Arranged Marriage / Literature

Examples of Arranged Marriage in Literature.

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• Annals of the Western Shore has this common to its societies. The Uplands do it to manage their inherited magic powers in Gifts. In Powers, it's done for the standard political and financial reasons.
• The Black Arrow: Seeking to gain more control over his ward Richard "Dick" Shelton, as well as obtain guardianship over other young heir, Sir Daniel kidnaps Joanna Sedley to force her to marry Richard. Later, when Dick runs away after finding out that his "guardian" murdered his father to steal his inheritance, Sir Daniel tries to marry Joanna to some wealthy lord.
• In Caraval, Scarlett's father has arranged for her to marry a count whom she has never met.
• The Daevabad Trilogy: King Ghassan pressures Prince Muntadhir and Nahri into a political marriage to unite their dynasties. They try to be professional about it, but it ruins their friendship; Muntadhir resents being separated from his secret lover and Nahri is furious to be required to bear his children. By the end, they're free to divorce and become Amicable Exes.
• Katherine Kerr's Deverry Cycle features this for Deverrian nobles. It's extremely significant at several points across the books, although unusually it's presented as neither wholly good or bad. Both male and female characters comment on it, knowing full well that marriages are for political alliances, not love. There's even an in-universe saying about it: "Men like me marry to please our clans, not ourselves."
  • Some of the arranged marriages turn out rather badly ( Maryn & Belyrra, Rhodry & Aedda), while others work out happily Blaen of Cwm Pecl considers how lucky he was in his arranged wife at one point.
  • Those characters whose marriages are not arranged are also a mixed bag. Kerr doesn't treat arranged marriages as unambiguously good or bad in and of themselves - it's how the individuals respond to it that matters.
• Jhumpa Lahiri focuses on both arranged marriages and love marriages, while her subjects are mainly Bengalis (northeastern Indians). It's somewhat justified because Bengalis tend to be more liberal about marriage than other Indians.
  • Interpreter of Maladies has "The Third And Final Continent", which features an Indian couple who have had an arranged marriage slowly adjusting to life in America. Ultimately, they come together after the man's landlady formally accepts their marriage, signifying their inclusion into American culture. On the other hand, "This Blessed House" revolves around a couple who have had an arranged marriage and cannot properly communicate with one another, with the husband grudgingly acquiescing to his wife's eccentric needs.
  • The Namesake zig-zags this. While Gogol and Moushimi dated for a year before getting married, Moushimi feels as though she was pressured into the union by her family (since she is playing it safe by marrying an Indian man) and ultimately sees the marriage as arranged. She feels unfulfilled by Gogol's inability to relate to her superior Western education, and this leads to her having an affair with an American man and eventually breaking off her marriage.
• As noted in the Film folder, Buttercup and Prince Humperdinck in The Princess Bride. As in the film, she's more or less resigned to the whole thing because her true love is dead, but the circumstances and length of the engagement are somewhat different. It's a bit more complex in the book, since in order to be eligible to wed the prince, she has to be made a princess and sent to royalty school. The people have no idea that Buttercup is actually one of their own; they're simply told that Prince Humperdinck is betrothed to "Princess Buttercup of Hammersmith," with Hammersmith being a minor 'lump of land' attached to the kingdom of Florin.
• Jelka Tolonen in David Wingrove's Chung Kuo series has been arranged to marry the son of her father's life-long friend
• In the Chivalric Romance Havelok The Dane, the Princess Goldborough is married off to a kitchen boy, because he is a strong, handsome, and impressive fellow, and her guardian had promised to marry her to the best man he could. Unfortunately for the guardian, he was also the rightful king of Denmark in hiding. Once he claimed his throne, he brought his army to claim hers, as well.
• In David Eddings' The Belgariad:
  • The Accords of Vo Mimbre decree that an Imperial Princess of Tolnedra shall marry the lost heir of Riva when he finally returns as prophesied, a prophecy the secular Tolnedrans don't believe in. Centuries later Princess Ce'Nedra finds out that she's going to get stuck with the bill, which just came due. In a rather moving explanation, she says essentially, "I'm an Imperial Princess, an asset of the House of Borune. I won't get to choose my husband, I'll be married where I can best serve the House. I've known this all my life." Fortunately, the two kids eventually fall in love anyway.
  • The Belgariad plays with this trope a lot, probably because it focuses on the doings of kings and lords. Large portions of the prequel novel Belgarath the Sorcerer have him running around brokering arranged marriages in accordance with divine plan. But things generally work out for the couples because Destiny grants happiness to people who accept their fate.
• In Eddings' Elenium, Queen Ehlana's parents were married as one of these; Sparhawk's father arranged for King Aldreas to marry a princess from the neighboring kingdom of Deiros in order to keep the king from trying to marry his own sister. Just prior to the beginning of the trilogy, the high-ranking churchman Annias tried to convince Ehlana to enter such a marriage with her cousin Lycheas, the son of the same aunt, but she refused - partly because she simply can't stand her cousin, but also because she fears that Lycheas is her half-brother through their parents' incestuous affair. They aren't. The reason Annias was pushing for the union is because he is the father of Lycheas.
  • In the sequel trilogy The Tamuli, the Emperor of the Tamul empire has nine wives, one from each kingdom that makes up the empire. He and his first wife were married when they were children.
• The Empirium Trilogy: The royal and main noble House of Celderia have planned to marry Audric (royal) to Ludivine (noble); the two of them are already engaged by the start of the series. Audric and Ludivine have known each other since childhood and are close friends (and cousins), but neither of them are particularly eager to get married: Audric is in love with Rielle and Ludivine doesn't want to come between them. The arrangement eventually breaks down and Audric ends up marrying Rielle.
• In Teresa Edgerton's Celydonn series:
  • The Grail and the Ring: Princess Tinne was forced into marrying one of the Sons of the Boar (who faked an omen to pressure her into agreeing to it).
  • The Moon and the Thorn: Lord Macsen makes it a condition of his support that Mahaffy Guillyn marry his daughter Tiffanwy.
• In Barbara Hambly's Circle Of The Moon, it is mentioned that Raeshaldis (known simply as the Eldest Daughter in her own family), ran away from an Arranged Marriage to study Functional Magic. She is not happy to learn that one of her younger sisters — much younger — now looks like being forced into the match instead.
• In Robin Hobb's Realm of the Elderlings sequence:
  • In the Farseer trilogy, Verity, the second son of the ruler of the Six Duchies, has an Arranged Marriage with the only daughter of the ruler of the Mountain Kingdom. The arrangement gets off to a very bad start.
  • The sequel trilogy The Tawny Man features another Arranged Marriage between Verity's son Dutiful and Elliania of the Outislands.
    • Both of those marriages actually turn out quite well, actually. A more realistic instance is the web of custom relating to marriage-based alliances among the Bingtown and Rain Wild Traders, who often pressure their children to make advantageous matches. Though no main character is ever involved in one, several are threatened with the possibility on occasion.
• In Diana Wynne Jones's Castle in the Air, Prince Justin of Ingary ran away from such a marriage with the Princess Beatrice.
• In William King's Warhammer 40,000 Space Wolf novel Wolfblade, Ragnar is told how the Navigators marry: to whom they are told to marry.
• In the Liaden Universe books by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller, aligned clans Korval and Erob trade off having members of their clans marry each other every other generation or so. Val Con was technically one of those promised to marry someone of Erob. However, he disappears for many years and ends up marrying on his own an ex-mercenary he meets on another world altogether. As it turned out, her grandmother is a lost member of Clan Erob, who shipwrecked while pregnant and never returned home. It's pointed out that had Val Con known he was doing what he was "supposed" to do, he certainly wouldn't have done it!
• Hands Held in the Snow: One of the main characters, Emi L'Hime, is engaged against her will to a noblewoman from a foreign land, marking an extremely rare case of same-sex arranged marriage in fiction.
• In His Only Wife Afi's mother tells her that she will be marrying the wealthy Eliekem Ganyo and she feels the pressure of keeping both her own family and the Ganyos happy. She views this marriage as an opportunity to escape her life in her village of Ho, Ghana. She even tries to be OK with him not showing up for his own wedding. The marriage ceremony still happens though.
• In C. S. Lewis's The Horse and His Boy, there are at least three cases:
  • Rebellious Princess Aravis's Wicked Stepmother had arranged a marriage for her to get rid of her and win power within Calormen (the fiancé was a high-ranked Smug Snake). She was at first Driven to Suicide, but after her mare Hwin talks her out of it, her inner Tsundere kicks in and she and Hwin run away to Narnia.
