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Marriage Information

Marriage (or wedlock) is a social union or legal contract between people that creates kinship. The definition of marriage varies according to different cultures, but is usually an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually intimate and sexual, are acknowledged. Such a union, often formalized via a wedding ceremony, may also be called matrimony. Many cultures limit marriage to two persons of the opposite sex, but some allow forms of polygamous marriage, and some recognize same-sex marriage. In some conservative cultures, marriage is recommended or compulsory before pursuing any sexual activity.

People marry for many reasons, including one or more of the following: legal, social, libidinal, emotional, economic, spiritual, and religious. These might include arranged marriages, family obligations, the legal establishment of a nuclear family unit, the legal protection of children and public declaration of commitment.[1][2] The act of marriage usually creates normative or legal obligations between the individuals involved. Some cultures allow the dissolution of marriage through divorce or annulment.

Marriage can be recognized by a state, an organization, a religious authority, a tribal group, a local community or peers. It is often viewed as a contract. Civil marriage is the legal concept of marriage as a governmental institution irrespective of religious affiliation, in accordance with marriage laws of the jurisdiction.

Contents

Definitions

“ Marriage is the union of two different surnames, in friendship and in love, in order to continue the posterity of the former sages, and to furnish those who shall preside at the sacrifices to heaven and earth, at those in the ancestral temple, and at those at the altars to the spirits of the land and grain. ”

—Confucius, [3]

Anthropologists have proposed several competing definitions of marriage so as to encompass the wide variety of marital practices observed across cultures.[4] In his book The History of Human Marriage (1921), Edvard Westermarck defined marriage as "a more or less durable connection between male and female lasting beyond the mere act of propagation till after the birth of the offspring."[5] In The Future of Marriage in Western Civilization (1936), he rejected his earlier definition, instead provisionally defining marriage as "a relation of one or more men to one or more women that is recognized by custom or law".[6]

The anthropological handbook Notes and Queries (1951) defined marriage as "a union between a man and a woman such that children born to the woman are the recognized legitimate offspring of both partners."[7] In recognition of a practice by the Nuer of Sudan allowing women to act as a husband in certain circumstances, Kathleen Gough suggested modifying this to "a woman and one or more other persons."[8]

Edmund Leach criticized Gough's definition for being too restrictive in terms of recognized legitimate offspring and suggested that marriage be viewed in terms of the different types of rights it serves to establish. Leach expanded the definition and proposed that "Marriage is a relationship established between a woman and one or more other persons, which provides that a child born to the woman under circumstances not prohibited by the rules of the relationship, is accorded full birth-status rights common to normal members of his society or social stratum"[9] Leach argued that no one definition of marriage applied to all cultures. He offered a list of ten rights associated with marriage, including sexual monopoly and rights with respect to children, with specific rights differing across cultures.[10]

Duran Bell also criticized the legitimacy-based definition on the basis that some societies do not require marriage for legitimacy, arguing that in societies where illegitimacy means only that the mother is unmarried and has no other legal implications, a legitimacy-based definition of marriage is circular. He proposed defining marriage in terms of sexual access rights.[4]

Etymology

The modern English word "marriage" derives from Middle English mariage, which first appears in 1250–1300 C.E. This in turn is derived from Old French marier (to marry) and ultimately Latin marītāre meaning to provide with a husband or wife and marītāri meaning to get married. (The adjective marīt-us -a, -um meaning matrimonial or nuptial could also be used in the masculine form as a noun for "husband" and in the feminine form for "wife."[11] The related English word "matrimony" derives from the Old French word matremoine which appears around 1300 C.E. and ultimately derives from Latin mātrimōnium which combines the two concepts mater meaning "mother" and the suffix -monium signifying "action, state, or condition." "[12]

History of marriage by culture

A pair of wedding rings

Although the institution of marriage pre-dates reliable recorded history, many cultures have legends concerning the origins of marriage. The way in which a marriage is conducted and its rules and ramifications has changed over time, as has the institution itself, depending on the culture or demographic of the time.[13] Various cultures have had their own theories on the origin of marriage. One example may lie in a man's need for assurance as to paternity of his children. He might therefore be willing to pay a bride price or provide for a woman in exchange for exclusive sexual access.[14] Legitimacy is the consequence of this transaction rather than its motivation. In Comanche society, married women work harder, lose sexual freedom, and do not seem to obtain any benefit from marriage.[15] But nubile women are a source of jealousy and strife in the tribe, so they are given little choice other than to get married. "In almost all societies, access to women is institutionalized in some way so as to moderate the intensity of this competition."[16] Forms of group marriage which involve more than one member of each sex, and therefore are not either polygyny or polyandry, have existed in history. However, these forms of marriage are extremely rare. Of the 250 societies reported by the American anthropologist George P. Murdock in 1949, only the Caingang of Brazil had any group marriages at all.[17]

Various marriage practices have existed throughout the world. In some societies an individual is limited to being in one such couple at a time (monogamy), while other cultures allow a male to have more than one wife (polygyny) or, less commonly, a female to have more than one husband (polyandry). Some societies also allow marriage between two males or two females. Societies frequently have other restrictions on marriage based on the ages of the participants, pre-existing kinship, and membership in religious or other social groups.

Europe

In Ancient Greece, no specific civil ceremony was required for the creation of a marriage – only mutual agreement and the fact that the couple must regard each other as husband and wife accordingly. Men usually married when they were in their 20s and women in their teens. It has been suggested that these ages made sense for the Greeks because men were generally done with military service or financially established by their late 20s, and marrying a young girl ensured ample time for her to bear children, as life expectancies were significantly lower during this period. Married Greek women had few rights in ancient Greek society and were expected to take care of the house and children. Time was an important factor in Greek marriage. For example, there were superstitions that being married during a full moon was good luck and, according to Robert Flacelière, Greeks married in the winter. Inheritance was more important than feelings: a woman whose father dies without male heirs could be forced to marry her nearest male relative—even if she had to divorce her husband first.[18]

There were several types of marriages in ancient Roman society. The traditional ("conventional") form called conventio in manum required a ceremony with witnesses and was also dissolved with a ceremony.[19] In this type of marriage, a woman lost her family rights of inheritance of her old family and gained them with her new one. She now was subject to the authority of her husband. There was the free marriage known as sine manu. In this arrangement, the wife remained a member of her original family; she stayed under the authority of her father, kept her family rights of inheritance with her old family and did not gain any with the new family.[20] The minimum age of marriage for girls was 12.[21]

Woodcut. How Reymont and Melusina were betrothed / And by the bishop were blessed in their bed on their wedlock. From the Melusine, 15th century.

From the early Christian era (30 to 325 CE), marriage was thought of as primarily a private matter, with no uniform religious or other ceremony being required. However, bishop Ignatius of Antioch writing around 110 to bishop Polycarp of Smyrna exhorts, "[I]t becomes both men and women who marry, to form their union with the approval of the bishop, that their marriage may be according to God, and not after their own lust."[22]

In the 12th century women were obligated to take the name of their husbands and starting in the second half of the 16th century parental consent along with the church's consent was required for marriage.[23]

With few local exceptions, until 1545, Christian marriages in Europe were by mutual consent, declaration of intention to marry and upon the subsequent physical union of the parties.[24][25] The couple would promise verbally to each other that they would be married to each other; the presence of a priest or witnesses was not required.[26] This promise was known as the "verbum." If freely given and made in the present tense (e.g., "I marry you"), it was unquestionably binding;[24] if made in the future tense ("I will marry you"), it would constitute a betrothal. One of the functions of churches from the Middle Ages was to register marriages, which was not obligatory. There was no state involvement in marriage and personal status, with these issues being adjudicated in ecclesiastical courts. During the Middle Ages marriages were arranged, sometimes as early as birth, and these early pledges to marry were often used to ensure treaties between different royal families, nobles, and heirs of fiefdoms. The church resisted these imposed unions, and increased the number of causes for nullification of these arrangements.[23] As Christianity spread during the Roman period and the Middle Ages, the idea of free choice in selecting marriage partners increased and spread with it.[23]

The average age of marriage for most Northwestern Europeans from the late 13th century into the 16th century was around 25 years of age;[27][28] the bride and groom were roughly the same age, with most brides in their early twenties and most grooms two or three years older,[28] and a substantial number of women married for the first time in their thirties and forties, particularly in urban areas,[29] with the average age at first marriage rising and falling as circumstances dictated. In better times, more people could afford to marry earlier and thus fertility rose and conversely marriages were delayed or foregone when times were bad, thus restricting family size;[30] after the Black Death, the greater availability of profitable jobs allowed more people to marry young and have more children,[31] but the stabilization of the population in the sixteenth century meant less job opportunities and thus more people delaying marriages.[32]

As part of the Protestant Reformation, the role of recording marriages and setting the rules for marriage passed to the state, reflecting Martin Luther's view that marriage was a "worldly thing".[33] By the 17th century many of the Protestant European countries had a state involvement in marriage. As of 2000, the average marriage age range was 25–44 years for men and 22–39 years for women. In England, under the Anglican Church, marriage by consent and cohabitation was valid until the passage of Lord Hardwicke's Act in 1753. This act instituted certain requirements for marriage, including the performance of a religious ceremony observed by witnesses.[34]

As part of the Counter-Reformation, in 1563 the Council of Trent decreed that a Roman Catholic marriage would be recognized only if the marriage ceremony was officiated by a priest with two witnesses. The Council also authorized a Catechism, issued in 1566, which defined marriage as, "The conjugal union of man and woman, contracted between two qualified persons, which obliges them to live together throughout life."[35]

In the early modern period, John Calvin and his Protestant colleagues reformulated Christian marriage by enacting the Marriage Ordinance of Geneva, which imposed "The dual requirements of state registration and church consecration to constitute marriage"[35] for recognition.

In England and Wales, Lord Hardwicke's Marriage Act 1753 required a formal ceremony of marriage, thereby curtailing the practice of Fleet Marriage.[36] These were clandestine or irregular marriages performed at Fleet Prison, and at hundreds of other places. From the 1690s until the Marriage Act of 1753 as many as 300,000 clandestine marriages were performed at Fleet Prison alone.[37] The Act required a marriage ceremony to be officiated by an Anglican priest in the Anglican Church with two witnesses and registration. The Act did not apply to Jewish marriages or those of Quakers, whose marriages continued to be governed by their own customs.

In England and Wales, since 1837, civil marriages have been recognized as a legal alternative to church marriages under the Marriage Act 1836. In Germany, civil marriages were recognized in 1875. This law permitted a declaration of the marriage before an official clerk of the civil administration, when both spouses affirm their will to marry, to constitute a legally recognized valid and effective marriage, and allowed an optional private clerical marriage ceremony.

