The Radical Idea Of Marrying For Love By Stephanie Coontz Analysis

When the word marriage is heard, what definition comes to mind? After reading Stephanie Coontz’s article, The Radical Idea of Marrying for Love, the definition of marriage that most people are familiar with is different. In Coontz’s article, she explains the ideal marriage in multiple cultures and how the idea of marriage has altered after some time. It is hard to have one definition of marriage for one culture when there are many different people, therefore, is there a real definition for marriage? If there is a real definition of marriage, is there such thing as love? In Coontz’s article, she explains the concept of marriage for different cultures. Some of the areas were China, Europe, Africa, Greece, Alaska and etc. She gives a brief description of how the parents and sometimes the government play a …show more content…
Not only arranged marriages, but if the parents of the husband felt the wife were doing wrong or not living up to their standards then “parents could force a son to divorce his wife.” Coontz also described how “couples were not to put their feelings for each other above more important commitments, such as their ties to parents, siblings, cousins, neighbors, or God.” As for the role of the husband and wife in the marriage, Coontz explains how those who married in some cultures were not to be married for love. The love part of the relationship would grow within time. It was also a negative thing for a man and woman to have “excessive love.” It was perfectly acceptable for the man and woman to have sexual relations with each other and in some cultures with many other partners, but love was the not the reason to be married. Coontz also described how marriage changed throughout time. She explained how the theory that love should be the reason to get married is considered to be “a recent Western