  • Queen Susan the Gentle and her younger brother King Edmund the Just travel to Tashbaan (the capital of Aravis's homeland of Calormen) to consider an offer of marriage to Susan from Crown Prince Rabadash. She ultimately doesn't want to marry the Prince, having seen his true colors, but Rabadash plots to force her go through with it anyway. They escape back to Narnia, and when Rabadash attempts to seize her by force, he ends up failing in the most humiliating way possible.
  • When Aravis ends up in Tashbaan she meets up with her best friend Lasaraleen who has already married a very wealthy nobleman and it's hinted it was an Arranged Marriage as well. Unlike Aravis, though, Lasaraleen doesn't seem to mind.
• This is par for the course for the nobility of The Reynard Cycle. As a result of this, the Countess Persephone ends up marrying the man who (inadvertently) killed her father. The union is surprisingly civil.
• George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series includes several, as befits a fantasy series with somewhat higher pretensions to historical accuracy than the average. In fact, virtually every marriage between nobles (which the majority of the main characters are) is this trope by definition, although it ranges from finding a son or daughter a good political match that they also approve of, to outright forcing someone to marry. Traditionally, there is a not-insignificant period of betrothal before marriage, during which the young couple can get to know each other, but in times of war and backstabbing, like the current events of the series, there are quite a few speed-marriages.
  • A Game of Thrones devotes much effort to contrasting the marriage of Lord Ned Stark and Lady Catelyn Tully with that of King Robert Baratheon and Queen Cersei Lannister; while both were arranged to form political alliances, the former grew to love each other and build one of the least dysfunctional families of the series, while the latter shared a mutually abusive and adulterous relationship. Somewhere in between we find the marriage of Princess Daenerys Targaryen and the barbarian warlord Khal Drogo, which grows from something terrifying if not outright abusive into mutual respect and considerable passion. The series being what it is, however, there's a good chance for any relationship to come to an unhappy ending. All three men are dead by the end of the first book, for various reasons.
  • The backstory of the series involved a failed Arranged Marriage between Lord Robert Baratheon and Lady Lyanna Stark, whose betrothal was derailed when Lyanna was kidnapped by and/or ran off with Prince Rhaegar (who broke his own arranged marriage to his wife Elia Martell in the process). The nature of Robert and Lyanna's match is also complicated; Robert believed himself to be genuinely in love with her, but Lyanna doubted they'd be happy together because of his unfaithfulness, and in present day her brother Ned acknowledges that Robert didn't truly know her.
  • Another one in the backstory involved a betrothal between Ned's elder brother Brandon and Catelyn Tully. Sadly, that betrothal failed when Brandon was executed on the orders of the Mad King, which led into the above arranged wartime marriage between Ned and Catelyn.
  • The series itself starts with the betrothal of Lady Sansa (Ned and Catelyn's daughter) and Prince Joffrey (Robert and Cersei's son) to try and "redo" the failed Robert and Lyanna match. Sansa is initially besotted with Joffrey and believes it to be a Perfectly Arranged Marriage, not realizing Joffrey is a sadistic psychopath. By the time she figures out his true colours and that he's not even Robert's proper son, she's forced to remain betrothed to him while a prisoner at his court in a much darker version of this trope. Ironically, at the same time Sansa's going through this, her sister Arya is on the run with Robert Baratheon's illegitimate but actual biological son Gendry, and they develop a genuine Stark-Baratheon bond in a vastly different way than anyone expected, with an organic friendship and Ship Tease totally removed from arrangements between noble houses and without even knowing Gendry is a Baratheon.
  • Sansa's betrothal to Joffrey is eventually dissolved and she's forced into a different arranged marriage with Tyrion Lannister, a deformed dwarf who is old enough to be her father. (He isn't happy about the situation either.) This marriage actually goes ahead, although thankfully Tyrion doesn't force her to consummate it and is actually one of the kindest people at court.
  • Sansa gets hit with yet another arrangement after escaping King's Landing, and she's betrothed to Harry Hardying, second in line to Lord of the Vale, while masquerading as Petyr Baelish's bastard daughter.
  • Robb Stark is a speedily-arranged-marriage-due-to-war case, as he agrees to marry one of Lord Frey's daughters in exchange for access to their bridge during his battle campaign. He later breaks the agreement to marry another girl, trading his uncle, Edmure Tully, to marry Roslin Frey instead... which leads to the Freys massacring him and most of his family.
  • As part of the same agreement Arya, his little sister, is promised to Elmar Frey. This is a rather dubious example, however, as Arya is on the run at the time and no one involved in negotiating the match even knows if she's still alive to fulfill the deal. Robb also wryly comments that "Arya won't like that [the marriage] one bit" and her other brother Bran says outright that she'll never go along with it. Ironically, Arya (still disguised as a commoner) later runs into her betrothed and is unimpressed by his wallowing over his "lost Princess" and tells him she hopes she dies.
  • Later, most of Westeros believes that Arya has been forced into a - horrifically abusive - arranged marriage with Ramsay Bolton, who has taken over her family's lordship of the North. However, this "Arya" is actually impostor Jeyne Poole, whom the Boltons forced into pretending to be Arya. Arya is yet again unaware of the match, having left the country altogether.
  • Lady Margaery Tyrell is a much more proactive and willing example, as she helps organize multiple arranged marriages for herself - first to Renly Baratheon, then to Joffrey Lannister, and finally to his younger brother Tommen - in order to secure her Queenship. She's incredibly pragmatic about the whole thing - including not minding that Renly is gay, Joffrey is sadistic, and Tommen is half her age - and capable of manipulating all three of them. The only problem is they keep dying on her (except for Tommen, for the time being).
  • Princess Myrcella Baratheon and Trystane Martell are a more conventional arranged-as-children case and are given several years to get to know each other when Myrcella is sent to his family court in Dorne. In a miraculously happy example, they actually develop mutual affection for each other and seem happy with the match.
  • Variant with the Valyrians prior to the Conquest, where there was a standardised policy of arranging a marriage between...the oldest son and daughter of the same family. Aegon the Conqueror tried to have it both ways by marrying his older sister out of duty and his younger out of love, although apart from Maegor I all the Targaryen kings descended from the younger.
  • King Aegon V arranged betrothals for his five children, but all but one broke them off in favor of love matches (one married a commoner, two married each other in defiance of their father's desire to phase out the family incest tradition, and one just wanted to spend time with his boyfriend). As he himself had been able to marry for love before becoming king (due mostly to having been so far down the line of succession that getting him a politically-advantageous match hadn't been a priority), Aegon reluctantly accepted their choices, though it majorly ticked off the noble families to whom he had promised them, impeding the implementation of his reforms and in one case even resulting in a brief rebellion.
  • Daenerys' parents, Aerys II and Rhaella, were forced to marry each other by their parents, because of a prophecy stating that a messianic figure would be born by their union. Aerys originally wanted to marry Joanna Lannister, while Rhaella wanted to marry Bonifer Hasty. The marriage started out peachy, but gradually turned toxic as Aerys became madder.
  • It should be noted that any marriage agreement given focus in this series, instigated for any reason whatsoever, will find a path to lead directly to bloodshed. Backing out and sending the other party into a tiff, calling the heirs' legitimacy into question through sneaking around, sitting next to your wife just in time for the Gambit Roulette wheel to clunk into place. The only exception is Ned and Catelyn... except for the little fact that Catelyn's other suitor was Petyr Baelish. It is actually noted in the story that relationships built on love have caused quite a bit of suffering and sorrow for the realm, and even then, you could probably count the amount of love-based relationships on one hand, perhaps two.
• In Patricia A. McKillip's The Bell at Sealey Head, Princess Ysabo is told she will marry a knight, and when she asks why she must, the knight hits her. Her servant is distraught — that she would question it.
• Rhian's proposed marriage to Lord Rolf in Karen Miller's Godspeaker Trilogy, which just allows the High Priest Marlan to run the kingdom by proxy. Rhian, of course, has other ideas.
• In Andre Norton's Witch World series, Arranged Marriages are the norm for the nobles of High Hallack. The parties are married by proxy when one or both are young children; they may not meet until it is time for them to begin living together, usually when the younger member of the pair is about sixteen.
  • The short story "Amber Out of Quayth": Ysmay's marriage is arranged as part of a deal with an amber trader, as her dowry is an amber mine that her family hasn't got the resources to exploit. She accepts the arrangement because it isn't very different from what she could have expected if a war hadn't resulted in a glut of unmarried women on the market.
  • The Crystal Gryphon: Kerovan's marriage with Joisan is arranged at the beginning of the book, when they are both children; his father wants to safeguard Kerovan's position and make it clear that his son will be his heir, while her family has received a prophecy that the wedding is necessary for Joisan's future. Incidentally, it is made clear, after one of Joisan's cousins falls in love with her when she is grown, that while the right of bride refusal exists (so that Joisan could refuse to complete the contract), that exercising such a right invariably brings about a blood feud between the families involved, so in practice it is not used. Joisan is very angry when accused of encouraging the cousin.