In contemporary English common law, a marriage is a voluntary contract by a man and a woman, in which by agreement they choose to become husband and wife.[38] Edvard Westermarck proposed that "the institution of marriage has probably developed out of a primeval habit".[39]

China

Main article: Chinese marriage

The mythological origin of Chinese marriage is a story about Nüwa and Fu Xi who invented proper marriage procedures after becoming married. In ancient Chinese society, people of the same surname are supposed to consult with their family trees prior marriage to reduce the potential risk of unintentional incest. Marriaging to one's maternal relatives was generally not thought of as incest, families sometimes intermarried from one generation to another. Over time, Chinese people became more geographically mobile. Individuals remained members of their biological families. When a couple died, the husband and the wife were buried separately in the respective clans’ graveyard. In a maternal marriage, a male would become a son-in-law who lived in the wife's home.

The New Marriage Law of 1950 radically changed Chinese marriage traditions, enforcing monogamy, equality of men and women, and choice in marriage; arranged marriages were the most common type of marriage in China until then.

Same-sex marriage

Main article: Same-sex marriage

Various types of same-sex marriages have existed,[40] ranging from informal, unsanctioned relationships to highly ritualized unions.[41]

While it is a relatively new practice to frequently grant same-sex couples the same form of legal marital recognition as commonly granted to mixed-sex couples, there is a long history of recorded same-sex unions around the world.[42] It is believed that same-sex unions were celebrated in Ancient Greece and Rome,[42] some regions of China, such as Fujian, and at certain times in ancient European history.[43] A law in the Theodosian Code (C. Th. 9.7.3) issued in 342 CE imposed severe penalties or death on same-sex marriage in ancient Rome[44] but the exact intent of the law and its relation to social practice is unclear, as only a few examples of same-sex marriage in that culture exist.[45]

Group marriage

Group marriage also known as multi-lateral marriage, is a form of polyamory in which more than two persons form a family unit, with all the members of the group marriage being considered to be married to all the other members of the group marriage, and all members of the marriage share parental responsibility for any children arising from the marriage.[46] No country legally condones group marriages, neither under the law nor as a common law marriage.

Selection of a partner

Main articles: Arranged marriage and Forced marriage An arranged marriage between Louis XIV of France and Maria Theresa of Spain.

There is wide cross-cultural variation in the social rules governing the selection of a partner for marriage. There is variation in the degree to which partner selection is an individual decision by the partners or a collective decision by the partners' kin groups, and there is variation in the rules regulating which partners are valid choices.

In many societies the choice of partner is limited to suitable persons from specific social groups. In some societies the rule is that a partner is selected from an individual's own social group – endogamy, this is the case in many class and caste based societies. But in other societies a partner must be chosen from a different group than one's own – exogamy, this is the case in many societies practicing totemic religion where society is divided into several exogamous totemic clans, such as most Aboriginal Australian societies. In other societies a person is expected to marry their cross-cousin, a woman must marry her father's sister's son and a man must marry his mother's brother's daughter – this is often the case if either a society has a rule of tracing kinship exclusively through patrilineal or matrilineal descent groups as among the Akan people of Africa. Another kind of marriage selection is the levirate marriage in which widows are obligated to marry their husband's brother, this is mostly found in societies where kinship is based on endogamous clan groups.

In other cultures with less strict rules governing the groups from which a partner can be chosen the selection of a marriage partner may involve either the couple going through a selection process of courtship or the marriage may be arranged by the couple's parents or an outside party, a matchmaker.

A pragmatic (or 'arranged') marriage is made easier by formal procedures of family or group politics. A responsible authority sets up or encourages the marriage; they may, indeed, engage a professional matchmaker to find a suitable spouse for an unmarried person. The authority figure could be parents, family, a religious official, or a group consensus. In some cases, the authority figure may choose a match for purposes other than marital harmony.

In rural Indian villages, child marriage is also practiced, with parents at times arranging the wedding, sometimes even before the child is born.[47] This practice was made illegal under the Child Marriage Restraint Act of 1929.

In some societies ranging from Central Asia to the Caucasus to Africa, the custom of bride kidnapping still exists, in which a woman is captured by a man and his friends. Sometimes this covers an elopement, but sometimes it depends on sexual violence. In previous times, raptio was a larger-scale version of this, with groups of women captured by groups of men, sometimes in war; the most famous example is The Rape of the Sabine Women, which provided the first citizens of Rome with their wives.

Other marriage partners are more or less imposed on an individual. For example, widow inheritance provides a widow with another man from her late husband's brothers.

Marriage ceremony

Main article: Wedding Couple married in a Shinto ceremony in Takayama, Gifu prefecture.

A marriage is usually formalized at a wedding or marriage ceremony. The ceremony may be officiated either by a religious official, by a government official or by a state approved celebrant. In many European and some Latin American countries, any religious ceremony must be held separately from the required civil ceremony. Some countries – such as Belgium, Bulgaria, France, the Netherlands, Romania and Turkey[48] – require that a civil ceremony take place before any religious one. In some countries – notably the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland, Norway and Spain – both ceremonies can be held together; the officiant at the religious and civil ceremony also serving as agent of the state to perform the civil ceremony. To avoid any implication that the state is "recognizing" a religious marriage (which is prohibited in some countries) – the "civil" ceremony is said to be taking place at the same time as the religious ceremony. Often this involves simply signing a register during the religious ceremony. If the civil element of the religious ceremony is omitted, the marriage is not recognized by government under the law.

While some countries, such as Australia, permit marriages to be held in private and at any location, others, including England and Wales, require that the civil ceremony be conducted in a place open to the public and specially sanctioned by law. In England, the place of marriage need no longer be a church or register office, but could also be a hotel, historic building or other venue that has obtained the necessary license. An exception can be made in the case of marriage by special emergency license, which is normally granted only when one of the parties is terminally ill. Rules about where and when persons can marry vary from place to place. Some regulations require that one of the parties reside in the locality of the registry office.

Within the parameters set by the law of the jurisdiction in which a marriage or wedding takes place, each religious authority has rules for the manner in which weddings are to be conducted by their officials and members.

Cohabitation

See also: Cohabitation

Marriage is an institution which can join together people's lives in a variety of emotional and economic ways. In many Western cultures, marriage usually leads to the formation of a new household comprising the married couple, with the married couple living together in the same home, often sharing the same bed, but in some other cultures this is not the tradition.[49] Among the Minangkabau of West Sumatra, residency after marriage is matrilocal, with the husband moving into the household of his wife's mother.[50] Residency after marriage can also be patrilocal or avunculocal. Such marriages have also been increasingly common in modern Beijing. Guo Jianmei, director of the center for women's studies at Beijing University, told a Newsday correspondent, "Walking marriages reflect sweeping changes in Chinese society."[51] A similar arrangement in Saudi Arabia, called misyar marriage, also involves the husband and wife living separately but meeting regularly.[52]

Conversely, marriage is not a prerequisite for cohabitation. In some cases couples living together do not wish to be recognized as married, such as when pension or alimony rights are adversely affected, or because of taxation consideration, or because of immigration issues, and for many other reasons. In modern western societies some couples cohabitate before marriage to test whether such an arrangement might work in the long term.

In some cases cohabitation may constitute a common-law marriage, and in some countries the laws recognize cohabitation in preference to the formality of marriage for taxation and social security benefits. This is the case, for example, in Australia.[53]

Sex and procreation

See also: Chastity and Adultery Christ and the woman taken in adultery by Jan Brueghel the Elder, Pinakothek

Many of the world's major religions look with disfavor on sexual relations outside of marriage.[54] Many non-secular states sanction criminal penalties for sexual intercourse before marriage. Sexual relations by a married person with someone other than his/her spouse is known as adultery and is also frequently disapproved by the major world religions (some calling it a sin). Adultery is considered in many jurisdictions to be a crime and grounds for divorce.

Historically, children born outside of marriage were known as bastards and whoresons and suffered legal disadvantages and social stigma because of their illegitimacy. In recent years the legal relevance of illegitimacy has declined and social acceptance has increased, especially in western countries. In the United States, the National Center for Health Statistics reported that in 1992, 30.1 percent of births were to unmarried women.[55][56] In 2006, that number had risen to 38.5 percent.[57]

Some married couples choose not to have children and so remain childfree. Others are unable to have children because of infertility or other factors preventing conception or the bearing of children. In some cultures, marriage imposes an obligation on women to bear children. In northern Ghana, for example, payment of bridewealth signifies a woman's requirement to bear children, and women using birth control face substantial threats of physical abuse and reprisals.[58]

Marriage law

Main article: Marriage law

Marriage laws refer to the legal requirements which determine the validity of a marriage, which vary considerably between countries.

Common-law marriage

See also: Common-law marriage

In some jurisdictions but not all, marriage relationships may be created by the operation of the law alone. Unlike the typical ceremonial marriage with legal contract, wedding ceremony, and other details, a common-law marriage may be called "marriage by habit and repute (cohabitation)." A de facto common-law marriage without a license or ceremony is legally binding in some jurisdictions but has no legal consequence in others.[59]

Rights and obligations

See also: Rights and responsibilities of marriages in the United States A Ketubah in Hebrew, a Jewish marriage-contract outlining the duties of each partner.

A marriage bestows rights and obligations on the married parties, and sometimes on relatives as well, being the sole mechanism for the creation of affinal ties (in-laws). These may include:

These rights and obligations vary considerably between societies, and between groups within society.[60]

Marriage restrictions

Main article: Marriage law#Marriage restrictions

Marriage is an institution that is historically filled with restrictions. From age, to race, to social status, to consanguinity, to gender, restrictions are placed on marriage by society for reasons of benefiting the children, passing on healthy genes, maintaining cultural values, or because of prejudice and fear. Almost all cultures that recognize marriage also recognize adultery as a violation of the terms of marriage.[61]

The United States has had a history of marriage restriction laws. Many states enacted miscegenation laws which were first introduced in the late 17th century in the slave-holding colonies of Virginia (1691) and Maryland (1692) and lasted until 1967 (until it was overturned via Loving v. Virginia). Many of these states restricted several minorities from marrying whites. For example, Alabama, Arkansas, and Oklahoma banned Blacks in particular. States such as Mississippi and Missouri banned Blacks and Asians. States such as North Carolina and South Carolina banned Blacks and Native Americans, and some states such as Georgia, South Carolina, and Virginia banned all non-whites.

It is a relatively new practice that same-sex couples are being granted the same form of legal marital recognition available to mixed-sexed couples. In the United States, the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) explicitly defines marriage for the purposes of federal law as between a man and a woman and allows states to ignore same-sex marriages from other states (though states arguably could do this already).[62][63] Forty-one US states currently define marriage as between a man and a woman. Three of those states have statutory language that pre-dates DOMA (enacted before 1996) defining marriage as such. Thirty states have defined marriage in their constitutions. Arizona is the only state that has ever defeated a constitutional amendment defining marriage as only between a man and a woman (2006), but it subsequently passed one in 2008.[64]

Societies have often placed restrictions on marriage to relatives, though the degree of prohibited relationship varies widely. With few exceptions, marriages between parents and children or between full siblings have been considered incest and forbidden. However, marriages between more distant relatives have been much more common, with one estimate being that 80% of all marriages in history have been between second cousins or closer.[65] In modern times this proportion has fallen dramatically, but still more than 10% of all marriages are believed to be between first and second cousins.[66] In the United States, such marriages are now highly stigmatized, and laws ban most or all first-cousin marriage in 30 states. Specifics vary: in South Korea, historically it was illegal to marry someone with the same last name.[67]

Many societies have required a person to marry within their own general social group, which anthropologists refer to as endogamy. An example of such restrictions would be a requirement to marry someone from the same tribe.

