I was also interested in Godwin's treatment of marriage, especially the way he adapts the grievances and language of the revolution to this sphere through likening the institution to commercial property ownership and despotism. Revolutionaries protested inequalities in land tenure supported by inheritance laws that favored the aristocracy, and Godwin’s diction creates parallels between marriage and the commercial realm. When he states that "Marriage, as now understood is a monopoly," he implies that women are conceived as commodities or property, and he continues, “so long as I seek, by despotic and artificial means, to maintain my possession of a woman, I am guilty of the most odious selfishness." Godwin presents husbands as greedy members of the nobility who squander resources for themselves and force others into subordinate positions. Yet earlier in his essay he portrays marriage as a contract between two parties, which requires “a thoughtless and romantic youth of each sex to come together to see each other, for a few times and under circumstances full of delusions, and then to vow eternal attachment” and condemns it as a “system of fraud.” Whichever way it is conceptualized, Godwin presents the private domain of marriage as a commercial enterprise fraught with problems similar to those existing in the political and economic spheres of the public domain.
I similarly found interest in Godwin's handling of the concept of marriage. I further analyzed one of the lines you referenced and found a greater legitimization of the supposition that Godwin meant to condemn the institution of marriage. When Godwin states "so long as I seek, by despotic and artificial means, to maintain my possession of a woman, I am guilty of the most odious selfishness," I cannot help but consider earlier claims of self-interest noted earlier in the treatise when Godwin speaks about wealth. He writes that "to acquire wealth and to display it is the universal passion...gratified at every step by inhumanly trampling upon the interest of others." Thus, the point you made about women serving as a symbol of property to be owned by men can certainly be understood as a vain, narrow attempt to seek and achieve universal fulfillment and eminence. Women become tokens of wealth to be accumulated and paraded around--a seeming commercialization and exploitation of a gender.
ReplyDeleteI too am interested in Godwin's opinion of marriage and how he uses political and economic terms to describe a domestic institution. Godwin's argument about marriage makes the most sense to me when I compare him to Burke. Burke was quite fond of the antiquarian; believing that the practices of the past should continue on for prosperity. Godwin severely breaks from this tradition; seeing history (as we discussed in class) as linear. I believe that this is why Godwin's comments about marriage were so striking and controversial to his contemporaries (and even to us). Godwin's beliefs disrupted the status quo and upset those who like Burke believed in the cyclical motion of history. Interesting enough, our own culture falls much more in line with Godwin because inherent in Godwin's belief that history is linear is man's ability to change, learn, and improve himself. And once we understand Godwin's fundamental philosophy, we can gleam more from his discussion of marriage. Godwin had a very progressive and modern view of marriage. It seems he understood the future of marriage better than anyone else. In todays society, marriage has similar underpinnings to Godwin's comments. For example, divorce is possible and people are free to choose those they love as opposed to being grouped together in early life. However, I think the most important thing to see in Godwin's discussion of marriage is not about marriage at all. I believe what we should gleam from his argument comments is just how strongly he believed in leaving the accepted traditions, "the status quo", behind for an improved society. Godwin and his fellow thinkers weren't upset only with the political system or the economical system. They desired a reconstruction of society as a whole including domestic institutions such as marriages.
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