Courtship and Marriage
Great Expectations Project By: Tyler Polensky
What is Courtship?
Courtship is when two people start a romantic relationship. You might be thinking to yourself, "Courtship? I thought dating was when someone start a romantic relationship." You're right, courtship is more of a traditional thing that started in the Victorian Era. In this era, courtship was very common and popular. If courtship was something you took part of, the person you were "dating" would usually be the person you married.
Whats the difference between dating and courtship?
When you think of dating you think of teenagers just fooling around with each other saying they are in "love" when they aren't. Courtship on the other hand is a much more big of deal. Courtship has rules and only happened if the 2 interested in each other were serious about. Courtship had some strict rules in place, here are some (coming from source): a unmarried woman could not date a guy at night, absolutely no physical contact between the 2 before marriage, the woman could not be invited to the mans house, and plenty of more.
Marriage
Women in the Victorian era were normally married by the time they reached 25. If you were not to be married by the age of 30, you usually wouldn't have a chance of getting married. Marriage in the victorian era was odd if you asked me, women had little to no independence, you would say the wife was a servant to the husband she had married. Wives would deal with EVERYTHING that would happen at the house from cleaning to dealing with the kids. Women were not to desire sex, but if the guy desired it at any moment the wife must make herself available for it.
Bibliography
(1.) "Fascinating History." : Marriage & Sex for the Victorian Middle Class Woman. Fascinatinghisory.com, n.d. Web. 19 Mar. 2015. <http://fascinatinghistory.blogspot.com/2005/08/marriage-sex-for-victorian-middle.html>.
(2.) Phegley, Jennifer. Courtship and Marriage in Victorian England. Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger, 2012. Print.
(3.) "Victorian Era Courtship Rules and Marriage." Victorian Era Courtship Rules and Marriage. Victorian-Era.org, n.d. Web. 19 Mar. 2015. http://www.victorian-era.org/victorian-era-courtship-rules-and-marriage.html
(4.) (Picture, 2nd) "Victorian Themed Weddings." HubPages. DIY Wedding Planner, n.d. Web. 19 Mar. 2015. <http://diyweddingplanner.hubpages.com/hub/Wedding-Theme-for-2012-Victorian-Weddings>.