When you say that a woman has a strong character, it often means that she is obstinate and prejudiced, and that whatever advice and arguments may be placed at her disposal, she will follow her own mind and have her own way. That woman, as a rule, is a failure in life.
Obstinacy and prejudice, which are the characteristics of even the best women, are not proofs of a strong character, but weaknesses.
Which is better for a man and a woman to possess in matrimony—similarity of tastes or similarity of temperaments?
I would reply at once: The former, by all means. If a husband and a wife have different temperaments—and, of course, love each other (this must always be granted in any discussion on 'How to be happy though married')—their lives may be all the more interesting for it, because they will have to constantly study each other, make concessions, and be diplomatists ever on their guard. People of different temperaments can get along very well, but unless their tastes are similar they cannot enjoy life together.
George Eliot says that a difference of tastes in jokes is a strain on the affections.
Fancy a humourist married to a woman who cannot see a joke!
Fancy a Wagnerian having a wife who prefers the 'Casino Girl' to 'Lohengrin'!
Fancy a poetic, romantic woman, a lover of Nature, taking her husband to see Vesuvius in eruption and hearing him remark that he has seen smoke before at Pittsburg and Newcastle-on-Tyne; or visiting with him the banqueting-hall of Heidelberg Castle and hearing that Philistine remark that it is about the same size as the dining-room of the Auditorium Hotel in Chicago!