Marriage has evolved from marrying for social class to pacifying counties and solidifying alliances to present day marrying for love, which many have distinct definitions. What is love? That is another question. But how has marriage changed so drastically over merely five centuries?
This article accounts for all shifts and different approaches to marriage. Adultery and friendships were much more passionate than marriages during Enlightenment and Victorian Eras. As we all know in our history books, marriages were arranged and there were strict rules and guidelines which one had to follow. In 1840 England, the dress transformed from a traditional jeweled gown to virginal white. Women were now considered pure and chaste, men got with prostitutes before their wives.
Although this is extremely rare today in American culture, marriages occur through dating and developing relationships over the years and a bond of love that mends the two together. Fast forwarding to the 21st century marriages are necessary and the basis of true love which relied primarily upon emotions, which has been leading to many devastating divorces. People mistake feelings of lust and butterflies for love in today’s society and marry for reasons that are seemingly based off emotions.