  • Year of the Unicorn: the terms of the Were Riders' treaty with the Dalesmen in the Invaders' War was that in exchange for their help, they would receive thirteen brides of noble birth, to be delivered at the beginning of the Year of the Unicorn. One of the girls volunteered, since various powerful lords would be obligated to help her family afterward, but none of the other girls had a choice.
• Many of Ellis Peters' Brother Cadfael novels have this as an element of their romantic B-plots, reasonably enough, considering they're set in a time and place when arranged marriages were closer to the norm than the exception for anyone in the merchant class or higher.
  • The Devil's Novice: Meriet Aspley's elder brother is about to conclude an Arranged Marriage contract with a neighbouring landowner's daughter, with the ceremony taking place late in the book (since it provides an excellent means of putting all the suspects in one place). Fortunately, Meriet's brother and the girl are in love.
  • An Excellent Mystery: Brother Humilis arranged a marriage for himself with a very young girl prior to going on Crusade, since he knew he'd be gone for years and wanted to have children. However, when he returned, he entered a monastery rather than completing the contract. She then supposedly entered a convent; the plot is set in motion when it is realized that she never arrived at the convent.
  • The Hermit of Eyton Forest: The boy's grandmother is trying to force him into an Arranged Marriage with the grown daughter of a neighbouring landowner. Neither potential spouse is keen on this.
  • One Corpse Too Many: Hugh Beringar and his betrothed are on opposite sides of a civil war; she is trying to escape from Shropshire and the marriage, while he is trying to find her. Slighty played with - Hugh believes it is his responsibility to make sure she is safe, and is more than happy to let her escape with her suitor.
  • Dead Man's Ransom: The young Welsh hostage Hugh hopes to exchange for a captive Sheriff Prescott has been betrothed to a girl 'who is very well indeed and if I must, she'll do.' from childhood. Then he meets the Sheriff's beautiful daughter....
  • The Leper of St. Giles: A beautiful young heiress has been forcibly betrothed to a much older baron by her abusive guardians. They know about the handsome young squire who loves her, but they don't know that her long-lost grandfather is hovering nearby, determined to see his grandchild happy.
  • Summer of the Danes: Heledd has been betrothed to a man she's never seen by Owain Gwynedd. She, however, is determined to take her fate into her own hands and that includes marrying a man of her choice.
• In Jennifer Roberson's Chronicles Of The Cheysuli, the protagonists are attempting to fulfill a prophecy that requires a child with certain bloodlines. Consequently there's, on average, about one arranged marriage per book, some of which work out and some of which...really don't.
• Meghan Sayres' Anahitas Woven Riddle is about an Iranian girl who defies a traditional arranged marriage by declaring that she will only marry the one who solves the riddle she weaves in her carpet. The winner is the first man she meets other than her Unlucky Childhood Friend.
• This is played around with in War and Peace, given that the financial future of the Rostovs seems to depend on whom their children marry. There is a short-lived conflict between Nikolai and his parents when he chooses to marry the nice (but technically poor) Sonya, but he had to do a lot of "should I go for personal happiness or the happiness of my family" soul-searching first.
  • The fact that Nikolai ends up with the wealthy Maria would indicate that he ultimately chose the latter; however, there was an attraction between them from their first meeting, and the Distant Finale portrays him as honestly in love with her. It is of course perfectly possible to fall in love with a 'Good' match.
• Anna Karenina plays with this trope. It, much like the Jane Austen books below, was written during a period in which the wealthy were moving from arranged marriages to marriages by choice. It dedicates an entire chapter to the confusion this creates for Kitty's poor mother, as it's unfashionable to flat-out arrange a marriage, but it's lower class to allow her daughter to choose on her own. She has no idea what her role is, and while her situation Played for Laughs (much like that of Pride and Prejudice's Mrs. Bennett), it's at least given some thought.
• All the female characters in Moment in Peking ended up in arranged marriages. Since this was the norm for their time and place, they simply learned to deal with it.
• In Patricia C. Wrede's Enchanted Forest Chronicles, this pops up twice. First, in Dealing with Dragons, Princess Cimorene's parents try to pawn off their difficult daughter on the braindead Prince Therandil and tell her she has no choice; Cimorene runs away and voluntarily becomes a dragon's princess (basically a live-in maid/cook/librarian) instead. In the next book, Searching for Dragons, King Mendanbar of the Enchanted Forest finds himself eternally arguing with his steward, who pressures him to get married to ensure an heir. Three guesses who ends up married to whom, and the first two don't count.
• In Patricia C. Wrede's The Seven Towers, Prince Eltiron's domineering father betroths him to Princess Crystalorn from a neighboring kingdom. Both characters are horrified by the idea, but once they meet and survive the book's plot together, they rapidly slide into a Perfectly Arranged Marriage.
• In Edgar Rice Burroughs's A Princess of Mars, having captured Dejah Thoris, the Jeddak of Zodanga insists on her marrying his son as the price of peace with Helium. Her grandfather rejects it.
• In Colleen McCullough's Masters of Rome series it is several times explained that elite women are expected to marry where suits their menfolk's interests without complaint. Some of these marriages are disastrous, others work out quite well. Nor are the girl's feelings invariably ignored.
  • One of Julius Caesar's reasons for breaking his Julia's engagement to Brutus is he's become aware that she does not love him, and happily she does have a crush on Pompey who's an even better political match. Years later young Octavius includes his sister's liking for the man on his list of reasons for accepting the suit - admittedly after the political and financial qualifications have been considered.
• Somewhat averted in the Judge Dee series. Though arranged marriages were the rule in Ancient China the Judge encounters a truly amazing number of couples making love matches - sometimes with his assistance. "I'd better resign as a magistrate and set up business as a professional matchmaker!" he grumbles in The Haunted Monastery. In all fairness genuine Chinese literature shows that love matches were not out of the question, providing one had the good sense and good taste to fall in love with a suitable person. This cultural ambiguity is lampshaded by Judge Dee's own household. His marriage to his First Lady was arranged; his marriages to his Second and Third were not.
• The book Serving Crazy With Curry presents two more modern approaches to this trope- a) the protagonist's older sister asks her parents to arrange a match when she becomes disenchanted with dating (the resulting match is less than successful), and b) the protagonist's grandmother decides to help her by finding some appropriate Indian men to present to her.
• Jane Austen's books are full of references to this trope. The older generation usually sees it as the norm, with the younger generation preferring to Marry for Love. Real Life society was undergoing a similar transition at the time.
  • Sense and Sensibility: Edward's mother arranges a marriage for him with the rich Miss Morton. He refuses, so he is disowned, and an Arranged Marriage between Miss Morton and his brother Robert is put on the table. The heroine Elinor wonders, to her brother's disbelief, if Miss Morton gets a say in this. Colonel Brandon's Back Story also includes him and his first love being separated by an arranged marriage.
  • Pride and Prejudice: Lady Catherine claims she and her sister privately arranged a marriage between her daughter Anne and her nephew Mr. Darcy. Elizabeth supposes that this is the reason for Darcy's indifference to Caroline Bingley... until Darcy proposes to her halfway through the book, which makes it clear he doesn't consider himself bound by any such arrangement.
    • Also from P&P: Mrs. Bennet tries to force Elizabeth to marry Mr. Collins against her will. This is only prevented when Mr. Bennet makes it clear he sides with Elizabeth in disliking Mr. Collins, in one of the best lines in the book:
      Mr. Bennet: Very well. We have now come to the point. Your mother insists upon your accepting it. Is it not so, Mrs. Bennet?
      Mrs. Bennet: Yes, or I will never see her again.
      Mr. Bennet: An unhappy alternative is before you, Elizabeth. From this day, you must be a stranger to one of your parents. - Your mother will never see you again if you do not marry Mr. Collins, and I will never see you again if you do.
  • The clash between the old and new attitudes towards this trope is best shown in Mansfield Park: Maria Bertram's Jerkass aunt arranges a marriage for her with the rich but ditzy Mr. Rushworth. Her father, although satisfied with the match himself, later offers to break it off in the engagement phase because he can see she doesn't love him; Maria chooses to go through with the loveless arranged marriage. The tragic irony is that Sir Thomas Bertram later (unsuccessfully) tries to convince the heroine, his niece Fanny Price, to marry a man she doesn't love. Guilt and misery ensue for all.
  • In Love and Freindship, the proposed bridegroom's rejection is a satire.
    My Father, seduced by the false glare of Fortune and the Deluding Pomp of Title, insisted on my giving my hand to Lady Dorothea. 'No, never,' exclaimed I. 'Lady Dorothea is lovely and Engaging; I prefer no woman to her; but know, Sir, that I scorn to marry her in compliance with your Wishes. No! Never shall it be said that I obliged my Father.'
