Infidelity
Esther Perel tells us about infidelity and starts by asking the questions on why we think people have affairs. We normally think that men cheat because of fear of intimacy and boredom while women cheat because of loneliness and hunger for intimacy. Infidelity has been around since the beginnings of marriages. People have lied and cheated with their significant other for years. What Perel asks is, is it the end to all relationships?
John Proctor was a man in the town of Salem with an impeachable reputation. He had helped built the church, he was a hard working farmer, he had a pretty wife and two sons. He had a secret, though, one his wife had suspected. John Proctor had had an affair with the minister's niece, Abigail Williams. After his wife caught wind of it, she tossed Abigail out of work and distanced herself from her husband. Amazingly, this was not the end of their relationship. Perel tells in her Ted Talk that when it comes to love we look for another self. A proper young woman who has a Prius could fall easily for a man with tattoos and a truck, and vise versa. This explains John and Abigail's relationship. John was a good man who held a certain influence due to his name. Abigail had watched her parents be murdered and worked for him always flashing a seductive look. She was his opposite and he fell for it. He eventually had his Christian values eventually caught up to him and he broke it off. Perel says that affairs are both a good and a bad thing. It causes hurt and suffering but it also builds self knowledge and resolve. If the two people can get past an affair and work it out then the two will be more close than they were before. She would not recommend an affair but she does believe it is not all bad. I personally think an affair is a horrible thing. John Proctor and Elizabeth Proctor eventually rekindled the passion they once had, but it took John to be put down to hang for it to happen all because of an affair. |
|