There must be many reasons people marry. Maybe more than one. Is there something that marriage should be all about? Is it more like a business? Should it be about love? What do you think?
This may be a bit more than you want but I hope not. This is what marriage is about.
A good start for understanding what marriage is would be to look up 'Matrimonial bond'. I'll explain marriage as the bond of matrimony which is a more precise term for the marital bond.
Marriage is a response to the urge to procreate. It's human nature. Let me explain from a purely biological perspective from the laws of nature and then the natural law.
Before that let me explain this:
The marital bond is defined by 'oneness' This is because the man and woman are a microcosm of the entire human world. The two are the whole of human nature. The love that is unique to marriage develops when the marital bond is formed and both thrive in the maternal environment.
Back to nature.
In nature most species are heterosexual. Most mate in a cycle called a season. For most when the male and the female sense the presence of each other they begin a process of communication in order to form a pairbond. The pairbond once formed creates a safe environment for sex and in some animals the bond lasts until the young are able to fend for themselves.
For example:
The male black widow tugs on the females web in such a way that it lulls her into receptiveness. But for the male the environment isn't safe for long. Male and female bears will fight each other as enemies and even to death. In order to create a safe environment for reproduction they communicate with body movements face expressions and vocalizations to form a pairbond ( a kind of consent) that creates a safe environment to reproduce.
It's the same for humans if they are behaving naturally. Humans form a pairbond to create a safe environment to reproduce and raise young. The maternal environment is necessary at least in intent for the marital bond to form. Just like the bears. This is why a marriage must be consummated. If not either partner can have the marriage annulled. Without at least the intention to have children the maternal environment isn't created and the marital bond can't form.
For humans the marital bond is distinguished from pairbonds of other animals. Human nature is distinguished from other animals in that we have intellectual powers. So the marital bond is characterized by human nature as opposed to other animals. The human soul is immortal and human nature is able to rise above the law of survival that rules animals. So the communication involved in forming the bond involves vows of commitment and sacrificial gift of self to the other. Because human nature includes an immortal soul the vows are permanent. The vows insure that the maternal environment reflects the whole of human nature. The immortal, rational intellectual qualities of human nature structure the maternal environment so that the children will enter into life in a society in which they experience the whole of their humanity.
I hope this helps and isn't too ambiguous
