Would you get married
if you lived in a country
where divorce was illegal?
Divorce as a civil right is a relatively new phenomenon. Just seven years before I was born, anyone who wanted a divorce in my country’s provinces of Newfoundland or Quebec actually had to do so through a private act of parliament (which namely meant it was a luxury of the influential and the rich). In Ireland, citizens can only get divorced after four years of separation and they’ve only been able to do that since 1997.
This means that a generation earlier this would have been a much easier question to answer. When you haven’t had the option, there’s no point in factoring it in. But now that we are used to the concept and accept it as an easily achievable reality, the question becomes slightly harder.
Because the romantic notion of marriage promises a lifetime of love and happiness, but we all know that’s not how reality works. If divorce were to suddenly become illegal, would marriage be a bet you’re willing to take? Or would it feel like getting on a boat that didn’t have any life rafts? Suddenly the fear of ice bergs becomes a lot more real than it was before.
Clearly, I’m the wrong person to answer this, because I have never gotten married and have never seriously considered it a likely life option, but how about you? Would the words, “I do” slip as easily from your lips if “until death do I part” came with a binding “no-backsies” clause?
Yup