• The protagonist of Jasper Fforde's Shades of Grey finds himself first promised to marry Constance Oxblood, and later to Violet deMauve.
• The financially-motivated version is brought up on some occasions in The Death of the Vazir Mukhtar, as it was pretty popular mong European nobility in general and in early 19th century Russia in particular. Some characters refer to the main character's marriage with Princess Nina Chavchavadze as this, but note that the couple itself has been in love for quite some time prior to this.
• The Sandarians in Michael McCollum's Antares series practice arranged marriages, befitting a monarchic society like theirs. Crown Prince Philip was betrothed at the age of three. Fortunately, he and his fiancée have fallen in love by this point.
• The overarching plot of The Pillars of the Earth is set off by a broken Arranged Marriage, which becomes a major local scandal.
• Rare non-period Western example: In The Westing Game, Angela Wexler and Violet Westing are pressured into de facto arranged marriages by their social-climbing mothers, who care more about bagging a son-in-law with an impressive title (doctor or senator) than about their daughters' happiness. Neither bride-to-be copes well with the situation....
  • Author Ellen Raskin is making a point. The book was written in the early 1970s, and the Violet Westing story took place about 25 years earlier. Back then, women were supposed to care more about the social status, and earning ability, of their prospective husbands, than about companionability or character, although times were changing. This is why Violet was doomed, but Angela manages to scramble out at the 11th hour. Not to mention that Angela's mother had bucked the system and married for love herself and didn't think it had turned out so well.
• The twelve-year-old Rindi, from the Morris Gleitzman book Bumface, is the child of a Middle Eastern ex-pat family living in Australia, who is being heavily pressured into an arranged marriage with a much older man by her family. Much of the plot of the book consists of her and Angus coming up with Zany Schemes to get her out of it.
• Star Wars Legends:
  • There's an unusual take on this in the X-Wing Series, that also crosses into the High-Class Call Girl trope. The Kuat system of planets apparently uses an unusual form of marriage, to prevent inbreeding in the nobility, where middle-class families may choose to raise one of their children as Telbun, wherein they receive advanced training in academics, athletics, and social behavior. At the end of the training the Telbun are required to take a retinue of tests to determine their standing in terms of intelligence, health, genetics and social behaviors. The noble families then bid on a Telbun to act as a consort (and servant) for a member of the family. In the event of a child, the Telbun helps raise it, though the Telbun is not considered part of the family him or herself. The main reason this crosses into the high class call girl trope is that the Telbun's original family is compensated for the Telbun's services (Truth in Television: buying concubines was an established custom in many polygamous cultures).
  • One of the Adventures novellas had one of these be arranged between two groups. Neither one of the happy couple took it well, and instead began spending time on a space station, where they met a mechanic and a woman that lived on the space station. Eventually, following an attempt to take over the station by a Hutt, the two royals both found out that the people they had met on the station were actually alter egos of each other, leading for it to be a Perfectly Arranged Marriage.
• A hilarious example is found in Georgette Heyer's A Lady Of Quality. The lady of the title encounters a young couple whose parents are pressuring them into such a match. The girl, desperate, resolves to run away - with the assistance of the boy! This becomes less peculiar when it is revealed that they have been best friends from childhood, which also explains the total lack of romantic chemistry between them. Never-the-less another character predicts that they will eventually fall in love, once they mature a little and learn to see one another as an attractive man/woman rather than the kid they've known all their lives.
• Judith, the teenage protagonist of the young adult novel The Minstrels Tale, is forced into one of these by her stepfather. Not only is she deeply put off by her bridegroom, who is at least thirty years her senior, but on the night of their betrothal dinner she falls in love with the young minstrel who comes to play and sing for them. So she runs away.
• Vorkosigan Saga: Aral Vorkosigan's first marriage, mentioned a few times in the books, was arranged. It did not turn out well. Barrayar has an interesting twist on the arranged marriage as, while being most common among the Vor elite, some of its mechanics were in common use among the lower classes as well. In particular, the concept of the Baba, a respected 3rd party that acts as a go-between. Even if the marriage isn't arranged by anyone other than the particulars, the bloke might have his family send a baba to the woman's family, who then asks the woman. It is a kind of crutch for the socially awkward, as the woman doesn't need to reject the man to his face, and the man doesn't have to ask her directly.
• Conan the Barbarian:
  • In "The People of the Black Circle", Conan laughs at Yasmina's offer of reward.
    "Would you make me your king?" he asked sardonically.
    "Well, there are customs-" she stammered, and he interrupted her with a hard laugh.
    "Yes, civilized customs that won't let you do as you wish. You'll marry some withered old king of the plains, and I can go my way with only the memory of a few kisses snatched from your lips. Ha!"
  • In "Iron Shadows in the Moon", Olivia was Made a Slave for refusing this.
• The Alien Series: In Alien Tango, Kitty learns that Martini is betrothed in one of these, not that he or his arranged bride ever agreed.
• Shows up in Buddenbrooks, with Jean and Tony's first marriage
• The novel StarCraft Ghost: Nova reveals that the Old Families of the Terran Confederacy were, pretty much, aristocracy. Nova's parents had no love for each other and married only because their families wished to merge their fortunes. The marriage contract allowed each partner to have a live-in lover, as long as no children were produced out-of-wedlock. In fact, Nova treated her father's mistress almost like a big sister and she was on good terms with her mother's jig. Other contract clauses include the distribution of power and responsibility. Nova's father is in charge of all business decisions, while his wife controls anything related to the family. Attempts by either party to infringe into the other's "area of influence" is grounds for divorce.
• In the Dragon Jousters series by Mercedes Lackey, arranged marriage is common among nobles, but required for Altan monarchs — the oldest pair of male twins among the royal clans must marry the oldest set of female twins among the royal clans. Kaleth and Marit fall deeply in love with each other, but Toreth and Nofret... well, Toreth states openly that he would never interfere with Nofret seeking pleasure elsewhere, and sees no reason why she would interfere with his pleasures. Part of the Magis' plans to take over Alta involve establishing themselves as a fake royal clan, declaring two of their members twins, and forcing a marriage between them and Marit/Nofret once Toreth is murdered and Kaleth disgraced.
• In Emperor: The Field of Swords, Julius Caesar has to promise his daughter's hand in marriage to Pompey in order to secure the latter's support in his bid for consul.
• In the Star Trek Novel 'Verse, this is the foundation of Andorian culture, a result of their low birth rate and general infertility. Having four sexes and a thin window of opportunity for successful births, they need to get their young adults making babies as soon as possible. Quads are brought together after genetic mapping to determine likely success in breeding. Andorians are taught to revere the four-way marriage bond above all else: One alone cannot be Whole, nor two, nor three. The social implications are explored in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Relaunch in particular.
• This is the entire concept of the book Matched. The government chooses your job and who you marry, and you're not allowed to refuse.
• In the Hex Hall series a witch is betrothed on her thirteenth birthday. Sophie's father arranged her engagement without ever having met her and without telling her that she was engaged never mind who to. However, it's established that it's done more out of tradition than anything else as either party can say no.
• In Dream of the Red Chamber Lin Daiyu and Jia Baoyu slowly form a very close relationship, but in the end, Baoyu's mother and aunts decide whom he gets to marry, with dramatic results.
• Used somewhat oddly in The Chronicles of Amber, where Corwin's brother Random is forced to marry a woman in punishment for having seduced and eloped with Queen Moire's daughter, who later committed suicide. Moire explains that the girl, being blind, has no suitors, and would gain great rank from marrying a Prince of Amber...and would eventually recover from whatever harm he did her. To everyone's surprise, it turns out to be a Perfectly Arranged Marriage instead.
• In Charles Dickens' last novel The Mystery of Edwin Drood, Rosa Bud and Mr Drood are to enter into a marriage arranged by their late fathers.
• Elizabeth Bathory and Ferencz Nadasdy in Count and Countess, as was the norm for that time period.
• Camille and his cousin Thérèse in Thérèse Raquin. It was his mother's idea, and Mme. Raquin is the only one who's particularly happy about her brilliant plan.
• In J. R. R. Tolkien's Beren and Lúthien, the villainous forced version almost happens to Lúthien, the princess of Doriath. She and Beren are in the middle of their quest to try to fulfill her father's ironic, impossible Engagement Challenge: steal a Silmaril from Angband. Celegorm and Curufin, ruthless elven princes determined to get the Silmarils for themselves at any cost, kidnap Lúthien and try to force her father to "give" her to Celegorm. Fortunately, Celegorm's awesome dog, Huan, helps her escape.