Restrictions against polygamy have been common. Opposition to the recognition of Deseret as a State by the Federal government was founded on opposition to the once-practiced polygamous marriages of Mormons.

State recognition

Main article: Marriage law#State recognition

In many jurisdictions, a civil marriage may take place as part of the religious marriage ceremony, although they are theoretically distinct. Some jurisdictions allow civil marriages in circumstances which are notably not allowed by particular religions, such as same-sex marriages or civil unions.

Marriage and religion

Among the precepts of mainstream religions are found, as a rule, unequivocal prescriptions for marriage, establishing both rituals and rules of conduct.

Abrahamic religions

In the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament)

Rembrandt's depiction of Samson's marriage feast A Jewish wedding, painting by Jozef Israëls, 1903

The Hebrew Bible (Christian Old Testament) describes a number of marriages, including those of Isaac (Gen 24:49–67), Jacob(Gen 29:27) and Samson (Judges 14:7–12). Polygyny, or men having multiple wives at once, is one of the most common marital arrangements represented in the Hebrew Bible.[68]

Betrothal (erusin), which is merely a binding promise to get married, is distinct from marriage itself (nissu'in), with the time between these events varying substantially.[68][69] Since a wife was regarded as property in those days, the betrothal (erusin) was effected simply by purchasing her from her father (or guardian);[68][69] the girl’s consent is not explicitly required by any biblical law.[69] Like the adjacent Arabic culture (in the pre-Islamic period),[70] the act of marriage appears mainly to have consisted of the groom fetching the bride, although among the Israelites (unlike the Arabs) the procession was a festive occasion, accompanied by music, dancing, and lights.[68][69] To celebrate the marriage, week-long feasts were sometimes held.[68][69]

In biblical times, a wife was regarded as chattel, belonging to her husband;[68][69] the descriptions of the bible suggest that she would be expected to perform tasks such as spinning, sewing, weaving, manufacture of clothing, fetching of water, baking of bread, and animal husbandry.[71] However, wives were usually looked after with care, and men with more than one wife were expected to ensure that they continue to give the first wife food, clothing, and marital rights.[Ex 21:10]

Since a wife was regarded as property, her husband was originally free to divorce her for any reason, at any time.[69] A divorced couple were permitted to get back together, unless the wife had married someone else after her divorce.[Deut 24:2–4]

Judaism

Main article: Jewish views of marriage

In Judaism, marriage is viewed as a contractual bond commanded by God in which a man and a woman come together to create a relationship in which God is directly involved.[Deut. 24:1] Though procreation is not the sole purpose, a Jewish marriage is also expected to fulfill the commandment to have children.[Gen. 1:28] The main focus centers around the relationship between the husband and wife. Kabbalistically, marriage is understood to mean that the husband and wife are merging together into a single soul. This is why a man is considered "incomplete" if he is not married, as his soul is only one part of a larger whole that remains to be unified.[72]

Christianity

Main article: Christian views of marriage Christian wedding in Kyoto, Japan.

Christians variously regard marriage as a sacrament, a contract, a sacred institution, or a covenant.[73] From the very beginning of the Christian Church, marriage law and theology have been a major matter.[74] The foundation of the Western tradition of Christian marriages have been the teachings of Jesus Christ and the Apostle Paul.[35]

Christians often marry for religious reasons ranging from following the biblical injunction for a "man to leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife, and the two shall become one,"[Gen. 2:24][75] to obeying Canon Law stating marriage between baptized persons is a sacrament.[76]

Divorce and remarriage while generally not encouraged are regarded differently by each Christian denomination. Most Protestant Churches allow people to marry again after a divorce. The Eastern Orthodox Church allows divorce for a limited number of reasons, and in theory, but usually not in practice, requires that a marriage after divorce be celebrated with a penitential overtone. In the Roman Catholic Church, marriage can only be ended by an annulment where the Church for special reasons regards it as never having taken place.[77]

"'...So they are no longer two, but one. Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate."

— Jesus[Matthew 19:6]

Liturgical Christianity
Further information: Marriage in the Eastern Orthodox Church

Anglicans, Catholics, and Eastern Orthodox consider marriage termed holy matrimony to be an expression of divine grace, termed a sacrament or mystery. In Western ritual, the ministers of the sacrament are the husband and wife themselves, with a bishop, priest, or deacon merely witnessing the union on behalf of the church, and adding a blessing. In Eastern ritual churches, the bishop or priest functions as the actual minister of the Sacred Mystery (Eastern Orthodox deacons may not perform marriages). Western Christians commonly refer to marriage as a vocation, while Eastern Christians consider it an ordination and a martyrdom, though the theological emphases indicated by the various names are not excluded by the teachings of either tradition. Marriage is commonly celebrated in the context of a Eucharistic service (a nuptial Mass or Divine Liturgy). The sacrament of marriage is indicative of the relationship between Christ and the Church.[Eph. 5:29–32]

Roman Catholicism

The Roman Catholic tradition of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries defined marriage as a sacrament ordained by God,[35] signifying the mystical marriage of Christ to his Church.[78]

"The matrimonial covenant, by which a man and a woman establish between themselves a partnership of the whole of life, is by its nature ordered toward the good of the spouses and the procreation and education of offspring; this covenant between baptized persons has been raised by Christ the Lord to the dignity of a sacrament."[79]

The mutual love between man and wife becomes an image of the eternal love with which God loves humankind. The celebration of marriage between two Catholics normally takes place during the public liturgical celebration of the Holy Mass, because of its sacramental connection with the unity of the Paschal mystery of Christ (Communion). Sacramental marriage confers a perpetual and exclusive bond between the spouses. By its nature, the institution of marriage and conjugal love is ordered to the procreation and upbringing of offspring. Marriage creates rights and duties in the Church between the spouses and towards their children: "[e]ntering marriage with the intention of never having children is a grave wrong and more than likely grounds for an annulment."[80]

According to current Catholic legislation governing marriage, "The essential properties of marriage are unity and indissolubility; in Christian marriage they acquire a distinctive firmness by reason of the sacrament.[81] Divorce is not recognized, but annulments predicated upon previously existing impediments may be granted. Offspring resulting from annulled relationships are considered legitimate. Remarried persons divorced from a living, lawful spouse are not separated from the Church, but they cannot receive Eucharistic communion.[82]

Protestantism

For Protestant denominations, the purposes of marriage include intimate companionship, rearing children and mutual support for both husband and wife to fulfill their life callings. Protestants are generally not opposed to the use of birth control and consider marital sexual pleasure to be a gift of God.

Most Reformed Christians would deny the elevation of marriage to the status of a sacrament, nevertheless it is considered a covenant between spouses before God.cf.[Ephesians 5:31–33]

Historically, five competing models of marriage in Christianity have shaped Western marriage and legal tradition:

Latter-day Saints
Main article: Celestial marriage A couple following their marriage in the Manti Utah Temple.

Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) believe that "marriage between a man and a woman is ordained of God and that the family is central to the Creator's plan for the eternal destiny of His children." The LDS belief is that marriage between a man and a woman can last beyond death and into eternity.[83]

Islam

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Main article: Islamic marital jurisprudence A Muslim bride of Pakistan origin signing the nikkah nama or marriage certificate. A Muslim couple being wed alongside the Tungabhadra River at Hampi, India.

Islam also commends marriage, with the age of marriage being whenever the individuals feel ready, financially and emotionally.

In Islam, polygyny is allowed while polyandry is not, with the specific limitation that men can only have no more than four wives at any one time, with the requirement that they are able and willing to partition their time and wealth equally among the respective wives.

For a Muslim wedding to take place, the bride and her guardian must both agree on the marriage. Should either the guardian or the girl disagree on the marriage, it may not legally take place. In essence, while the guardian/father of the girl has no right to force her to marry, he has the right to stop a marriage from taking place, given that his reasons are valid. The professed purpose of this practice is to ensure that a woman finds a suitable partner whom she has chosen not out of sheer emotion.

From an Islamic (Sharia) law perspective, the minimum requirements and responsibilities in a Muslim marriage are that the groom provide living expenses (housing, clothing, food, maintenance) to the bride, and in return, the bride's main responsibility is raising children to be proper Muslims. All other rights and responsibilities are to be decided between the husband and wife, and may even be included as stipulations in the marriage contract before the marriage actually takes place, so long as they do not go against the minimum requirements of the marriage.

In Sunni Islam marriage must take place in the presence of at least two reliable witnesses, with the consent of the guardian of the bride and the consent of both the bride and the groom. Following the marriage, the couple may consummate the marriage. To create a religious contract between them, it is sufficient that a man and a woman indicate an intention to marry each other and recite the requisite words in front of a suitable Muslim, nowadays priest will be asked to officiate. The wedding party usually follows but can be held days, or months later, whenever the couple and their families want to, however there can be no concealment of the marriage as it is regarded as public notification due to the requirement of witnesses.[84][85][86][87]

In Shia Islam, marriage may take place without the presence of witnesses as is often the case in temporary mutta marriage (prohibited in Sunni Islam), but with the consent of both the bride and the groom. Following the marriage they may consummate their marriage.

Bahá'í

In the Bahá'í Faith marriage is encouraged and viewed as a mutually strengthening bond, but is not obligatory. A Bahá'í marriage requires the couple to choose each other, and then the consent of all living parents.[88]

Hinduism

Main article: Marriage in Hinduism Hindu marriage ceremony from a Rajput wedding.

Hinduism sees marriage as a sacred duty that entails both religious and social obligations. Old Hindu literature in Sanskrit gives many different types of marriages and their categorization ranging from "Gandharva Vivaha" (instant marriage by mutual consent of participants only, without any need for even a single third person as witness) to normal (present day) marriages, to "Rakshasa Vivaha" ("demoniac" marriage, performed by abduction of one participant by the other participant, usually, but not always, with the help of other persons). The Hindu Widow's Remarriage Act 1856 empowers a Hindu widow to remarry. Though traditionally widow remarriages were frowned upon and are still considered taboo in many parts of India,[89] the society is changing and the incidence of widow remarriage is on a rise.[90]

Although sati, or the practice of a widow immolating herself on her husband's funeral pyre, was officially outlawed by India's British rulers in 1829, the rite persists. The most high-profile sati incident was in Rajasthan in 1987 when 18-year-old Roop Kanwar was burned to death.[91]

Buddhism

Main article: Buddhist view of marriage

The Buddhist view of marriage considers marriage a secular affair and as such, it is not considered a sacrament. Buddhists are expected to follow the civil laws regarding marriage laid out by their respective governments.

Sikhism

In a Sikh marriage, the couple make rounds around the holy book called Guru Granth Sahib four times and the holy man speaks some words from the Guru Granth Sahib in the form of kirtan. The ceremony is known as 'Anand Karaj' and represents the holy union of between two souls that are united as one.

Same-sex marriage

Main article: Religious arguments about same-sex marriage A same-sex couple exchanging wedding vows in a Unitarian Universalist Fellowship.

