There is a lot to know about our society by how we discuss weddings. Consider the forthcoming exchange of vows by Meghan Markle and Prince Harry. The media coverage will concentrate on things like the costs of the wedding, the size of the crowds, and the dress code at the reception celebration.
Since marriage is an important and crucial element in predicting someone’s happiness, marriage – as well as all marriages – merits greater reflection than the media often gives them.
It is becoming more and more referred to as an investment in the economy, and wedding rates are governed by the circumstances in” the ” marriage market” and whether or not marriage can increase or decrease your financial situation. It’s increasingly used as a ” status symbol,” an opportunity for couples to show their status by posting photos of costly engagement rings and luxurious honeymoons through social media. Researchers also believe that marriage is less of a lifetime commitment as spouses enter and leave more easily based on their level of satisfaction with their own lives.
Beyond the status of money, status, and gratification for personal pleasure, None of these trends define what a healthy marriage ought to be like or what expectations each spouse should be able to meet.
Luckily amon, among the most popular novels ever written, Tolstoy’s “Anna Karenina,” which I regularly teach to my students studying ethics at Indiana University – provides deep insight into why certain marriages are successful and others fail.
The dangers of a life full of passion
” Anna Karenina” could have been written more than 140 years ago; however, the fears and doubts of the characters are still relevant in the present.
The novel is a story of four couples.
Dolly is a loving mother to many children. Her partner, Stiva, cannot believe that he’s supposed to give his entire life in the service of his loved ones. The novel begins with a family crisis, which is caused by his infidelity.
Anna is a well-known and savvy socialite who is married to an honest but rather dry senior politician, Karenin, who is twenty years older than her. Anna realizes that she is longing for more.
Anna is in love with Vronsky who is a handsome cavalry officer who was raised in a prosperous but failing family that had no family life. Anna is eventually forced to leave her husband in love with Vronsky, and this leads to her falling out of social grace.
Kitty will be a debutante who is Dolly’s younger sister. Levin has a job as a farmer who is looking for meaning in life. Although Kitty initially refuses Levin’s advances, The two eventually get married and have children.
The vast human storyline of the novel is not boiled down to a few basic guidelines for a happy marriage. However, it is full of insights about the differentiators between families that are happy and unhappy.
Take a look at Anna and her younger brother Stiva. They both view the marriage contract as an agreement that they are able to join or leave at their discretion. Stiva is unable to comprehend how a young, vigorous social man like him can be content fully dedicating his life towards his partner, “a worn-out woman no longer young or good-looking, and in no way remarkable or interesting, merely a good mother.”
He is sure that the universe owes him more in return, he imagines.
Anna is also finding her strict marriage to Karenin not very satisfying. She is looking for a romance with Vronksy, the man whose real family life is a mystery. However, even the love of her life and her dreams will not be able to save her from the constant discontent she feels.
Levin is among the characters that most appreciate the value of marriage. When he was in the process of planning his wedding, Levin “had thought his engagement would have nothing about it like others, that the ordinary conditions of engaged couples would spoil his special happiness; but it ended in his doing exactly as other people did, and his happiness being only increased thereby and becoming more and more special, more and more unlike anything that had ever happened.”
Levin is constantly amazed by the revelations he makes about his spouse, motherhood, and even himself as a husband and father.
Family life can be much more satisfying than he had ever thought possible.