• Heralds of Valdemar:
  • In the first book of the Collegium Chronicles, Healer-Trainee Bear is betrothed without his consent (or even awareness) by his parents, whose only criteria seems to have been the odds that any resulting children would have the Healer's Gift. Bear refuses to cooperate but has to have his father violently thrashed to get the rejection to stick.
  • The reasons and political maneuvering behind the various forms of arranged marriage among the nobility are a theme of Closer to Home. Many of the young ladies (and, more to the point, their parents) are hoping to land wealthy merchants who will parade them at social functions, instead of older nobles merely looking for someone to provide an heir and a spare. The Double Standard between ladies, who are expected to be faithful at least until the aforementioned heirs are produced, and young men, for whom mistresses and visits to brothels are winked at, is explored. The main characters, members of the more sexually liberated Heralds, decide that something ought to be done about a culture that raises girls to aspire to no more than a good match.
  • In the first published Valdemar novel, Arrows of the Queen, Talia gets told on her thirteenth birthday by her father's wives that she is old enough for marriage and that one will be arranged for her from the offers her father received. This prompts her to declare that she doesn't want to be married and would rather be a Herald, and then she runs out of the house, to be Chosen shortly after. Later, the Queen has to send Heralds down to the Holderkin to inform them that their kids do have the right to refuse arranged marriages (though such children will be disowned by the Holderkin).
• In Altraterra series by Yvonne Pioch, Anne, a 14-year-old girl, is forced by the Magical Academy to marry Miraz, her brother's teacher. Notably because unlike many other works, which relegate the consequences to Fridge Horror territory, here it is explicitly stated that the sole purpose of said marriage is to produce a male heir, and as soon as possible. Since Anne has a crush on Miraz, she willingly agrees. then her brother, who made a Face–Heel Turn, intervenes...
• In Enchantress from the Stars, Evrek is clearly Elana's designated fiancé. The chemistry between them is... less than stellar.
• Every marriage in Pentexore is arranged via the Abir in Dirge for Prester John, though the people feel free to make that work or not, and take lovers whether they are happy or not with their spouse.
• The reader learns this in passing about a magistrate in Charles Dickens' Barnaby Rudge.
  He mistrusted the honesty of all poor people who could read and write, and had a secret jealousy of his own wife (a young lady whom he had married for what his friends called "the good old English reason," that her father's property adjoined his own) for possessing these accomplishments in greater degree than himself.
• Pretty much how things work in the world of A Brother's Price. Men are rare and valuable, traded either for other men or for great sums of money, and these marriages are chosen by the women of the family, with sisters having the loudest voice in the proceedings. Eldest Whistler does want to be sure that her brother will be happy in whatever marriage he ends up a part of.
• In Kingsbury's Courtship Rite, more-or-less the core of the story is the reluctance of the maran-Kaiel five-family to comply with the arranged marriage to Oelita the Gentle Heretic, ordered by the Kaiel clan's Prime Predictor. The five are in love with another woman, Kathein, and had planned to marry her, so they are outraged by the order, and decide to revive the ancient Death Rite, used to test heretics for their fitness to live, and use that to "court" Oelita. During the course of the rite, though, they start to fall in love with Oelita, complicating matters immensely, especially since Oelita is not exactly feeling wooed by these attempts on her life. Did we mention that everyone except Oelita is a cannibal? It's an odd story.
• In The Stone Prince, the eponymous prince has been pretty much beaten by his mother into being unable to express his feelings (hence the title), and his only current relationship (which is gay) happens to be one he fought a civil war to preserve when his mother disapproved. By the start of the novel, she thinks it's time for him to get married — to a member of the kingdom's most powerful noble family, which hints at rebellion if their candidate doesn't become his consort. Complicated further by the fact that the bride-to-be's brother is the prince's former lover, the noble family was split down the middle by the prince's rebellion, and the ruler has a nasty habit of slaughtering her enemies.
• In Apollo's Grove, the Oracle of Delphi dies and is replaced by a woman named Lyssa, who comes from a formerly wealthy family that's willing to let her leave because she no longer has value as a marriage asset. Her father forcibly takes her back when he regains his wealth and Lyssa once again becomes an option for an arranged marriage.
• Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman's The Death Gate Cycle plays with this trope. King Stephen and Queen Anne are involved in a political marriage that fused their long-warring nations together, and they hate each other and are constantly bickering in public. In private, they love each other dearly, and use appearances to keep control of the kingdom(s), particularly those courtiers who actually do bear the old hatreds. It's also a good chance for them to yell at each other.
• Whateley Universe: After his/her Drow transformation, Jobe is initially disowned by her father, the Emperor Scientist Gizmatic, on the grounds that, biologically, she wasn't his child any more; however, he then forces her into a Leonine Contract by which she would be recognized as the heir to the throne of Karedonia, but only if she marries back into her own family. As of October 2022, we have yet to learn whom she is to marry, though the prevailing theory in-universe is that it will be a clone of Jobe's original body.
• The Psi Lords of Takis have an unusual variation of this going on in the Wild Cards series. As they are running a Super Breeding Program, arranged marriages for eugenic (and sometimes political) purposes are the norm. However, monogamy is not an expected aspect of the deal. The only real restriction is that Psi Lords are only supposed to procreate as specified by the breeding plan. Otherwise, both male and female Psi Lords indulge in affairs and employ concubines. Takis in general has a distinctly relaxed attitude about sexuality, largely driven by the fact that the Psi Lord ruling class has culturally divorced love, marriage, procreation, and sex into different things.
• Paladin of Shadows: The traditional setup for the Keldara is to have marriages arranged by the Fathers and Mothers (leaders, pretty much) of the Keldaran families.
• In Andre Norton's Ice Crown, Nelis casually mentions that his sister was "ringed" young to the son of his father's best friend.
• In The Infernal Devices, Tessa was going to be forced to marry the Magister had she not been rescued by Will. She was obviously not very happy about it.
• In Summers at Castle Auburn, Elisandra Halsing has been engaged to Bryan since they were infants. The royal family traditionally takes brides from the Halsing family.
• The Apprentice Rogue: The premise of the plot; a princess from a neighboring kingdom has been engaged to the local king and needs an escort to the ceremony and her new home.
• Averted in theory, but Millicent's marriage to Mr. Hattersley looks like one in practice in The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. She writes to Helen that she only said "maybe," but her mother has already started the wedding planning and it's too late now...
• In Erin Morgenstern's The Night Circus, Isobel is in London because she fled such a match. She had to sell her engagement ring for the money.
• In Stephanie Burgis's A Most Improper Magick, their stepmother is trying to arrange one for Elissa, so they can keep their brother out of debtors' prison. Angeline observes that the worst part is that the Wrong Genre Savvy Elissa finds it romantic.
• Oberon and Titania's marriage in Terra Mirum Chronicles brought some balance between the Seelie and Unseelie fae courts.
• In Debra Doyle and James MacDonald's Knights Wyrd, Will has an arranged marriage, a betrothal to Isobel — arranged when they were both three. When he hears that he will meet death before the year is out, and his brother will inherit (so she won't have a child), he has misgivings.
• Elemental Masters series:
  • Arranged marriages are common in the series among upper-class mages. The reasoning is that it's best to marry someone you won't have to hide your Elemental magic from, and if you get along well with him/her that's a bonus.
  • The generations-long pact between the Prothero family and the Selch in Home from the Sea makes each Prothero part of an arranged marriage.
• In L. Jagi Lamplighter's The Unexpected Enlightenment of Rachel Griffin, Nastasia expects one. She calmly says if her father marries her off to someone obnoxious, it would only be because the kingdom needed her to marry him, and if she and her husband dedicate themselves to their marriage, they will grow to love each other. Besides, were arranged marriages so much more unhappy than love matches?
• Simona Ahrnstedt seems to love this trope!
  • Exaggerated/deconstructed example: Beatrice Löwenström in Överenskommelser is forced by her uncle into marriage with a man, who's like forty years older than her and treats women like dirt under his shoes. And it does NOT end well for her! She was lucky to survive the wedding night and that the old creep died only a couple of days afterwards...
  • Reconstructed example: Illiana and Markus in "Betvingade" are forced to marry each other, but it turns out well enough.
  • Subverted/defied example: Gabriel Gripklo in "De skandalösa" makes a promise to his mother that he will marry a girl from the aristocracy. But he falls in love with Magdalena, the story's female protagonist, and has to break that promise.
• Swedish writer Elisabet Nemert has a reconstructed example in her novel "Ödets hav". Aurora, the story's female protagonist, is forced into marriage with her uncle's friend's son, but it turns out well enough.
• In Sarah A. Hoyt's Darkship Thieves, Thena tells Kit she's always been expecting this. Despite the immense pressure her father would bring to bear.
