Quotes / Arranged Marriage

God's bread it makes me mad. Day, night, late, early,
At home, abroad, alone, in company,
Waking or sleeping, still my care hath been
To have her match'd; and having now provided
A gentleman of princely parentage,
Of fair demesnes, youthful, and nobly train'd,
Stuff'd, as they say, with honourable parts,
Proportion'd as one's thought would wish a man—
And then to have a wretched puling fool,
A whining mammet, in her fortune's tender,
To answer "I'll not wed, I cannot love;
I am too young, I pray you pardon me!"

— Capulet, Romeo and Juliet

SIR,
I hope you will not think it is any manner of Disrespect to your Person or Merit, that the intended Nuptials between us are interrupted. My Father says he has a much better Offer for me than you can make, and has ordered me to break off the Treaty between us. If it had proceeded, I should have behaved my self with all suitable Regard to you, but as it is, I beg we may be Strangers for the future. Adieu.
LYDIA.

—Richard Steele, The Spectator

Love? What does love have to do with marriage?

—Londo Mollari, Babylon 5

Arranged marriages are still pretty common in these parts (and now I come to think of it, what other kinds are there? It's not as if the boy and the girl and all their relatives and a new dress and the priest of choice and a slap-up knife-and-fork tea for forty all turn up in one place by accident, is it?).

—Gytha Ogg, Nanny Ogg's Cookbook

And who does Mama teach
To mend and tend and fix?
Preparing her to marry
Whoever Papa picks?

— The Daughters, "Tradition", Fiddler on the Roof

My brother is dead now, and my nephew Edmure rules in Riverrun, gods help us: a trout that can't tell the worm from the hook… but he is a Tully, and he is unmarried, and there is a war… We all know how this story ends. Maybe she'll be beautiful. Maybe she'll be rich. As long as she brings swords and men to House Tully, she could look like the fish we hang all over Riverrun. He'll honour his duty to family and swallow it. One Blackfish per family can be overlooked; two, and we'd have to change all those pretty banners.

— Ser Brynden "Blackfish" Tully, Game of Thrones: History And Lore - House Tully

Since my mother told me that I would be marrying Eli, I had felt as though I was balancing our two families like a basin of water, which was full to the brim, on my head.

—Afi Tekple, soon to be wife to Elikem Ganyo, His Only Wife

Same-sex marriage doesn't bother me, I got bigger things to worry about. I gotta worry about arranged marriage! I supposed when they have same-sex arranged marriage things will have gone a bit too far, like some Indian family finds out their son is gay at an early age. [Indian accent] "We must find him a nice boy. Someone who dresses well."

— Russell Peters

Here Mr. Inglewood's information was at fault; but he did not doubt, since we had not heard of Sir Frederick being in the hands of the Government, he must be by this time abroad, where, agreeably to the cruel bond he had entered into with his brother-in-law, Diana, since she had declined to select a husband out of the Osbaldistone family, must be confined to a convent. The original cause of this singular agreement Mr. Inglewood could not perfectly explain; but he understood it was a family compact, entered into for the purpose of securing to Sir Frederick the rents of the remnant of his large estates, which had been vested in the Osbaldistone family by some legal manoeuvre; in short, a family compact, in which, like many of those undertaken at that time of day, the feelings of the principal parties interested were no more regarded than if they had been a part of the live-stock upon the lands.

— Rob Roy

My life is arranged
But this union's deranged

— Emilie Autumn, "Marry Me"

"I was three when my parents promised me. When a deal was struck. Three years old. So I was raised to be his wife. I was taught my favorite color was gold because his favorite color was gold. I was told my favorite foods were his favorite foods. I read only the books he liked. And learned his favorite songs on the pianoforte. I am drinking this port wine because it is his favorite, and therefore, it must be mine. I have never once...And as many times as I dreamed and imagined and hoped and planned... I never thought what it would actually be like to have him... be gone. Wiped from this earth. I was raised for him, and now I am... new. I am brand-new. And I do not even know how to breathe air he does not exhale."

— Lady Danbury, Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story

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