Arranged Marriage : The Role Of Marriage And Marriage

     In years past, the American Dream for most young girls’ is to grow up and be married to Prince Charming and to “Live Happily Ever After!” Although this may be expected - it is rarely fulfilled. Marriage is the legal and binding union between a man and woman. Yet when couples marry, they vow to stay by their partner’s side ‘till death do us part.’ Currently that vow seems to have little or no value in today’s society. The current statistics for survival of marriage are quite grim. The divorce rate in the United States is somewhere between 50 percent and a startling 67 percent. (KSL News) One contributing factor the growing epidemic of divorce is the parting of different family

“Marriage and Love”, a short essay by Emma Goldman, gives a wonderful argument regarding love and marriage, in fact, she nails it. Marriage does not equal love or has anything nothing to do with it. Not only that, but the marriage could also easily kill whatever relationship was there prior to the declaration. Marriage is simply a social construct, one that imposes control by religion, tradition, and social opinion (Goldman 304). However, if marriage is such the ball and chain that we all joke about, then why do people get married?

To begin with, marriage is a celebration of love, instead of an obligation. The world has transformed into a more open-minded. In bygone days,

Marriage has often been described as one of the most beautiful and powerful unions one human can form with another. It is the sacred commitment and devotion that two people share in a relationship that makes marriage so appealing since ancient times, up until today. To have and to hold, until death do us part, are the guarantees that two individuals make to one another as they pledge to become one in marriage. It is easy to assume that the guarantee of marriage directly places individuals in an everlasting state of love, affection, and support. However, over the years, marriage has lost its fairy

Marriage has been a heated controversy for the past few years because people often marry for the wrong reasons. Anyone who thinks of an ideal marriage would think of two people loving each other and sharing a personal bond or goals together. Marriage is regularly defined as the legally or formally recognized union of two lovers as partners in a personal relationship. This definition remarks there is an actual connection between two people in marriage, but do people actually consider this when committing to “love” and “support” their partners forever? As research and studies have shown, people ultimately get married for many reasons, except love. This philosophy can be easily applied to the short poem, “Marriage” by Gregory Corso. In this emotional poem, the author argues marriage is more effectively understood or known for culture and convenience rather than through the abstract considerations of love. Here, we can identify people generally decide to marry for the incorrect reasons, for instance the story of the author himself. Corso finds himself confused multiple times, wondering if he should marry to not be lonely, for tradition and for his physical and mental health. He disregards love, a relationship or a connection with his future wife. General ways of convenience like loneliness, health and economic status between cultural stereotypes and religion are usually the true reasons of why people chose to have the commitment of marriage with another person.

But even in today’s world, many researchers and professors still see some sort of link between marriage and the oppression of women. An article from Psychology Today, written by Professor Noam Shpancer Ph.D. uses modern data to demonstrate the argument that Stetson made well over one hundred years ago. Shpancer’s article, titled Is Marriage Worth the Trouble for Women?, is best summarized as extending Stetson’s arguments of marriage being oppressive in nature, while also bringing new information about the inherent fact that benefits to marriage like “increases in health, wealth, and happiness that are often associated with the status—go disproportionately to men,” (Shpancer 1). Shpancer’s article also provides clear indication about whether or not marriage is oppressive, and it “appears to provide support for the notion that women experience the institution of marriage as oppressive, in large part because it emerged from and still carries the imprint of a system of female subjugation,” (Shpancer 1). Shpancer’s work provides excellent insight for the topic areas of marriage, oppression, and so

Established with Adam and Eve, still surviving, marriage is the oldest institution known. Often the climax of most romantic movies and stories, whether it may be ‘Pride and Prejudice’ or ‘Dil Wale Dulhaniya Ley Jaein Gey’, marriage has a universal appeal. It continues to be the most intimate social network, providing the strongest and most frequent opportunity for social and emotional support. Though, over the years, marriage appears to be tarnished with high divorce rates, discontentment and infidelity, it is still a principal source of happiness in the lives of respective partners. Although marriage is perceived as a deeply flawed institution serving more the needs of the society than those of the individuals, nevertheless, marriage is

Imagine a world with no family, no true happiness, and your rights as an individual was completely revoked. If a higher authority came along and determined the future of our society, then we would end up no differently than the Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. The characters have lost their rights as an individual and now rely on one another to gain a sense of security. Ironically, Huxley’s prediction of the future is starting to become a reality as our society is becoming unstable by separating from any true relationship or family values and relying more on casual relationships, technology, and material things. Society is starting to look at marriage as an obstacle, rather than a union.

