Arranged Marriage

Americans recoil at the idea of arranged marriage.

Yesterday Gary and I used some freebie passes to see a romantic comedy with Sandra Bullock -- Proposal. We enjoyed the movie. It crossed my mind that it was much like While You Were Sleeping. And as I pondered the similarities and differences between the two movies, I began to realize something.

It's a common theme. Two people who either don't know each other or don't like each other have to pretend for a short while to be married or engaged or simply just a couple. And then they end up loving each other. It's in Wedding Date and Ten Things I Hate About You. It's in Dear Frankie and Love Comes Softly. If I remember correctly (and I may be mistaken here) it's in Bella and How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days.

Thing is, it's not just some silly romantic idea for the movies. Even C S Lewis in The Four Loves talks about how time spent together establishes a relationship and creates affection. What's odd, though, is that people who would normally be repulsed at the idea of an arranged marriage can find pleasure in movie after movie about a man and a woman finding love in exactly the same context as an arranged marriage -- two people thrown together in a relationship that has to be made to work, even if in the movie it was intended to be only temporarily.