English Essay

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English Essay

Love is a powerful emotion that is felt by all humans regardless of their origins, cast, color or religion. As Aberjhani says in Journey through the Power of the Rainbow: Quotations from a Life Made out of Poetry: “Love is our most unifying and empowering common spiritual denominator.” Marriage and love have been controversial subjects despite being basic needs of humans. Many societies have imposed restrictions when it comes to the topic of marriage and love. There have been many reasons why societies try to control how other people marry or love each other. These reasons include class differences, racial differences, families not approving the partners, etc. This is not only a case in developing countries but for years, societies of progressive and developed countries like USA and UK have been negatively impacting marriages and love. Society acts as enemy to develop hindrances in loving relationships of people across countries. Susan Faludi says: “When enemy has no face, society will invent one.” There are many constraints that society imposes in regards with love and marriage.

Arranged marriages in many countries and cultures have attributed to oppressive situations in which people have not been allowed to express their love interests. Marriage has always been the major subject on which society raises objections and many times it makes it very difficult for people to marry out of love. Since the early times, there has been an issue in India due to which people belonging to different classes can’t marry other. The Indian society is divided into different classes and High-class people are not allowed to marry low-class people. Although, this issue is being eradicated by time, it still prevails in the society. CITATION CJF08 \l 1033 (Fuller and Narasimhan) Similarly, for a very long time marriages of different races were banned in US. Gradually, various states started legalizing such marriages and now the ban has been lifted. Back in the day, people of different races who wanted to marry each other were not given the right to do so. This shows that society had so much control over people that it determined who the people could marry. Laws were passed that prohibited people from marrying interracially. These were known as Anti-miscegenation laws. CITATION Jam \l 1033 (Browning) It is stated that “In 1976, 17 Southern states (all the former slave states plus Oklahoma) still enforced laws prohibiting marriage between whites and people of color.” CITATION Kar00 \l 1033 (Alonso) Loving vs Virginia was the most famous case of interracial marriage in US. They were subjected to violence and abuse only on the basis of fact that they were not of the same race. The development of this law shows that society itself was intolerant and biased when it came to interracial marriages. It also states in the text: “If a person followed law strictly in Arizona, a mixed racial person could not marry anyone.” CITATION Kar00 \l 1033 (Alonso) This was due to the fact that American society wanted to keep the white race ‘safe’ and ‘pure’.

There are not only class and racial differences that form an obstacle for marriages and love relationships. It has more to do with the mindset of society than the laws and policies. It is believed that King Henry VIII and the government of that time wrongly imprisoned Anne Boleyn because she was unable to conceive a son and gave birth to a daughter. In the last letter that she wrote to King Henry VIII, she mentioned people and society who acted as her enemies and judges. She wrote “Try me good King, but let me have a Lawful Trial, and let not my sworn Enemies sit as my Accusers and Judges.” She also wrote “Don’t let that Stain cast a Blot on your most Dutiful Wife and Infant Princess your Daughter”. Considering all the instances, it can be said that society has played a part in negative affecting marriages and love since ancient times.

Works Cited

BIBLIOGRAPHY Alonso, Karen. Loving V. Virginia: Interracial Marriage (Landmark Supreme Court Cases). New Jersey: Enslow Pub Inc , 2000.

Browning, James R. "Anti-miscegenation laws in the United States." Duke Bar Journal (n.d.).

Fuller, C. J. and Haripriya Narasimhan. "Companionate Marriage in India: The Changing Marriage System in a Middle-Class Brahman Subcaste." The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute (2008): 736-754. Document.