Marriage and Wife free essay sample

According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary marriage is defined as â€Å"the state of being united to a person of the opposite sex as husband or wife in a consensual and contractual relationship recognized by law. † In the essay â€Å"Of Marriage and Single Life† by Francis Bacon, he talks about how men should act to please women, so they can marry them in the future. Francis Bacon wrote this piece in the early seventeenth century. In the essay â€Å"I Want A Wife† by Judy Syfers, she talks about wives from a husbands’ perspective. Syfers basically describes all the characteristics and personality traits that she thinks men look for in a woman. These two essays have some similarities on how Bacon and Syfers think that marriages should work, however the pieces also have a lot of differences. As stated earlier the piece by Francis Bacon was written long before Syfers was even born, therefore some of the ideas that Bacon believes are much different because of the time period the essay was written in. We will write a custom essay sample on Marriage and Wife or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Francis Bacon talks about the differences between married men and single men. He said that single men make better friends and are generally more fun to be around. However single men are not as loyal and reliable as married men because they have never had to make a commitment like marriage. He also believes that all the money that a man makes should go straight to providing for his wife and children, so they can live in the best environment and household possible. Bacon believes that single men are more charitable, because they do not have a wife and family that they have to provide for. Bacon also makes it clear that if a woman is unhappy with her marriage that it is ultimately her fault because she chose to marry her husband with mutual consent. Judy Syfers’ essay is written from the perspective that she is a man describing what she believes is the perfect wife. However in the first line of her essay Syfers says that she is married and has children. In this essay Syfers is almost mocking men saying that men do nothing to help out in marriages. She said, â€Å"I want a wife who will not bother me with rambling complaints about a wife’s duties. But I want a wife who will listen to me when I feel the need to explain a rather difficult point I have come across in my course of studies. And I want a wife who will type my papers form me when I have written them. † The beginning of this quote says that a wife hould not complain about how much work they have, because the husband’s duties are much more difficult than what the wife did all day. Also it says that women should listen to men about the problems that they are having, but it does not say anything about the women responding and helping them through their problems. It also says that a wife should type the husband’s papers for him after he has written them; however t hat is just trying to say that men are too lazy to do task that they are more than capable of doing themselves. This article is very biased to women because it was written by a woman. Judy Syfers is basically saying that men do little to nothing in marriages, and the women do everything to take care of their husbands. It is easy to tell that this essay is much more modern than the other essay because toward the end of it Syfers says, â€Å"If, by chance, I find another person more suitable as a wife than the wife I already have, I want the liberty to replace my present wife with another one. † The ideas of divorces are very recent, and have only been around since the mid nineteen hundreds. Basically one of these essays is written from the women’s perspective and the other is written from a man’s perspective. However the one from the women’s perspective was written as if she was a man in search of the perfect wife. Also the essay written by Judy Syfers is about four hundred years more recent than Francis Bacon’s essay. It is easy to spot the time difference as well because Syfers talks about getting divorced and typing papers, while the essay written by Francis Bacon talks about how a man should treat his wife. However most of the ideas inside the marriage are very similar, such as how the couples should behave and interact, and their beliefs on children are similar as well. That is how these essays about marriage are similar and different.