In Steven Ozment’s The Bürgermeister’s Daughter, it speaks of an affair occurring amongst the rich at the time. A very private matter opened up to the world when the daughter of a high powered bürgermeister, Anna Büschler, sued her father for financial support after he kicked her out. This just shows how much social ethics during the sixteenth century played a huge part in how communities and homes were run. Slander of one 's name left a residual mark on their lives is one example of how morals and ethics dominated everyone 's life back then.
In the book, Anna has been caught having an affair. This was a major no-no because women were suppose to be virgins when getting ready for marriage (Lecture, 9/15). Morally speaking, sex was not …show more content…
She managed to get away with these affairs for many years without anyone knowing. Her social standing aided in her sneaky liaisons with the men over the years. However, when she tries to defend herself in front of the state, she needs a man to represent her. She had to fight her many years of legal battles behind a man representative. Her fight against her father and the state does reflect on wider issues of how life was for women during this time period. Once these flings and letters go public, Anna is immediately ostracized. This shows a double standard during the time. In one letter to Erasmus she confronts him about his flirtatious nature in Schesslitz. “I am well acquainted with all the stories people have told about your grace’s (Erasmus’s) behavior in Schesslitz” (Ozment, 48). So it is okay for a man to have relationships with many women, but once a women has more than one potential husband, she is deemed improper. Women also had to virgins when about to marry. Virginity is hard to prove on a man, but easy to prove on a woman. This meant that the man could have had many partners before his current wife. The double standards between a man and a woman were devastating for the woman at the
In the book, Anna has been caught having an affair. This was a major no-no because women were suppose to be virgins when getting ready for marriage (Lecture, 9/15). Morally speaking, sex was not …show more content…
She managed to get away with these affairs for many years without anyone knowing. Her social standing aided in her sneaky liaisons with the men over the years. However, when she tries to defend herself in front of the state, she needs a man to represent her. She had to fight her many years of legal battles behind a man representative. Her fight against her father and the state does reflect on wider issues of how life was for women during this time period. Once these flings and letters go public, Anna is immediately ostracized. This shows a double standard during the time. In one letter to Erasmus she confronts him about his flirtatious nature in Schesslitz. “I am well acquainted with all the stories people have told about your grace’s (Erasmus’s) behavior in Schesslitz” (Ozment, 48). So it is okay for a man to have relationships with many women, but once a women has more than one potential husband, she is deemed improper. Women also had to virgins when about to marry. Virginity is hard to prove on a man, but easy to prove on a woman. This meant that the man could have had many partners before his current wife. The double standards between a man and a woman were devastating for the woman at the