Why? If he'd talked with her about her general feelings on marriage and their relationship and actually listened to what she was saying, he wouldn't be in this situation.

I am amazed how many people don't see it's the same thing, minus the romantic aspect. You don't have that talk unless you want to go steady, so having that talk is pretty much equivalent to a proposal. And getting shot down in either occasion sucks no matter what. In the end, the possibilities are: 1. both want to get married => cut of "And they lived happily ever after. The end." 2. both want out => Friendly break up 3. both want to play around => the talk/proposal never comes up. 4. one wants to go steady, the other wants to play around => Go down "Friends with benefits" avenue to break-up town. 5. one wants to go steady, the other wants to break up => break up. 1&2 will be happy, 4&5 will suck so what does it matter if you have the talk instead of the proposal? You save money if she says no (but are probably too sad to care) and you miss out on a nice romantic gesture if she says "yes".

6. Both want to go steady, but one or both are opposed to the idea of marriage, leading to a discussion of whether marriage is an absolute necessity for whichever wants it. I wouldn't mind frank discussions replacing proposals entirely (that would've saved me a lot of recent agony), but then again, I've got just about as much romance in my soul as a factory robot. I guess the proposal's really important to some people.