A Study of 738 Elopements

WHY DO people elope? How do such hasty and informal marriages turn out? Elopement has received more attention drama and fiction than social science. To throw more light on the facts, I asked students four classes on The biology of family relations at University College, University of Southern California, to collect data on the educated part of the white American population,-this restriction being intended to get at least a minimum amount of homogeneity. More than ioo students contributed these case histories; all of them were adults and most of them teachers or social workers. At first sight the histories show such diverse motivation that one doubts how far a common classification as elopements is justified. Reference to the dictionaries, however, reveals that this diversity has always been recognized the definition and that it is impossible to draw any definite lines between runaway marriages, secret marriages, sudden and impulsive weddings, and similar affairs. They have common a lack of advance publicity, the purpose of which is usually to evade anticipated objections of one sort or another. Less than one-half of the marriages this group are of the classical type which the lover carries off the girl clandestinely from the home of her parents, because the latter object to the marriage. Further analysis of the histories showed that it was fairly easy to divide them into five groups, according to motivation. They are thus divided Table I. i. Parental Objection. Even within this group there are many different types. In some instances the parents objected to the suitor question, others they objected to any marriage, being determined to keep the daughter unmarried, either from sentimental reasons or because they wanted her earnings. Sometimes the man might face the same difficulty. Miss A was a teacher, 30 years old, supporting her mother, married sister, and a niece. She had a number of brothers and sisters who could have shared this burden, but they were an enthusiastic unit giving her the job and opposing any idea of marriage on her part. Her fiance was somewhat the same situation; whenever he spoke of marriage his mother would have a tantrum which kept her bed for a week. They decided not to be living sacrifices any longer. An elopement was the obvious thing, and they have been happy ever since. Perhaps the parents do not object to marriage in principle, but feel that the girl should wait until she finishes college, or until she is older. When

Political science · Psychology · Urban, Neighborhood, and Segregation Studies