Charles Darwin looked at many things about being married or not being married when he was thinking about the idea of marriage. To become married Charles talked about constant companionship, his love of the female form and the simple things that can be enjoyed in life through females (the opposite sex), and the possibility of children as well. Darwin’s argument for not getting married was that it was inconceivable to think that someone could be faithful for life, not having anyone to care for when you are older, freedom to do as one wants and go where one wants, not forced to visit inlaws, not forced into the financial strains of children, being able to have conversations with those who are intelligent, and the loss of time that would occur if one was married. When considering marriage I put some of these perspectives into my choices. I think about how I would not have to answer to anyone and how I could live my life without fear of what anyone else thought if I were to not want to get married. As for marriage, well, having security and stability are important to me as wlel as having someone there as I would hate to live alone.
Marriage is looked at in many different ways by different people. Aquinas talked about three different advantages of marriage on the traditional level. Faith is having a feeling of knowing that the future can only be as good or as bad as we make it and knowing that everything that happens is for a reason. As for offspring being in a marriage helps it to be more accepted and also the thought of having children means someone that you take care of now that will ideally take care of you later in life. And the third thing that Aquinas talked about was sacrament. Thinking of marriage as a sacrament is being truly thankful about the person whom you are with. As for myself well I do think that marriage is a sacrament and a sacred bond that should be taken more seriously. If one rejects the view that marriage is a sacrament then things like divorce become more widely accepted and readily available. If one is to accept the idea that marriage is a sacrament then he/she is entering into the relationship with a whole new meaning and new respect for things. I do agree with what he is saying about the sanctity of marriage and the idea of keeping something about marriage important and sacred.
Erasmus gave a number of reasons or arguments for both being married and remaining single. One of his arguments for remaining single was based on looking at the importance of marriage and in the idea that if someone were to “violate” a marriage than the problems should be looked at as seriously as they were in ancient times when they were punishable. Erasmus talked about the importance of marriage in developing a sexual relationship and the importance in having true companionship as well. Erasmus argued that having a partner for life could be an amazing way to share your life with someone. These issues can definitely hold true for women as well as women can have just as much fulfillment in life through sexual relations as men. In the past there was an argument for these issues as it was not thought of women being as much of a sexual nature as men. The idea of honor, duty and justice is that it is honorable to be with someone else and to take care of someone else as well. It is also honorable to continue to have duty and justice in being with someone else and in being able to provide a life for them. As for advantage and pleasure in a marriage, it is an advantage to be with someone and to know that things are going well but also the idea of those who have been pleasurable through the ideas of companionship as well as sexual enjoyment.
From Jane Austin someone can infer that love and emotion are what can make a marriage successful. One would think that reason does not have as much to do with marriage and that it is not as important to be able to reason with your marriage but rather the importance lies in the feelings and emotions. Austin’s arguments are that there is always going to be reason within relationships but if there is not emotion then the marriage will not have the amount of passion that is needed. Austin’s view is that the importance in the emotions is what helps to shape the reactions in the idea of reason.
Kierkegaard discusses that marriage is the sole fulfillment for erotic love. This relationship is unique as the idea of marriage is not looked at about the emotional bonds or connections but rather as simply the physical and sexual enjoyment. He discusses many defining characteristics. Some of these included that it was made out to almost be a relationship of it. He talked about the marriage of things and religious reasoning behind it. He feels this way because of the ideal marriage in his mind which was the first union that God had called a marriage in that of Adam and Eve. He also believed that God would look on a person who chose to be a bachelor as indignation and disapproval. The way that marriage supports his beliefs in the idea of finding wonderful things in simple acts is one of Kierkegaard’s beliefs. Marriage really shapes these beliefs in many ways including, being able to find joy in simple things. Sometimes in a marriage a simple look from one’s spouse or a simple small gesture has many more extensive feelings than they would if the gestures were from anyone else or received in any other situations. Marriage is really a job something that has to be worked at but the rewards are great and this is what I believe that Kierkegaard was trying to state and talk about.
All of the authors are sure to talk about the overall importance of marriage and the relationships that have been derived through being married. As for modern society well I don’t believe that any of the authors could have foreseen the society of today and the overall lack of value that is placed on marriages. With the new trend of the starter marriage it is incomprehensible to imagine that the authors who wrote these works on marriage would have approved or even been able to fathom the idea of those who will have multiple marriages or divorces in their lifetime. The readings are all overall in favor of the responsibility that is assigned to the idea of marriage whether or not they are for or against the marriage the overall idea is prevalent in these articles and the idea that some do not hold such strong standards to a marriage in our modern society could in part be the exact thing that these authors were writing to attempt to avoid or prevent.