For the most part, religious traditions in the world reserve marriage to heterosexual unions, but there are exceptions including Unitarian Universalist, Metropolitan Community Church, Quaker, United Church of Canada, United Church of Christ and Reform Jewish congregations, some Anglican dioceses, and various Neopagan faiths.[92][93] This model is currently recognized by various jurisdictions[94] and religious denominations.[95][96][97]

Polygyny

Further information: Polygyny and Polygamy

Religious groups have differing views on the legitimacy of polygyny, the practice of a man taking more than one wife. It is allowed in Islam and Confucianism, though in most areas today it is uncommon.[98][99] Judaism, Christianity and Hinduism have allowed polygny in the past, but it is prohibited by their mainstream modern authorities.[98]

Close-kin marriage

Further information: Cousin marriage and Affinity (canon law)

Religion has commonly weighed in on the matter of which relatives, if any, are allowed to marry. Relations may be by consanguinity or affinity, meaning by blood or by marriage. On the marriage of cousins, Catholic policy has evolved from initial acceptance, through a long period of general prohibition, to the modern-day requirement for a dispensation.[100] Islam has always allowed it, while Hindu strictures vary widely.[101][102]

Financial considerations

See also Economics of marriage

The financial aspects of marriage vary between cultures and have changed over time.

In some cultures, dowries and bride prices continue to be required today. In both cases, the financial arrangements are usually made between the groom (or his family) and the bride's family; with the bride in many cases not being involved in the arrangement, and often not having a choice in whether to participate in the marriage.

In Early Modern Britain, the social status of the couple was supposed to be equal. After the marriage, all the property (called "fortune") and expected inheritances of the wife belonged to the husband.

Dowry

Main article: Dowry

A dowry was not an unconditional gift,[in Early Modern Britain?] but was usually a part of a wider marriage settlement. For example, if the groom had other children, they could not inherit the dowry, which had to go to the bride's children. In the event of her childlessness, the dowry had to be returned to her family, but sometimes not until the groom's death or remarriage.

In some cultures, dowries continue to be required today (for example, in Sudan), while some countries impose restrictions on the payment of dowry. In India, nearly 7,000 women were killed in 2001 over dowries,[103] and activists believe that figures represent only a third of the actual number of such murders.[104] But male rights activists claiming to be victims of harassment by anti-dowry laws, believe this to be untrue, and that the interpretation of skewed laws exaggerates the incidence of 'dowry burning'.[105] Many authors believe that the giving and receiving of dowry reflects the status and even the effort to climb high in social hierarchy.[106]

Bride price and dower

Traditional, formal presentation of the bride price (also known as "sin sot" or "dowry") at an engagement ceremony in Thailand

In other cultures, the groom or his family were expected to pay a bride price to the bride's family for the right to marry the daughter, or dower, which was payable to the bride. This required the groom to work for the bride's family for a set period of time.

In the Jewish tradition, the rabbis in ancient times insisted on the marriage couple entering into a marriage contact, called a ketubah. Besides other things, the ketubah provided for an amount to be paid by the husband in the event of a divorce or his estate in the event of his death. This amount was a replacement of the biblical dower or bride price, which was payable at the time of the marriage by the groom to the father of the bride. [Exodus 22:15–16] This innovation was put in place because the biblical bride price created a major social problem: many young prospective husbands could not raise the bride price at the time when they would normally be expected to marry. So, to enable these young men to marry, the rabbis, in effect, delayed the time that the amount would be payable, when they would be more likely to have the sum. It may also be noted that both the dower and the ketubah amounts served the same purpose: the protection for the wife should her support cease, either by death or divorce. The only difference between the two systems was the timing of the payment. It is the predecessor to the wife's present-day entitlement to maintenance in the event of the breakup of marriage, and family maintenance in the event of the husband not providing adequately for the wife in his will. Another function performed by the ketubah amount was to provide a disincentive for the husband contemplating divorcing his wife: he would need to have the amount to be able to pay to the wife.

Morning gifts, which might also be arranged by the bride's father rather than the bride, are given to the bride herself; the name derives from the Germanic tribal custom of giving them the morning after the wedding night. She might have control of this morning gift during the lifetime of her husband, but is entitled to it when widowed. If the amount of her inheritance is settled by law rather than agreement, it may be called dower. Depending on legal systems and the exact arrangement, she may not be entitled to dispose of it after her death, and may lose the property if she remarries. Morning gifts were preserved for many centuries in morganatic marriage, a union where the wife's inferior social status was held to prohibit her children from inheriting a noble's titles or estates. In this case, the morning gift would support the wife and children. Another legal provision for widowhood was jointure, in which property, often land, would be held in joint tenancy, so that it would automatically go to the widow on her husband's death.

Islamic tradition has similar practices. A 'mahr', either immediate or deferred, is the woman's portion of the groom's wealth (divorce) or estate (death). These amounts are usually set on the basis of the groom's own and family wealth and incomes, but in some parts these are set very high so as to provide a disincentive for the groom exercising the divorce, or the husband's family 'inheriting' a large portion of the estate, especially if there are no male offspring from the marriage. In some countries, including Iran, the mahr or alimony can amount to more than a man can ever hope to earn, sometimes up to US$1,000,000 (4000 official Iranian gold coins). If the husband cannot pay the mahr, either in case of a divorce or on demand, according to the current laws in Iran, he will have to pay it by installments. Failure to pay the mahr might even lead to imprisonment.[107]

Modern customs

In many countries today, each marriage partner has the choice of keeping his or her property separate or combining properties. In the latter case, called community property, when the marriage ends by divorce each owns half. In many legal jurisdictions, laws related to property and inheritance provide by default for property to pass upon the death of one party in a marriage firstly to the spouse and secondly to the children. Wills and trusts can make alternative provisions for property succession.

In some legal systems, the partners in a marriage are "jointly liable" for the debts of the marriage. This has a basis in a traditional legal notion called the "Doctrine of Necessities" whereby a husband was responsible to provide necessary things for his wife. Where this is the case, one partner may be sued to collect a debt for which they did not expressly contract. Critics of this practice note that debt collection agencies can abuse this by claiming an unreasonably wide range of debts to be expenses of the marriage. The cost of defense and the burden of proof is then placed on the non-contracting party to prove that the expense is not a debt of the family. The respective maintenance obligations, both during and eventually after a marriage, are regulated in most jurisdictions; alimony is one such method.

Some have attempted to analyze the institution of marriage using economic theory; for example, anarcho-capitalist economist David D. Friedman has written a lengthy and controversial study of marriage as a market transaction (the market for husbands and wives).[108] In the past the economic status of women was enhanced through marriage; however, as more women work nowadays, men gain more economically than women.[109]

Taxation

In some countries, spouses are allowed to average their incomes; this is advantageous to a married couple with disparate incomes. To compensate for this somewhat, many countries provide a higher tax bracket for the averaged income of a married couple. While income averaging might still benefit a married couple with a stay-at-home spouse, such averaging would cause a married couple with roughly equal personal incomes to pay more total tax than they would as two single persons. This is commonly called the marriage penalty.

Moreover, when the rates applied by the tax code are not based on averaging the incomes, but rather on the sum of individuals' incomes, higher rates will definitely apply to each individual in a two-earner households in progressive tax systems. This is most often the case with high-income taxpayers and is another situation where some consider there to be a marriage penalty.

Conversely, when progressive tax is levied on the individual with no consideration for the partnership, dual-income couples fare much better than single-income couples with similar household incomes. The effect can be increased when the welfare system treats the same income as a shared income thereby denying welfare access to the non-earning spouse. Such systems apply in Australia and Canada, for example.

Other considerations

Sometimes people marry for purely pragmatic reasons, sometimes called a marriage of convenience or sham marriage. For example, according to one publisher of information about "green card" marriages, "Every year over 450,000 United States citizens marry foreign-born individuals and petition for them to obtain a permanent residency (Green Card) in the United States." While this is likely an over-estimate, in 2003 alone 184,741 immigrants were admitted to the U.S. as spouses of U.S. citizens.[110] Many more were admitted as fiancés of US citizens for the purpose of being married within 90 days. Regardless of the number of people entering the US to marry a US citizen, it does not indicate the number of these marriages that are convenience marriages, which number could include some of those with the motive of obtaining permanent residency, but also include many people who are US citizens. One example would be to obtain an inheritance that has a marriage clause. Another example would be to save money on health insurance or to enter a health plan with preexisting conditions offered by the new spouse's employer. Many other situations exist, and, in fact, all marriages have a complex combination of conveniences motivating the parties to marry. A marriage of convenience is one that is devoid of normal reasons to marry.

Some people want to marry a person with higher or lower status than them. Others want to marry people who have similar status. Hypergyny refers to the act of seeking out those who are of slightly higher social status. In most cases, hypergyny refers to women wanting men of higher status. Isogyny refers to the act of seeking out those who are of similar status.

Termination

In most societies, the death of one of the partners terminates the marriage, and in monogamous societies this allows the other partner to remarry, though sometimes after a waiting or mourning period.

Many societies also provide for the termination of marriage through divorce. Marriages can also be annulled in some societies, where an authority declares that a marriage never happened. In either event the people concerned are free to remarry (or marry). After divorce, one spouse may have to pay alimony.

The absolute right of two married partners to consent to divorce was only recognized in western nations in recent decades. In the United States no-fault divorce was first recognized in California in 1969 and the final state to recognize it was New York in 1989.[111] About 45% of marriages in Britain[112] and 46% of marriages in the U.S., according to a 2009 study,[113] end in divorce.

Temporary marriages

Several cultures have practiced temporary and conditional marriages. Examples include the Celtic practice of handfasting and fixed-term marriages in the Muslim community. Pre-Islamic Arabs practiced a form of temporary marriage that carries on today in the practice of Nikah Mut'ah, a fixed-term marriage contract. The prophet Muhammad sanctioned a temporary marriage—sigheh in Iran and muta'a in Iraq— which can provide a legitimizing cover for sex workers.[114] Muslim controversies related to Nikah Mut'ah have resulted in the practice being confined mostly to Shi'ite communities.

Post-marital residence

Early theories explaining the determinants of postmarital residence—with or near the husband's or wife's families, for example—(e.g., Lewis Henry Morgan, Edward Tylor, or George Peter Murdock) connected it with the sexual division of labor. However, to date, cross-cultural tests of this hypothesis using worldwide samples have failed to find any significant relationship between these two variables. However, Korotayev's tests show that the female contribution to subsistence does correlate significantly with matrilocal residence in general; however, this correlation is masked by a general polygyny factor. Although an increase in the female contribution to subsistence tends to lead to matrilocal residence, it also tends simultaneously to lead to general non-sororal polygyny which effectively destroys matrilocality. If this polygyny factor is controlled (e.g., through a multiple regression model), division of labor turns out to be a significant predictor of postmarital residence. Thus, Murdock's hypotheses regarding the relationships between the sexual division of labor and postmarital residence were basically correct, though, as has been shown by Korotayev, the actual relationships between those two groups of variables are more complicated than he expected.[115][116]

In modern societies we observe a trend toward the neolocal residence.[117]

Contemporary views on marriage

Criticisms

Main article: Criticism of marriage

Many people have proposed arguments against marriage for various reasons. These include political and religious criticisms, reference to the divorce rate, as well as celibacy for religious or philosophical reasons.

