Arranged marriages in the Elizabethan Era were incredibly common. Basically, if you were a young person in the middle or upper classes of society, you did not have a say on your own marriage. Your parents or respective guardians wanted to keep whatever possessions and fortunes they owned within the same social status. (1) The old people that raised you up to this point had every say on your life, which sounds just and right when put in a way like this, but remember that these children who were getting married by means of arranged marriages were an average of thirteen years old. (2) If you have a thirteen year old get married in today's day in age, they would carry their teddy bears to the wedding, they would be so young and immature. But the children of the Renaissance were forced to grow up faster than children today. For one thing, the life expectancy of an average person during the Elizabethan Era was about forty- two years old. (3) At thirteen, the victims of arranged marriages were, proportionally, middle aged. As aforementioned, people did not marry outside of their social class. Nobles would marry nobles and peasants would marry peasants. (Not that peasants would bother arranging marriages. They didn't have a need for this particular tradition because their statuses and bloodlines were not of great importance to them. In fact, if a lower class citizen were to marry a person higher up in society, it would be a cause of great celebration. However, the system didn't work that way, and if you were lowly and poor, you were destined to remain lowly and poor.)
Like every other controversial tradition in the world, arranged marriages have advantages and disadvantages. The disadvantages are obvious and have been mentioned before. In an arranged marriage, one would not be marrying for love. Imagine falling in love with a handsome, charming stranger but still be tied to marrying a guy you don't really care for. (Romeo. *coughs* And Juliet. *cough cough* And the couple's predicament about getting together considering their families' were feuding and Juliet was set to marry Paris. *cough*). Another disadvantage: they would be marrying off of their families' decisions with little or no prior knowledge of the future couple's compatibility. One partner could be a complete jerk and the other could be a total doormat and the couple would be left with an abusive relationship they didn't even choose to have. The advantages were not nonexistent, however. Studies show that divorce rates of arranged marriages are about 4% while divorce rates in America and Canada, two countries who really enforce "marriage by love," are around 50%. (4) What does that say about arranged marriages, exactly? Perhaps it means couples in arranged marriages feel obligated to their families to keep their marriages working. Perhaps they actually learn to love each other since they share a common bond of marriage and families who obviously like each other enough to actually pair their children up with each other.
Like every other controversial tradition in the world, arranged marriages have advantages and disadvantages. The disadvantages are obvious and have been mentioned before. In an arranged marriage, one would not be marrying for love. Imagine falling in love with a handsome, charming stranger but still be tied to marrying a guy you don't really care for. (Romeo. *coughs* And Juliet. *cough cough* And the couple's predicament about getting together considering their families' were feuding and Juliet was set to marry Paris. *cough*). Another disadvantage: they would be marrying off of their families' decisions with little or no prior knowledge of the future couple's compatibility. One partner could be a complete jerk and the other could be a total doormat and the couple would be left with an abusive relationship they didn't even choose to have. The advantages were not nonexistent, however. Studies show that divorce rates of arranged marriages are about 4% while divorce rates in America and Canada, two countries who really enforce "marriage by love," are around 50%. (4) What does that say about arranged marriages, exactly? Perhaps it means couples in arranged marriages feel obligated to their families to keep their marriages working. Perhaps they actually learn to love each other since they share a common bond of marriage and families who obviously like each other enough to actually pair their children up with each other.