The Whittaker Saga - 1950s (updated 18/02)
I was vastly inspired when reading the decades challenge, and as a history teacher, I could not stop myself from giving it a try. Of course, true to my nature or refusing to do things by the book, th...
Forum Discussion
BissenNessTrue, but then again you have a whole lot of stories about unhappy marriages and affairs in historic litterature... Paris and Helen of Troy (even if it's debatable if she was kidnapped or a voluntary lover), Agamemnon and Clytemnestra, Tristan and Isolde, Anna Karenina, Lady Chatterly... so marriage without love was certainly a reality for many as most marriages was a financial affair rather than a true love's match.
With that said, there were certainly things done to make love happen. A common practise in some parts was to let the young girl move in with her future in-laws, in hopes that the two young teenagers would fall in love if they were in each other's presence (and out of other options in that presence, a way to make sure those teenage hormones only had one outlet so to speak). Either way it's a complicated matter that I'm not sure it's so easy for us to always understand. Love might be universal and timeless, but marriage is very much a cultural construct that shifts with time.
Indeed, marriage and families are what holds a society together. Many a time, marriages were arranged to keep land in the family. It wasn't uncommon in the 18th century for cousins to marry. Just sayin'. Oftentimes what we take for granted, these days, was just a dream for others in the past. Plus, we should be very careful about judging those who came before us. Their world was far different from ours. What was normal for them has changed over time. Teens were considered grown, for instance. The age of Consent will curl your hair by today's standards.
