Arranged Marriage/Playing With

Basic Trope: A marriage that's prearranged by someone other than the bride and groom, usually their families.


 * Straight: Alice's parents engaged her to Bob, without telling her.
 * Exaggerated:
 * Alice's parents gave her hand in marriage to multiple men at the same time.
 * Alice has no say whatsoever in whether or not she marries Bob.
 * Downplayed: Alice's parents take the role of Matchmaker Dot Com, and simply shrug and try again if a Child Marriage Veto occurs.
 * Justified:
 * Alice's parents were tired of seeing her depressed, so they found Bob, looking for love as well, and decided that they should get married.
 * Alice and Bob are from noble families, and their parents are looking to increase their wealth and/or sociopolitical alliances by marrying their children to each other.
 * Inverted:
 * Alice dates Bob and accepts a marriage proposal from him, with little or no input from her parents or anyone else.
 * Alice and Bob are married, and their parents arrange for them to get divorced.
 * Subverted:
 * Alice's parents plan to engage her to Bob, but she asks them not to do anything like that so they don't.
 * Alice's parents have arranged for her to marry Bob, but she refuses.
 * Alice's parents let her pick her own suitor, provided he comes from "a good family", is of good character, etc.
 * Double Subverted:
 * Alice's parents plan to engage her to Bob, and she asks them not to so they tell her they won't. However, they actually have behind her back, and Alice is surprised to find out.
 * Her parents basically tell her, "Tough s**t!" and the marriage happens anyway.
 * They encourage her by introducing her to the sons of family friends, or helping her set up a profile at Matchmaker Dot Com, particularly if she's getting to be a Christmas Cake.
 * Parodied: Alice is always complaining how her parents are arranging for her marry different men, each of them having a different ridiculous quirk.
 * Deconstructed: Alice is a child being forced to marry and old man in a form of legalized Lolicon. If she dares refuse or run away, she is mutilated or killed. Now that she is married, consent doesn't matter. Let's not forget about the domestic abuse. The parents only care about the political power they're about to gain from selling their daughter.
 * Reconstructed:
 * Alice's parents do remember to take her happiness into account, and arrange her with a nice-but-dull young man from "a good family." Alice isn't in love with him, but the two do manage to become good friends.
 * Perfectly Arranged Marriage
 * Zig Zagged: Alice's parents engage her to Bob, but the marriage is contingent upon Alice and Bob consenting. One or both of them refuses, so they find Alice another suitor. Repeat.
 * Averted:
 * Alice and Bob don't get married or engaged at all.
 * Alice and Bob's parents don't arrange a marriage for them.
 * Enforced: The writer loves forbidden love, so she makes Alice marry Charlie, but she is really in love with Bob.
 * Lampshaded: "Wait-I'm marrying Bob, yet I've never met him?"
 * Invoked: Alice's parents want grandchildren, and they want more power, so they chat up another noble family with eligible sons.
 * Defied:
 * When Alice finds out that her parents are planning to arrange her marriage, but she gets married normally before they could.
 * Alice refuses Bob.
 * Alice's parents don't believe in choosing a partner for her.
 * Discussed: ???
 * Conversed: "They make a lovely couple, don't they?" "But they've never met before. This was all the parent's doing."
 * Played For Laughs: Bob is obviously an ugly Straw Loser that Alice is expected to marry.
 * Played For Drama: Normally is.

Back to Arranged Marriage