To what extent were conflicting ideals of marriage found in conduct literature resolved in lived experience in Seventeenth Century England?
Lead Research Organisation:
Nottingham Trent University
Department Name: Graduate School
Abstract
Topic or area to be investigated:
This project aims to examine marriage in the seventeenth century in regards to how lived experience compared to the advice given in conduct books of the time. Contemporary prescriptive literature instructed couples on how to behave within marriage, and outlined advice on the specific distinctions between roles of spouses. Previous research undertaken has found that within this literature there was a conflict of ideals being put forward by conduct writers. Often the proposed need for companionship and love appeared to work at odds to the calls for wifely obedience. Similarly, theories of 'mutuality in marriage' were seen to work against the writers calls for male dominance in relationships. This thesis aims to examine how these conflicting ideals presented themselves in lived experience and to what extent these inconsistent viewpoints were resolved.
Problem or hypothesis to be tested (research questions or problem to be addressed):
The first aim of this project is to examine the way in which men and women in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries experienced marriage. This will be achieved by adopting the approach used by historians of emotion in order to address the significance of love and affection within marital relationships. Secondly, it will compare this with the often conflicting ideals found in the prescriptive literature of the period. Also within this research, the utility of prescriptive literature as a reflection of the society which produces it will be examined.
These research aims will be achieved through close textual analysis of two discrete groups of source material; conduct literature and evidence of real lived experience. Within this project texts such as William Gouge, Domesticall Duties and Richard Baxter, A Christian Directory will be augmented from the extensive range of advice literature created during this period. In terms of sources for lived experience, I will be using personal evidence in the form of letters and diaries. A good resource which will be utilised in this research is the online database of British and Irish Women's Letters and Diaries 1500-1950. This is particularly useful as it provides a perspective from women which is lacking in terms of much of the published contemporary literature on this subject, being as the authorship of the conduct books was almost exclusively male. As well as this, private collections of diaries and letters will be utilised such as the Margaret Cavendish diaries and letters held at the University of Nottingham among their Manuscripts and Special Collections.
This project aims to examine marriage in the seventeenth century in regards to how lived experience compared to the advice given in conduct books of the time. Contemporary prescriptive literature instructed couples on how to behave within marriage, and outlined advice on the specific distinctions between roles of spouses. Previous research undertaken has found that within this literature there was a conflict of ideals being put forward by conduct writers. Often the proposed need for companionship and love appeared to work at odds to the calls for wifely obedience. Similarly, theories of 'mutuality in marriage' were seen to work against the writers calls for male dominance in relationships. This thesis aims to examine how these conflicting ideals presented themselves in lived experience and to what extent these inconsistent viewpoints were resolved.
Problem or hypothesis to be tested (research questions or problem to be addressed):
The first aim of this project is to examine the way in which men and women in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries experienced marriage. This will be achieved by adopting the approach used by historians of emotion in order to address the significance of love and affection within marital relationships. Secondly, it will compare this with the often conflicting ideals found in the prescriptive literature of the period. Also within this research, the utility of prescriptive literature as a reflection of the society which produces it will be examined.
These research aims will be achieved through close textual analysis of two discrete groups of source material; conduct literature and evidence of real lived experience. Within this project texts such as William Gouge, Domesticall Duties and Richard Baxter, A Christian Directory will be augmented from the extensive range of advice literature created during this period. In terms of sources for lived experience, I will be using personal evidence in the form of letters and diaries. A good resource which will be utilised in this research is the online database of British and Irish Women's Letters and Diaries 1500-1950. This is particularly useful as it provides a perspective from women which is lacking in terms of much of the published contemporary literature on this subject, being as the authorship of the conduct books was almost exclusively male. As well as this, private collections of diaries and letters will be utilised such as the Margaret Cavendish diaries and letters held at the University of Nottingham among their Manuscripts and Special Collections.
