Marriage is a social structure. When couples get married they enter into a relationship that is societally recognized and to some degree societally regulated. Laws, customs, traditions and cultural assumptions are intrinsically involved in defining the path that a marriage will take. In the late 19th century many Americans had to come to terms in some way with the societal expectations of marriage, guided by the Victorian mores. But as the 20th century began these elements began to evolve. As personal expectations became more important societal expectations lost prevalence.The laws and regulations of the 1920’s succeeded in making it more difficult to obtain a divorce. More conservative states in the East limited divorce to only two or three complaints, adultery or abandonment were the most common. But this red tape did not slow down the rapidly accelerating rate of divorce in the 1920’s. Especially in the more liberal West was divorce becoming a more usual case. The state of California and the state of New Jersey were the center of May’s Great Expectations. California was settled by Victorians, many of who were European immigrants who moved to California from the mid-West. Other Victorians were native-born white Protestant Americans from the middle class. These men and women believed that independence and self denial would lead to progress. Most of these people were well to do merchants and professionals, who had economic autonomy. This Victorian culture encouraged domestic morality. During this time there were clearly defined sex roles. The husband served as the sole provider and the wife took care of the home, children and volunteer work at the church. With the high social standards set at this time divorce was a huge reputation killer. But divorce still did occur. Cases against men of the time included: inability to provide for basic needs disruption of domestic life with vices and abuse or...
