Role Of Arranged Marriage In The Renaissance

Households were strictly patriarchal in which the man of the house made all the important decisions. Women's jobs at the time were mostly relegated to domestic service and occasional work at harvest time. The jobs were always of low pay, low status, and required little training. In addition to this females were not legally permitted to inherit land or property. This was the bleak life of a woman, with little hope or power, and always the subordinate of men.

A woman had a busy domestic life. A woman played the role of wife, mother, teacher and manager. She had to please her husband, bear and raise children, educate her children, and manage all daily household activities. In the home, the woman was the jack of all trades. Part of the role of the female was to take raw goods, and turn them into useful items, such as food, candles, and clothing. Women had to clean, butcher and prepare all game brought home to the family. A woman was a household factory. Many items in the home were created by women. All clothing was made by spinning, weaving and stitching. All cloth was washed by hand without the aid of any machines. Candles were made at home by weaving a wick and pouring hot wax into a mold. A woman had to be educated enough to teach her sons and daughters the skills of life. Women spent the majority of their time performing daily tasks, but still were able to have leisure activities such as painting, embroidery, and charity work. Women had very few legal rights. In the majority of colonies, women had no legal control over their lives. It was the consensus among society that

Even though women did not have a lot of social rights, they had two very important roles. They were to run the house and reproduce children. Even Euripides, a well known Greek playwright, stated , “Women run households and protect within their homes, and without a woman no home is clean or prosperous” (Neils 78). This shows that women were the ones who controlled the home. The wives would maintain the house and perform chores such as weaving, baking and cooking, cleaning, and fetching water. The women’s daily roles were simplified if they house had slaves. If there were slaves, they would do all of the chores and the wife would supervise

* After the business aspects were secured, the engagement followed. The husband presented his fiancée with a ring; the woman could give her fiancé a ring as well, but it was not required. The woman’s mother was responsible for throwing an engagement dinner for the couple.

The women were expected to carry out the duties of the house without complaint and to remain diligent to her husband, as well as God. During this time, motherhood transformed from just being a child bearing figure to

A woman was valued if she could have babies, be a good mother and care for her household and her husband. In other words a married woman. A woman’s role was to cater to her husband. It was very rare they worked anywhere but a house.

Generally, the men believed the sole purpose of the women was to be a helpmate to them and nature had formed them for this particular reason. From childhood, a woman’s purpose was already set meaning that at the time of birth, she already knew her role; to be obedient, express fidelity, frugality, be industrious and her natural function was to bear and nurture the children. Even the ministers had sermonized it, educators elaborated on it, lawmakers codified it and poets versified it. These women had

Women were viewed inferiorly compared to men. They were expected to do all household chores, bear children, and obey their husband’s wish

Each member of a household had certain duties: men worked in fields, directing slaves and sons in producing tobacco and grain, women cultivated vegetables, made clothes and candles, kept house and children.

The preparations taken for an Elizabethan wedding were set in stone almost, because these steps were crucial in making sure everything was ready for the couple. Before a marriage was arranged or not people had to take into account the age of consent, which was twenty-one (William Shakespeare info). However, with parental permission girls could marry at twelve and boys at fourteen, however this wasn’t extremely common (William Shakespeare info). After a couple was engaged, the next step was the betrothal. A betrothal was where a couple would join hands and the man would give his fiancé a ring to be worn on the right hand. At the wedding the ring would be switched to the left ring finger. After all this, the couple would seal their betrothal with a kiss, and then sign their wedding contract (Maggi Ros). A wedding contract was much like a marriage license that we have today. Sometimes a couple would have to “get married hastily” and would just sign

“Most girls were trained from childhood for the traditional roles of wife, mother, and housekeeper. They learned how to grind grain, how to cook and make beverages, especially beer, and how to spin and weave cloth for clothing. If a woman worked outside of her home, her job usually grew out of her household

Women were expected to basically be merely an object, even a trophy for their husbands. They were expected to stay home and clean, as well as cook. With all these expected tasks, women hardly had any time to branch out and figure out what they wanted to do with their life. They had no time for leisure activities of any kind because, of course, their activities involved taking care of the house. Women were also seen as the weaker sex, always submissive to their dominant male counterpart. Although the women were submissive, they were held to a higher moral standard. Adultery was twice shamed upon if committed by a woman rather than a man. (Hughes par.3) A woman could be stoned to death, but people would turn their cheek for a man while the woman still was expected to stay beside the man.

The cult of domesticity brought a new view on women’s role and associated virtue with the moral quality of a woman. Virtue for a woman represented her worth which was measured by her innocence and beauty. At the cost of being dependent on a man a woman was provided with protection and financial stability. Through cult of domesticity some women were able to avoid the disadvantages of being a female in the work force. At the time all that was available to women were low paying jobs like domestic servants, factory workers, and seamstresses. In return all they would have to do is fulfill their obligations to their husbands which was to provide love, companionship, and provide a get way from the stress of the work day. Women being able to stay at

In the late 1800’s through early 1900’s women and men were did not “tie the knot” like the women and men do in today’s day. In today’s world, women and men get married because they have many things in common, they are in love with each other, and they choose to get married to one another. In many stories written back then, readers can expect to read about how marriages were arranged and how many people were not having the wedded bliss marriage proclaims today.

For women in the renaissance period, their duty was to marry, have children, and take care of their household. Although, for couples that were lower class, the marriage