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Arranges marriages have had a successful yet oppressive impact on the World’s society since the Elizabethan Era. They have been most commonly found in the eastern cultures such as India and Japan. In the western culture it used to be extremely popular during the Elizabethan Era. As though it seems today that a marriage is to seal the love one has for another, having an arranged marriage is as if sealing a contract with your parents. Arranged marriages influence the societies that use them by providing wealth, money, and power to the couples and their families even if the marriage is unjust.
An arranged marriage is where the parents are obligating the future newly-weds to marry someone whom they have possibly never met before with no say being taken into consideration (Zuffoletti 1). “Marriages would be arranged to bring prestige or wealth to the family. The children of landowners would be expected to marry to increase the size of the acreage” (Alchin 1). Usually another purpose why arranged marriages occurred were due to the fact that ‘parents know best’ and are better equipped at finding a soul mate with the same interests and are more compatible to you (Ros 1). Furthermore, “During the Elizabethan Era there were a plethora of family alliances formed by arranged marriages” (Tiers 1). Reasons of this I am not sure why but that adds up to a reason on why many families had arranged marriages for their child (children).
Arranged marriages were arranged by both sides of the families so they could both be benefited with wealth. This force gave the Elizabethan women very little choice in who they were to marry. In almost all cases the brides did not meet their spouses until their wedding day. The wedding day of a woman is the most i...
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...l Brides Were Used As Currency." Arranged Marriages- Past & Present. N.p., n.d. Web. 2 Feb. 2014. .
Sammy, Cheyanna. "Marriage and Weddings." Marriage and the Role of Women in the Elizabethan Era. Ed. Jocelyn Kirkwood. N.p., n.d. Web. 8 Mar. 2014. .
Tiers, Lily. "Elizabethan Women." Study Mode. N.p., 21 Jan. 2013. Web. 12 Feb. 2014. .
Toleda, Myrna. "First Comes Marriage, Then Comes Love." ABC news. Myrna Toleda, 30 Jan. 2009. Web. 30 Jan. 2014..
Zuffoletti, Alexandra R. "Traditional Arranged Marriages." Arranged Marriages. N.p., 2007. Web. 8 Mar. 2014. .
According to the author, Lizette Alvarez, in the article “Arranged Marriages Get a Little Reshuffling”, Arranged marriages are better than modern marriages and parents can choose good mates for young. First, the arranged marriage has changed a lot in modern time. Arranged marriages are more flexible because young people can meet several times in some public venues without family members. Parents and elders have become more lenient. Second, arranged marriages have more advantages than modern marriages. Arranged marriages can preserve religion and identity and help people to find their mates in the same social class. Arranged marriages can outlast modern marriages because couples can avoid social and religions disharmony. Finally, young people prefer arranged marriage to modern marriage. Young people would spend less time to find their mate because their parents, chat rooms and dating websites help find mates for them. Young people can easily find their mates who have the same education level and social status. As a young person, I do not agree with the author because other people migh...
The factors of arranged marriages are chiefly superficial. The most important factor to consider is the reputation of the family. The marriage needs to be respectable without any scandals attached. The goal seems to be to marry into a more prestigious family than one’s own. People who marry down in class, especially women, often disappoint their parents. Some parents will even disown their children if they do not agree with the child’s choice of a partner. In Mr. Smolinsky’s case, he ridicules his daughters into arranged marriages and even criticizes them after they are married. Even though his daughters’ home situations are terrible because of him, he does not take the blame for his matchmaking but rather turns it around on his children. He brought it upon himself to marry off his children by going to a matchmaker in town. He thought a diamond dealer named Moe Mirsky would be a good choice for a son-in-law. His original intent was for him to marry Fania but his daughter, Mashah who was forever heartbroken, agreed to marry him instead. After she married an...
Weddings were always a religious ceremony, conducted by a minister. The religions varied but the legal process prior to the wedding was always the same. There were no Registry Office marriages or marriages conducted by a Justice of the Peace. The first stage was Crying the Banns, announcing a couple's intention to marry. The same procedure still applies to Church marriages in England today. The Elizabethan Wedding custom dictated that the couple's intention to marry had to be announced in the church three times on three consecutive Sundays or Holy days. This allowed time for any objections to be raised or pre-contracts to be discovered. Any marriage not published beforehand was considered clandestine and illegal. Wedding invitations were not issued. People lived in small communities
Throughout history, especially in the fifteenth century, it was extremely rare for a woman to choose her husband. The majority of marriages were planned by the head of the household, which was usually the father of the bride or groom. The purposes of these marriages were to gain power and social standings. This in turn also provided the chance for the heirs of the marriages to have possession of power, territory/land, and a set social standard for the family for all future heirs. This was more of a benefit for the men than the women, for the men could own territories and be the head of the household, women could not. Instead, a woman’s obligation was to fulfill their family’s jurisdiction in their future.
Marriage was something that was to benefit both families in the 1500-1600s. It was considered foolish to marry for love, and with permission from parents boys were allowed to be married at 14 and girls at 12. It was recommended that males didn’t marry before 22 and girls before 18. Single women were thought to be witches.
