married. The couple would share heartfelt vows, and then they would exchange the rings and would be wedded. However, in the Elizabethan Era, the congregation would not sit down for the whole ceremony. Instead of it being a happy and joyous occasion, the congregation was very solemn and quiet. During the ceremony, the brief and groom would drink a glass of spiced wine to display their marriage. After the wedding, the procession would go back to their houses and only the families of the bride and groom would celebrate the wedding. When thinking of a wedding dress, many people think they have always been white as a sign of purity, but that is incorrect. In the Renaissance Era the brides would just wear their finest dresses. The most common dress colors were tan, orange, red, blue, gray, black, green, and yellow. In conclusion, it is easy to see prominent contrasts between the customs, arrangements, and ceremonies. However, in one hundred years, the customs and ways of marriage today might seem different to the new generations.
In “Cohabitation instead of Marriage” by James Q. Wilson, he believes that marriage is a necessity in today’s day of life, but you do not get this conclusion till completing the article. He states that marriage is built to maintain a family but we trust teachers to teach our children, daycare to care for them, and police officers to keep them safe and that, that does not leave left for the mother or the father to fo. He then proceeds to say that if the couple does not want children then there is nothing for the marriage to offer and to why not just live together, without the actual title of marred. Just live together with no legal formality and cohabitate. By this statement alone James Q Wilson makes you believe that he is pro-cohabitation
Marriage is another aspect of families in the 1700's that is very different from today. Most girls in the 1700's married extremely early around th...
It was also common for richer families to marry off their daughters sooner than poorer families. This was because poorer families needed as much help doing work as they could. Women had no choice in deciding who they got married to, and once married they would be controlled by their husband (Trueman, “Medieval Women”).
Throughout time, love has been a steady theme in music, literature, and film. Love is perhaps one of the most obvious emotions to portray and it can often be described as be sensual, sexual, spiritual or mystic, and divine. The tradition of courtly love began in the twelfth- century with the traveling songs of the performing troubadours and trouvères throughout Europe. Their songs of love were the source of all Western vernacular poetry and through the evolution of time developed into the popular chanson of the fifteenth and sixteenth- centuries. Perhaps the most common themes in Burgundian, Parisian and international chansons is that of fine amour or refined love. Due to the influence of culture and the progression of time, the subject matter and compositional style of the chanson changed as it moved through Burgundy, Paris and eventually spread internationally.
During the Middle Ages and Renaissance period marriage and love were idealized, divine and celebrated. Weddings were large events that included the entire families of both the groom and the bride. Reality was different; women were viewed as being fickle, inferior to men and a possession of men. Women had very little, if any, choice in who they would marry. Marriages were arranged so that both families would benefit in gaining wealth or power. Even though the ruler of England for over 4 decades was female, women were still not respected. Women were kept at home and not allowed to take place in public events. In Shakespeare’s Richard III, male and female relationships are displayed as deeply cynical and are based on lies, lust and political gain.
Before the eighteenth century, marriage was far less complicated. Verbal consent and consumation constituted legal marriage: "once the knot was tied by such verbal exchanges it could not be undone: a valid marriage was technically indissoluble. Such vows could be made, moreover, by boys the age of fourteen and girls of twelve" (Outhwaite xiii).
During Renaissance Florence, marriage was a classist system formulated by businesslike unions between a man and a woman. Marriages were typically put forth to sanctify the union of two families in order to secure or elevate their place in society. Giovanni and Lusanna's alleged marriage defied the traditional expectations of Florentine society because the marriage was, supposedly, a result of two lovers independently choosing to marry one another. Lusanna, a woman of reasonable wealth and unpredictable temperament, especially defied customs. Lusanna’s self-sustaining financial background and confident nature challenged the restrictive Renaissance expectations of women by enchanting Giovanni, allegedly marrying him, and later testifying against
Marriages were arranged. Because girls lived such sheltered lives, they usually had never even met the men their fathers agreed for them to marry. Men were mostly in their twenties when they got married, the girls were usually 15.
Traditionally, the purpose of marriage was to produce a male heir to carry on the family line and not to provide mutual companionship and support for husband and wife. Marriages were arranged. A go-between or matchmaker, usually a middle-aged woman, carried on the negotiations between the two families involved who, because of a very strict law of exogamy, sometimes did not know each other and often lived in different communities. The bride and groom met for the first time at the marriage ceremony, a practice that ended in the cities by the 1930’s.
About states: In Ancient Rome, girls married between the ages twelve and fourteen as well as some young men married at the age of fourteen also. However, during the middle ages, women married as early as fourteen. But men usually waited until they were well on their feet and able to support themselves as well as a wife. In 1371, the average age for women to marry was 16 and the average for men was 24. However the age changed in the year 1427 to men marry in their mid 30's and marrying women about half their age. (1) However that's when marriages were accepted by society.
One of George Eliot's challenges in Middlemarch is to depict a sexually desirous woman, Dorothea, within the confines of Victorian literary propriety. The critic, Abigail Rischin, identifies the moment that Dorothea's future husband, Ladislaw, and his painter-friend see her alongside an ancient, partially nude statue of the mythic heroine, Ariadne, in a museum in Rome as the key to Eliot's sexualization of this character. Ariadne is, in the sculpture, between her two lovers. Theseus, whom she helped to escape from her father's labyrinth in Crete has already left her, while the jubilant God, Bacchus, her next lover, has yet to arrive. "By invoking the silent visual rhetoric of ancient sculpture," writes Rischin, "George Eliot is able to represent the erotic female body far more explicitly than Victorian conventions of... language would permit... By juxtaposing the statue with Dorothea, Eliot displays Dorothea's erotic potential." Here, Eliot uses an allusion to another type of narrative to fully illustrate her own heroine, and empower her with emotions that Victorian women were not supposed to possess.
Marriage a la Mode, by John Dryden, is an ode to the concept of marriage and love within the period of Restoration England. Dryden, presumably, presents two pairs of couples, Rhodophil and Doralice, as well as Melantha and Palamede, in a way that expresses an imperative tone towards marital relations. Throughout the playwright, he uses these couples and their mistresses to allocate the issue of broken, miserable, thorny marriages. Although marriage was common, there was a strong presence of moral emancipation, which Dryden presents through these relationships. These themes of dissatisfaction and obligation towards the concept of marriage are noted throughout the playwright, as Dryden uncovers how each character feels.
Kyra Myles Dr. Sayers Biopsychology 4-5:15 TT November 7, 2017 The Westermarck Effect The Westermarck effect is “a psychological effect through which people who live in close domestic proximity during the first few years of their lives become desensitized to sexual attraction.” The phenomenon was first hypothesized by Edvard Westermarck – a anthropologist – In his book The History of Human Marriage as one explanation for the incest taboo. There are 5 key points in relation to the Westermarck Effect: • Proximity:
Although what we were told by God, in many primitive civilizations marriage was primarily industrial. During early times husband and wife were not much together; they did not even eat together very often.(The Marriage Institution 1). Their marriages were always planned by their parents and in some cases brides were bought. Polygamy was also frequent in the early history of marriage. Although, as civilization progressed monogamy became the idealistic goal of human sex evolution.(The Marriage Institution 6). In addition, as civilization advanced, marriage became more seriously regarded and the wedding ceremony became recurrent. The marriage ceremony grew out of the fact that marriage was originally a community affair and also primitive man had no records, so the marriage had to be witnessed by many people.
Many women in this period would engage in “arranged” marriages which were widely accepted and indeed, one of the most practiced forms of marrying at this time. Usually a marriage of convenience rather...