Marriage for Love. Who would have thought?

What caught my interest in this week's lectures was the change of views about the constitution of marriage and the change of the woman's roles in the home. It is still hard to believe that marriage was looked at as a business arrangement rather than a promise of eternal love. Although marriage today may not be treated with as much of the traditional form of romance and commitment; what with the concept of divorse and the hardships that occur in a marriage now-a-days, but at least now, one has a choice of whom one wants to marry. Whether it being for love, lust, or even money. But it is interesting to think that durring the time of the Second Great Awakening that family values just started to change and woman were looked at more as companions and more of an equal. It is hard to think how our society and our lives in gerneral would be so much different if our whole lives were run by our male husbands rather than for it to be an equal partnership.
It also interested me to how the woman's role in the home and family started to gear towards taking care and providing for the children. To think that children were looked at as little adults rather than young youths who have not experienced much in the world and are constantly discovering the things around then as well as themselves is rather mind boggaling. It is also interesting that it was mainly the upper-middle class were the main class to be making all the reforms at this time.