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SHELLEY AND MARRIAGE.

Of this Book
Twenty-Five Copies only have been printed.

SHELLEY
AND
THE MARRIAGE QUESTION.

BY

JOHN TODHUNTER, M.D.,

Author of Notes on “The Triumph of Life,” A Study of Shelley, etc.

London:
PRINTED FOR PRIVATE CIRCULATION ONLY.
1889.

[Pg 7]

SHELLEY AND THE MARRIAGE QUESTION.

Now that marriage, like most other time-honoured institutions, has cometo stand, a thing accused, at the bar of public opinion, it may beinteresting to see what Shelley has to say about it. The marriageproblem is a complex one, involving many questions not very easy toanswer offhand or even after much consideration. What is marriage? Ofdivine or human institution? For what ends was it instituted? How fardoes it attain these ends? And a dozen others involved in these.

The very idea of marriage implies some kind of bond imposed by societyupon the sexual relations of its members, male and female; some kind ofrestriction upon the absolute promiscuity and absolute instability ofthese relations—such restriction taking the form of a contract betweenindividuals, endorsed by society, and enforced with more or lessstringency by public opinion. Its object at first was probably simply toensure to each male member of the tribe the quiet enjoyment of his wifeor wives, and the free exploitation of the children she or theyproduced. The patriarchal tyranny was established, and through thesanction of primitive religion and law became a divine institution.Then, as civilization progressed, the wife and children became less andless the mere slaves, more and more the respected subjects, of thepatriarch. The paternal instinct (like the maternal) became developed,and family affection came into existence. At present the whirligig oftime is bringing its revenges. The patriarchal tyranny begins tototter;[Pg 8] parents are often more the slaves than the masters of theirchildren. And even wives begin to rebel against wifedom, and threaten torevolutionize marriage in their own interest. Woman, like everybodyelse, is beginning to strike for higher wages. There are more than thefirst mutterings of that revolution in the Golden City of Divineinstitutions prophesied of by Shelley in Laon and Cythna. There are agood many Cythnas ready to rush about on their black Tartarian hobbies,of whom Mrs. Mona Caird is the one who has recently made most noise.