Topic > The Impact of the Black Death on Family Relationships

With the advent of the Black Death in 1348, the social fabric of medieval society began to collapse. With the Black Death taking over European countries, many parts of society began to see their downfall. In this period of illness, areas such as family relationships, gender relationships, class relationships, community relationships and even church situations have been affected. Throughout the duration of the Black Death many people abandoned the morals that were imprinted on them to protect their health. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay The Black Death had a major impact on family relationships. During the Black Death, the family that was supposed to be the patient's support system ended up not finishing their job. Many family members were too worried about what would happen to them if they cared for someone affected by the Death Star. Children abandoned their parents and husbands abandoned their wives or vice versa. There was no longer any sense of need to care for each other. The family waited until the infected person fell asleep and then left without returning. As the family dynamic changed, the social fabric began to crumble. The families felt the need to change their ways especially when they saw that families were being carried on a single coffin because they tried to help each other but instead fell due to illness. When you see people who cared for each other die, it can dissuade a person from wanting to care for someone with the same disease that killed them. Once the wave of the Black Death passed, the survivors married. With all these new marriages, the way society works is changing because the same families no longer create medieval society. Another thing that was affected by the Black Death was gender relations. At the beginning of medieval society those who attended funerals were relatives, 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 too many people dying at the same time to attend all these funerals. They also began to not want to be around those suffering from the Black Death or those who died from it, because they feared contracting the disease themselves. When someone caught the Black Death, they didn't care who took care of them. When a woman was sick, she didn't care whether a man or a woman cared for her. However, those women who survived the disease no longer felt the need to be chaste around men because they had already seen things since they took care of her. Even after the Black Death period, many men and women tended to abandon the idea of ​​traditional dress. As people began to move away from traditional gender roles, medieval society began to change. The way men and women acted changed the social fabric of medieval society from that point on. The Black Death also affected class relations during its duration. Because people were dying, there were fewer people to do the necessary work. Workers began to realize that as the population declined they could demand higher wages for the work they did since there were fewer people competing for jobs. Workers were demanding more money from their employers for the same jobs they did before and this required the employer to decide, for example, betweenlose money or lose crops. To try to leave the workers were paid the same, the king imposed a law that said they had to be paid the same amount as before. Even though the king enforced this rule, many workers still refused to do the work unless they obtained permission to increase. This led to the lords having to pay the ultimate price, and when the king found out he imprisoned the workers; however, the workers claimed that they did not take any extra money and were released again. This caused an upheaval in economic systems and changed class relations in medieval society. In addition to regular workers asking for more money, funeral workers also asked for more money. There was a lot more work to do with more people dying and the workers wanted more rewards for their hard work. There were people who were paid to carry the dead to the grave because the families didn't do it anymore. This work also carried serious risks as many of those who transported the dead ended up contracting the Black Death themselves. With the Black Death ravaging Europe, some jobs required a pay increase due to the risk or amount of people in the field impacting the economic situation of medieval society. When funerals became a normal daily event, there were lower prices on many products, because many people began to fear death and no longer focused on their wealth. Most things became cheaper, except those that had to do with funerals and helping those affected by the Black Death. Things like candles and some of the things sick people would eat went up in price. Supply and demand changed dramatically during this period, leading to a shift in class relations within medieval society. Relationships within the community changed 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 time of the Black Death, the community would come together and help each other in times of illness. As the Black Death spread across Europe, someone who had the disease would be abandoned by their families and try to scream out of a window waiting to catch the attention of someone passing by. The chances of anyone passing through were decreasing as many small villages were abandoned. People leaving their homes were changing the world they were used to in order to avoid the possibility of contracting the fatal Black Death. People also began to withdraw from their communities. As people moved away from their communities, society as a whole was changing because they no longer communicated. It also affected communities because some of them began to believe that the Black Death was caused by Jews poisoning the water. This caused more problems in the community because it brought with it more fights. As more and more theories became public about the Black Death, it caused more problems within medieval society. One last thing that was affected by the Black Death was the situation of the church. Originally there were more than enough people to work with the dying and arrange funerals, but as the Black Death continued to reign, it began to eliminate the church employees who handled these things. In this period the number of priests was so small that churches could no longer celebrate divine services, masses or sacraments. A society that relied on the church for its religious events now had to find another way to practice its beliefs. The bass.