History Main / UnableToSupportAWife

** In Japan such people are known as 'freeters'.

* At the end of ''Literature/TheCurseOfChalion'', [[spoiler:Cazaril, being [[ImpoverishedPatrician landless]] and having just been replaced as Iselle's secretary, cites this among a number of other protests when he is betrothed to the new Royina's lady in waiting Beatriz. Iselle simply points out that she is making the post of Chancellor a salaried position... [[ComicallyMissingThePoint wherupon Cazaril starts suggesting useful candidates]].]]

Compare WedlockBlock.

* Since the early 21st Century, a new social/economic class of people has emerged, known as the '[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Precariat precariat]]'. This class is commonly prone to 'involuntary celibacy' and other difficulties in maintaining relationships, due to the precarious employment situation of those who are a part of it.

* In Creator/GeneStrattonPorter's ''Her Father's Daughter'', Donald's mother urges him not to ask Linda to marry him for this reason.

* In the Literature/SixteenThirtyTwo series, a recurring theme is the uptime Americans coming to grips with how big a deal this is for downtimers. The short story "To Dye For" deals with this specifically when Tom "Stoner" Stone falls in love with a local woman. He's an aging hippie with a heart of gold and no interest in money. His love interest would be happy to live on his commune with him, but her father forbids the union solely because of Tom's financial status. This triggers him to use his uptime chemical knowledge to build the world's only synthetic dye industry, winning her father over (and ultimately becoming quite wealthy).

* In Creator/DorothyLSayers' LordPeterWimsey novels

** ''The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club'', the aged General Fentiman's original will left his married grandson George what little money he had because his older brother Robert wasn't married and had his commission. Then the old General finds himself the heir to a large fortune. By now George has become a ShellShockedSoldier and his grandfather seriously considers leaving half the money to his wife Sheila instead. [[spoiler: Rober later explained that he found the old General's body when he was coming back to point out to his grandfather that leaving the money to George so that he could support his wife might help stabilize him.]]

* In the first ''Ring of Fire'' short story collection from the Literature/SixteenThirtyTwo series, the short story "To Dye For" by Creator/MercedesLackey opens with Tom "Stoner" Stone in a deep funk because his lack of income means the father of the woman he has fallen in love with refuses to allow their marriage.

* At the end of ''The Curse of Literature/{{Chalion}}'', [[spoiler: Cazaril, being [[ImpoverishedPatrician landless]] and having just been replaced as Iselle's secretary, cites this among a number of other protests when he is betrothed to the new Royina's lady in waiting Beatriz. Iselle simply points out that she is making the post of Chancellor a salaried position... [[ComicallyMissingThePoint wherupon Cazaril starts suggesting useful candidates]].]]

*** Wentworth had not saved anything from his naval career, which meant he was entirely relying on his position to enable him to marry.

Sometimes the obstacle to marriage is just plain money: The man cannot earn enough -- or have an independent source of income -- to support a family. This is a trope one with a long history -- mostly in settings where a woman leaves her parents' home for that of her husband, but also where single adults can live in dormitories and the like, but living in a residence of your own is expected for married couples.

* Played with in AKnightsTale. When William's false-knighthood is about to be publicly revealed, his noble-born love interest asks him to run away (rather than see him arrested and possibly executed) and insists they can live a happy life together as peasants. He refuses, [[BecomingTheMask mostly because he now sees himself as a TRUE knight]], but also because it would mean ''lowering her'' to living like a peasant "with the pigs inside the house in winter". If he can't successfully raise himself to her level of society, he won't allow her to lower herself into his.

** In ''Literature/SenseAndSensibility'', Colonel Brandon's generosity and reconciling with Edward's mother are needed for Edward and Elinor to marry.

*** the HappyEnding is brought about because a man who long loved Eleanor inherited a title and so could maintain a wife, which made her father so happy that he agreed to let Henry marry Catherine.

* In Creator/RobinMcKinley's ''Literature/BeautyARetellingOfBeautyAndTheBeast'', one of Beauty's sisters is in love with a man who wants to leave the city and become a [[TheBlacksmith blacksmith]], which would never let him get money enough for a merchant's daughter. When their family is ruined, he pays his suit and tells her father that they can all come and live at the house he can get.

* Prominent in ''GoneWithTheWind'' after the war. Alex Fontaine wants to marry Dimity Munroe but honor prevents him from asking her until he can support her. Frank Kennedy holds off on marrying Suellen for the same reasons. Scarlett at one point bemoans that there will be a lot of old maids in the South because of this trope.

* In Creator/StephanieBurgis's ''[[Literature/KatIncorrigible A Most Improper Magick]]'', Sir Neville and Mr. Collingwood are brothers, but since Sir Neville inherited all, he's the only eligible one.

* A sad and -- unusually -- gender-flipped occurrence can be found in ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim'' with a bit of looking: there's a man called Ranmir [[DrowningMySorrows drinking by himself]] in Winterhold after his fiancee disappeared, seemingly having run off with another man. The innkeeper, worried about the man, asks the player to try and find out what happened to Ranmir's fiancee. It turns out that she left to try and find a valuable artefact to make enough money to support both of them, but was killed before she found it.

->''If a young man chooses to fall in love when he has next to nothing to live upon, trouble is sure to follow.''

** ''The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club'', the aged General Fentiman's original will left his married grandsom George what little money he had because his older brother Robert wasn't married and had his commission. Then the old General finds himself the heir to a large fortune. By now George has become a ShellshockedSoldier and his grandfather seriously considers leaving half the money to his wife Sheila instead. [[spoiler:Rober later explained that he found the old General's body when he was coming back to point out to his grandfather that leaving the money to George so that he could support his wife might help stabilize him.]]

** ''The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club'', George became a ShellShockedVeteran and this after he married. His father left him the bulk of the estate because his older brother wasn't married and had his commission. [[spoiler:His brother later explained that he found the body when he was coming back to point out to his father, who expected another bequest to make him richer, that leaving more to George so that he could support his wife might help stabilize him.]]

* In the [[TheMovie the cinematic]] [[GrandFinale grand finale]] of ''Radio/OurMissBrooks'', Mr. Boynton is hoping for an increase in salary so he'd be able to marry (and support) fellow teacher Miss Brooks. [[spoiler: It turns out to unnecessary. Mr. Boynton buys a house and marries Miss Brooks, although he doesn't receive the promotion in the film.]]

* When General Junot told his friend NapoleonBonaparte (who was then First Consul of the French Republic) of his desire to marry a charming but impoverished young lady, Bonaparte answered :

* In ''Manga/{{Otoyomegatari}}'', Ali mentions that he plans to get married once he has a stable income.