johnnye
Since: Jan, 2001
Oct 24th 2010 at 2:47:03 PM
•••
"One should note that the average divorce rate for a first time marriage in America is currently about 50%, so perhaps keeping an open mind on the subject would be best."
Yes, the system where you get to choose who you marry is more likely to end in your choosing to end it. Funny, that. The YMMV over this issue is a matter of whether you consider the stability of a marriage or the net happiness of the marriage to be more important, divorce rates prove nothing either way.
Does it count as the Arranged Marriage trope if the person doing (or authorizing) the arranging happens to be one of the people getting married? FWIW, there are examples of this in the Perfectly Arranged Marriage trope:
In the Safehold series, King Cayleb of Charis arranges his own marriage to Queen Sharleyan of Chisholm.
In The Curse of Chalion Iselle arranges her own marriage to Bergon.
In the Belisarius Series, Eon declares that he will enter an arranged marriage with one of the daughters of the arab clans and appoints Antonina to pick the woman.