Until the 20th century, women were often referred to as the "weaker vessel" in the New Testament (Fraser, 1984) and were deemed inferior to men physically, morally and spiritually. As Aristotle stated, "the male is by nature superior, and the female inferior; and the one rules, and the other is ruled" (Politics book I). This manifestation of social hierarchy distinguished in the bible and in Aristotle´s philosophy has influenced the social and cultural perception of male dominance over women and, in turn, found in many aspects of Modern English political beliefs and figure of speech. So much so, that poets, such as Lady Montagu, expressed their thoughts figuratively in their texts, to raise awareness of the situation. However, "Epistle of Mrs. Yonge´s to her Husband" criticism on the structural institution of marriage and double standard of morality was not published until 1972.
CONTAINER metaphors
To begin with, container metaphors categorize abstract experiences are in terms of physical entities encountered and associated within our human society. Containers can be open or closed, be built or ruined and human experiences map an emotional sense of situations on to…show more content… An important part of a marriage contract was the bride´s family bestowing property, a dowry, on to the newly wed husband, not on to the wife. In truth, poorer families could not afford to bestow a dowry on their daughters, leaving them with more freedom to choose a companion. However, the higher status girls were bound by their social rank and often regarded as commodities in business rather than as human beings with emotions. For a marriage to be legally valid, a formal consecration in a church was not needed, instead the completion of a marriage contract, called spousals, gave sufficient grounds for marriages to become legal by law (Ingram,