Mr. Prendergast on Marriage
I recently had a conversation with a young man who was pretty cynical about marriage. He'd seen so many bad marriages and so few (if any) good ones that he questioned the wisdom and usefulness of it, at least for him. This young man's pseudo-empirically derived opinion on marriage made me think about Mr. Prendergast's opinions on the same topic. Prendy was a lapsed churchman who had left the church because he no longer believed. In his naivete, he thought that leaving was the right thing to do, it seems. Now teaching at Llanabba, the "School" where Paul is employed, he came out with this interesting observation at dinner with Paul and another fellow instructor:
"I don't believe," said Mr. Prendergast, "that people would ever fall in love or want to be married if they hadn't been told about it. It's like abroad: no one would want to go there if they hadn't been told it existed. Don't you agree?"--page 135.
So, do you agree with Prendy?
posted by Under The Mountain | 5:02 PM
2 Comments:
I keep coming back and re-reading this entry, thinking about it ... and I'm not certain, but I think I disagree with Prendy. Not necessarily about marriage (per se, although I think people would still want some sort of long-term commitment, however it were defined), but I definitely disagree regarding love.
Of course, this weekend Jamie also told me I'm a hopeless romantic. That may be of use when reacting to my opinion, especially as compared with the opinion of the young man you mentioned.
Interesting that you focused on his statement about "love" instead of "marriage". There is at least some truth to the idea that "romantic love" was a medieval invention, while marriage goes back a bit further, I understand. As to Jamie's observation, just be thankful you were born after medieval times!
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