An institution is often a place for the confinement of inmates, especially mental patients. Marriage can be defined as the social institution under which a two people establish their decision to live as husband and wife by legal commitments. Commitment can be defined as confinement to a mental institution or hospital....and we're back where we start-ed. So WHY is it called the institution of marriage again??? Carol M. Rice takes a cynical and humorous yet touching look at marriage in these monologues and scenes. From a woman who has been married eight times giving advice to her single friends, to a three-time widow describing her husbands' crazy deaths, to why men and women have trouble being "just friends," the situations are absurd yetrealistic. Institution: any established custom or familiar, long-established practice (as in marriage).