The True Meaning of Marriage
The idea of marriage is two people coming together and starting a new life together for the rest of their lives. Is marriage a good thing or is marriage just a “contract” between two people that just use each other for happiness and kids? Marriage is a beautiful ceremony. Marriage is not a “contract.” John McMurtry believes the monogamous marriage that marriage is “essentially a form of ownership over another human being's sexuality” (Do 246). He thinks that marriage is one person owning another and pretty much controlling how that person acts. Marriage is not an ownership of someone, but true love between two people. Marriage is all about mutual trust, not jealousy or worry. Marriage is supposed to be teamwork.
Marriage is not an ownership of someone, but true love between two people. People now think that when you get married, your life ends because now you are owned by someone. However, that is not the case. Marriage is about true love. One does not own a person in a marriage, but actually love the other person. John McMurtry gives his thoughts on how marriage is a “contract.”
He says, “The partners are required to enter a formal contractual relation....The number of partners involved in the marriage must be two and only two...No person may participate in more than one marriage at a time or during a lifetime...No married person may engage in any sexual relationship with any person whatever other than the other partner” (Do 247-248).
What John is saying is that you cannot have relations with other people because of this “contract.” While this is true is most cases, there are some cases where this does not apply. In some cases, two people love each other more than life itself; however, they have something called an open marriage, and it is okay in their life because no matter what they go back to their husband or wife in the end. There are also marriages where they feel that they can have more than one partner in bed...