Controversial views

See also: Anti-miscegenation laws, Interracial marriage, Transnational marriage, Interfaith marriage, Mixed marriage (disambiguation), Same-sex marriage, Divorce, Polygamy, Child marriage, and Arranged marriage

Many controversies have arisen over the centuries in relation to marriage – including issues relating to the suitability of partners of different denominations, faiths, tribes or races, the acceptable number and minimum age of wives, the rights of partners, especially wives, and wider family obligations. For example, a contemporary controversy of particular significance in the USA concerns the exclusion of homosexual relationships from legal and social recognition and the rights and obligations it provides. Social conservatives opposed to same-sex marriage in some countries claim that any attempt to define marriage to include anything other than the union of one man and one woman would "deprive the term of its fundamental and defining meaning."[118] In other countries, polygamy is a "socially conservative" practice. Advocates of same-faith marriage and same-race marriage may criticize the legalization of interfaith marriage[119] and interracial marriage,[120] respectively.

The state of Massachusetts has sued the U.S. federal government over its definition of marriage. The lawsuit, brought by the first state to legalize gay marriage, said the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) infringed on a state's sovereign right to define marital status. The lawsuit alleges that DOMA infringed on a state's sovereign right to define marital status and is unconstitutional.[121]

Power and gender roles

Feminist theory approaches opposite-sex marriage as an institution traditionally rooted in patriarchy that promotes male superiority and power over women. This power dynamic conceptualizes men as "the provider operating in the public sphere" and women as "the caregivers operating within the private sphere".[122] "Theoretically, women ... [were] defined as the property of their husbands .... The adultery of a woman was always treated with more severity than that of a man."[123] "[F]eminist demands for a wife's control over her own property were not met [in parts of Britain] until ... [laws were passed in the late 19th century]."[124] This patriarchal dynamic is contrasted with a conception of egalitarian or Peer Marriage in which power and labour are divided equally, and not according to gender roles.[122]

The performance of dominant gender roles by men and submissive gender roles by women influence the power dynamic of a marriage.[125] In some American households, women internalize gender role stereotypes and often assimilate into the role of "wife", "mother", and "caretaker" in conformity to societal norms and their male partner. bell hooks states "within the family structure, individuals learn to accept sexist oppression as 'natural' and are primed to support other forms of oppression, including heterosexist domination."[126] "[T]he cultural, economic, political and legal supremacy of the husband" was "[t]raditional ... under English law".[127]

In the US, studies have shown that, despite egalitarian ideals being common, less than half of respondents viewed their opposite-sex relationships as equal in power, with unequal relationships being more commonly dominated by the male partner.[128] Studies also show that married couples find the highest level of satisfaction in egalitarian relationships.[128] In recent years, egalitarian or Peer Marriages have been receiving increasing focus and attention politically, economically and culturally in a number of countries, including the United States.

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  67. ^ See Article 809 of the Korean Civil Code and The first ten years of the Korean Constitutional Court. Constitutional Court of Korea. p. 242 (p.256 of the PDF). http://www.ccourt.go.kr/home/english/download/decision_10years.pdf
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  69. ^ a b c d e f g This article incorporates text from the 1903 Encyclopaedia Biblica article "MARRIAGE", a publication now in the public domain.
  70. ^ William Robertson Smith, Kinship and Marriage in early Arabia, (1885), 81
  71. ^ Genesis 29:9; Exodus 2:16;[1], 8:13
  72. ^ "Why Marry?". Chabad.org. http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/448425/jewish/Why-Marry.htm. Retrieved 2007-12-19.
  73. ^ "Religions – Christianity: Marriage and weddings". BBC. http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/christianity/ritesrituals/weddings_1.shtml. Retrieved 2010-08-27.
  74. ^ Batey, Richard (1971). New Testament nuptial imagery. Brill Archive. p. 1. http://books.google.com/?id=Zz4VAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA1.
  75. ^ See also [Mark 10:7], Gen. 2:24, Matt. 19:5, Eph. 5:31
  76. ^ "Sacrament of Marriage". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. 1913.
  77. ^ "GCSE Bitesize: Marriage". BBC. http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/rs/relationships/chmarriageanddivorcerev1.shtml. Retrieved 2010-08-27.
  78. ^ "Catechism of the Catholic Church, Second Edition, Article Seven, Paragraph 1612". Vatican.va. http://www.vatican.va/archive/catechism/p2s2c3a7.htm#I. Retrieved 2010-08-27.
  79. ^ "Catechism of the Catholic Church, Second Edition, Article Seven, Paragraph 1601". Vatican.va. http://www.vatican.va/archive/catechism/p2s2c3a7.htm#I. Retrieved 2010-08-27.
  80. ^ Sacrament of Holy Matrimony, by P. McLachlan Catholic-pages.com
  81. ^ 1983 CODE c.1056 (Latin-English edition of the Code of Canon Law and English-language translation of the 5th Spanish-language edition of the commentary prepared under the responsibility of the Instituto Martin de Azpilcueta, 1993)
  82. ^ "Catechism of the Catholic Church, Second Edition, Article Seven, Paragraph 1665". Vatican.va. http://www.vatican.va/archive/catechism/p2s2c3a7.htm#brief. Retrieved 2010-08-27.
  83. ^ "The Family: A Proclamation to the World". Lds.org. 1995-09-23. http://www.lds.org/library/display/0,4945,161-1-11-1,00.html. Retrieved 2010-08-27.
  84. ^ The method of pronouncing the marriage formula
  85. ^ Marriage formula
  86. ^ Conditions of pronouncing Nikah
  87. ^ Women with whom matrimony is Haraam
  88. ^ Smith, Peter (2000). "Marriage". A concise encyclopedia of the Bahá'í Faith. Oxford: Oneworld Publications. pp. 232–233. ISBN 1-85168-184-1.
  89. ^ "Shunned from society, widows flock to city to die". CNN.com. July 5, 2007.
  90. ^ "Widow Remarriage under Hindu Laws | Indian Laws". Lawisgreek.com. http://www.lawisgreek.com/widow-remarriage-under-hindu-laws/. Retrieved 2010-08-27.
  91. ^ "The New York Times, 1987". 1987-09-20. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B0DE6D61139F933A1575AC0A961948260. Retrieved 2008-05-31.
  92. ^ "World Religions and Same-Sex Marriage", Marriage Law Project, Columbus School of Law at The Catholic University of America, Washington, D.C., July 2002 revision
  93. ^ "Affirming Congregations, The Episcopal Church and Ministries of the United Church of Canada". United-church.ca. http://www.united-church.ca/exploring/marriage/affirmingcongregations. Retrieved 2010-08-27.
  94. ^ Arce, Rose. Massachusetts court upholds same-sex marriage. Feb. 6, 2004. CNN. Retrieved Feb. 17, 2007.
  95. ^ "Religious Groups' Official Positions on Same-Sex Marriage". pewforums.org. http://pewforum.org/docs/?DocID=291. Retrieved 2008-10-16.
  96. ^ Shaila Dewan (July 5, 2005). "United Church of Christ Backs Same-Sex Marriage". New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/05/national/05church.html. Retrieved 2008-10-16.
  97. ^ "Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations BLGT Community guide". http://www.uua.org/visitors/justicediversity/6252.shtml. Retrieved 2008-10-16.
  98. ^ a b "The Dinah Project". The Dinah Project. http://www.dinahproject.com/articles_view_details.asp?id=217. Retrieved 2010-08-27.
  99. ^ "Romance of Three Kingdoms – by Luo Guanzhong – History". Threekingdoms.com. http://threekingdoms.com/history.htm. Retrieved 2010-08-27.
  100. ^ Ottenheimer, Martin (1996). "Chapter 3". Forbidden Relatives: The American Myth of Cousin Marriage. University of Illinois.
  101. ^ "Islamic View on Marrying Cousins – IslamonLine.net – Ask The Scholar". IslamonLine.net. http://www.islamonline.net/servlet/Satellite?pagename=IslamOnline-English-Ask_Scholar/FatwaE/FatwaE&cid=1119503544772. Retrieved 2010-08-27.
  102. ^ Srinivas, Mysore Narasimhachar (1980). India: Social Structure. Delhi: Hindustan Publishing Corporation. p. 55.
  103. ^ "India's dowry deaths". BBC News. July 16, 2003.
  104. ^ "Women: killed by greed and oppression". TIME Magazine. September 11, 1995 Volume 146, No. 11
  105. ^ "[2]".
  106. ^ "[3]".
  107. ^ "A translation of some parts of the Civil Code of Iran". International-divorce.com. http://www.international-divorce.com/iran_divorce.htm. Retrieved 2010-08-27.
  108. ^ "The Economics of Love and Marriage". Daviddfriedman.com. http://www.daviddfriedman.com/Academic/Price_Theory/PThy_Chapter_21/PThy_Chap_21.html. Retrieved 2010-08-27.
  109. ^ Richard Fry, D’Vera Cohn: Women, Men and the New Economics of Marriage, Pew Research Center, January 19, 2010
  110. ^ Immigration to the United States: Fiscal years 1820–2003PDF (2.03 MB)
  111. ^ "No-Fault Divorce – The Pros and Cons Of No-Fault Divorce". Divorcesupport.about.com. 2010-07-30. http://divorcesupport.about.com/od/maritalproblems/i/nofault_fault_2.htm. Retrieved 2010-08-27.
  112. ^ Nearly half of marriaged doomed for divorce, The Guardian (Mar. 27, 2008)
  113. ^ Census; divorce decline but 7 year itch persists, ABC News (May 18, 2011)
  114. ^ İlkkaracan, Pınar (2008). Deconstructing sexuality in the Middle East: challenges and discourses. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.. p. 36. ISBN 0754672352. http://books.google.com/books?id=pnGwP9-FhxYC&pg=PA36&dq#v=onepage&q=&f=false.
  115. ^ Korotayev, A. (2003). "Form of marriage, sexual division of labor, and postmarital residence in cross-cultural perspective: A reconsideration". Journal of Anthropological Research 59 (1): 69–89. ISSN 0091-7710. JSTOR 3631445.
  116. ^ Korotayev, A. (2003). "Division of Labor by Gender and Postmarital Residence in Cross-Cultural Perspective: A Reconsideration". Cross-Cultural Research 37 (4): 335–372. doi:10.1177/1069397103253685.
  117. ^ Ember, Melvin; Ember, Carol R. (1983). Marriage, Family, and Kinship: Comparative Studies of Social Organization. New Haven: HRAF Press. ISBN 0875361137.
  118. ^ "Same-Sex Marriage" (Press release). Rabbinical Council of America. 2004-03-30. http://www.rabbis.org/news/article.cfm?id=100556.
  119. ^ 2 Corinthians 6:14 Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness?
  120. ^ Werner Sollors (2000-10-19). Interracialism: Black-White Intermarriage in American History, Literature, and Law (Sollors, Werner ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-512856-7
  121. ^ Shishkin, Philip. "Massachusetts Sues U.S. Over Definition of Marriage." Wall Street Journal – Eastern Edition; 7/9/2009, Vol. 254 Issue 7, pA3, 0p, 1 bw
  122. ^ a b Briana Weadock, "Disciplining Marriage: Gender, Power, and Resistance", [4], 2000
  123. ^ Evans, Tanya, Women, Marriage and the Family, in Barker, Hannah, & Elaine Chalus, eds., Women's History: Britain, 1700–1850: An Introduction (Oxon/London: Routledge, 2005 (ISBN 0-415-29177-1)), p. 64 (author Evans postdoctoral research fellow, Ctr. for Contemp. Brit. Hist., Institute for Historical Research, London, editor Barker sr. lecturer history, Univ. of Manchester, & editor Chalus sr. lecturer history, Bath Spa Univ. Coll.
  124. ^ Evans, Tanya, Women, Marriage and the Family, op. cit., in Barker, Hannah, & Elaine Chalus, eds., Women's History, op. cit., p. 66 & n. 69.
  125. ^ Veronica Jaris Tichenor, "Thinking About Gender and Power in Marriage", The Kaleidoscope of Gender, 2010
  126. ^ bell hooks, Feminist Theory From Margin to Center, 2000
  127. ^ Barnett, Hilaire A, Introduction to Feminist Jurisprudence (London, G.B., U.K.: Cavendish Publishing, 1998 (ISBN 1859412378)), p. 35 and, per p. 35 n. 35, see chap. 3 (author then of Queen Mary & Westfield Coll., Univ. of London).
  128. ^ a b Sprecher, Susan; Felmlee, Diane, "The Balance of Power in Romantic Heterosexual Couples Over Time from 'His' and 'Her' Perspectives", [5], 1997

