What Is The Relationship Between Women In Nineteenth-Century America

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In the essay “The Female World of Love and Ritual: Relations between Women in Nineteenth-Century America” author Smith-Rosenberg wanted to analyze relationships “within a cultural and social setting rather than from an exclusively individual psychosexual perspective.” (Smith-Rosenberg 1975, pg.2) The first friendship that is mentioned was by Sarah Butler Wister and Jeannie Field Musgrove. They were two women who met at school while they were young and continued their relationship by writing letters to each other. In their letters it was evident that they loved each other and although they both eventually married men, they never stopped wanting to be with one another. The second relationship mentioned was by two women named Molly and Helena.

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