The Wedding Night

The wedding night is an unadulterated pleasure for fewer men than one commonly assumes. In olden days it was customary among many people to hang the blood stained bed-sheet out of the window of the bridal chamber the next morning, to proved to all and sundry that the bride was a virgin, and that the marriage had been consummated. If this custom were still in force in our times, many a hotel window would remain undecorated. In most cases, by no means in all, the bridegroom is responsible for the calamity.

For a large number of men, it seems, this occasion is their first acquaintance with sex. No wonder that many of them fail in the arduous task of teaching a young, inexperienced and frightened women the delicate art of love making when they are wholly ignorant themselves. Sexual health demands from a man the knowledge of the anatomy and physiology of female organs and the technique of intercourse. Great skill, fitness and psychological maturity are needed to handle this delicate situation and overcome gently the shadow resistance of the woman. But not only the beginner finds this situation embarrassing, often enough a man with a satisfactory record of sexual experience is dismayed by it. He is the victim of psychological fear that in case of failure his manliness would be questioned and may decide the finality of success and failure of his marriage. This fear, if not overcome instantly, may continue for weeks and in some cases months causing immense distress to the mind of the woman. “A woman desires sex from the very beginning of marriage and, if denied, the situation may turn her neurotic. She may lose confidence in her husband and gradually erodes her respect for him,” writes Freud. A successful marriage begins from the Wedding Night.