Getting Married · Chapter
Carrying the War Into the Enemy’s Country explained
The chapter argues that once the desire to defend current marriage and family arrangements is abandoned, a strong case against them becomes clear.
What happens
The chapter argues that once the desire to defend current marriage and family arrangements is abandoned, a strong case against them becomes clear. It contrasts the idealized British home with the reality of a filthy 'Augean stable,' suggesting that if reformers are treated as delinquents, destruction may be preferred over reform. The fight is framed as a political struggle for legal coercion.
Themes in this chapter
Hypocrisy and Social Pretense
The chapter exposes the gap between the idealized portrayal of the British home and its actual corruption, calling it a 'holy of holies' that is actually an 'Augean stable.'
Divorce and Legal Reform
The chapter directly addresses the refusal of marriage idolaters to accept reform proposals and warns that this may lead to more radical destruction instead.
Critique of Marriage as an Institution
The entire chapter is a critique of marriage, arguing that an overwhelming case can be made against it once the desire to defend it is lost.
Key passages
“But with a clever turn of the hand this holy of holies can be exposed as an Augean stable, so filthy that it would seem more hopeful to burn it down than to attempt to sweep it out.”
With a simple shift in perspective, the revered institution of marriage can be revealed as so corrupt that destroying it entirely might seem more practical than trying to reform it.
This metaphor underscores the chapter's radical critique and the perceived hopelessness of incremental reform.
“Neither view is of any use except as a poisoned arrow in a fierce fight between two parties determined to discredit each other with a view to obtaining powers of legal coercion over one another.”
Both the idealized and the critical views of marriage are merely weapons in a political battle where each side aims to gain the legal upper hand over the other.
This highlights the chapter's framing of the marriage debate as a power struggle rather than a search for truth.