• Standard practice in Annals of the Western Shore. In the Uplands, marriages are arranged to preserve the gift of each family's lineage and bring beneficial gifts into the family. Ogge Drum deliberately insults the Caspros in Gifts by offering a mentally disabled niece as Orrec's bride. In the lowland city-states, marriages between great families are arranged for the usual land/money/political purposes.
• Age of Fire: Tighlia forces RuGaard to mate with her granddaughter Halaflora in order to both solidify his adopted position in the Imperial Line and to pair off the two most unwanted members of the family. RuGaard isn't happy about this, since he'd already made plans to mate with his long-time Love Interest Nilrasha (whose reaction to the news implies Tighlia threatened her into accepting), but he learns to love Halaflora's gentle nature. And then she dies in an incident that may or may not have been Nilrasha eliminating the competition.
• Princess Sophia is married to a Swedish duke at the beginning of The Kingdom of Little Wounds. She's barely twelve at the time, but her father needs the marriage and the alliance desperately.
• The Goblin Emperor: Maia's future empress is decided by a vote in parliament. Almost all marriages between nobility are arranged for political reasons.
• In The Red Vixen Adventures Lady Sallivera is initially pleased with her parents arranging for her to be married to their countess' heir, the Viscount Kevinaugh Highglider. It wasn't until afterward that she realized what a monster he was.
• In Steven Erikson's Malazan Book of the Fallen prequel, the Kharkanas Trilogy, this gets deconstructed together with Runaway Fiancé. Faror Hend, daughter of a noble house that's been decimated in the war just past, gets betrothed to an accidental war hero in order to elevate him to nobility and create a new Great House. Several characters go out of their way to pity her and comment on how there's no way for young Faror Hend to come to love the almost twice her age Kagamandra Tulas, so she joins the military and gets herself posted as far away from the capital as possible, only to get the news that he's on his way to see her, and immediately jumps to conclusions and bolts for it again. Kagamandra Tulas, on the other hand, feels guilty for ruining the life of his young betrothed by being saddled with him and all he wants to do is tell her he would be content enough with her doing whatever she wants, as long as she's happy and safe. Sharenas Ankhadu points out how both of them are self-absorbed idiots and seriously need to talk to each other.
• In Wither, Rhine is kidnapped and forced to marry Linden.
• SOP on Darkover for both political and genetic reasons. When Rohanna Aillard is married to Gabriel Ardais both realize they are going to have done some work if they want a successful and happy marriage. When we see them again decades later it is clear they have put in the necessary labor.
  • A couple of generations later potential marriage partners are introduced and the match conditional on their liking each other. It is also implied that the council elders will rearrange their breeding plans to permit love matches provided both partners are Comyn.
• In Children of the Black Sun, Mira, daughter of the leader of the Wolf Clan, has an arranged marriage to Duke Osebian, a relative of the semi-foreign King. She's sour about it, and her clan is taking no chances of that sourness being upgraded to disobedience — she gets drugged and shipped off involuntarily just in case she kicks up a fuss. It still doesn't work, though.
• In Apparatus Infernum, Ritsuko wasn't set up with one specific partner but was given a list of choices who would not be unacceptable to her family. As of the start of the series, she has just given up on the last of them, which is within her rights but has left her family Very Disappointed to the point of ostracism.
• The Sano Ichiro series takes place during Japan's Edo Period when arranged marriages were common as ways of establishing power among the daimayo. Miai, or a meeting between families to arrange a marriage plays an important role in several books. The main character is no exception; Sano undergoes a miai and is wed in the fourth book to Reiko, an Edo magistrate's daughter. It takes some time for them to get used to each other. They finally bond over the mystery Sano is working on and eventually turn into Happily Married.
• In L. Sprague de Camp's Viagens Interplanetarias setting, arranged marriages are the norm on the planet Krishna, a fact that upsets the occasional human who falls in love with a Krishnan. However, in nearly all cases the Krishnans themselves are totally unbothered by arranged marriage, as they consider marriage to be an important lifetime social and financial arrangement too important to be dictated by something as fickle and ephemeral as love. Several characters even express horror of the very idea of marrying for love.
• In Homecoming by Anne B. Walsh Vani and King Malak are prophesied to marry.
• Marriages of state are common in Safehold, due to its dynastic culture. Cayleb Ahrmahk uses several to solidify the bonds of the Empire of Charis. He offers to marry Sharleyan unite their respective kingdoms of Charis and Chisolm into the foundation for the Empire. He arranges similar marriages for his younger brother and adopted son in order to secure the princedoms of Emerald and Corisande. Several other marriages are noted over the course of the books, and a good number of them are also Perfectly Arranged Marriages. In the case of his son Hektor and Princess Irys of Corisande, the marriage was only "arranged" after the two were already in love.
• Fiyero from Wicked was betrothed to a girl from a neighboring tribe as a child. They were married at seven but unable to even meet until age twenty. He is married to her and has several children with her, but rarely sees her and instead prefers being with Elphaba, who he even has a son with.
• Words of Radiance (second book of The Stormlight Archive):
  • Jasnah begins the process of arranging one between Jasnah's cousin Adolin and her ward Shallan. She's initially worried that Shallan will be upset she was not consulted about this, but Shallan is actually surprisingly amenable. She always expected to have her husband chosen by her father, and the one time she chose a suitor, he turned out to be an assassin. The fact that Adolin is a prince certainly doesn't hurt.
  • For his own part, Adolin finds the idea of having someone else pick a wife for him kind of relaxing, given that his own efforts have led to him offending every single eligible woman in camp.
  • And when they finally do meet, both of them fall head over heels for each other. Sanderson seems to like this trope a lot. Justified in that Shallan has a Dark and Troubled Past with a fear of being locked away and a dislike of the idea of a fawning noblewoman, and Adolin is a Book Dumb soldier who has somehow managed to offend every single unmarried woman in the warcamp, largely by not treating them like objects of worship (but also by being a little forgetful of minor things like names). Adolin falls for Shallan's different attitude and refusal to stay away from dirty places or hard tasks, and Shallan loves the fact that Adolin is a literal Knight in Shining Armor who doesn't treat her like a fragile toy to be kept safe from danger.
• In the novella A Taste of Honey, Aqib has made his peace with the idea that his father will choose his future wife, as the latter married for love and brought down the family's standing, making it Aqib's duty to better it again through a properly arranged marriage. This is exactly what happens when a proposal from the Sovereign House arrives and Aqib marries the Blessèd Femysade, even though he has to be beaten by the Corporal into agreeing to the marriage. While not a Perfectly Arranged Marriage, Aqib arranges himself with his fate and loves Femysade in a way, eventually.
• A childhood marriage contract is a key plot point in Way of Choices where Xu Yourong's grandfather promised her hand to the disciple of a Taoist who saved his life. Various characters have various reactions to this, her parents are horrified while she's more ambivalent.
• These are common among noble society in The Young Ancients though virtually no one in the story winds up with the person they were originally engaged to.
• Survivor Dogs: Moon's parents wanted her to be mates with a dog named Hunter. After Moon's pack caught a sickness, Hunter ran off and didn't come back until after the sickness had gone. Moon chased him off for his disloyalty.
• In The Blind Assassin, Iris's father arranges her marriage to Richard in the hopes that it will save the family company and ensure a better future for at least one of his daughters.
• In The Long Price Quartet, one is arranged between Ana Dasin of Galt and Danat, Otah's son and heir.
• Maiden Crown: The story begins with Princess Sophie being betrothed at thirteen to King Valdemar to consolidate his alliance with her half-brother and his co-ruler, Knud Magnussen (the historical Canute V). Due to her young age, Valdemar allows three years to pass before sending for her.
• The Miniaturist: A couple months before the beginning of the story, Nella was married to merchant Johannes. The marriage was arranged by Nella's mother in order to get her out of their country home and into an affluent household.
• Xandri Corelel spends six months living on Karrckchak, working as an attoaong, or matchmaker. Every Ongkoarrat who isn't sex-repulsed is required by law to find someone to reproduce with. Attoaongs create partnerships of all kinds, from lovers to friends to business associates and in groups from two to twenty, but Xandri only works with romantic couples.
• By the time Prince Hans is an adult in the Frozen tie-in book A Frozen Heart, all of his 12 older brothers married off so that his homeland, the Southern Isles, can secure better trade deals with neighboring kingdoms.
• Ariane, the heroine of the medieval Romance Novel Enchanted, is forced into this by her father, who considers her Defiled Forever after her rape (even worse, he doesn't believe she was raped and that it's she who seduced her assailant). Either way, her original intended wants nothing more to do with her and so he forces her into another marriage so that he can look like a father sending his daughter off with her husband rather than exiling her. Fortunately, it turns into a Perfectly Arranged Marriage.
