Adultery

adultery

Sexual relations between a married person and someone other than his or her spouse. Prohibitions against adultery are found in virtually every society; Jewish, Christian, and Islamic traditions all condemn it, and in some Islamic countries it is still punishable by death. Attitudes toward adultery in different cultures have varied widely. Under the Code of Hammurabi (18th century BC) in Babylonia it was punishable by death by drowning, and in ancient Rome an offending woman could be killed, though men were not severely punished. In western Europe and North America, adultery by either spouse is a ground for divorce, though in the U.S. the shift to no-fault divorce significantly reduced the importance of adultery as an element in divorce proceedings. The spread of Western ideas of equality in marriage has resulted in pressure for equal marital rights for women in traditional African and Southeast Asian societies.

---

Adultery

See also Cuckoldry, Faithlessness.

Alcmena

unknowingly commits adultery when Jupiter impersonates her husband. [Rom. Lit.: Amphitryon]

Alison

betrays old husband amusingly with her lodger, Nicholas. [Br. Lit.: Canterbury Tales, “Miller’s Tale”]

Andermatt, Christiane

eventually has child by lover, not husband. [Fr. Lit.: Mont-Oriol, Magill I, 618–620]

Bathsheba

pressured by David to commit adultery during husband’s absence. [O.T.: II Samuel 11:4]

Bloom, Molly

sensual wife of Leopold has an affair with Blazes Boylan. [Irish Lit.: Joyce Ulysses in Magill I, 1040]

Bovary, Emma

acquires lovers to find rapture marriage lacks. [Fr. Lit.: Madame Bovary, Magill I, 539–541]

Brant, Capt. Adam

fatefully falls for general’s wife. [Am. Lit.: Mourning Becomes Electra]

Buchanan, Tom

even with Daisy’s knowledge, deliberately has affairs. [Am. Lit.: The Great Gatsby]

Chatterley, Connie

takes the gameskeeper of her impotent husband as her lover. [Br. Lit.: D. H. Lawrence Lady Chatterley’s Lover in Benét, 559]

Clytemnestra

takes Aegisthus as paramour. [Gk. Lit.: Orestes]

Couples

group of ten husbands sleep with each others’ wives. [Am. Lit.: Weiss, 108]

Cunizza

amours with Sordello while married to first husband. [Br. Lit.: Sordello]

currant

symbol of infidelity. [Flower Symbolism: Jobes, 398]

de Lamare, Julien

Jeanne’s young philandering husband, who has affairs with her foster-sister and their neighbor’s wife. [Fr. Lit.: Maupassant A Woman’s Life in Magill I, 1127]

Dimmesdale, Rev. Arthur

Puritan minister who commits adultery. [Am. Lit.: Hawthorne The Scarlet Letter]

Guinevere

King Arthur’s unfaithful wife. [Br. Lit.: Le Morte d’Arthur]

Herzog

insatiable husband plays the field. [Am. Lit.: Herzog]

Julia, Donna

Alfonso’s wife; gives herself to Don Juan. [Br. Lit.: “Don Juan” in Magill I, 217–219]

Karenina, Anna

commits adultery with Count Vronsky; scandalizes Russian society. [Russ. Lit.: Anna Karenina]

Lancelot

enters into an adulterous relationship with Guinevere. [Br. Lit.: Malory Le Mort d’Arthur]

Mannon, Christine

conspires with lover to poison husband; discovered, commits suicide. [Am. Lit.: Mourning Becomes Electra]

Moechus

personification of adultery. [Br. Lit.: The Purple Island, Brewer Handbook, 715]

Pozdnishef, Madame

bored with husband, acquires Trukhashevsky as lover. [Russ. Lit.: The Kreutzer Sonata, Magill I, 481–483]

Prynne, Hester

adulterous woman in Puritan New England; condemned to wear a scarlet letter. [Am. Lit.: The Scarlet Letter]

scarlet letter

“A” for “adultery” sewn on Hester Prynne’s dress. [Am. Lit.: The Scarlet Letter]

Tonio

after Nedda’s repulsion, tells husband of her infidelities. [Ital. Opera: Leoncavallo, Pagliacci, Westerman, 341–342]

Wicked Bible

misprint gives Commandment: “Thou shalt commit adultery.” [sic] [Br. Hist.: Brewer Dictionary, 108]