Getting Married · Chapter
Wanted: An Immoral Statesman explained
The chapter argues that a statesman dealing with marriage must prioritize human nature over public opinion, which is a jumble of superstitions and hypocrisies.
What happens
The chapter argues that a statesman dealing with marriage must prioritize human nature over public opinion, which is a jumble of superstitions and hypocrisies. It contends that a government should prefer healthy illegitimate children to rickety legitimate ones, and capable unmarried couples to inferior married ones. The chapter criticizes the reluctance of governments to reform marriage laws, noting that the fall in the birth rate is now making action imperative, despite public opinion's resistance to discussing the issue.
Free preview opens on this chapter — companions, themes, and character notes appear beside the text.
Narrative arc
Story tension across the book — this chapter sits in Exposition.
- Setup
- Escalation
- Breaking point
- Aftermath
- Closing
This excerpt marks the dramatic climax because it delivers the story’s emotional and psychological peak by exp…
Full beat labels and climax notes unlock in the reader.
Follow the arc while readingThemes in this chapter
- Hypocrisy and Social Pretense
Public opinion is described as a jumble of superstitions, taboos, and hypocrisies that cannot be reconciled in coherent enactment, and the chapter criticizes the vulgar morality that sacrifices human welfare to sacred forms.
- Population and Social Consequences
The chapter emphasizes the fall in the birth rate as a pressing issue and argues that statesmen should prefer healthy illegitimate children to rickety legitimate ones, linking population quality to social policy.
Key passages
“He is bound to prefer one healthy illegitimate child to ten rickety legitimate ones, and one energetic and capable unmarried couple to a dozen inferior apathetic husbands and wives.”
A statesman must value quality over legal status, favoring a healthy child born out of wedlock over many sickly legitimate children, and a capable unmarried couple over numerous mediocre married ones.
This encapsulates the chapter's pragmatic, anti-sentimental approach to marriage and reproduction.
“The common notion that the existing forms of marriage are not political contrivances, but sacred ethical obligations to which everything, even the very existence of the human race, must be sacrificed if necessary ... is one on which no sane Government could act for a moment.”
The popular belief that marriage is a sacred duty rather than a political arrangement, requiring sacrifice of humanity itself, is untenable for any rational government.
Highlights the conflict between religious/moral views of marriage and practical governance.
