Killed Strangely: The Death Of Rebecca Cornell Summary
Killed Strangely: The Death of Rebecca Cornell
Early Women’s History 251.01 1 October 2010
1. The Cornell family didn’t resemble the family ideals propounded in contemporary sermons, literature and the law. “Documents reveal the distance between the New England family of historical imagination and the realities of seventeenth-century domestic life. Instead of the harmony and respect that sermon literature laws and hierarchical/patriarchal society attempted to impose evidence illustrates filial insolence, generational conflict, disrespect toward the elderly, power plays between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law, adult dependence on aging parents who clung to purse strings, sibling rivalry over inherited property and discord between stepmother and stepchildren” (Crane 2). In other …show more content…
Usually during the seventeenth-century, siblings were very competitive towards each other to later in life acquire their parent’s fortunes and estates. However Rebecca did allow Thomas to move into her house with his family, but she kept the most expensive and valuable thing in the house to herself. “Her possession of the great bed suggests that she keenly aware of her place in this household, although what she claimed by right would have been perceived as self-indulgence by her son and daughter-in-law. Such rivalry only fueled the antagonism between mother and son, as furniture became a symbolic weapon in the contest for control over people and space (Cream 14-15). Clearly Rebecca knew that she was at the head of this household, unlike what usually was known at this time, for the man of the house to be at the head. Thomas probably didn’t feel a sense of manhood living in this house. People around town also knew this and he didn’t like the fact that his mother was the one that had all the power over the family, which in return gave him motivate to kill his
Early Women’s History 251.01 1 October 2010
1. The Cornell family didn’t resemble the family ideals propounded in contemporary sermons, literature and the law. “Documents reveal the distance between the New England family of historical imagination and the realities of seventeenth-century domestic life. Instead of the harmony and respect that sermon literature laws and hierarchical/patriarchal society attempted to impose evidence illustrates filial insolence, generational conflict, disrespect toward the elderly, power plays between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law, adult dependence on aging parents who clung to purse strings, sibling rivalry over inherited property and discord between stepmother and stepchildren” (Crane 2). In other …show more content…
Usually during the seventeenth-century, siblings were very competitive towards each other to later in life acquire their parent’s fortunes and estates. However Rebecca did allow Thomas to move into her house with his family, but she kept the most expensive and valuable thing in the house to herself. “Her possession of the great bed suggests that she keenly aware of her place in this household, although what she claimed by right would have been perceived as self-indulgence by her son and daughter-in-law. Such rivalry only fueled the antagonism between mother and son, as furniture became a symbolic weapon in the contest for control over people and space (Cream 14-15). Clearly Rebecca knew that she was at the head of this household, unlike what usually was known at this time, for the man of the house to be at the head. Thomas probably didn’t feel a sense of manhood living in this house. People around town also knew this and he didn’t like the fact that his mother was the one that had all the power over the family, which in return gave him motivate to kill his