Compare and Contrast Love Marriage and Arranged Marriage

Marriage: Love Marriage vs Arranged Marriage

Marriage is a socially or constitutionally recognized partnership between two individuals who choose to leave as partners of intimate partnerships. Marriage is called a legally binding contract in some cases, mostly in civil contexts, in which rights and obligations are defined between the marrying parties (Oprea 133).

The Types of Marriage

Even though marriage can be narrowly defined as an institution of rights and obligations for the marrying parties, the presence of cultural diversity gives rise to various meanings of the word marriage, and thus subsequent styles of marriages emerge. However, types of marriage can be classified into two; love marriage and arranged marriage. The principal difference that exists between the two is that in love marriage, the marrying parties pursue the marriage institution based on love between them whereas in arranged marriage, the marrying parties base their decisions on a set of compatibility factors or family-wide decisions (Caldwell et al. 343). Even though these types of marriage portray major differences in terms of autonomy by partners, the entire marriage life is similar across the two types in the sense that ups and downs are encountered in both (Gale 9).

Differences in Autonomy

First, a love marriage offers the partner’s freedom to choose their potential marriage partners based purely on love, whereas an arranged marriage gives little or no freedom of choice to the partners as this decision remains solely with their respective families (Gale 9). Even though the love marriage might seem advantages at a glance, the freedom of choice is accompanied with individual responsibility for any repercussions exhibited in the post-marriage life. In most cases, support or intervention from respective families is usually absent. On the other hand, partners can still enjoy support and intervention from their respective families.

Focus of the Union

Secondly, a love marriage is focused on the union between the marrying partners while an arrange marriage is focused on the union of the respective families belonging to the marrying parties. Since a love marriage is based on love, the parties involved have to worry little about what their families will perceive of such a union (Gale 9). As an alternative, priority is given to the love between the two partners. On the other hand, priority in arrange marriages is given to compatibility between the families from which potential suitors emanate, hence focus is placed more on the union between the two families than the marrying parties (Caldwell et al. 351).

Prior Familiarity

Third, in a love marriage, partners have prior familiarity with each other while in an arrange marriage, partners only know each other deeper after the marriage (Oprea 133). Prior to pursuing a love marriage, partners often engage in courtship first. Ideally, the partner’s court until they are convinced that time to pursue marriage is ripe. This courtship period allows them to gain deeper knowledge of each other (Oprea 133). On the other hand, arrange marriage mostly involves families meeting and making decisions on behalf of the marrying parties. In this type, the partners do not get a chance to engage in an informal courtship where they get to know each other deeper. Consequently, they will often need a substantial period of time to develop deeper inter-personal connections with each other (Oprea 133).

Post-Marriage Life

While the above differences exist between a love marriage and an arrange marriage, a key question that needs to be considered is how they alter the true intention of marriage. A normal marriage institution, whether resulting from love relationships or family/compatibility-based choices, must exhibit ups and downs. In a love marriage, love, which was the main binding factor, is likely to fade away with time. In an arrange marriage, the set of compatibility factors are likely to differ with time. Even though partners might enjoy support and intervention from their families in the post-marriage life, this support is usually for a short period of time. Generally, the post-marriage life in both cases is usually unpredictable (Oprea 133).

Conclusion

A key insight that can be derived from the above discussion is that there is no perfect choice between a love marriage and an arranged marriage since both are likely to exhibit ups and downs in the post marriage life. Even though there are existing differences in terms of autonomy of the marrying partners, focus of the union, and prior familiarity, these differences are usually meaningless in light of the long-term post-marriage life where everything gradually levels off.

Work cited

Caldwell, John C., Palli Hanumantha Reddy, and Pat Caldwell. “The causes of marriage change

in South India.” Population studies 37.3 (1983): 343-361.

Gale, David, and Lloyd S. Shapley. “College admissions and the stability of marriage.” The

American Mathematical Monthly 69.1 (1962): 9-15.

Oprea, Alexandra. “The arranged marriage of Ana Maria Cioaba, intra-community oppression

and Romani feminist ideals: transcending the _x0091_primitive culture_x0092_argument.” European Journal of Women’s Studies 12.2 (2005): 133-148.