Love is portrayed in society as a perfect bond between two people and that they live happily ever after but that is not always the case. In the story “Once upon a Time in a Tent” written by Tim Neville talks about his time living in a tent in his backyard and his journey through his three relationships. In the story “The Arranged Marriage” written by Mira Jacob she talks about how her parents are in an arranged marriage and never showed any affection towards each other.

Tina Turner once sang, “What’s love got to do with it?” Within the song, Turner’s answer to this question is to focus only on her feelings of attraction, thus rejecting any romantic feelings. The same question can be posed to the concept of marriage. Marriage might seem easily definable: a legal union of two people. However, the motivations behind marriage differ across cultures. In America marriage is often linked with the idea of love. However, the idea of marriage as a bond of love is specific to Western culture. Additionally, marrying for love is a fairly new idea. Historically various cultures, many European, used marriage as a political tool. In this way, marriage was about gaining

Looking at Marriage today, as the age of enlightenment has hit America, Timothy Keller says in his book The Meaning of Marriage: Facing the Complexities of Commitment with the Wisdom of God, “Marriage was seen as a contract between two parties for mutual individual growth and satisfaction. In this view, married persons married for themselves, not to fulfill responsibilities to God or society.” Although marriage is only between two people, the concepts can be applied to any community, as God ordained marriage as the holy community, sealed by and through him. Marriage is supposed to be all about serving one another, and growing spiritually and morally through the years, not about feeding off of sexual gains and other individual desires. This is why divorce rates are so high, and why so many fights happen. It is because America has lost the definition and beauty of marriage, as it is often portrayed as a trap, or a “settle down” type thing. Not at all, because marriage is all about spiritual growth through each other and the

As a little girl, I was not raised to think my sole purpose in life was to be a man’s wife. That is not to say that I was pushed away from the idea either. I was taught that love is in your actions. How you treat people and the things that you do for them. Some of the happiest relationships I have seen have involved parties out of wedlock. Some of the worse were married. I’ve seen husbands abuse their wives and return later to say I love you. Any sane person knows that abuse is not love, whether it be mental or physical. People get or stay married because they have children together. Again, this is not an act of love.

In American culture the view on arranged marriages are not looked at very favorably. This is because we have grown up with the knowledge that when it comes time to marry we will have chosen our spouse of our own free will. The match will be a love match and one that is chosen through our own needs. Young men and women in India grow up with an opposite view on marriage. They know that when it comes time to marry their parents will find them a suitable mate and it will be considered scared and a lifelong commitment (Agence France-Presse.) A total of 74 percent of respondents from across India voted in favour of traditional "arranged" marriages, according to the poll by private television channel NDTV. In the Hindu faith, marriage is

Marriage is a union that has been around for as long as humans have walked the earth. The human race depends upon the union of its members, and as such, the subject of marriage has been an issue that receives more intense scrutiny and attention than many would likely believe. In today's day and age, with humanity continuing to move in a modern direction, many argue that marriage is a union that should be entered into freely and should be based exclusively on the love between two people. However, I argue that arranged marriage, which has taken place throughout the ages and throughout the world, is a union that offers its observers a marriage based in support, longevity and love, and is an institution that should not be frowned upon.

Today, the idea of marriage conjures images of bashful brides beautifully draped in all white, of grandiose flower arrangements climbing towards the ceiling, of romance personified. As an institution in this modern world, marriage represents the apex of romantic love, with an entire industry of magazines, movies, and television shows devoted to perpetuating marriage as an idealized symbol of the ultimate love between two people. Contrarily, as a sociological institution, marriage comes from much more clinical and impersonal origins, contrasting with the passion surrounding modern understandings of the institution. Notably, french anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss theorizes that the institution of marriage emerged from a need to form alliances between groups, with women functioning as the property exchanged so that such alliances could be solidified (Levi-Strauss).