Heloise began her correspondence to Abelard in response to his publication of his Calamities. It is through the letters that readers can see the power of marriage during the Middle Ages. Heloise did not want to marry Abelard. She knew the consequences of marriage. Medieval marriage was not about love; it was about advancement and procreation. According to historian, Heath Dillard, "women are the necessary guarantors of... a second generation." Heloise, and other women of the era, knew that was the expectation of wives during the Middle Ages; they were the incubators of the next generations. They were also responsible for bringing in extra income through their dowries. According to Coleman, women were a burden on their families, and only beneficial …show more content…
A husband became the woman's master. According to Williams and Echols, when a woman killed her husband, it was considered an act of treason, rather than just simple murder, because a husband was so much higher than the …show more content…
As mentioned earlier, soon after they married, Abelard forced Heloise to join the Church. Heloise had no intentions of joining the Church, and in the first letter to Abelard, she reminds him that she "threw myself away at your command," and reiterates the point when at the end of the letter she states she joined the Church at "your command alone." Abelard in the letters between him and Heloise tends to stray away from referring to himself as her husband, but does so when he needs to assert his power over her as his husband. In the second letter, he tells her that, "a diligent woman is a crown to her husband." With this statement, he was merely appeasing Heloise, and just wanted to remind her that technically he was still her husband, and still under his command, even though they were separated. In his own words, he says that she is "above" him because she is Abbess, but in all reality, she was still below him because she was a woman and his wife, and Abelard knew that. She was still a reflection of him, and Heloise was not alone in this. Women had to remain pure, chaste, and loyal, because a wife who misbehaved in anyway showed society that her husband was a man who could not control a woman. Women were also held responsible for their husband's