A Victorian Marriage : Sir William Rowan Hamilton

The famous Irish mathematician Sir William Rowan Hamilton (1805-1865) is generally regarded as having been an unhappily married alcoholic. The aim of this essay is to show that, contrary to this widespread belief, Hamilton had a good marriage, that in fact large parts of his marriage were fairly happy. It is discussed where the idea of his marriage as having been an unhappy one came from, and it is shown that according to current standards he was by no means an alcoholic.

Related Organizations

Utrecht University
Netherlands

Keywords

Sir William Rowan Hamilton, Hamiltonian mechanics, quaternions, Ireland, history, biography, nineteenth century

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