People often fall in love on the basis of having relatable personality traits, such as emotional dispositions, self-image, sense of humor, temperament, and compatibilities of recreational, vocational, and social interests, etc.
However, if two people who fall in love decide to get married, they soon learn that another set of factors will play a dominant role in their relationship, and these will have to do with the attributes of their individual characters; and these are factors that are not the same as those of personality, and involve qualities like honesty, loyalty, self-control, and responsibility, among others.
Often, partners will not get to really know the characters of one another until after they get married, and this is when difficulties may arise. A physically attractive and fun partner may turn out to have shallow values, or be disloyal, dishonest, over-controlling, or irresponsible regarding their obligations.
Not always, but often enough, the unanticipated differences between personality and character can make married life a lot more complicated and difficult than what at first was anticipated.
Getting Personal
From observations or personal experiences, have you ever witnessed a clash between personality and character in a marriage? Briefly describe.
On the other hand, have you ever witnessed a real harmony between personality and character in a marriage? Briefly describe.
“A woman in love is a very poor judge of character.” (J.G. Holland, American novelist and poet)
“Many a man in love with a dimple makes the mistake of marrying the whole girl.” (Stephen Leacock, Canadian writer and humorist)
Character is like a tree and reputation like a shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing. (Abraham Lincoln, 16th U.S. President)
…. Top of post image (Two sides of a coin), from unsplash.com
