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  • Essay / The Impact of the Black Death on Family Relations

    With the onset of the Black Death in 1348, the social fabric of medieval society began to collapse. With the Black Death spreading across European countries, many sections of society began to see their downfall. Areas such as family relations, gender relations, class relations, community relations and even the situation of the Church have been affected in this time of illness. Throughout the Black Death, many people abandoned the moral values ​​that were engraved in them in order to protect their own health. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why violent video games should not be banned”?Get the original essay The Black Death had a major impact on family relationships. During the Black Death, the family that was supposed to support the sick person ended up not doing their job. Many family members were too worried about what would happen to them if they had to care for someone with the Black Death. Children abandoned their parents and husbands abandoned their wives or vice versa. There was no longer a feeling of having to take care of each other. The family waited until the infected person fell asleep and then left without returning. With the change in family dynamics, the social fabric began to break down. Families felt the need to change their ways, especially when they found that families were being taken on a single beer because they were trying to help each other but were instead falling into illness. When you see people who cared for each other die, it can deter a person from wanting to care for someone with the same illness that killed them. Once the wave of the Black Death passed, the survivors married. With all these new marriages, the functioning of society changes because it is no longer the same families who create medieval society. Another aspect affected by the Black Death concerns relations between the sexes. In early medieval society, those who attended funerals were the women of the family, neighbors, etc. After the Black Death continued to wipe out more and more people, women stopped showing up at funerals. Fewer and fewer people began to attend the funerals of the dying because there were simply too many people dying at the same time to be able to attend all of those funerals. They also began to no longer want to be near people who had the Black Death or those who died from it, because they feared catching the disease themselves. When someone caught the Black Death, they didn't care who took care of them. When a woman was sick, she did not care whether she was cared for by a man or a woman. However, women who survived the disease no longer felt the need to be chaste around men, because they had already seen things when taking care of them. Even after the Black Death, many men and women tended to abandon traditional ideas of dress. As people began to move away from traditional gender roles, medieval society began to change. The way men and women acted now changed the social fabric of medieval society. The Black Death also affected class relations during its duration. As people died, there were fewer people to do the work needed. Workers began to understand that as the population declined, they could demand higher wages for the work theywere performing because there were fewer people competing for jobs. Workers demanded more money from their employers for the same jobs than before, forcing the employer to choose between losing money or losing crops, for example. In an attempt to ensure that the workers received the same pay, the king imposed a law stating that they should receive the same amount as before. Even though the king imposed this rule, many workers still refused to do the work unless they were granted an increase. This led the lords to pay a higher price, and when the king found out, he imprisoned the workers; however, the workers said they did not take any extra money and were released again. This caused a disruption of economic systems and changed class relations in medieval society. Besides the regular workers who asked for more money, the workers who performed the funerals also asked for more money. There was a lot more work to be done, more people were dying, and workers wanted more rewards for their hard work. There were people who were paid to carry the dead to their graves because families no longer did it. This work also carried serious risks, as many of those transporting the dead would eventually catch the Black Death themselves. With the Black Death ravaging Europe, some jobs required a pay increase due to the risk or the number of people working in that field, which affected the economic situation of medieval society. As funerals became an everyday event, the prices of many products fell as many people became afraid of death and were no longer focused on their wealth. Most things became cheaper, except for funerals and helping those struck by the Black Death. The prices of things like candles and some of the things sick people ate increased. Supply and demand changed dramatically during this period, leading to a shift in class relations within medieval society. Relations within the community were altered at the time of the Black Death. When people began to realize that the disease was very contagious and deadly, they no longer wanted to care for the sick. Before the Black Death, the community came together and helped each other in times of illness. With the Black Death plaguing Europe, a person suffering from the disease would be abandoned by their family and would try to shout out the window while waiting to attract the attention of a passerby. The chances of someone passing through diminished as many small villages were abandoned. People who left their homes changed the world they were accustomed to in order to avoid the possibility of catching the deadly Black Death. People also began to withdraw from their communities. As people withdrew from their communities, society as a whole changed because they no longer communicated. This also affected the communities because some community members began to believe that the Black Death was caused by the poisoning of water by the Jewish people. This caused more problems within the community as it led to more fighting. As more theories became public about the Black Death, it caused more problems within medieval society. One last thing affected by the Black Death was the situation of the Church. Originally there were enough people to work with the dying and organize funerals,..