Download Marriage - Raymond Williams Foundation

Marriage
Dc
1.
Tue 10 July 2012 at The Blue Mugge pub
Definition: ‘Usually an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually intimate and
sexual, are acknowledged…’.
Any advance on this?
2. What do we know about the history of marriage - origins, developments in different cultures,
links between religion and marriage, contemporary trends (any not mentioned below)?
3. Wedding ceremonies - the good, the bad and the ugly…
4. Love and marriage, ‘go together like a horse and carriage’?
5. Consider the argument that marriage assists stability for family and society.
6. Romantic love often challenges stability - take Romeo and Juliet & Wuthering Heights, for
example?
7. Gender issues. Aristotle set the prime of life at 37 years for men, 18 for women.
Male/Female differences, perceived and actual, since Aristotle…
8.
The impact of science, medicine and technology on marriage – ‘the pill’, abortion, and webdating, for example…
9. Contemporary big issues:
i)
More cohabitation and divorce
ii)
Serial monogamy…
iii)
More sole living
iv)
Growth of child-free marriages
v)
‘Multiculturalism’ - arranged marriages etc
vi)
Same-sex marriages
10. Consider these quotes:
a)
‘Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments… ‘
Sonnet 116, Shakespeare
b) ‘If married couples did not live together, happy marriages would be more frequent’
Nietzsche
c) ‘There is no more lovely, friendly and charming relationship, communion or company than
a good marriage’
Luther