• In The Arts of Dark and Light, young noblewoman Severa ends up in an arranged marriage to shore up her family's relations with another noble house as a civil war draws nigh. Fortunately, it turns out that her husband is not that much older than herself, and they get along rather well once they get to know each other.
• A recurring plot point in The Castle of Llyr, the third novel of The Chronicles of Prydain, is that King Rhuddlum and Queen Teleria of the isle of Mona hope to forge one of these between their son, Prince Rhun, and Princess Eilonwy. The actual outcome is left open-ended until the very end of the book, when Eilonwy assures Taran that she has zero intention of going along with such a thing, noting that "there's a limit to letting people make up your mind for you".
• Jenny Doolittle of Bodacious Space Pirates is set up in an arranged marriage, as much to prevent her from gaining control of her family's shipping firm as to solidify an alliance. She shoots her way out of it, then hires the Bentenmaru to get her to safety.
• In Crier's War, Dinara is raised up by two women: Red Hand Reyka and her human lover.
• Forest Kingdom: In Book 1 (Blue Moon Rising), Julia has one with Prince Harald. She has no intention of actually fulfilling it though, and leaves the kingdom with Prince Rupert in the end.
• In Rob Roy, Diana Vernon was betrothed to one of the sons of Sir Hildebrand Osbaldistone because of an agreement between him and Sir Frederick Vernon to solve a matter of expropriated lands. When Sir Hildebrand's nephew Frank learns about it, he sadly ponders such arrangements treat both parties as livestock.
• The Girl With The Louding Voice follows the story of fourteen-year-old Adunni, who lives in a small village in Nigeria where young girls are often forced into marriages, regardless of what they want or their preexisting relationships. Adunni's world is forever changed when her father tells her that she will be marrying the much older Morofu, already wedded twice.
• The Ghost of Philinnion: Philinnion dies shortly after her wedding to Craterus (a historical Macedonian general). The fact that later, as a revenant, she seduces Machates, and also that she returns to her old room in the house of her parents (as opposed to Craterus' house), strongly suggests that she did not love Craterus, and that the marriage to him was decided by others against her own wish.
• The Grandmother: Subverted twice.
  • When Viktorka, a local homeless madwoman, was young, she was beautiful, sprightly, hard-working, and in expectation of a share in her father's lands. As a result, she had many suitors; however, she brushed them off, wanting a good dancer over the wealthy farmers who came seeking after her. This would sometimes irritate her father, who on at least one occasion threatened to choose her a husband herself and force her to marry him if she didn't choose one herself, but Viktorka, who was only 20, pleaded with him to let her enjoy her youth a while longer, which endeared her to him and he figured she still had time to find someone. However, a rifleman then started stalking Viktorka; this caused her to make an about-face and she demanded to be married as soon as possible. Another suitor, an honest young man called Tonda, came along, and she accepted to marry him. However, Viktorka could not resist the rifleman's advances. He seduced her, left with his unit sometime after, and a pregnant Viktorka went mad. Her father gave Tonda Viktorka's younger sister Mařenka in marriage instead, and died after three years had passed, apparently of grief.
  • The Princess intends to marry Hortensie, her teenage ward, to a Count. At the time of these plans, the Grandmother sees that Hortensie is sad, but the latter acts like it is nothing. However, the Grandmother notices a picture of a man among Hortensie's drawings, who Hortensie reveals is her drawing master. She manages to figure out that Hortensie is in love with him. The Grandmother reveals this fact to the Princess; the latter, who loves Hortensie as her own child and desires her happiness, allows her to marry her drawing master.
• InCryptid:
  • Some cryptid species arrange marriages for their children, particularly the endangered ones. This is to ensure that their species is able to survive and continue.
  • The Covenant arranges marriages as part of a breeding program; Dominic is the result of such a marriage.
• Gods and Warriors:
  • In The Outsiders, Pirra is promised by her mother, the High Priestess of Keftiu, to Telamon, the son of Lykonia's chieftain, as part of a bargain between the High Priestess and Telamon's father. This leads to her escaping after she fails to put an end to it by scarring her face. When she's caught at the end of the book, however, Telamon, disliking Pirra as much as she dislikes him, calls the whole thing off.
  • In The Burning Shadow, Pirra escapes from her mother again when she's about to be sent to be wed to an Arzawan chieftain in a couple of days.
• In The Fire's Stone, Chandra and Darvish have a marriaged arranged by Altar Diplomacy and are trying to get out of it.
• Winter's Orbit: Iskat alliances are sealed through political marriages between the parties involved. The story begins when Count Jainan of Thea and Prince Kiem of Iskat are wrapped in a really rushed one to show The Resolution that the treaty between the planets still stand after Jainan's previous partner dies.
• A primary topic in Huda Fahmy's That Can Be Arranged: A Muslim Love Story, a cartoony story based on how Fahmy married her husband Gehad.
• Bazil Broketail: Serena was supposed to marry the winner of a magical competition. Which wouldn't be that bad if Gadjung of Batooj hadn't come around. Luckily, Prince Evander is out there to save her from it.
• Until We Meet Again: Ned reveals late in the book that he's having Lawrence marry Fay by the end of the summer. It's his way of getting Lawrence to become the lawyer of the Cartelli family so they'll help Ned with his gambling debts.
• Harry Potter: Bellatrix and Rodolphus Lestrange were married off to each other solely by virtue of them being respectable purebloods. Although they both joined the Death Eaters, the marriage is loveless and probably sexless, as they conceive no children. Bellatrix's love has always been Voldemort, and the marriage doesn't stop her from showing it. They aren't unique: the fanatical pure-blood families of Wizarding Britain had a habit of arranging marriages into approved families, with Bellatrix's sister Narcissa marrying into the Malfoy family (though they have a child and actually do love each other) and their other sister Andromeda being disowned for marrying a Muggle-born.
• The Love and Lies of Rukhsana Ali: A feature of the Bengali Muslim community. Rukhsana, a lesbian, is keen to avoid this, though even straight people can fall afoul of it when matched with people whom they have no feelings for.
• The Guinevere Deception: Justified. Arthur and Guinevere are married only so she can more easily protect him, and they don't consider it a proper marriage emotionally.
• The Mysterious Disappearance of Leon (I mean Noel): When Mrs. Carillon was five and Leon was seven, their parents founded a company called Mrs. Carillon's Pomato Soup. They had a preacher marry their kids to solidify their partnership. Then Leon was sent Off to Boarding School, so he and his wife didn't see each other for the rest of their childhood.
• How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom has a bunch of these because of its Medieval European Fantasy setting and focus on powerful, important people. Souma, the main character, has three of his five wives from arranged marriages that he didn't really have the chance to say no to. He's also not above doing his for some of his subjects when it's useful, but he tries to find a Perfectly Arranged Marriage whenever possible.
• The main plot of Kakuriyo: Bed and Breakfast for Spirits is that Aoi Tsubaki's grandfather ran up a massive bill at the inn Tenjin'ya and offered his grandaughter up as colleteral to the inn keeper. The story then follows Aoi's attempts to pay off said debt and get out of the marriage contract.
• Endo and Kobayashi Live! The Latest on Tsundere Villainess Lieselotte: Like any other works of the same subgenre, this is very common.
  • Lieselotte and Siegwald were engaged since they were children, and that was nearly the simplest case.
  • Bruno allows Baldur to choose one of Lieselotte's younger sisters to marry, in exchange for Baldur being Bruno's heir. This is not dissimilar to the Mukoyoshi arrangement that's common in Japan.
  • Played for Drama in one backstory. Bruno Riefenstahl's brother August was originally engaged to Elizabeth Marschner, and they do love each other. But at the time they could marry, August was clearly dying from a lifelong Soap Opera Disease. The Marschner house attempted to dissolve the engagement and try to get Elizabeth marry Bruno, and as Bruno decided to hastily marry his betrothed Josephine to avoid further troubles, the Marschners attempted to sue the Riefenstahls Breach of Promise of Marriage. In the meantime, Elizabeth and August decided "to the hell with the formalities" and consummate their relationship while August is still alive, causing Elizabeth to bear August's child—Fiene.
• Almost happens to Rudeus and Eris in Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation. Eris' father (and Rudeus' employer/distant uncle) Philip had ulterior motives in that he planned to use Rudeus for a political power grab, but he does see that they are growing close during their time together. Before Rudeus' 10th birthday, Philip contacts the boy's father Paul to set up the betrothal, but before it becomes official or even announced, the Mana Catastrophe strikes, which teleports all the characters involved to various parts of the world.
• Sachiko and Suguru have an arranged marriage in Maria Watches Over Us. Given that they're both cousins, and their family is incredibly rich, the marriage is to ensure the family business remains in the family. It's eventually called off.
