History Main / HonorableMarriageProposal

* In ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire,'' Robb Stark marries Jeyne Westerling after sleeping with her, putting her honor ([[DefiledForever that of a girl deflowered before marriage]]) above his own ([[ArrangedMarriage he promised to marry another]]). It's clearly also HonorBeforeReason and Robb pays for it [[spoiler:by being murdered by the family whose daughter he'd promised to wed]].

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

* On ''Series/MadMen'', Bob Benton offers to marry Joan Harris in part because her unmarried status means that she is getting less respect at work, and in part so that she can avoid the stigma of being a single mother. (He also wants to avoid questions about his sexuality.) She turns him down, not wanting to get stuck in another unhappy marriage.
* In one episode of ''Series/WelcomeBackKotter,'' Arnold proposes to Rosalie, who is trying to guilt-trip the macho boys in the class with a pregnancy scare (which she made up whole-cloth). It earns him a second date when she drops the charade.
* ''Series/{{Bones}}'' has Wendell tell Angela he’ll marry her when she thinks she’s pregnant; but it’s a false positive, and she’s more moved by Hodgins’ words anyway and they’re soon back together.

* A frequent topic on ''Series/{{Maury}}'' is the DaddyDNATest. Often the man under investigation says that if he is the father he'll take on fatherly responsibilities - usually just before they announce that he is not the father.

* ''Series/GilmoreGirls'': Christopher to Lorelai (“I guess we should get married” as they look at their newborn daughter). It’s made clear that her family wanted her to marry him, but she didn’t as she was 16 and felt they were too young. [[spoiler:They do end up getting married in Season 7, but Lorelai is not pregnant and the marriage is short-lived.]]
** Christopher also [[spoiler: proposes to Sherry when she gets pregnant at the end of season 2. It happens off-screen, but there’s no mention of marriage until she gets pregnant and then he’s saying he “has to marry her”. Sherry calls him her fiancé in the delivery room. It’s hinted they got married....when Christopher mentions their divorce.]]
* ''Series/{{Frasier}}'': When Roz accidentally gets pregnant in the fifth season the father offers to marry her so they can be a family. Roz declines as he's much younger than she is and they're not in love. She tells him she can handle raising the child alone and that he should focus on studying and enjoying his twenties.

* {{Reconstructed}} in ''ComicBook/ThePulse''. ComicBook/LukeCage proposes to ComicBook/JessicaJones while she's resting after giving birth to their daughter. Rather than any attempt to "save her honor" or similar, he casts it as [[StopBeingStereotypical refusing to play into negative stereotypes of black men]]: he's not her baby daddy, she's not her baby mama, and why should his child with the woman he loves have to deal with being illegitimate on top of the guff she's probably going to get for being biracial ''and'' the daughter of two superheroes?

* In ''LightNovel/{{Bakemonogatari}}'', the protagonist Koyomi Araragi visits his lesbian underclassman, Kanbaru Suruga, while she's lounging naked in her room. At first, she doesn't make an effort to change or cover herself, and Araragi (jokingly) offers to take responsibility for viewing her in this state by marrying her. She says that [[SarcasmMode while his offer is very attractive]], she doesn't want his {{Clingy Jealous Girl}}friend to [[MurderTheHypotenuse murder her]].
* Memorably inverted and parodied twice in ''Webcomic/HetaliaAxisPowers'':
** When Italy hugs Japan (and in the comic, kisses him on the cheek), Japan is so shocked that he immediately demands that Italy marry him as compensation.
** A flashback to Japan's days as a HikikoMori shows Japan's dog, Pochi, ''demanding exactly the same'' from the Netherlands' pet bunny after the other licks him on the cheek.
* ''LightNovel/KonoSuba'': Darkness claims to be pregnant with Kazuma's child in order to get out of an ArrangedMarriage, and her father then treats Kazuma as his new son-in-law. Everyone ignores Kazuma when he points out that they're both still virgins, so there's no possible way she could be pregnant.

* In ''Literature/DiePilgerin'', Otfried's mooks rape a resident of Tremmlingen, and the girl's father decides that [[ValuesDissonance one of them should marry her]], then, since nobody wants her for a wife now. What makes it this trope and not ShotgunWedding is that the man who agrees to the marriage is revealed not to be one of the perpetrators and not even a friend of theirs; in fact, he had no idea the girl existed before her father mistakenly confronted him and his comrades-at-arms.

* ''Fanfic/BabyBoom'': This gets brought up. Adrian's first thought upon realizing that Marinette is pregnant is that he should probably marry her, because that's the right thing to do in this situation, right? Except that a large part of that is to keep the woman from receiving a shameful reputation for being pregnant out of wedlock--and since very nearly ''every woman in the city'' is in this exact situation, that's not really an issue. Many adults point out that forcing marriage on tens of thousands (yes, ''really'') of traumatized teens is just going to cause more problems. On the other hand, Kagami was impregnated by a boy who had been visiting from Japan, and while Japan is of course aware of the whole "literally the entire city of Paris got pregnant" thing, they haven't internalized it in the same way. Her mother strongly encourages her to marry the boy when she's old enough and has returned to Japan. Kagami sees it as inevitable.

