C S Lewis 认为婚姻基于:男人和女人成为“一个整体”(one organism),如同小提琴与弓、锁与钥匙般不可分割。“Being ‘in love’ first moved them to promise fidelity: this quieter love enables them to keep the promise. It is on this love that the engine of marriage is run: being in love was the explosion that started it.”
G K Chesterton 认为,爱情的本性就是“自我束缚”(to bind itself)。婚姻不是现代人眼中的“自由”,而是恋人自愿放弃自由的最高形式——一种英雄式的誓言。 经典引用(来自《The Defendant》): “It is the nature of love to bind itself, and the institution of marriage merely paid the average man the compliment of taking him at his word. Modern sages offer to the lover, with an ill-flavoured grin, the largest liberties and the fullest irresponsibility; but they do not respect him as the old Church respected him; they do not write his oath upon the heavens, as the record of his highest moment.” 他嘲讽现代人追求“无责任的自由”,却忽略了真正的自由在于承诺。