Dowry

Good versus evil is one of the most common motifs. Shakespeare’s work, however, explores the downfalls of both ‘pure good’ and ‘pure evil’ characters, insinuating that only characters who are flawed will survive, that people must lie to survive. The character Cordelia in Shakespeare’s King Lear furthers the idea that an honest person in a prideful world will destroy their relationships, leaving them with nothing but the truths and deceptions of those around them. Cordelia is the only character…

“My Last Duchess” by Robert Browning is a poem written in the form of a dramatic monologue. In it, the speaker describes the portrait of his late wife to the servant of a prospective bride’s father. Throughout the description, the speaker’s sociopathy is made increasingly clear, with the heavily implication that he was the actual cause of the wife’s demise. Browning reveals the prideful, control-obsessed, and sociopathic character of the speaker through self-boasting, caesuras in the monologue,…

respect for each gender’s work. In the early Nahua colonies, women were held against similar scrutiny as men in terms of wealth and skill. The Nahua colonies honored matrilineal inheritance, that is, a woman owned the property and wealth presented as dowry. With the possession of property, women were subjected to the same possibility of falling into poverty. Women were also expected to apply their skill and effort to their work within the household in a similar fashion that men must apply their…

to look at the useless girl child.” (pg. 104, The Concubine’s Children). The thought of a girl ,in their culture, makes them feel as though she will be useless to the family. When it comes to marriage time, the woman 's family usually has to pay a dowry so that the male’s family will let the marriage occur. Once the marriage occurs, the women leave their families but a male does not have to leave his own family. This is why they feel males are more beneficial in the long run. From the beginning…

The roles of women in Elizabethan society were incredibly restrictive. The social constructs of Elizabethan society dictated that men were to be the breadwinners, whereas women were to be mothers and housewives. Childbearing was seen as a great honor to a woman as a child was a blessing from God, therefore women of the era took great pride in motherhood. Women, on average, would bear a child every two years—but due to the high infant mortality rate, families were not very large. Women could not…

The Ancient World is a complex matrix of multiple civilizations spanning roughly 5,000 years, in recorded history. (Kramer, 1981). Beginning with the hunter-gatherers in Mesopotamia, and ending with the decline of the Roman Empire in 476 AD, the Ancient World was filled with contrasting and similar ideas, inventions, and religions. One aspect of these civilizations that stand out is the role of women. However, the roles of women deemed acceptable by society have not always been as diverse and…

The article “Degrees of Freedom: Slavery in Mid-First Millennium BC Babylonia” the author, H.D. Baker examines slaves of the Egibi family in Babylonia throughout the sixth and fifth centuries BC. Baker points out the status of slaves, the ways of gaining slaves, the freeing of slaves, the work and the age of beginning to work for slaves, the escaping of slaves, and the ownership of slaves by women. While there is not a lot mentioned in the status of slaves, it is made clear that there different…

In both Indian and chinese societies the marriages are not based on love but based on finances. The parents of the bride picks out the husband of which their dowries can buy. In Nectar Rukmani is picked to marry Nathan a poor farmer which is not in the social class she is use to living in. It takes time for her to adjust but she brings in a different light on marriage. Instead of the two just being married they…

that the man, Edward Rochester was already married. He was married to Bertha Mason, a Creole woman whom he married when he was much younger. This relationship began when his father and brother pressured him into marrying due to her wealthy dowry. The substantial dowry however, was being offered due to the family’s knowledge of Bertha’s unstableness. Rochester was not aware of this. When Rochester eventually did meet her, he was taken in by her beauty and immediately agreed to the marriage. His…

The memoirs of two Renaissance men: Buoanccorso Pitti and Gregorio Dati. Highlight some of the lifestyles of the time. Pitti was clearly the wealthier and political of the two, being involved in wars, diplomacy, and politics. Pitti took his business as more of a side job to his political involvements in France. Compared to his counterpart in the book, Pitti travels considerably more, spending more time outside of Florence as he travels to meet emperors, kings, and nobles. Pitti’s memoirs also…