The Broom Tree

            I have found it a common theme in the old world literature of arranged marriages that occur while the spouses are still children, yet there is generally a large range between their ages. In The Broom Tree Genji marries his wife when he is twelve and she is sixteen. Four years between married people is not all that unusual, but when one is twelve and the other is sixteen that is the difference between a child and a young adult. Girls mature faster, and in turn most sixteen year old girls are almost done with puberty. When comparing that with Genji, at twelve most boys have not started puberty or are just beginning.

            The arranged marriages thorough history led to a breach between love and marriage in the olden days. Marriage was for advancement in the world, and was sacred as an institution. However, a man’s love was also sacred in another way, which usually led him to have a mistress (possibly from a lower class). The continuation of this practice has had a carryover of culture into today, where many men hold mistresses even though they are not required to marry a certain girl, and in this day and age marriage is supposed to be based on love.