Final answer:
The word 'liberty' in the context of an arranged marriage indicates a complex perspective that evolves throughout the essay, reflecting both freedom and constraint. Characters experience a nuanced sense of autonomy within their societal roles, mirroring historical contexts where women's rights were both evolving and limited.
Step-by-step explanation:
The use of the word “liberty” in the context of an arranged marriage can be interpreted in various ways, revealing a complex development of the narrator's point of view throughout the essay. Initially, the narrator may view marriage as a form of freedom from the expectations or pressures of her surroundings. However, as evidenced by different texts, the notion of liberty can also be nuanced, reflecting anxiety or resignation to societal norms. In the provided text snippets, we see references to the protagonists experiencing both a sense of freedom and constraint in their marriages, suggesting that “links of love” might indeed be both liberating and confining. For example, one character accepts her partner with no hesitation, influenced by her mother's sensible advice, while another reflects on her new liberty as being refreshing, yet temporary, in her conjugal life. A historical perspective shows that in the post-Revolutionary War era, women's rights evolved, but were still confined within the private sphere and largely under the control of their husbands according to the practice of coverture, which may parallel the ambiguity of the term “liberty” in arranged marriages.