Marriage at the time focused on a heterosexual relationship between a man and woman. Kirsti S. Thomas, explains that marriage did not concern the true love element that exists in the typical marriages of today. At the time of Shakespeare, she states that marriage "served to transfer wealth or property and to continue the family line" (2). Marriages were the result of socially and economically oriented environments, similar to the caste system in India. According to a web source specializing in Renaissance weddings, such couplings of ".arranged marriages of the upper class were decided when the bride and groom were young, usually ten to eleven years.
Regency England was known for its development’s in literature, fashion, politics and culture, and courtship. It was an era where many balls and dances took place. It was somewhat a “happy” time, but had its dark sides. The lower classes were looked down upon by the upper classes. Women had very few rights; they were expected to behave a certain way, dress a certain way, and expected to marry. Women were considered property, and once married all their possession belonged to their husband. Marriage was somewhat of a necessity in order to have any type of social ranking. But, it was very rare to marry out of your social class, because most people of a higher class would not allow it. (Vickery, Amanda. The Gentleman’s Daughter: Women’s Lives in Georgian England. New Haven, CT. Yale University Press, 1998)
“Love and Marriage.” Life in Elizabethan England. Elizabethan.org, 25 March 2008. Web. 3 March 2014.
In those times marriage was similar to a business deals not like today. Good marriage ensured safety for the family. For women, marriage was the only chance to improve their social status. Although marring for money today is almost unheard of for working class people it is very normal with some couples.
For example, elizabethanenglandlife.com states, “The matrimony was arranged by families of the bride and the groom in order for the two sides to benefit from one another” (Courtship Divorces and Marriages during Elizabethan Era). After all, that is the only thing anyone worried about in that time. Another high expectation that was held to women was to marry. If they didn’t marry they would be believed by their neighbors that they were witches. In elizabethan-era.org.uk it says, “Regardless of their social standing women and men were expected to marry. Single women who were thought to be witches by their neighbours…” (Elizabethan Marriages and Weddings). One interesting fact about women not marrying is that if they did not marry who their father, or family, chose they could be executed. This obviously left many women speechless, and where they had absolutely no choice in what they do. Once the father chose a man for his daughter and they wed, the man had complete rule over the woman. For instance, elizabethan-era.org.uk says, “After marriage Elizabethan women were expected to run the households and provide children. The law gave a husband full rights over his wife. She effectively became his property” (Elizabethan Marriages and Weddings). The husband had full control over his wife and basically ruled over her. They both had to marry or they would look
Nowadays we live in a world which is full of choices and the choice of the person you would like to merry is one of the most important one. It is really hard to decide whether this person is really “yours” or it is just the illusion. Thus, can it be a better way to have somebody who decides who will you be married to? Some people think it is unfair because person doesn’t have the right of choice but the others think that arranged marriages are a good choice. Free choice marriage is a marriage in which both partners choose each other by themselves and the choice is based on factors such as physical attraction, the desire for emotional stability, love, similar outlooks, personalities, interests etc. However this is not the only way to choose. In arranges marriages the partner is selected by elder family members but the young people may have the right to veto the choice if they strongly disagree with it. There are definitely pros and cons of both and only after taking them into consideration person can decide which to choose: arranged or free choice marriage.
In the subject of marriage a woman’s main purpose is to conceive children and remain as a “property” of her husband (Suite101 1). A woman’s marriage is mostly based on her dowry and wealth. If a woman owns a high dowry, most likely she would marry a man of a high status; a woman who lacks a proper dowry would in turn marry a man of a lower status. Consequently, marriage during the Renaissance is generally based on prosperity rather than the love between couples (Essay911). A dowry is like a “ticket” for a marriage because without a dowry it is almost impossible for a woman to obtain a husband. When a couple confirms a dowry the husband sends a receipt to the wife’s parents in order to finalize their marriage. This symbolizes the bride as a purchase or a product that can be bought in...
In the article Arranging a Marriage in India, Serena Nanda, a professor of Anthropology at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, writes about what she learned about arranged marriages in India from interviewing informants and participating in arranging a marriage herself. Nanda brought in some American biases about how marriage and love are “supposed” to work. She initially had trouble accepting why someone would want or let another arrange their marriage instead of seeking a partner themselves. Nanda’s difficulty understanding arranged marriages, is a result of having grown up in a culture that leaves such decisions to the individual. Furthermore, if the quotes given in the article are an indication, Nanda let her biases influence her conduct
Traditional arranged marriages were arranged by the parents. They arranged the child's future spouse with little or no input from the child being taken as having final authority ("Arranged marriage"). If the child refuses the choice of their parents, the parents may choose another possible spouse or the child may be punished or disowned (or in rare cases, killed accidentally in the heat of passion or intentionally with legal authority to do so). In traditional arranged marriages, the child had no real input in the wedding. They have no say in who they will marry.
Each marriage comes with a different perspective and story, whether it is an arranged marriage or love marriage. Arranged and Love marriages are very similar yet different. Love is the pure feeling of attachment. Arrange marriage is like a blind date in hopes to find love. It could be love at first sight or love after a while so in somewhat way they end up being a love marriage after all because the end result is the same as they get married or find love. In this essay there will be comparison done on love marriage and arrange marriage. Each country has a different perspective on each type of marriage. I will be comparing both marriages in America and India. Love Marriages come with a responsibility of their