• In Full Metal Panic!, Melissa Mao reveals that she joined the Marine Corps after becoming a Runaway Bride from an Arranged Marriage.
• In Sword Art Online, Kirito finds out in the second arc that his girlfriend/in-game wife, Asuna, is a rich girl who is technically engaged to the current Big Bad, Sugou. Sugou is all set to marry Asuna and inherit her father's company while Asuna is still in a coma due to being trapped in VR (and it says something about him that this is pretty low on his list of misdeeds). Asuna hates him, but her parents aren't aware of her feelings; Sugou notes that if her father understood how she felt about him, he'd call the marriage off in a heartbeat. Later books show that Asuna's family have been setting up omiai between her and some other wealthy suitors, but Asuna makes it pretty clear she has zero intention of going along with this. When her mother tries to force the issue and says that Asuna should respect their choices, Asuna reminds her of the fact that she chose Sugou as well, and look how well that went. Her mother points out that Asuna's free to reject the suitors, but makes it clear that she won't stand for Asuna getting together with Kirito.
• In The Bride of Adarshan, Prince Alexid and Princess Eustinia are arranged by their countries to be wed as part of an alliance treaty. Awkwardly for Alexid, who is 20, his bride-to-be is half his age. They eventually get married for real though but act more like each other's moral support, opting to wait until Eustinia is a bit older.
• This forms the basis of the second arc of High School D×D. Starter Villain Raiser Phenex has a marriage arranged with the unwilling Rias Gremory, using the excuse of depleted number of pure-blooded Devils to make her family (who are normally entirely supportive of Rias' independence) agree. It's obvious to everyone he's just playing the system and wants a Ms. Fanservice like Rias to himself. It ends with Issei crashing the engagement party and loudly declaring before the assembled upper escelons of hell that Rias's virginity belongs to him, followed by issuing an Engagement Challenge that gives Issei his first chance to shine as the badass he is.
• In My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom!, nobles in Sorcier are expected to get engaged when they are teens. Keith and Nicol show disinterest in it (due to both crushing on Catarina) is noted to be very unusual.
  • Catarina accidentally gets engaged to the charming third Prince Gerald, which should have been exciting since the first time they met she fell in love at first sight. However, when she sees him again she's (mentally) aged nearly twenty years and, worse, recognizes him as an otome-game love interest who is secretly a bored asshole, so she wants out of it. But she can't call the engagement off.
  • Later, her best friend Mary gets engaged to Gerald's brother Alan and by the game's script should have fallen in love with him, but falls for Catarina instead after Catarina accidentally steals one of his lines. And by the time Alan realized he's in love with Catarina, he tries to break his engagement with Mary just to discover that Mary is unwilling to break the engagement and let him have a free reign to pursue a woman she loves.
  • Geoffrey, the first prince, is engaged to Suzanna Randall. However, both of them agree that the engagement is only out of convenience; they have little interest in romance and only use the engagement to avoid their parents bugging them for it.
  • Ian, the second prince, is engaged to Selena Berg. However, because Ian wants to maintain some level of propriety between them, he refuses to be openly affectionate towards Selena. This makes the nobles, in general, see them as very distant, and Selena, because of her self-image, thought Ian didn't love her, despite this being very much not the case.
  • A story in the fifth novel, animated in S2E08, is about Nicol trying through an entire omiai process to try to forget Catarina. And yes, other than the clothing and the decor, they're animating the Japanese way of doing it.
  • The backstories of Catarina's parents, as well as Nicol's parents, indicate that there are still some wriggling room for the men involved: in both cases, the future fathers proposed to the future mothers' fathers to arrange a marriage between them. And even so, in the Claes' case, the couple doesn't know they love each other until at least their daughter is eight years old, and in the original timeline, never at all.
• Krulcifer in Undefeated Bahamut Chronicle faces the threat of this from her family and so makes Lux pretend to be her boyfriend for a week to at least temporarily hold them off. This proves insufficient when her family's butler plans for Krulcifer to marry Barzeride, a high-ranking nobleman. Krulcifer proposes that they settle things with a two-on-two duel. Lux and Krulcifer win, but Barzeride calls in his private army intending to kill Lux and pretend to be the actual victor. This in turn is interrupted when Lux's other friends defeat said army and record Barzeride's wrongdoing. With Barzeride disgraced and imprisoned, the engagement is called off... and Lux is considered an acceptable suitor instead.
• My Little Sister Stole My Fiance: Eliana is set to marry Prince Alvin at the beginning, though she later is replaced by her younger sister, Luna.
• Of Fire and Stars: Princess Dennaleia from Havemont has been betrothed to Prince Thandilimon of Mynaria, with the plot beginning as she goes there. She's dutiful, having known it's expected from her since childhood, but it becomes increasingly clear Dennaleia's a lesbian, becoming attracted to his tomboy sister Mare instead. In fact, the marriage had been arranged when she was just six.
• The Lady Grace Mysteries: Grace has a variation in Assassin. Queen Elizabeth I promised her parents that she would arrange Grace's betrothal when she turned thirteen (though she won't actually get married until she's sixteen) and Grace reluctantly accepts this, though Elizabeth does allow her to choose from one of three suitors she believes would make a good husband for Grace, so she does have some say. Due to the events of the novel, none of the suitors end up being suitable for Grace and Elizabeth decides to hold off on the betrothal, much to Grace's relief.
• The Villainess Lives Again:
  • Artezia manipulated Saintess Lisia into accepting a marriage between her and Artezia's brother, Laurence, to give his rule the legitimacy he lacked. Played with in that while she may have forced Lisia, Lisia herself is the one who willingly accepted the match as she hoped to change Laurence. Ironically, while Artezia came to regret the decision due to befriending Lisia, it's clear that Lisia ended up falling for Laurence for real and genuinely tried to make the relationship work, but rather than being the good influence she hoped to be to him, he instead grew obsessed. Laurence's own obsession with her in the new timeline proves to be his undoing as he tries to fully own her, but instead gets him caught and killed by Lisia herself.
  • Lisia was engaged to Cedric before Artezia intervened. Artezia thinks the two were in love with each other, but it's heavily implied Cedric arranged the engagement to protect Lisia, his Childhood Friend with a low barony background, which is supported by their interactions being more akin to siblings. Cedric eventually confirms this after regaining his memories and revealing himself to Artezia.
• In The Coral Island, tribal chief Tararo has betrothed his adopted daughter Avatea to another chief she doesn't love. She wants to marry a different chief, who has converted to Christianity, but Tararo tells her that if she doesn't agree to go to her betrothed to be married, he'll send her to him to be eaten.
• The Chronicles of Dorsa:
  • At the start of the story Tasia's father Andreth is pushing her to marry, and had given her a choice in suitors. Because she'd rejected them all, he instead promises he'll decide on this himself then. Her lover Mylla too is having her marriage arranged.
  • Tasia later arranges her and her sister's marriages too for political purposes, feeling guilty about doing so as she had rebelled herself in the past from this, but seeing no other way to get needed support.
• In Mermaid Moon, the landish witch Thyrla betrothes her son Peder to the seavish witch Sanna so their children will have powerful magic. Thyrla plans to either steal her grandchildren's remaining lives to prolong her own, or use them for some other purpose.
• Dragonvarld: Marcus returns home after his adventures and finds that his parents have agreed to his marriage with a young noblewoman, whom he hasn't met for years, when they were both children. Knowing that a prince's marriage isn't his to decide, Marcus is resigned after hearing this. The reveal that she's really a dragon in disguise, who's later killed, obviously ends this. The woman whom he falls for afterward however is very approved by his parents though.
• Receiver of Many:
  • Persephone's and Hades's marriage was arranged as a part of peace agreement between Hades and Zeus when Persephone was still in Demeter's womb. Despite a rocky start, they end up as in a much happier and healthier relationship than many other divine marriages.
  • Hephaestus and Aphrodite. Because of how powerful Aphrodite is, she was married off to one man who couldn’t challenge Zeus’ rule. In contrast to Hades and Persephone, they are both unhappy with this union. Faithfulness is not in Aphrodite’s nature and she doesn't feel much for Hephaestus, so she is having affairs left and right. Hephaestus himself is very much aware of this trait of his wife as well as the fact why he was chosen to be her mate, which he found to be more insulting than her affairs or bastard children.
• In Mother of Learning, Kirielle's marriage six years in the future has already been planned out.
• Otherverse: Arranged Marriages are the norm among Practitioner families, with almost every marriage between Practitioners being part of political maneuvering between two families with almost no input at all from the people actually being married. It's consistently shown to be an exploitative and terrible institution that many of the series' heroes consider to be one of the major things wrong with Practitioner society. One character in the series goes so far as to describe it as "whoring out their children" for political gain.

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