* In ''Literature/MindingFrankie'', the protagonist Noel, who has already agreed to raise the expected child of his terminally ill ex-girlfriend as its putative father, offers to marry the girlfriend to regularize the situation, and is surprised when she turns down his proposal.

In some societies, a [[AlwaysFemale woman's]] sexual reputation is a very important thing. As she is [[NatureAdoresAVirgin expected to be a virgin]] on her wedding night, having sex before marriage (especially if it results in pregnancy) is just about the most scandalous thing she can do. Not only will she have to suffer the disapproval of those around her, but it will [[DefiledForever seriously lower her chance of getting an offer of marriage in the future.]] In settings where women are economically dependent on their husbands and may not be educated, this could all but condemn her to a life as a beggar or [[TheOldestProfession a prostitute]]. She might even be at risk of being [[HonorRelatedAbuse harmed or killed by her family or society]]. If she already has a fiancé, he would be considered [[MyGirlIsNotASlut justified in breaking off the engagement.]] The stigma is so bad that if a woman is [[MaliciousSlander even suspected]] of having had sex with a man, due to being alone with him for an extended length of time -- typically overnight (there is no such thing as InnocentCohabitation in the mind of society) -- she will still have to suffer the consequences. The only thing that can avert this is for her to get married as quickly as possible.

** In the backstory, Princess Carolyn got pregnant as a teenager by the son of her mom's employer, and the boy agreed to marry her despite his well-off parents' reservations. Unfortunately, she suffered a miscarriage and the boyfriend's parents immediately cut her off.

* Memorably inverted and parodied twice in ''WebComic/{{Axis Powers Hetalia}}'':
** When Italy hugs Japan (and in the comic, kisses him on the cheek), Japan is so shocked that he immediately demands that Italy marry him as compensation.
** A flashback to Japan's days as a HikikoMori shows Japan's dog, Pochi, ''demanding exactly the same'' from the Netherlands' pet bunny after the other licks him on the cheek.

* ''Manga/SilverSpoon''

** Due to Hachiken getting too friendly with the pigs who are going to be slaughtered for meat, they're getting too used to humans. One of the students, Yoshino, gets mad at him, and demands he make it up to her if she can't eat pork after this. Hachiken promises to "take responsibility"...which is the point when Tokiwa wanders by. The rumor that Hachiken got Yoshino pregnant spreads around the school, and of course those two only find out when they get dragged into the teacher's office, and everything is made clear.

* In the Literature/{{Mabinogion}}, Math fab Mathonwy discovers that his virgin servant, Goewin, was raped by his nephew Gilfaethwy, who was helped by his brother, Gwydion. He marries her to save her honor and punishes his nephews by turning them into animals for three years.

* ''Theatre/MuchAdoAboutNothing'': Shakespeare even used this. Claudio thinks that he's caused Hero to die of sadness after wrongly accusing her of betraying him with another man on the eve of their wedding. Hero's father Leonato says that he can make it right by marrying his niece Beatrice. Claudio agrees.

* ‘’Series/GilmoreGirls’’: Christopher to Lorelai (“I guess we should get married” as they look at their newborn daughter). It’s made clear that her family wanted her to marry him, but she didn’t as she was 16 and felt they were too young. [[spoiler:They do end up getting married in Season 7, but Lorelai is not pregnant and the marriage is short-lived.]]

In some societies, a [[AlwaysFemale woman's]] sexual reputation is a very important thing. As she is [[NatureAdoresAVirgin expected to be a virgin]] on her wedding night, having sex before marriage (especially if it results in pregnancy) is just about the most scandalous thing she can do. Not only will she have to suffer the disapproval of those around her, but it will [[DefiledForever seriously lower her chance of getting an offer of marriage in the future.]] In settings where women are economically dependent on their husbands and may not be educated, this could all but condemn her to a life as a beggar or [[TheOldestProfession a prostitute]]. She might even be at risk of being [[HonorRelatedAbuse harmed or killed by her family or society]]. If she already has a fiancé, he would be considered [[MyGirlIsNotASlut justified in breaking off the engagement.]] The stigma is so bad that if a woman is [[MaliciousSlander even suspected]] of having had sex with a man, due to being alone with him for an extended length of time--typically overnight (there is no such thing as InnocentCohabitation in the mind of society)--she will still have to suffer the consequences. The only thing that can avert this is for her to get married as quickly as possible.

Men in these societies are, of course, aware of the negative consequences as well. So a man who sees a woman at risk of getting a bad reputation may decide to help her out by offering to marry her, whether or not he was the one who initially caused her reputation to be in jeopardy. He may have other motivations for making the offer, of course--from being in love with her to needing a wife in a hurry for reasons of his own, or [[ShotgunWedding with some persuasion from the father-in-law]] and his "little big-armed friend" [[BigFreakingGun Mr. Winchester]]--but saving her reputation is the main impetus for the proposal.