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More Information Results for "Marriage"
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'Marriage' Images
'Marriage' Definition

Noun

marriage (plural marriages)
  1. The state of being married.
    You should enter marriage for love.
  2. The union of a man and a woman, to the exclusion of all others, voluntarily entered into for life.
    My grandparents' marriage lasted for forty years.
  3. (in some jurisdictions) The union of two persons of the same sex; a vow of lifetime commitment.
  4. A wedding.
    You are cordially invited to the marriage of James Smith and Jane Doe.
  5. A close union.
  6. A joining of two parts.
  7. (poker slang) A king and a queen as a starting hand in Texas hold 'em.
Usage notes
  • For a detailed discussion of marriage as an institution, with its traditions, its norms, and the accompanying legal rights and obligations, please consult the Wikipedia article on marriage.

from: Wiktionary: marriage,
Sun May 13 23:34:09 2012
'Marriage' Quotes

Marriage

From Wikiquote Quotes about marriage. This theme article needs cleanup. Please review , especially the , to determine how to edit this article to conform to a higher standard of article quality. This page has been listed as needing cleanup since 2009-08-28.

Contents

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  • Marriage? That's for life! It's like cement!
  • No jealousy their dawn of love o'ercast, Nor blasted were their wedded days with strife; Each season looked delightful as it past, To the fond husband and the faithful wife.
  • A bad marriage is like an electrical thrilling machine: it makes you dance, but you can't let go.
  • Marriage, n. A community consisting of a master, a mistress, and two slaves, making in all, two.
  • I'd rather die Maid, and lead apes in Hell Than wed an inmate of Silenus' Cell.
    • Richard Brathwait, English Gentelman and Gentelwoman (1640), in a supplemental tract, The Turtle's Triumph. Phrase "lead apes in hell" found in his Drunken Barnaby's Journal. Bessy Bell. Massinger, City Madam, Act II, scene 2. Shirley, School of Compliments (1637).
  • The godly union of souls in mutual forebearance with each other's infirmities, and mutual stimulating each other's graces--this surely is a fragment of true happiness that has survived the Fall.
    • Charles Bridges, An Exposition of Ecclesiastes, comment on Ecclesiastes 4:7-9.
  • Marriage and hanging go by destiny; matches are made in heaven.
    • Robert Burton, The Anatomy of Melancholy (1621), Part III, Section II. Mem. 5. Subs. 5.
  • 'Cause grace and virtue are within Prohibited degrees of kin; And therfore no true Saint allows, They shall be suffer'd to espouse.
  • For talk six times with the same single lady, And you may get the wedding dresses ready.
  • There was no great disparity of years, Though much in temper; but they never clash'd, They moved like stars united in their spheres, Or like the Rhône by Leman's waters wash'd, Where mingled and yet separate appears The river from the lake, all bluely dash'd Through the serene and placid glassy deep, Which fain would lull its river-child to sleep.
  • I am not against hasty marriages, where a mutual flame is fanned by an adequate income.
  • There's nothing a woman hates more than her fiance's best friend. He knows all the secrets she's going to spend the rest of her life trying to find out.
  • A marriage so free, so spontaneous, that it would allow of wide excursions of the pair from each other, in common or even in separate objects of work and interest, and yet would hold them all the time in the bond of absolute sympathy, would by its very freedom be all the more poignantly attractive, and by its very scope and breadth all the richer and more vital -- would be in a sense indestructible.
    • Edward Carpenter, Love's Coming of Age
  • The best way to remember your wife's birthday is to forget it once.
    • Joseph Cossman, Wit On Target, 1998, p. 91.
  • The tragedy of marriage is that while all women marry thinking that their man will change, all men marry believing their wife will never change.
    • Len Deighton, London Match (London: Hutchinson, 1985) p. 18.
  • Marriage is memory, marriage is time.
  • Any married man should forget his mistakes - no use two people remembering the same thing.
    • Duane Dewel, Wit On Target, 1998, p. 88.
  • If the policy of the law has withheld from married women certain powers and faculties, the Courts of law must continue to treat them as deprived of those powers and faculties, until the legislature directs those Courts to do otherwise.
    • Lord Eldon, C.J., Beard v. Webb (1800), 1 Bos. and Pull. 109; reported in James William Norton-Kyshe, Dictionary of Legal Quotations (1904), p. 164.
  • You were born together, and together you shall be forever more. You shall be together when the white wings of death scatter your days. Ay, you shall be together even in the silent memory of God. But let there be spaces in your togetherness, And let the winds of the heavens dance between you. Love one another, but make not a bond of love: Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls. Fill each other's cup, but drink not from one cup. Give one another of your bread, but eat not from the same loaf. Sing and dance together and be joyous, but let each of you be alone, Even as the strings of a lute are alone though they quiver with the same music. Give your hearts, but not into each other's keeping. For only the hand of Life can contain your hearts. And stand together yet not too near together: For the pillars of the temple stand apart, And the oak tree and the cypress grow not in each other's shadow.
  • In the marriage ceremony, that moment when falling in love is replaced by the arduous drama of staying in love, the words "in sickness and in health, for richer, for poorer, till death do us part" set love in the temporal context in which it achieves its meaning. As time begins to elapse, one begins to love the other because they have shared the same experience... Selves may not intertwine; but lives do, and shared memory becomes as much of a bond as the bond of the flesh.
  • Sir, it is so far from being natural for a man and a woman to live in a state of marriage, that we find all the motives that they have for remaining in that connection, and the restraints which civilized society imposes to prevent separation, are hardly sufficient to keep them together.
  • Marriages would in general be as happy, if not more so, if they were all made by the Lord Chancellor.
  • As unto the bow the cord is, So unto the man is woman; Though she bonds him she obeys him, Though she draws him, yet she follows, Useless each without the other!
  • Hail, wedded love, mysterious law; true source Of human offspring.
  • To the nuptial bower I led her, blushing like the morn; all Heaven, And happy constellations on that hour Shed their selectest influence; the earth Gave sign of gratulation, and each hill; Joyous the birds; fresh gales and gentle airs Whisper'd it to the woods, and from their wings Flung rose, flung odours from the spicy shrub.
  • Therefore God's universal law Gave to the man despotic power Over his female in due awe, Not from that right to part an hour, Smile she or lour.
  • There's a bliss beyond all that the minstrel has told, When two, that are link'd in one heavenly tie, With heart never changing, and brow never cold, Love on thro' all ills, and love on till they die.
    • Thomas Moore, Lalla Rookh (1817), Light of the Harem, Stanza 42.
  • Marriage is wonderful when it lasts forever, and I envy the old couples in When Harry Met Sally who reminisce tearfully about the day they met 50 years before. I no longer believe, however, that a marriage is a failure if it doesn't last forever. It may be a tragedy, but it is not necessarily a failure. And when a marriage does last forever with love alive, it is a miracle.
    • Peggy O'Mara, Mothering, Fall 1989.
  • No woman marries for money: they are all clever enough, before marrying a millionaire, to fall in love with him.
  • When a woman marries she belongs to another man; and when she belongs to another man there is nothing more you can say to her.
  • A husband is what is left of a lover, after the nerve has been extracted.
  • It takes patience to appreciate domestic bliss; volatile spirits prefer unhappiness.
    • George Santayana, The Life of Reason: Reason in Society, Scribner's, 1905, p. 45.
  • Marrying means doing whatever possible to become repulsed of each other.
  • Marriage is popular because it combines the maximum of temptation with the maximum of opportunity.
  • If you shall marry, You give away this hand, and that is mine; You give away heaven's vows, and those are mine; You give away myself, which is known mine.
  • Men are April when they woo, December when they wed; maids are May when they are maids, but the sky changes when they are wives.
  • I will fasten on this sleeve of thine: Thou art an elm, my husband, I, a vine.
  • Men's vows are women's traitors! All good seeming, By thy revolt, O husband, shall be thought Put on for villany; not born where 't grows, But worn a bait for ladies.
  • Ere yet the salt of most unrighteous tears Had left the flushing in her galled eyes, She married.
  • The instances that second marriage move Are base respects of thrift, but none of love.
  • God, the best maker of all marriages, Combine your hearts in one.
  • He is the half part of a blessed man, Left to be finished by such as she; And she a fair divided excellence, Whose fulness of perfection lies in him.
  • Happiest of all, is, that her gentle spirit Commits itself to yours to be directed, As from her lord, her governor, her king.
  • I will marry her, sir, at your request; but if there be no great love in the beginning, yet heaven may decrease it upon better acquaintance * * * I hope, upon familiarity will grow more contempt: I will marry her; that I am freely dissolved, and dissolutely.
    • William Shakespeare, Merry Wives of Windsor (c. 1597; published 1602), Act I, scene 1, line 253.
  • But earthlier happy is the rose distill'd, Than that which with'ring on the virgin thorn Grows, lives and dies in single blessedness.
  • I would not marry her, though she were endowed with all that Adam had left him before he transgressed: she would have made Hercules have turned spit, yea, and have cleft his club to make the fire too. * * * I would to God some scholar would conjure her; for certainly, while she is here, a man may live as quiet in hell as in a sanctuary.
  • Let husbands know, Their wives have sense like them: they see, and smell, And have their palates both for sweet and sour, As husbands have.
  • She is your treasure, she must have a husband; I must dance barefoot on her wedding day And for your love to her lead apes in hell.
  • She shall watch all night: And if she chance to nod I'll rail and brawl And with the clamour keep her still awake. This is the way to kill a wife with kindness.
  • Thy husband * * * commits his body To painful labour, both by sea and land, * * * * * * And craves no other tribute at thy hands, But love, fair looks, and true obedience; Too little payment for so great a debt.
  • Let still the woman take An elder than herself: so wears she to him, So sways she level in her husband's heart: For, boy, however we do praise ourselves, Our fancies are more giddy and unfirm, More longing, wavering, sooner lost and worn Than women's are.
  • Then let thy love be younger than thyself, Or thy affection cannot hold the bent: For women are as roses, whose fair flower Being once display'd, doth fall that very hour.
  • Now go with me and with this holy man Into the chantry by: there, before him, And underneath that consecrated roof, Plight me the full assurance of your faith.
  • Marge: Homer, is this the way you pictured married life? Homer: Yup, pretty much. Except we drove around in a van solving mysteries.
  • Marriage is like a coffin and each kid is another nail.
    • Homer Simpson (The Simpsons-How I Spent My Strummer Vacation)
  • Young men not ought to marry yet, and old men never ought to marry at all.
    • Diogenes of Sinope, from Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers, by Diogenes Laertus.
  • A man expects an angel for a wife; [yet] he knows that she is like himself -- erring, thoughtless and untrue; but like himself also, filled with a struggling radiancy of better things. ... You may safely go to school with hope; but ere you marry, should have learned the mingled lesson of the world: that hope and love address themselves to a perfection never realized, and yet, firmly held, become the salt and staff of life; that you yourself are compacted of infirmities ... and yet you have a something in you lovable and worth preserving; and that, while the mass of mankind lies under this scurvy condemnation, you will scarce find one but, by some generous reading, will become to you a lesson, a model and a noble spouse through life. So thinking, you will constantly support your own unworthiness and easily forgive the failings of your friend. Nay, you will be wisely glad that you retain the ... blemishes; for the faults of married people continually spur up each of them, hour by hour, to do better and to meet and love upon a higher ground.
  • But happy they, the happiest of their kind! Whom gentler stars unite, and in one fate Their Hearts, their Fortunes, and their Beings blend.
  • Gender no longer forms an essential part of marriage; marriage under law is a union of equals.
    • Judge Vaughn Walker, in the written decision of Perry v. Schwarzenegger, overturning California Proposition 8 (2008); page 115 (labelled page 113).
  • 'Tis my maxim, he's a fool that marries; but he's a greater that does not marry a fool.
  • You are of the society of the wits and railleurs … the surest sign is, since you are an enemy to marriage,—for that, I hear, you hate as much as business or bad wine.
  • Body and soul, like peevish man and wife, United jar, and yet are loth to part.
    • Edward Young, Night Thoughts (1742-1745), Night II, line 175.

Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations

Quotes reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 495-500.
  • He that hath a wife and children hath given hostages to fortune; for they are impediments to great enterprises, either of virtue or mischief.
  • To have and to hold from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness, and in health, to love and to cherish, till death us do part.
    • Book of Common Prayer, Solemnization of Matrimony.
  • To love, cherish, and to obey.
    • Book of Common Prayer, Solemnization of Matrimony.
  • With this ring I thee wed, with my body I thee worship, and with all my worldly goods I thee endow.
    • Book of Common Prayer, Solemnization of Matrimony.
  • He that said it was not good for man to be alone, placed the celibate amongst the inferior states of perfection.
    • Robert Boyle, Works, Volume VI, p. 292. Letter from Mr. Evelyn.
  • Cursed be the man, the poorest wretch in life, The crouching vassal, to the tyrant wife, Who has no will but by her high permission; Who has not sixpence but in her possession; Who must to her his dear friend's secret tell; Who dreads a curtain lecture worse than hell. Were such the wife had fallen to my part, I'd break her spirit or I'd break her heart.
  • Una muger no tiene. Valor para el consejo, y la conviene Casarse.
    • A woman needs a stronger head than her own for counsel—she should marry.
    • Calderon, El Purgatorio de Sans Patricio, III. 4.
  • To sit, happy married lovers; Phillis trifling with a plover's Egg, while Corydon uncovers with a grace the Sally Lunn, Or dissects the lucky pheasant—that, I think, were passing pleasant As I sit alone at present, dreaming darkly of a dun.
  • We've been together now for forty years, An' it don't seem a day too much; There ain't a lady livin' in the land As I'd swop for my dear old Dutch.
  • Man and wife, Coupled together for the sake of strife.
  • Oh! how many torments lie in the small circle of a wedding ring.
  • Prima societas in ipso conjugio est: proxima in liberis; deinde una domus, communia omnia.
    • The first bond of society is marriage; the next, our children; then the whole family and all things in common.
    • Cicero, De Officiis (44 B.C.), I. 17.
  • Thus grief still treads upon the heels of pleasure, Marry'd in haste, we may repent at leisure.
  • Misses! the tale that I relate This lesson seems to carry— Choose not alone a proper mate, But proper time to marry.
  • Wedlock, indeed, hath oft compared been To public feasts, where meet a public rout, Where they that are without would fain go in, And they that are within would fain go out.
  • At length cried she, I'll marry: What should I tarry for? I may lead apes in hell forever.
  • Is not marriage an open question, when it is alleged, from the beginning of the world, that such as are in the institution wish to get out, and such as are out wish to get in.
  • Magis erit animorum quam corporum conjugium.
    • The wedlock of minds will be greater than that of bodies.
    • Erasmus, Procus et Puella.
  • The joys of marriage are the heaven on earth, Life's paradise, great princess, the soul's quiet, Sinews of concord, earthly immortality, Eternity of pleasures.
    • John Ford, The Broken Heart, Act II, scene 2, line 102.
  • A bachelor May thrive by observation on a little, A single life's no burthen: but to draw In yokes is chargeable, and will require A double maintenance.
    • John Ford, The Fancies Chaste and Noble, Act I, scene 3, line 82.
  • Where there's marriage without love, there will be love without marriage.
  • My son is my son till he have got him a wife, But my daughter's my daughter all the days of her life.
    • Proverb from Fuller's Gnomologia (1732).
  • They that marry ancient people, merely in expectation to bury them, hang themselves, in hope that one will come and cut the halter.
    • Thomas Fuller, The Holy State and the Profane State (1642), Book III. Of Marriage.
  • You are of the society of the wits and railers;… the surest sign is, you are an enemy to marriage, the common butt of every railer.
    • David Garrick, The Country Girl, Act II. 1. Play taken from Wycherly's Country Wife.
  • The husband's sullen, dogged, shy, The wife grows flippant in reply; He loves command and due restriction, And she as well likes contradiction. She never slavishly submits; She'll have her way, or have her fits. He his way tugs, she t'other draws; The man grows jealous and with cause.
    • John Gay, Cupid, Hymen, and Plutus.
  • It is not good that the man should be alone.
    • Genesis, II. 18.
  • Bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh.
    • Genesis, II. 23.
  • Denn ein wackerer Mann verdient ein begätertes Mädchen.
  • So, with decorum all things carry'd; Miss frown'd, and blush'd, and then was—married.
  • Le divorce est le sacrement de l'adultere.
    • Divorce is the sacrament of adultery.
    • G. F. Guichard.
  • An unhappy gentleman, resolving to wed nothing short of perfection, keeps his heart and hand till both get so old and withered that no tolerable woman will accept them.
  • I should like to see any kind of a man, distinguishable from a gorilla, that some good and even pretty woman could not shape a husband out of.
  • Yet while my Hector still survives, I see My father, mother, brethren, all in thee.
    • Homer, The Iliad, Book VI, line 544. Pope's translation.
  • Andromache! my soul's far better part.
    • Homer, The Iliad, Book VI, line 624. Pope's translation.
  • Felices ter et amplius Quos irrupta tenet copula, nec malis Divulsus querimoniis Suprema citius solvet amor die.
    • Happy and thrice happy are they who enjoy an uninterrupted union, and whose love, unbroken by any complaints, shall not dissolve until the last day.
    • Horace, Carmina, I, 13, 17.
  • I have met with women whom I really think would like to be married to a Poem, and to be given away by a Novel.
  • Ay, marriage is the life-long miracle, The self-begetting wonder, daily fresh.
  • You should indeed have longer tarried By the roadside before you married.
  • Sure the shovel and tongs To each other belongs.
    • Samuel Lover, Widow Machree.
  • Take heede, Camilla, that seeking al the Woode for a streight sticke, you chuse not at the last a crooked staffe.
  • Marriage is destinie, made in heaven.
    • John Lyly's Mother Bombie. Same in Clarke, Paræmologia, p. 230. (Ed. 1639).
  • Cling closer, closer, life to life, Cling closer, heart to heart; The time will come, my own wed Wife, When you and I must part! Let nothing break our band but Death, For in the world above 'Tis the breaker Death that soldereth Our ring of Wedded Love.
  • And, to all married men, be this a caution, Which they should duly tender as their life, Neither to doat too much, nor doubt a wife.
  • The sum of all that makes a just man happy Consists in the well choosing of his wife: And there, well to discharge it, does require Equality of years, of birth, of fortune; For beauty being poor, and not cried up By birth or wealth, can truly mix with neither. And wealth, when there's such difference in years, And fair descent, must make the yoke uneasy.
  • What therefore God hath joined together let not man put asunder.
    • Matthew, XIX. 6.
  • Par un prompt désespoir souvent on se marie. Qu'on s'en repent après tout le temps de sa vie.
    • Men often marry in hasty recklessness and repent afterward all their lives.
    • Molière, Les Femmes Savantes, V. 5.
  • Women when they marry buy a cat in the bag.
  • Il en advient ce qui se veoid aux cages; les oyseaux qui en sont dehors, desesperent d'y entrer; et d'un pareil soing en sortir, ceulx qui sont au dedans.
    • It happens as one sees in cages: the birds which are outside despair of ever getting in, and those within are equally desirous of getting out.
    • Michel de Montaigne, Essays, Book III, Chapter V.
  • Drink, my jolly lads, drink with discerning, Wedlock's a lane where there is no turning; Never was owl more blind than a lover, Drink and be merry, lads, half seas over.
  • Hac quoque de causa, si te proverbia tangunt, Mense malos Maio nubere vulgus ait.
    • For this reason, if you believe proverbs, let me tell you the common one: "It is unlucky to marry in May."
    • Ovid, Fasti, V, 489.
  • Si qua voles apte nubere, nube pari.
    • If thou wouldst marry wisely, marry thine equal.
    • Ovid, Heroides, IX, 32.
  • Some dish more sharply spiced than this Milk-soup men call domestic bliss.
  • The garlands fade, the vows are worn away; So dies her love, and so my hopes decay.
  • Grave authors say, and witty poets sing, That honest wedlock is a glorious thing.
  • There swims no goose so gray, but soon or late She finds some honest gander for her mate.
  • Before I trust my Fate to thee, Or place my hand in thine, Before I let thy Future give Color and form to mine, Before I peril all for thee, Question thy soul to-night for me.
    • Adelaide Ann Procter, A Woman's Question.
  • A prudent wife is from the Lord.
    • Proverbs, XIX. 14.
  • Advice to persons about to marry—Don't.
    • "Punch's Almanack." (1845). Attributed to Henry Mayhew.
  • Le mariage est comme une forteresse assiégée; ceux qui sont dehors veulent y entrer et ceux qui sont dedans en sortir.
    • Marriage is like a beleaguered fortress; those who are without want to get in, and those within want to get out.
    • Quitard, Études sur les Proverbes Français, p. 102.
  • Widowed wife and wedded maid.
  • Marriage is a desperate thing.
  • To disbelieve in marriage is easy: to love a married woman is easy; but to betray a comrade, to be disloyal to a host, to break the covenant of bread and salt, is impossible.
  • What God hath joined together no man shall ever put asunder: God will take care of that.
  • The whole world is strewn with snares, traps, gins and pitfalls for the capture of men by women.
  • Lastly no woman should marry a teetotaller, or a man who does not smoke. It is not for nothing that this "ignoble tobagie" as Michelet calls it, spreads all over the world.
  • Under this window in stormy weather I marry this man and woman together; Let none but Him who rules the thunder Put this man and woman asunder.
  • The reason why so few marriages are happy is because young ladies spend their time in making nets, not in making cages.
  • Celibate, like the fly in the heart of an apple, dwells in a perpetual sweetness, but sits alone, and is confined and dies in singularity.
  • As the husband is the wife is; thou art mated with a clown, And the grossness of his nature will have weight to drag thee down.
  • This I set down as a positive truth. A woman with fair opportunities and without a positive hump, may marry whom she likes.
  • What woman, however old, has not the bridal-favours and raiment stowed away, and packed in lavender, in the inmost cupboards of her heart?
  • Thrice happy is that humble pair, Beneath the level of all care! Over whose heads those arrows fly Of sad distrust and jealousy.
  • The happy married man dies in good stile at home, surrounded by his weeping wife and children. The old bachelor don't die at all—he sort of rots away, like a pollywog's tail.
  • 'Tis just like a summer bird cage in a garden: the birds that are without despair to get in, and the birds that are within despair, and are in a consumption, for fear they shall never get out.
  • Why do not words, and kiss, and solemn pledge, And nature that is kind in woman's breast, And reason that in man is wise and good, And fear of Him who is a righteous Judge,— Why do not these prevail for human life, To keep two hearts together, that began Their spring-time with one love.

