Emma, briefly

Emma worried about Joseph as a provider. Their marriage does not seem to be as happy as is shown by the church. To be fair, while most of the blame can be put on Joseph and the revelation of plural marriage, even before that Emma wrote to her family and mentioned her concerns about Joseph being a provider. The couple also eloped and at first, her parents strongly disapproved of the union. The loss of several children at birth or shortly their after also assuredly caused more stress to the marriage. Joseph was frequently away from home. After all that, there was the already mentioned doctrine of plural marriage. One senses a lot of anger welling up in Emma as the years go by, perhaps understandably.  Joseph took her away from the life she was accustomed too-her father was an established member of the middle class, while Joseph was merely the son of the peasant farmers. When they got married, she married into a life she was used to. When the revelation of plural marriage was received, she had perhaps reached her boiling point. Letters from believers paint Emma and Joseph as a frequently unhappy, arguing couple. Emma threatened to leave him several times. Her opinion seems to have changed after the murder of Joseph. She wrote to her son (Joseph III) that she had personally seen and handled the golden plates. She also told the same son that his father could barely write a complete sentence, much less compose the book of Mormon. Emma remained a believer that her husband, though flawed, was truly a Prophet that took revelation from God. Her belief in the divine origins of the Book of Mormon never waivered.