Robert Roeschlein Professor Presnell English 1102 23 February 2014 Unfaithful Spouse Proposal Inquiry questions: Should it be illegal

for one to cheat on their spouse? Primary Purpose: To better understand marriage laws One of the major reasons in asking this question is to acquire better background information and understand the legality of marriage within the country. Furthermore, this question will be used to study American culture, from the past to the present, and how the views of marriage have changed over time. With this research, I would also be able to look into other foreign countries policies and views on marriage and compare them to how strict or loose they are in comparison to America. Lastly, the research behind this question will help me find a direct answer to this question with support on why that answer is. From there, I can look into and predict the future of American culture and whether or not my final conclusion on the topic would be for better or for worse. Prior beliefs and assumptions When it comes to marriage licenses, Im not familiar with anything about them except for the fact that they are required by the government if one is to get married. Due to my love for history, I do know much about American culture and how the antebellum time period (19th century) strongly emphasized the importance of home values and marriage. Yet those values began to fade away with the start of the 1920s and rise of pop culture. An assumption I have always made on this topic is that pop culture is one of the largest factors in the increase in divorce rates and loss of moral values within the nation. My interest in this topic is due to my love for political discussion and history, as well as it being mentioned in many controversial debates I have been in. Despite being somewhat of a controversial topic, I have never had an opinion about the topic as I have never done enough research to better understand the laws of marriage in general. Working Knowledge My interest in history has helped me assess multiple factors in the change in moral values and marriage life throughout American history, specifically the changes occurring throughout the 20th century. These factors consist of rise in pop culture, invention of credit, flapper movement, increasing influence of public relations and advertisement and much more.

Im also familiar with the fact that most foreign countries have a stronger view on marriage then Americans do now days. This can be said especially about the middle-east and Asia, where marriage is traditional and sacred. In certain countries, divorce is illegal and adultery is punishable by death. Meanwhile nations within central and South America do not have as strict of laws on marriage, but still have lower divorce rates and less statistically proven adulteresses. This is most likely through the importance marriage has culturally and influential the Catholic Church is in those regions. After doing research on the topic, I discovered that Massachusetts has already created state laws (Chapter 272, Section 14 of the MA General laws) making cheating on your spouse illegal (Randall 1). I have also seen many articles and webpages discussing the reasoning behind why unfaithful spouses should be punished by the law, mostly in civil cases. Not only do they talk about what should occur after one is convicted of cheating, but also why it should be illegal in the first place.