Note that thanks to the good old DoubleStandard, men typically do not suffer the same stigma if suspected of having sex before marriage. Therefore, the proposer is basically AlwaysMale, while the proposee is basically AlwaysFemale.

This trope is a particular favorite with writers of historical [[RomanceNovel Romance Novels]], especially [[RegencyEngland Regency romances]], and may lead to MarriageBeforeRomance. In Western works, it rarely appears in anything set later than TheFifties, as the social upheavals of TheSixties largely [[ForgottenTrope did away with the set of expectations that made it work.]] It may still apply in other parts of the world, however, or in fictional societies.

* The relationship between protagonists Don and Denise in ''Literature/WeCantRewind'' works out something like this, although she's not so much "defiled" in his eyes as she is a BrokenBird from being molested and impregnated as a preteen, and the marriage is more for love and forging a single wholesome family from two broken ones than restoring any of the long-lost "honor" she ever had to her. What makes it this trope is that the widower Don is basically extending ''his'' code of honor to her in wanting to [[LetsWaitAWhile get properly married before getting busy with her]], so to speak.
* In the first book of ''Literature/TheYoungAncients,'' Tor offers to marry his best friend's fiancée after she becomes pregnant with another man's child. Despite a generally sexually libertine culture (she would be expected to have several politically strategic lovers on the side in any case), her fiancé Rolph is a crown prince, so it's widely understood that the first child must be his. The offer is much appreciated, and does a lot to smooth things over, but ultimately the king and queen decide to marry her off to an entirely fictitious minor noble who will suffer a tragic accident after five years, leaving the widow a small estate and the ability to remarry without shame.

* toyed with and ultimately played straight in the ''Sebastian St Cyr'' mystery novels by CS Harris, set during the Regency period. In the fifth book, St Cyr and his [[BelligerentSexualTension acquaintance]] Hero Jarvis are trapped together in a crypt. With every expectation that they will die of starvation or lack of air, they have sex in an act of defiance of their fate. By a downright-miraculous chance they are discovered and released. As soon as their rescuer leaves, Sebastian [[InvokedTrope invokes this]], saying, "I am prepared to do the honorable thing." Hero, who is an ahead-of-her-time feminist and determined never to marry, is horrified at the idea and flees. In book six, Hero discovers she's pregnant: rather than take Sebastian up on his offer, she arranges to have the baby in secret and give it up for adoption. But the friend in charge of the arrangements is murdered, and Sebastian called in to solve it, which leads him to discover the pregnancy. At the end of book six, Hero and Sebastian end up marrying after all; to their mutual astonishment (though [[EveryoneCanSeeIt not the reader's]]), they're actually extremely well matched and their marriage swiftly [[MarriageBeforeRomance becomes a real one]].

* ‘’Series/GilmoreGirls’’: Christopher to Lorelai (“I guess we should get married” as they look at their newborn daughter). It’s made clear that her family wanted her to marry him, but she didn’t as she was 16 and felt they were too young. [[spoiler:They do end up getting married in Season 7, but Lorelai is not pregnant and the marriage is short lived.]]
** Christopher also [[spoiler: proposes to Sherry when she gets pregnant at the end of season 2. It happens off screen, but there’s no mention of marriage until she gets pregnant and then he’s saying he “has to marry her”. Sherry calls him her fiancé in the delivery room. It’s hinted they got married....when Christopher mentions their divorce.]]

[[folder:WesternAnimation]]

** A similar thing happened with [=BoJack's=] parents, with his heiress mother getting pregnant after a one-night-stand with his drifter father. This proved to be a huge mistake which torpedoed all of their plans and left them both deeply unhappy for life, seriously screwing up their son in the process.

[[/folder]]

—-> *Christopher also [[spoiler: proposes to Sherry when she gets pregnant at the end of season 2. It happens off screen, but there’s no mention of marriage until she gets pregnant and then he’s saying he “has to marry her”. Sherry calls him her fiancé in the delivery room. It’s hinted they got married....when Christopher mentions their divorce.]]

* In ''Disney/LadyAndTheTramp'', after learning that Lady has been out with [[ReallyGetsAround Tramp]], her friends Jock and Trusty try to gently persuade her to take one of them, as [[MayDecemberRomance even though they're older]], they're still in the prime of life. (No mention is made of what anyone would say when [[ChocolateBaby "their" puppies don't resemble them]], as GenderEqualsBreed is in full force for Lady's litter.) The wording is left rather ambiguous, making it sound more like they're inviting her to come and live in one of their houses, in order to keep the movie's G rating intact.

* In the Literature/Mabinogion, Math fab Mathonwy discovers that his virgin servant, Goewin, was raped by his nephew Gilfaethwy, who was helped by his brother, Gwydion. He marries her to save her honor and punishes his nephews by turning them into animals for three years.

* ''Theatre/WesterosAnAmericanMusical'': Robb at some point marries a woman he has just met instead of the woman with whom he was to have an ArrangedMarriage. It later turns Robb felt the need to do so because he had slept with her.