What is marriage? What does it truly mean? For me personally, marriage is best defined as a legal act of love between two people who vow to be as one until death do them part. It is a special day of celebrating an everlasting union between two people and their families. It is a life long commitment. It is loyalty, security, trust, and respect. Marriage is forever.
To help me better define the meaning of the word ”marriage”, I looked it up in several dictionaries. To my surprise, not one included the word “love” in their definition. I found that a bit odd, because isn’t love what marriage is supposed to be based upon? For example, dictionary.com defines marriage as “any of the diverse forms of interpersonal union established in various parts of the world to form a familial bond that is recognized legally, religiously, or socially, granting the participating partners mutual conjugal rights and responsibilities and including, for example, opposite-sex marriage, same-sex marriage, plural marriage, and arranged marriage.” Miriam Webster defines marriage as “the state of being united to a person of the opposite sex as husband or wife in a consensual and contractual relationship recognized by law and the state of being united to a person of the same sex in a relationship like that of a traditional marriage.” I believe love should be incorporated somewhere in there. Perhaps if it were, then more marriages would last. After all, the foundation of marriage should first and
Marriage is the unification between a man and a woman, instituted and ordained by God, for the lifelong relationship between one man as husband and one woman as a wife. This is what the ritual of marriage means in Christian churches. Many people choose not to marry in the Christian church due to the strict format you have to follow. However, based on my ethnographic results and research, there are wide ranges of options where marriages in Catholic and Anglican religions can be adapted to, however; it is directed by their Church authorities to a certain degree.
The basic sociological concept of marriage is the socially acknowledged and approved and often legal union of two people, allowing them to live together and to have children by birth of adoption. Marriage typically is the start of how families are created and sociologists like to study marriages by seeing how the union between two people expand or dissolve. Most common marriages are a monogamy, or marriage between two people. In some laws, a marriage not only is between a man and a woman but also between two males or two females.
Marriage is very common among societies. Depending on the culture, the definition and the type of marriages differ. According to Encyclopedia Britannica, “Marriage is a physical, legal and moral union between man and woman in complete community life for the establishment of a family(2013).”A broader definition of marriage is that it’s ritually and socially recognized union between people who establishes rights and obligations between them.
Marriage: a social construct in the form of a formal union of a man and a woman, typically recognized by law, by which they become husband and wife.
Marriage is a system of binding a man and woman together for the reproduction, care (physical/emotional), and socialization of offspring. Marriage is a social and legal contract between a couple and the state in which they reside that regulates their economic and sexual relationship. (David, Caroline: 2005)
Marriage is a union between two people. The purpose of marriage is to love and support the other person, through good times and through bad. With this being said, marriage has the opportunity to make you a better person, who is more flourished and happier. Although marriages have the opportunity to happy, lifelong relationships, they also have the opportunity to be loveless and more of a burden than a gift.
Marriage has been defined differently throughout the centuries. Today Merriam-Webster defines marriage as, “the state of being united to a person of the opposite sex as husband or wife in a consensual and contractual relationship recognized by law” (“Marriage”). Due to the recent Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and Transsexual or LGBT movement, Merriam-Webster also added a second line to the definition reading “The state of being
What is the definition of marriage? Over the years, the word marriage has been challenged from its current definition as listed in Merriam-Webster 's Dictionary as an act of marrying or being married between a man and a woman. Marriage can also be defined in the Oxford Dictionary as the formal union of a man and a woman, typically recognized by law, by which they become husband and wife. The word marriage becomes a special type of bond between two people that share the same desire to become the other person’s life partner. Marriage can be challenging between two people based on their current government state laws, in their religious and cultural beliefs as well as challenging to the word to be defined
Why do people get married? What do marriages stand for? Marriage is a union between two people who wish to unite their life together. The reason that people today get married is for love. However, marriage means more than love. A reason why many people get married is that they have found companionship, love, and comfort in another person. The idea of a marriage has different meanings to people. Some marry for money, love or resources. In modern times, many philosophies have changed throughout the year. In her book marriage, Juliet H severance states that ¨marriage institution claim that it offers the best possible opportunity for individual and collective happiness…¨(severance 3) Marriage is a way to achieve happiness. Many ideas of marriage have changed. However, some ideas and still exist. Marriage is a form of motivation, regardless of their reasons. The reason people get married is mainly love, money, and traditions.
Marriage is a binding contract between two individuals. It is a way to show each other that they are ready to spend the rest of their lives with each other. A marriage is much more than a wedding dress, wedding cake, and rings. It takes loyalty and commitment to each other. In the Elizabethan era, William Shakespeare’s romantic comedy A Midsummer Nights Dream shows through motifs how people struggle with a new marriage, but in the end the fight results in a stronger marriage.
Marriage – “the legally or formally recognized union of a man and a woman (or, in some jurisdictions, two people of the same sex) as partners in a relationship.”
Some may think it is because we can walk on two legs and communicate in full-length sentences; some think it is because we can love and miss; still others think it is simply because of the way our brains work. The question of what it means to be human is one that has been following all of us throughout our existence, from the day we spoke our first words to the day we discovered each of us has our own unique genetic code. We think about it, we speak about it, and we write about it; thus, those three forms of expression form the root of philosophy. And this question - what does it mean to be human - is inextricably linked with the practice, and has been since philosophy was first performed. Moreover, the question of “what does it mean to be human?” lends itself to a deeper insight - can we understand ourselves as being made human by a single feature? Philosophers Plato, Augustine, and Arendt all pontificate on the source of our humanity, and believe that one condition, whether inherent or enacted, that unites us all as people. For each thinker, there are multiple aspects to this condition; firstly, when humans are born, we are hurled into a set of circumstances that we cannot control. We come into a world full of certain relationships and certain desires. Every philosopher mentioned above believes that fulfilling our humanity is a matter of transcending either those uncontrollable desires or our initial position in the world. Escaping these circumstances depends on our
There are many ways in which one can describe and define marriage. There are legal, biblical and personal definitions, each with its own distinct basis for its definition, but which is the right one? The decision of which definition is the right one depends on where one lives and what one believes. Marriage has evolved throughout history. In today’s society there are many different types of unions that can be viewed as marriage. Today, when one thinks of marriage, they usually think of two people, deeply in love, who decide to bind their lives together through a legal process. Such is not always the case, with “common-law marriages” (as it is not a legal process). There are many reasons other than love that can constitute the bond
What does marriage mean? By definition, marriage is “the legal union of a man and a woman as husband and wife” (Webster’s Dictionary). Most people claim that they want their marriage to last a lifetime. Because over half of all marriages in the United States end in a divorce, most people lack the understanding of what it takes to stay married. I believe that couples should become more aware of the commitment that they are making when they enter into marriage.
In today’s society, couples either rush into marriage, get married for the wrong reasons, or don’t marry the right person. Marriage has become a blank canvas that people create themselves and ignore what God intentionally created marriage for. When I look at my life and what I believe, marrying the love of life will be what I think about until the actual day I get married. Who I end up marrying, I want them to be compatible with what I believe and want in life and I also want to feel the feeling that, “my heart just knows” I am supposed to be with this person. I believe that marriage is about being with the one you have fallen in love with and can love the rest of your life with; through the good and the bad times. Marriage is the covenant between two people to be together forever. Whether they are the right or the wrong person, we are the ones who decide who we fall in love with in the end.