In the book, “Habits of the Heart” by Robert N. Bellah, compare and contrast the “therapeutic” view of love, marriage and gender roles celebrated by Margaret Oldham, Melinda Da Silva, Ted Oster and Nan Pfautz with the more “traditional” view maintained by Larry Beckett, Les Newman and Howard Crossland.
What kinds of problems did these people face in their marriages?
How did they resolve them?
Which of these views (the traditional or the therapeutic) reflect the rise of modern love and the companionate marriage?
Which reflect the continuation of Victorian views on love, marriage and gender roles in the 20th century? Why?
Based on the statistical data presented in Bellah, chapters 3 and 4, which view, the traditional or the therapeutic, seems to dominate in 21st-century America? Why?
Finally, which of the radical ideas of the sexual revolution of the 1920s have become commonplace today.
In your essay, please be sure to thoroughly describe Victorian ideas on gender, sentimental romantic love, sexuality, and marriage. Also, be sure to draw on the relevant readings in Bellah, and to use examples from the films Coney Island, The Crowd, and History of Ideas—Love, to illustrate the poinfktts you are trying to make.