The Dictionary of Legal Quotations (1904)

Law of husband and wife

Quotes reported in James William Norton-Kyshe, The Dictionary of Legal Quotations (1904), p. 100-103.
  • In the eye of the law no doubt, man and wife are for many purposes one: but that is a strong figurative expression, and cannot be so dealt with as that all the consequences must follow which would result from its being literally true.
  • When a woman marries, her husband is the head of the family.
    • Parker, C.J., Inhabitants of St. Katherine v. St. George (1714), Fortesc. 218.
  • A woman is to comfort her husband.
    • Holt, C.J., Russell v. Corne (1703), 2 Raym. 1032.
  • If such cruelty shall be sanctioned, and wives shall not be allowed necessaries, England will lose the happy reputation in all foreign kingdoms, which her inhabitants have achieved by their respect for this sex, the most excelling in beauty, which, as in this climate it far transcends that of the women in all other lands, so has this Kingdom surpassed all other countries in its tenderness and consideration for their welfare.
    • Per Cur, Manby v. Scott (1672), 1 Levinz, 4; 2 Sm. L. C. (8th ed.) 458.
  • Dissentions existing between man and wife are in all events very unfortunate: when they become the subject of consideration to third persons, they are very unpleasant, and if the case requires that the conduct of each party should be commented upon in public, it is a most painful task to those to whose lot it falls to judge on them. The subject therefore is always to be handled with as much delicacy as it will admit of; but the infirmities of human nature have given rise to cruelties and other ill-treatment on the part of husbands, and to cases in which this Court has thought it indispensably necessary to interpose.
    • Buller, J., Fletcher v. Fletcher (1788), 2 Cox, Eq. Cas. 102.
  • By the laws of England, by the laws of Christianity, and by the constitution of society, when there is a difference of opinion between husband and wife, it is the duty of the wife to submit to the husband.
    • Molina, V.-C., In re Agar-Ellis; Agar-Ellis v. Lascelles (1878), L. R. 10 C. D. 55.
  • The naturalest and first conjunction of two towards the making a farther society of continuance, is of the husband and wife, each having care of the family: the man to get, to travel abroad, to defend; the wife to save, to stay at home, and distribute that which is gotten for the nurture of the children and family; is the first and most natural but primate apparence of one of the best kind of commonwealths, where not one always, but sometime, and in some things, another bears a rule; which to maintain, God hath given the man greater wit, better strength, better courage to compel the woman to obey, by reason or force; and to the woman, beauty, fair countenance, and sweet words to make the man obey her again for love. Thus each obeyeth and commandeth the other, and the two together rule the house, so long as they remain together in one.
    • Sir Thomas Smith, "Commonwealth of England," Bk. I., c. 11, f. 23; quoted by Hyde, J., Manby v. Scott (1600), 1 Mod. 140, who added "I wish, with all my heart, that the women of this age would learn thus to obey, and thus to command their husbands: so will they want for nothing that is fit, and these kind of flesh-flies shall not suck up or devour their husbands' estates by illegal tricks".
  • There may by possibility be cases where cruelty may lead up directly to the wife's adultery.
    • Dr. Lushington, Dillon v. Dillon (1841), 3 Curt. 94.
  • A woman commits adultery in order to gratify her own unlawful passion: she does not think about the annoyance to her husband when she abandons herself to her lover.
    • Brett, M.R., Fearon v. Earl of Aylesford (1884), L. R. 14 Q. B. D. 797.
  • If I might be permitted to borrow an illustration from poetry, the distinction between forgiveness and reconciliation is nowhere more strikingly shown than by a poet who, more than most other men, has sounded the depths of human feeling, and who supposes the question put to the husband of an adulteress: "Then did you freely, from your heart forgive?" to which he replies: "Sure, as I hope before my Judge to live; Sure, as the Saviour died upon the tree For all who sin—for that dear wretch and me, Whom never more, on earth, will I forsake or see." Grabbe's " Tales of the Hall," b. 12.
    • Lord Chelmsford, L.C., Keats v. Keats and another (1859), 7 W. R. 378; 5 Jur. (N. S.) Part 1 (1859), p. 178.
  • When people understand that they must live together, except for a very few reasons known to the law, they learn to soften by mutual accommodation that yoke which they know they cannot shake off; they become good husbands, and good wives, from the necessity of remaining husbands and wives; for necessity is a powerful master in teaching the duties which it imposes.1 If it were once understood, that upon mutual disgust married persons might be legally separated, many couples, who now pass through the world with mutual comfort, with attention to their common offspring and to the moral order of civil society, might have been at this moment living in a state of mutual unkindness—in a stage of estrangement from their common offspring—and in a state of the most licentious and unreserved immorality.
    • Sir William Scott, Evans v. Evans (1790), 1 Hagg. Con. Rep. 36, 37.
  • The cock swan is an emblem or representation of an affectionate and true husband to his wife above all other fowls; for the cock swan holdeth himself to one female only, and for this cause nature hath conferred on him a gift beyond all others; that is, to die so joyfully, that he sings sweetly when he dies; upon which the poet saith: "Dulcia defecta modulatur carmina lingua, Cantator, cygnus, funeris ipse sui, &c."
  • There is not one of us who cannot recall to memory the experience of some case in which a woman submitted to the worst of treatment, treatment degrading and humiliating, and allowed it to continue rather than permit her name to become the subject of a public scandal.
    • Lord Fitzgerald, G. v. M. (1885), L. R. 10 Ap. Ca. 208.
  • The reason why the law will not suffer a wife to be a witness against her husband is to preserve the peace of families.
    • Lord Hardioicke, Barker v. Dixie (1735), Ca. temp. Lord Hardwicke, 265.
  • The husband is not liable for the criminal conduct of his wife.
    • Wilmot, J., Lockwood v. Coysgarne (1764), 3 Burr. Part IV. 1681.

Law of marriage

Quotes reported in James William Norton-Kyshe, The Dictionary of Legal Quotations (1904), p. 165-166.
  • Nothing is more natural than to marry.
    • Hobart, C.J., Sheffeild v. Rateliffe (1617), Lord Hobart's Rep. 342.
  • The holy state of matrimony was ordained by Almighty God in Paradise, before the Fall of Man, signifying to us that mystical union which is between Christ and His Church ; and so it is the first relation: and when two persons are joined in that holy state, they twain become one flesh1; and so it is the nearest relation.
    • Hyde, J., Manby v. Scott (1659), 1 Mod. Rep. 125.
  • Marriage in the contemplation of every Christian community is the union of one man and one woman to the exclusion of all others.
    • Lush, L.J., Harvey v. Farnie (1880), L. R. 6 Pro. D. 53.
  • Matrimony is a sacrament.
    • Abney, J., Richards v. Dovey (1746), Willes' Rep. 623.
  • In the Christian Church marriage was elevated in a later age to the dignity of a sacrament.
    • Sir William Scott, Dalrymple v. Dalrymple (1811), 2 Hagg. Con. Rep. 64.
  • Marriage, in its origin, is a contract of natural law; it may exist between two individuals of different sexes, although no third person existed in the world, as happened in the case of the common ancestors of mankind: It is the parent, not the child of civil society. "Principium urbis et quasi seminarium reipublicce."
    • Sir William Scott, Dalrymple v. Dalrymple (1811), 2 Hagg. Con. Rep. 63.
  • It will appear, no doubt, that at various periods of our history there have been decisions as to the nature and description of the religious solemnities necessary for the completion of a perfect marriage, which cannot be reconciled together; but there will be found no authority to contravene the general position, that at all times, by the common law of England, it was essential to the constitution of a full and complete marriage, that there must be some religious solemnity; that both modes of obligation should exist together, the civil and the religious.
    • Tindal, C.J., R. v. Millis (1844), 10 CI. & Fin. 655.
  • A contract executed without any part performance.
    • Lord Brougham, R. v. Millis (1844), 16 C1.& Fin. 719.
  • Our law considers marriage in the light of a contract, and applies to it with some exceptions, the ordinary principles which apply to other contracts.
    • Steph. Com., Vol. II. (8th ed.), Book 3, c. 2. p. 238.
  • If people are drunk or delirious, The marriage of course would be bad; Or if they're not sober and serious, But acting a play or charade. It's bad if it's only a cover For cloaking a scandal or sin, And talking a landlady over, To let the folks lodge in her inn.
    • Lord Neaves, The Tourist's Matrimonial Guide through Scotland, quoted in an unidentiied case before Mr. Justice Barnes, (July, 1899).

Unknown / Anonymous

  • Let him go let him tarry, Let him sink or let him swim; If he doesn't care for me then I don't care for him. For I'm going to marry a far nicer boy.
    • Old English West Country rhyme

External links

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