Dating And Marriage In The 19th Century Essay

Dating and Marriage From The 19th Century to Now While there appears to be many drawbacks to living in the nineteenth century such as a lack of technology, the rituals surrounding dating and marriage seem preferable to those of the twentieth century. Since Adam and Eve, dating and marriage still continue to change and evolve during different time periods. In the 1800’s dating and marriage created a way to make social connections and grow wealth. Today, men and women use marriage as a way to take a journey of self-discovery with the help of their spouse (“Are Modern Marriages Stronger or Suffocating?”). Men and women considers dating as a way to experience a taste of marriage without the commitment an actual marriage brings, but many of those dating begin to take part in activities meant to take place while in a …show more content…
Social class and income had a great impact on who a boy or girl could possibly marry. Pride and Prejudice contains a quote at the beginning of the book that says, “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife” (Austen 1). This shows how any man that was single and had a good fortune was considered a perfect match for practically any girl. The sole purpose of courting in the nineteenth century was marriage, unlike the purpose of dating in today’s world. Courting only began when both the man and woman were ready to make the commitment of marriage (How is courtship different than dating?). In the 21st century there is no guarantee that a commitment is ready to be made. Over the past two-hundred years courting changed to dating. Along with the change of name comes many changes to what dating is used for compared to courting. In the nineteenth century courting came before marriage and was almost always led to a marriage. In today’s world those who date do have no commitment to the other person involved to even consider