The Forbidden Love

In North America, people will argue that love needs to happen before marriage but, historically, this is actually a very new notion. Mr. Smolinsky was in shock when his daughters wanted to marry for love. He asked his wife if they even looked at each other before the engagement and she replied, “’Maybe if I had the sense of my daughters in America, I would have given you a good look over before the wedding’” (76). This implies that if she had the choice, she would have married for love or perhaps a different man at least.

Arranged marriage is found in various cultures and countries around the world, including Afghanistan and other parts of the Middle East; having an arranged marriage is thought of as an Afghani tradition and has been a part of life for many families. The practice of arranged marriage has advantages and disadvantages; it can create more family power and give more financial security. Sadly being forced into a marriage can disrupt the independence of the engaged, most women stop their education when they become engaged resulting in many women being illiterate. This makes it impossible for them to be successful without depending on their husbands. Arranged marriage is found in many cultures throughout the modern world, though in a lot of cases it results in a happy family it can also be very limiting on women and often girls are married before they can give consent.

Marriage is described as two people as partners in a personal relationship. There are two typical ideas of marriage that we know today. The first one that comes to mind is the one we all know, based on love, but there is another one that some may not even know of and its arranged marriages. Arranged marriage is not typically in our culture we know but in different cultures arranged marriages are their normal marriage. Throughout this essay, I will discuss the importance of realizing cultural diversity and how we apply the perspectives we gain from cross-cultural comparison to our own experience using central concepts about marriage to compare and contrast marriage in several cultures.

A common issue seen with this is the concept of arranged marriage. Some might think that this tradition only happens in third world or foreign countries. This is not the case. A journalist from Harvard, Anita Jain, writes about her difficulties and her parent’s persistence to get her married. Anita said, “My parents, in a very earnest bid to secure my eternal happiness, have been trying to marry me off to, well, just about anyone lately.” Although this could be seen as her parents trying to help her and find her a spouse, think if it was you in that position.

1862 England (Victorian Era) was somewhat of an uptight society, especially compared to today. The majority of people, especially those in the upper class, were expected to be utmostly prim and proper and follow societal norms at all times. This included love, or what love was defined as during the period. George Meredith, in his poem aptly titled “Modern Love”, sets a scene where a husband and wife are sleeping side by side, both reflecting sorrowfully on their melancholy marriage. Meredith argues in this poem that the institution of modern love is inherently flawed, by exposing to the reader that while the husband and wife still care for each other, they want to leave each other because they are both scared of “modern love”. By doing so, Meredith is able to justify his overarching message that applies to all: love is a feeling that cannot be artificially replicated, and attempting to do so is only a detriment.

In some cultures, people didn’t marry for love and those who did were looked down upon; whereas in modern times, it’s the opposite in many parts of the world. Coontz tells of a culture where,“A Taita man normally marries a love wife only after he has accumulated a few more practical wives” (255). This shows the different perceptions of marriage between the Taita peoples, who let men remarry several times in loveless marriages, and those of certain religions that forbade divorce, as well as today’s society where people often marry for love the first time around. The perceptions differed in that some societies believed in remarrying and marrying without love, while others didn’t. Coontz explains some very different marriage traditions than what Bennett says is normal and right-A man and a woman who fit traditional gender roles- as shown in his essay, “Complementary nature of men and women-and how they refine, support, encourage, and complete one another” (272).

Most people arrange marriages for their off springs because they think that they can find a more suitable mate for their offsprings and they believe that their offsprings should be married to someone of their own family status, the same salary and the same religion. Marriages continue to be arranged in order to enhance family resources, reputation, and alliances, and because parents and older relatives feel that they are more qualified than young people to make such decisions. In today's society parents are giving their children more power (not all the power) to make somewhat of a decision on who they're going to get married to. Some families still have strict rules on who their offsprings are going to marry but they still give

Women choose their partners, and refuse to marry men who [sic] they do not want to marry, regardless of their parents ' feelings or the ardor of

Luv smiled. Rick wanted nothing more than to make her happy, at least in bed. In her heart, she knew she wasn’t ready for another serious relationship and he wasn’t either. Why did she have to pigeonhole it, name and analyze it? She told herself he cared for her. He'd said as much. It was kind of sexy thinking of herself as his mistress or lover. Once you give yourself a label like girlfriend or fiancee' there's list of expectations and responsibilities that come with it. She’d often told women to feed their partner’s fantasies if they were within reason. This was within reason. Lover was much sexier than the other labels. No baggage either. The only expectation was that of pleasure. Before now she hadn't considered herself a live in the moment

“Love is complex: considered simply in itself, it is neither honorable nor a disgrace-its character depends entirely on the behavior it gives rise to,” (Plato 183d). There are two different types of love that Pausanius refers to, which are the common and heavenly love. The common love is based on your love for someone for their body, sex or beauty making it physical love and desire for a person. Heavenly love is love for the mind such as your intelligence and strength, someone you can benefit from making one more wise. Any love that is encountered has a purpose whether is it the love between a mother and daughter or the love between a husband and wife. In the end, all love leads and is directed to virtue and improves the loved ones.

This essay focuses on the theme of forbidden love, The God of Small Things written by Arundhati Roy. This novel explores love and how love can’t be ignored when confronted with social boundaries. The novel examines how conventional society seeks to destroy true love as this novel is constantly connected to loss, death and sadness. This essay will explore the theme of forbidden love, by discussing and analysing Ammu and Velutha's love that is forbidden because of the ‘Love Laws’ in relation to the caste system which results in Velutha’s death. It is evident that forbidden love negatively impacts and influences other characters, such as Estha and Rahel, which results in Estha and Rahel’s incestuous encounter.

Arranged marriages are set up by friends and family, and sometimes by a matchmaker that sets up the marriage. But the bride’s father has the most responsibility in arranging marriage for his daughter, and is the one who approaches the father of a potential bridegroom. Important aspects when considering a possible match are financial status, caste, and the bride and bridegrooms horoscopes matching. The role of astrology is important, and if a Hindu priest finds that the horoscopes of the potential spouses do not match, they will not marry, and must begin the search all over again (Livermore, 2009). India’s view of marriage first and then love is very different from the Western view where love comes before marriage, seems to be successful. The

The taste of poison on his lips. The agony of knowledge that should have never been shared. Jhumpa Lahiri’s “A Temporary Matter” and William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” both speak to the most universal human theme, love, by exploring how we often hurt most those we love most. In order to keep her love forever, Miss Emily poisons her lover. In realization of the end of their marriage, Shukumar retributes his wife’s disclosure of her new, individual apartment with a description of their unborn son, something Shoba never wanted to know. In both short stories, the characters love, or loved, each other, yet something corrupts their love and their relationship, be it the psychological and sociological repercussions of

The story “Country Lovers was written in 1975 when times were different then they are today. This story was written about a farmer’s son and one of the children of the farm’s help. There are many aspects of this story that are wrong but the most pronounced one is the racial segregation. Even though certain races are perceived as inferior to some, there should be no such thing because we all need to work together to make the planet a better place and lives are ruined over racial this segregation.

“The Iranian government sees trans and homosexual individuals as people with psychosexual problems, and so provide them with a medical solution”(Neha Thirani Bagri, An Uncomfortable Truth, qz). People around the world do not get the rights they deserve because the government influences and limits people's actions. Nobody should be living in fear, feel held back, or discriminated against because of their sex, race, religion or sexual orientation. Everyone should be given the right of protection, be treated with respect, and not have to live in fear because of who they are.