French Revolution

While the Enlightenment was bringing about changes in England, the French were undergoing their own revolution at the same time. Similar to what was happening in England, the aspects of marriage was changing in France. The implementation of divorce in France was one of the biggest changes that took place. Husband and wife no longer had to suffer through a terrible marriage. It was better to happy and not married than unhappy in marriage. The reasoning behind this was that if people were happy than that would benefit the state, which was one of the biggest goals of the French Revolution. Now, in order for a divorce to be granted there had to be mutual consent, which was something new that helped people get out of terrible marriages that, maybe, had been forced upon them. However, there were some restrictions to this new installation of divorce. Women could only petition for divorce if her husband had installed a mistress into their home, and men could petition for divorce if only suspected adultery. Thus, this shows that the divorce laws were not really equal during this time period. Even though there were some restrictions to divorce, I think it is a good thing that came about because it gave people a way to get out of an unhappy relationship. Also, it was beneficial for women because their husbands could no longer openly have an affair in their own homes, which helped them gain a little more control over their private lives. Overall, I think the French Revolution did a lot for women, even though it was disguised under betterment of the state.

The Enlightenment in England

In the 18th century, the Enlightenment brought a new view of marriage to England. To start, marriage was now done at a later age and both the man and woman were around the same age when married. The new age for marriage was around 25 to 28, for both parties. This was done in order to control fertility and thus have a smaller family. I think this is important to note because it shows that women were gaining more respect during this time. They no longer were being forced into marriages during their teens and had some more freedom. Another aspect that gave women more freedom was that the husband now had less control over the woman’s possessions. This meant that the woman could have her own things and, once again, have more freedom to do what she wants with her possessions. Additionally, the Enlightenment brought with it the option of divorce. It was now seen as unacceptable to sentence two people to be in a marriage where there was no love and no happiness. I find this aspect the most noteworthy because it shows that opinions were changing about marriage in a dramatic way. Before, divorce was not even an option and the man and woman would just have to suffer through the marriage. Divorce shows the shift in opinion that happiness was one of the highest goals in life for the individual because if one was not happy than they could just get divorced. I think this mirrors our opinions today on divorce because people get divorced, mostly, because they realized they are not happy with the person they married. Overall, I think it is good that the aspects of marriage were changing because it shows that women were gaining more freedom and had more options than ever before.

Peasants in Europe

Since the peasants in Europe were not really a concern of the wealthier classes in Europe, except for tax purposes, there is not much evidence describing what their lives were like in the Early Modern Period in Europe. One thing I found interesting about these peasants was how they dealt with rape. In accordance with our views today, they viewed the rape of adolescent girls as a very serious offense. Although they were pretty slack about sex before marriage, the rape of a young girl was not acceptable. I think this shows that they truly cared about the girls in their community. However, this concern did not extend towards older women, unless a woman was married when she was raped. I find it hard to believe that they could care so much about a young woman being raped, but at the same time not care about older women being raped. Here, one can see the fracture in their thought. They are on the same page with us today in one aspect, but on the other side they hold an older view of rape. I find it interesting that the view can change simply because of the age of a woman. I am curious as to what age it changed to be less serious to rape a woman. Overall, I think it is good that even the peasants, who were considered to be some of lowest people in Europe, saw the destruction of rape, even if they still had some aspects to work out.

Legality of Marriage

In class on Wednesday, we read the story of Giovanni and Lusanna. One theme that was interesting to me from this reading was what made a marriage official . Giovanni argues that his marriage to Lusanna was not official because, mostly, it was done in secret. Since it was secret, there were not as many witnesses to the marriage as there usually would have been. Also, even though there was an officiator there, that still did not necessarily mean that the marriage actually happened. I think that it is interesting that during the renaissance era there needed to be a public ceremony for a marriage to be considered official. This consisted of basically the entire town coming out and witnessing the marriage. I think that this leaves a lot of room for the guy to trick a young girl into “marriage” and then it is never truly official. This would kind of ruin the girl because she would not be as desirable to another man because she was no longer a virgin. Because of this, I am on the side of Lusanna and believe that they were actually married. There was a ceremony and someone from the clergy to officiate it, and thus I think theyG entered into a legal marriage.

-That’s all I have for now. Until later…