Marriage is often compared to a "contract." While this analogy bases the law of marriage on a presumed settled concept called "contract," it rests in fact on a contested view of "contract": that legitimate obligation must derive from consent. This focus on consent ignores another, contradictory, strand of contract law that imposes obligations without consent. The pervasiveness of the consent-centered "contract" analogy affects our understanding of "contract" as much as it affects our understanding of marriage. JEL Codes: K12, K36, J12, D86