One of the questions that some readers have sought answers for is “What was the 19th century view of affairs?”. In the 19th century, you find that many things were different. The predominant views of marriage and affairs were drastically different from those of modern society.
The examples given are from 19th century writers addressing the issues of marriage and the family. Although you may like the nostalgia of that century, their ideas may seem alien to modern progressive thinkers.
Marriage was viewed focused on raising children to be morally good people, directing the education of their children, and to enjoy their spouse’s company. This is a far cry from the 21st century, where you find that education has largely been outsourced, the whole idea of morally good people has been traded for training children to be critical thinkers, which leaves marriage without any kind of 19th century purpose.
In the 19th century, those parents who did not have affection toward their children were often viewed as being debauched or degraded in some way. They made no excuse that “I’m just not cut out to be a parent”.
They also had the idea that marriage was about one woman and one man. There were some differences in terms of whether this commitment was for life or whether it was a contract. These differences often went back to theological stands taken by various denominations.
Deviations from the one man-one woman concept of marriage were viewed as ‘monstrous’. Adultery did occur. Those who were adulterers were viewed as monsters for the corruption they brought on the institutions of marriage and the family.
Terms like corrupter were used in reference to the moral impact they had along with the impact of having children through adultery. Adultery was viewed as a ‘corrupter of blood’. Although churches viewed both adulterer and adulteresses as guilty, the public tended to view the adulteress as the once to blame in many cases.
Given the seriousness of adultery, those who were labelled as ‘seducers’ were seen as bad people. Yet you find that in modern society, seducers are often glorified or seen as being more of a man or more of a woman than the general population.
In the 19th century, there were also women who resented the authority of their husbands and the institution of marriage. Some of these woman went so far as to liken marriage to a form of slavery. The respectable portions of society recognized that such a view only led women to be viewed as concubines rather than as a wife and life partner. Such thinking was viewed as a threat to the family since it worked at undermining the structure of the family.
As you can see, the views of marriage, adultery and morality have changed dramatically since the 19th century. Society still struggled with urges and temptations, yet their way of dealing with and thinking about those issues is very different from what is heard today in churches and schools.
Best Regards,
Jeff
