Making sense of romantic jealousy in late 18th-century Sweden – the experiences of Pehr Stenberg

Abstract

ABSTRACT Focusing on the life description of clergyman Pehr Stenberg, this article examines the internal processing of romantic jealousy in a late 18th-century Swedish context. During his lifetime, Stenberg wrote a vast life description with the intent of documenting his innermost thoughts and feelings. In this account, the romantic jealousy that plagued Stenberg during his second marriage is described in intimate detail. Using this extensive and complex account to conduct a micro-historical exploration of romantic jealousy, this article displays jealousy as an entangled emotion by examining its relationship to key contemporary beliefs, thoughts and ideals, as well as to other emotions. Consequently, jealousy in relation to love and marriage, honour, psychological and physical pathology and religion is examined. Although comprising a single account, the life description of Pehr Stenberg manages to display the multidimensional nature of romantic jealousy and the very historically specific ways in which we explain and process our emotional experiences.