Marriage is the connection between two people who want to make their relationship known and accepted by the society they live in; it is an institution in which both members have rights and responsibilities and both are protected by law; it is a relationship that is meant to be broken by death only. However, in increasingly frequent situations, different other aspects of daily life affect it, thus, some marriages end in divorce. Today, if a couple wants to get divorced, they are first sent to a counsellor and try to analyse the reasons for their fights and misunderstandings and they are encouraged to work together and find solutions to make it through. Contemporary society changes from one year to another and these changes also affect the way in which the relationship between people evolve, especially marriage.
In order to understand marriage today, one should take a look at some important facts from the past which have affected the notion in question. First of all, the strategic alliances during Anglo-Saxon times were not made on the base of love but rather on the base of diplomatic and commerce connections; in this way, marriage ensured peace and balance. This has evolved to families looking for suitable partners for their sons and daughters and not being content with anyone from the community. This leads to the second important aspect about marriage: consent. As previously mentioned, marriage was about establishing relations and not about love and this is why the consent of the bride or the groom was not very important.
The third historical fact about marriage in England which represents an important aspect in its history, is The Clandestine Marriage Act of 1753, which is considered to mark the beginning of the way in which the state started to be involved in the institution of marriage. The act stated that the couples needed to be married in a church by a minister; otherwise, the entire ceremony was not accepted legally. According to this document, minor people could marry only if they had the consent of their families and the marriage had been properly announced and documented. Also, the clergymen who accepted to perform the so-called illegal ceremonies, without the parents’ consent and without the public announcement, would suffer serious consequences of their decision. This act was followed by a new one, representing the forth key moment in the history of marriage: The Marriage Act of 1836, which stated that the non-religious marriages ( the civil ones) could be held in a register office opened in villages and towns; in this way, the state could have a better statistic of the number of marriages performed in the country. Also, the document allowed people of other religions to get married in their place of worship, following their specific rites.
Divorce is not allowed if the couple presents solid grounds for their request and if both of them give their consent. A lot of couples choose to divorce because of different reasons. One of them would be that they later understood that they got into the marriage for the wrong reasons – for money and fame and because they were not happy with their lives. Then, there is the case in which one of the partners feels the loss of identity and they cannot express their opinions and beliefs and thus feels entrapped in the relationship. Others say that marriage does not meet their expectations and they feel less successful and self-assured. There are couples that invoke financial matters or lack of compatibility or the disappearance of intimacy.
Taking everything into account, one would say that both marriage and divorce are important aspects of modern family life and that people have learnt more and more from one generation to another. If, at the beginning, marriage was more like a business deal, rarely involving love, now it is based on love and mutual respect and on the equality of the couple. If, at the beginning, divorce was shameful and illegal, now it is seen as a solution to couples who cannot live together anymore and who cannot find ways to solve their conflicts. These two notions will continue to evolve based on the way in which our society evolves from the political, religious, economic and social perspectives.
TO BE CONTINUED
