Expectations of frustrated marriages and suicidal death as an outcome: analysis of police investigations into suicides in the city of Castro/ Paraná in the early 20th century

Abstract

Heteronormative and monogamous marriage for reproductive purposes was understood as a possibility of changing status in the city of Castro/Paraná at the beginning of the 20th century. In addition to the social construction of romantic love, there was the search for social adequacy with marriage, from which women could assume the role of respectable wives and mothers, and men began to be considered heads of the family. The analysis of police inquiries about suicides that would have occurred in that city in the period in question contributes to reflect on the weight that marriage had as a life objective, since the frustration of the plans to consume it was identified as a motivation for suicidal acts. The social construction of romantic love and the imposition of marriage as a synonym for social respectability, which also reveals the gender stereotypes of a society, may have caused and may still cause pain, suffering and the wish for death.