Romantic marriage ideology reframed love as a legal duty.

Evidence

Yet, during the nineteenth century, conceptions of the bourgeoisie changed somewhat; it ardently strove to defend and maintain marriage; and besides, the progress of individualism made it impossible to stifle feminine claims; Saint-Simon, Fourier, George Sand, and all the Romantics had too intensely proclaimed the right to love. The problem arose of integrating into marriage those individual feelings that had previously and carelessly been excluded. It was thus that the ambiguous notion of conjugal love was invented, miraculous fruit of the traditional marriage of convenience. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1145 (#expands, via linked claim)

Marriages, then, are generally not based on love. “The husband is, so to speak, never more than a substitute for the loved man, and not that man himself,” said Freud. This dissociation is not accidental. It is implicit in the very nature of the institution. The economic and sexual union of man and woman is a matter of transcending toward the collective interest and not of individual happiness. In patriarchal regimes, a fiancé chosen by parents had often never seen his future wife’s face before the wedding day—and this still happens today with some Muslims. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1132 (#contradicts, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: The ideal of conjugal love was invented to reconcile marriage with individualist claims. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1145; Patriarchal marriage serves collective interests, not individual love or happiness — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1132; Exalting marriage as holy paradoxically raised the demand for divorce. — Lawrence M. Friedman, A History of American Law, 2879

Broader Connections

• The ideal of conjugal love was invented to reconcile marriage with individualist claims. #expands (0.92) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1145
• Patriarchal marriage serves collective interests, not individual love or happiness #contradicts (0.78) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1132