A History Of The Wife
(Marilyn Yalom)
A History of the Wife ? Marilyn Yalom
Being a wife might be said to be becoming more and more unfashionable. What is the point of marrying when you can have financial security, children, a career and even love without it? And why change your name, when, with the ever increasing rise of divorce, you will soon have to change it back again?
Yet from the earliest times the majority of women have become wives and Marilyn Yalom explores both how and why this happened. She looks at marriage in the ancient world going as far back as the first book of Genesis and the story of Adam and Eve for her examples.
Differing expectations for the sexes are explored as in ancient Greece where a woman was segregated yet the only sexual liason forbidden to a man was with someone else?s wife.
The majority of women in earlier times married people chosen for them rather than their own choices. They married in order to provide a man with a dowry and a legitimate means of having offspring.
Legal aspects of marriage are gone in to ? including the fact that the law, mainly administered by men, offered little redress for an injured wife until very recent times.
The question of polygamy is explored as is how this was gradually disgarded by Jews living in mainly Christian societies. The idea of marriage as a contract is discussed ? in particular of how in Puritan society in early America marriage was a civil contract to be dissolved as any other contract could be.
Today almost every bride expects to be in love on her wedding day, but although people in earlier times did fall in love of course - we have their letters to prove it ? the idea of marriage being an alliance between two people in love did not become prominent before the 16th century.
The writer is American and so naturally takes many of her more modern examples from American society. Today of course many women balance the role of wife and mother with that of wage earner. We even have words such as househusband to describe changing roles. Marriage has changed and will continue to change.
Resumos Relacionados
- 10 Commandments Of Marriage....read On Folks!!!!
- Her Gold And Her Body
- Men Are From Mars And Women Ae From Venus
- Men Are From Mars And Women Ae From Venus
- Marriage..a Wonderful Stage Of Life!
|
|
