In the 1600s how did people become engaged?

Question

I have to write a paper on the movie Merchant of Venice. The girl in the movie had suitors come and and open 1 of 3 boxes, if her portriat was in the box they opened, then they were engaged to be married. I need to know if that is how they really go engaged during that time period.

Answer 1

It varied from place to place, culture to culture, and region to region, but one commonality was "putting up the banns" in church: for three consecutive Sundays, the engagement had to be announced in the parish or parishes where each of the engaged pair was a permanent resident. (ie. If the man and woman were from different parishes, the banns had to be read at both places.)

Depending on the class of the people involved, the marriage might be an arranged marriage, contracted by the families for political or economic reasons, or it might be contracted or agreed on for practical reasons.

As a rule, people of the lower economic classes didn't travel very far from where they were born and grew up, and the pool of marriageable partners was limited to those in the immediate area where they lived. Peasants or small merchant-class people probably grew up knowing who they would eventually marry from among the small pool of potential partners available.

The convention used in Merchant of Venice, i.e., the boxes, probably was something that Shakespeare either invented or stole from someone else (Shakespeare was in inveterate plagiarist, bless the man).

Answer 2

Most marriages were arranged by the parents or guardians of the pair involved. For royalty, and some of the nobility, these things might be decided for them in their childhood, and they would never see one another live and in person until the wedding was imminent.

For others, it wasn't necessarily so dramatic (or, sometimes, traumatic).

A young woman of the middle class, for example, might receive suitors (under the watchful eye of her family) and have some limited choice. Naturally,his background, fortune, and prospects would be thoroughly investigated, and, on the approval of both families (the girl's dowry was examined equally carefully by the family of the prospective bridegroom as well), the Banns of Marriage were called (this consisted of an announcement in church on three consecutive Sundays that Richard Roe proposed to marry Jane Doe and if anyone knew of any reason that either party could not legally contract this marriage, they were expected to speak up about it).

Assuming nothing came up, the couple would be married soon thereafter.

Answer 3

That was not the norm. I think that idea is based on an ancient fairy tale or legend. Generally, an engagment was an agreement worked out between the two fathers of the people in question. The engaged people may not have even met each other previously.

Answer 4

Yes it is. But families would also "trade" off their daughters for dowries. Back then, most marriages were arranged.

Good luck on your paper.
Have a great day!