Comment on arranged marriages

There are pros and cons for arranged marriages. There are arranged marriages due to several reasons. For example, in the olden days in China, the culture was such that the father is the person who decides who the child should marry and children had to no autonomy to decide who they want to choose as their life partner. A more recent example would be in India, where the caste system only allows people to marry within their “class” and restricts people from choosing who they truly love. Parents in some parts of India are afraid that their children would fall in love with a person from another class if they were to be allowed to freely select their partners. Many troubles would arise if their children falling in love with people from other “classes” as it would put the child in a dilemma whether to marry this person or to stick to the custom and break up. It would also make the parents worry because if the child eventually decides to continue with the relationship, the child would be considered as a “criminal” in the society. Parents, who would naturally not want that to happen, have to find all means to break their relationship, and this could result in devastating effects such as the souring of parent-child relationship due to the child blaming the parents, or the child not being able to get over the separation. Hence decide their spouse for them to avoid the potential problems that could arise from their children freely choosing their spouse. We can also conclude that arranged marriages are done partly due to the parents’ love for the child as they want to save their child from the problems that could potentially be faced in the process of a “free marriage”, and need not necessarily be a bad thing.

However, arranged marriages could result in an unstable relationship. The two parties of the marriage might not love each other as the marriage was not the choice of the bride and the groom but that of the parents. Parents would usually pick the spouse for their children based on social status and family background rather than how much they love each other and how compatible they are. If the two parties happen not to love each other, their relationship will be very shaky and might not last for long.

In summary, arranged marriages is not the best way to decide the life partner of a person. Although there are advantages to arranged marriages, the disadvantages make it difficult to implement in today’s society. Parents should guide their children along the way when their children are finding a life partner, teach them how to make an informed decision, but give the final say to their children .