# What Does the Word Marriage Mean? explained — Getting Married

> Chapter companion for Getting Married by George Bernard Shaw.

## What happens

This chapter examines the ambiguous and varied meanings of the word 'marriage,' arguing that it is not a fixed natural institution but a social construct with different forms across cultures and legal systems. Shaw critiques the hypocrisy of those who defend marriage without specifying which version they mean, and he dismisses the idea of abolishing marriage entirely, instead advocating for improving its conditions, particularly the terms of dissolution.

## Themes in this chapter

### Critique of Marriage as an Institution

Shaw argues that marriage is not a fixed natural order but a variable social institution, criticizing the assumption that it has only one meaning.

### Hypocrisy and Social Pretense

The chapter exposes the hypocrisy of those who defend marriage without specifying which form they mean, and who never tell the truth about their own marriages.

### Divorce and Legal Reform

Shaw focuses on the need to improve the conditions of marriage dissolution, arguing that indissoluble marriage is an impractical fiction.

## Key lines

> However much we may all suffer through marriage, most of us think so little about it that we regard it as a fixed part of the order of nature, like gravitation.

Even though marriage causes suffering, most people never question it, treating it as an unchangeable natural law.

_Shaw introduces the central critique of marriage as an unexamined institution._

> I have never met anybody really in favor of maintaining marriage as it exists in England today.

No one Shaw has encountered actually supports the current English marriage system.

_This statement sets up the argument for reform rather than abolition._

> To put it briefly, a contract for better for worse is a contract that should not be tolerated.

A marriage contract that binds partners unconditionally, for good or bad, is unacceptable.

_Shaw explicitly rejects the idea of indissoluble marriage._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/getting_married_se/chapters/what-does-the-word-marriage-mean
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/getting_married_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/getting_married_se/chapters