Money and Marriage

In your opinion, is money important in a relationship? Consider the 'transactional' element observed in the relationships between the couples. Do you think there is an upward trend of relationships and marriages valuing money over other qualities? Provide examples for your responses.

            There is a saying: Money makes the world go round. I believe this statement seems to hold throughout many situations. One of these situations, after reading the Merchant of Venice, is in marriage. Marriage is a long term relationship – in fact it is supposed to last forever – usually between opposite genders who have reached maturity for love and for reproduction. Now, the question is: Since when did money appear in the definition of marriage?

            In the play, the most obvious example of money involved in marriage is the marriage of Bassanio and Portia. In Act 1 Scene I, we see Bassanio describing marrying Portia as “shoot[ing] another arrow that self way which you did shoot the first … to find both [arrows]”. The arrows here refer to money and or more specifically the money borrowed from Antonion. Here we can tell that Bassanio wants to marry Portia in order to get a piece of her wealth, and in turn be able to return Antonio the money he owes. Portia’s wealth appears to attract many suitors as seen in the play. In the casket scenes of her suitors, they choose the gold or the silver caskets which represent wealth. Her suitors are apparently attracted to her wealth. Later in the play, Portia offers to pay the double or triple the bond in other free Bassanio’s dearest friend, Antonio, thus suggesting another transactional element. On the other hand, Portia could have made this decision out of compassion. While there appears that Bassanio married Portia because of her wealth, we cannot entirely sure, but the baseline is that there were some forms of transactions taking place.

            In the real world, money is an important issue in marriage. Getting married is a big decision that has great consequences. One needs to consider very carefully about various factors before getting married and one of them happens to be money. Firstly, couples need to ensure that both of them are financially stable and are able to support the relationship financially. Nowadays, with females entering the workforce, wives also have a share of the money in the marriage. While this makes the total sum of money more, the problem starts when either person starts spending more than his share. Love is supposed – and I emphasise that it is supposed – to be where whatever is mine is yours and whatever that is yours is mine too. However, humans are calculating creatures. The problem gets worse when either person exceeds the limit, probably because of gambling problems or other financial issues. In fact, more often than not we hear of problem gambling as a reason for divorce. From the current trends which we see, money looks like the basis on which relationships are built upon and destroyed.

           However, is money always the basis of any marriage? Sometimes we marry because of appearances. In other times, we marry because we truly love someone and want to spend the rest of our life with that person. Such marriages are often portrayed as “Hollywood marriages” as they hardly occur in real life but they are also the most stable ones.

          Is money always important in relationships? While it is important for a stable marriage, it should not be the only thing in marriages.