Marriage nowadays

I think the tradition has steadily faded. There are many more people living in common law today than say 20 years ago. Still the religious and ceremonial practice of marriage is still commonplace in western and even eastern society. The 'rules of engagement" so to speak are different from Austen's day yet in some respects similar.

I certainly hope not! Marriage is an important part of our culture, religion, and communities; it defines family. Social regulations no longer dictate our choices in partner (at least not in our country), but there continue to be those who won't marry lower than their financial scales and believe themselves to be better because their bank accounts say so.

Common law marriages, as Aslan stated above, have become far more common place. Young people don't find the need to be married.... but I'm not going to go further with this topic because it's one that I am very opinionated about.